JUSTICE LEAGUE
Many of you have read my other articles, featuring characters like Green Lantern, Batman, and Superman. Many of you have seen my plan for a shared universe. Well, it's coming right now! First thing I need to say is that I gave a one paragraph pitch for this previously in another article. This is noticeably different but keeps a few elements. The original plan was very different. This is basically a rewrite of that to improve the overall story. Secondly, the franchise I've built somewhat mirrors the current DCEU. While the stories are different, there has still been a BVS, a Suicide Squad, and a Wonder Woman. The plots are different, but I imagine two of the same actors in the roles. Ben Affleck, and Gal Gadot. There are however, many noticeable differences, which you can see in my previous article on my shared universe concept.
The main differences are superman has had a complete trilogy, Superman’s cast is almost entirely different actors, Green Lantern, Batman, Wonder Woman, and AquaMan movies have come out before Justice League, Ares does not have a mustache in the final battle, and Superman is trapped in the phantom zone, making Supergirl earth's kryptonian defender. Martian manhunter will be on the team instead of Cyborg.
Here is my view of the world when the film begins.Superman is dead. The world is afraid. The Kandorian invasion shocked the world. Superman stopped Zod, but now Superman is gone. The world needs something to inspire it. It needs hope.
And now…
JUSTICE LEAGUE part 1
We begin the movie in Paris as the sun sets the way many movies do, with a bank robbery. The criminals are taking out guards and hostages are ordered to lay on the ground. The bank tellers are given duffel bags to fill. Wonder Woman lands on the road outside. She apparently jumped through the air from somewhere and has now landed back on the ground. Yes, this is just seconds after the end of her movie. She takes down criminals, saves hostages with her bracelets by deflecting bullets, and leaves them unconscious for the arriving police, who are shocked to see the day saved. A policeman asks who she is as she prepares to jump away.
Cut to Gotham City. A Gotham Gazette newspaper reports sightings of a mysterious
“Wonder-Woman” throughout Paris stopping crimes. The Batmobile zooms by. Nightwing rides behind him. They make it to an abandoned slaughterhouse/ meat processing factory just outside of the city. Batman and Robin silently search the building, which has been tricked out with haunted house style decorations and numerous traps designed to inject or cause you to inhale toxins. Batman tells Nightwing to split up to search for the hostages. Batman discovers the hostages, all tied up and injected with fear toxin. He administers an antidote to the hostages as Jonathan Crane, aka The Scarecrow, sneaks up behind him and injects him with fear toxin.
Scarecrow wears workman boots and old patched up jeans with holes in them. His shirt is plaid with suspenders. He has a short cloak made from a burlap sack. His face is also covered by a burlap mask. The eyes behind the eye holes are not visible in the darkness. There is no mouth. He has an old straw hat on his head. He also has a hangman’s noose around his neck. The inside of his cloak has containers of fear toxins in pockets and he has raggedy work gloves. His clothes have been stuffed with straw. Scarecrow tosses his used syringe. Batman’s vision blurs. Nightwing attacks from behind in his POV and is stabbed by Scarecrow with a scythe hidden in his cloak. Nightwing falls to the ground dead. Scarecrow looms over Batman with his scythe. Cut to what's really happening as Scarecrow is on the floor unconscious and Nightwing is administering an antidote to Batman who is having convulsions. Nightwing asks if Bruce is okay and what he saw. Bruce says he wants to go home.
Cut to Atlantis. Arthur Curry is in a conference with Murk, Vulko, and Mera. Murk informs him that the Royal guard apprehended a group of Orm loyalists plotting to kill him earlier that day. Vulko tells Arthur that many in the kingdom are still loyal to Orm’s ideals do to his non Atlantean blood. They want war with the surface world. Arthur asks why. Vulko tells him that conflict between sailors and those who live beneath the sea have killed many throughout the centuries. The Orm followers are angered by this and want to attack, which Orm would have allowed. Arthur thinks in silence, and finally suggests revealing Atlantis to the surface world. That way, their borders could be recognized, lessening the conflicts, and trade deals could be made to improve relations. Vulko tells him that an idea like this could backfire if done incorrectly, but he is only here to inform or advise. The king may do as he wishes. Mera says she likes the idea, but the Orm followers could become enraged. Arthur thinks.
Cut to Mars. A green glow from just outside the shot, and then…. Hal Jordan. Hal is talking to John Stewart through his ring, and asks what he's doing. John says he and Guy are finishing up on Oa turning in some illegal Black Mercy salesmen with the Mongul family. Hal tells John he's still looking into that ancient evil thing on Mars the Guardians asked him to check up on. John asks if he's planning anything when he's done, Guy’s dragging him along to Thanagar to get drinks and he really doesn't want to hang out with him alone. Hal says he’ll check his schedule and he's got to go, as he makes it too a cave. He flies in, using his ring to light the way, shooting put energy balls ahead of him, until he makes it to a cavern containing a large city, lit by what looks like miniature Suns behind glass in the cavern roof. Some are gone, leaving their areas of the city in darkness. It has been destroyed by time and violence. There's rubble everywhere. Dead vegetation, skeletons of strange alien creatures, large and humanoid looking. Hal finds a building, and enters it, descending into the basement, where there is a large and ancient door, torn open. He orders his ring to download recent activity off of any electronic device in the city still working, and learns two starships have taken off in the past month. They both were on a trajectory for earth.
