5 ways in which Cyborg will suck as bad as Steel at 9:24 AM

I don't envy you, kid. Except your charming good looks and your money and that you get to play a superhero, and you're a shoe in for an Obama Biopic.

Ah, yes, once again DC/WB had announced  a bunch of movies, and like a kid saying he'll be a rockstar one day, you have to humor the idea that, even if you know in your heart you've heard the same flights of fancy from others, who are currently flipping burgers. You just don't have the heart to tell DC it's more likely to end up sweeping floors than it is to make a Wonder Woman movie.

If I know my DC it'll be back to just Batman in no time (and occasionally Supes getting a reboot), but let's play their game. Sure, you plan to have  2 DC films a year ,yeah, whatever. Green Lantern and everything.

But most baffling of all of those is Cyborg. Dc HAS been trying to push the character to the forefront as of this last few years. He's on the new 52 Justice League, and also features in a big way on recent DVD and game based affairs.

And he was also in a pretty popular cartoon over 10 years ago. But you all knew that.

It's not the first time DC has tried to get hype for a black tech based superheroe. Years ago, shortly after Superman did his little tango with death, a character rose from the ashes of synergy. Steel. He was my favorite. When I read Steel had a movie coming out, I thought it was great. But I had THIS guy in mind.

I always wondered how he managed to move the face, though.

Instead, I ran across THIS in my local Blockbuster.

His helmet was like the movie...they both flopped.

Now, I know it was a different time, where DC movies where slightly more likely to be supershitty and slightly more likely to exist(but not too much, either). But I feel Cyborg is gonna end up being closer to Steel than it will be to The Dark Knight. It's not just because they both star a black Superhero. Buuut...

5)  A Black Superhero

No movie for you!

Well, it's not that making a movie about a black superhero is harder than anything. There's some good black superheroes out there, who just need their story told right.

 It's just that, historically, they've never been done right. But right as in "anyone would watch it, even if they didn't have some kind of ban against White People stuff".
 

Or maybe you have some counter-examples?

Sadly, Steel had to rely on being a "Black" movie, with gangbanger enemies, a chika-chicka 70s soundtrack , and an obvious blaxploitation feel. This is gonna be one of the challenges of Cyborg because...

4) The character's worth depends on other characters.

Seriously, Cyborg's not even the most interesting Titan

So let's say I'm not heavilly invested in DC comics of today. In fact, I'm not. All I know from Cyborg is what I know from the Teen Titans the cartoon(he's a cyborg and likes yelling Booyah!)

Sell me Cyborg. What are his enemies? What makes him special? What makes him likable?

I suspect Cyborg is at his peak in the Teen Titans. He's got attachments,  there, relations, stories. Just like Steel.

Steel's very origins where related to Superman. That's where he was at his most interesting. Otherwise he was just a black Ironman.

Which is one of the things where the movie goes wrong. Shaquille O'neil as a low ass budget Tony Stark? Come on!

Again, Cy-Hards, let me know if Cyborg has some great villains and stories waiting to be  brought to screen. Otherwise, he, too might just end up saving the 'hood from a gun dealer operating out of  an arcade.

3) The Tone is compromised

Not even Michael Jordan could have saved this tripe.

Steel the movie could never be like Steel the comic. No way with a budget like it had. The changes to it's source are mostly traceable to "not enough money." Even if it had had intentions of being the best possible movie starring the (other) Man of Steel...money wasn't enough for Flying.

Cyborg faces similar problems, but money's no object this time. For you see, Cyborg is being set up in next year's Batman V Superman.

For the record, here's Smallville's low budget Cyborg.

Whatever they're gonna do in 2020 depends heavilly on what the character is set up as in Batman vs Superman and in the Justice League movie. If that movie has Cyborg as a wise ass clown, or boring and generic the solo movie's director won't be able to turn him into the next Wolverine.

And what exactly will be set up, with Wonder Woman, The Suicide Squad, and Flash and Aquaman all also being set up? Is it like when they set up Hawkeye is a human who shoots arrows in Thor?

2) DC is bad at cinematic universe building, Solo movies.

"In my planet, liking fried chicken is totally a white people stereotype."

