Fan-Casting DC's FIRESTORM: Part 2

Click here to review part 1.

Bear with me here, because unlike my Fan-Casting Justice League posts, this installment is going to be a lot more fluid, with different casting options based on different lead characters.

The Hero

Firestorm is a composite hero, usually comprised of a young man in his teens or early 20s, with the consciousness of a wiser, scientifically minded mentor figure riding shotgun, occasionally backseat driving.  Two different characters have filled the young man position in the comics at different times in Firestorm's history: Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch.

Ronnie Raymond is the quarterback for his high school football team.  He's a good all-American kid, and unlike other jocks depicted in movies and literature in the '70s and '80s, he's not a bully.  More often, in fact, he is the victim of constant harassment by his intellectual superior, high school science nerd, Cliff Carmichael.  But Ronnie is not dumb.  He's not an academic; he's not even a B student most of the time, but he's no luddite, either.  School is a means to an end.  Ronnie wants to play football, and to do that, he knows he needs to stay in school.  If he receives an education in the process, so be it.

Jason Rusch was originally conceived as a poor kid living in Detroit with little hope of ever escaping from his dead-end life.  More recent appearances in comics and television, however, have re-characterized Jason as book-smart, arrogant, emotionally troubled.  In short, the new Jason Rusch is the opposite of Ronnie Raymond.

Also, there's this difference:

Professor Martin Stein is a Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist.  He built a fusion/fission reactor in the Hudson Power Plant that caused the accidental creation of the Firestorm Matrix when it explodes.  Professor Stein's mind is fused with the body of Ronnie (or Jason) and given radical powers to affect inorganic matter, as well as fly and shoot blasts of fiery energy from his hands.

In the comics, Ronnie was killed and replaced by Jason.  But then Ronnie came back and Professor Stein died, leaving Ronnie and Jason to merge together as Firestorm.

So, if Warner Bros. let me make a Firestorm movie, which character--or combination of characters--should I choose?

Stein is a must for the Firestorm Matrix.  He provides the voice--literally--of wisdom and maturity, he's the voice of guidance for our young, struggling hero.  He's the disembodied voice of Ben Kenobi or Yoda to Ronnie or Jason's Luke Skywalker.  Professor Stein also serves the plot by creating the device by which the protagonist receives his powers.

So who is the other half of the equation?  Who is the protagonist: Ronnie or Jason?  Since this is a purely hypothetical situation, I can entertain both options.

Firestorm/Ronnie Raymond (Reid Ewing)

When it comes to superheroes, I'm a traditionalist, or rather, an iconist.  The best versions of heroes are the first or most iconic versions, like the Barry Allen Flash, the Barbara Gordon Batgirl, and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle.  To me, the best Firestorm is Ronnie Raymond combined with Martin Stein.  I think the character of an unintellectual jock mentored by a brilliant scientist to learn how to be a good hero is the perfect recipe for a superhero origin story.

I love Modern Family and Reid Ewing makes every episode better.  He is instantly likable, but doesn't seem like the overtly heroic type, which is the point of the character.  Ewing's role as Dylan, the garage band singer/mother's worst nightmare of a boyfriend, demonstrates that "carefree moron" is well within his wheelhouse.  He's ready for a breakout leading man role, and starring as a young superhero with a learning curve is just what he needs.

Now… having said all that, I have zero, zilch, nada problem with casting a black actor as the star of the movie.  Adding more racial diversity to superhero comics and films cannot be a bad thing, but if I were to make Jason Rusch the star of Firestorm, I would have the character essentially written as Ronnie, but with a different name and race.

Firestorm/Jason Rusch (Donald Glover)

I love Community more than Modern Family, and Donald Glover might be the most effortlessly affable and watchable star on TV.  He sort of/kind of campaigned for the role of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, and I think it would have been a bold and exciting choice given how much the first hour of that movie just retreaded stuff from the first Spider-Man flick.  I think Glover would make an awesome Firestorm, a better Jason or Ronnie than any other young actor.

Professor Martin Stein (David Strathairn) *

The role of Professor Stein requires one defining characteristic over all others: a strong voice with resonance and authority.  A good chunk of his screen time would be as a disincorporated voice chiming in Firestorm's head.  There was one actor who jumped instantly to mind: David Strathairn, an actor I love and whose voice I could listen to read the phonebook (if there was literally no other book in the world to read).

Strathairn's perfectly pitched voice sounds fatherly and wise even with a bit of a rural drawl.  He would make a terrific counterbalance for either Reid Ewing's Ronnie or Donald Glover's Jason.

In the next installment of this series, I'll unfold the story for Firestorm: The Nuclear Man, its possible sequels, and the cast of supporting characters and villains.

To Be Continued…


* My sole reservation with Strathairn is his age.  I'd like the option for Stein to be a little bit younger, a little more active, and for that, my second choice pick for Martin Stein is John C. McGinley.

McGinley has a lot of the same great qualities as David Strathairn with a lot more energy.  His Stein could be played more stern, more weary, and more troubled by Ronnie's arrested development.

Fan-Casting DC's FIRESTORM: Part 1

Outlining the next two movies in my Justice League trilogy is taking some time, but it's oh so much fun.  While toiling over this project, I allowed the character-to-actor matching process to carry me away, and now, well, I have more than 150 heroes, villains, or supporting players in the DC Universe cast.

I likely won't start posting my write-up and cast for Justice League: The Brave and the Bold for another couple weeks.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few of casting decisions for characters who will not be gracing the main Justice League trilogy, but who could possibly appear in later sequels or their own features.

To kick things off, I present my much simpler vision for a Firestorm movie franchise.

More Howie Long. More Howie Long.

Or wait, maybe I meant this guy:

More fire hair.  More fire hair.

I dedicate this series to the Irredeemable Shag at Firestorm Fan.

Before going further, I want to address my absolute lack of faith that Warner Bros. would ever make a Firestorm movie on their own.  If the studio has a list somewhere of fifty potential films based on DC Comics properties, I'm sure Firestorm doesn't make the cut.  Of course, the first 35 titles on the list are Batman, so it's really a matter of Firestorm not making the other fifteen.  And that's unfortunate, because to me, Firestorm is the easiest hero in DC's stable to bring to the theater.