Hal hears a noise. He turns around. Something’s scurrying in the darkness. Hal moves closer. It jumps out at him. He fires his ring as it shoots out towards his face. He knocks it back and it smokes. It's a creature about the size of a human face with clear skin. Beneath the skin are blue veins, stretching throughout it. It has 5 long and thin tentacles, it somewhat resembles a starfish but stranger. On the long tentacles there are spikes pointed towards the other side, eggshell colored with purple hues. The blue veins converge around a single glassy marble-like black eye in the center of him. As they converge around him in a circular pattern, they go from blue veins to red, moving closer to the surface and becoming rings around the eye. It's smoking now. It was killed by Green Lanterns shot. He flips it over with giant energy tweezers to discover on the other side it's slimy. In the center of it a sort of mouth with purplish/eggshell colored teeth like its spikes. It's disgusting. Look up “starfish mouth”. It's slimy underside is also covered in tiny dots of purple discoloration. These are thousands of miniature suction cups.
Hal looks disgusted by it. He hears another noise and turns around. There's dozens of them. They're covering the wall! They leap, they cover him, twisting over his body and climbing across him. They move in a way that's a bit horrifying. It's like stop motion. They roll over his body, going from front size to backside like a ball with tentacles to propel it forward. They twist and turn around him until his suit creates a glowing force field and burns them all off. He flies away as fast as he can out of the city and back to the surface.
Cut to the Central City police station. Barry Allen aka The Flash works in the crime lab while listening to music. He uses his speed powers to get work done faster. This is played for laughs as we see him multitasking around the room at super speed. He hears from outside the crime lab there's an on going back robbery, and decides to run off to stop it. He goes at super speed through the streets, stopping in his nearby home where The Flash suit is on a mannequin. The suit is very streamlined. It's made out of similar material to some of the Spider Man movie suits. It's made to prevent friction. It resembles a bobsledding suit. The lightning pieces are lifted up on the suit.
The Flash arrives at the bank and finds Leonard Snart. The two have met before. We see in their relationship that Snart is older than Barry by about 10 years. He thinks the flash is naive for his beliefs in helping people and fighting crime. He's a bit fond of the flash, the flash is a likable guy after all, but he's not going to be friends with the guy ruining all his operations obviously. Snart is in a prototype Captain Cold outfit and wields a cold gun. It's basically a parka and snow pants. It's all blue, the white patterning comes later and some more armor. Snart and Barry make small talk and quip to each other as they fight from the bank to the alley behind it until Cold finally traps Barry in ice and escapes with the money, but only after mocking Barry. The Flash is left frozen from the waist down in the alley.
Cut to later. Supergirl flying above Metropolis. The parade celebrating the life of Superman, and mourning his loss goes on in the streets below.A man is selling black superman shirts and armbands out of a stand. A politician is giving a speech about superman. We cut to a reporter on the scene talking about the life of Superman's feats, the controversy surrounding the Kandorians, and how in his final moments he proved himself a true friend of humanity. Millions have come to Metropolis to honor him today, including Europe’s famous hero “WONDER - WOMAN”. We will never see a man like him again, and we can only hope the world will be safe without him. A protester starts screaming behind her about the alien menace and is about to throw a molotov cocktail when Supergirl flies down and knocks him out at super speed. Police arrive. A news team runs up to Supergirl asking who she is but she flies off before they can question her. Later that night the city is bathed in red, yellow, and blue from various spotlights. She flies down to Superman's statue. She says she misses him. Ma is doing fine. She misses you too. So far, earth is doing good. It's peaceful. She's trying to live up to his memory, but people are scared. They need you. Suddenly, she hears something with her super hearing.
Cut to a comet falling to earth in the night sky. It crashes just outside of Metropolis in the wilderness. We see it in a crater. It's about the size of a car. It's an earthy red. It's rocky, but it strangely doesn't seem natural. It's curved in the front. In the back it appears to indent in, with long straight lines that glow with energy as if it were a propulsion system pushing the rock. The indents in the back are capped by what seems like fins or wings. All of this is one piece. It looks like it was carved from rock.
