He's not the easiest person in the world
to buy birthday presents for.
Bruce, you didn't get him a gift certificate.
No.
Cash.
The one two punch of Justice League and Justice League
Unlimited inarguably produced some of the best superhero
animation that the small screen has ever seen.
There's only one catch though.
This masterclass in beautifully rendered animation
falls short in one regard--
the ending.
Before we are called to the Watchtower,
please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
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Bruce Timm and his stalwart cohort of creative brethren
had been working toward the idea of making an animated Justice
League cartoon for almost as long
as they'd been working in DC's Animated Universe.
Ever since the beloved crossover,
"World's Finest," Timm, Paul Dini,
and the cavalcade of minds behind the early DC Animated
Universe were attempting to produce a show centered
around the big seven.
In fact, well before the inaugural episode hit airwaves
on November 17, 2001, a sample animation of the proposed show
was produced.
The test footage is now referred to as "The First Mission."
This version of the series showcases just how
different things almost were-- a cast of characters
that featured Impulse, Robin, and a young girl Cyborg
would have put a very different mark on the iconic legacy
of the big seven.
After the roaring success of Batman The Animated Series
Superman The Animated Series, Static Shock and Batman Beyond,
Warner Bros head honchos decided it was finally time
to pull the trigger on making a Justice League show.
Certainly after we had done the Superman show,
we got that question a lot from the fans
was when are you going to do Justice League next.
There was a lot of interest in doing the Justice League.
Despite having loads of experience
producing animated action adventure stories,
the prospect of having to do seven times the action
wasn't exactly thrilling to Timm and fellow producers Dan Riba
and rich Fogel.
There was a concern that they wouldn't have enough money
to afford enough crowd scenes and multi-combatant
fights to keep the various superheroes all busy.
To add more complexity, the valuable pre-teen
and teen demographics that had previously
supported the weekday afternoon programming blocks
were aging out, so Warner's decided to take a risk-- pivot
Justice League to be an evening show which
would air on Cartoon Network.
And to add even more headaches, the decision
was made to have the show be a full hour instead
of a standard half hour.
It was all a risk.
What do I need with money?
Everyone needs money.
The only question is how much.
Unfortunately, season one wasn't as creatively successful
as everyone would have liked it to be.
When the show finally did debut, it
would be as a three part epic titled "Secret Origins,"
showcasing the formation of the team
around their combined attempt at repelling
an invading alien force.
The season isn't horrible.
There's some solid character development
and some amazing animation, but it really
does feel like a growing pains season.
The forced cliffhangers and stop start nature of the stories
feels like a compromise as opposed
to a truly inventive next step for the long-running animation
brand.
However, the show quickly won over fans with their still
on point characterizations of Batman and Superman
and their new inventions, like including Hawkgirl,
John Stewart's version of Green Lantern,
and a romantic subplot between Batman and Wonder Woman
into the series.
Sounds wacky to me too.
The show's second season climaxed in what at the time
the creatives anticipated would be the end of the series.
The ratings were good, but not good enough
to see the show continue, so everyone involved
knew this was their last stab at the Justice League.
In an attempt at redemption, they
went about creating a three part finale titled "Starcrossed." it
featured a Thanagarian invasion of Earth
and the emotional resolution of numerous running subplots,
not the least of which being the simmering tension
between Hawkgirl and John Stewart.
Actually, when I was writing the last part of "Starcrossed,"
I thought that was the end of the show.
We definitely had some issues we had
to deal with in the next season if we were
going to get a next season.
This trinity of episodes would not
be the end of the Justice League on television, however.
After 52 episodes, the show ended on May 29, 2004
and after much discussion with Cartoon Network
was reconceptualized and retooled
as Justice League Unlimited.
This new incarnation of the show would stop the one hour format
and instead focus on a half hour runtime.
It would also feature a massively sprawling cast,
including many new and obscure characters that
had never been featured in animation previously.
According to writer Dwayne McDuffie,
the prevailing thought was--
The network came back and said they wanted to do more shows.
Near as I can figure, we thought, well,
we've got this two part thing with this cast under control.
We know how to make good ones.
