Monday, August 24, 2015

The Olympus of Heroes

"Justice League: Godfall"
We open in the pits of The Underworld where Apollo, Circe and The First Born are kept as worker slaves by the God Hades. From his throne, Hades senses a death and becomes angered. When asked, Hades claims that Superman has died and his soul has not fallen into Hades' hands. Knowing the time has come, Apollo and Circe coerce Hades into letting them free. Apollo claims he can collect enough souls to satisfy Hades and the God of the Underworld releases Apollo, Circe and The First Born onto the mortal realm, unaware that Circe has taken something from Hades' armory, Pandora's Box.
One month later, a private party is being held at Wayne Manor in memorial to Superman. The attendees  include Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake, King Arthur, Queen Mera, Advisor Kaldur, Diana of Themyscira, Steve Trevor, Cassandra Sandsmark, Barry Allen, Wally West, Ray Palmer, Shayera, John Jones, Maxwell Lord, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olson. The shindig is going quite well, many guests mingling with each other. But suddenly, a dog-like creature breaks through the window. The League prepare to fight it, but it turns out to be G'nort of The Green Lantern Corps. G'nort was sent by the GLC to tell The League that Hal Jordan cannot continue his role as Green Lantern and that he wants them to find a suitable replacement. Mixed emotions envelope the team, but Maxwell sees this as an opportunity to elect a new-American government sanctioned-GL.
Steve Trevor, Maxwell Lord, Hawkgirl, and Wonder Woman oversee an Argus training facility of the next brigade of advanced soldiers. Among these soldiers is John Stewart, US Marine and architect who was discharged from the Marines for disobeying an order. Hawkgirl gets to know John and learns he disobeyed this order to save a fellow soldier, even after the soldier told him to leave him. Meanwhile, Batman is watching their activities in The Watchtower, with Martian Manhunter detecting danger in Gotham City, above-average danger. Batman, The Flash, The Atom and Martian Manhunter meet on the Gotham shoreline, where cargo containers are being tossed into the Gotham streets by The First Born. At the same time, Apollo and Circe breach Olympus and confront child Zeus, Apollo uses some of Hades' essence to paralyze him. Apollo claims with no Superman to absorb Apollo's solar power, he can properly take over the Earth. Before he can take the throne, Circe turns out to be The First Born and stabs Apollo in the back, then The First Born sits upon the God Throne. The heroes beat The First Born in Gotham until he's revealed to be Circe in disguise. The true First Born teleports into Gotham on the throne, with Pandora's Box in one hand and the tied up bodies of kid Zeus and Apollo in the other.
Argus troops start moving out to get to Gotham, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl head out too. They are unaware that Max and Steve still have the Green Power Ring. The First Born opens Pandora's Box and unleashed the Seven Sins of Man: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. As Aquaman, Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman show up on scene, the sins of the box wisp through Gotham causing mass panic and the sins of Gotham's people to exaggerate. Even our heroes begin succumbing to their sins as the power of Pandora's Box melts The First Born's skin off, but the power of Zeus keeps him alive. The First Born also imprisons Circe, that way he can have all the power to himself. The Justice League regroup and take cover as The First Born turns Wayne Industries Tower into his personal tower. Wonder Woman flies off to Themyscira to pick up a special weapon for the coming battle, but The Atom has an idea of his own. John Stewart fights off some demons to defend some fallen soldiers, but is overpowered. His refusal to give up gets the attention of the GL ring at Argus. It starts to fly, but Maxwell Lord grabs it and tries to wear it himself. When Steve tries to stop him, Max kicks him through a door. Amanda Waller and General Eiling are able to pull the ring off Max.
Wonder Woman reaches Themyscira, but her fellow Amazons attack her. The influence from Pandora's Box has enraged the Amazons, but Hippolyte is unaffected. They barricade themselves in the armory and Hippolyte gives Wonder Woman golden armor and a pegasus mount. She is also given a small stone called The Rock of Eternity, an indestructible object that will seal away the sins once shoved into Pandora's Box. The Amazons breach the armory and Hippolyte sends Diana away.
