Static Thoughts - Justice League: A Better World

Edited by Robert Beach 

So the popular DC comics fighting game Injustice is officially getting a sequel, and the first trailer and gameplay footage are now dropping. Your excitement over this fact may vary based on whether or not you thought Injustice was a super hardcore, awesome experience or a sludgy fighter with junky controls, flaccid character design, and a story that started at ‘outwardly moronic’ and just got worse as it went along. 

I’m in the latter category (Can you tell?), so I’m not terribly enthralled by the prospect of MORE Injustice. The new game looks to be aping the worst aspects of Destiny’s bizarre quasi-freemium set-up. Instead, let’s talk about the story that “inspired” Injustice. By inspired, I mean Injustice ripped it off wholesale while draining the characterization and nuance. Let’s talk about the best episode of the animated Justice League series, and the best version of the “superheroes take over” story; let’s talk about "A Better World."

Suicide Squad Gets Empire Magazine Covers

In case you didn’t know, DC Comics is looking to start up their own shared universe of films and characters to rival that of Marvel studios.  So far this shared universe experiment has been pretty abysmal as the sole entry so far is the terrible Man of Steel and the pretty bad looking upcoming film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.  However, DC has one other flick waiting in the wings to make a splash in the DC shared universe pool and that flick is Suicide Squad.  Scheduled for release late next summer with David Ayer directing Suicide Squad is an adaptation of the DC universe team of the same name, a government developed squad of villains designed to be sent out on high risks missions with the thinking being that because all the squad members are villains they’re powerful but also expendable. 

The trailer for that film leaked earlier this summer to a lot of praise though none of it was from me because I actually don’t think Suicide Squad looks very good but we’ll get more into that later.  Anyway, DC seems decidedly desperate to remind everyone this shared universe experiment is going to happen so they’ve started actively promoting Suicide Squad with a series of snazzy Empire Magazine covers featuring tactical team leader Deadshot, played by Will Smith, team wildcard the Joker, played by Jared Leto, Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, and, for some reason, Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne.