Friday, November 7, 2014

Top 5 Fridays: Top 5 DC Cartoons That Need To Be Brought Back


Welcome back to another (Insert non disparaging adjective here) Top 5 Fridays and for this week's installment, I figured I'd take a look at something that means an awful lot to me.  Imagine if you will.  You're a child......... or just a adult child, because that's what I'm going with and it's Saturday morning.  What do you do?  Why you get up, get your bowl of cereal and plop your ass down in front of the television and enjoy a few hours of uninterrupted cartoons.  That's right folks we'll be looking at cartoons this week, of the DC variety and since we're kind of lacking in the whole "lose yourself in awesome adventure" kind of cartoons from DC at the moment, I want to talk about the great ones that are currently in rerun land or the ones that you have to search online for just to get a glimpse of something that we're currently lacking in our lives.  I don't know how kids today feel about cartoons, but I look at the fact that they can at anytime turn on a channel and be greeted by animated goodness and yeah, I'm a little jealous, but the fact that we had to wait for a block of new cartoons every Saturday I think made them just a little more special.  So let's take a look at said animated goodness with this week's Top 5 Fridays: Top 5 DC Cartoons That Need To Be Brought Back.  Let's check it out.






#5.  Batman Beyond


I remember when this show was first announced and I also remember how i cried "BULLSHIT!" at the television.  I couldn't wrap my head around someone taking my beloved Batman and turning him into a teenager from the future with a big ass red bat on his chest.  Honestly with the premise I just described, it still sounds awful.  But then I gave it a shot and to my amazement, it was so damn good.  I couldn't believe that they took the plot I just described and turned it into something that didn't only fit with my beloved Batman TAS, but did it and made me care about it.  It was a really good series and it could still totally work if it was brought back today and nobody would ever complain that it just started up again without rehashing everything that's already gone down.  It would just come back and we'd all shut our mouths and sit there and watch.  It's sad to think that the Batman Beyond comic is gone now and it really feels like the DC Animated Universe it truly at a close.





#4.  Legion of Superheroes


This is a really weird choice for me because I never even knew it aired.  I'm serious, about six months ago I was shopping at GIANT and I just happened to walk past a rack full of DVD's and the first part of season 1 was just sitting there in front of my jerk off face and I just stood there stupefied because I had never heard of this series.  If it helps matters any I could tell you that when this series premiered and even ended I was living above a porn shop and we didn't have cable.  So that could have had something to do with it.  Anyway, I bought the DVD and went home to watch it and I was stunned from how fun this series was.  I love the idea of the Legion of Superheroes even if I never became a big fan of them growing up and this series gave me the opportunity to see all these characters brought to life and it wasn't long until I owned the entire first season and cursed at the interwebs because season two wasn't available yet and still isn't.  Really though, if you just want a fun adventurous DC cartoon, this is the one that you should definitely watch because I think it's the one that really got swept under the rug, because I never hear anyone ever talk about it.  It should totally be brought back and if the Cartoon Network people need cartoons to sell toys........ Well put some damn toys out of the Legion here and I'll buy them.  They might have, but like I said, this show was off my radar during it's run.  Check it out, talk to others about it, maybe send an email......... I don't know, do the stuff that people do when they really want something.






#3.  Justice League Unlimited


It's funny to me because this is a continuation of the Justice League cartoon, a sequel if you will and I know that people loved that show, but it was Justice League Unlimited that really captured my imagination.  I remember when the first Justice League show would be on and I'd be like "Meh" to certain episodes because while yes it was the best superhero team of all time, it was still just the same characters doing the same things over and over again.  I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but I'm going with it.  Anyway, when Justice League Unlimited came out I saw something that the regular Justice League didn't show me........ The entire goddamn DC Universe!  I'm more of a fan of the B list heroes and I realize saying shit like that makes me sound like a pretentious asshole, but it happens to be the truth and when you have a cast of the entire DCU, well anything is possible and it was.  Only two seasons of this show and it did so much in so little of time.  I'm telling you, if this show would just show up with a season 3 out of nowhere, people would just lose their goddamn minds at all the awesome.






#2.  Young Justice


Now everything I just said about the last spot on this list goes for this show as well but with the added bonus of bringing the sidekicks to the forefront of it's story telling.  I know this isn't in continuity with the DC  Animated Universe and at one point in my life when I was the worst kind of nerd, that would of bugged the shit out of me, but after watching this show and possibly getting a little wiser and less assholey in my old age, I realized that it didn't have to be because this show was strong enough to exist in it's own unique way.  Every character in this show is awesome and I can't think of a single episode that I didn't like.  It was just a home run all the way through and it's an outrage that this show didn't get the respect it deserved simply for the fact that it didn't sell toys.  Yeah, people need to make money, but if you want a toy to sell, make sure it's a good fucking toy.  That's the big problem right now with DC toys, I walk down the toy aisle at the store just in case something catches my eye that I want to play with and DC just has tiny Batman multiverse figures that want to rely on the nostalgia of the first Superman and Batman movies and the Arkham video games and if it's not that then it's action figures that look like someone made cheap knockoffs of what Batman figures are supposed to be.  Sorry, I'm getting off the point of this list.  This show should just come back out of nowhere and blow people's minds to the point where they think that some god somewhere answered their prayers.  I miss you Young Justice, even if you should of been called Teen Titans..... I miss you.





#1.  Batman TAS


See, this is just bullshit and I actually hate doing it.  Whenever anyone makes a list about DC animated....... anything, they always have to use the holy Batman TAS as it's #1.  It's not even a mystery what will be #1 when reading a list like this.  So I'm sorry to do it to you, but I hope you at least know where I'm coming from because it's literally impossible to come up with a better top spot than Batman TAS and even if you can, someone will say "bullshit" because it's not Batman TAS.  You can't fucking win.  So what should I say here?  It's an amazing fucking show and if I happen to be having a bad day and want to escape a little I just throw in a DVD and travel off to Gotham where bad shit happens, but Batman's always there to save the day in a half an hour.  Amazing writing, animation, style, voice acting..........  It's just a perfect show and it will always be #1 on any list you'll ever read.  No DC animated show will ever be as good and we all know it......... and that's a little sad actually.  But before I leave you, I just want you to sit back and imagine the hype and interwebs explosions that would occure if for some reason they decided to bring this show back.... even for a limited run, with the original cast and creative team.  It might actually be the most beautiful experience of our lives and I don't care how many of you have children and who are married because none of that shit would compare to that.  It's awesome and it will always be #1.


That's it for this week's Top 5 Fridays and tomorrow morning I sincerely intend to get a bowl of Coco Puffs ready and watch me a couple hours of cartoons from these shows I've just talked about and it will be a glorious Saturday.  You all should do the same and have yourselves a great weekend and we'll see you in seven for the next Top 5 Fridays.  See you then.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with your list EXCEPT I would have JLU at number 1. Batman The Animated Series was fantastic, like no other...but I liked justice league unlimited because of it expanding BTAS' universe

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  2. I equate Batman TAS to your first love. No matter how it ended, you'll most likely always look back at it fondly and it will always stay with you. Great now I've gone sappy.

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    1. Take ya sap, go make some emotional syrup!
      But in all seriousness I get what you mean and I have the same feeling with JLU

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