DC's terrible record at making movies that aren't Batman and Superman is well earned. But a large part of that comes from spinning of secondary and tertiary characters into their own movies. Because as long as we're not leaving our comfort zones(Gotham and Metropolis), we might as well dredge up some of the unexplored characters from there.

This is how we ended up with Catwoman, Supergirl, and yes, Steel.  All these characters suffer from #4, and their movies are a testimony to that.

It might take some universe building, Marvel style, to get people into  Cyborg. Or rather, the opposite of Marvel: try to use a team up to promote a single character. Their attempts to initiate a united universe have gone straight to hell so far, unless the Justice League movie they have coming up is called Justice League : Mortal and The Suicide Squad's Amanda Waller is played by Angela Basset.

If you're a betting man right now, money's good on them screwing up  something that's both of the things they can't  ever do right.

1) You can't do the Marvel, DC

We don't roll our eyes when Marvel announces their Captain Marvel movie, DC.

Franchises everywhere want in on the Marvel thing, from Universal Monsters to Robin Hood. As always, Hollywood studio heads completely misunderstand the very basics of what makes something a success.

Marvel's first couple of movies only had little hints at a larger universe. They also happened to be mostly good-to-great  movies about characters  who where not as popular as the X-MENs and Spider-Mans of the world.

A Mediocre Batman movie is already a half won battle. Millions of people in the world who only know what movies say through Subtitles, millions who'd never Wiki-binge the Dc pages or pick up a comic, know Batman and are willing to give him money.

Getting people to shell out a Bunch of money for Guardians of the Galaxy takes something WB  didn't sure as hell put into Jonah Hex.

WB didn't put any heart into Steel. If they successfully put as much heart into Cyborg  as much as they did Steel, and history so far says that's likely, then obviously it's poised to be the next Steel.

If it ever gets off the ground, that is. If you can actually go through with a plan to make a movie in 5 years, I'll eat my hat. That I'll have in 5 years

DC's Plain Ketchup at 12:43 PM

Dollar! The ALL-MIGHTY!

I hate to say I told you so. Wait, no. Love. I love to say it.

So, my good DC fans, I told you so. We debated for 5 years whether a Justice League film was better if built up by individual movies. Sure, the matter is mostly out of our controls. But did not a wiseman say all is in vain?

You guys said a Justice League movie bombing could kill the chances of solo films. So how did that go? Did you enjoy your Jonah Hex and Green Lantern solo films not leading into a single film? Where the theoretical solo films in jeopardy if it bombed? You know the answer to this one.

I told you so. I told if anything had a chance at existance at Dc it was a single strong solo film. I told you if the movies had not existed yet, it was reasonable not to expect them in the future.

Now WB  has suddenly stumbled out of bed, slobber rolling out the mouth.  "Whu..., a Billion dollars? I NEVER expected a well done and marketed movie with popular characters to make money! Do we have some of those characters?"

Oh, please pretend this recent slew of announcements isnt related to Marvel and Joss Whedons excellent Avengers. It's something that they started writting a while ago, they say. THING IS, at this point after the initial cancellation of Justice League : Mortal, there have been so many movies in writting phase its obvious it isnt a problem with capacity, but desire. WB doesn't need to have it's own Avengers. Did the Dark Knight not make them  a bunchload of cash?

I knew this baby would come in handy someday.

You guys got what you wanted, but lost what you had.I did tell you so.

So WB is calling me toos. Hell, I wanted to cash in on Avengers too. Whats the plan? Well, they'll fast track a movie with Lobo starring the The Rock. Then Shazam, also starring The Rock probably. That one won't happen.

At least we'll always have the rage...(snif)

A Wonder Woman movie script will join the pile. Flash might get made. Then Avengers 2 will come out, and once again industrial amounts of wishful thinking will fall out of WB regarding Justice League. And we get to do this all over again.

DC's Plain Ketchup at 12:43 PM

Dollar! The ALL-MIGHTY!

I hate to say I told you so. Wait, no. Love. I love to say it.

So, my good DC fans, I told you so. We debated for 5 years whether a Justice League film was better if built up by individual movies. Sure, the matter is mostly out of our controls. But did not a wiseman say all is in vain?

