I don’t necessarily agree with this force-ranking (who ever does?), but it’s a great reminder of some fantastic (and a few not-so-fantastic) animated series of decades past, and it’s worth it just for that.
If you don’t want to page through show by show, here are their rankings:
22. Teen Titans Go!
21. Beware the Batman
20. The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Hour
19. “Various Sixties Batman/Superman Shows”
18. The Zeta Project*
17. The “Super Friends” series
16. Superman (1988)*
15. The New Adventures of Batman
14. Krypto the Superdog
13. Legion of Super-Heroes
12. Justice League: Action
11. The Batman
10. Green Lantern: The Animated Series
9. Batman: The Brave and the Bold
8. Superman (1940s)**
7. Batman Beyond
6. Static Shock
5. Teen Titans
4. Superman: The Animated Series
3. Young Justice
2. Justice League / Justice League Unlimited
1. Batman: The Animated Series
[*] Never encountered this one before.
[**] Yes, that’s not a DC animated TV series
I’d probably reshuffle things most in the middle — LSH and Brave and the Bold both need to rise in the rankings a few steps, IMO — but +/- 3 in any given case I’d agree with pretty much everything here.
Ranking Every DC Animated TV Series From Worst To Best
They’re the proverbial kings of superhero animation, but what’s the best series that DC have done?
Always had to watch the Batman/Superman Animated Series hour when I got home from work. They were alway fantastic, fun plots, great characters and nice classic animation.
I would have ranked The New Adventures of Batman much, much lower. Both the various Sixties DC cartoons and Super Friends were better IMHO! I might have ranked Batman Beyond just a little higher, but it has been a whole since I've seen it. Definitely Batman the Animated Series was the very best IMHO.
+Stan Pedzick Yeah, triffic stuff there.
I grew up on those "Sixties Batman/Superman Shows," which were dumb as bricks but which were still exciting back in the day — esp. where they had Flash, Atom, Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Teen Titans, and others animated in a way that we wouldn't see again until the (actually, just as stupid) "Super Friends" (intro voice-over also by Ted Knight).
I used to sit in front of the TV on Saturday mornings, watching those and drawing stick figure super-hero battles. Good times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXMjvQxT-c
1. I would have ranked Batman Beyond higher. I haven't seen a lot of DC's cartoons but I have seen (and loved) Static Shock and Teen Titans. Batman Beyond is better than booth of them.
2. This list is missing the Swamp Thing cartoon, which might be fruit the best.
3. FYI, Zeta Project is a Batman Beyond spin-off with very loose ties to the DC universe. It's about a killer robot who doesn't want to kill anymore. It's passable.
+Melissa Walsh That's how the article describes it. I'd never even heard of it, but it sounds like it was pretty low on the radar.
I'd put BB above Static Shock, but still below TT. I'm not as big of a Static Shock fan (though I'm a huge Dwayne McDuffie admirer). But, again, lots of wiggle room here.
I might put Batman Beyond above Teen Titans, but it would be close. While I enjoy Static Shock, I think I would put it below both of them. The Sixties cartoons were goofy, but I can still enjoy them. The same holds true for Super Friends. Maybe I was just a little too old for The New Adventures of Batman, but it just seemed bad, even with the presence of Adam West and Burt Ward.
Krypto the Superdog – Hurray! The Green Lantern: The Animated Series is often repeated on GO!, which shows a lot of Warner animation stuff. I would rate that higher as it had the "character" of the corp right, including weird sexism. I hope that if they have a live action GLC filmthat the other colours (at least Yellow, Red and Blue) are represented.
+Laura Ess I never warmed to the GL animated, mostly because it incorporated all the rainbow ring stuff that Geoff Johns introduced to remake the franchise, and I've never much liked that particular addition to the mythos.
Anyone who doesn't think Batman: BATB deserves to go up a step or two needs to re-watch Mayhem of the Music Meister again. 🙂
Heh heh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHY9USNC_Fk
So much Silver Age fun on that show.
Absolutely!