As far as the concept of “The Super Team” goes, Justice League has always ranked higher than The Avengers in my book. The team members’ powers are all pretty much off the scale. Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Batman. The only fella’ on that roster that doesn’t have epic powers is Batman, but an epic mind is enough to stop a global threat any day.

Whereas Thor and the Hulk make up a majority of the massive power in the Avengers, every single one of those heroes, except the Dark Knight, constitutes that same massive power. So it’d be easy for the film to get carried away in wanting to focus on effects, action, and spectacle and end up skimping on character, story, and themes. As we’ve seen by comparing team-up hero films like the successful Avengers to the not so successful Fantastic Four (financial success doesn’t equal story success here) it’s clear that likable characters and a coherent story with a decent message makes all the difference. If the Justice League ends up being just a melting pot of CGI, loud sound design, and super powers, then the hem of that Lord’s robes does not the awesome movie make.

There’s things we want (or need!) to see that will be responsible for allowing the Justice League movie to rank right up there with The Avengers or, God willing, surpass it. The Justice Lague is THE super team. Do it right and you could end the world with awesomeness, do it wrong and a black hole of sadness will open up in the hearts and minds of men, women, and children and the Super Hero flick, dare I say, shall crash and burn for all eternity and DC can kiss its dreams of box office success goodbye.

Suit up Leaguers! Here’s the top ten.

10. The Gang’s Already Together

Let’s face it, DC is going to launch the Justice League film before they can launch each hero’s individual story. Where some see this as dangerous, I actually foresee it as a potential blessing. Some characters may not deserve their own stand alone film. If one were made, and it were a dud, it could hurt the League’s chances of getting a decent film. At this point in time, I’m not sure how a Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, or Aquaman film would work on their own. I think having their big screen premiere as part of the team could sell much like Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. He’s a supporting character until you can really nail down how to do him right.

If the film starts with the League being already, more or less, formed then we don’t need to waste time with long winded, complicated introductions. We won’t know a lot of these characters independently like we did with the Avengers, so their personalities will have to come out in their team dynamic. Considering this is where Batman gets his reboot, Warner Brothers will be allowed to lower his reality bar just slightly, enough to compensate for characters who exist outside Nolan’s “real” realm. That would be, let’s see, every other character in the League except for Batman.

Why not treat the film as we treat our comic books? Most of the time we just assume these characters know each other. Why? Because they just do. Considering we’re re-starting the cinematic DC Universe, if the characters are already aware of who’s guarding Central City, Coast City, Gotham City, Metropolis, etc. it means we don’t have to spend 45 minutes having all the characters saying, “Who are you? How can you run so fast? Nice ring. I like your tights.” We just don’t care about all that. What we care about is the heroes being aware of who the others are because news travels fast and it’s just common knowledge that each of them operates in their own city/state. So when a global threat faces mankind, it’s expected that these heroes will have each other on speed dial. It’s okay to begin this film, in a way, as if it’s already a sequel, to borrow a page from the animated series; they already know one another, they have a rapport, and they’re ready to work together.

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