You guys said a Justice League movie bombing could kill the chances of solo films. So how did that go? Did you enjoy your Jonah Hex and Green Lantern solo films not leading into a single film? Where the theoretical solo films in jeopardy if it bombed? You know the answer to this one.

I told you so. I told if anything had a chance at existance at Dc it was a single strong solo film. I told you if the movies had not existed yet, it was reasonable not to expect them in the future.

Now WB  has suddenly stumbled out of bed, slobber rolling out the mouth.  "Whu..., a Billion dollars? I NEVER expected a well done and marketed movie with popular characters to make money! Do we have some of those characters?"

Oh, please pretend this recent slew of announcements isnt related to Marvel and Joss Whedons excellent Avengers. It's something that they started writting a while ago, they say. THING IS, at this point after the initial cancellation of Justice League : Mortal, there have been so many movies in writting phase its obvious it isnt a problem with capacity, but desire. WB doesn't need to have it's own Avengers. Did the Dark Knight not make them  a bunchload of cash?

I knew this baby would come in handy someday.

You guys got what you wanted, but lost what you had.I did tell you so.

So WB is calling me toos. Hell, I wanted to cash in on Avengers too. Whats the plan? Well, they'll fast track a movie with Lobo starring the The Rock. Then Shazam, also starring The Rock probably. That one won't happen.

At least we'll always have the rage...(snif)

A Wonder Woman movie script will join the pile. Flash might get made. Then Avengers 2 will come out, and once again industrial amounts of wishful thinking will fall out of WB regarding Justice League. And we get to do this all over again.

Update: Superman, Wonder Woman, Justice League at 9:32 AM

Superman is off the chain.

The talk of the town: Superman's film is being helmed by Zack Snyder, of '300' and 'Watchmen' fame,  Rumor has it the plot has him traveling through the world, trying to figure out if he wants to become Superman. Also, that Zod is the badguy.

Is this you'r great pitch, Nolan? Batman Begins but with Superman? Not an origin, but the annoying parts where the character hasn't put the suit on yet? And the bad guy is Zod? Color me unimpressed with this. Though at least Snyder is good at making comic panels into live action scenes so I guess the movie will be pretty to look at. I just hope it doesn't take an hour for Superman to show up.

Got any weapons on you?...a lasso, that's not a weapo...a Tiara? You can keep em'.

Wonder Woman is getting a new TV show, courtesy of the guy who directed "The Practice" and wrote 'Lake Placid', both of which I liked. Some people feel disapointed at there not being a movie instead. To them I say:

a) You're probably gonna get as much movie as you where gonna get. Should have gotten more copies of the one you got last year, and maybe the sequel wouldn't have gotten canned.

b)It's probably better for people to get to know Wonder Woman's world, and other characters. Sure, most people know the suit, but a lot of them can't tell Dr Cyber from Dr Psycho.

Fully don't expect Wonder Woman to be buff. While sexism mayplay a role in that, it's a problem to have dual identities where one is "buff" and the other one is supposed to be average or meek and that gets worse in Live Action, no matter how much you think HHH should have played Thor.  I hope the new Wondy is Gemma Arterton!

One! Singular sensation, of fire and omega beams...

Also, Armie Hammer talked about the cancelled Justice League movie.  Here's some choice quotes.

Quint: I’m fascinated by that stuff, the “almost happened,” the “What if” stuff and just the idea of George Miller doing a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie still… I think it’s going to go down as one of the saddest “This didn’t happen” things ever.

Armie Hammer: And dude I saw it all. Like I saw the prevised fight sequences. I saw the entire storyboarded film that he had in a room ten times the size of this room with storyboards floor to ceiling, so you walked around the entire room and read the movie like a comic book. What he did… He created something that was so magnificent and put so much work into it, the fact that it never got a chance to be seen by daylight or appreciated by those who really would appreciate this more than anything else… I mean he was bringing in the psychology of these characters more than anyone else ever had.