Another one, the larger meteorite, still in the sky, falls towards the earth. It's many times the one we just saw’s size. It's one single piece as well, but shaped like a long ancient hammer with a curved top. It's about the size of a 6 story building. It falls towards earth, and it becomes apparent it's about to land… In the heart of Gotham City! There are breaking news bulletins. They tell that a meteor of this size has the potential to wipe out the entire city. It will be catastrophic. Batman is in the Batcave and is having flashes of dead Nightwing and Scarecrow. He snaps out of it and tells Alfred he wants to run a blood test to check if the toxin is fully out of his system. The cave alerts him about the meteorite. The batwing is deployed and Batman flies into the sky from Wayne Manor. Alfred tells him he’ll never make it in time. Wonder Woman as Diana Prince heads to the balcony of the hotel she's staying at and looks towards the sky before jumping into the air. People run, people pray, then suddenly: Supergirl! The red and blue blue sweeps through the sky. People look up into the sky in awe. Supergirl grabs it's head, pushing it back and slowing its fall until finally, she's able to curve its path, pushing it over the city and crashing down into the river, submerging it partly in the shallow water, everything except for about 20 feet of back laying in or above the water. That twenty feet is across the partly destroyed warehouse on the shore in Gotham’s shipping district. Fortunately, the area is empty at night. The news anchors we saw earlier describe the scene as amazing. No one knows who supergirl is. They say there have been numerous sightings of her, but she refuses to take interviews. Most thank Supergirl for the crisis averted. ‘Glorious Godfrey(Imagine a cross between Alex Jones and Bill O'Reilly secretly working for rock monster space-satan. Imagine a condescending and pretentious jerk that's oddly charismatic and hates the very concept of superheroes) says her saving the most crime filled city in America is great and all that, but how did we not know there was another Kryptonian? How do we know she's not going to try and take over like the other aliens? People begin to question. Is Supergirl a hero, or a sign of another kryptonian invasion?
The GCPD, with Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen at the head, arrive at the scene, only to find soldiers have sealed the perimeter. Montoya asks who they are, and Amanda Waller appears, and says they're with the government. She asks which department. She says THE GOVERNMENT, and tells them to leave. They have no jurisdiction here. The GCPD reluctantly leave. Batman watches from a rooftop. Waller watches as more of her men come down in a helicopter in full hazmat suits and head off towards the ship. A soldier comes to her from the perimeter barrier and tells them that there's a problem. Luthor just showed up. At the perimeter Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves wait. Waller arrives and asks him what he's doing here. Luthor says he owns the dock, and they need to get off his property. Lex says he doesn't, he tells her he bought it the second the ship came down. Waller questions his use of the word ship. Luthor says they both know it's not a meteor.
Waller tells Luthor that the US government has seized the property, and it now belongs to them. Luthor reluctantly leaves, and Mercy drives him away. Meanwhile, Batman leaves, positioning a camera to watch the scene as it continues.
We cut to Supergirl floating above Gotham. She's resting in the sky, taking some deep breaths after what she did. A helicopter passes by her with a news crew inside. She flies away to a different area of the city. Batman arrives, standing on the batwing. He tells her she did a good job today. He says they haven't met, but he was a good friend of her cousin. He asks if she noticed anything strange about the meteor. She says it was shaped a bit strangely. He asks if she did a scan of it with her X-Ray vision. She says she didn't. Batman tells her he thinks it might not have been a meteor. The government have set up blockades and a perimeter where it crashed. There are men in hazmat suits and armed guards. She asks if he thinks it's alien. He says he does. Lex Luthor seems to be involved somehow too. This makes Kara appear a bit uneasy. He says something broke off of it in the atmosphere. It landed in the wilderness about 80 miles west of them. It may have been too small for most radars to pick up. Even if it was, it's so deep in the wilderness it's likely no one trying to get to it has yet.
She says they should go check it out, and he agrees. They travel towards the second crash site in flight or plane. Meanwhile, a convenience store/gas station rest stop along a freeway through the forest. A lone timid looking teen clerk plays a GTA-esque game on her phone. She hears the bell attached to the door jingle and turns to find no one there. A rustling is heard in the back of the store. She grabs a bat from under her desk and walks towards the back, discovering various opened boxes of cookies strewn around all over the floor. We see the back of a creature as it comes out from behind a shelf. We see its green naked body with a hunched back, twisted legs, long arms ending with long fingers, and a elongated pointed head twisted back and curved like an insect's. She screams.
We cut to Supergirl and Batman. They've arrived at the crash site. Supergirl takes a look with her X-Ray vision and tells Superman he's right: it's a spaceship. Batman asks if there's anything alive in it. She says no. He climbs in through the open door and examines it, telling her there doesn't seem to be any steering mechanism. It looks like it was just made to shoot off in one direction. It might be an escape pod. Supergirl tells him she hears helicopters coming. Batman says his it might be Waller. He also tells her informant is telling him through the cowl there's been some sort of attack at a gas station a few miles away. Supergirl flies and he gets into the plane.