Warner Bros. and DC have struggled to make movies starring Superman and Green Lantern that appeal to fans, critics, and general audiences, and they're too scared to even try it with Wonder Woman.  To a certain extent, I don't blame them.  DC heroes aren't like Marvel heroes.  DC characters would be superior people even if they didn't have powers.  Marvel characters use their powers for good despite their human flaws.

Marvel is the company of antiheroes, and I don't mean the type who shoot guns, wear trench coats, and kill their enemies.  No, I mean antihero in the classic sense: someone who acts heroically despite physical or character flaws that would make them seem less than ideal.  In other words: damn near all of Marvel's heroes.  Spider-Man is an antihero because Peter Parker is a nerdy science geek who gets picked on in school.  Iron Man is an antihero because Tony Stark is an arrogant, womanizing, alcoholic.  And these two less-than-ideal but all-too-relatable heroes have become the archetypes that Marvel Studios has built its cinematic universe around.

DC heroes, on the other hand, are far less relatable.  If Clark Kent didn't have superpowers, he would still be a crusading journalist for truth and justice.  If Hal Jordan didn't have a power ring, he would still be a death-defying test pilot.  If Barry Allen weren't the fastest man alive, he would still solve crimes for the Central City Police.  If Batman never donned the cape and cowl, he would still be the world's greatest detective, as well as one of the richest men in the world, one of the smartest men in the world, one of the best fighters in the world.

If your skull housed a nuclear furnace, you'd
wear some funky sleeves, too.

But that doesn't hold true for Firestorm, because Gerry Conway and Al Milgrom created him in the Marvel model.  In fact, the character was based on Spider-Man--with a twist.  Instead of the nerdy kid, who gets teased relentlessly by the dumb jock, getting powers in a scientific accident, Firestorm's protagonist is the dumb jock, and the nerd his constant tormenter.

It's a perfect formula for a movie, because it combines the basic plot structure of Spider-Man, with the character arc of Iron Man.  Ronnie Raymond is a cocky, egotistical star athlete at the beginning, but when given superpowers, he must learn humility and responsibility for the good of everyone.

In Part 2 of this series, I'll get into my plans and backup plans for the main character, explain my casting decisions, and provide a very loose outline for the first movie.  If you've been following my Justice League fan-cast, don't expect twenty posts to tell the story.  This is a very modest story outline.  Like, a paragraph probably.  And then in Part 3, I'll do the same for a sequel movie… and beyond.

Come back soon, and be prepared to fan the flame!

Super-Team Family: Black Canary and Mockingbird

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming to the small screen this month.  As I understand it, the core cast of agents, besides Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson, are all brand new characters created for the pilot.  That was disappointing to learn, given that S.H.I.E.L.D. has so many terrific existent characters.  Mostly, I thought a Joss Whedon-helmed spy series for television would be the perfect launching point for one of Marvel's female superheroes who has yet to grace movie theaters.

I thought maybe the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman could lead the show, or possibly a pre-Ms. Marvel Carol Danvers.  But the best option, I thought, was Mockingbird.

Which segues adequately enough with today's post: another one of Ross' DC/Marvel custom crossover covers from the Super-Team Family blog.  Below Ross has depicted Black Canary and Mockingbird teaming up to save their bow-wielding beaus!

Courtesy of Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues blog.

Ross points out the similarities in character design, motif, and taste in men, so much so that Dinah and Bobbi could be alternate universe versions of the same character.  This cover, like all of Ross' work, is outstanding.  It helps when he uses a Black Canary model drawn by the dude, Steve Rude.

Check out Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues for many, many more DC/Marvel crossover covers!

Black Canary in Channel 52 News!

This post is a month overdue, but at the time it would have been relevant I was caught up in the early parts of my Justice League fan-cast epic.

In the August 7th installment of "Channel 52," which appears in the back of every DC Comic, Black Canary was spotlighted as an example of a character with "super powers".

It's ironic, I think, to equate Dinah with a "super-powered" hero since there are so many higher profile characters with more overt, well-known powers.  Also, I dislike her Canary Cry and wish she didn't have it anymore.

Black Canary Poster by Mike Mahle

This gorgeous movie poster-style image is by artist Mike Mahle.  It's a wonderful homage to the jet setting spy films of James Bond, with a touch of pulp magazine, I think, in some of the lettering.  A perfect combination for Black Canary… the Fighting Female in Fishnets.

See more of Mike's work at DeviantART here.

Canary Comics for December '13

Cover by Jorge Molina.

BIRDS OF PREY #26

The Birds strike back!  Canary cuts loose against Regulus!  Condor cuts loose on Tsiklon!  Batgirl and Strix cut loose on everybody!  Will it be enough for them to escape with their lives?

Written by Christy Marx

Art by Romano Molenaar and Jonathan Glapion

On sale December 18
32 Pages
U.S. Price: 2.99

I don't even remember what this storyline is about, and since there won't be a Birds of Prey issue this month, it'll be an even longer time before we get back into it.  And then the November issue is a Batman: Zero Year tie-in.  Ugh… I think Villains Month is going to cost BoP what few readers are holding on.  I predict a new creative team or a cancelation notice by February.

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 18

Click here to review Part 17.

So far:

Umm… the movie.

Epilogue(s)

We move from a three-shot of Batman, Superman and Lois Lane outside the Middleton Space Center to a montage of quiet, somewhat slowed down shots revealing the aftermath of the robot attack on Metropolis.

We see people tentatively coming out of their homes or buildings, surveying the devastation, and looking up at the sky as if for answers.  Police and firefighters help people trapped under debris.  Jimmy Olsen finally puts his camera down to console a frightened kid.

We see rows of hospital beds with people lying on the fronts or sides.  Each of the people in bed has a starro implant on his or her neck.  A team of doctors and nurses in hazmat suits attempt to remove one of the starros surgically.  It's not going well.  They shake their heads in frustration.

We see Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage) walking beside a medical gurney which carries Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson) toward the Wayne Enterprises private jet.  A trio of nurses and medics push the gurney.  We see the jet take off and leave Metropolis.

Running over these images is a monologue spoken by The Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief, Perry White (Tim Matheson).  Perry gives us numbers for the dead and wounded, the collateral damage to property and infrastructure, and recounts the tales of heroism, not just from Superman, but the everyday citizen, in the face of inexplicable horror.

He ends the monologue saying, "Your name is all over this mess, Mister Wayne," and we cut to inside Bruce's private jet.  Perry White is on speaker phone.

