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October 8, 2013: Review - Never-Made "Justice League: Mortal" Movie Script

Michael J. Petty has written a review of the script for the never-made 2008 "Justice League: Mortal" movie that was to be directed by George Miller. The film's cast was said to include D.J. Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as The Flash, Hugh Keays-Byrne as Martian Manhunter, Santiago Cabrera as Aquaman, Jay Baruchel as Maxwell Lord, and Common as Green Lantern. The script was written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney.

Mortal

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Another lesson that this script teaches is how to be a hero. Barry Allen (The Flash) throughout the script/film is willing to sacrifice himself for the people he cares about and the entire world. He continues to be the "straight arrow" character even though he feels like an outsider to the superhero community, even to the point of him sacrificing his life to save the entire planet. This tradition is also shown to continue with the second Flash in the film and Barry's nephew Wally West as Wally continues to try and be apart of saving the world and even was willing to help Barry save the planet (by running into the Speed Force) until Barry told him "no".

Finally, I think Mortal is a social commentary on helping others. The whole point of Maxwell Lord (I can only in-vision the guy who played him on Smallville now...) hijacking Brother Eye, the OMACs, and trying to take out the planet was because nobody helped him and people like him when someone should have. I'm not justifying Lord's actions here mind you, but I am saying that it's because no one helped that he went crazy in the first place (don't worry, Ted Kord wasn't shot and killed in this film). But I would go even further in how this film is a social commentary, I would even go so far as to say that villains are everywhere! In films like The Avengers, Thor, Green Lantern, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Man of Steel, and others show that the villain is an alien, and even the villains in Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and Captain America: The First Avenger show villains that are unique and aren't "normal" or "ordinary" people. However, Justice League: Mortal's villains are just ordinary people! An OMAC is just an ordinary person, Talia is just an ordinary person, even Maxwell Lord (telepathy or not) is an ordinary person, and yet ordinary people are what take down the Justice League.