Justice League: The Movie Villains Poll

With recent news that Warner Bros/DC has “approached” Ben Affleck to direct (and possibly co-star) in a Justice League movie, you have to imagine they are serious about getting this project off the ground THIS time. We also know that Warner has reached out to Gangster Squad-scribe to write the script. We figured with these two pieces of information, we would examine the direction we would like to see the Justice League movie go by taking a look at possible threats to our League. We’re going to try and tackle this in order by starting with smaller threats and working our way up to giant ones! Intergang- This may seem like an odd one, we have never really had a small threat in a comic book movie. Sure some of them are smaller than others (Blade taking on a gang of vampires or Batman protecting Gotham from gas), but nothing as street-level as an actual gang. Now there are 3 ways to actually going about doing an Intergang movie:

• One of the members of the gang turns out to be Metallo. This way you give Superman a physical threat at the end of the movie, and the League still gets folks to knock around.
• You could have Intergang being funded by Lex Luthor. Let’s be honest, if there’s going to be one criminal mastermind in a DC cinematic universe, there’s no safer bet than it being Lex Luthor. This could also tie into the Man of Steel or any project that spins out of the film.
• Finally, there’s the original concept of having Intergang be an Earth-based arm for the New Gods. Let’s be honest, we all want to see Darkseid on the big-screen eventually!

Reason To Do It: It would be something very different for a superhero movie. The threat isn’t large enough to distract from the origin of the team, but interesting enough to pull them together. You also set up several possible plots for future films and spin-offs. The Government– This would be to balance the scale from The Avengers series. That was a team bought together by necessity of the government. The Justice League would be a team bought together by the necessity of stopping a government agency that went rouge. Once more will provide multiple routes a studio could take with this. BE WARNED potential The Dark Knight Rises SPOILERS follow in this section.

• Cadmus- I will be honest, I mostly know of the organization from the fantastic Justice League Unlimited story arc so I’m going to take their motivation as the starting point. After Bane held Gotham hostage and the emergence of Superman in The Man of Steel, the government sought to train their own team of super-powered beings in case a threat ever emerged. Like all good science experiments though, this project goes off the rails and the Justice League comes together to thwart it.
• Checkmate- Similar to Cadmus except their origins wouldn’t be as noble nor would it backfire on them. It would just be a systematic breakdown of various characters until they find they need to band together to stop the threat.

SPOILERS OVER Reasons To Do It– Like I mentioned above, it would distance the Justice League’s origins from that of The Avengers. It would also help to establish some area in which future films could cross over, and introduce a lot of interesting secondary characters. Legion of Doom/Injustice League/Secret Society– Behind every good hero, stands about a dozen villains who want to see them dead. Only fitting that they would combine efforts. Whatever name they go by, most people know them as the evil organization that rises up to take on the Justice League. Their members change with the seasons, but it would be a fitting combo. Reason To Do It– Personally, I would be against doing this in a first movie. Especially if you aren’t going to build up the heroes coming into this flick, trying to do the origins for a superhero team and their villainous counterparts just doesn’t seem like it leaves much time for anything else. Aliens– They come in all shapes, sizes and abilities. They are the great that always seem to bring people together! Aliens are a common threat for the Justice League. Actually, most of the Justice League’s origins (comics and animation) involves aliens in some capacity. Each brings their own strengths and weaknesses.

• Starro- An alien shaped like a starfish doesn’t sound threatening, but when it latches onto a person it is able to control their body and minds. Starro makes an excellent threat for the League vs League battle. The problem is do you really want your heroes fighting themselves in the first movie?
• White Martians- This one seems timely with us just landing Curiosity on Mars, but the White Martians offer a fairly interesting potential for a movie. Being that they have the ability to shape shift, in addition to several other powers, you could start it off as a routine superhero movie and ramp it up with their discovery in the climax. Potential is also there for them to turn the world against the League or certain members of it.
• The Centre- The aliens themselves aren’t that interesting, but the concept of adapting the New Frontier to the big screen is exciting. The story has shining moments for all the League, while slowing introducing them and finding a reason for them to team up. Also, the idea of a climax on a giant shrinking island with dinosaurs just sounds awesome.
• The Phantom Zone Inmates- Depending on how the Man of Steel goes, the potential for an outbreak from The Phantom Zone with Superman trying hopelessly to round up the inmates on his own could make for a fun movie. You’ll get villains of various powers and abilities and of course everyone is racing against the clock before they gain full power!
• Parademons- Yes, they are related to Darkseid, but I would never imagine attempting to do a full Darkseid movie in an origin film. Instead, I could see him sending advance forces to Earth to try and weaken them for his arrival. The biggest problem with this is it parallels the Avengers/Thanos’ story just a tad too close!

Reasons To Do It- Like I said, aliens have gone hand in hand with the League for several decades now. It is only fitting that they take them into a final frontier on the big screen. They also offer interesting potential for future movies as you can have a threat large enough to toss the entire League into action, which would allow you to gloss over specific characters’ origins or backstory for future movies. So there you go, some potential threats and plots that Warner/DC can pursue with their Justice League film. [poll id=”51″]