Perry (phone): "You may own this paper now, sir, but if you think for a second that I won't pursue this story every bit as aggressively as--"
Bruce: "Stop there, Perry.  If you soften your coverage of this horrible tragedy at all, if you hide anything to help me save face… I'll fire you."
Perry (beat): "I'm glad to hear that, Mister Wayne."
Bruce: "My press office will release a statement later.  After that, if you need any further statements, have Clark Kent call me."

Cut to the LexCorp Factory.

Lex Luthor (James Nesbitt) watches a group of technicians tend to John Corben (Michael Biehn).  They use a jaws of life-like device to remove the chest plate from the Metallo armor.  There is a medic there, telling him Corben is alive.  Luthor doesn't care; he's far more interested in the kryptonite, shards of which are imbedded in Corben's chest, heart, lungs and throat.

We hear Clark Kent (Jon Hamm) and Bruce Wayne speaking over the end of this scene, as Luthor turns around to take in the damage done to his factory during the the battle.

Clark states the obvious fact that Luthor built the combat drones in violation of his contract with Wayne Enterprises.  Luthor also built the battle armor and had Corben steal the kryptonite from S.T.A.R. Labs Gotham.  Bruce tells him none of that will hold up.  Luthor is protected by Mercy Graves' treachery.  Every illegal thing Luthor did can be laid at the feet of his shape changing alien secretary, who has vanished.

Luthor's crimes will go unpunished, but Mercy/Bel Juz succeeded in damaging the LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises brands.  Stocks are plummeting.  Congressional committees are convening.  People are panicking.

Cut To: The Kent Farm, Smallville.

"So I held my hand up like this, but with my
X-ray vision, I could still see you and Ma
having sex before breakfast."

Clark Kent sits in the kitchen of his parents' home.  The robot attack is covered on the TV news in the background.  Martha Kent (Candice Bergen) squeezes her son's hand.  "The news is saying some horrible things about Bruce Wayne," she says, "but I can't say an ill word about him.  Did you hear what he did?"

Clark says he heard Wayne bought the local bank.

"Not just that," Martha says.  "He picked three farms at random and paid off the existing mortgages.  We own the farm now, Clark."  Ma Kent beams, overwhelmed with pride.  Clark is stunned.

He steps out onto the porch where Jonathan Kent (Robert Forster) stares out at his fields.  Pa Kent says, "I guess I'll be able to afford some more help around here now."

Clark smiles.  The smile fades.  "You know I'll visit you every chance I get," he says, as Martha joins her husband and son on the porch.  "But I think I'm going to be busy for a little while."  Clark's parents, with arms around each other, exchange a knowing, troubled look.

Cut To: The Batcave

The extra crispy body of J'Onn J'Onzz (Giancarlo Esposito) lies on a table in the Batcave.  Superman and Batman stand over the body.  

Batman: "Are you a Martian?"
Superman: "No."
Batman: "Would you submit to a few tests to prove it?"
Superman: "What are you going to do, shoot me with a flame thrower?"
Batman: "Not now." (walking away from J'Onn) "But you understand the concern."
Superman: "I told you where I'm from."
Batman: "A planet no one's ever heard of, and you just happen to look human."
Superman: "You're going to have to trust me."
Batman: (unintelligible grumbles)
Superman: "I didn't hear you."
Batman: "I do trust you."
Superman: "I know, I heard you the first time. I hear everything.  But it doesn't explain why you gifted my parents their farm."
Batman: "When I found out who you were, I couldn't comprehend someone with your powers needing to hide his identity.  Then I found out about your parents."

Batman looks away, remembering Thomas and Martha Wayne, remembering how he saw them in Bel Juz's psychic attack.

"They'll always make you vulnerable," he says.

"My parents aren't a weakness, Bruce," Superman says.  "They're my strength.  Just like yours."

Batman calls up a map of the Earth on the computer.  There are several targeted locations on the map representing the places where the space station's escape pods touched down.  They agree that every one of the pods might have contained starro creatures that escaped to infect indigenous populations before Superman recovered the pods.

"This is big," Superman says.

Batman taps a button on the computer.  The map of the Earth is replaced by multiple images and videos of other superheroes.  Wonder Woman.  Aquaman.  Green Lantern.  The Flash.  The pictures and videos are of different quality--mostly security camera or smartphone--and some are just headlines in tabloid magazines.  But we know who they mean.

Batman says, "We could use some help."

Pull back on Superman and Batman studying the others and--

Fade To Black

End of first movie: Justice League: The World's Finest *

* WAIT!

That was the last scene of this movie, but you may not have read the first scene yet.  If you've been following this story for the last three weeks, please go back and check out Parts 1 and 2 again because I have rewritten the opening of World's Finest.  It now features a prologue showcasing the iconic origins that our two heroes deserve.

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 17

Click here to review Part 16.

So far:

Lois Lane was saved by the Martian, J'Onn J'Onzz, who warned her of an imminent alien invasion.  Batman and Superman pursued Mercy Graves to the LexCorp Factory.  There, Superman was ambushed by John Corben wearing battle armor powered by kryptonite which is poisoning Superman.  Mercy revealed to Batman her true self, a Martian named Bel Juz, and sent a dozen combat drones to wreak havoc in Metropolis.

Bel Juz (Sanaa Lathan) steps back, regarding the Caped Crusader with new interest after he fights through her psychic attack.  She admits to being impressed.  Batman (Richard Armitage) palms a small remote control device and tells her to hold that thought.  Abruptly, the computers that Bel Juz used to program the drones, as well as the tablet in her hand, flash red with a warning: NEW PROGRAM UPLOADED.  "What have you done?" she hisses.

"You got the program codes from Lucius Fox," Batman says.  "He got them from me."

At once, the other construction and excavation drones, some of them unfinished, come alive.  The nearest one grabs Bel Juz with heavy mechanized clamps.  On the other side of the assembly line, John Corben (Michael Biehn) is about to pull Superman's arms off.  He taunts Superman (Jon Hamm), describing what he'll do with the Man of Steel's body when he's finished killing him.

Pictured: imminent death.

A construction drone swings a heavy pneumatic hammer into Corben's side, throwing him into two other drones who clamp down on Corben's armor.  Superman falls forward on his hands and knees.  Blood drips from his mouth, nose, maybe even his eyes.

