Jean Grey was first introduced in X-Men #1, way back in September of 1963. Then, she was just known as Marvel Girl (I remember hearing Stan Lee hated that name, but he couldn't come up with anything better at the time). Jean Grey is an Omega-level mutant, and has been one of the physical hosts of the vastly powerful Phoenix Force who possesses god-like powers and is one of the most feared beings that ever lived. With the Phoenix Force, Jean has potentially limitless psionic powers of telekinesis and telepathy - Hank McCoy (the ever-lovable Beast)has said that, based on her massive power levels, "on the Richter scale, she'd be a 12". When bonded to the Phoenix, she is said to outclass mutants, granting her complete control over matter, energy, thought, and unlimited psionic energies. She can tap into reserved energies for future generations, denying them existence. So much for that girl next door image.
Along with being best known for being one of the founding X-Men, the romance between her and Scott Summers aka Cyclops is pretty legendary. Probably rivaling that of Peter and MJ for the longest-running in Marvel history. At the beginning of the series, Jean and Scott harbor a mutual crush for a long time but neither is aware of the other's feelings (though the readers are made aware early on) and both are too shy to make a move. Jean once has a date with Angel, but insists on taking Scott along, which confuses and frustrates both men. For a while, Angel has feelings for Jean which lead to some bad moments between him and Scott. When Jean leaves to pursue tertiary education at Metro College, it further widens the gap between Scott and Jean; however, Jean and Scott later date openly. At one point, Professor X seems to have some romantic feelings for her. However, he believes that she could not reciprocate because he is a paraplegic; therefore he says nothing of it, instead channeling his energies into an increasingly intimate mentor/student relationship with Jean. This forces her to keep his secrets and, at one point, transfer his own power into her. Weird, huh?
Now here's where things get tricky with Jean. She taps into this powerful force appropriately called the Phoenix Force. Like I stated above with her powers, she is not a chick you would want to cross. The thing I hated about the whole Phoenix saga is that it didn't really feel like X-Men. Aliens and all that stuff really felt more like an Fantastic Four thing, or to a lesser extent, Avengers. Don't get me wrong, Clairmont is STILL the X-guy to this day, but there is such thing as too much power and that's the Phoenix saga in a nutshell.
So to pay for her sins, Jim Shooter killed her off. Though her return was enivitable, I mean the name is "Phoenix" after all. She's been a major staple in the x-books, later in New X-Men, they battled Xorn (who had revealed himself to be Magneto but would later was imposter), who then mortally injures Phoenix by transferring a large amount of electro-magnetic energy to her brain, inducing a "planetary-scale stroke." As Jean dies in Scott's arms, she tells him to live. It was revealed later that before she died, Jean created a empathic matrix crystal for Rachel and imprinted it with her essence so that, no matter what happened to her physically, her soul would always be with her. Pretty damn touching and she hasn't been seen since. Though you know it's only a matter of time. I've heard she'll be back sometime after "War of Kings" is over.
This is the costume I most remember, mainly because it was the one I grew up with. Now I'm not sure what's going on here. It almost looks like something from Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Anybody remember that? Huh, huh? She was still a staple of the X-books when they were relaunched in the 90's. It's the book that also put Jim Lee on the map. When the comic became a smash animated show, they gave her this costume, but I'll go into that show possibly somewhere down the line. Now that show covered a lot of things, but they simplified the Phoenix Saga a bit, and thank God for that. She did appear in her Marvel Girl go-go attire.
This costume is probably my favorite. It's not practical, but it's great to look at. Plus, it was the 70's. Go figure. She was also in various other X-properties, such as X-Men Evolution, X-Men Legends, and of course the X-Men movies, played by Famke Janseen. Interesting story, they originally were going to put Beast in the movie, but later just added the Dr. title to Jean. Now with how everything is sort of a skewed in the X-books, I wonder HOW she'll come back. In Uncanny X-Men #510, when Emma Frost is psychically incapacitated during an attack, she unexpectedly encounters what seems to be Jean Grey communicating to, and assisting her, seemingly from within the astral plane. No further reference is made to this afterward. Weird to just drop this. This should be a bigger deal.
