Warner Bros. superhero team-up Justice League is worming its way through the development, and here and there small bits of information are dropping out. Not everyone isconvinced this will be a real project with a greenlight until Man Of Steel‘s opening weekend proves the team’s anchor is viable, though I think The Avengers already did that work. What the Man Of Steel numbers will determine is just how much the marketing relies on Batman alone to sell the film.
In any event, Latino Review has followed up their scoop that the very logical decision was made to place Darkseid as the villain of the film with a new chunk of info; specifically they’ve uncovered the comic book arc inspiring the script…
Justice League of America issues 183, 184, and 185 are apparently the framework for Will Beale’s screenplay.
This isn’t exactly shocking, as a look at the issues shows that the arc was one of the earlier, more dramatic storylines to involve Darkseid and the New Gods. It teamed up key members of the JLA and JSA, and sent them for a first-hand visit to New Genesis and Apokolips, with Darkseid presented as a full-on interstellar Satan. A true cosmic force that had already been dispatched once, Darkseid returns here –similar to Sauron– by rematerializing out of sheer evil will.
Just check out this panel to the right, in which the villain explains his return. The story features a Transformers 3-like plot in which Darkseid schemed to destroy our planet by transporting his dark planet Apokolips into Earth’s space.
These issues are collected in Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 5, which you can find here if you want to start up on your background reading.
Obviously this is a pretty far out-there story for the first team-up film to tackle. That’s a big step for a film that also has to recontextualize Batman and Superman as shared universe characters who exist alongside cosmic magical forces. It’s a bold choice, even if it sounds like another “close the portal” 3rd act that I can only cross my fingers they find some spin on.
What would you hope to see from such a film? Drop a load in the comments below.