DC's Multiversity

**DC's Multiversity** is a shared universe adapting various DC Comics characters and storylines. It has a focus on characters and teams who have never been given a proper spotlight before in film. It was created by ShadeTheNarwhal for IWFC Wiki's *Fanon Crisis Competition*.

Phase 1 will have five films. Phase 2 will have at least one film and one show. Phase 3 is in the works.

## Phase 1

### Green Lanterns

John Stewart, one of the fiercest soldiers in the galaxy, is left on his own after his partner Hal Jordan vanishes in action. As a result, he is forced to recruit Guy Gardner, a neurotic novice who apparently has what it takes to be a Green Lantern. The two must put aside their differences on a quest spanning the cosmos to unravel the conspiracy of Hal Jordan.

Evidence points to the main antagonist and Hal Jordan's captor being Thaal Sinestro, the leader of the Sinestro Corps who was presumed dead. As it turns out, Hal Jordan was possessed by Parallax, a being of pure fear who once powered Sinestro. Later, it is revealed that Hal allowed Parallax to possess him, thinking that the only way to cure his fears of losing his wife were to overpower them. Under Parallax's influence, he kidnaps his wife, Carol Ferris, and traps her on the planet Zamaron. Parallax makes a convincing offer to John and Guy, saying that he can cure their fears too by granting them the immeasurable power of the Yellow Lantern. Guy notably receives visions of him murdering his abusive father. In the end, Guy learns from John that fear should be accepted rather than obliterated, and saves both John and Hal from Parallax's persuasion. In the end, Guy offers his Green Lantern Ring to Hal, who declines it, saying that he'd rather watch the real heroes on the sidelines.

In a post-credits scene, Hal and Carol are sleeping together in their home on Earth, when Carol is awoken by a strange noise. She walks out onto the balcony and is greeted with a floating purple Power Ring. She puts it on, becoming the Star Sapphire; her reaction consists of her saying, "whoa".

Someone with a background in space operas should direct this, James Gunn would work really well. For casting, I want Jensen Ackles to play Hal Jordan. Jamie Foxx could play John Stewart though I'd prefer someone else to do it. Maybe Megan Fox as Carol Ferris.

### Cyborg

Victor Stone is an aspiring football player in his last year of high school. But right after an argument with his distant workaholic parents, someone bombs their workplace, STAR Labs, killing Victor's mother and horribly mutilating him. His father, renowned engineer Silas, saves Victor's life, at the cost of his humanity... or so it seems.

A key aspect of this movie is Victor's isolation from regular humans. Everyone in the film either views him as a freak of nature (including former friend Ron Evers) or focuses on the benefits of his transformation rather than all the damage it has caused (including Silas for much of the film). Victor meets Barry Allen, a CSI trying to figure out who bombed STAR Labs, and the two form a connection after Barry becomes the first person to sympathize with the loss of Victor's mother. With his newfound tech powers, Victor assists Barry in finding the bomber. It is revealed that the bomber is Mark Scheffer, a corrupt cop on the bombing case who was also turned into a cyborg by Silas years before (from the neck down, so no one can see), as part of a military operation. Scheffer seemingly kills Barry with an electric blast and tells Victor his motivations; that he was funded by someone to destroy STAR Labs so that they would "stop making lonely freaks like us". In that moment, Silas attacks Scheffer and is nearly killed by him. Luckily, Victor defeats Scheffer in a public space, as the world sees who he really is: A hero.

In a post-credits scene, Barry's body lies on a bed in STAR Labs. The camera zooms in on his eyelids before he opens his eyes, lightning coursing through his irises.

The director should have a background in character studies, I want to hone in on Victor and Silas' personalities. Ray Fisher and Joe Morton, ideally, would return as Victor and Silas. Barry can be played by just about anyone, but for reasons unknown to me, I feel the urge to cast him with Rami Malek.