We had psychiatrists with us in our rehearsal process to be like “Why this?” He was like “Well you see, with a delusional character like this, like the Batman, who thinks in this such a way, like a paranoid schizophrenic like this, this would be the motivating factor.” You bring so much more to these characters, because it’s not just “Well in this frame you are going to jump on top of this car and you are going to throw your Batarang.” It’s like “Why is everyone doing what they are doing, but in George Miller’s true style.” He was going so in-depth in this.

We had a brain surgeon, a psychiatrist, a Joseph Campbell expert, and all of these people in every single table meeting we had for a month and a half and then all of the characters were also training as their characters, so The Flash, Adam Brody, was training as The Flash with rubber bands, so he’d be fast and twitchy. Aquaman, Santiago Cabrera, was swimming a lot and Miller would send him to go swim with Dolphins in Northern California for hours so he would be used to being around sea creatures. Batman, being the only human of the Justice League and having to really prove himself there, he had to be the consummate martial artist, as well as the ultimate detective, so he was playing psychological games with all of us.

He would leave me out of things, like intentionally, but I wouldn’t know this until months later when I would just get the feeling of like “What is going on? Why is everybody?” Because he wanted me to constantly be getting into that paranoid mind frame of The Batman.

 

Sight. I've gone on about this subject a lot. But the more times go on, the more infantile the claims against this movie seem. Could have possibly been the biggest, baddest Superhero film of all time. I mean, here we have the guy who would have played Batman, just of proving his acting chops in "The Social Network" saying they where clearly trying to get them into character in a serious way, while some guy was at his home complaining he was too young for the role. I think it's a disgrace that we didn't have a chance to judge the film on it's own, is all.

 

Also, tomorrow is the New York Comic Convention. And new MVC character's are getting shown. Here's hoping  for She Hulk and Phoenix Wright!

Update: Superman, Wonder Woman, Justice League at 9:32 AM

Superman is off the chain.

The talk of the town: Superman's film is being helmed by Zack Snyder, of '300' and 'Watchmen' fame,  Rumor has it the plot has him traveling through the world, trying to figure out if he wants to become Superman. Also, that Zod is the badguy.

Is this you'r great pitch, Nolan? Batman Begins but with Superman? Not an origin, but the annoying parts where the character hasn't put the suit on yet? And the bad guy is Zod? Color me unimpressed with this. Though at least Snyder is good at making comic panels into live action scenes so I guess the movie will be pretty to look at. I just hope it doesn't take an hour for Superman to show up.

Got any weapons on you?...a lasso, that's not a weapo...a Tiara? You can keep em'.

Wonder Woman is getting a new TV show, courtesy of the guy who directed "The Practice" and wrote 'Lake Placid', both of which I liked. Some people feel disapointed at there not being a movie instead. To them I say:

a) You're probably gonna get as much movie as you where gonna get. Should have gotten more copies of the one you got last year, and maybe the sequel wouldn't have gotten canned.

b)It's probably better for people to get to know Wonder Woman's world, and other characters. Sure, most people know the suit, but a lot of them can't tell Dr Cyber from Dr Psycho.

Fully don't expect Wonder Woman to be buff. While sexism mayplay a role in that, it's a problem to have dual identities where one is "buff" and the other one is supposed to be average or meek and that gets worse in Live Action, no matter how much you think HHH should have played Thor.  I hope the new Wondy is Gemma Arterton!

One! Singular sensation, of fire and omega beams...

Also, Armie Hammer talked about the cancelled Justice League movie.  Here's some choice quotes.

Quint: I’m fascinated by that stuff, the “almost happened,” the “What if” stuff and just the idea of George Miller doing a JUSTICE LEAGUE movie still… I think it’s going to go down as one of the saddest “This didn’t happen” things ever.

Armie Hammer: And dude I saw it all. Like I saw the prevised fight sequences. I saw the entire storyboarded film that he had in a room ten times the size of this room with storyboards floor to ceiling, so you walked around the entire room and read the movie like a comic book. What he did… He created something that was so magnificent and put so much work into it, the fact that it never got a chance to be seen by daylight or appreciated by those who really would appreciate this more than anything else… I mean he was bringing in the psychology of these characters more than anyone else ever had.