Though I wonder if they'll continue the love triangle among Jean, Scott and Emma. Now THAT I would buy into.
Whew. That was pretty hefty amount of info. Next week, I'll probably keep it simpler: Jem, as in "truly outrageous".
Scott Porter would be an almost perfect choice for Wally West. He can be seen in the "Friday Night Lights" show. Or could be seen. I think the show got axed this past season. Wally needs to be a bit young, without looking like a kid. He has tons of experience being Kid Flash and when Barry died, he ascended to the mantle of the Flash. I wasn't a big Flash fan growing up, I was mainly a Spider-Man, Batman and Green Lantern. While Porter recently turned 30, he still has a boyish look to him that I think Wally reflects perfectly. 
I think John Hurt would be tremendous as an older Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman. Plus it'd be interesting for him to try an American accent. What'd be even interesting is a brief flashback or so of him in costume. Nothing more than say a couple of seconds or so. Similar to how they treated the Hollis Mason flashbacks in "Watchmen". Dodds has an incredible story and experience. Not sure how you would tie him in, but there should always be room for a character such as him. 
Adam Scott. He has a pretty impressive resume, though I just discovered him on the show "Tell me you love me", which was a somewhat hit for HBO a while back. He has the stature, though he's my height, but camera tricks can work around that. He's pretty built, but put homeboy here on a workout regime and it'll be pretty good. He has the voice as well. In "Tell me", he played somewhat a mousy character named Palek, who reminded me a lot of Clark. 
Now on to Wonder Woman. I refuse to case some 20-something as Diana. It doesn't seem right. Especially somebody like Meghan Fox or...yeah. So I went with another Megan. Megan Gale. Standing in at 5'11" and with a body that just doesn't stop, I think she'd be perfect, in addition to her "unknown" status so you could imagine her BEING Wonder Woman and not anybody else. I think she works on so many levels. The body, the face, the stature. She's not some lame, skinny 20-something WASP. I'm sure they'd redesign her costume a bit. 
Now this guy was my pick to play Thor. Mainly because, you know, he actually has Nordic roots. I digress. Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård, or just Alex Skarsgard is my choice to play Aquaman. Now, Aquaman is an interesting choice for any JL movie, but I think with the "green movement" on everybody's mind and "going green" is a buzz phrase, I'm sure Hollywood wouldn't have a problem putting him in. He's a noble character that just never seems to find a great writer that lasts more than 20 issues or so. He's basically King Arthur...underwater. Literally. The entire ocean is his kingdom! I think he's underrated and would fit right in. 
I'm being a little bias here including Zatanna into the fray, but I think Ms. Zooey as Z would totally work. Nobody, in my eyes, could do it better. Even if it's just a bit role, for example let's say Bruce goes to her asking to be on this new team, but she refuses for two reasons. A) It'd be time away from her job, since crime-fighting doesn't pay the rent and B) it would distract her from looking for her father, who has mysteriously disappeared. I'm ALL for this. Plus her in that outfit? Yes please. 
Since Cooper here didn't get the Green Lantern role, I decided he'd be just as good as Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. I had originally thought it'd be kind of cool to put in Conner Hawke instead for a number of reasons: the team was looking for new blood, we already have a rich tycoon in tights, Connor and Zatanna would have something in common with their missing fathers and possibly a story involving her actually joining, but whatever. I figured if you had Hal, you'd have to have Ollie here on the action. Though where as Batman is the brooding billionaire, Ollie is the more swashbuckling type. I'd totally write him as the old Errol Flynn type, too. Originally I was trying to see if Kin Shriner would work as Ollie, but I realized I just didn't think it would. Kin did the voice for GA on the JLU cartoon a few years back. It's the voice I hear when I read Ollie in anything. He looks a bit like him, too. Oh well. 
