Warning: This entire post is one big spoiler, so stop reading right now if you haven’t seen Justice League.
Superhero superfans have to have their own kind of x-ray vision when it comes to cinematic adaptations of their favorite comic books. Whether it be DC or Marvel, these flicks are typically jam-packed with nods to the source material to reward keen-eyed viewers. Justice League is no exception. The latest installment in the DC Extended Universe unites Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, and, back from the presumed dead, Superman, to form the titular team, along the way giving audiences plenty of callbacks to the comics. Some are tossed off — like Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) noting that he knows “ape sign language” (a winking reference to longtime Flash nemesis Gorilla Grodd) — while others are more deliberate — like Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) designing a round table that seats six “but has room for more,” setting the stage for an expansion of the League in future films. Here are a half dozen of our favorites, as well as the closing-credits sequences, which take the Justice League Easter egging to a whole new level.
— By Ethan Alter and Marcus Errico
Portrait time
Even before we get to the movie, let’s talk about the latest poster (above), which takes its painterly cue from the seminal Justice series by famed writer-artist Alex Ross (below).
Alex Ross’s Justice League from Justice. (Image: DC Comics/Alex Ross)
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Lantern rising
The Emerald Knight has been MIA from the big screen since 2011’s would-be franchise launcher, starring Ryan Reynolds as flyboy Hal Jordan, failed to earn much, er, green. When the Justice League movie roster was revealed and Green Lantern, one of the founding members in the comics, wasn’t included, the conventional wisdom was that DC and Warner Bros. wanted to put a little more distance between the Reynolds debacle before recasting the seminal hero for the DCEU.
Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern. (Photo: Warner Bros.)
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An early sequence in Justice League suggests that Sector 2814’s Lantern will shine brightly once more. While providing Bruce Wayne with a brief recap of the history of those dimension-opening Mother Boxes, Wonder Woman recalls an ancient battle royale that pitted Steppenwolf’s invading forces against the combined forces of the Amazons, Atlanteans, and humans, and Oa’s galactic guardians. During the battle, one soldier in the Lantern Corps is felled by a Parademon, and, as per tradition, his power ring flies off his finger in search of its next host. That suggests there may already be a Green Lantern somewhere on Earth, as the ring would presumably have been handed down to different wearers in the centuries since that fight. And its current owner wouldn’t necessarily have to be Hal: Jon Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner could all join the DC Extended Universe via the upcoming Green Lantern Corps, which is scheduled for a 2020 release.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
The film’s antagonist, Steppenwolf, has had it out for the Earth for centuries. Comic fans recognize him as one of the New Gods, a race of potent aliens that includes one of DC’s biggest bads, Darkseid. Created by the legendary Jack Kirby, Darkseid, Steppenwolf, and their kin attacked each other on the distant worlds of Apokolips and New Genesis before taking their fight to Earth (via the Mother Boxes), where they frequently fought the Justice League.
