How to make a Justice League Movie different from The Avengers

Obviously,the recent success of The Avengers has WB looking hard at their own superhero properties but I believe it must approach the situation from a new perspective. Simply following Marvel's formula may indeed lead to success but greater glory and revenue can be achieved if the focus is placed on WB's greatest comic book assets, the DC villains.


Today, thanks to cartoons and movies, the world probably knows Spider-Man, Iron Man and Hulk just as well as they know Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. However, I'd be willing to wager that more people know Lex Luthor, the Joker and Hades than say Green Goblin, The Mandarin and The Leader. It's a toss up between each companies' heroes but Warner Bros. has the distinct advantage when it comes to antagonists, especially since the rights to major Marvel baddies such as Dr. Doom, Apocalypse and The Kingpin are held by other studios. Heck, Batman alone has untapped rogues that could provide fertile fodder for 10 more Dark Knight films. Sure, we've seen Lex Luthor in plenty (almost every) Superman film to date but let's be honest, we've yet to see the Lex Luthor from the comic books (the closest we've come is Smallville) and even still, the likes of Parasite, Darkseid, Braniac, etc. are all ripe for a big screen debut. The Flash has his own unique cabal of adversarial foes and Wonder Woman has the Greek pantheon to battle. The mistake Green Lantern made was going with an immaterial Parallax instead of the cold and calculating Sinestro, a mistake I'm sure will be rectified in the reboot/sequel. In many ways, the villains of DC have the same relatablity as the heroes of Marvel. Often these individuals are flawed human beings who use their abilities for personal gain instead of the greater good. You take Lex Luthor and make him a force for good and you have Tony Stark, give Solomon Grundy a personality and you have the Hulk, Talia Al Ghul a slightly different career path and she's Black Widow and so on and so forth. My point is that there's an opportunity here for originality, a chance to be daring and focus on the villain's story and show a different side of the comic book world to the movie going populace. And what happens when the villains lose the climatic battle against their superhero counterparts? Why, they assemble of course.

In today's society, and magnified a hundredfold in the geek community, the ability to successfully implement an original idea in our "been there, seen that" era is invaluable and is the chief reason why Marvel's currently riding high. The other side of that coin dictates that Warner Bros. will never achieve the same level of success if they simply copy what we've just experienced in The Avengers. We've seen the alien invasion, we've seen the long, meticulous recruitment of heroes, we've seen atypical humor immersed in realism. An end-scene where Amanda Waller shows up to talk to Superman about the Justice League initiative is not going to have the same impact. Take the The Avengers formula and build upon it. Regardless of whether you're purely a fan of Marvel or DC, the fact is ticket sales for The Avengers were roughly the same as those for The Dark Knight. Add 3D revenue for the Dark Night and it theoretically has the better box-office numbers. Now imagine what a Dark and Mature film' taking cues from Christopher Nolan's movie formula and featuring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman could earn. Applying Marvel's formula, a Justice League movie can still be original by following the DC antithesis of S.H.I.E.L.D., (maybe H.I.V.E.) in their recruitment of defeated villains to form The Injustice League. Instead of assembling superheroes to defend the Earth from threats that a secret government organization can't handle, a secret terrorist organization assembles a group of super-villains to combat an indestructible force for good, Superman. Apply the Marvel formula but play to the strength of the DC universe. When Superman is unable to single-handedly oppose this organized, calculated and ruthless threat to “Truth, justice and the American way,” he seeks out allies, namely heroes who have dealt with these villains before. You'd be hard pressed to find someone that isn't interested in seeing Lex Luthor, Black Adam and Deathstroke combining their talents to take down the Man of Steel. This method would also attract some big name acting talent who probably have no desire to play a superhero but would jump at the chance to play a menacing, merciless anti-hero (see Hugo Weaving in the Captain America movie).

Hopefully someone at DC is in the ear of every writer currently working on bringing a DC hero to life. The key ingredient to Marvel's success is that all of the top execs, directors and writers have been fans of the genre and have striven to stay as close as possible to the spirit of the source material. Foregoing a focus on the villians, if WB takes only one lesson from Marvel Studios then hopefully it's the realization that this their subsidiary has endured for decades because even though society has changed, their characters have stayed true to who and what they are, the Man of Tomorrow, a Dark Knight and an Amazon Princess. Perfect the formula Warner!

In short don't focus on the heroes...the catalyst and the source lies here..


Villians



How does this sound? What idea's do you have to make this happen?

But yeah, I agree. Do it up like they did the JL series. They didn't have an entire show dedicated to each individual member. Brief introductions and good writing can tell you all you need to know about a character. And villains really do make the hero.

I say they just start fresh with new actors to portray the JL members, and spin off new movies with those characters if they feel they are warranted. The various members, mainly the "big 7", should be brought together by extraordinary circumstances and the story goes with them defeating whatever the threat was.

