Our hands were pretty much tied this week.
Justice League is out this Friday, which means there was no way we could do seven
things you didn't know about Crossroads, like we wanted.
I was just kidding, we were never going to do that.
Although for the record, Crossroads did hit its 15th anniversary this year.
Boom, bonus thing you didn't know right here in the intro.
Anyway, here are seven things you didn't know about Crossroads, I mean,
the Justice League.
Probably.
(Sound) The Justice League is one of the first
superhero teams ever created.
They even predate The Avengers.
We'll get more into the Justice League versus The Avengers in a later thing.
But the point of this thing is, though the Justice League is OG,
the Justice Society of America is OOG.
DC's All Star comics introduce the Justice Society back in the early
1940s in the issue no 3.
The founding members were Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Sandman, Spectre, Atom,
Doctor Fate, and Hourman.
>> How many of you are there?
>> Not enough.
>> And after the Justice Society, there was the Seven Soldiers of Victory in 1941,
which was kind of like the Guardians of the Galaxy in that it was more
of a group of comic hero B-Listers.
I mean, the Star-Spangled Kid, what the (Bleep) is that?
Meanwhile, Marvel had the All Winner's Squad in 1946,
which also predates the Justice League.
Lame name aside, that group included Captain America, Bucky, and Human Torch.
Characters you've heard of, unlike the Star Spangled Kid.
Next thing.
(Sound) Comic book sales had taken a nose dive by
the 1950s, and the Justice Society went the way of the dodo.
Then when comics had a resurgence in the 60s,
it was a prime time to reboot the concept of this super hero supergroup.
The Justice League of America debuted in March of 1960 in Issue 28 of
DC's The Brave and the Bold.
When the Justice Society was preconceived as the Justice League of America,
they cut the core members from eight to seven.
This time around, the super seven were Flash, he didn’t get cut from the team,
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter.
Back when it was still the Justice Society, there was an understanding at DC
that none of the core members could have comic titles.
But that rule went out the window with the Justice League rebrand.
Boom, bonus thing.
While the revamp of the members of the Justice Society to the Justice League of
America was pretty drastic, the name was oddly similar.
Similar enough to make you wonder why they changed it at all.
The reason?
Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
Both organizations were growing in popularity at the time, so
the higher ups at DC figured adding the word league to their name, and making it
kind of aggressively patriotic might help them capitalize on some of that mojo.
Odds are adding A list characters like Batman and
Superman are probably what made the bigger difference,
but Justice League still rolls off the tone a lot better than Justice Society.
(Sound) Once the Justice Society was reborn as
the Justice League, DC had to come up with some pretty badass super villains for
the team, and they nailed in the first tried with a giant starfish?
Sorry, I didn't read this before we started the episode.
Evidently, Starro the Conquerer,
a giant alien starfish was indeed the first foe for the Justice League.
His superpower, aside from asexual reproduction, was mind control.
He'd basically throw Mini-Me versions of himself at people's faces, and
then mess with their heads like the brain slugs on Futurama.
Obviously, Starro isn't going to be the villain for the new Justice League movie.
But honestly,
it would have been pretty ballsy of DC if they had gone through with that.
(Sound) Justice League is easily one of the most
anticipated movies of the past few years.
The franchise has come a long way from their introduction in the Brave and
the Bold number 28, to becoming a multi hundreds of millions of dollars film.
That was English, right?
Technically, anyway, going back to issue 28,
though it was the debut of the Justice League,
the Brave and the Bold series wasn't intended to be about them at all.
That's why they didn't even show up until they'd already done 27 other issues.
The Brave and the Bold was typically focused on Robin Hood and
Vikings and junk like that.
The first dedicated issue of the Justice League of America didn't
hit stores until seven months later in October of 1960,
which to be honest, isn't all that long a wait.
Seven months is a pretty quick turnaround if you ask me.
You know what? Let's just move on.
(Sound) The insane success of The Avengers films
and the MCU overall had put DC in the unenviable situation trying to match
Marvel's success.
And though many in the fans fierce side with either team Marvel or
team Team DC, the competing labels have managed to partner in the past with
a Justice League/Avengers crossover series, but it wasn't easy.
The crossover was supposed to happen over 35 years ago.
Marvel and DC first agreed on the idea all the way back in 1979.
But they ended up canceling the series before the planned publication date of May
1983.
Marvel's then Editor in Chief was in a big huff about some editorial disagreements
and the whole project was killed along with a follow up to The Uncanny X-Men and
The New Teen Titans crossover from 1982.
Later, when the comic industry was falling on hard times yet again,
the companies managed to kiss and make up reviving the crossover project in 2002.
The Justice League Avengers series was even reprinted as a hardback edition in
2004 including the original pages from the 1983 version for the first time ever.
And before you head over to eBay to impulse buy a copy, stick around for
the next couple of things.
There's just two left.
>> Stop right there, I'm in.
(Sound) >> We mentioned earlier
that the Justice League has been around longer than The Avengers.
What you may not know is without the Justice League,
there wouldn't be any Avengers or a Fantastic Four for that matter.
When the Justice League was such a smash hit for
DC right out of the gate, Marvel took notice.
The publisher tasked the chief writer some guy named, Stan Lee, or
something with coming up with their own version of a superhero dream team.
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee got together and next thing you know, boom,
Fantastic Four, issue one.
The crazy success of Fantastic Four was followed by Iron Man,
the Incredible Hulk, Thor, and others.
Basically, it was the dawn of Marvel as we know it today.
With all of these characters having such a strong individual followings,
it was a no-brainer for Stan Lee to take from the Justice League model again and
create the Avengers, which is good for him.
At least we don't have to worry about a lame Stan Lee cameo being
crowbarred in during Justice League though, that we know of.
(Sound) We'll have to see exactly how
Justice League shapes up when it hits theaters.
But one thing we know for sure is that it would've been a completely
different movie if it hadn't been for the writers' strike in 2007.
Justice League was in preproduction all the way back then.
And do you know who was directing?
George Miller.
That's right, the Mad Max guy.
He planned for Armie Hammer to play Batman, DJ Cotrona to play Superman, and
Megan Gale to play Wonder Woman, but only because Jessica Biel had turned it down.
And Hugh Keays-Byrne,
AKA Toecutter, AKA Immortan Joe was supposed to be Martian Manhunter.
Once the writer's strike went down,
George Miller had to go back to square one recasting the entire film with Aussie
natives, before he finally gave up on the whole project and left to do other things.
Justice League was dead in the water until Man of Steel made a bunch of money for DC,
and they decided to let Zach Snyder take a crack at it.
That's it for today.
We know a lot of you guys are filming at the mouth due to rabies, and
probably also because you're excited for Justice League.
So be sure to hit the thumbs up and
share this video with your similarly afflicted friends.
Thanks for watching, and subscribe to CineFix for more truest things about
movies and sometimes impulse buying comics on eBay right here on
Things You Didn't Know (Sound) >> What are your super powers again?
>> I'm rich.