We had psychiatrists with us in our rehearsal process to be like “Why this?” He was like “Well you see, with a delusional character like this, like the Batman, who thinks in this such a way, like a paranoid schizophrenic like this, this would be the motivating factor.” You bring so much more to these characters, because it’s not just “Well in this frame you are going to jump on top of this car and you are going to throw your Batarang.” It’s like “Why is everyone doing what they are doing, but in George Miller’s true style.” He was going so in-depth in this.

We had a brain surgeon, a psychiatrist, a Joseph Campbell expert, and all of these people in every single table meeting we had for a month and a half and then all of the characters were also training as their characters, so The Flash, Adam Brody, was training as The Flash with rubber bands, so he’d be fast and twitchy. Aquaman, Santiago Cabrera, was swimming a lot and Miller would send him to go swim with Dolphins in Northern California for hours so he would be used to being around sea creatures. Batman, being the only human of the Justice League and having to really prove himself there, he had to be the consummate martial artist, as well as the ultimate detective, so he was playing psychological games with all of us.

He would leave me out of things, like intentionally, but I wouldn’t know this until months later when I would just get the feeling of like “What is going on? Why is everybody?” Because he wanted me to constantly be getting into that paranoid mind frame of The Batman.

 

Sight. I've gone on about this subject a lot. But the more times go on, the more infantile the claims against this movie seem. Could have possibly been the biggest, baddest Superhero film of all time. I mean, here we have the guy who would have played Batman, just of proving his acting chops in "The Social Network" saying they where clearly trying to get them into character in a serious way, while some guy was at his home complaining he was too young for the role. I think it's a disgrace that we didn't have a chance to judge the film on it's own, is all.

 

Also, tomorrow is the New York Comic Convention. And new MVC character's are getting shown. Here's hoping  for She Hulk and Phoenix Wright!

And Justice for None at 11:32 AM

The tragic sequence of events that lead to the death of Justice League Mortal is as epic as any fight the group ever had in their history. I will retell it, as I remember it.

At first, WB announced it was writing a movie about the Justice League, DC comics premier Superhero team. Since then I've learned to not take it very seriously that WB announce any movie. It was all very hush hush. We didn't know who was in it, what was the story or how would it affect the then incoming The Dark Knight as well as "The Man of Steel" the Superman Returns sequel we still don't know anything about. Nobody had anything much bad to say about it, except maybe how impossible to do it might be. Then again, they said that about Watchmen.

The plan was simple: Use Justice League to launch spinoffs featuring Flash, Wonderwoman, etc. Minimize the risk of these franchises that haven't had the exposure Batman has had it.

Then out of nowhere: BAM! Marvel announced their plans to release The Avengers. They would release solo movies for The Hulk, IronMan, Thor, and freaking Antman before leading to one mammoth of a crossover movie. Everyone's perception seemed to have changed overnight. Now, the ONLY way to do a crossover movie is to lead up to it with solo films. Now Warner was doing it "Backwards" and Marvel had the right idea. Never mind that Wonderwoman was more well known than Ironman and Antman combined. Never mind that Warner was unsuccessfull in releasing anything that isn't Batman or Superman or Vertigo stories(Constantin, V for Vendetta). Now, all of a sudden, everyone seems pissed that Warner isn't doing what Marvel announced they would do after Warner had already started!

Then casting rumors came out. Aparently the story would not be in casting continuity with either Batman Begins, nor Superman Returns. Because those movies where so open to a Justice League spinoff. This is where sites started entering the fray, spitting venom at the movie for casting "kids" when a) most of the rumored cast was in their late 20s and B)Routh would have been equally young if added to that group.

All of a sudden the movie, wich had Director George Miller attached to direct, started to make enemies out of every nerd group. Batman Begins fans felt that only Christian Bale should play Batman, and that the movie would cause Christopher Nolan to suddenly forgo millions of dollars for some sense of entitlement to a character. Superman Returns fans hated it because it didn't feature their precious Brandon Routh. Green Lantern/Hal Jordan fans felt that using Jon Stewart instead of Hal Jordan was unforgivable. A lot of them really hated that it was a stand alone thing that ignored what Marvel was doing. And a great many hated the fact that instead of proven celebrities and known names, young unproven actors where rumored.