Cut to Amanda Waller. She's on the phone, and tells someone to keep the Atlantis issue contained until she can get there. She gets another call, listens for a minute, and tells them to evacuate the area and catch the alien. We see she's at the alien ship in Gotham. She’s preparing men in hazmat suits to enter the ship. The men enter and travel down to a room where infrared has detected a living organism. They arrive, finding a control room covered in clear slime and ooze. We see this through the cameras on the hazmat suits found footage style. They have flashlights attached to guns and search the room. They are standing on a catwalk above something. We see POV found footage style a tentacle grab one of them off the catwalk. There's gunshots and they fall back. Another is knocked off the catwalk into darkness. Dozens of tiny starro’s jump out from the darkness and latch onto a man who flips over the catwalk. The final surviving soldier runs towards the exit. We see through his eyes as he falls to the ground and is pulled into the dark. The last thing we see is his flashlight shining on a giant black eye and then the video cuts off. She tells men to seal the door, and the doorway to the alien ship is closed.
A helicopter lands nearby and an elderly general(general Wade Eiling) walks out. Waller greets him, and he tells her the council has sent him. He convinced them that he should be taking control of the operation. Waller reluctantly allows him and his men to access the camp and she heads to her nearby tent. It's obvious she dislikes him.
At the gas station the police have arrived. The girl from earlier is telling the police that there was a creature. It reached into her mind. It told her to be afraid, and that the end was near. Batman and Supergirl arrive. The police see them walking up, and Batman asks to search the crime scene. The leading officer tells him they don't take orders from guys dressed as bats and to go away. Another officer tells him he knows about this guy. He's the Gotham bat. He caught Jonathan Crane. This guy's a genius. He could search the scene and do all their work for them. The police let Batman and Supergirl pass. Batman goes to check the crime scene, and Supergirl talks to the clerk. She asks what she saw, and the girl tells her it was big, green, it looked like a monster. It was horrible.
Batman looks over the store and finds numerous bags of food and cookies ripped open. He notes to Alfred that whatever came in here was hungry, but it doesn't seem to be a carnivore. It didn't eat the girl. He scans for footprints and determines the creature must have been 6 foot 5 to 7 feet tall. Something's wrong though. The size and shape of the creature's footprints changes over time. Alfred calls him, telling him that there's a monster attacking in Gotham. It may be the alien.
In Central City, the Flash is at his Suburban home with his wife Iris West. They're making dinner together while the television plays, neither are watching though. She asks how today went, and he tells her Captain Cold got away again. She tells him he’ll get him eventually, and he super speeds away, and in under a second there's a large map on the wall with tape, pins, and marker circles. He tells her he thinks Cold’s base is somewhere downtown. She stares at the map and laughs, saying she's sorry but she still isn't used to when he does that. The food starts to burn and she says it looks ruined. He speeds off, she yells for him, asking where he's going, and he returns with several boxes of pizza within five seconds. Cut to them eating(he has a few boxes, she has a few slices), and then in the middle of conversation. He tells her when he got these powers, he wanted to use them to stop people like Cold, but it's not working. She tells him he’ll get it eventually. They notice the superman memorial parade on tv, and he asks her if she thinks he should go. She says that he should. The people should know they still have heroes like him, or that super-girl. He kisses her goodbye and says he’ll be back… in a flash. She looks stone faced at him, and he leaves.
Meanwhile, a fishing ship has capsized after a large wave and people in it are drowning. AquaMan appears and saves everyone, swimming them to land. We see he has deposited them on Ellis Island. He jumps back into the water, eventually though, he surfaces from the ocean, complete with trident and armor on the beaches of New York City. He then begins a walk to the UN building. As he does so, people on the beach freak out and run away. He tells at them it's okay. They don't need to be afraid. No one hears them though, and everyone runs. On the empty beach, he notices a radio in the sand next to a beach towel, reporting that a monster is attacking Gotham. Police arrive as he runs back into the water and swims away.