### The Martian Manhunter

National City is an apparent paradise; clear skies, lush gardens and a chipper attitude. But underneath that joyous exterior is a plague of racism and brutality against anybody from a planet beyond Earth. J'onn J'onzz, a private detective with a hidden Martian heritage, must navigate his city as it grows more and more hateful, all while coming to the harrowing realization that he can no longer pretend to be human.

As the NCPD are conveniently too busy to look into alien disappearances, J'onn takes on the cases. Throughout his investigations, he is forced to use his Martian powers of shapeshifting and phasing, leading him to be discovered by fellow private eye Diane Meade. Though the two conflict regarding who is at fault (J'onzz says someone is responsible, Meade says it's all a coincidence), they still unite to attain justice for the missing aliens. Ultimately, their trail leads to Lex Luthor, candidate for mayor of National City. Luthor wants to incite hostility towards aliens (comparable to the Satanic Panic), as he was taught growing up that aliens were evil, and he is disgusted by how society had begun accepting alien refugees into the planet. Luthor reveals he's paying two members of the NCPD; Christopher "Peacemaker" Smith, former soldier, and Garfield "Firefly" Lynns, who uses a flamethrower. In a rage, Diane strikes Luthor, only to be wounded by Peacemaker. J'onn escapes with Diane safely, at the cost of revealing to Luthor that he is a Martian. Act 3 concludes with an anti-alien riot, led by Peacemaker and Firefly. Diane advises J'onn to incapacitate the rioters by force, but instead, J'onn lets the rioters beat him to near-unconsciousness. Firefly notes how "he's bleeding, just like us", and many of the rioters realize in that moment that aliens are no different from humans. In the end, Firefly turns himself and Peacemaker in, and Luthor is sued by J'onn and Diane. The final scene shows J'onn walking through a park in his Martian form, wearing traditional Martian clothing, mirroring an earlier scene where he walks through the same park disguised as a human.

In a post-credits scene set one year later, J'onn sits and drinks at an all-alien bar. A woman with black hair walks in and orders him a drink. J'onn jokes that it's not often a human walks into the bar, to which she says that she is not human. She introduces herself as Diana of Themyscira, and recounts how impressed she was when she first heard the story about the riot. The scene ends with her saying that she needs J'onn's help dealing with somebody, and her admitting that "peace may not be an option this time."

Though this is clearly a superhero movie, the director and actors must be used to working in grounded thrillers. *TMM* should feel like a Best Picture nominee. As the film is about racism and J'onn is typically cast with a black actor, that should remain in this movie. Honestly, I'm fine with Jesse Eisenberg returning as Lex Luthor, though I would highly advise John Cena not returning as Peacemaker given the character's new direction.

### World's Finest

A new group of heroes surfaces calling themselves the Elite, to critical acclaim from the masses. However, their judge-jury-executioner methods leave them on the bad side of Superman and Batman, the guardians of the two cities the Elite operates in. Will the dynamic duo thwart the Elite and prevent them from killing again? Or will their respective virtues crumble as a new era of vigilantism is ushered in?

Unfortunately, I don't have much of the plot figured out, but I do have some scraps of information. In terms of character development, the Elite forces Batman and Superman to doubt themselves and their methods and ideologies. Their arcs come from them learning from one another, with Batman understanding the value of hope and Superman rejuvenating his motivation. During the film, Superman meets Batman's "Bat-Family", namely Robin (Damian) and Batgirl (Barbara). Finally, the Elite: Manchester Black, the leader of the Elite, probably wouldn't have mind control, but perhaps some other psychic power such as pain manipulation. The Elite will consist of two Superman villains and two Batman villains. Manchester is already a Superman villain, as is Hat, a show-off who can summon anything from his magic hat. For Batman villains, we have Azrael, a zealot who dual-wields flaming swords, and Anarky, a young anarchist with a "taser staff".

In a post-credits scene, Superman is talking to his wife, Lois Lane, about his journey with Batman. He comments how he's jealous of Batman not "working alone". The camera pans up from their house, into the sky and then into space, before zooming in on a blue and red rocket falling into atmosphere. The rocket has the Superman "S" on its side in yellow.

