Hi! I’m Marcelo Leite, Screen Rant’s TV Deputy Editor. Superhero stories have always been a huge part of my life, from Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies to the latest MCU and DCU releases. However, what truly got me into comics and made me fall in love with geek culture was a Saturday morning cartoon. Although nostalgia can be dangerous, I firmly believe Justice League Unlimited is the greatest superhero TV show of all time. If you don’t agree, please leave your thoughts below.
When Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski were tasked with creating a Batman animated series in 1990, no one could have imagined that a Saturday morning cartoon would turn out to deliver one of the best interpretations of the Dark Knight. Batman: The Animated Series was just the beginning, though. Decades before the concept of superhero shared universes took over Hollywood, BTAS birthed the DC Animated Universe, a TV franchise that culminated in Justice League Unlimited.
Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, and even the criminally underrated The Zeta Project each contributed to creating a universe that was not only rewarding for long-time DC Comics readers but also welcoming to new fans. Justice League was a natural addition to the franchise, but it was Justice League Unlimited that truly elevated the DCAU.
Forget the beautifully executed monster-of-the-week formula of Batman: The Animated Series or the two-part adventures of Justice League. Justice League Unlimited was the DCAU in its most ambitious form, perfectly condensing 65 years’ worth of comics into just 39 episodes.
Justice League Unlimited Offered The Ultimate Interpretation Of The DC Universe
Serving as a direct sequel to Justice League, Justice League Unlimited was a bigger and bolder version of its predecessor. Although the seven founding members still played an important role in the overall story, JLU was about honoring smaller characters from the DC Universe. Just like BTAS had reimagined Batman’s mythos while embracing elements from different comic book eras, JLU introduced a pantheon of DC heroes and villains to a new generation.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, cartoons such as Justice League Unlimited and X-Men: Evolution had very little competition from live-action superhero shows. Granted, Smallville was going strong at that time, but as much as the Superman prequel impacted the genre, the series was limited by its budget. Nothing held Justice League Unlimited back from telling the most epic, high-stakes stories every week, not even the infamous Bat-Embargo.
While DC did keep some characters off limits, Bruce Timm and his team had access to dozens of superheroes, supervillains, and supporting characters from DC Comics. This allowed JLU to tap into multiple eras of DC’s history and adapt stories that even modern blockbuster movies would struggle to. From Green Arrow fighting a radioactive giant to Lex Luthor tricking Darkseid, JLU was free to do it all.
Live-Action TV Shows Could Never Accomplish What Justice League Unlimited Did
Television is arguably the best medium for comic book adaptations, given the episodic nature of the source material. But even at a time when movie stars reprise their superhero roles in TV shows that take place in the same continuity as the films, it is hard to imagine a live-action series accomplishing what JLU did. The fact that JLU was an animated show meant that the scope and scale were unmatched.
Justice League Unlimited was more than just non-stop action. Even though the fights were top-notch and still hold up 20 years later, the story was JLU‘s real superpower. Shows like Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series had proven that kids could handle darker, more serious versions of their favorite superheroes. JLU continued that trend.
In “Initiation,” Stan Berkowitz introduces us to the expanded roster of the Justice League while telling a Green Arrow-centered story about how Oliver Queen wants to protect the little guy in a world where gods and monsters battle in the skies every Tuesday. In “Clash,” the late great Dwayne McDuffie asks whether superheroes should get political as Captain Marvel fights Superman over their views on Lex Luthor.
JLU never tried to be edgy or dark just for its own sake. Even the CADMUS arc, which painted the Justice League heroes as villains, was about the dilemmas that come with god-like beings watching over humanity from outer space. That is not to mention heartbreaking moments such as Batman holding Ace’s hand during her final moments and Solomon Grundy’s death.
Every battle, every death, every choice made by a character in Justice League Unlimited had repercussions. The show also tied the entire DC Animated Universe together, featuring the returns of characters and storylines from Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond, and Superman: The Animated Series. It was a full-fledged shared universe before shared universes were cool.
Every Superhero Movie And TV Show Can Learn From Justice League Unlimited
Justice League Unlimited retained everything great about Batman: The Animated Series — itself a contender for GOAT superhero show — and applied it to the rest of the DC Universe. Not every DC hero could get their own show, but JLU treated every one with the same respect. It was not a “Batman and friends” show, even though network executives would have probably loved that.
Television has given us some incredible comic book adaptations, especially from the 2010s onwards. Arrow was the start of a new era of superhero shows in a post-Smallville world, launching an ambitious DC shared universe that, despite its many shortcomings, entertained fans and casual viewers for a decade. Marvel has also had fantastic series over the years, from Daredevil and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to WandaVision and Loki.
However, given the sheer scale of Justice League Unlimited and everything that the series so masterfully did in just three seasons, it will remain the best superhero show for the foreseeable future. Two decades after Darkseid was defeated, Justice League Unlimited is still the benchmark for comic book adaptations.
Do you think there are better superhero shows than Justice League Unlimited? Make your case in the comments.
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What’s the greatest movie of all time? Which TV show remains peerless? Who’s acting has yet to be topped? Screen Rant’s “Greatest of All Time” series asks experts to pick the very best in entertainment and challenges anyone to try to prove them wrong.
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