In Gotham, the GCPD, including Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen, shoot at the giant green monster roaming the streets. Its form changes and shifts as it attempts to dodge the bullets and create shields. They say nothing's hurting it and they need more fire power. A bus crashes through the streets attempting to turn away from the monster and nearly flies into a building when Wonder Woman arrives and stops it. She tells the occupants to get to a safe distance then goes to fight the monster. She lands several punches on it until it swats her away and she flies through the air until she's caught by The Flash. He tells her he was in Metropolis for the parade and came to help. She says that's how she got here as well. He asks if she's really Wonder Woman, because he and his wife are huge fans, and she tells him she is. Supergirl and Batman arrive, and the Flash says he's really excited to meet him, and asks how he solved the Scarecrow case. Batman says they can sign autographs later, they need to contain that thing. So Wonder Woman, Batman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and the Flash battle the monster but to no avail, Supergirl picks up Wonder Woman and swings her into the monster. A green light shoots the creature and a trident knocks it into a building. Green Lantern and Aquaman arrive. The Flash says he recognizes Green Lantern, but isn't sure who the other guy is. He introduces himself as Arthur Curry, King of Atlantis, and says he didn't know so many other heroes would be here. The Flash is surprised to learn Atlantis exists, as is Supergirl. Wonder Woman tells them it's not a big deal, she's an Amazon, then tells AquaMan they were all in the area. Suddenly, time slows down. The heroes perceive this as everything but them being frozen. The monster shrinks down and transforms into a green Martian in a blue hooded cape with red bands of clothing along his body and blue pants. Martian Manhunter's voice enters their heads, telling them they are here because he has been psychically manipulating them to come together since his arrival on earth. He made them perceive things that were not there. (We see the radio playing rap music, and the television being off) Batman asks why. He tells them that his name is J’onn J’onzz and he has come to Earth to prevent a terrible disaster. He has chosen the greatest heroes of Earth to help him. He was disoriented from awakening from awakening from cryosleep, the new planet, and the crash of the ship, which caused him to react somewhat rashly. He apologizes for that. Green Lantern says he was on Mars looking into an ancient prison cell on the planet that had been broken open. He was nearly killed by these starfish creatures. How does he know J’onn J’onzz isn't what was in the cell. J’onn says he can see they do not trust him. He will merge their minds together so that they can see he tells the truth. There's a flash of light.
He shows his past. He speaks telepathically, explaining that he once lived in the caverns beneath Mars. We see a city, built into the rocks below the surface. Martians fly from building to building by turning intangible or growing wings. There is vegetation, fields of it, along the cliffs. The floor of the cavern is water. He had a family once. A wife, and a daughter. Then starro came. At first, he was hidden. Martians are telepathic, but starro could mask itself from telepathy and hide itself until it was too late. The invasion began slowly, but soon, he had taken control of 99 percent of Mars. We see Martians, their faces covered by Starro drones, as they force more drones onto screaming and crying faces. Woman and children are transformed before our eyes. People are put into camps, those that try to escape are set on fire, J’onn tells the heroes that he was forced to watch as his family was taken over by Starro and forced to become one with him. Starro is a hive mind, it exists not in a single body, but within thousands at once, each only a piece of his true self. After he watched Starro take his family from him, he was next, then they came to save him. We see Manhunter robots attack the camp and release the prisoners. J’onn tells Hal that the Green Lanterns were not the first peacekeeping force in the universe. Before them was another, The Manhunters. He and others joined them in the rebellion, and became known as the Martian Manhunters. For a while he thought that they could win, but soon he realized even with the Manhunters it would be impossible. More and more were turned, until J’onn became the last Martian, and it became obvious that the only way to beat starro would be to destroy his hosts. Martians are extremely flammable. J’onn set fire to his people to destroy starro, until only starro’s largest body, the one he used to birth all the others, remained. This body was stronger than the others, and not even the most powerful laser could destroy it. They sealed starro away in a prison beneath Mars, and J’onn chose to stay on his world to guard the prison, and atone for what he had done to destroy starro. We see J’onn wandering Mars during a sandstorm wearing a blue cloak. Eventually, he placed himself in a cryo sleep pod that would only release him in the event of the prison being opened. That was 2000 years ago. In that time, the city grew old and fell apart. It's systems shut down, and eventually, starro was freed. starro used Martian ships to send drones of itself to Earth, and begin the infestation. Then, it sent its main body. J’onn managed to stow away on the ship before it took off, but was discovered during the journey. We see a giant tentacle throw him against the wall. He runs down a hall and manages to escape into a pod and launch himself from the main ship as a slimy tentacle reaches for him. Wonder Woman says she's so sorry for what he experienced, as does Batman.
Batman says that the ship landed in Gotham.
Green Lantern says that another meteor apparently landed in Mexico two weeks ago. It might have been starro’s scouts. AquaMan watches all of this, than says if starro succeeds, the entire planet will be destroyed. The heroes all resolve to work together to stop this threat.
Time unfreezes. The heroes deflect the GCPD’s bullets, Wonder Woman orders them to stop, and Martian Manhunter shrinks to normal size and shape. Batman makes a call to Alfred, and tells him to look into meteors that landed in Mexico. Alfred informs him that a meteor landed recently on land owned for oil drilling by Lex Corp. Batman tells Supergirl he knows how Luthor is connected to this. He’s been infected. They all leave, heading to LexCorp tower in Metropolis.
They arrive at the tower, and walk into the lobby on the ground floor. There's a receptionist who looks in shock then points them towards an elevator. Lex Luthor and Mercy watch from security cameras.
