There has been a lot of talking about the possible Justice League movie that would hit theaters in 2015; On this site we have read articles about possible casting and even possible story lines that could be used.
The idea of bringing the Justice League to the big screen is great since we could finally see a film in which at least we could have Supes and Bats working together, but beyond the project itself there is a bigger task and it is to have Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash and Wonder Woman work on a crossover film without having solo movies to be introduced. According to WB/DC the Justice League movie will be used to introduce the team to the audience and then it would push the production of the characters solo movies. Even though I believe characters like Wonder Woman or Aquaman do not really need an introduction to the general audience, I have been told on this site several times that the general audice lacks of knowledge of such mainstream heroes. Therefore I have been thinking about a way that WB/DC could actually have this weird idea of getting rid of the solo movies and going straight to a Justice League film, and I got to the conclusion that since this is a comic book movie (and not just any comic book movie, come on this is the justice league!!!) it has to be treated as a comic book, and if there is something comic books have taught me is that there cannot be any action without a reaction or CONSEQUENCES!!
Yes comic books are all about consequences, and if there is something any comic book movie has lacked of is consequences, we have all these great characters with great powers which have defeated greater threats, but besides X3 and Blade 3 I do not see a big impact on any comic book movie universe so far; for example if Nolan’s Batman was so focused on realism, why hasn´t the police chased him directly (before Gordon taking over of course) even when Commissioner Loeb said he would do so?, Why has there been 3 Iron Man movies and 1 Avengers movie to have a terrorist attack Tony Stark directly specially when he was messing up with some guerilla leaders in Iron Man 1?,Why nobody mentioned anything about a giant robot destroying everything somewhere in New Mexico?, (and I could go on, but these questions are enough) so as you can see we have had all these really great CBMs, but there has not been a real impact on their universes and here is the area where WB/DC could exploit the Justice League film.
I am not going to give you a storyline, but I am going to give you some things that could be used on the JL movie that could actually give us great solo sequels.
1 There is no way Darkseid should be used as the main foe.
Eventhough everybody wants Darkseid to be the main villain, I do not think that is a smart move. Darkseid is one of the biggest threats of the DC universe, the guy is actually a god and using him in the first film would be a waste. Now that does not mean He should not be addressed somehow. Darkseid is surrounded by great characters, Kalibak and the furies are more than a challenge that could be potentially used on a Justice League film, actually no matter what villain is chosen for the movie at the end that villain has to lead the team to know there is a big threat and that he is Darkseid and that Darkseid has a big interest in earth.
Now not all alien races have to be depicted as conquerors or invaders, sometimes there are bigger goals not just destruction, so why would Darkseid would send his emissaries to earth?? Well there are actually a lot that have already been used. Darkseid was somehow in love with Wonder Woman because she is the only worth female he would pay attention to, so why not sending Kalibak and the Furies to kidnap Diana??? And believe it or not the amazons are ready to defend themselves so they have this great battle that takes everything out of Themyscira. This gives us some great points:
A) The world gets to know that Wonder Woman and the amazons exist.
B) Superman, Batman and Green Lantern (only those 3 because those are the only ones that have been established so far) have a real reason to come together and fight along Diana eventhough they have not actually met her before or each other whatsoever.
C) Wonder Woman has a real reason to get to know the world of men.
So as you can see everything is around Darkseid, but we do not need Darkseid to be around.
2 Diana’s Lasso of Truth has to be broken.
At the beginning I was talking about consequences right? So after the final fight there have to be so big consequences that would lead us to our long waited solo movies. Wonder Woman’s universe is so big and so unique that the only way to explain it on the big screen is by exploring it, and the only reason Diana would explore her own universe instead of exploring the world of men is by having her need something of her home universe. So what about breaking the Lasso of Truth so the only way to repair it is by asking I do not know what god or facing I do not know what gorgon (sorry I am not a WW expert); my point is: instead of getting Wonder Woman on the world of men we immediately (after the JL movie) send her back to her own universe. Before you start telling me that the Lasso of Truth cannot be broken, well let me tell you it was broken by Rama Khan on JLA 62 march 2002 ( I am giving you all the details before someone says I am coming up with this or that I need to be schooled :D).
And I would send WW back because the only way I see that character work on a movie is by challenging creatures from her own mythology.
3 Green Lantern goes back to OA to try to find out more about Darkseid.
This is somehow the easiest after JL sequel that we could have. Green Lantern is a space cop, an alien police officer, so why didn’t the guardians let him know about Darkseid?
Well Green Lantern decides he has to go and ask them, but before they can actually give him an answer about him he has to finish his training so he can be ready for such a big enemy, and they have Sinestro give him some field practice. Then we have Sinestro and Hal Jordan work together and I guess everybody on this site knows how that ends.
4 Batman starts OMAC project.
After Batman teamed up with all those powerful heroes he decides he needs to oversee them because they are too dangerous and he starts working on the OMAC project that eventually gets out of control and he has to stop it.
5 Superman knows there are more than Kryptonians out there.
Superman’s sequel (I guess) will be the hardest to set up, since we cannot use Darkseid he would have to face somebody else. The main problem here is that Zack Snyder is taking Supes to his limits and I do not think after Man of Steel there can be a big foe to deal with down on earth. I would take Superman to outer space so He can actually deal with Brainiac or Mongul.
I am not sure how we could bring Aquaman and Flash to the equation, but I guess there has to be a way to do it right. I am not an expert on those characters, but what I have read of the new 52 universe is great and has a big potential. I guess we can all get some ideas on the posts section.
I also believe that in all their solo movies they all have to find out that Darkseid is a big threat and they all come back to look for each other to tell them about what they have found out about him, but they all discover somebody used Batman’s OMAC project and stole the information he had gathered about them, there you have your sequel.
My point is that WB/DC can have all their cinematic universe based on big consecuences not only by having some news anchormen mentioning a group of heroes battling together, but to have the Justice League members face a real comic book treatment in which everything that happens would lead us to another adventure.