James Gunn Should Make a Justice League International Movie
Even before he was announced as co-chair of DC Studios, The Suicide Squad director James Gunn reportedly had another feature film in the works based on a DC property. Fans still don't know what that project is, with some of the most popular choices being characters who have already had a swing at the bigtime, like Harley Quinn or Superman. But few DC properties are more suited to Gunn's sensibilities than the Justice League International. While it doesn't have the edge of a Secret Six or Deathstroke movie, giving Gunn a chance to bwa-ha-ha it up with Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and company feels like a natural way of getting a new Justice League movie into theaters, while the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery figure out their next steps.
After the original Justice League of America comic was cancelled, the series came back as simply Justice League in 1988, written by the acclaimed team of Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis. The series transitioned to Justice League International after its first arc ended, and created a radical new role for the superhero team -- one that would fit well into the context of DC's film universe.
In Justice League, an entrepreneur (Maxwell Lord, who served as the villain of Wonder Woman 1984) gathered a team of primarily B- and C-list heroes to become the Justice League International. The team was officially sanctioned by the United Nations, and served as a global peacekeeping force not unlike how The Avengers were later portrayed in the Marvel movies.
The title is most well-known for its sense of humor, creating something of a workplace comedy that no doubt inspired the Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning run on Guardians of the Galaxy that informs Gunn's big-screen take on the team. But what gets lost in all the discussions about Booster Gold and Blue Beetle's get-rich-quick schemes, is that Justice League International was a hit, and sold its humor, primarily by leaning into the quirks and personalities of the individual members of the League, creating a kind of twisted take on the superhero team dynamic that had never been seen before, but has become fairly standard in the decades since.
In its early days, the JLI counted Batman and Captain Marvel (Shazam) among its members, but they left fairly soon after the book launched. That said, if one of the various Batmen were to show up in a Gunn-directed Justice League International movie, maybe we could get one of the series' most famous moments -- his one-punch knockout of the relentlessly obnoxious Guy Gardner -- rendered in live action at last.
That character driven approach could be a real boon to the DC Universe on film. Aside from Superman and Shazam, audiences have seen shockingly little of what the DC heroes do when they're out of costume. Granted, the fact that Wonder Woman and Aquaman are royalty contributes to that, and their solo films did give us a pretty good sense of them as people. But introducing a handful of new characters with really specific quirks, and having them bounce off of a straight man like Martian Manhunter while also entertaining the hell out of Billy Batson? There's a ton of potential there. And it's exactly the kind of storytelling that Gunn excels at, as he has proven in a number of his scripts over the years, but most obviously in Guardians of the Galaxy.
It isn't just the comedy and the character that would make a Gunn-directed Justice League International a good play for Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav has said he wants to see the Justice League step up and reassert its greatness, hoping to build a franchise that can stand alongside Marvel's Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy team-ups. But while the main-line League is the Avengers and the Suicide Squad are the Guardians (speaking, obviously, in very loose terms here), the JLI is something that hasn't been done in a massive blockbuster yet.
There's also the fact that the DC Universe is showing no signs of discarding the framework put in place by Zack Snyder -- and Snyder very much engrained geopolitics into superhero fiction in a way that mainstream DC comics rarely have done. Presumably inspired by his love for Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, Snyder created a universe where Superman inspires as much paranoia as he does hope, and villains manipulate the U.S. Congress in orders to get at the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. Amanda Waller isn't just the head of the Suicide Squad; she is the de facto Nick Fury of these movies, with ties to The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker, Black Adam, and more. It makes total sense that in a world where superheroes and global politics are so inextricably linked, the United Nations or other humanitarian organizations would want to raise up a team that can present a challenge to a Superman or Black Adam gone rogue. Up to this point, the teams we have seen have either been vigilantes (the Justice league) or American operatives (Suicide Squad, Justice Society of America). Kandhaq now has Black Adam, which feels like a truly destabilizing influence in the region. That can't make the rest of the world feel great.
For years, Booster Gold has had a series of false starts getting him onto the big screen (or sometimes the small one), and he even managed to pop up for a few minutes in the series finale of DC's Legends of Tomorrow. What better forum to introduce a character like that, than in the book that defined him for a generation of fans?
What do you think? Do you want to see James Gunn tackle the Justice League International? Or is there something more in his wheelhouse you're hoping he does first? Sound off below, or hit up @russburlingame on Twitter to talk about all things Booster Gold!