Five Potential Villains For The ‘Justice League’ Movie

Posted Saturday, June 9th, 2012 08:00 pm GMT -4 by Scott West0

It’s official. Warner Brother and DC Comics are FINALLY moving ahead with their much-anticipated ‘Justice League’ movie. And, while I won’t be holding my breath for it to be made any time soon, I will start speculating on who should be the big bad for the film. The list below consists of my personal choices but I will give you some reasoning behind my selections. Then, afterwards you can comment and let me know where I chose well (or, more likely, how I made some awful picks). Here are my top five picks, in order, for best villain choices for the ‘Justice League’ movie…

5. The Crime Syndicate of America

Do you remember the evil goateed Spock in the ‘Star Trek’ mirror universe episodes? The Crime Syndicate are pretty much that same idea, but with the Justice League. They come from an alternate earth where, instead of being heroes, the CS are domineering overlords over all of their Earth. Consisting of Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick, and Power Ring, they would match up accordingly with the big five of the Justice League (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern).

4. The Injustice League

The Injustice League are the comic book version of the Legion of Doom from the old ‘Superfriends’ television series. Basically all (and I mean ALL) of the bad guys got together and formed their own alliance against the Justice League. This could be an epic film if done correctly, but I fear that it’d crush itself under the weight of too many villains as so many comic book movies have done before. The only way this would work is if DC does what Marvel did and give each member of the Justice League their own stand alone film before culminating in the ‘Justice League’ movie. That way, the solo films could be used to flesh out the villains before teaming them up as the Injustice League.

3. Despero

Over the years, the ‘Justice League’ comics have seen potential world conquerers come and go. In those early issues, it seems like every other issue had some kind of alien invader trying to conquer the Earth. There were, of course, some standouts like the iconic Starro from the Justice League’s first appearance in ‘Brave and the Bold’ #28. But none were as interesting, or have had as much staying power, as Despero. Despero is the tyrannical ruler of the planet Kalanor. In his first few outings, he was depicted as a thin calculating three-eyed alien who planned his attacks over a chess board. Since then, he’s undergone a change (due to a mystical artifact called the Flame of Py’tar) that has made him even more of a formidable physical challenge. Add on top of his strength that Despero’s third eye allows him great psychic strength, even so powerful as to control the minds of the Justice League’s telepath, the Martian Manhunter, and you’ve got a force to be reckoned with!

2. Amazo

So we’ve talked about Starro and Despero and now we’ve got another villain with the ‘o’… Amazo. Amazo is an android, created by the mad scientist Dr. Ivo, that has the ability to mimic the super powers of whoever he comes in contact with. That means he’s potentially as strong as Superman, as fast as the Flash, and as intelligent and skilled as Batman. Using someone like the Crime Syndicate (above) may be pushing too many villains into the film. Amazo gets around that by having all of the Justice League’s abilities wrapped up in one big ball of destruction! Of course, Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ showed us that sometimes invading armies are much more frightening than a single powerful enemy, and thus we have…

1. Darkseid

Anyone who’s read DC Comics at all had to have known who would be at the top of this list. Created by the legendary Jack “The King” Kirby as a villain for the ‘New Gods’, Darkseid is the ruler of the hellish world of Apokolips. He has an army of minions and soldiers called Parademons. He’s had run ins with the Justice League on many occasions over the years. He even managed to earn himself a spot on my list of the ‘Top 10 Comic Book Villains of All Time’. Most recently, Darkseid was seen in the first story arc of the New 52 ‘Justice League’ title so we know DC likes this guy and he can definitely hold his own against the League.

So what did you think? Good choices? Who would you have added or eliminated? Would you switch the numbering around? Sound off below and let me know what you think!

Danimal

I’ll go with Darkseid AND his Minions. Oh WAIT! Kinda sounds like “The Avengers” movie doesn’t it?
- http://www.sciencefiction.com/ Scott
  
  Maybe… but I’m sure Darkseid wouldn’t go down as easily as Loki did.
http://twitter.com/AndrewCalling Andrew Filipe

I want Darkseid, but another great villain would be Vandal Savage.
- http://www.sciencefiction.com/ Scott
  
  Savage crossed my mind but I see him more as a mastermind type… maybe the mind behind the formation of the Injustice League? You wouldn’t want him dealing with intergalactic minions (or weapons a la Intergang) in the first movie only to build up to Darkseid. That’d be far too similar what ‘The Avengers’ is doing.
Dave

I will also go with Darkseid for the main villain of the Justice League Movie!!

But I also agree with Scott that before they bring out the film they should do standalone films of the other leaguers like Wonder Women and my personal favourite Martian Manhunter.

And possibly bring in different villains so if the Justice League film is a hit they could possibly bring in the Injustice League for a possible second movie!!
Mattz1990

you need to put THE WHITE MARTIANS in the first JUSTICE LEAGUE MOVIE cause you need to show MARTIAN MANHUNTER”S origins
- http://www.sciencefiction.com/ Scott
  
  As much as I’d LOVE to see it, I don’t think Warner Bros will ever put Martian Manhunter into the Justice League movie. He’s not as well known to the general public as the rest of the team. I mean look… they even took him out of the League for the New 52.
  - JasonMBowles
    
    Plus, as Disney suspected, audiences don’t like anything involving Mars.
JasonMBowles

Marvel just did it perfectly, by giving solo movies to the major Avengers then doing the team movie. If DC does that now, it’ll look like they’re copying Marvel. In a perfect world, I’d have Superman introduce Lex Luthor, reboot Batman as something a bit closer to the comics (new Joker), do The Flash (Reverse Flash), Wonder Woman (Cheetah) and Aquaman (Black Manta) and finally reboot Green Lantern (Sinestro) then do the JLA movie with the Injustice League with all of those villains. Huh, I just realized if they really wanted to rip off Avengers, they’d introduce Black Canary and Green Arrow in the JLA movie a la Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Jack

In a perfect world I would have DC make a Green Lantern 2 and release it after Man of Steel, making a real effort to make it better than the first. It should have Sinestro as the villain as introduced at the end of number 1. They should then make a Wonder Woman movie in the vein of Man of Steel, give Wondy a realistic costume and have Circe as the villain- a more fitting choice than Cheetah IMO. After that they could make a JL movie, featuring a similar but rebooted Batman, Supes, Wondy, GL, Flash and Aquaman. They could string it out into a trilogy- Despero as the first villain, then the Injustice League, then Darkseid. I reckon if they could relate the first 2 back to Darkseid somehow and have the 3rd movie as the big climax then it would be pretty epic. Also by having Darkseid in the 3rd movie you can kind of avoid the idea of DC ripping off Avengers
David

I’d love to see Darkseid as well. I really want them to do this movie right. What I wish they would do is have reboot movies for Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and probably Wonder Woman and also run a series on TV (JLA:Origins or something like that) to feature some of the lesser known heroes (Martian Manhunter, Firestorm, etc.) or ones whose movies might not do as well at the box office (Aquaman, Hawkman, etc.) in order to build up interest and awareness for all the characters who could potentially be in the Justice League movie.
http://www.facebook.com/tovonne.lucas Tovonne Lucas

I want The Crime Syndicate of America in the Justice League movie and Darkseid.