These Guys Should Have Been The Villains In The Justice League Movie!!

One of the big mistakes that super-hero movie franchises often make? They feel compelled to go for "the big bad" right away, trotting out the hero's biggest, baddest villain in the first flick.

It's almost as if they're afraid that they won't get to make any more movies, so they've got to use this villain right away, or never get the chance. But honestly, it often overstuffs a film, already crowded with an origin story. And it often makes little dramatic sense, as the rookie hero probably shouldn't be able to handle "the greatest threat ever" the first time the put on the costume. Plus, it leaves the "where do we go now?" problem for subsequent films.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Fox, having to bring in Doctor Doom in the first FF movies of each iteration. Yes, I'm looking at the Daredevil movie, which tried to give us DD's origin AND Kingpin AND Bullseye AND Elektra, squishing 30-odd issues into an hour and a half, because they wanted to do everything cool right away.

So, when the forthcoming Justice League movie runs straight for the massive alien invasion/Darkseid bit, well, you know I'm trepidatious. I mean, the actual Justice League started off fighting a giant starfish...so what's the rush for Apokolips?

Especially when we could start the JL out with training wheels, because they could barely take these guys:

Yes. the whitest gang in America, who would grow up to become:

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and mock. But these average Joes dressed for Halloween used playing cards soaked with "stellaration" to bring the entire to their knees--TWICE--in their first appearance.

Yes, Superman was brought down by a pudgy guy in a body stocking.

See, when you start out with the JL taking on Darkseid, who's going to believe that the Royal Flush Gang could give them a hard time? You ease into the big bads, guys. It leaves your team room to grow!

SPOILER ALERT: Snapper Carr saved them all. Because Silver Age. I guarantee you won't see that in the damn movie.

From Justice League Of America #43 (1966)