Director-wise, we have to find someone who is a massive fan of Superman and Batman, similar to how Matt Reeves is a massive fan of Batman. If we were to select a director entirely on style, I would honestly pick Matt Reeves for this as well. In keeping with my evident adoration for *The Batman*, I wouldn't mind reusing Robert Pattinson as Batman, though to be clear this is a separate universe. Charlie Cox also comes to mind for the role, but as he is busy playing Daredevil, I wouldn't use him. Henry Cavill and Amy Adams could easily return as Superman and Lois Lane, though I also feel the urge to cast the two characters using POCs. I envision Tom Felton playing Manchester Black. Finally, for reasons that I cannot say as Warner Bros. would execute me, I think Leslie Grace should play Batgirl.

### The Justice League

Diana of Themyscira, an ancient hero forgotten by time, rises to the occasion as immortal tyrant Black Adam begins his plan for world domination. In her quest against him, she recruits alien powerhouse Clark Kent / Superman, caped crusader Bruce Wayne / Batman, galactic guardian Guy Gardner / Green Lantern, new hero on the block Barry Allen / the Flash, tech master Victor Stone / Cyborg, and mysterious sentinel J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter. Together, they must succeed Diana's previous team and become the Justice League, champions of the oppressed, lest the oppressed be swayed by Black Adam.

Teth-Adam's plan is this: He genuinely believes that society will benefit from metahumans ruling the world. He hired Mark Scheffer to bomb STAR Labs under the guise that he wanted STAR Labs' information metahuman/cyborg creation destroyed. In truth, he wanted a distraction so that he could steal the information himself. Through his resources at Sivana Industries, and through collaboration with anti-alien billionaire Lex Luthor, he was able to create *gene-bomb*, a drug that would turn anyone into a metahuman that would be spread amongst people in poverty. Adam and Luthor hoped that those in poverty, now with tremendous powers, would convince themselves to rise up against the human populace. Luthor in particular taunts the League for being too late in caring about "the little guy". By the start of Act 3, several metahumans have allied themselves with Adam and Luthor, creating a "legion" as Victor Stone puts it.

For clarification, Teth-Adam has created the alter ego Thaddeus Sivana, who is a separate character in the original comics. Diana / Wonder Woman's previous team was the Justice Society of America, who fought Black Adam during World War II. The JSA consisted of Starman, Obsidian and Atom Smasher. The Legion, which are an adaptation of the Legion of Doom, consists of seven characters to rival one member of the League: Lex Luthor in his war-suit for Superman, Black Adam for Wonder Woman, Man-Bat for Batman, Magenta for Flash, Hector Hammond for Green Lantern, the Human Flame for Martian Manhunter and Ron Evers for Cyborg (who was introduced as a human character in *Cyborg*). Upon Black Adam's defeat, a flurry of lightning escapes his body and flies into the sky; it is implied by Diana that the bolt will choose another subject for its magic.

The arcs in the film revolve around the League learning that being a hero means more than just punching bad guys. They have to combat societal and economic struggles in equal measure. In the final scene of the movie, we have a small montage of the heroes doing just that: Bruce announces that he will be donated $1 billion dollars to Gotham City homeless shelters, J'onn leads an alien pride parade, Vic hacks into a corrupt corporation and transfers much of its money to its employees, Guy and Diana assist in cleaning mounds of trash near the ocean, and both Superman and Flash race each other for charity.

Obviously, the director should be good with ensemble casts. No Joss Whedon allowed. Unfortunately, I don't think Zack Snyder would be a good fit for this project, otherwise I'd give him another shot. Cast-wise, I don't feel like Dwayne Johnson should continue playing Black Adam, considering this version of the character is radically different than what he typically plays. I would prefer an Egyptian actor. I'd really want Gal Gadot to return as Wonder Woman. For the minor Legion members, none of the actors matter, really.