Justice League Film: 9 Things That Must Be Included

By Stuart W. Bedford /

5. Superman€™s Near Defeat

When you tell a comic book ensemble story like the Avengers or of course the upcoming Justice League movie, you€™ve got a choice to make. Who wins the day? It might have been tempting for Joss Whedon to say €œHulk or Thor clearly possesses the greatest intrinsic power, so either one of them stops the Chitauri invasion€. But instead, Whedon chose to take the human character, Iron Man, the only guy who hasn€™t technically been physiologically altered or otherwise imbued with god-like power, and have him effectively end the movie. The same temptation might be there in the Justice League movie, to say €œHey, Superman is clearly the guy to save the day. Who€™s more powerful than Superman?€ My argument is this: Superman should not save the day; in fact, he should be somehow incapacitated in the final conflict, leaving the technically weaker members of the League to address the crisis without their supposed MVP. In a final twist, suddenly Superman€™s power would be taken out of the game, and although I€™d happily see him come back from the brink to strike the final blow, I argue it€™d be a more satisfying experience on the whole if the rest of the League, directed by Batman of course, had to act without him.