"On your feet, farm boy," Batman calls to him.  He sits at the computers and taps away at the keyboard.  The two drones holding Corben slam a sheet of lead on his armor over the kryptonite chamber.  One of the drones begins soldering the lead over the kryptonite as Corben snarls and struggles.  Metallo's weapons suite kicks in and dismantles the two drones.  The lead sheet is only partially attached to the armor.

Superman stands up.  His eyes burn as a heat vision blast fuzes the rest of the metal, covering the kryptonite.  Corben barely has a moment to voice his outrage before Superman runs up and punches him in the face.  Corben crashes through some more machinery.

Bel Juz breaks free of the construction drone holding her.  She leaps at Batman, her arms change shape to amorphous green hammers and crush the computer bank that was controlling the drones.  Wild, she hisses and goes for Batman.  Before she reaches him, Superman burns her with heat vision and throws her against the wall.

Batman picks up the tablet and runs diagnostics on the combat drones.  He tells Superman he didn't have time to reprogram them; Superman is the only one who can shut them down before they take anymore lives.

Superman: "I'm on it.  Just needed to catch my breath."
Batman: "Don't stop to sunbathe this time."

Superman begins to take flight, hovering ten feet off the ground.  He points to Bel Juz, who is getting back on her feet.  He tells Batman that Bel Juz looks like the thing he fought last night at the police station, and he thinks fire might be the key to slowing her down.  Then he's up, up, and away!

Benedict Arnold?  Oh, snap--Colonial burn!

Batman turns and squares off with Bel Juz.  He presses a button on the tablet.  Two construction drones nearest Bel Juz activate their cutting torches.  She curses Batman and runs, phasing through the wall.  From behind Batman, Corben breaks through the wreckage of broken factory equipment and drones.  He howls, echoing the curses Bel Juz said.

Batman fires a taser into Corben's armor, says something like, "Stay out of Gotham," and a surge of electricity courses through the Metallo armor, frying its circuits.  The kryptonite chamber explodes, sending shards of the alien meteorite into Corben's chest, lungs, and heart.  He drops, unconscious.

Superman makes the short trip from the industrial district to Downtown Metropolis.  He can hear the screams of fear and pain as the combat drones target civilians and buildings.  People in bumper-to-bumper traffic abandon their cars and race down the street as a drone unloads armor-piercing shells into cars, vans, streetlights, everything.  A woman, trapped in her car, looks out the cracked windshield as the drone squats down to execute her.

Almost faster than the eye can see, Superman flies--fists forward--straight through the drone, leaving a giant hole in the center of the machine's chassis.  It sparks and dies.

Across town, Detective Dan Turpin (Mike Starr) and a handful of SWAT Team members are doing their pitiful best to hold off another drone.  Superman swoops by at blazing speed, grabs the drone by the arm or leg, and carries it off.  In one seemingly-fluid move, he spins like a discus thrower and tosses the robot at yet another combat drone down the street.  They slam into each other with enough force to shatter into pieces.

Cut To: Middleton Space Center

Commander Blanx (Thomas Kretschmann) is burnt and pissed off.  He uses the communication device we first saw him using to contact "Mercy Graves" back in Part 6.  This time, Bel Juz's face appears in the screen.  We have no sense of place for her, but she looks as furious as Blanx.

He tells her J'Onn J'Onzz is alive on Earth and here at the Middleton Space Center, attempting to warn the humans of their plan.  Whatever he does will be too late, Bel Juz tells him, but Blanx snarls that he wants J'Onn dead.

Bel Juz sighs with the weight of a heavy decision.  "Very well," she says.  "Fulfill your mission, Commander, knowing I recount your glory when the Master arrives."  End communication.

Back in Metropolis, Superman rips the leg off one of the drones and then proceeds to beat the robot to pieces with its own appendage.  Outside the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen (Kevin McHale) is running against the crowd to get pictures of the action.  He crouches down behind cover and frames the iconic shot: Superman lifting a car over his head and throwing it down into one of the drones, as an homage to the cover of Action Comics #1.

When I was a kid I thought we'd all be flying these by now.

Batman calls Superman from the cockpit of the Bat-plane or Batwing.  We intercut between Batman piloting the craft away from LexCorp to shots of Superman punching and kicking another drone or two.  Batman says he's tracking the remaining drones and two of them have peeled off and are heading away from the city.  He can't shut them down electronically, but he's pursuing them.

Superman asks where they're going.  Batman reads their trajectory.

"Middleton," Superman says.  Then his eyes go wide with sudden realization.  "Lois."

In the C&C of the Middleton Space Center, J'Onn J'Onzz (Giancarlo Esposito) is at a computer beside Lois Lane (Jennifer Carpenter) when Commander Blanx phases through the floor/computer and hits J'Onn in the face, then grabs him and pulls him forward, smashing his head into the computer.

J'Onn and Blanx engage in a savage, unrestrained battle.  Each of them, at times, changes into inhuman monsters for physical or tactical advantage.  Lois is mostly an astonished bystander.  Maybe she tries to help J'Onn, which only puts herself at greater risk, forcing him to fight harder to save her.

In the sky above the space center, Batman follows the two rogue drones in the Bat-plane.  One of them stops in mid-air, turns around and fires rockets at the Bat-plane.  He evades the rockets, deploys counter-measures, you know, all the standard dogfighting maneuvers, before shooting down the drone that attacked him.

The last drone lands outside the space center and opens fire on the facility with a barrage of missiles.

Inside the C&C, Blanx has J'Onn beaten, when the wall behind them simply explodes.  Blanx looks around in surprise, and J'Onn kicks him directly into the path of a fireball.  Blanx goes up in flames and drops.

The one superpower Martian Manhunter doesn't have!

Lois screams as the wall collapses and the ceiling begins to cave.  J'Onn runs to her as the room ignites.  Fire all around, he drops to his knees.  In agony, he crawls toward Lois.  She watches him come for her, even as fire overtakes him.  J'Onn's hand reaches for Lois, a mere foot away.

Outside, the combat drone continues to fire on the building.  Batman locks target on the robot, about to blow it to hell, when the Bat-plane is actually rocked off course by the wake of Superman's flight.

Superman lands right on the drone, driving it straight into the tarmac.  Then he kicks up and leaps into the building, crashing through the wall of the C&C.

He scoops up Lois in his arms and carries her out of the building where the Bat-plane is landing nearby.  Scientists, technicians, crew, everyone who was inside the space center is evacuating, but when they see Superman and Batman, they run in the other direction.

