Justice League & Batman Beyond (1 Viewer)

[Robert Floto]

David, there will indeed be episodes of Justice League: Unlimited that will be confusing if you have not seen some of the episodes of the first two seasons of Justice League. All of Bruce Timm's superhero productions have an underlying continuity throughout.

 

[Paul_Scott]

I got JLU in November, started watching it in December and was entertained silly! This was the most satisfying 'comic book' material I've watched since Batman Begins last year. So many things were so right- even if the general product still has many of the compromises of a network budget and an all ages impetus.
Still, even with the lamentabley stiff animation, this was vastly more entertaing to me than Superman Returns or Fantastic Four (there are several ideas in regards to Superman here that are more interesting or thought provoking, or downright affecting that anything I saw in SR- sorry for the rant, but to me, this really illustrates the paucity of imaginiation and the poor handle Singer had on the character in that film- jmo, of course).
It's a shame they never got a Disney feature film sized budget to do something really fluid and special.

The New Frontier is a great work- especially if you enjoy 50s/60s era design and the seeing the old silver age characters reinterpreted w/ a modern sense of pacing and thematics. Cooke worked on Batman Beyond in some capacity and his art style shares many traits with Timms. I love his work myself, and could easily see the illustrations on New frontier being lifted almost boldily in transition.

as far as needing the earlier season to appreciate JLU- This shows seems to have gotten better with each subsequent season. I caught a few eps of S1 at the time and wasn't too engaged. I saw The last 3 eps of Season 2 (Starcrossed) and was impressed much more- and these eps lay a lot of foundation for JLU (as does the two parter 'A Better World' also in the second season).
I had easily avoided picking up the S2 because of the substandard (re: non anamoprphic) quality- but after I finished JLU i was so impressed, and so entertained, that I ran out and picked it up anyway and have now gone thru 3 of those 4 discs. Blown up on 1080p pj, the quality does take a backseat to JLU, but it's still watchable. For that matter, I was disappointed in the quality of JLU anyway. Neither one is a good example of animation rendered well, imo (I see a lot of jaggies on line edges for instance regardless of 16:9 enhancement or not). With these sets, the phrase 'the play's the thing' comes to mind. The material itself was so engaging, that I never got that caught up in nit-picking the presentation.

So far Season 2 has been almost as fun as JLU. Definitley do not regret the purchase- and can't wait for the last set.

 

[Jonathan_Clarke]

For those of you just discovering JLU now, I hope you're going back to Batman and Superman: the Animated Series. Those shows lay the groundwork for the whole Bruce Timm DC Universe and are just as well written and animated.

And don't worry about JL Season 1. It is generally considered the weakest show. Bruce Timm admitted it took then a long time to get up and running with a team show.

 

[TimT]

My son and I just watched JLU episode "Fearful Symmetry". This is the episode where Supergirl finds out she has a clone. There are references in it to a time when Superman went bad and apparently the government now wants their own Superman like character to work for them. We have watched almost all of the original Timm Superman episodes and almost all of the Justice League episodes and we don't know what they are referring to. What episode are we missing or what episode are they referring to?

 

[Scamp]

They are most likely referring to the final two episodes of Superman:The Animated Series in which Superman is brainwashed by Darkseid and leads his forces in an attack on Earth. This was to be the lead in into a new season of Superman, but then the series was cancelled so it ended up being the final episodes instead.

 

[TimT]

Awesome! We have not seen the last four or five episodes, so we are definately looking forward to that. Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[David Deeb]

Thanks Robert, Paul and Jonathan. Your replies helped me decide that at least Season 2 of JL might be worth checking out too. This JLU is an interesting cartoon & the other box sets / series (Batman and Superman) sound worthy.

But supporting their decision to release JL Season 2 as a 4X3 letterboxed DVD rubs me the wrong way. So rather than go new, I think if I see a used copy, I'll pick it up.

 

[Sam Favate]

JL season 1 may not be as good as the later seasons, but it's still pretty good. If you enjoyed Superman TAS and Batman TAS, you will likely enjoy it. JL Season 2 is a great collection of episodes, when the mythology of the show really comes into its own. JLU season 1 is great too, and the second half of this collection (episodes 14-26) are, IMO, the very best that the show ever had to offer. It's like a serialized live-action show, with each episode expanding on the one before. JLU season 2 is a fitting conclusion, although the introduction of the Legion of Doom waters down the battle between the JL and the government.

 

[Mike Miskulin]

A Question:

On the JLU set, disc four, it lists the episode order as being Question Authority and then Hunter's Moon. This is indeed how it is on my set, but it is the reverse order in which the episodes were originally aired. As Question Authority leads directly into Flashpoint, it's kind of annoying to watch a stand-alone episode in between the two. Was a fix ever announced for this, or has it always been the same on subsequent pressings?

mike.

 

[Sam Favate]

I don't believe it was ever fixed. Could be production order of the episodes for all I know. I agree, it is annoying, but its a minor thing in the scheme of things.

 

[Sam Favate]

Just got around to posting my review of the Unlimited Season 2 set:

http://dvdsam.blogspot.com/2007/03/d...unlimited.html

Nice to see the series complete. The season 2 as broadcast (the second half of the "Season 1" box) was my favorite, but there is a lot to like in the "Season 2" box as well.

 

[David Deeb]

You are so right!!

I bought the first JL set "blind" several months ago, after reading all the praise about it. I was so impressed with the first JL set, I put it aside & bought all the Batman and Superman sets to watch in order first.

It'll probably take me a year to get through everything, watching 1 here and there.

I guess many consider these just "kids cartoons", but so far, they seem to show much more imagination & storytelling than half of the big-budget summer blockbusters out this summer.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

I just read an article about a direct to DVD movie called Justice League: The New Frontier. It is not a continuation of the JL tv series, though.