If it was me, I would take inspiration from the Tower of Babel storyline, but not necessarily copy the details verbatim. I would use the research Batman had done on all the other members as a way to "introduce" them to the audience, while their enemy incapacitates them one by one. It would then be up to the members of the JLA to pull together and work together to overcome the individual traps set for them, which would allow for the team to form organically.

How precisely this could be done I haven't worked all out, but that's the basic framework I would use. Taking the lessons from the Avengers without copying it:

1. I would give each character some space to struggle and shine.

2. I would specifically give Batman a central place in the story without having his physical power overshadowed by the other more powerful heroes.

3. Instead of focusing on origins, I would focus on assembling for the greater good.

In fact, rather than have the JLA exist already prior to the story of the movie, the threat to them individually could be the catalyst that forms the JLA. I sort of like the idea that for the movie, these ultrapowerful beings (Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Lantern specifically) probably are powerful enough that they each would rather do their own thing in their own way, and Batman is the mortal among them who genuinely fears what they could do and spends night and day devising ways for mortal means to bring them down if he had to. When they see their mistrust and lack of cooperation makes them vulnerable, that's what finally convinces them that there needs to be a way for them to trust each other when it comes to the really big threats.

Chrome, I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

That is an interesting and different way to go about it. The rogues banding together to overcome the heroes they can't defeat individually being what spurs the heroes to join forces as well. I can see it working, sure.

WB could even draw inspiration from the Alex Ross maxi-series Justice: Lex Luthor is convinced that the heroes coming out of the woodwork following the appearances of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, etc. will eventually be the downfall of humanity, and they must be taken down before they can do so. He ends up seeking out and recruiting those individuals who've come close to defeating the heroes in the past and survived. Imagine Lex in the Nick Fury role, reaching out to the likes of Sinestro, Captain Cold and others, inviting them to join his "Secret Society."

Arcanaville's suggestion of using the Tower of Babel story is good, too. Work that into the villains' plot by having Batman and Luthor unknowingly coming up with similar "solutions" to the individual heroes. So when the villains strike, Batman recognizes the methods used and can find a way to counteract them in the nick of time. This shows the heroes that this is a threat they can't face alone.

To sum up, and correct me if I'm wrong:

Instead of an Avengers clone, you'd rather they make JL into an X-Men clone.

The Injustice League = Brotherhood of Mutants.

I don't see how this would solve your problem of trying to avoid cliches or things that have been done in the past.

I'd still go watch it, but there are way too many characters, Hero or Villain, for any of them to shine.

The Justice League needs a threat that's bigger than any one or two of them could solve on their own. They need Darkseid, or Doomsday.

If you're going to do a Villain-centric story, why not cull Justice?

I'd love to see a Darkseid + Apolakiptian invasion story, except it would seem like a major ripoff of Avengers and Loki's Chitauri invasion.

Isn't the main complaint against WB superhero flicks by critics is that they focus entirely too much on the villains already?

I would love to see a big battle of Dc heroes vs the Dc villains but don't think it would translate well on the big screen. The only way it could possibly work is if they did the hero movies first and had them fight the villain that would show up in the JLA movie, that would be a hard thing to lock down and make happen.

Instead I would rather see the big bad either being Braniac with his robot armies or Darksied and his. Yes I know it sounds like Avengers a bit with facing off against a army but at least the JLA would have the big bad to fight as well. Throw in Lex to help side with the villains turning on them at the last minute to suit his own needs.

I know they did this formula in some of the dc animated as well. I just think that with too many villains they would all get lost in the mix like the x-men movies.

I'd just start with the Justice League already in existence. There's no real need to do an exhaustive background establishing everyone. People will know and recognize the characters in general. They can pick things up as they go along.

I think Grant Morrison's White Martian storyline (JLA 1-4 i think) would be awesome. Great villains, equal power, delves a little into the Martian Manhunter's background (since he might be the most unfamiliar of the Leaguers... plus he's my favorite DC character), and it gives all of the team a chance to shine. Would be very hard to screw it up.

Just my .02...

I disagree, most people won't pick up as they go along. Most people aren't familiar with the majority of the Justice League, unless you want those heroes written as cliche-throw-away-characters.

Certain characters are well used in such a manner, given little quirks of personality to seperate them from the rest. The soldiers teamed with Cap were like this. None were developed characters, none were anyone the audience were really invested with. Heck even the loss of Bucky didn't pay off that well.

But do that to a group of heroes, and one, you may upset that portion of your audience that are fans, and two, you risk not connecting with the rest of the audience.

Fans will readily accept that Batman and Superman know who each other are, and that they're already the heads of a great team of heroes designed to protect the earth.

The majority of the movie going audience around the world will most likely be completely confused because they're understanding of just even Superman and Batman are the movies. None of which have ever established that the other exists within the same "world" as the other.