But stop! Does any of that really make a good story featuring the greatest heroes in the universe any less entertaining? People harranging the movie because of their own personal fandoms, and not because of their feelings toward the movie itself makes no sense. But of course, we knew nothing of the story of the film. Or did we?


Script reviews started coming in each more outlandish than the next. It soon became obvious that no one really had the script. Unlike usual Hollywood standard, they where pretty secretive, even allegedly using special, unscannable papers and Superlimited copies. Still, it didn't stop many from saying that they'd read it, and it stunk. They didn't say WHAT sucked about it. The just thought if they said it with no base of knoweledge, stupid people would believe them.

Turns out, stupid people are stupid. So in the end, this movie had very few people in the fandom who where willing to back it up. Still, most of these enemies amounted amounted to a swarm of babies fighting a grown man: their basic tactic of crying could do little against a movie that was being fasttracked before an impending writers strike. But no amount of tracking was fast enough, and both the Screen actor's guild and problems with taxation in Australia, the films shooting location, finally sunk it under, as WB hit the reset button they seem to have to undo any progress any DC film without Batman may have made.

I'm not gonna say this movie was gonna be great. I am not that naive. What I WILL say, is that, if given a chance to exist, it could have been something really special. Something that shook WB out of the marrasm that they have about their B, C and even some A level comic properties. If it had been released, it could have disproven all the naysayers and fake scripts.

But here we are. 2009 and there is no Superman film in sight. Gonna take at least 3 years for a new Batman. We had Watchmen, but the fish wern't biting. There's Johna Hex, in case anyone else doesn't think sipernatural Western isn't more promising then the world's greatest heroes together. The only thing that might make any progress in the ol' DC farm is Green Lantern, wich hits two years in the future. So if you, dear reader, think a potentially bad Justice League this year is worst than a potentially bad Green Lantern in 2 years. But for me, I feel that watching WB try to fit their solo films into a cohesive crossover will be like watching a retarded person try to fit a square peg into a hole. Yes, the word is WB wants to try some kind of Marvel-like plan. Except I've never heard of Marvel periodically scrapping everything from the start.

Problem is, the Marvel plan is a plan because they planned it. A similar plan with DC doesn't work because they didn't plan for it. Nolan follows whatever direction he wants with the Batman franchise. Singer tried to follow, repeat, and at the same time ignore the previous Superman franchise. This two where never planned to coexist and as such, a Justice League film is best as it's own continuity. And a separate continuity requires separate actors. We're all adults, I assume, I think we can diferentiate between fiction and reality, right?

Alas, the real problem with Justice League is that everyone wants to match their own selfish desires. This characters are alive in their own stories, and have their individual followings. Any Justice League would have to compromise for someone who hates Black Canary, or preffers Guy Gardner over Jon Steward, or who thinks Superman is way too powerful, to people who get indignant because America just HAS ti be in the title. It's inevitable. But for now, however, we are left with Justice for none.

And Justice for None at 11:32 AM

The tragic sequence of events that lead to the death of Justice League Mortal is as epic as any fight the group ever had in their history. I will retell it, as I remember it.

At first, WB announced it was writing a movie about the Justice League, DC comics premier Superhero team. Since then I've learned to not take it very seriously that WB announce any movie. It was all very hush hush. We didn't know who was in it, what was the story or how would it affect the then incoming The Dark Knight as well as "The Man of Steel" the Superman Returns sequel we still don't know anything about. Nobody had anything much bad to say about it, except maybe how impossible to do it might be. Then again, they said that about Watchmen.

The plan was simple: Use Justice League to launch spinoffs featuring Flash, Wonderwoman, etc. Minimize the risk of these franchises that haven't had the exposure Batman has had it.

Then out of nowhere: BAM! Marvel announced their plans to release The Avengers. They would release solo movies for The Hulk, IronMan, Thor, and freaking Antman before leading to one mammoth of a crossover movie. Everyone's perception seemed to have changed overnight. Now, the ONLY way to do a crossover movie is to lead up to it with solo films. Now Warner was doing it "Backwards" and Marvel had the right idea. Never mind that Wonderwoman was more well known than Ironman and Antman combined. Never mind that Warner was unsuccessfull in releasing anything that isn't Batman or Superman or Vertigo stories(Constantin, V for Vendetta). Now, all of a sudden, everyone seems pissed that Warner isn't doing what Marvel announced they would do after Warner had already started!

