The post Zack Snyder’s Justice League trilogy would have ended with Superman’s son becoming Batman appeared first on Game News.
]]>Speaking to Vanity Fair (opens in new tab), Snyder revealed that one of the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments in Zack Snyder’s Justice League – Lois Lane’s pregnancy test – was leading somewhere.
“It was going to be Lois and Superman’s son,” Snyder said of what would have been a Justice League 3 reveal. “He doesn’t have any powers, and then he was going to end up being the new Batman.”
Then, a time jump: “Twenty years later, on the anniversary of [Batman’s] death, they take young Bruce Kent down to the Batcave and they say, ‘Your Uncle Bruce would’ve been proud if you did this.”
Yes, Batman dies in Snyder’s grand plan. The Justice League trilogy would have included a Darkseid invasion in Justice League 2, the Justice League fighting back, and Bats making the ultimate sacrifice.
Snyder explains that Batman would have died saving Lois Lane – a callback to Flash’s travels back through time, warning Bruce in Batman v Superman that “Lois is the key.” Superman, happily, would then not have fallen to Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation in the sequel and the ‘Knightmare’ timeline would have been overwritten by one where young Bruce Kent wears the cowl.
It’s a story that may never come to pass – but it gives fans something to cling to in the faint hopes that the Snyder Cut movement gets a redux.
Finished Zack Snyder’s Justice League? Here are all the main guides and breakdowns surrounding the smash DCEU hit.
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- The best HBO Max prices
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]]>The post Who is Martian Manhunter and what are his powers? appeared first on Game News.
]]>Lennix portrayed Secretary of Defense Calvin Swanwick in Snyder’s Man of Steel – a character who will reportedly be revealed as the human identity of the Martian Manhunter in Snyder’s DC film continuity.
For many fans, the Martian Manhunter isn’t the same level of household name as his Justice League contemporaries Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, or even Aquaman. But Martian Manhunter has been with the team since its founding and predates even Barry Allen in the DC Universe as one of the first superheroes of the Silver Age.
Despite his relatively low pop-culture profile, Martian Manhunter/J’onn J’onzz has had a massive impact on the legacy of the Justice League, and the DC Universe overall. We’ll break down everything you need to know about Martian Manhunter’s history and powers right now.
Who is Martian Manhunter and what are his powers?
Martian Manhunter’s history can be separated into two distinct eras – pre-Crisis and post-Crisis. (For those unfamiliar with the terms, pre- and post-Crisis refer to stories that took place before or after the DC 1985-86 reboot storyline ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths (opens in new tab)‘).
In the pre-Crisis era, Martian Manhunter made his debut in a back-up story in 1955’s Detective Comics #225 (opens in new tab), created by writer Joseph Samachson and artist Joe Certa. As established in that tale, Martian Manhunter is actually J’onn J’onzz, a Martian who was summoned to Earth by a scientist named Dr. Erdel who had invented a machine to contact Mars.
Startled by J’onzz’s appearance, Erdel died and was unable to use his machine to send him back, leaving the Martian to remain on Earth. He took up the human identity of ‘John Jones’ (a fairly self-explanatory pseudonym), a detective in the fictional Middleton, USA, moonlighting as the superheroic Martian Manhunter.
As a Martian, J’onn J’onzz’s powers are both vast and ill-defined. Throughout the Silver Age, Martian Manhunter regularly underwent Superman-esque power increases, seemingly adding abilities to his starting powerset of super-strength, flight, and shapeshifting almost at random. Even in the modern era, Martian Manhunter has a regular habit of discovering, developing, or otherwise revealing new and secret ways to use his powers as his stories have dictated.
To simplify things somewhat, J’onn’s powers boil down to absolute mastery of mind over matter. He can shapeshift into the forms of other people (kinda like a Skrull from the Marvel comic book and cinematic universes), he has super-strength, flight, and he can make himself intangible, and of course he has a vast array of psychic powers revolving around telekinesis and telepathy.
He also has a traditional weakness to fire, which has had different effects on him over the years, usually having to do with breaking down his ability to hold his malleable shapeshifting form.
More than anything, Martian Manhunter’s place in the DC Universe has been defined, as you may guess, by his Martian ancestry.
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In the Silver Age of comic books (roughly defined as 1956 to 1970) , J’onn J’onzz was taken away from a thriving society on Mars, where he was a respected citizen with a family and a life all his own, all of which were still theoretically awaiting him on Mars, should he ever find a way home. In fact, after a few years with the Justice League, of which he was a co-founder (we’ll get into it), he actually did return to Mars to become the planet’s leader, resulting in a long period of absence from the DC Universe outside a handful of cameos, usually alongside the Justice League.
