Warner Bros. superhero team-up Justice League is worming its way through the development, and here and there small bits of information are dropping out. Not everyone isconvinced this will be a real project with a greenlight until Man Of Steel‘s opening weekend proves the team’s anchor is viable, though I think The Avengers already did that work. What the Man Of Steel numbers will determine is just how much the marketing relies on Batman alone to sell the film.
In any event, Latino Review has followed up their scoop that the very logical decision was made to place Darkseid as the villain of the film with a new chunk of info; specifically they’ve uncovered the comic book arc inspiring the script…
Justice League of America issues 183, 184, and 185 are apparently the framework for Will Beale’s screenplay.
This isn’t exactly shocking, as a look at the issues shows that the arc was one of the earlier, more dramatic storylines to involve Darkseid and the New Gods. It teamed up key members of the JLA and JSA, and sent them for a first-hand visit to New Genesis and Apokolips, with Darkseid presented as a full-on interstellar Satan. A true cosmic force that had already been dispatched once, Darkseid returns here –similar to Sauron– by rematerializing out of sheer evil will.
Just check out this panel to the right, in which the villain explains his return. The story features a Transformers 3-like plot in which Darkseid schemed to destroy our planet by transporting his dark planet Apokolips into Earth’s space.
These issues are collected in Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 5, which you can find here if you want to start up on your background reading.
Obviously this is a pretty far out-there story for the first team-up film to tackle. That’s a big step for a film that also has to recontextualize Batman and Superman as shared universe characters who exist alongside cosmic magical forces. It’s a bold choice, even if it sounds like another “close the portal” 3rd act that I can only cross my fingers they find some spin on.
What would you hope to see from such a film? Drop a load in the comments below.
9 comments
The thought of Darkseid as the main villain is great & all especially if Warner Bros/DC wants to go all in right away but how many times can audiences go for the same trick of an evil overlord of some far away planet move in on our territory. I guess we’ll find out
Not that I believe for a second that this will happen, but……this would be a stupid way to introduce the JLA. The Avengers worked because the characters had already been grounded in the “real world” thanks to the films that came before and the ultimate cosmic reveal happened organically. Taking the team off planet in the first movie would be too much I think. I mean, it could work, but all the cylinders would have to fire, and I don’t believe for a second WB is capable of that. More than likely it would turn into a huge mess like Green Lantern.
they can do this. the marvel universe paved the way for this kind of movie, Warners dont need to tread that ground because marvel effectively did it for them.
I think they need to go a little smaller — the project is starting to feel like a bad photocopy of the Avengers.
Renn i will agree with you on this, “The Avengers” did indeed pave the way for WB/DC to make a “Justice League” film, so i tend to now think it’s highly likely we’ll see a “JL” film on the big screen. But “Man of Steel” does have to perform well at the box office to help build up anticipation for the “JL”. I know fans will say they’re anticipating it and i’m one of them, but i’m also realistic and cautious. The film has to have a build up and carry anticipation for the non comic book geek fans, dig what i’m saying. I’m talknig about a general audience who could care less about comic book arcs or comic books in general. “The Avengers” was a massive success because it exploded far beyond it’s comic book bounderies, it reached every kind of demographic, and i mean every kind. “JL” does’nt have to scale the heights of “The Avengers” to be a true success, it just has to span out and reach different demographics and go beyond just the comic book geek crowd. Do that and WB/DC is really on to something.
So basically by the time this comes out, people will call it a ripoff of Avengers 2 (which is most likely going to feature Thanos and a similar “cosmic-tinged” plotline).
Heck, they’ll have to work extra hard just to make Darkseid visually distinctive enough from Thanos that those poor moviegoers don’t get confused.
Ironic though, given that Thanos is essentially a ripoff of Darkseid.
Yeah, there’s no ripoffs going on. I’m actually excited about the prospects of seeing both ‘Thanos’ & ‘Darkseid’ on the big screen. I’ve been saying for years how ‘Darkseid’ should be in a ‘Superman’ film, but him appearing in a “Justice League” film would be even better.
It still needs to be something that people want to see though. To say that Avengers paved the way for this kind of movie, that it isn’t going to be difficult for JLA anymore, is like saying that Lord of the Rings paved the way for fantasy adventure films, but instead of a slew of new fantasy franchises, we got a decade of mostly non-starters. Eragon, anyone? If JLA looks too much like Avengers, it could be disastrous, regardless of whether the film is good or not, because DC and WB are comically late to the game, and just about anything will look like they’re still playing catch-up. They need to set themselves apart SOMEhow and not just follow the “If it worked for Marvel…” philosophy.
Put me in the camp that sees Thanos and Darkside(fuck you) as essentially the same character. Made worse by the fact that The Avengers greatest failing was that invading alien threat being ill-defined/largely anonymous.
Yeah, agreed with the Green Lantern vibe if they go “cosmic” too soon and in trying to differentiate too much from Thanos, pull a “large angry cloud of gas” interpretation of Darkside a’la Galactus and Parralax.
And let’s hope Man of Steal finally puts a few limitations on Clark’s powers (other than the standard Deus Ex Kryptonitina), otherwise a too powerful enemy just means it’ll end up being the Superman show anyway – rendering the whole JLA concept moot.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.