The Best Justice League Movie Everyone Missed

4. How Gods And Monsters Came To Be

Justice League: Gods and Monsters isn't like any other DC film, and that's a good thing. According to Timm (via Screen Rant), the project span out from discussions with Sam Webster. Webster had apparently wanted a new Justice League cartoon, with the only stipulation being that it was "fresh and different."

Timm elaborates:

"So I started thinking, “OK, fresh and different. What can we do differently with Justice League?” [...] It made me start thinking about the Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern, when they brought them back from… they were completely different than their Golden Age versions of those characters. They basically kept the name and the gimmick and threw everything else out [...] I thought that would be really exciting to do that same level of reboot with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, who are the most untouchable characters of the DC universe."

Out of this rationale came entirely new versions of the DC Trinity. Superman (Benjamin Bratt) was reimagined as the son of Zod, and was raised by a Mexican family; Batman wasn't a wealthy socialite, but instead the scientist Kirk Langstrom (Michael C. Hall). Meanwhile, Wonder Woman (Tamara Taylor) became a New God from New Genesis - although to disclose the twist with that character would be to ruin one of the best sequences in the film itself.

With these new versions came brand-new redesigns, each bearing the hallmarks of Timm's indelible style. The Dark Knight, in this universe Kirk Langstrom, boasts a mad-scientist-esque twist on the classic Batsuit design, while Superman's coat and jacket denotes his father's military past. Best of all, though, is Wonder Woman, who ends up taking on the aesthetic of Jack Kirby's Fourth World but with the added bonus of Timm's cartoonish flair.

It imparts a unique and memorable version of DC's Trinity, and while Timm would go on to inspire three more DC films, Gods and Monsters is by far his most unique offering to date.