Category: Animation / Cartoons

But it looks like it's going to be kid-oriented — simpler designs, and quarter-hour mini-episodes. Because the only folk interested in animated comic book characters are, of course, kids. Because Teen Titans GO! is the peak of DC's TV animation.

And here's my official disgusted SIGH over the need for Wonder Woman to be carrying a shield and a sword. Also, an UGH. (Bigger picture at http://www.avclub.com/article/cartoon-networks-making-new-justice-league-cartoon-231522 )

On the plus side, Kevin Conroy will be doing Batman, Mark Hammill is said to be doing the Joker, and there are some other fine voice talents signed up as well.

We'll see.

Cartoon Network’s making a new Justice League cartoon
A decade after Justice League Unlimited went off the air—and right on time for justice to dawn again in the upcoming Batman V Superman—Cartoon Network has announced that it’s putting a new animated series about the DC Universe’s hardest hitters into production. Taking its cues from the network’s Tee

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There are some other fine contenders, but I can't argue with the conclusion of the writer here. JLU was and remains the best supers show on TV.

In addition to all the fine reasons the writer mentions, I'll add a couple of my own.

Though the show gave us a lot of done-in-one episodes, vs multi-parters, it often did so in the context of a broader seasonal plot — e.g., the Cadmus / government conspiracy against seemingly uncontrollable super-folk, or Luthor's obsession with getting back long obsession, first with Superman, later with Braniac.

Indeed, being unafraid to to dive back to episodes previous in the season, or even from earlier seasons — heck, from earlier DCAU shows (Hawkgirl's betrayal of Earth in the "Starcrossed" finale of Justice League; Superman's brainwashing by Darkseid, back in his own animated series) meant that everything had texture and nuance and growth to it that belied it being just a bunch of half-hour colorful slugfests.

That applied to the bad guys, too. Luthor is a great example of a character driven in a number of directions, but I'll also call out the pseudo-villain (say, "antagonist") Amanda Waller, here in her still classic body shape that made her nickname "The Wall" physical as well as tempermental. Waller is misguided — sort of — in her planning against a bunch of neo-gods in orbit with a giant space laser pointed downward — but she does it with dedication, sneakiness, ruthlessness, and even personal valor.

We even got consistent personalities and differentiators amongst the "mooks" of the villain world, as different characters — Deadshot, Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Morgana, Copperhead — show up time and again, not as faceless people to be punched out, but individuals who have personal agendas, as much as the flock of heroes in the JLU do.

Good, good stuff — and something we rewatch enough, even though we have the DVD set, I'm angling for the Blu-Ray at Christmas, just to make it that much easier to do so.

Why Justice League Unlimited Was, and Still Is, the Best Superhero TV Show
We live in a golden age of superhero television. Hits like The Flash, Agent Carter, Arrow, and Agents of SHIELD dominate our TV screens. We champion them for their ability to bring some of the most mind-melting comic book sagas to TV—but one show did it all before them, nearly a decade ago: Justice League Unlimited.

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Why CW Seed thought that breaking the Vixen animated feature from about 25-30 minutes run time into six 6-odd minute episodes (including a minute of credits in each one) is beyond me. It was a horribly irksome way to watch the show, and I gave up after one episode. But they've finished the job, so you can now watch it, more or less painlessly, all back to back.

Net-net, it's nothing earthshattering, but Vixen is a fun character and, when animated well, visually interesting in her power. The animation reminded me of Young Justice (sigh). The story was pretty basic origin stuff, but well-handled for that. The cross-overs by characters (and actors) from Green Arrow and The Flash were interesting and well-handled (even if the power balance was a bit arbitrary, which is almost necessary when you get a speedster in the party). Worth a watch if you have any interest in the character.

I hope to see more (and in a concentrated format).

The CW Television Network.
cwseedvixen

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