Lois frantically pleads with Superman to go back inside and save the Martian.  "Another one?" both men ask at the same time.  Superman rushes back inside.  Lois is just barely keeping herself from both hyperventilating and bawling her eyes out.  Her face is smudged with soot, her clothes singed.  Then she seems to notice the man standing next to her.

Lois: "Holy shit--Batman!"
Batman: "Yeah."
Lois: "Lois Lane, Daily Planet.  Can I get a statement from you?"
Batman: "… I don't like this city."

Superman puts out the fire in the C&C and emerges, holding the charred body of J'Onn J'Onzz.  The Martian is curled up in a fetal position, his skin black as volcanic glass.  He looks like petrified wood.

"He's alive," Superman says.  "I can still hear a heartbeat."

The three of them, Batman, Superman, and Lois Lane, stare at the body of the Martian for a long silent moment.

To Be Continued…

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 16

Click here to review Part 15.

So far:

Separately, but for the same reason, Lois Lane of The Daily Planet and the Martian J'Onn J'Onzz went to the Middleton Space Center investigating the crashed space station.  When J'Onn's presence is detected by another Martian, the villainous Commander Blanx, J'Onn is attacked and Lois is targeted by scientists implanted with Starro seeds.  J'Onn rescues Lois and they flee.  Meanwhile, Superman and Batman chase Mercy Graves to the LexCorp Factory in Metropolis.  Mercy, too, is involved with the Starro creature, as well as John Corben, who has been grafted to a robotic exo-suit called Metallo.

John Corben (Michael Biehn) makes his dramatic debut as Metallo on the LexCorp factory floor.  He reminds Superman of what happened the last time they fought, and now he's got even more weapons at his disposal.  He reaches out and fires a rocket from a wrist-mounted launcher.

Batman (Richard Armitage) pulls Mercy Graves (Sanaa Lathan) to the floor as Superman (Jon Hamm) stands in front of them and punches the rocket.  It explodes, sending fire and debris around, but Batman and Mercy are shielded from the full effect of the blast by Superman and his cape.

"I can also give animals extra eyes and legs."

Mercy snarls at Corben to be more careful.  Superman rushes to attack Corben, even while Batman calls for him to stop.  Too late, Superman learns the awful source of Metallo's power.  A panel opens in the chest plate, revealing the stolen supply of kryptonite.

Superman staggers back as if physically hit, which is precisely what happens next.  Corben swings his powerful metallic fist and knocks Superman into some factory machinery.  Of course, when something is powerful to knock Superman into machinery, he rips through it like a rock through paper.

As Corben goes after Superman, Batman lifts up and pulls a batarang from his belt.  Before he throws it, Mercy grabs him by the wrist.  He grunts; her grip is strong--too strong.  He swings his free hand… and she catches it.  Mercy smiles and pulls Batman's hands together.  He struggles and she throws him across the room.

"That felt really good," Mercy says, while Batman picks himself up.  She says it's been too long since she's been able to really let her hair down or something similar to that.  And then she physically changes, turning the same pale-green we've seen with J'Onn J'Onzz and Commander Blanx.  She stands, fully revealed, as not Mercy Graves, but the Martian woman, Bel Juz.

Cut To: Middleton Space Center

I would have Lois dress this way all the time.

"You're from Mars?" Lois Lane (Jennifer Carpenter) asks, as J'Onn J'Onzz (Giancarlo Esposito) carries her to the facility's Command & Control Center.  He puts her down and they run inside.  A nerdy astronomer gets up from his computer and charges them with his fists.

J'Onn grabs the man's face.  His fingers phase through the man's head, forcing the man to scream.  J'Onn bites back the pain of psychic feedback as the Starro seed on the astronomer detaches and flies toward J'Onn and Lois.  J'Onn smacks it to the floor and steps on it.  He grabs the man's keycard and runs it through the reader on the door, then punches in a code he took from the man's mind and locks down the C&C.

The room looks similar to the bridge of a space ship. It is full of computers, radar and communication stations, and the far wall is one giant 3D map of the solar system.  J'Onn brushes past Lois and goes to one of the computers.  He begins calling up data as Lois asks what the hell is going on.

J'Onn: "I'm sorry, Miss Lane.  You weren't supposed to be here.  I planted a psychic suggestion in your mind that you should avoid this place."
Lois: "Yeah?  I guess it didn't take."
J'Onn: "Do you often go places you're told not to?"
Lois (offering her hand): "Lois Lane. Daily Planet."

J'Onn tells Lois that her world is on the brink of invasion from an advanced alien conqueror.

Lois: "Looks to me like it's already started."
J'Onn: "Starro is part of the advance wave.  They'll compromise this world's governments, militaries, economies."
Lois: "Psychological warfare?"
J'Onn: "Yes.  Then when Earth is adequately softened, the real invasion begins."
Lois: "Who are you?"
J'Onn: "A refugee."
Lois: "From Mars?"
J'Onn: "Yes."
Lois: "And you know all this because…?"
J'Onn: "It happened to my world first."

Cut To: LexCorp Factory

You're welcome, Frank.

Bel Juz taps some buttons on a portable tablet.  The combat drones on the assembly line respond with electronic whirs and clicks.  Batman throws a trio of batarangs that simply pass through Bel Juz as she turns intangible.  She turns solid again, continues tapping the tablet, and part of the factory ceiling opens up on the morning sky above.

Batman charges.  He throws punches and kicks that she easily deflects or sidesteps.  "What are you?" he asks.

"Besides superior to you in every way, you mean?" she fires back.  They fight, and while Batman may be one of the greatest fighters on Earth, she is not of Earth.  Her powers counteract nearly all of his attacks and gadgets.  She becomes intangible, invisible, changes form, flies, and attacks with super strength and speed.  More than anything, she's toying with Batman.  And all the while, she continues to activate the combat drones.

(I would like to have to Bel Juz change shape more during their fight, taking on different, recognizable personas, like Catwoman (Katie McGrath), so she could do some sexy acrobatic fighting, or even Superman, so we could see Superman and Batman hitting each other.  What I don't want, though, is to confuse this scene and leave the impression that the Catwoman we met earlier in the movie was Bel Juz/Mercy Graves in disguise.)

On the other side of the factory, Corben unleashes his arsenal on Superman.  Machine guns, blades, all automated and fueled by his kryptonite power source, bombarding the Man of Steel.  Superman tries to get his distance.  He leaps up, trying to fly, but he just falls back.  His face is pale, sweaty.