Martian Manhunter returned in earnest to the Justice League in the early ’80s, though his history was quickly redefined, as were many characters’ stories, by the DC reboot ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ (here’s where that whole ‘post-Crisis’ thing comes in).
Following ‘Crisis,’ J’onn J’onzz once again became a core member of the publisher’s new incarnation of the Justice League, serving as something of a senior member alongside Batman and a bevy of new recruits (some of whom had different histories with the League prior to the reboot). He also received his own Martian Manhunter limited series from writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Mark Badger which totally redefined key aspects of his history, and shed more light on his interior life.
A few aspects of J’onn’s original history hold over into the modern age, including his summoning to Earth by Dr. Erdel, his secret identity of John Jones, and some of his powers, but by and large, his history was rewritten post-Crisis.
No longer a refugee from a still-thriving Martian society, Dr. Erdel’s machine had transported J’onn J’onzz not just through space, but through time – with Martian society now collapsed, and J’onn’s family and friends all lost to the ages. However, in this version of the story, Erdel survived their meeting, becoming a human confidant for J’onn in his early years on Earth.
Additionally, J’onn’s appearance was slightly redefined. Rather than simply having a human-like Martian appearance with green skin and odd features, it was explained that J’onn’s superheroic Martian Manhunter form is only one of several regular forms in his shapeshifting repertoire, with his true form actually a much more alien Martian appearance, which has since become more visible in some of Martian Manhunter’s regular looks.
It’s this version of Martian Manhunter that seems to inspire the version coming to Justice League: The Snyder Cut, with movie-style art from DC publisher Jim Lee showing a more alien look for the big screen J’onn J’onzz.
How does Martian Manhunter fit into the DC Universe?
Over the years, Martian Manhunter has only rarely had his own starring title. From 1954 through the early ’60s, he appeared in back-up stories in Detective Comics, till his feature briefly moved to the title House of Mystery before being canceled altogether.
Though he also had a few limited and ongoing series over the years (usually short-lived), Martian Manhunter’s prominence in the DC Universe came primarily through his membership in the Justice League.
As we said, Martian Manhunter was one of the founding members of the Justice League in 1960’s Brave and the Bold #28 (opens in new tab), written by Gardner Fox, who came up with the idea of putting some of DC’s top heroes together as the Justice League, a modern update of the publisher’s Golden Age team the Justice Society of America.
Originally consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter (still considered by many to be the ‘Big Seven’ Justice League members), Superman and Batman quickly became relegated to reserve members of sorts, showing up sparingly alongside the League as DC became skittish that putting their two biggest selling characters in a team book might tank their solo titles.
This absence paved the way for secondary heroes such as Green Arrow, the Atom, and Hawkman to be added to the team, becoming core characters in the title – and for Martian Manhunter to regularly step up as the Justice League’s powerhouse in Superman’s absence.
When DC realized that rather than taking away from Batman and Superman’s solo sales, their appearances were actually just boosting Justice League’s numbers, they were slotted back in as regular members, leaving J’onn J’onnz to take a backseat and eventually to his return to Mars, where he remained for almost 20 years, appearing only sporadically in the meantime.
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Following a long absence as a regular DC character, Martian Manhunter reappeared in the early ’80s joining the Justice League’s legendary ‘Satellite League,’ positioned on a satellite headquarters orbiting the Earth, before the team moved into a new era with the so-called ‘Detroit League’ which radically altered the team’s line-up and moved its headquarters to, as the name implies, Detroit, Michigan.
Then ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ happened, and the League was pushed back to prominence – with Martian Manhunter and Batman as senior members. Alongside the new story elements we mentioned being added to his origin, this era also added to J’onn’s relationship with the League, making him the heart and soul of the team (and its primary source for Oreos, which J’onn became obsessed with after being offered some by then-teammate SHAZAM!).
In the late ’90s, writer Grant Morrison and artist Howard Porter once again revitalized the Justice League, focusing on the ‘Big Seven’ line-up of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter (though as usual the line-up eventually expanded).
For the new Justice League’s first big story JLA: New World Order (opens in new tab), Morrison and Porter drew on Martian Manhunter’s history to create a new, deadly threat for the League – a team of white Martians known as the Hyperclan who arrived on Earth as counterfeit heroes, before revealing their plan to conquer Earth as a new home.
In addition to setting up the new League’s capabilities and launching their new title with a blockbuster story, the Hyperclan revamped a long-dormant aspect of Martian Manhunter’s history.