Then casting rumors came out. Aparently the story would not be in casting continuity with either Batman Begins, nor Superman Returns. Because those movies where so open to a Justice League spinoff. This is where sites started entering the fray, spitting venom at the movie for casting "kids" when a) most of the rumored cast was in their late 20s and B)Routh would have been equally young if added to that group.

All of a sudden the movie, wich had Director George Miller attached to direct, started to make enemies out of every nerd group. Batman Begins fans felt that only Christian Bale should play Batman, and that the movie would cause Christopher Nolan to suddenly forgo millions of dollars for some sense of entitlement to a character. Superman Returns fans hated it because it didn't feature their precious Brandon Routh. Green Lantern/Hal Jordan fans felt that using Jon Stewart instead of Hal Jordan was unforgivable. A lot of them really hated that it was a stand alone thing that ignored what Marvel was doing. And a great many hated the fact that instead of proven celebrities and known names, young unproven actors where rumored.

But stop! Does any of that really make a good story featuring the greatest heroes in the universe any less entertaining? People harranging the movie because of their own personal fandoms, and not because of their feelings toward the movie itself makes no sense. But of course, we knew nothing of the story of the film. Or did we?


Script reviews started coming in each more outlandish than the next. It soon became obvious that no one really had the script. Unlike usual Hollywood standard, they where pretty secretive, even allegedly using special, unscannable papers and Superlimited copies. Still, it didn't stop many from saying that they'd read it, and it stunk. They didn't say WHAT sucked about it. The just thought if they said it with no base of knoweledge, stupid people would believe them.

Turns out, stupid people are stupid. So in the end, this movie had very few people in the fandom who where willing to back it up. Still, most of these enemies amounted amounted to a swarm of babies fighting a grown man: their basic tactic of crying could do little against a movie that was being fasttracked before an impending writers strike. But no amount of tracking was fast enough, and both the Screen actor's guild and problems with taxation in Australia, the films shooting location, finally sunk it under, as WB hit the reset button they seem to have to undo any progress any DC film without Batman may have made.

I'm not gonna say this movie was gonna be great. I am not that naive. What I WILL say, is that, if given a chance to exist, it could have been something really special. Something that shook WB out of the marrasm that they have about their B, C and even some A level comic properties. If it had been released, it could have disproven all the naysayers and fake scripts.

But here we are. 2009 and there is no Superman film in sight. Gonna take at least 3 years for a new Batman. We had Watchmen, but the fish wern't biting. There's Johna Hex, in case anyone else doesn't think sipernatural Western isn't more promising then the world's greatest heroes together. The only thing that might make any progress in the ol' DC farm is Green Lantern, wich hits two years in the future. So if you, dear reader, think a potentially bad Justice League this year is worst than a potentially bad Green Lantern in 2 years. But for me, I feel that watching WB try to fit their solo films into a cohesive crossover will be like watching a retarded person try to fit a square peg into a hole. Yes, the word is WB wants to try some kind of Marvel-like plan. Except I've never heard of Marvel periodically scrapping everything from the start.

Problem is, the Marvel plan is a plan because they planned it. A similar plan with DC doesn't work because they didn't plan for it. Nolan follows whatever direction he wants with the Batman franchise. Singer tried to follow, repeat, and at the same time ignore the previous Superman franchise. This two where never planned to coexist and as such, a Justice League film is best as it's own continuity. And a separate continuity requires separate actors. We're all adults, I assume, I think we can diferentiate between fiction and reality, right?

Alas, the real problem with Justice League is that everyone wants to match their own selfish desires. This characters are alive in their own stories, and have their individual followings. Any Justice League would have to compromise for someone who hates Black Canary, or preffers Guy Gardner over Jon Steward, or who thinks Superman is way too powerful, to people who get indignant because America just HAS ti be in the title. It's inevitable. But for now, however, we are left with Justice for none.