Let's blow it up and do something completely different.
The show's first season features a combination
of standalone and serialized episodes.
Almost from the get go, Justice League Unlimited
is a complete breath of fresh air.
After two seasons of this newly revamped format,
the writing was on the wall.
The ratings were slipping, and it
seemed Cartoon Network was unlikely to bring back
the show for a third season.
So the decision was made to craft
an episode that would work as a coda
on the entirety of the DCAU.
That episode would be "Epilogue,"
written by Bruce Timm and Dwayne McDuffie.
In it, we learn that Batman Beyond, a.k.a.
Terry McGinnis, is actually a clone of Bruce Wayne.
If you'd like to know more about this topic,
please watch our video on it.
The link is in the description.
This is how Justice League Unlimited should have ended.
It's a perfect way to give the audience both a look
to the future and a closing of the book on the DCAU.
But because nothing is predictable or stable
in the business of show, Cartoon Network
did in fact renew the show for a third season.
Scrambling for what to do with this new runway,
Tim and company decided to do the classic idea
of the Legion of Doom.
The results of this third season are a bit all over the place.
You have high points like "The Great Brain Robbery"
where The Flash and Lex Luthor swap bodies,
but you also have episodes like "Chaos at the Earth's Core"
and "Patriot Act" that are just not that great.
However, it's this third finale that lacks the real punch.
Episode 13 of season three, titled "Destroyer,"
shows the JLU having to team up with Luther's secret society
in order to stop the return of Darkseid, who has a plan
to use futuristic technology to transform the Earth into New
Apokolips.
Let's be clear about this.
We're not here to help you save the world.
You're here to help me get revenge on Darkseid.
When this is over, it's back to business as usual.
How is the mortal enemy of Highfather and the new gods
thwarted?
Well, after the requisite amount of punching,
Lex Luthor is taken by Metron to the source where
he accomplishes the impossible-- he
finds the anti-life equation.
He returns to Earth and uses it to blink both himself
and Darkseid out of existence.
But what does this mean exactly?
The show ends with something of a cliffhanger
where the Justice League vows to go find these two villains,
and we end on a roll call of all the cast running
toward the camera.
It feels very self-conscious, like we thought
this was ending twice before and we had to keep going,
so now we're not totally convinced
that this is the end of the show.
Cartoon Network didn't expect the ratings to sag
to the degree that they had, and this has never
been officially confirmed, but it's theorized that discussions
were still being had with Cartoon
Network about a possibility of a fourth season.
But by the time they realized that this
would be their final outing, there
wasn't exactly a lot of runway to tell
a story that could conclude all the running plot elements
and give everything a final send off.
Both "Starcrossed," which also wasn't a definitive ending
but felt like a brilliantly executed emotional stopping
point, and "Epilogue," which features
the most explicit thematic ending of any of the finales,
are great ways to end the show.
They have both a literal ending of the character
and an emotional ending for us, the viewers
who've lived with these characters for so long.
"Destroyer?"
It feels like exactly what it was--
a rushed conclusion to a gargantuan amount of work,
which truly is a shame.
They do so much work over the course of the third season
to try and build Luther up and make him into a threat,
and then Metron just shows up, takes him to the source,
and that's it?
Luther doesn't even really feel like he gets
to choose what happens next.
Not only does "Destroyer" not have any actual conflict
or character sacrifice for our leads,
but the literal mechanics of the final moment
don't even register as an ending.
They just feel like a to be continued.
It turns out the ultimate villain of the DC Universe
was Cartoon Network executives.
The sagging ratings, the late night programming block,
and the lack of rapidly escalating toy sales
all proved to be too much for the Justice League.
On one hand, we should all be thankful
for the genre-breaking boundary-pushing work
that we did get in the time that these shows were
being produced.
On the other hand, it's truly a shame
that one of the crowning achievements in animation
doesn't have a proper ending due largely to corporate meddling.
And well, that's all we have for this episode of Nerdstalgic.
What do you think?
Would you have rather JLU just do stop at "Epilogue," or does
season three make it worth it?
Let us know in the comments below, and as always, please
like, comment, and subscribe for more videos just like this.