RELEASE THE SNYDERVERSE! PT 4, "JUSTICE LEAGUE": HOW TO MAKE A HENCHMAN SING

This week I'm looking at some of the techniques Chris Terrio, Will Beall and Zack Snyder use in the new "Snyder Cut" of JUSTICE LEAGUE. 

The Bad Guy who is not The Bad Guy is not normally that interesting of a character to watch. They can be compelling, sure, but usually their defining characteristic is just that they are really tough to defeat. The Villain gets all the cool character development and zazzle; the Not-The-Bad-Guy usually gets just a little flair--he has an accent, or he wears a lot of buttons. That's it. He's really not a person as much as the Act Two Obstacle. 

Now JUSTICE LEAGUE is unusual in that it was not designed to be The Villain's main event. This really is Steppenwolf's film. So more character development was going to be necessary. 

Still, his status as Henchman was almost inevitably going to undermine some of the seriousness with which we would take him. Not that we don't think he couldn't stop our heroes, but he's just not The Guy, you know? He might be the baddest of bad asses at deciding who gets a table, but in the end who cares, it's not his restaurant. 

But look at what the writers do with that: rather than trying to avoid the problem, they make it part of Steppenwolf's character. He's constantly having to report back on his progress to the Haunted Mansion's Head Ghoul, and more than that he's constantly getting tonguelashed by him. Terrio, Snyder and Beall give the character this whole backstory of having tried and failed to betray Darkseid. He's only in this job of hunting and destroying planets as punishment for what he did, and he doesn't like it. 

All of that backstory is key. First, it aligns Steppenwolf with us. We all want to get past this Ragnarok cosplay party and finally meet Big Drunk Odin. 

Quiet on set. Would someone please get Mr. Darkseid a Mead?

But it also makes him harder to pin down. The typical henchman has no desires but to fulfill the boss' request. You don't watch DIE HARD wondering if Alexander Godunov is going to betray Hans Gruber. That's not how these things go.

But in telling us that Steppenwolf wants out and has tried to betray Darkseid once already, the writers open the door to the possibility that he might do so again. 

And just like that, it's not so clear how this story is going to play out. Is it actually going to be the Super Friends vs. Steppenwolf the whole way through? Or is this one long Meet Cute which ends with everyone teaming up to take down Blue and Balding? 

I kept waiting for Darkseid to finally show up in some way and take the team on. But he never makes it across, and yet it works just fine because the writers turned the problem of Steppenwolf into opportunity.