Introduced in 1967’s Justice League of America #71 (opens in new tab) with the villainous Martian conqueror General Blanx, the White Martians were originally tyrants trying to take over Mars. The ’90s version re-established White Martians as Martian separatists who believed in their own superiority, unlike other Martians whose shapeshifting nature meant they had no concept of discrimination based on appearance.
Even since the days of General Blanx, the White Martians have been depicted as conquerors, seeking a new homeworld or trying to take over Mars (when it had a society, back in the Silver Age).
2011’s ‘New 52’ reboot removed Martian Manhunter as one of the in-continuity founders of the Justice League, with the team’s seventh founder slot now taken by Cyborg, with a whole new origin for the team. Over the years, as the ‘New 52’ incorporated more and more aspects of previous DC continuity, it was revealed this version of the Martian Manhunter had a secret history with the League – though it was often adversarial.
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When DC restored most of its continuity with 2016’s ‘Rebirth,’ Martian Manhunter was brought back to prominence, with a 12-issue limited series titled Martian Manhunter: Identity (opens in new tab). This redefined Martian Manhunter’s origins once again.
Now, J’onn J’onzz was a corrupt cop on Mars, who lost his family to a psychic plague that eventually wiped out every other Martian, with J’onn being spared when Dr. Erdel’s experiment brings him to Earth. Dr. Erdel dies, and J’onn hides on Earth in Midleton, Colorado (spelled with only one ‘L’ in the series) until a tragic accident leads to him taking the form of police officer John Jones. With a new human form and identity, Martian Manhunter takes the opportunity to rectify his corrupt law enforcement legacy by inhabiting Jones’s life and career.
While it’s not exactly clear which aspects of J’onn’s history have been incorporated into his core DC Universe narrative, some other parts of his past have now returned definitively to the DCU.
The Hyperclan recently returned as part of DC’s 2021 Future State event, which showed flash-forward looks at possible futures for DC’s heroes. In Future State: Justice League (opens in new tab), the Hyperclan uses their shapeshifting powers to try and replace the Justice League of the era, consisting of the children and successors of the classic League.
DC Future State has led to a new DC Universe comic book status quo in which each character’s history can be drawn on fully, allowing writers to pull from any era of DC continuity for their stories, with less emphasis placed on how each event in a given character’s past fits into a specific timeline.
Essentially, this means even though the core DC Universe Batman (for example) has only been around for 10-15 years in continuity terms, future stories could reference the events of any story in his 80+ year history without necessarily having to figure out where it fits in the timeline of his career. The same holds true for all DC’s other heroes, including Martian Manhunter.
While this presents slight issues for some characters’ continuity (which DC has explained as a necessary evil of its attempt to open the doors to past, previously defunct stories), it also leaves some question of how J’onn J’onzz will fit into the “new” history of the DC Universe, which includes some contradictory story beats for his past.
Will Martian Manhunter be restored as a founding member of the Justice League? Will his most recent origin, which incorporates many bits of previous versions of his backstory, carry over as the now definitive version? Time will tell.
Martian Manhunter outside of comic books
Martian Manhunter isn’t exactly a totally obscure, unknown character.
Starting in the ’80s when he returned to the Justice League, Martian Manhunter was included in most of DC’s merchandising as one of its most colorful characters. Fans of a certain age will recall Martian Manhunter as one of the characters in the first wave of Hasbro’s vaunted Super Powers toyline, which constituted the first exposure to DC comics for many young fans thanks to the mini-comics included with each figure.
And of course, an entirely different generation of fans knows J’onn J’onzz (if not his rarely used by the show codename Martian Manhunter) from the Justice League (opens in new tab) and Justice League Unlimited (opens in new tab) animated series, where he was the League’s de facto strategist and sometimes leader, voiced memorably by Carl Lumbly.
He also had a role on the long-running Superman prequel show Smallville (opens in new tab), played by Phil Morris as an old friend of Superman’s deceased father Jor-El.
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Nowadays, fans of CW’s Arrowverse will likely know Martian Manhunter best from his role in Supergirl (opens in new tab), where he’s played by David Harewood. Interestingly, in Supergirl, J’onzz’s human identity is Hank Henshaw, an ally of Supergirl in the Department of Extranormal Operations. In comic books, Hank Henshaw is the human identity of a totally different character, the villainous Cyborg Superman.
Now, in Justice League: The Snyder Cut, he’ll reportedly come to the big screen courtesy of actor Henry Lennix, who portrayed the character Calvin Swanwick in Man of Steel. Snyder later confirmed that Swanwick was to eventually be revealed as the Martian Manhunter.
