Where there’s a Justice League, there is also an Injustice League. The description of the team is in the name. They are literally a broken mirrored version of the Justice League. One day, the supervillains of the DC universe realized they would stand a better chance fighting the enemies, so they decided to band together and form a league of their own. The team has changed its members throughout the years, but the idea always remained the same. For each particular member of the Justice League, there was a particular villain of theirs who was a member of the Injustice League. Where the Justice League had Superman, the Injustice League had Bizarro. Where the Justice League had Aquaman, the Injustice League had Black Manta. That’s just a drip in the water of how much this supervillain team mirrored their heroic counterparts.
I want to take a minute and think about how cool it would be if we got an Injustice League movie. I’m not just talking about having the Justice League fight them in a JL sequel either. No, I’m talking about going more ambitious and having an actual movie that revolves around the Injustice League.
How would that even work? I mean, it’s a movie about a team of supervillains. Having them as the protagonists of their own movie and fighting the actual heroes wouldn’t make for an ideal superhero movie. Heck, that’s probably why that Sinister Six movie Sony planned just wasn’t meant to be. I mean, honestly, who were they supposed to fight, Gwen Stacy with the Carnage symbiote? No joke, that was actually an idea Sony had in mind at one point. Suddenly, I’m not too sad that the Amazing Spider-Man 3 didn’t happen.
Anyhow, that won’t be the case for a Injustice League movie. The answer: don’t have them fight the Justice League. In fact, the Justice League doesn’t even have to be in the movie, at least that much. If that sounds odd, just take a look at how the DC villains have grown throughout the years.
First of all, yes, I do want this movie to be set in the DC Cinematic Universe. And yes, the Injustice League was already set up in the first post-credits scene of Justice League. It made sense how they did it, considering they already had Lex Luthor and briefly introduced Deathstroke in that scene. Lex Luthor is Superman’s enemy, while Deathstroke is Batman’s. When Lex attempted to recruit Deathstroke, his pitch was pretty much selling him on the idea of having a league of their own, aka the Injustice League.
When I heard that, I got so pumped for a Justice League sequel where they took on a team of their arch-enemies. Sadly, considering that Justice League failed at the box office, it looks like that sequel might never happen. However, I’m willing to bet that the DCEU will find a way to introduce the villainous team at some point. They like to be ambitious, so I propose a rather ambitious plan that would really separate them from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Think about what the MCU has done already. They’ve done the ambitious and set up the first assembled superhero team with the Avengers, then seriously upped the ante by giving us Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Does it really get more ambitious than that? If you’re a comic book nut, you know the answer is no. When it comes to comics, things can always go bigger and crazier.
For the sake of the DCEU, they can emphasize on the crazy. If they won’t give us a Justice League sequel, then they can give us an Injustice League movie. You know what? They can even call it Injustice: Forever Evil. If you love reading DC comics, you understand that reference.
When I want an Injustice League movie, I’m talking about adapting one of the most underrated DC storylines ever. The 2014 storyline, Forever Evil, took the main heroes of the DC Universe out of the picture and made you root for the bad guys. How, you ask? Well, the Justice League were infiltrated and imprisoned by their villainous counterparts, the Crime Syndicate. If you really want to see a twisted mirror version of the Justice League, just look at the Crime Syndicate. With Earth’s greatest heroes out of the way, the Crime Syndicate were free to take full control.
So with the Justice League out of the way, who was going to stop the Crime Syndicate? The only people who were willing to stand against them were the villains of the DC Universe. Well, at least a handful of them, and who better to lead them than Lex Luthor? Don’t worry, he wasn’t alone. Lex had some of his fellow DC villains join his league to combat the Crime Syndicate. This included Catwoman, Bizarro (who he created), Captain Cold, Black Adam, Sinestro, Black Manta, and Deathstroke. As villains united, they swallowed their disdain for each other and decided to fight the more evil villains.
Forever Evil was an awesome read and I believe this could be the story best used for an Injustice movie. Think about how different it would be from all the other superhero movies. Has Marvel ever done a movie where their villains got together to fight bigger villains? Their answer to the Injustice League would be a Thunderbolts movie, but I honestly think that would better suited for a show. An Injustice League movie where the bad guys have a movie of their own would be a much different move than what we’re used to seeing. If it’s something we haven’t seen before, that makes it interesting. The DC Universe has fewer super teams than Marvel, so the Injustice League could really level playing field.
The coolest thing about Forever Evil was that it gave all the villains different reasons for joining the team. Villains like Black Manta joined simply for revenge because he thought they killed Aquaman. Other villains like Captain Cold genuinely hated the Crime Syndicate and wanted them gone. And Deathstroke, ever the mercenary, realized that they would eradicate his game, so he wanted to stop that from happening. All of this character development for the villains made them all the more compelling.
The villain roster in the DCEU is small right now, but an Injustice League movie can really expand the ranks. If DC really wants to be more ambitious and do something different, this could be a good move.
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