If it is done that way, what will probably happen is that other heroes will get a few lines to explain who they are, what they do, and why they've joined the team. They could live, they could die, and people would shrug they're shoulders either way because there's no investment. Or at the very least some might like a particular character's look and if say so-and-so looked "cool".

Just take the DCUO trailer and make it into a movie.

Maybe they'll just bring back Terence Stamp as General Zod. He won't be so bored when there's a legion of heroes to challenge him this time!

Act One: En media res, Superman puts the finishing touches on defeating a Lex Luthor scheme (one that doesn't involve real estate). The film follows Luthor being sent to prison, watching from afar as Superman is feted on national television. In prison, Luthor meets some other folks: let's go with the Bane, Veronica Cale, Black Hand, Captain Cold, and Black Manta. All villains that are decidedly not insane, so wouldn't be in Arkham or someplace like that. Luthor is invited to a prison breakout, which succeeds.

Act Two: Luthor convinces the lot of them to stick together to try to pick off their adversaries one-by-one. We see them succeed.

Act Three: Starro the Star Conquerer shows up and the villians, facing the annihilation of the world, do the heroic thing and set the heroes free. The heroes defeat Starro, but the villians get away to fight in another movie.

OK, I admit that I want Starro to be part of the formation of the Justice League in some way, as it was in the comics. I think the movies could do a great Starro, as a mind-controlling Elder God moving through the cosmos.

Wasn't that kind of plot where the bad guys capture the Justice League and then have to release them to defeat an even greater foe like, every other episode of Superfriends?

Take a page out of the first JL episode where the the members, team up for the first time fighting against an alien(or supernatural) invasion that is already in progress at the start of the movie and in teaming up they find undeniable synergy, comraderie and decide to make it offficial (or coaxed into it by the media and a thankful world population) which is what spurns the real antagonists of the movie, earth based villains, into action to oppose this new pantheon of gods the "Justice League"

This should be set apart from avengers in certain ways:
-The Alien invasion is already in progress in the opening scenes of the movie and invaders are quickly dispatched they are just the excuse for the league to get together. The invasion shouldn't be mentioned or featured much in the ads

-Ego issues/butting heads should be minimized(to avoid appearing to ape The Avengers) They should all be looking to humbly and humorously look to avoid taking on the leadership role before settling on revolving shifts something organic feeling rather than growing pains of The Avengers

-They should have a rather diverse cast of heroes although MCU took a page out the Ultimates in this area they didn't go far enough, in the avengers none of the heroes doing the fighting, saving the earth managed to be cast outside of the golden age/silver age mold.
*I suggest WW be played by a latina or someone ethnicly ambigously not white, like a portugese girl who looks like she could just as easily be south asian as she could be south american also suggested for Hawk Girl or anyo ther femal on the team. Get John Stewert and mix both Marine and Architect backgrounds, MM if added is green so whatever there, Flash, Supes, and Batman (if included) are white. Don't have to divy up time over too many heroes, have the diversity and good ratios.
(on the other hand if Gina Carano can act I'd like her for WW she's got the physique the figure and she's a looker but then she my athelete crush so ignore this section)

-???

-Profit

At this point it's going to be really hard to see a Justice League movie and NOT compare it to the Avengers. Embracing the Injustice League is a neat idea to really separate them, but I would worry about ensemble casting and just how deep you could really go with the characters. In the end you may end up with another vapid Batman & Robin or X-Men: the Last Stand movie. 2 hours of trying to cram as many "cool" moments as possible which takes away from any kind of character development.

I think the Starro invasion could be a neat idea though. Let's say instead of having the face hugging Starro spores (are they spores?) you have tiny Starro implants that start raining down on people. This causes mass riots in places like Gotham, Central City, Keystone City etc. You introduce each city's respective protectors tackling the bizarre behavior in their own ways. Except Batman, he's seen his city in the throes of madness, instead of worrying about the people he's worrying about the problem. Once all the rioting and such ends politicians and world leaders began behaving bizarrely as they try to prepare the Earth for Starro's impending arrival. Batman discovers the alien spores and realizes first he may be out of his league a bit, he goes to Green Lantern for more info, him being a space cop and this planet's protector from this kind of thing. You know, a kind of moment where all the heroes start to gather to figure out this global threat. How to fit Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter, I have no idea.

You could use the opening invasion parts to establish the heroes, their methods and powers without bothering with all the origin stuff. You have an alien subversion plot that differs from the Avengers all out alien war and invasion, and you have a threat big enough to call for these heroes, especially once Starro itself touches down. Maybe throw in a few mind controlled villains from a few of the character's canons as welter weight bouts and eye candy.

Just spitballing, I'd love to see WB get serious about this and not come off as just cashing in.