Memories of the horribly misjudged Man of Steel and the often ludicrous Dawn of Justice in the selfsame cinema had forged those low expectations- and in many ways they were met.
From Cavill's humourless, hairy Super-Macho, refugee from the homoerotic 300, with his ridiculous giant cape and irritating haircut to mopey Bat-Chin and his silly Bat-growl. From the bedraggled, dowdy Martha Kent and Lois Lane, helpless without their big man to hug to the preposterous Jae Lee/Savage Sub-Mariner version of Aquaman.
From Cyborg, the most boring Titan ( even Jericho was more interesting. Jericho.) still being foisted on us because Geoff Johns loves 80s Super Powers: Galactic Guardians to the cluttered mash-up mythos of Olympus, the Green Lantern Corps and Kirby's Fourth World. From the macabre resurrection of Superman, a death that hadn't had the impact on the audience, IMO, that it did on the characters to generic, place-holder villain Steppenwolf, who actually looked more like Kingdom Come's Gog.
To be fair, there were bright spots: Ezra Miler's engaging Big Bang Theory- geek version of the Flash; Wonder Woman, the film's emotional core, surpassing the essential kinkiness that distances me from the character; the waspish Alfred, played by Jeremy Irons, joining the fine company of Messrs Caine and Pertwee,
Ultimately, however, this felt old-fashioned, like a film from the 2000s: an X-Men Last Stand, for instance. It paled in comparison to the inventive and comical buddy flick Thor:Ragnarok. Future DC movie projects will require better CGI and definitely more humour. Are DC characters inherently more stodgy, prone to symbolism and po-face piety about hope? It's all highly ironic, given the realities of the DiDio/Johns/Lee comics world of "fridging", rape, genocide and cutting off faces.
When we realise that without the Fox/Sekowsky JLA of the Sixties, Stan and Jack wouldn't have created the FF and the subsequent Marvel Universe, we have to ask how successful the property has been in the first place. I would contend that it's not often a good read, in most of its incarnations. My personal highlights would be that first couple of years, culminating in the JSA revival.Then, almost a decade later, the elegant nostalgia for that very era, crafted by the late Len Wein and Dick Dillin. At the end of the Seventies, the soap opera of the seminal Englehart run. The Perez issues pre-Titans. The controversial, iconoclastic JLDetroit. The dramedy years of Justice League International. Finally, the dark cosmic jive of Grant Morrison.
In the wake of the Glasgow mage, there have been other creative teams that sparked my interest: Meltzer's modern Super Friends; MacDuffie's diversity League; the legacy League of James Robinson; and Lemire's Canadian spin-off. But none have lasted the course or achieved their potential.
Why doesn't the Justice League really work in comics? Any successful iteration inevitably generates spin-offs that dilute the brand. Editorial interference and cross-over events derail storylines or render characters inactive or ineffective. "Continuity" with a wider universe just didn't matter until the late 70s, when the Marvelisation of DC began and caught fire in the 80s, climaxing in the Crisis. That's not going to go away; only "all-ages" versions of the JLA have eschewed continuity for "done in one". But outside the charming Hanna-Barbera titles, DC doesn't appear to produce "all-ages" titles these days.
So, taking these problems on board, the way to make a JLA title work might be to make it an anthology, with story arcs that could be collected. This would give creators the opportunity to tell stories in the animated Justice League Unlimited format.
The roster of members would be whomever, whenever required, much as John Byrne did with the Avengers at the very end of the Eighties. Just imagine.
Coming soon: Ben, Polly and the Doctors.
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