Justice League Unlimited

This cartoon has been out for a few years now and it started out with the simpler title of just Justice League. Even when there were only seven superheroes saving the world, it was aweseome. It has only gotten better with the League expanded to include the vast DC Comics back catalog of heroes and villains. 
 
Originally, I was a bit skeptical when they expanded the membership to include dozens more superheroes. When there are too many characters, then character development is unevenly distributed. A famous example is Star Trek: The Next Generation. I wouldn’t say that Cmdr. Riker, Chief LaForge or Dr. Crusher were as fully developed as Capt. Picard, Lt. Worf or Mr. Data. 
 
Fortunately, the writers for JLU have done an excellent job integrating the DC Universe’s rich history into this cartoon while keeping it topical and a contemporary feeling. The only downside is how brief each episode is. Thanks to the FCC not doing its job anymore, the show is only 21 minutes long so we can be bombarded with 9 minutes of commercials on the Cartoon Network. 
 
If you’re not into superheroes and comic books, it’s still an interesting diversion. The live-action versions of superheroes are enjoyable when they’re done well. But I will always be biased in favor of animation covering this genre more effectively. It’s also more fun to discover who the voice actors are at the end credits, especially when it’s someone you recognize. The people behind this show also deserve a huge round of applause for getting Clancy Brown, Powers Boothe and Michael Ironside as the voices of supervillains and ultraheavies Lex Luthor, Gorrilla Grodd and Darkseid respectively. 
 
As a fan of superheroes since I was a small kid, this one has turned out to be all-time favorite animated comic-book character show because it has action, cool surprises and it even pokes fun at DC’s past (like the villains’ hideout looking pretty closely to the old Legion of Doom fortress from the horribleSuperfriends show of the late 70s). I can only muse why Marvel doesn’t have such good quality with their properties being animated.

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