The heroes all stand in the elevator together, and Flash comments this situation could be a joke. A space cop, the king of Atlantis, an Amazon, the fastest man alive, two aliens, and a vampire are in an elevator together… Batman says he's not a vampire. Green Lantern asks if he even has superpowers. The Flash says he just had an idea: they should be a team. AquaMan asks what they'd call themselves, The Super Friends? Green Lantern says he already has a team, he's a member of the green lantern Corp, an interplanetary peacekeeping organization that uses rings that can create anything to protect the Galaxy, he's saying this because he wants to impress everyone here, most of what he does is to impress people. He's not sure why he's saying this. Wonder Woman tells him his hand was caught on her lasso of truth. It compels whomever touches it to tell the truth. Batman asks if she has more than one, it could be useful for his war on crime. The elevator opens.
Lex Luthor waits down the hall from it, Mercy beside him with her cyborg laser cannon arm exposed. He asks why they're here. Supergirl says she knows he's working with starro. Luthor contemplates what they said, and realizes “starro, like Starfish shaped aliens?”
Luthor tells them he's been working to prevent the invasion, just like them. The spaceship that crashed in Mexico infected several of his employees with an alien parasite. He attempted to remove the creatures,but unfortunately, his men were killed in the process. However, by dissecting the parasites, he discovered they were sending telepathic signals through space. He assumed they were heralds for a larger invasion force, and has been preparing. Batman asks how they know he isn't one of them. Luthor tells the heroes that he has developed a device to detect the creatures. According to it, no one in the room is infected. Batman grabs the device and examines it, pulling it apart and removing something. He says that it's being scrambled. It won't do anything. Luthor says that's impossible, and Mercy fires a laser blast at Batman, destroying the detector. Supergirl grabs Mercy and removes her robotic laser shooting arm. We see something move beneath Mercy’s clothes, twisting and pushing off the body as it makes its way up to her face. Lex yells in anger at the creature and jumps on Mercy, yelling at the starfish alien to give her back, she doesn't belong to it! He tries to pull it off and Batman pulls him back.
The starro controlled body approaches Wonder Woman. It asks her why she hasn't resurfaced until now. Why didn't she come out during World War Two? Or all the other wars mankind has suffered through? She grabs her sword, telling it that the world didn't need her. But it did, how many lives could she have saved if she had returned? What could she have prevented? She tells it that there were other heroes. It tells her that there are other heroes now. She tells it not to come closer, brandishing her sword. It says that it has seen her world, and the minds of its inhabitants. The ones you love die so easily, sometimes to protect you, sometimes on accident, but in truth, for no reason at all. No matter how hard you fight, there is always another evil. People live and die pointless deaths, it looks at Supergirl, they give in to hopelessness and despair, looking at Batman, or allow their darkest instincts to take over it looks at Luthor. You fall again and again. starro offers an end, it offers peace from this cycle. Become one with starro, and you will find the contentment you have searched for. Give in, and find peace. Batman shoots the starro with a tranquilizer. He says she’ll wake up soon. They move her to a table and strap her down. Martian Manhunter stares in dread at Mercy and tells Luthor he's sorry. Luthor says he wants to run tests on her, see if the creatures have a weakness they can exploit.
As they wait, Supergirl goes to Wonder Woman and asks if she's okay. Wonder Woman tells her that the creature was trying to get into their heads. Wonder Woman asks why Supergirl doesn't show herself to the world like her cousin did. She says that people are afraid of Kryptonians now. Wonder Woman says they didn't fear Superman. Kara say’s that she's not Superman. Superman can't be replaced. Wonder Woman tells her that it's not replacing him, it's honoring him.
In Luthor’s office kitchen area, Flash eats a large amount of food. Green Lantern asks how he can eat so much, Flash says it's his powers. They mess with his metabolism and he has to eat more often than most people to have enough energy. Green Lantern asks if he thinks Arthur is part fish. Flash says he thinks he can talk to fish. It would make sense. Green Lantern says he doesn't think so.
Later Flash talks to Arthur, first asking if he should call him King Arthur… or Arthur, a superhero name? Arthur says Arthur is fine. The Flash says he was wondering if he would have a name like Wonder Woman or Supergirl… or AquaMan? Arthur stares at the Flash. Anyway, he says he and green lantern were wondering, can he talk to fish? Arthur tells him he psychically pushes fish to do tasks for him. Flash says that's still kinda talking to them. Arthur says it's not at all the same thing. Flash goes to Green Lantern and gives him money.
Batman meanwhile, is in Luthor’s lab trying to create a fear toxin antidote. He talks to Alfred, telling him that he's not sure who to trust. Alfred tells him that these people, they're a good thing. Superman was just one man, but these people, together with him, they could change the world. He's worked every day of his life to make a meaningful difference in the world, and now he can. Bruce has another scarecrow toxin attack, this time seeing all the heroes he's working with now covered in starro’s. Gotham burns. Luthor laughs maniacally and kicks Batman as he's held down by starro infected Batgirl and Nightwing. He calls Batman a fool for believing him and puts a starro on his face. Batman snaps out of it and gets back to work. He completes a stronger version of the antidote and injects himself. Later, Luthor tells them that he's been talking with the Martian, and after studying a living Starro, he believes that by killing the main Starro body, they could destroy all of them. The main body is like a router for the others, transmitting the entities mind into it. Batman says that the main body is in the ship that landed in Gotham. Luthor checks a computer and tells them the ship is being taken to a military base outside Central City to be flown to somewhere in the Arctic for study. The Flash hears this and fears for Iris.
