With Batman in the bag and Superman on the way, Warner Bros. is still in the kind of long-term trouble a superhero team understands all too well. Like a group of heroes blindsided by a syndicate of villains that pulled off a world domination ploy, Warners is scrambling to come up with a plan to challenge Marvel Studio’s $1.5 billion The Avengers world take-over. We all know what that plan is: assemble the Justice League movie. We also know the big question Warners is frantically facing right now is how they’re going to do that. The studio can balk at mimicking a competitor’s model all they want, but the way to get everyday non-comic reading people to really care about a Justice League movie is to roll out the individual hero projects first. Warner Brothers can’t assume people want a Justice League movie simply because everyone knows who Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are, or that post-The Avengers there is a guaranteed appetite for superhero mega-mixes. For a team-up flick to have maximum impact – i.e. maximum box office returns – without sacrificing integrity or quality, Warners needs to build a demand. The only way to do that is construct a road paved with exciting, entertaining, excellent movies (give or take an Iron Man 2 or two) that compound anticipation and audience faith.

Last week, the utterly shocking news broke that not only was Warner Bros. pursuing a Justice League movie, but it also was in no way at all ever influenced by the unbridled financial success of Marvel’s The Avengers. We can all believe that, can’t we? After all, we read it on the internet. With Man of Steel coming out next year and a no-brainer Batman reboot coming now that Christopher Nolan’s movies are wrapping up this summer, this is an opportunity for Warner Bros. and DC to set a new stage. Plus, with adaptations of The Flash and Lobo, and the potential for a Green Lantern reboot, Warner Bros. and DC have things laid out for them to work out very similar to the pre-Avengers line of films. But this is Hollywood, and so many things can go potentially wrong with a project like this. Here are seven ways Warner Bros. can avoid a potential disaster as they develop this film series.

Sure, The Avengers being really awesome probably had a lot to do with the fact that it’s now the third most money-making movie of all time. But, more than that, the film probably has Marvel’s long term planning to thank for its extreme level of success. Instead of just making a movie about a team of superheroes, Marvel first introduced each member of the team in their own films, they dropped hints about the fact that they would all be coming together at some point, and, when it was all said and done, The Avengers finally premiered after six years of build-up and anticipation. That’s pretty unprecedented. Seeing as they own DC Comics, Warner Bros also has a fairly impressive stable of superheroes at their command. And they’ve even managed to leverage their properties into a bunch of successful animated television shows in the past. But, in recent years, the only character they’ve had any real success with in the live-action feature format is Batman. They’re not even close to doing something with DC’s premier superhero team, The Justice League, that could be on par with what Marvel did with The Avengers.

It’s become clear that Warner Bros. has a lot of confidence in the Martin Campbell directed Green Lantern movie. They must be seeing something incredible from the Louisiana set. Because putting money into the first film in a B-level superhero franchise is one thing, but starting work on sequel before principal photography is wrapped on the first is something different entirely.

In a big presentation for Time Warner investors this week, Warner Bros. revealed that it is very close to giving the go-ahead on one of their hotly anticipated DC Comics franchises, The Flash.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we talk for three full hours about God Knows What (and The Oscars).

This has been a pretty crazy week for comic-book movie news hasn’t it? David Goyer is writing the upcoming Superman reboot! One of these five interchangeable young actors (or the guy from The Office) may play Captain America! But now news has hit that trumps both those stories. The Flash may have a director!

As if it were gift wrapped and sent with chocolates, this story win’s this week’s award for most pun-prone news item. Apparently The Flash movie isn’t moving so fast…

I do consider Batman my tie for favorite comic character, tied with Wolverine. So it is really hard to watch this video without getting a little angry, but even harder to watch it and not laugh. Make sure to watch through the credits. It shows Superman and The Hulk picking teams for softball.

I may be $20 closer to the poor house, but at least everyone will know I’m a bum with style.

George Miller’s Justice League of America is coming along in leaps and bounds, they’re even ready to release the cast list! Too bad they are still just rumors.

Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin has signed on to helm the solo project for The Flash. Will there be gratuitous sex involved?