Justice League - The Movie?

Newarama reported last week that Warner Bros. began reviving plans to bring Justice League to the big screen. They hired screenwriter Will Beall to write a script. I’m not going to go over his pedigree or the quality of what he’s written (because I haven’t seen anything he’s written and a lot of his scripts are for announced projects).

Warner Bros. is going to try and capitalize on the success of The Avengers – and who can blame them? Warner Bros. owns the DC Universe and the DCU offers just as deep a roster of interesting characters as Marvel does. But Marvel had a plan from the beginning to make The Avengers which was obvious at the end of Iron Man when Tony Stark is approached by Nick Fury with something called “The Avengers Initiative.”

Marvel did a lot of things to prepare to team its most iconic characters together but DC doesn’t have to follow that blueprint for a successful Justice League film. Can Warner Bros. pull it off? If their last several films besides the Batman one are any indication - then no. I’m hoping for the best but I won’t be surprised if it never gets made or gets made poorly. Warner Bros. had a great opportunity to work with Joss Whedon on Wonder Woman and decided against it.

New 52 Figures: The Justice League

I’ve been excited about “The New 52” since it was announced. In the past I’ve toyed with the idea of buying enough figures to have a Justice League team on my shelf. The problem was, if there was a toyline offering the entire line-up, the figures didn’t look great. Or if the figures looked great, the entire team wasn’t available.

My friend had a solution. Since DC figures to run 7”, he would but the best looking Superman, Batman, and so on, until he had the line-up he wanted. He has Batman from the Hush figure collection, Wonder Woman from a collection that featured her (it also had Artemis and Diana in that white jumpsuit she used to wear for her ‘civilian’ job – it was a long time ago), and others that he’s slowly accumulated over the years.

Now I have an opportunity to get the best looking figures from DC Direct, designed by Jim Lee, featuring all the members of the new Justice League title. I ordered Batman last month and ordered Aquaman and Green Lantern this month.

Here is when you can expect these awesome figures in stores (I got this information from bigbadtoystore.com (just search for ‘new 52 figure’ and these pop right up)):

Batman – May 2012

Aquaman – June 2012

Green Lantern – June 2012

The Flash – August 2012

Wonder Woman – October 2012

Cyborg – October 2012

Superman – January 2013

Batman should be on my shelf next month and by January of next year I should have the entire team on display.

Justice League #1 review - SPOILERS

Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams

SPOILERS AHEAD: This is the first issue of DC’s new launch and it’s awesome. It starts five years ago where it remains because I imagine this first arc is the formation of the team with Cyborg’s origin. I’m just guessing that this means all the heroes have been around for about 5 years when their books start.

The book begins with Batman chasing an extraterrestrial monster while the police chase both of them when Green Lantern shows up. This the first meeting between the two heroes and instead of a misunderstanding which leads to a fight before the heroes team up – the two team up to go after the alien. It’s great seeing Batman and Green Lantern get to know each other; Green Lantern is surprised when Batman tells him he doesn’t have any power and Batman swipes Green Lantern’s ring to get a closer look at it.

Before the pair can catch the alien, it screams something about ‘Darkseid’ and sets off a device that tries to incinerate them but thanks to Green Lantern’s construct, they’re safe while the alien is eliminated. Since the thing was alien, that leads the due to Metropolis to see a dangerous man they’ve never met – Superman. Unfortunately for Batman and Green Lantern, their first meeting IS a misunderstanding that leads to a fight.

Good: Geoff Johns does a great job with the characters. I like the scene where Batman steals GL’s ring and then gets a zinger in. This Batman is a little more likeable and not quite as pissy as the Batman who would scowl and say, “Hmmmm.” And the fact that Green Lantern has to tell Batman that there is a GL Corps means that the world hasn’t met them yet – we could get to see the first time each GL meets each member of the Justice League.  And we’re about to get Cyborg’s origin story – I don’t even know what his origin was so I’m excited to see it.

As always, I love Jim Lee’s art. Not just the new costumes or the way the characters move, but I love Green Lantern’s constructs. This Green Lantern doesn’t hit you with a block or make a bubble shield; he hits you with a fire truck and shields you with large riot police holding shields or puts you inside a safe. It’s awesome.

Bad: Because the story happens in the past, there’s no clues as to where we’ll be when the rest of the titles launch – will the authorities still be hunting the heroes or will the world be celebrating them?

Buy/Skip: Buy it. Buy them all if you can. I don’t know if you’ll ever see a comic book line relaunch again.