"Make it easy on yourself," Corben says, kicking Superman in the guts, knocking him to his knees.  "Give up!"  He brings his robotic arm down.

In a desperate act, Superman reaches up and catches the fist.  "Never," he says.  His nose begins to bleed.  Corben punches with the other hand, driving Superman's head into the floor.  Then Corben looks up to see the dozen combat drones take off.  They fly on booster rockets through the opening in the ceiling and head away.

Batman: "You're not going to conquer the world with a dozen robots."
Bel Juz: "Call it… tenderizing.  A couple thousand fatalities, hopefully.  Lots of property damage before the drones are brought down.  And when they're brought down, everyone will see LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises on the hulls.  The biggest corporations in the world will crumble.  Economies will fail.  Politics will fail.  What will your people do then?  What will they believe in?"

Of course, Lex Luthor would design
something more subtle.

As Bel Juz delivers her monologue, we cut away to see the rogue combat drones descending on different parts around Metropolis.  Citizens are startled as the hulking robots begin targeting people.  At the Daily Planet building, Perry White (Tim Matheson) and Jimmy Olsen (Kevin McHale), among others, gaze out the window as machines start to open fire and blow up cars.

"They won't lose hope," Batman says.

Bel Juz laughs again, asking, "Are you the best defense your world has to offer?  You have no hope.  We know Superman's weakness."

Her arms wrap around Batman like snakes.  Her hand grabs him by the throat, her fingers worm up to the crown of his cowl and phase through into his head.  "And I know yours," she says, as Batman screams and collapses.

But he doesn't land on the factory floor.  He's on a cold, wet, and dark city street.  He tosses and turns as if coming out of sleep and reaches out.  His hand touches another.  There's a body lying on the street.  Two bodies.  Under a white street lamp.

Batman sits upright, looks around in horror.  He turns and slumps on his knees.  Around him are the fresh corpses of his parents.  Batman holds the hands of his dead parents and begins to cry.  Suddenly, he isn't Batman, but an eight-year-old Bruce Wayne.  Then his parents (Stephen Moyer as Thomas and Kate Winslet as Martha) begin to speak to him.  They hold him tightly, encouraging him to stop dwelling on their deaths, telling him there was nothing he could do then, there's nothing he can do now.

"Stop fighting, son," they tell him.

From a distance, another voice shouts, "Fight, Bruce!"

He looks up.  Under another street lamp, he sees Superman, bloody, sick, dying.  Corben/Metallo grabs both of Superman's arms and begins pulling them in opposite directions.  Superman gasps, screams, then looks at young Bruce Wayne and says, "Never stop fighting!"

Batman stands up and the dark alley where his parents died fades away.  He's back in the factory staring down Bel Juz.

"That was a mistake," he growls.

To Be Continued…

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 15

Click here to review Part 14.

So far:

The aliens have made their move.  When Bruce Wayne came to Lex Luthor's office with evidence of illegal dealings, Luthor's assistant, Mercy Graves, unleashed Starro seeds to possess the executives.    Lucius Fox was caught and infected by Starro, but Bruce and Lex escaped with a helpful assist from Superman.  Meanwhile, the enigmatic John Jones infiltrated the Middleton Space Center under the guise of Daily Planet reporter, Lois Lane.  But when the real Lois Lane arrived to interview Doctor Erdel, both she and Jones are captured.

Metropolis police have LexCorp Tower under lockdown.  Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage) and Lex Luthor (James Nesbitt) are under armed guard.  The doors open and Superman (Jon Hamm) walks out with EMTs and Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson), semi-conscious on a gurney.  Bruce runs up to Lucius as the medics roll him to an ambulance.  Superman tells him how he used his heat vision to burn the starfish creature off Lucius' neck; it didn't give up easily, but the medics were able to stabilize Lucius.

Superman watches a lot of Grey's.

Superman says there are thirty other men and women inside with those things attached, all of them in a kind of daze.  Also, there was no sign of Mercy Graves.  The EMTs put Lucius in the ambulance.  Superman and Bruce step aside.

Bruce: "Thank you for seeing to him first.  And for showing up when you did."
Superman: "You don't have to thank me."
Bruce: "Your world of aliens and monsters has become mine."
Superman: "Seems that way.  I was truly surprised you needed me so soon after our last talk."
Bruce: "I could have handled that myself under other circumstances.  But with Lex there, I couldn't be too effective."
Superman: "Fine."

One of the EMTs calls Bruce back to the ambulance.  Lucius is pulling his oxygen mask off and trying to speak.  He's in rough shape but he holds Bruce's hand.  "She was in my head," he mutters.  Bruce tells him it's okay, but Lucius shakes his head.  "The programs," he stammers, "the drone programs… She can control them.  She's going there."

"… And next time, I'll play scissors, paper, rock!"

Cut To: LexCorp Factory

Mercy Graves (Sanaa Lathan) enters the sub-level production lab where the Metallo armor is stored.  John Corben (Michael Biehn) is there on a hospital-style bed, and Professor Vale (David Clennon) is there as well, tinkering.  Mercy tells Corben that he's getting his wish early and tells Vale to put him in the Metallo armor now.

Cut To: Middleton Space Center

In the medical wing, John Jones (Giancarlo Esposito) faces off against Commander Blake (Thomas Kretschmann).  Blake abruptly changes to Blanx, revealing his pale-green Martian form.  In kind, John Jones reveals his own Martian form, that of J'Onn J'Onzz.

Blanx: "I thought you were dead."
J'Onn: "I prayed you were."

They exchange a few lines, speaking cryptically about a war, a betrayal, and Blanx's new Master.

Blanx: "Are you finally willing to join me, J'Onn?"
J'Onn: "You would destroy this planet like you destroyed ours."
Blanx: "This world is doomed already.  I offer you the chance to stand with the victors… instead of the dead."

J'Onn seems to consider it, lowering his gaze for a moment, then he looks up with fierce defiance in his eyes.  "My'ria'h," he says.  Blanx sneers and lunges for him.  J'Onn reaches to the medical cart near the crew member's bed and grabs an oxygen tank.  Blanx kicks him, which throws him across the room.

A case for global border control:
put a stop to alien-on-alien violence!