Luthor says he's going with them. Batman says no. Luthor asks why. Batman says he trusts these people, he doesn't trust Luthor. Luthor tells Batman he knows, he's tried to kill him, he's tried to kill Superman three times. He's sold weapons to criminals and created genetically modified monsters, but he's done with that. For the world to progress, you need to experiment. He tried solving his problems by doing what he did before. It didn't work. Now he's trying another way. Before Superman died, he said if I wanted to save the world, I would have done it years ago. He was right. I didn't want to save the world then. Now I do. Now I want to prove I can. Batman listens to this, and tells him he's not going. He's still the same selfish megalomaniac he always was, he's just trying to see if he can play the hero. He's not doing this for anyone but himself. Batman leaves and joins the team on the roof. Luthor looks at Mercy and puts on his battle suit. It's similar to the one in the last movie he wore it but smaller, more compact and streamlined. The original was one of those giant 90’s cellular phones, this is the newest version of the IPhone.
At the Gotham base set up around Starro, Amanda Waller leaves her tent and questions Eiling. She just found out that he's moving the ship. She doesn't like being kept in the dark. She has a lot of pull in the council and can get him ousted if he isn't careful. Eiling tells her he's served in many wars over the years, and one thing he's learned is no matter how hard you fight, there's always going to be another evil. He joined the agency to try and put an end to the wars, but after the Kryptonians came he realized, you give man free will and eventually, they will rebel against their creator. That's when he approached him. Waller asks who approached him. Eiling begins opening a jar in a cabinet and says that Starro will save them all, then pulls out one of the Starro drones from the jar and attaches it to Waller’s face. Starro, in a distorted Amanda Waller voice, tells Eiling to move his body. Assassins are coming to destroy him. The other soldiers with Eiling reveal they are Starro controlled and attack Waller's men.
Batman watches this through the camera he had set up there and tells the others what he's seen.
The heroes travel back across the river to Gotham and towards the convoy of helicopters carrying the alien ship through the air on wires out of the city. We get a mid air battle between the league and the military in the air above the ocean. They're unorganized and have no real plan but manage to make it onto the ship. Flash is knocked off the ship and almost falls to his death but is saved by Supergirl. Wonder Woman tells the others they need to destroy the wire supports and drop the ship. Suddenly, Green Lantern screams. Something crawls up from within his suit and its revealed a Starro has been hiding on him the entire time! It attaches to his face and then attacks the rest of the heroes! Batman attempts to tranquilize him but fails as Green Lantern protects himself with a force field.Green Lantern attacks the league in an attempt to keep them from cutting the wires. Martian Manhunter says that the creature hid within Green Lantern and let him get close, waiting to attack. He then says that Starro is calling him from within the ship and turns intangible to descend down. He encounters the enormous and slime covered main body of Starro laying in the control room of the ship, surrounded by smaller Starros that pop off of its own body. J’onn yells at Starro that it killed his family, and Starro tells him that he killed his family. Starro offered peace and an end to suffering, but he only wanted to burn. Now, he will. Starro grabs J,onn with a tentacle. Outside, Lex Luthor shows up and momentarily distracts Green Lantern Starro, who has been blocking the wires with force fields. Starro has just been using Hal’s body, allowing it to take a lot of punishment so long as the wires are secure. The heroes don't want to hurt Hal, therefore making it impossible to stop Starro. Luthor's sudden appearance has distracted Starro, allowing the heroes to destroy the wires. The ship falls, and realizing they are above Central City, the heroes do everything in their power to slow the fall. It lands in the city and is cracked open.
J’onn is thrown out and slams into a building. Starro’s main body, himself about the size of a large house, climbs out of the rubble, rolling out/ balancing himself on his tentacles. Arthur looks down at the giant Starfish and whispers “outrageous” then runs off and jumps off a pier. Flash yells for him but he disappears into the ocean. Face sized Starros all climb out of the ship and begin attacking nearby onlookers. Supergirl flies up to Manhunter and finds him unconscious. Green Lantern appears and tosses a heavily damaged Lex Luthor to Earth. All we have left is an inexperienced Flash, Supergirl, Batman, Battle Damaged Lex Luthor, and Wonder Woman. None of them can work together on a team and their fighting Starro controlled normal people, Green Lantern, General Eiling and a fleet of middle armed helicopters, and a giant alien monster.
The battle begins. We see Iris West attacked by one of the creatures and transformed into a Starro host. Our heroes fight the giant Starro through the city, trying to protect civilians as the civilians become their enemies at the same time.
