Justice League

The annoying thing is that they can't do the DCAU version of Brainiac since the origin is already covered heavily, and I've always considered him the best version.

But Brainiac is loads more interesting than Ultron, mainly because his "controlled environment" gimmick is way better than the loads of drones gimmick.

You could even have a really good way for it to tie into the rest of the ongoing storyline.

"Why did you invade earth Brainiac?" "Brainiac wishes to preserve all knowledge. Earth's destruction is imminent... predictions resulted in 0% possibility of survival...." "Survival of what? Of what Brainiac?" ".... Brainiac offline...."

edited 24th Feb '18 1:10:03 PM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

It be an easy retcon to have Brainiac responsible in some way for Krypton's destruction.

So yeah he'll be more liked then.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

It might not be too hard to put Brainiac’s DCAU backstory into the DCEU, but if you were going to do that it would definitely need to be in a Superman movie, not a Justice League one.

edited 24th Feb '18 1:17:46 PM by KnownUnknown

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Yeah, I think that's what we need. The next Justice League movie I think would logically be the next step on the road to Darksied, and Brainiac is the logical next Superman enemy, after Lex Luthor and Zod have already been used.

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Braniac always look like a heavy tier villian, at leeast his showing in Injustice show it as that.

Like I said, better to show it Metallo or cyborg superman to conect with him, that could improve it.

edited 24th Feb '18 1:18:52 PM by unknowing

"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"

The thing about DCAU stories is basically only DC fans have watched them and almost no one would really object to seeing them or versions of them on the big screen.

I maintain they should have just done the Arkham Asylum Assault for the Suicide Squad movie.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

The Supergirl TV series has been actively picking plots from the DCAU, so I don't think anybody would complain if the films did the same. The main problem is doing something different enough from the MCU, or simply better.

At this point, I wonder if something completely out of the blue would not be a good thing. As if, not trying to adapt a plot or villain who has already been the subject of countless adaptations (animated or live) to the point of being known even by non-comics fans, but finding something new or little-known. At least nobody could gripe on how they ruined a villain.

Otherwise, I'd really like to see the League against a villain team. At least this has not been done by the MCU so far.

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.

Tom Defalco once said, "People say, you can't do Doctor Doom fighting the Fantastic Four because they did that plot before but that was like 20 years ago. These are iconic plots and retelling them isn't a bad thing."

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Oh, I don't mind them retelling stuff, so long as it's good.

Hmm.... Cyborg Superman is a really good not-used often enough Superman villain... but they've already done the death of Superman and he's back without Reign of the Supermen, and Hank Henshaw already needs a lot of buildup (including needing Green Lantern or a substitute to be a thing optimally, or at least a significant city to knock down).

Like, I can't think of a way to do him with what they've done so far.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:04:42 PM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

I maintain they should have just done the Arkham Asylum Assault for the Suicide Squad movie.

Strongly disagree. That movie was decent, but it's overrated, frankly. Don't think it'd have worked as well in real movie format.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:06:17 PM by Theokal3

I disagree, I think Assualt on Arkham wasn't even decent. It was rubbish IMO. Just grimderp and ruined the charm of Deadshot by leaning too far into making him the cool, sympathetic one. Honestly I just got tired of him really quickly and by halfway in I was rooting for Captain Boomerang. The ending especially ticked me off.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:14:43 PM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

While it doesn't bother as much as it does you, I agree that in hindsight, again, the movie was overrated. The entire plot was based on several characters making absolutely nonsensical decisions, Deadshot was the only one who got truly fleshed out, many characters got wasted and got killed off because they could accomplish anything of value, and Arkham was a Cardboard Prison to such a level it became absurd even for Arkham (I mean seriously, who was the moron who put a mechanism to inject Bane his venom by pushing a button in the control room?!)

I still give credit to the movie though for having good humor, capturing the crazy rag-tag part, having good dynamics between King Shark and Killer Frost and the way it used Batman (namely not too much as the protagonist, but more as an dangerous thing to be avoided by Task Force X as much as possible). Also, good animation. Hence why I put it as "decent" rather than just a mess. But I still think it wouldn't do as a true Suicide Squad movie.

Curious though, what bothered you with the ending?

edited 24th Feb '18 2:20:43 PM by Theokal3

I like Waller (blame the DCAU, again), and I really didn't like this movie's Deadshot. So having the ending be "oh, the leader of this mega-agency has no countermeasures for snipers" kind of... irritated me. Deadshot was, as you say, a Spotlight-Stealing Squad through the entire movie even though for me he was easily the least interesting of the Squad^note they made the mistake of thinking that the best character to identify with is the resident Only Sane Man, but I don't watch films about teams of hardened criminals to identify with them, quite frankly, so to have a big cheer moment when the contract killer offs the (somewhat shady) government official didn't sit well for me.

