Young Justice is another in a long line of successful DC Comics animated series from Warner Bros. and DC Universe. This premiere, which aired on the Cartoon Network on Friday night, is guided by the folks who have produced such DC Universe films as Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and Batman: Under the Red Hood.
The Young Justice comic book series was a precursor to the current run of Teen Titans, but this new series is taking its inspiration and characters from the last forty years of DC history to put together this series. The team includes the original Robin and Kid Flash with Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian.
While the manga-inspired Teen Titans from a few years back had a rabid fan base, it did not embody the spirit of the source material that viewers have come to expect from Warner Bros. animation since Batman: The Animated Series premiered in 1992. Young Justice is accessible to preteen kids and on up to us geezers in our thirties and forties who grew up on comic books.
The story begins with four sidekicks (Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy) who believe they are taking a step closer to their ascension into the Justice League. They soon learn that they are not quite as close as they would like. With the League on a mission, the boys learn about an explosion at Cadmus and decide to investigate; Cadmus is a scientific operation of which Robin advises the group that Batman is suspicious. Their fears are realized once they run into a teenage clone of Superman.
The young heroes are captured and eventually befriended by Superboy who yearns for freedom and an opportunity to meet the Man of Steel. We are treated to a series of excellent action sequences; excellent fight choreography has always been important to the producers as story and characterization. Not to dismiss the story and characterization, because it is all there.
The Young Justice comic book series was a precursor to the current run of Teen Titans, but this new series is taking its inspiration and characters from the last forty years of DC history to put together this series. The team includes the original Robin and Kid Flash with Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian.
While the manga-inspired Teen Titans from a few years back had a rabid fan base, it did not embody the spirit of the source material that viewers have come to expect from Warner Bros. animation since Batman: The Animated Series premiered in 1992. Young Justice is accessible to preteen kids and on up to us geezers in our thirties and forties who grew up on comic books.
The story begins with four sidekicks (Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy) who believe they are taking a step closer to their ascension into the Justice League. They soon learn that they are not quite as close as they would like. With the League on a mission, the boys learn about an explosion at Cadmus and decide to investigate; Cadmus is a scientific operation of which Robin advises the group that Batman is suspicious. Their fears are realized once they run into a teenage clone of Superman.
The young heroes are captured and eventually befriended by Superboy who yearns for freedom and an opportunity to meet the Man of Steel. We are treated to a series of excellent action sequences; excellent fight choreography has always been important to the producers as story and characterization. Not to dismiss the story and characterization, because it is all there.
In the Justice League series the characters were never presented as infallible (even Superman) and there is already some of that in this series. Robin doesn’t hesitate to hack into the Justice League’s computer, Speedy gets his way or the highway, and the fledgling team confronts the League in a show of defiance to announce they are joining forces whether or not their mentors approve.
Of course there is room for humor when the script calls for it. After Robin is freed late into the episode he says dryly to Kid Flash’s chagrin: “Lucky Batman isn’t here. He’d have my head for taking so long.” Kid Flash proves he is Wally West in the making when he grabs a part of their opponents decaying face and exclaims “Got your nose!”
I also enjoyed that the team was still obviously learning a thing or two about being heroes. Kid Flash does not appear to be an adept fighter and early on needs rescuing from Robin. Superboy assumes he has all of Superman’s powers but learns at inconvenient times that he indeed does not.
This is easily the best animation that Warner Bros. has ever had on one of its shows. The character designs and animation most resemble the animated shorts that have accompanied the most recent DC Universe movies (The Spectre, Green Arrow, and Jonah Hex).
The voice acting is strong by all the leads who sound for the most part like teens: Jesse McCartney as Robin, Jason Spisak as Kid Flash, Khary Payton as Aqualad, and Nolan North as Superboy. Renee Auberjonois was as distinguishable as ever as the evil Dr. Desmond, the man responsible for the Superboy clone.
For fan boys there is much to enjoy. There’s a big formidable League featured in the episode and, while they are mainly in the background, there are no throwaway character designs. The producers have promised the inclusion of the Justice League in the series and I’m excited to see some more of them (especially an armored up Hawkman).
Like the Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited after it, there appears to be an underlying arc that may be a thread through the rest of the season; that is, Project Cadmus and the unnamed villains who are running the show. One thing is for sure, the torch has been successfully handed from Justice League: Unlimited to Young Justice.
Young Justice will premiere with regular weekly episodes on the Cartoon Network beginning in January.
4 comments:
This was a great show. I loved all of the characters and how different each was...none of them are friends and yet you can see them becoming such quickly.
GO DC
I know. I know the Avengers show is skewing younger than this, but WHYYYYY?!?!
Sorry but Avengers, though not as well animated is ten times better than this pilot.
When it comes to tv and movie review, my fallback response to an opinion I disagree with is that these things are subjective. I read your blog entry and found that I disagreed with most of what you didn't like. We can chalk it up to different tastes.
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