Despite having no director, presumably just one actor and simply existing as a clump of muddled rumors that all involve some variation of the phrase, “You know, just like Marvel’s The Avengers”, Warner Bros. and DC Comics are still gung ho on getting a Justice League super-movie into theaters in 2015 to compete with Avengers 2. Last we checked in on the rumors, we were sweeping the idea that Joseph Gordon-Levitt may pick up the Batman torch in time to join the League under the rug, and focusing on Latino Review’s scoop that DC had selected Darkseid to be the villain.
We now also know that Will Beall is penning the JLA script, and that’s great news for anyone who was hesitant to see Justice League unless it was more like Castle. In fairness, Beall has a hot run ahead with Gangster Squad, Logan’s Run and Lethal Weapon 5, which is strange, because I swear that was already made.
Latino Review has another exclusive bombshell this week, as they claim to know that the storyline of this new superhero franchise will revolve around Justice League issues 183-185, and I am not going to describe them because I just assume that you have them committed to memory. Oh fine…
Released back in 1980, issues 183-185 were the annual team-up for the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America.
In a nutshell, plotwise, the three issue arc involves Darkseid planning the destruction of Earth by blasting it with a ray that’ll move Apokolips into the Earth’s place.
More specifically, according to the DC Wiki files, the plot for issue 183, “Crisis on New Genesis”, goes a little something like this…
On their way to their annual joint meeting, being held this year simultaneously on Earth-1 and Earth-2, several members of the Justice League and Justice Society are abducted via the Transmatter to New Genesis, home of the New Gods (as seen in New Gods, Forever People, and Mr. Miracle). The New Gods seek their aid after the re- maining populace of New Genesis has been kidnapped and enslaved by the minions of Apokolips, the evil world that is New Genesis’s counterpart, and they reveal that Apokolips’s new allies are the members of the Earth-2 Injustice Society. The heroes split up into teams, composed of one JLA member, one JSA member, and one “New God” each, and speed to various locales to undo the Apokolipsians’ evil, only to discover that their ultimate plan is the revival of their late leader, Darkseid.
I have to be honest, I’m still not over the crisis in old Genesis. Can’t Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins just get along? So what about No. 184, “Apokolips Now”?
In battle against the three Injustice Society villains, Firestorm defeats the Shade, while Power Girl and Orion vanquish the Icicle, but the Fiddler overcomes all three long enough to return Darkseid to life. Meanwhile, the other heroes have not been idle. Super-man, the Earth-2 Wonder Woman, and Big Barda en-counter the Underground Fighters, a group of children living beneath the fortress of Granny Goodness, the training-mistress of Darkseid’s elite troops. Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, and Oberon rescue Izaya (also called Highfather), the leader of the New Gods, from his Apokolips prison. Batman, Huntress, and Mr. Miracle invade Darkseid’s Imperial Palace, where they uncover his plot to transport Apokolips into the universe of Earth-2 to supplant and thus destroy the homeworld of the Justice Society heroes.
I know a Highfather. He calls me every year around this time to borrow a hundred bucks and ask if my mom’s still a bitch. All right, let’s wrap this up. What about No. 185, “Darkseid Rising”?
While Green Lantern, Dr. Fate, Oberon, and Izaya battle Darkseid’s Para-Demons, and Superman, Wonder Woman of Earth-2, and Big Barda help the young freedom fighters liberate the “students” of Granny Goodness, the Batman-Huntress-Mr. Miracle team rescues first the Firestorm-Power Girl-Orion group, and then the Injustice Society, whom Darkseid has imprisoned once he had no further use of them. The heroes and villains together then foment a revolution among the captive Nevv Genesisians, and Firestorm proves the deciding factor in the final battle between Darkseid and Orion, by turning the dark god’s “Omega Force” back upon him. It is Metron who truly comes to the rescue, though, by reprogramming the villain’s de-vices so that it is Darkseid, not Earth-2, which is the target. With the Apokolips leader apparently destroyed, the battle is over, and the JLA and JSA return to their respective worlds.
Again, I don’t know the first thing about Will Beall, other than he wrote some episodes of Castle and he’s got the hot writing hand right now, but I’m hoping he’s awarded a little wiggle room for creativity, because I don’t know what “Granny Goodness” is, but it sounds like porn that I do not want to watch. Just kidding, I do.