J'Onn gets up, still holding the oxygen tank in one hand, and punches his other through the wall, pulling out electrical wires that throw sparks in the air.  Blanx charges him.  At the last minute J'Onn leaps forward and becomes intangible, phasing through the other.  They both stop and spin around.  J'Onn slams the oxygen tank on the floor, breaking off the spigot, venting pure oxygen.  He throws it at the wall by Blanx; a spark from the wiring ignites the gas and the tank explodes.

Fire shoots in all directions.  Blanx screams as he's burned.  He falls down paralyzed, surrounded by flames.  J'Onn, too, collapses roughly to the ground, but he's farther from the fire and he begins to crawl away.  Almost immediately, the fire sets off the alarms and the sprinklers go off.

In the lobby, Lois Lane (Jennifer Carpenter) is still being held by security and Doctor Erdel (Bob Gunton).  Erdel says, "You're not going to report on what's going on here, Miss Lane.  You're going to join us."  He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small container.  She doesn't know what it is, but given the craziness of what's happening, she knows it ain't good.

Just as Erdel is about to open the container, the alarm system goes off.  Everyone is shocked except for Lois, because she was already pretty alarmed.  She elbows the guard that was holding her and makes a run for it.

Lois Lane wouldn't be in danger so much if she acted more like a
HuffPost reporter, quoting stories from The Onion and linking
pictures of silly cats. 

They chase, cutting her off from the exit, so she has to run down the hall further into the space center.  Security, technicians, crewmen, basically everyone who works there pop out into the hallway trying to catch her.  She gets cornered.  Erdel arrives, still holding the container.  He opens it and pulls out a Starro.  "Nowhere left to go, Miss Lane," he says.

"Superman," Lois mutters, backing into the wall, "I could really use a save right now."

Erdel closes in reaching for her with the Starro--

--when suddenly, a big green fist clamps down on Erdel, crushing the scientist's hand and the Starro in it.  Lois looks up and sees J'Onn J'Onzz towering over her.  He pushes Erdel back into the brainwashed guards.  They rush him but he easily fends them off with his superior strength.  Then he picks Lois up and flies down the hall away from their would-be captors.

Cut To: LexCorp Factory

On the factory floor, Mercy Graves sits at a computer terminal booting up the assembled line of drones. There are roughly a dozen combat drones that "awaken" as Mercy's fingers strike the keyboard.  The rest of drones are the construction/excavation models.  As the drones begin to come alive, the lights go out in the factory.

Mercy looks up from the computer and smiles.  "I know you're there, Mister Wayne," she says.  Backup power kicks in, illuminating the factory with emergency lighting.  "Lucius Fox was joined with us long enough to tell me everything."

"I doubt that," Batman says, stepping out of the shadows behind the computers.

Mercy taunts him, telling him he would enjoy the surrender of joining with Starro.  No more sorrow, she says, no more loneliness.

Mercy: "When my Master comes, all will join with us.  A world without violence, without aggression, without crime.  Isn't that what you've always wanted?"
Batman: "A world of slaves.  I'll pass."
Mercy: "Then you'll die, because you're too late to stop us."

Superman drops down behind Mercy, shaking the ground with his landing.  She whirls around to face him.  Superman says, "It's never too late."

Mercy laughs.  "Superman is here," she says to someone they can't see.  "Come say hello."

A deafening clang rocks the factory.  Superman and Batman watch a service door getting hammered in as something on the other side smashes away at the wall.  At last, a pair of metal fists punch through the wall and rip it away.  Emerging from the hole is John Corben… now Metallo.

To quote Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "If I woke up looking like that,
I would just run toward the nearest living thing and kill it."

To Be Continued…

Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 14

Click here to review Part 13.

So far:

The evil Martian shape-shifter, Commander Blanx, tried to kill John Corben at the police station.  Superman arrived in time to save Corben, but not before the mercenary thief was badly injured in by a gas explosion.  In the aftermath of the fight, both Blanx and Corben managed to escape separately.  Meanwhile, Batman's investigation of the missing kryptonite led him to the LexCorp factory, where unmanned construction drones were being assembled in a joint effort by LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises.  Batman discovered that Lex Luthor was diverting money and resources to a side project: building armed drones designed for combat.

At the end of the second act, I need at least two more scenes.  One really quick scene of a weakened, badly scarred John Corben (Michael Biehn) tracking down Lex Luthor (James Nesbitt).  Corben waits with a gun for Luthor and Mercy Graves (Sanaa Lathan) in Luthor's limousine, fighting off the shock and trauma of his injuries.  Corben rightly believes Luthor sent an assassin to kill him, but Luthor has no idea about the shapeshifting creature that fought Superman.

They already sound married.

Lex Luthor tries to buy Corben off, but the other man says there is only one thing he wants now:  Metallo so he can get revenge on Superman and Blanx.

The other scene I think we need is a sort of debriefing between Batman and Superman.  They both think Luthor sent another alien to silence Corben, but Superman doesn't know where this other being came from or how it got involved with Luthor.  Batman doesn't have an answer to that, and probably says he doesn't care.  He found evidence that Luthor violated the terms of their deal and is building war machines.  Maybe he found evidence of the kryptonite robbery, too, and plans to bring Luthor down in the morning.

Batman could be/would be very dismissive of this mysterious other alien that Superman fought.  This isn't Batman's problem to deal with.  Maybe this is how Batman's fear manifests in this act, and Superman calls him on it.  They could have a heated argument about these themes and go their separate ways.

Act III - Middleton, Metropolis, and Gotham

The following morning, Lois Lane (Jennifer Carpenter) arrives at the Middleton Space Center.  She is let through the security gate and greeted by Doctor Saul Erdel (Bob Gunton).  She is shown around the facility, she views the Command & Control center where they monitor the space station and other deep space satellites and craft.  They pass by the medical wing where Lois observes at least one of the crew members from the space station in a hospital bed.

Doctor Erdel tells her the person to interview for a story in The Daily Planet is Commander Blake, but Lois asks if she can use the ladies room before they proceed.  Erdel, slightly annoyed, shows her to the restroom and waits patiently outside.

At roughly the same time in Metropolis, Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage) and Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson) storm into Lex Luthor's office in LexCorp Tower.  Along with a Bruce and Lucius are a few Metropolis police officers and some federal agents.  (Okay, I don't know anything about corporations or what, if any, federal agency would have over site over this particular matter, but Bruce and Lucius arrive with evidence that Luthor violated the terms of their contract to create weapons, and maybe evidence that Lex had the kryptonite stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs.)  Lex is shocked, outraged!  He bellows and hollers, while Mercy goes to the desk and makes a phone call.