The Atom goes microscopic and sneaks onto The First Born's throne, he then tries to carry Pandora's Box away, but as he runs off the box starts to corrupt him. He can't take his eyes off the box, he begins suffocating from its power, but The First Born takes the box back and Atom cowers away. The Atom makes it back to The League and he looks in fear at Batman, calling him "the catalyst of the eye". Before they can help him, The Atom vanishes. The First Born grows tired of their intervention and he sends the League into the pits of The Underworld, John Stewart jumps down in order to save a child in the area and the GL ring finds and attaches to Stewart. Now as The New Green Lantern, John Stewart gets the boy to safety and joins The League as the entrance has been sealed and they are all trapped in The Underworld.
Wonder Woman battles The First Born, trying to use the Rock of Eternity, but getting it knocked away. The First Born drains the power of Zeus, Circe and Apollo to knock Wonder Woman out and create an explosion on Themyscira. Batman, Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern II traverse The Underworld, avoiding Hades' minions along the way. They come across The Cerberus, who carries the discarded Rock of Eternity in one of it's mouths. They proceed to slay the beast. Wonder Woman wakes up in The Underworld, being taunted by the voice of Hades. She is constrained by magic chains and left with a pond of blood before her. Hades shows images of Themyscira destroyed and mocks Wonder Woman for failing her sisters just like she failed Cassandra's mother and Superman. The voices are drowned out by the sounds of The League calling Wonder Woman from across the pond, but they are attacked by demons. Wonder Woman cannot find the strength to break free, but then she is approached by Ares, the God of War who was banished to The Underworld after "Wonder Woman". Ares does not assist in the fight, but he explains to Wonder Woman that she has a hidden power, a gift from her father Zeus. The gift of a God. Wonder Woman reaches deep within herself and is able to remove her bracelets, on her wrists are glowing symbols that match her now glowing eyes. Wonder Woman's power as a demigod is unleashed and she breaks her bondings and saves The League. She opens a portal out of The Underworld and Ares offers her the title of God of War, but Wonder Woman refuses, "We do not fight wars, we stop them".
The portal leads to Themyscira where The Amazons are harmed, but alive. Sorting through the wreckage, The League find Hippolyte slowly dying. She had used her remaining magic to absorb the pain of The Amazons into herself to save them. Hippolyte deems Diana the new Queen of The Amazons and dies in her arms. Wonder Woman rallies The League and The Amazons, "We have lost much, all of us, we feel useless in the face of this threat, all of us, but we continue to live. All of us. For the gift of strength we have been given, we must use this chance to avenge our fallen allies and not squander the gift they have given us. Today we are not survivors, today we are not warriors, today we are saviors. All of us". The League get decked out with Amazonian weapons and The Amazons prepare to help The League's assault on The First Born. While preparing, The League is transported by The Rock of Eternity into a dark cave. They meet an old wizard named Shazam. Shazam tells them that since the dawn of man he has protected humanity from sin, by keeping the living embodiment of sin locked in this cave. The cave resides inside the true Rock of Eternity, a floating mass in an empty space, the stone The League had was merely one of the many entrances between the realms. By using the stone, the sins can be locked away in The Rock of Eternity once again, as Pandora's Box was made only to release them. Seeing that he is not long from death, Wonder Woman shares some of her demigod power with Shazam in order to give him more time. The League are then sent back to Themyscira.
The First Born continues to feed off the power of Apollo, Circe and Zeus, but when Hades enters the mortal realm to assume control he too is overpowered by The First Born and his power is drained, The First Born's desire of becoming the most powerful God in existence is almost compete. The League and The Amazons trudge through Gotham, avoiding corrupted humans and fighting demons. Steve Trevor and a group of surviving Argus soldiers join the heroes as well, with Maxwell Lord feeling guilty over how he tried to take the GL ring. They confront The First Born and battle him, its only until Wonder Woman enters her demigod mode that she can keep pace with The First Born. While the fight ensues, Batman finds the room holding Circe, Apollo, Hades, and Zeus. Steve Trevor also enters the room and removes a sword from his bag, this sword is called The Godslayer and he stole it from Themyscira. Trevor believes killing the Gods would cut off The First Born's power, but Batman stops him and defeats him in combat. The Flash is given the task of searching The First Born's tower for Pandora's Box, but when he finds it he is attacked by Kid Flash/Wally West. Wally was been corrupted by the Sin of Envy, as Wally's admiration of Barry has been skewed. Kid Flash is fast enough to keep Flash away from the Box. Additionally Robin, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl are corrupted by Sin and brought to The Tower to assist The First Born. Wonder Girl is corrupted by Greed as she fights Wonder Woman so she can be the one to defeat The First Born. Aqualad is corrupted by Wrath as he attacks Aquaman for failing to save his lover Tula. After tying up Trevor, Batman tries to release Zeus, but the chains won't break. Robin shows up and is corrupted by the Sin of Pride. He claims to know how to unchain Zeus, but won't tell Batman unless he admits that Tim is and always will be the best Robin.
