Justice League: Warworld 2023

In the Wild West town of Last Stand, a nameless female gunslinger steps into a tense standoff between the townsfolk, led by Bat Lash and a gang of bandits intent on seizing control. The bandits are led by Jonah Hex, who warns that the town sits on a powder keg of gold miners, ranch and farm owners who were supposed to pay Hex and his men a “protection” fee, only to take back what was theirs and barricade the bank that held their money. Hex begs for the stranger’s aid to restore order, but she sides with the people and rescues a little girl from Hex’s men and Lash from a wagon loaded with dynamite. Hex sneers that she’s a “Wonder” in the shadows, while the townsfolk call her an “Angel.” When Lash asks for her name, she is unsettled by a blank memory, unable to recall who she is.

That night, while she keeps Hex distracted so the townsfolk can gather supplies, she discovers Hex’s men hijacking a train loaded with explosives meant to obliterate the fort. She derails the train as Lash evacuates the last of the townspeople, but Hex kills Lash in a brutal moment. Enraged, she beats Hex near death and then slips away into the darkness, leaving Last Stand to ponder the mystery of the woman who can muster such ferocity.

Across the void of space, on Skartaris, the Warlord Travis Morgan takes a mercenary, a figure who will come to be known as the Drifter [Trevor Devall], as a slave to toil in the mines. The mercenary agrees to guide Morgan and his army to Deimos’s castle in exchange for freedom and gold, but memories and unfamiliar knowledge haunt him as they journey. Along the way, visions reveal an old man who seems to know him. In Deimos’s castle, they evade deadly traps and uncover a throne room filled with treasure where Mariah Romanova [Rachel Kimsey] is imprisoned with a slave woman who discovers a golden lasso. The mercenary, Morgan, Mariah, and the slave woman – who is the Harbinger [Kari Wahlgren] – battle Deimos until the sorcerous tyrant flees. The group realizes they must find a way home, and they depart through a portal, hoping to reconcile their fates.

In a different era and genre, a 1950s film noir/sci‑fi tale unfolds in Grovers Mill, where federal agents Clark Kent [Darren Criss] and King Faraday [Frank Grillo] investigate reports of a crashed UFO. They meet at a diner with state trooper Bruce Wayne [Jensen Ackles] and Diana Prince [Stana Katic], among others, as a strange, eerie music fills the air. The patrons of the diner reveal themselves to be White Martians, who chase Kent, Wayne, and Prince to the crashed craft. Inside, they encounter a Green Martian who Faraday clamorously wants killed. After Kent subdues Faraday, the room warps and the trio realize that the world around them is an illusion—except for Faraday and the Martian, who is a prisoner and free.

The Martian reveals his true identity as J’onn J’onzz [Ike Amadi], and explains their real selves, and that they were taken captive by a Zeta-beam teleporter. J’onn’s psychic abilities have been harnessed to project the illusions of Warworld, a platform powered by the violence and fear of its prisoners. He had been trying to guide them back to reality through telepathic messages, and urges them to leave immediately. But Lobo [John DiMaggio] subdues Kent, Wayne, and Prince and brings J’onn to Mongul [Robin Atkin Downes], who is searching the multiverse and hopes J’onn can unlock Warworld’s power.

Seeking to seize Warworld for himself, Lobo betrays Mongul as the tyrant stands ready to execute J’onn. Superman [Darren Criss], Batman [Jensen Ackles], and Wonder Woman [Stana Katic] recover their costumes and fight their way into Mongul’s throne room, while J’onn possesses and merges with a White Martian, revealing that the two halves of the key lie within the DNA of both Martian races. With both halves in his possession, J’onn activates Warworld’s self-destruct sequence. A mysterious woman appears and rescues Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, teleporting them to safety at the Monitor’s satellite just in time before Warworld detonates. She hints that Warworld’s destruction is nothing compared to the forthcoming Crisis. > Warworld’s destruction is nothing compared to the forthcoming Crisis.