Earlier this year, Lennix confirmed his role as Martian Manhunter in Snyder’s re-shot film, saying it amounted mostly to a cameo.
“I don’t know what’s going to be left on the floor, if any, but I didn’t shoot an inordinate amount,” Lennix told Variety (opens in new tab) back in February. “My work is not central, as it were, to the movie. It may be to a plot point. But I don’t think you’ll start talking about that character more than, say, Superman.”
Despite this, for many long-time Justice League fans, Martian Manhunter’s reported inclusion in a film presented as Zack Snyder’s definitive vision of the Justice League may be an essential nod to the character’s storied history with DC’s greatest superhero team.
Martian Manhunter has been a key character in some of the best Justice League stories of all time.
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]]>The post Zack Snyder filming new Justice League scenes with Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck returning as Superman and Batman appeared first on Game News.
]]>Previous reports indicated Zack Snyder’s Justice League would only consist of edits and special effects work on the material left out of the 2017 theatrical release, which was directed by Joss Whedon.
Now, that doesn’t appear to be the case. The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab) states that Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. “is expected to bring back Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman for new scenes” alongside Ray Fisher (Cyborg).
The reshoots are expected to be minor, so don’t expect new sequences or set-pieces to be transplanted into Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League, which is set to release on HBO Max in four parts next year.
What it does mean, though, is Henry Cavill returning as the Man of Steel for the first time since the original Justice League. It may not be an official comeback – and is unlikely to affect his future with the character one way or the other – but it’s exciting news regardless. Let’s just hope he’s had a shave this time.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (as we’re now calling it, though it may yet get another title) recently unveiled its first full trailer at last month’s DC FanDome event. There was also a handful of behind-the-scenes footage in a later teaser.
Many thought this day would never come, but it’s almost here – Zack Snyder is back filming for a DC project. And the gang’s all here.
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]]>The post Justice League, Suicide Squad, and more DC movies are leaving HBO Max but “will be returning” appeared first on Game News.
]]>If you’ve logged on to HBO Max recently, you’ll have noticed that the “Last Chance” category (movies and TV shows that are set to leave the service before July 1) is heavily populated with DC movies.
Justice League, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, 1989’s Batman, Batman Returns, Batman and Robin, Batman Forever, Catwoman, Jonah Hex, and The Lego Batman movie (opens in new tab) are all departing. In its place? A new rotation of as-yet-unnamed DC movies.
According to a statement obtained by Observer (opens in new tab), HBO Max will feature “a collection of DC films that will rotate on the platform. We have a new batch coming in July and then another batch coming in August… the batch that is on right now will be returning.”
So, in what is a slightly different tactic compared to some of its competitors, it appears that HBO Max will consistently rotate its library instead of dropping everything on there all at once. It may even give a window of opportunity to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy to enter the fray in July.
One upcoming project that almost certainly won’t be on rotation, however, is the Justice League Snyder Cut (opens in new tab). The HBO Max exclusive is sticking to Zack Snyder’s original vision for the DC team-up movie and will launch on the streaming service in 2021. (opens in new tab)
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]]>The post Justice League Snyder Cut will cost more than $30m and is a “radical rethinking” of the DC movie appeared first on Game News.
]]>“It’s been months of discussions with Zack and the producers to figure out how to do it,” Greenblatt told the Recode Media podcast (opens in new tab) of the process behind what eventually morphed into last week’s Snyder Cut announcement (opens in new tab) – but the hard work starts now.
“It isn’t as easy as going into the vault and there’s a Snyder Cut there to put out,” Greenblatt said. “It does not exist. Zack is building it and it’s complex,” while also namechecking “new effects shots” as a particular focus for the director.
So, it’s not just going to be a slapped-together recut. Far from it. Greenblatt calls it “a radical rethinking of [Justice League] and it’s complicated and wildly expensive.”
Original reports stated the cost of the Snyder Cut was somewhere in the region of $20-$30 million. Greenblatt’s response? “I wish it was just $30m and [I’ll] stop there!”
Amid the fan fervour and hashtags, though, why was there radio silence for so long? Greenblatt, who revealed talks started as far back as last Fall, explained: “We had to go to the unions and get certain things clear with them… there’s lots of complexity that the fan doesn’t know about it.”
“We weren’t going ‘Let’s not talk to those fans, let’s drive them crazy.’” Greenblatt affirmed. “We were actually spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this and there’s many, many hurdles to jump over. Once we saw that we could do it all and figure out the right economics – which was literally in the last week – we said let’s get this news out there.”