Lex continues to argue with Lucius and the feds, decrying the "evidence" as doctored.  Bruce lets them do all the talking and, out of the corner of his eye, watches Mercy hang up the phone and go to a hidden safe in the wall.  From the safe she withdraws a small cylindrical canister, that we recognize as the same thing Commander Blake/Blanx put in the escape pods before crashing the space station.

A team of security guards enter the office.  Mercy orders them to restrain Bruce, Lucius, Lex, the cops and the feds.  Lex whirls on Mercy, further outraged as his own security guard grabs him behind the arms.  Mercy Graves opens the canister and a dozen Starro seeds fly out at the captives.

Surprise starfish attack!

Before they reach him, Bruce lifts off his feet and kicks out, his feet slamming into Lex, knocking both of them and the guards holding them to the floor.  He looks up and sees a Starro attach itself to the back of a fed's neck.  More Starros attach to the cops and even Lucius.  Bruce elbows the guard who had been holding him and rolls across the floor, avoiding another guard.  He swats away a Starro just before it gets Lex.  He grabs Luthor and pulls him to his feet.

He and Luthor back toward the door.  Bruce grabs Lucius, who is still clutching at his neck where the Starro attached.  Then abruptly, Lucius grabs Bruce's wrist hard.  Lucius stands up straight and stares at Bruce with slightly glassy eyes.  "Call more guards to detain Bruce Wayne," he shouts.  Lucius begins to say, "He is Batman," but Bruce cuts him off before the last word is out by punching Lucius in the throat, apologizing as he does so.

Bruce takes one last look at Mercy Graves, who smirks with the knowledge Lucius' Starro sent her telepathically, then he pushes Luthor out of the office and the two of them run.  The guards, cops, and feds follow like mindless puppets under Starro and Mercy's control.

Cut back to Middleton Space Center.

Erdel is still outside the ladies room when he gets a call from a security guard at the front gate.  The guard tells him Lois Lane is here to see him, and we see that yes, indeed, Lois Lane is in her car at the main gate.  Alarmed, Erdel barges into the ladies room, finding it empty.  He tells the guard to send Lois through to the main building and then have her detained by more security.

And then, looking toward the bathroom mirror but really looking far, far beyond it, Erdel says, "Master, we have an intruder."  We see attached to Erdel's neck is a Starro seed.

In a different part of the space center, we see "Lois Lane" phase through a wall in the corridor outside the medical wing.  "She" then changes shape, becoming John Jones (Giancarlo Esposito).

Cut back to LexCorp Tower.

"Seriously, why would a swinging
bachelor like Bruce Wayne adopt
all these pubescent boys?"

What follows is an intense action-chase scene where Bruce has to get himself and Luthor out of the building, while fighting off brainwashed security guards, but without tipping off his advanced combat training.  Luthor is not an idiot, of course, and, as shocked as he is by what happened in his office, he realizes that Bruce Wayne knows how to fight.  "I was a billionaire orphan at eight years old," Bruce explains.  "I had more kidnapping attempts by age twelve than you've had headlines in the news."

They get cornered and slip into an office on a lower floor.  Bruce does what he can to secure the door while Lex stands by the window.  Bruce asks Lex what he knows about those creatures, but Lex has never seen them before, nor does he understand what overcame Mercy and why she would betray him like this.  While Lex rants about it, Bruce opens a secret pocket under his shirt, withdrawing a communication device--the same he used to speak to Superman.  He also has a small sonic-emitter device.  He whispers, "Hope this gets your attention," and activates the sonic-emitter beside the communication device.  The pitch is too high for he or Lex to hear.

The guards begin kicking and pounding at the door.  Lex, having caught his breath and composure, smugly tells Bruce to open the door and he'll personally talk these treacherous security guards into letting them go.  Bruce refuses, saying their rescue just arrived.  "What are you talking about?" Lex asks, as a shadow falls over him.  He looks over his shoulder.  "No, not him!" he growls.

Superman (Jon Hamm) hovers outside the window.  He looks at Bruce, taps his ear, and mouths, "Can you turn that off?"  Bruce shuts off the sonic-emitter as the office door is kicked in.  A cadre of guards rush in.  Bruce pushes Luthor down behind the desk.  Superman uses his super-breath against the window.  It shatters and the wind and shards of glass force the guards back.

Bruce pushes Lex to the window; Superman grabs the two of them and turns around.  Another guard throws a Starro at Superman, but Bruce catches it before it attaches.  Superman flies them down to the ground.  The Starro struggles in Bruce's hand, and then begins to burn him, spitting a kind of acid-fire from its central eye.  Bruce bites back the pain until they're on the sidewalk, then he throws the Starro on the ground.  Superman cups his hands and breathes, freezing the alien creature.  Lex immediately claims the Starro for himself, saying it came from LexCorp Tower, making it his property.  The police respond and Bruce and Lex have them seal off the entire building because of a possible biologic contagion.

Back to Middleton.

Lois Lane is surrounded by guards in the lobby of the space center.  She protests their aggressive treatment when Doctor Erdel enters with Commander Blake (Thomas Kretschmann).  "Miss Lane, I don't think you're just here to write a story about the space station, are you?" Erdel asks.  Lois reacts, not having a clue what the man is talking about.

Then, without warning, Commander Blake grabs her by the throat and pulls her close to him.  They're nose to nose.  His eyes flicker as he reads her mind.  He gets a mental image of Lois talking to "Detective Jones" after the Corben arrest.  For the briefest moment, he sees Jones in his true form.

Blake releases Lois.  The guards grab her.  Fury and confusion overwhelm Blake as he rushes off down the hall.  Lois is freaking out.  Erdel stands in front of her and asks, "What did you tell the alien about us?"  Lois doesn't know what's happening and says she never told Superman anything about them.  "No," Erdel says, "the other alien."

In the medical wing, John Jones sits with the space station crew member who first observed movement at the edge of the solar system.  Jones talks the young man into a hypnotic stupor, then he reaches out with his hands and touches the man's head.  A flood of images and memories come to him, showing him what happened aboard the station, showing him Starro, and Commander Blake's treachery.

Jones breaks the psychic connection, breathing heavy.  He stands, spins around, coming face to face with Commander Blake, who says, "J'Onn… It's been a long time, my friend."

To Be Continued…