When I really became a comic book fan, there wasn’t a whole lot to choose from when it came to mainstream superhero characters in cartoons. Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men had not yet premiered, Superfriends was a thing of the past, and the 1988 Superman cartoon came and went so fast I never even saw it when it was on.
Today’s generation has a wider selection of entertainment. From the DC Universe alone we’ve had Justice League, Teen Titans, The Batman, Legion of Super-Heroes, and more; now, there’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and starting on Friday night, there will be Young Justice.
Young Justice focuses mostly on the – let’s be honest when calling them by this name – sidekicks of the Justice League. Robin, Speedy, Kid Flash, and the new Aqualad all stand in the shows of their mentors within the Justice League. The one-hour series premiere of Young Justice shows what happens when it seems these young heroes are going to get to excel – only to be held back even more by their mentors.
The animation in this project is probably my favorite yet to come from a DC Animated project, save for perhaps the Wonder Woman and Green Lantern DVD features. It’s crisp and clean, and – best of all – very true to the source material, while at the same time giving things a modernized look. For example, the way Robin looks isn’t completely anything we’ve seen before, but it looks very cool. The voice cast is also quite good, although I still sometimes have trouble accepting anyone but Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly as Batman and Superman, and I wish there had been a spot for Michael Rosenbaum somewhere. Jesse McCartney takes the role of Robin this time around, and the voice cast also includes a Smallville connection with Crispin Freeman (Cassidy’s brother!) voicing Speedy and The Guardian. Yes, The Guardian and Cadmus are involved, which makes me a very happy fan. Even villains like “Icicle” (seen in Smallville’s “Absolute Justice”) show up!
Young Justice also succeeds in that it seems like it would be appealing to younger viewers without talking down to them. Adult fans will enjoy it just as much, and will get special pleasure from JLU-like cameos from characters in the DC Universe.
The Superman clone “Superboy” factors into this story and makes me wonder even more how, in 10 seasons, Smallville never did a “Conner Kent” story.
One criticism I have from the pilot – mostly because I’m a comic book fanboy, average viewers won’t seem to mind – is that this doesn’t match any point in DC Comics continuity, with the creators picking and choosing their favorite versions of the characters. So, Dick Grayson is Robin even though Tim Drake might have fit in better; Kid Flash is Wally, instead of Bart, which might confuse a generation who knew Wally as the Flash of Justice League; and Mandrake lookalike Zatara hangs out with the Justice League with no sign of his magic-wielding daughter, Zatanna. Also, I find it a little odd that this is marketed as Young Justice – the Teen Titans name is the one DC seems to be spending so much time promoting, especially with the recent infusion of a new creative team to their monthly comic. I know DC plans to do an out-of-continuity Young Justice all-ages comic, but it’d be nice to pick a name and stick with it. Seeing this show’s concept, though, I understand the whole title thing, as these are the young people who want to someday be the Justice League, not their own team. I also am sure the new title is to separate the show from the Teen Titans cartoon that was on a few years back. Still, sometimes being true to the current comics has its advantages – the early 90’s X-Men was very close to the comics of that time period, aside from a few minor changes to continuity for storytelling’s sake.
Still, this is a fantastic start, and I can’t wait for Early 2011 when the Cartoon Network makes this a regular series. For now, though, enjoy this post-Thanksgiving treat, Friday night at 7PM (ET). And hey – DC/WB – if you’re looking for something live-action to replace Smallville, a live action version of this would be pretty awesome. Just saying.
5 Comments
I thought some one from DC said this takes place on earth 16… so it’s not in any way tied to the current comics cannon….
I would love to see a conner kent story on smallville…
“One criticism I have from the pilot – mostly because I’m a comic book fanboy, average viewers won’t seem to mind – is that this doesn’t match any point in DC Comics continuity, with the creators picking and choosing their favorite versions of the characters”
The creators set it in a different universe…..I think it’s earth 16 or something. So I’m not bothered. :P
not a good complaint seeing as that it’s another dc universe so why even go in for canon? how many cartoons ft into canon? look at spiderman the new animated series and how that worked out for them.
I think a live action Nightwing would be amazing. Young Justice pilot seemed very promising. One thing I hated about Teen Titans was that they were never out of costume or called by there real names. It was more of a kid show though. Young Justice seems like it will try to create it’s own DC continuity with the writers picking and choosing the things they liked from years of stories. I like this and think it could work out. This Robin seems heavily based on Tim Drake even though he is Dick Grayson. I don’t like a non-robin/nightwing led team but I love the new design of aqualad so hopefully things work out and we see more Roy Harpster.
Me parecio buena la primera temporada de esta serie, aunque no conozco la version original de los comics me parece una exelente serie y me gustaria saber cuando estrenan la 2a temporada, si alguien conoce la fecha y los links.
Gracias.