I will agree with you that they were very sparing with Batman and it worked well for the film, and given the Batman obsession that DC very easily gives into that can't have been easy for them.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:28:42 PM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

Well, AOA had the benefit of:

• Killing characters outright to make sure we're aware it's a SUICIDE squad.
• Facing a reasonable (Joker) threat versus a demigoddess
• Properly incorporating Batman as an antagonist
• Making Arkham a pretty formidable fortress.

But that's just me.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:34:04 PM by CharlesPhipps

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

So having the ending be "oh, the leader of this mega-agency has no countermeasures for snipers" kind of... irritated me

.... You know, now that you mention it, yeah, you'd think it'd be the first thing she'd have measures against. So I guess I can add this to the "stupid things characters in this movie do" list.

1. Killing characters outright to make sure we're aware it's a SUICIDE squad.

So does the live-action movie; both El Diablo and Slipknot died. Granted, in the latter's case that was blatantly because he was there only to die, but the same thing can be said about KGBeast. And El Diablo's death was at least done at the culmination of a character arc; King Shark's death was sad, but Black Spider's was a complete waste and he didn't do anything of value.

2. Facing a reasonable (Joker) threat versus a demigoddess

True, but while I agree Enchantress was a poor choice as the villain, I don't think Joker would have been a good villain for a Suicide Squad movie either, for multiple reasons. A side villain maybe, but NOT the main villain. Especially not when we haven't ever seen him face Batman before.

3. Properly incorporating Batman as an antagonist

Already listed this as one of my positives. And Batman is best left out of a SUICIDE SQUAD movie, frankly, aside from cameos. Task Force X are supposed to be the protagonists, and they are enough of a disfunctional team by themselves to not need a hero involved as an antagonist.

4. Making Arkham a pretty formidable fortress.

... I'll let you re-read my remarks regarding the "efficiency" of Arkham above while I go laughing my ass off about this statement.

edited 24th Feb '18 2:51:50 PM by Theokal3

Eh, having the Batman as an antagonist is something new and exciting.

It also prevents us from sympathizing too much with the Suicide Squad.

Why are they bad guys?

Well, they're trying to kill Batman for starters.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Eh, having the Batman as an antagonist is something new and exciting.

True, which is why I put it as a positive. But in the context of a Suicide Squad movie, it just feels as another case of their bat-obsession, which we need a break from.

It also prevents us from sympathizing too much with the Suicide Squad.

I guess them being supervillains and murdering people isn't sufficient?

Why are they bad guys? Well, they're trying to kill Batman for starters.

Except they weren't; BATMAN was trying to arrest them. They spent most of the movie avoiding him at all cost and only fought him in self-defense most of the time because they were focused on doing what Amanda asked them to do. And should you make a Suicide Squad movie with Batman as an antagonist, it'd most likely still be the case.

edited 24th Feb '18 3:05:01 PM by Theokal3

Huh, this is an interesting comparison. Basically showing what's the trailer's footage and what was reshot or cut for the movie.

edited 24th Feb '18 11:20:55 PM by Tuckerscreator

Why? He hasn't even been robotic for at least 11 years, if not 30. And his personality and methods, if faithfully portrayed, couldn't be farther from MCU Ultron's (granted that's not hard to accomplish because MCU Ultron was indistinguishable from the average Joss Whedon villain). I think DCAU Brainiac was terrible, so I'm glad about this. Making him a Kryptonian AI was a mistake. Injustice Brainiac was great for what little time he had. If DCEU Brainiac has personality, goals, and character design similar to him I'm fully on-board.

edited 24th Feb '18 11:59:35 PM by NogaiKhan

Two questions:

1) What did you dislike about DCAU Brainiac exactly? Just curious.

2) I might be wrong since I didn't play Injustice 2, but wasn't Brainiac basically the same than in the DCAU in this version?

I prefer Kryptonian AI Brainiac personally. It works for simplicity.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

> Why? He hasn't even been robotic for at least 11 years, if not 30

I'm thinking of people who aren't familiar with the comics but have seen Ultron and immediately notice how they are both robots/AI that have multiple back up bodies and roll their eyes at the similarities

New theme music also a box

Brainiac was never robotic to start with but a Coluan. I'm one of those LONGG time comic book geeks.

However, Brainiac as a robot works better because it ties Superman and Brainiac together.

Simplicity=Better.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

It also makes their combat much more personal and tied up a plot hole (since it made Jor-El right without making every other Kryptonian look like a doofus).

However, I'd have no objection to Injustice!Brainiac either, especially if the reason he gives for targeting Earth is because he believes it is about to be destroyed soon (by Darksied).

I'd also have it end with a mostly destroyed (but not dead) Brainiac being taken by two mysterious strangers in green who complement Superman for his efforts. One laments how Brainiac might have been a force for order and control across the galaxy, while the other commends the spirit of Earth and remarks that he hopes his next visit will be a happier one.

edited 25th Feb '18 7:05:49 AM by Sigilbreaker26

"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"

With Darkseid looming, assuming he still is, you could also have Brainiac showing up to take Earth cities as an act of conservation.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.