This is certainly the most we’ve heard about the fabled Snyder Cut, even accounting for Snyder himself. But, soon, the talking will be over and the real multi-million dollar work begins.
- Here’s what the Justice League cast have to say about the Snyder Cut announcement (opens in new tab)
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- New superhero movies: every Marvel, DC, and comic book movie flying your way (opens in new tab)
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]]>The post Here’s what the Justice League cast have to say about the Snyder Cut announcement appeared first on Game News.
]]>Superman himself, Henry Cavill, (who also appeared alongside Zack Snyder on his Vero stream during the announcement) took to Instagram to share his response.
“Ladies and Gents, it finally happened. The Snyder Cut will be out next year! Now, I know there have been two camps over the whole Snyder Cut thing and whether it will ever happen for a while. Just remember, we all get to have more Justice League now, it’s a win win. So, be nice to each other. Big congratulations to you, Mr Snyder!”
A photo posted by @henrycavill on May 20, 2020 at 11:47am PDT
Ray Fisher even made his inaugural Instagram post to react to the news. So you know it’s a big deal. “For those who fought. For those who believed. Thank you,” the Cyborg actor said.
For those who fought. For those who believed. Thank you. #releasethesnydercut @HBOMax @ZackSnyder Ray Fisher (opens in new tab)
A photo posted by @ray8fisher on May 20, 2020 at 11:17am PDT
Aquaman (opens in new tab) actor Jason Momoa added, “You’re welcome. Justice served. All my aloha to everyone who made this happen. All the fans. We love you.”
A photo posted by @prideofgypsies on May 20, 2020 at 11:26am PDT
Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller and Ben Affleck still maintain radio silence on the Snyder Cut, though Deathstroke actor Joe Manganiello has stoked fan fires some more by teasing Snyder’s original idea for a post-credits scene (opens in new tab), one that could involve Affleck’s Batman.
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]]>The post Justice League VFX artist douses hopes for a secret Snyder cut: Its “1,000% bulls#$!” appeared first on Game News.
]]>“[T]he film is found in the edit process, rarely does a director start shooting with the entire film plotted out,” the artist wrote. “Some things work, some things don’t. There is no Snyder cut – obviously he had a rough edit in process when he left in February [note: Snyder officially stepped back in May after a family tragedy in March], but the reshoots were done 6 months after that, he had no final version of the film.
“Yes, Zach would’ve probably done things differently to how the film turned out, but that’s it. There isn’t a secret Zach version hidden somewhere. It doesn’t exist.”
In other words, releasing a “Zach Snyder cut” of Justice League would mean starting over from the beginning to navigate the mix of old and new footage, and any rumors to the contrary are – as the VFX artist wrote in a later post (opens in new tab) – “1,000% bullshit”. Granted, one VFX artist isn’t going to be privy to all the top-level decisions at Warner Bros., but their insight here makes sense.
This doesn’t mean all hope is lost for the petition; down in the FAQ section it calls for a “Richard Donner cut” (referencing the remade version of Superman 2 that was released back in 1980) to be made for Justice League. It could use the existing selection of shot footage to make a different film, all guided by the ideal of releasing a more Snyder-like version. That would be quite a lot of work, though, especially to bring old footage in line from a VFX perspective, making the potential profit margin for WB pretty questionable.
At least they wouldn’t have to worry about removing Superman’s mustache in the old footage (opens in new tab). For more on the plight of DC’s heroes, check out 9 questions we have after watching Justice League (opens in new tab).
Image: Warner Bros.
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]]>The post Why isnt Barry Allen called The Flash in Justice League? appeared first on Game News.
]]>It makes sense that the young hero wouldn’t have his (ahem) flashy title ready to go straight away. Think back to what the speedster says in recent trailers: “It’s really cool you guys seem ready to do battle and stuff, but I’ve never done battle. I’ve just pushed some people and run away.” He’s a total noob. Flash’s griping to Batman has already become one of the Justice League movie’s best showcases of humor, but it’s also a pretty good indication of how inexperienced Barry is as a hero.
Miller says that there was a scene filmed in which Barry sat down and figured out his alter-ego’s moniker, but that was cut for the final edit. However, Barry is the one who discovers and names the Speed Force, a sort of kinetic energy that gives him his power.
Perhaps this deleted scene will show up when Justice League comes to DVD and Blu-ray, or maybe Warner Bros. will save it for Flashpoint (opens in new tab), the recently-announced solo film for the fastest man alive. In any case, judging by how much personality Miller brings to the role, it’s clear Barry will be a fan favorite by the time the film premieres on November 17, regardless of what he calls himself.
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