Gordon G. Godfrey stands in the streets behind the battle. He talks into the camera saying that fire and death are all around him. Chaos and violence in the streets! Our heroes have turned against us! He says this somewhat gleefully actually… kinda like he's working to sow distrust at the behest of a darker power…. anyway, Starro is knocked towards him in the battle and Supergirl saves his life by zooming him out of the way just in time.
Our heroes are beaten and bloodied, Supergirl recalls to the others that J’onn said it was impossible to defeat Starro. Wonder Woman says they have no other choice but to try. J’onn wakes up and attacks Starro, who tried repeatedly to throw him in a fire. He almost succeeds when….AquaMan reappears. He says to the others that a natural predator of earth starfish is the Alaskan King Crab. A giant crab surfaces from the bay and attacks starro. The Flash manages to zoom Green Lantern far enough away that he won't be a problem for at least the next few minutes. The fight continues. Our heroes are revitalized with hope as Starro is beaten to the ground by the crab. The crab however is ripped apart eventually, and our heroes run up to Starro, creating a slow-no shot vaguely resembling the cover of Brave and The Bold # 28. The creature is stabbed by Wonder Woman’s sword and Arthur’s trident at the same time. Martian Manhunter shapeshifts as he beats up Starro. Batman electrocutes it then works side by side with Luthor, The Flash runs around it knocking it back with the force of the wind. Supergirl flies back several blocks and into the air. People running and hiding look up to her in the sky and see…. HOPE. She descends back to earth and slams Starro into the ground, punching it in the eye. During this, Starro controlled humans run up to attack but are pushed back and put in safe places by The Flash. They cry out that they cannot be defeated and they will become all. Green Lantern returns and fires lasers at The Flash, missing him in his speed and hitting Starro instead. With that final running flying punch from Supergirl though, Starro is destroyed. Everyone’s Starro falls off, including Green Lanterns. A helicopter flown by an enraged Eiling attempts to fire a missile at the league, which is caught by green lantern in a giant green hand. Waller appears behind Eiling on the ship, wiping off her face and pulling out a gun.
The heroes stand together as people who were saved by them look on. Martian Manhunter thanks them for what they have done. The Flash asks how that thing felt on Green Lantern's face. He says he doesn't want to talk about it. Flash remembers something and says he’ll be back in a flash, Batman smiles, Wonder Woman chuckles. Arthur stares at them, then laughs. It's the kinda laughter you get after you've almost died several times. The Flash finds Iris in their home. They have a happy reunion.
One Month Later
Lex Luthor talks to Batman. Lex says that no one wants Lex Luthor on The Justice League, and he's fine with that. He has other things to do. But, he did have some extra money laying around he decided to use to construct a base of operations for their activities. It's a gift. The world changed when Superman came to Earth. With Superman gone, it needs people like him to protect it from whatever tries to invade next. We cut to our heroes in Washington DC on the steps of a new building,
THE HALL OF JUSTICE
Reporters and a round of people photograph them. Later inside, The Flash and Green Lantern are showing Arthur together a newspaper calling them The Justice League, and Arthur being referred to as: Aquaman. Flash says he told him it was the right name. This is a sign. We see as the camera zooms in this article was written by IRIS WEST.
Batman calls a meeting. Aquaman says he's going to need to speak to the President later on Atlantis. Martian Manhunter says he's wants to try and find his place on Earth now that Starro is finally gone. Flash offers to help. Green Lantern says he has to go back into space soon, are we sure this team is a good idea? Supergirl says that they're all going to be doing their own things, but if the world needs them again, it's a good idea to stay in touch. Flash tells Batman he could use some help with a few cases every now and then. Cut to a bank robbery, Captain Cold runs out toward a getaway car only to be stopped when the entire Justice League descends upon him.
Mid credits scene: A blizzard, snow and ice as far as the eye can see, then…. A blast of light. A portal has been opened. We see a hand, the sunlight shines on it through the clouds. We move up to find black Kryptonian clothing. At first we’re afraid, we think it's zod, but then we see: Superman has returned. He wears a black version of his costume under a cloak and some post apocalyptic looking weapons and armor. His hair's grown out and he's sporting a beard. He rips off the cloak and weapons then throws them onto the ground. He absorbs the sunlight and flies away. Cut to Metropolis. He arrives in an apartment building and knocks on the door. Lois opens it and is shocked to see him. They kiss and back into the apartment and close the door when…. the sound of a crying baby is heard. Superman stares at Lois then they both run into the next room over where the son of superman has just woken up.
End Credits scene: Batman works on a computer in the Batcave and Alfred asks if he's sure this is a good idea. Batman says not even Brainiac was able to get into the caves systems. It's safe. He's a man on a team of gods, you saw what happened to Green Lantern, someone needs to have a plan in case they go rogue. We see the computer that shows live video of each leaguer in civilian identity with lists of their weaknesses beside them.