We all love our cartoons when we are young and even older and even older. The ones that tend to stick with us even after we get "too old" for Saturday morning cartoons are superhero themed ones. Particularly ones based off of comic books. So I have complied a list of what I consider the beset tv shows based off comic books. The range is big and a few are highly predictable, but they are all truly great for separate reasons.
The Batman (2004-2008)
The Batman is a series that I despised when I first saw it because 1. It wasn’t Batman The Animated Series 2. It wasn’t in the DC Animated Universe. After watching the first episode, I was instantly hooked! Who Knew? This show changed the way animated cartoons were done in the DC/WB area of animation and it brought to screen great villains and great redone legendary villains like The Penguin and The Joker and Heroes. They were just fun and the younger Bruce Wayne was great with adding Robin and Batgirl than doing Justice League in final season. Bringing back some DC Animated Universe (DCAU) Favs to voice their characters again. Gave me a soft spot for this series.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aka TMNT (2003-2009)
Don’t get me wrong, I love the original 80s version for what it is..but...the series in TMNT fan eyes is lackluster and too childish. Than came the 2003 series and it was way different and more adult. Still not as adult as comic, but it gave us funny one-liners and great action with a cool shredder. The series had cool seasons and even went into the future. It just covered so much of the turtles world.The best part was the series finale/tv film that combined all the different series into one great tv movie. TMNT does have a new series that is growing on me nicely, it gets the humor spot on.
Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998)
Here is the longest running series based on Spider-Man and 2nd longest Marvel series period. Fox Kids had the best superhero programming in the 90s with this, X-Men, Batman, and others. I was glued to that channel. Spider-Man has had more tv series since way back in the 70s, but this 90s modern take on him was the absolute best. It gave us Peter Parker during his college years working at the Daily Bugle. The animation was superb and the dialogue was actually really great with the inner-monologue of Spider-Man himself, just like the comic books. We got to see the classic spidey villains like Kingpin, Green Goblin, Lizard, Doc Ock, and Venom. Although, my favorite part was we got to see The Punisher make his appreance a few times along with Blade, Doc Strange and even Captain America. There was even a great crossover with X-Men. What else could you ask for in an amazing Spider-Man series. (see what I did there).
Teen Titans (2003-2006)
The animation alone is drastically different then almost every other DC cartoon, and that is a great thing! The anime animation style was able to bring the emotion and humor out of the characters that made the show memorable. We finally got to see Robin and the team take main stage and Cyborg is just hilarious. Don’t think the show was all fun and games, it did get pretty serious in a lot episodes, with Ron Perlman as Slade. The characters were well thought out and presented perfect for the age group they were made for, but they did impress the older group with the humor. You have to love this show.
Batman Beyond (1999-2001)
Batman in the future. Period. Also, takes place after Batman:TAS, which makes it even more awesome! Batman Beyond took the Timmverse into a big new direction with going into the future so far we actually get to see an old (very old) Bruce Wayne, still being voiced by Kevin Conroy. Bruce hangs up the cowl in the first episode and we meet the new Batman, Terry McGinnis. This new batman still has all the humor and will to do the job, but we get a brand new suit that is awesome (and capeless) and new gadgets. Bruce became an Alfred role, while Barbara Gordon is chief, and Robin is a tech guy. Pretty cool to see where they all ended up going.We also get some awesome new villains in Gotham and return of some old ones. This series was a Timmverse high that ended too soon in my opinion, it was even green-lit for a 4th season, but Justice League deterred that. I hope one day we see more of this world and it’s heroes/villains in animation or film.
Do you have an idea what they top 5 shows will be? Well come on and see if you know what it is.