Green Lantern II, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter try to fight The First Born, but J'ohn senses a new presence in the area. As Kid Flash breaks one of Flash's legs, The Atom reappears and grabs the fallen Rock of Eternity and runs it over to the Box. The Atom drives the stone into Pandora's Box and a blast of energy spreads across the planet. The Seven Sins of Man are sucked back into the Box and it is sealed shut. Kid Flash realizes his mistake and helps get Flash out of the Tower. Wonder Girl and Aqualad gain control and help The League topple The First Born off the tower. Robin regains control and explains The First Born told him how to unlock the chains so that the Sin of Pride could properly use him. Robin claims to unlock the chains, the blood of a dying person must run over them. Circe volunteers. While Batman can't find it in himself to kill her with The Godslayer, Steve Trevor can. After killing Circe with The Godslayer, her blood unlocks the chains and Zeus is freed. The Atom appears and is given a request by Batman. The Atom agrees, but he claims it will be the last thing he will do for Batman.
The First Born still battles The League on the surface. The Flash and Kid Flash run into the battle, as The Flash's leg "healed quickly". In their hands, they carry Batman, Robin, Apollo, Hades, Zeus, and Steve Trevor, all shrunken by The Atom for quick transport. Steve gives The Godslayer to Wonder Woman and tells her to finish this. Wonder Woman goes one last round with The First Born and kills him with The Godslayer. The First Born summons Zeus' throne, but Wonder Woman gives the remainder of her demigod power to Zeus so he can banish The First Born back to The Underworld. Hades reassumes his power, but is too tired and angry to take over Earth, so he decides to take all his rage out of The First Born for all eternity. Zeus regains his throne and offers to fix the damage to Gotham and restore Hippolyte's life, but Wonder Woman and Batman refuse. When asked why, they claim Superman wouldn't have take an easy way out and neither should they. Zeus does however, turn Apollo into a mortal man and send him off to live out his human life. Within The Rock of Eternity, Shazam seals the Sins in statues. Approaching his death, Shazam begins searching for his heir. At Argus, John Stewart relinquishes his Argus membership and claims The Justice League aren't a government, they are a family. As it seems Stewart and Hawkgirl have an attraction for each other, Wonder Woman breaks up with Steve Trevor. She claims that if Steve can steal a godly weapon from under her nose, she cannot trust him completely. She also has new responsibilities repairing her home. In The Watchtower, Martian Manhunter erases all amounts of Sin-driven-influence from Robin, Wonder Girl, Aqualad and Kid Flash, as Flash asks about The Atom. We see Ray Palmer ignoring Bruce Wayne as he gets on a plane to South America, leaving his JL membership card in Bruce's hand. John Stewart rents an apartment with Shayera in Midway City and when he is alone gets a message on his ring. The message is from Kilowag who tells "whoever got this ring" to report to New Oa as soon as possible for training. As John rolls his eyes at another bootcamp experience, another message plays from Hal Jordan. Hal tells the new ring bearer that their life has become a lot more hectic, that their friends and family are now part of their war of crime. But he assures that beneath the darkest of times, there will always be a new light to breach despair. That in times of destruction all it takes is one brave man to save the world. John thinks hard about these words and he messages Kilowag to "beam him up" as a green light wisps John away just as Shayera comes home with groceries.
After the credits, we see an apartment in Fawcett City. In the apartment a fat, balding man is sitting in a trashed room crying. A man in a purple cloak appears in the room and asks why he is crying, the balding man explains he scared his nephew-and his last relative-away. He was enveloped by rage and he tried to choke the poor kid. We see this kid on the streets in red hoodie, he is pushed around by some older kids who call him trash. Those bullies are scared off by the cloaked man who tells this boy-Billy Batson-that his Uncle Dudley was controlled by an evil, an evil The Justice League eliminated. When Billy returns to the apartment, he and Dudley embrace and Billy forgives his uncle. The cloaked man watches from atop a building across the apartment window. The cloaked man is revealed to be The Wizard Shazam by a flash of lightning.
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