The Justice League Begins to Take Shape

Some rumors are hardly worth reporting. We go down this road with projects like Ghostbusters 3, where there always seems to be something moving forward, yet the years pass and the movie never gets made. One that I can remember hearing about while still in high school is Justice League. For those not familiar, The Justice League is the DC Comics version of The Avengers. The main difference is the Justice League is made up of the best of the best in the DC Comics universe, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. The Avengers may seem to fit that bill now because of the buildup, but the exclusion of heavyweights like Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four give Marvel more distributed wealth. DC puts all their eggs in one basket.

Well apparently on the heels of a legal victory over the rights to Superman, Warner Bros. is moving forward with the JL. Since The Avengers shattered expectations, I guess they decided it’s about time. The LA Times is reporting that Warner Bros. is looking at a summer 2015 release for the massive project. That seems reasonable until you realize that The Avengers 2 is set to release during that same summer. Uh oh, we have a showdown.

With that, it seems Warner Bros. will take a different route using Justice League as a launching point for their franchises. Superman will be fresh off his 2013 reboot Man of Steel and the Green Lantern will presumably follow suit from the much maligned 2011 Ryan Reynolds vehicle. But other than that, characters will receive a fresh slate. A rebooted Batman character and the introduction of Wonder Woman, The Flash and any others they care to use from the DC catalog, mean the writers and producers have the tough task of introducing the characters in such a way as to not stall the movie with origin stories.

Obviously the specifics are a complete guess at this point. My hypothesis is that it won’t live up to The Avengers though. Not much can. Plus, who would have thought Thor and Iron Man, two characters with moderate readerships would be so appealing to all the relevant demographics when put on the big screen? But now we’re putting some unknown commodities alongside a brand new Batman. Fickle moviegoers will need some convincing. I’ll obviously be there with bells on, but since I see everything, that’s not that big of an accomplishment.