My DCU - Injustice League Redesigned by Femmes-Fatales on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Part 26 of my head canon DC Universe redesigns.

ORIGINS

With a new wave of heroes rising to combat the evils unleashed upon the Earth, a secret society is formed within the underworld in order to band against these so-called good guys. Spearheaded by Lex Luthor, this society is the largest and most profitable criminal organization in the world comprised almost exclusively of metahumans. The inner circle, dubbed the Injustice League, is perhaps the deadliest and most dangerous gathering of villains imaginable. These five generals lead their own factions of villains with the intention of achieving total world domination.

BLACK MANTA

David Ray was a marine biologist who spent his every waking moment out at sea. He always felt most comfortable when observing marine life in its natural habitat. David was frequently accompanied on these assignments by his father, a former Navy commander. On one mission, their boat entered into disputed waters between Themyscira and an Atlantean colony. They were immediately swarmed by Atlantean soldiers, who promptly interrogated the humans with vicious torture techniques.

The Amazons eventually interfered, but were too late to prevent the death of David's father at the hands of the Atlantean interrogators. Blaming Aquaman for this event, due to his continued disputes with the Amazons and a lack of control over his rebellious colonies, David became the costumed villain Black Manta. Armed with incredible armour and devastatingly powerful weapons, he now fights as one of the generals in the Secret Society. He's also father to the hero Aqualad, who he had at one time attempted to use as a pawn against Aquaman.

Design-wise, Manta is pretty straightforward. I didn't veer too far away from his canon look. My inspiration here was to marry his usual look with that of a Predator.

THE JOKER

Back when Gotham City was ruled by Carmine Falcone, Jack Napier was a prominent hitman in Falcone's empire known as the Red Hood. During this time, Oswald Cobblepot was rising to prominence as a force to be reckoned with in Gotham City. His successful casino and unpredictable behaviour made him a threat to be feared. Naturally, Jack was assigned to take the wannabe gangster out. Unfortunately, Batman had caught wind of the hit and showed up with the GCPD on his tail in an attempt to stop it. During a skirmish, Jack was knocked into a vat of chemicals and apparently disappeared forever.

Six months later, the psychotic criminal known only as the Joker made his splashy appearance. He helped to usher in a new era of anarchy in the city, constantly playing gangs against one another and killing as many authorities as possible in the process. He also took on a partner - Harley Quinn - and bathed the city in red.

The Joker is hard as hell to redesign, so I really didn't do too much to alter his appearance. I wanted to give him a very classic, old school gangster kind of a look. Like, a purple '70s era pimp or something. Facially, I needed him to be menacing. So he's got parts of his face sewn and his mouth is opened into a freaky grin.

LEX LUTHOR

Lex Luthor is a brilliant businessman who grew up being the best at everything - that is until the day Superman showed up in Metropolis. No longer the media darling he once was, Lex ruminated over this intrusion by an alien. Fearing what this might represent for humanity, Lex launched an all-out campaign to destroy Superman's reputation.

Lex has since allied himself with other criminal masterminds in order to create the Secret Society. However, his endgame remains unknown to his fellow comrades in the Injustice League. His ultimate goal is to eradicate the world of all metahumans and aliens - regardless of whether they are good or evil. The Earth, he believes, is for humans and humans alone.

I was partly inspired by the Dark Avengers for this group and I saw Lex as being like the Norman Osbourne - thus his suit ended up having elements similar to Iron Patriot. I wanted to keep him looking very modern and streamlined, versus his bulkier suits. Rather than go purple and green for the suit, I swapped the purple for black in order to match his teammates. It kind of made him look like a Green Lantern though.

CIRCE

Circe is a demigoddess who has lived through centuries of conflict and revolutions. She lived quietly on her hidden island in the Mediterranean, occasionally venturing out to manipulate weak-minded men into conflicts with one another. This garnered her great favour with Ares - the God of War - who found himself drawn to Circe's devious tendencies. Their liaisons were passionate, but fraught with jealousy and loathing. Circe couldn't understand Ares' alliance with the Amazons, while Ares was furious with Circe's many dashing lovers.

When the beautiful Princess Diana of Themyscira was born, Ares had ceased his communications with Circe and dedicated himself to being an unseen godparent to the child Amazon. Circe's envy for the child grew stronger with each passing year and reached its boiling point when she learned of a prophecy that predicted the powerful enchantress would be stricken down by the Amazon Princess. Now, Circe has placed herself on high alert and will stop at nothing to destroy the heroine known as Wonder Woman. She's allied herself with the Injustice League, but views herself as superior to them all and has planned a special fate for them in her schemes to kill Wonder Woman.

Circe is my favourite here. She's made to look like a dark twisted version of Wonder Woman, drawing inspiration largely from Terry Dodson's design for the character. I see her being very much like a Maleficent figure.

ZOOM

Hunter Zolomon was Barry Allen's closest friend at the Central City Police Department - aside from Patty Spivot, of course. Hunter was a detective who worked occasionally with Barry and the pair developed a kinship due to their similar familial backgrounds. Much like Barry, Hunter's mother had been murdered and his father was imprisoned for it. The difference between them being that Barry's father was innocent and Hunter's was in fact a serial killer.

Hunter was eventually caught in the crosshairs between the Flash and his many rogues, prompting the former to save Hunter from an onslaught brought on by Weather Wizard and Heatwave using his incredible speed. Unfortunately, Hunter had been badly disfigured during this encounter. Strangely, something else had happened as well. The combination of the Weather Wizard's lightning mixed with Heatwave's fire reacted with Barry's Speed Force, siphoning part of it into Hunter. Jaded and angry over this turn of events, Hunter fashioned himself into an anti-Flash known as Zoom. His goal? Find out the Flash's true identity and destroy his life. Not just that, but he desires to kill the Rogues as well. This aligned perfectly with the Injustice League, who promised the Rogues head on a platter for his assistance. After all, the Rogues declined membership into the Society and no one turns down Lex Luthor.

I cheated a bit here. I used my design for the Flash and merely palette swapped it. This is largely because in my head I imagine Zoom stealing a replica of the Flash's costume from the Flash Museum and twisting it to suit his outlook. The difference here though, beyond the colours, is the mask. I wanted it to be similar to what we've seen on TV since I think that look is super freaky.

SHOUT OUTS

For this piece, I allowed you all to select this roster. Black Manta, the Joker and Lex Luthor were the most voted for characters in a poll I conducted, with Zoom also being another popular choice. Circe I added in as a replacement for Cheetah (who landed in the top five), since I'd put the latter on Villainy Inc (seen here: fav.me/d9uyusf). Note - Sinestro was also a popular option and even landed in the top five. However, I felt that he didn't quite fit in here since I see more nobility and reason to his character. Plus, he's a space threat.

So, I'd like to dedicate this piece to everyone who contributed to the selection of this roster. Specifically, this goes out to Jayko-15, Hernan20X, Andster11, K-Jounin, bkno, TristanDavis, MASTER-OF-SUPRISE, Steelpoodle, featureanimestar97, spider-fan116, Jose-Ramiro, ParisNJones, Jovan2013, kingziggy, Jyger85, DanFalcon, and Curia-DD.

Enjoy!