''Justice League'' is an American

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

which ran from November 17, 2001 to May 29, 2004 on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. It is the seventh series of the DC Animated Universe. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It is based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics. It serves as a prequel to '' Batman Beyond'' and as a sequel to '' Batman: The Animated Series,'' '' Superman: The Animated Series'', and '' The New Batman Adventures''. The series ended after two seasons, but was followed by '' Justice League Unlimited'', a successor series which aired for three seasons. It was the first show on Cartoon Network to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and was the last Cartoon Network show to be greenlit by Betty Cohen.

Production

Bruce Timm, who co-produced '' Batman: The Animated Series'' and '' Superman: The Animated Series'' in the 1990s, became producer on an animated series focusing on the Justice League. The roster consisted of

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (

John Stewart John Stewart may refer to: Business * John Aikman Stewart (1822–1926), American banker * John Killough Stewart (1867–1938), businessman and philanthropist in Queensland, Australia * John K. Stewart (1870–1916), American entrepreneur and inve ...

), The Flash ( Wally West), Martian Manhunter (J'onn J'onzz), and Hawkgirl. According to audio commentary on the DVD release of Season 2, the second-season finale "Starcrossed" was expected to be the final episode of the series. However, in February 2004, Cartoon Network announced a follow-up series, '' Justice League Unlimited'', which premiered on July 31, 2004 and featured a larger roster of characters. It's the first series in the DC Animated Universe to fully use digital ink and paint, also the first to be produced in widescreen starting in Season 2.

Casting

Kevin Conroy reprised his voice role as

from '' Batman: The Animated Series'' (1992–1995), '' The New Batman Adventures'' (1997–1999), and ''Batman Beyond'' (1999–2001). Batman's costume was redesigned, but this time, his costume was a combination of his last three costumes. The same costume from ''The New Batman Adventures'' is retained, but with the blue highlights from the ''Batman: The Animated Series'' costume and the long-ears from the ''Batman Beyond'' costume are added to the costume. Tim Daly, who voiced

in '' Superman: The Animated Series'' (1996–2000) was initially involved but was unable to continue his role due to involvement with '' The Fugitive'' (a short-lived remake of the original 1963 TV series), and was replaced by George Newbern. Superman was initially redesigned to have a bit of a squint to his eyes and slight wrinkles that was also meant to make him look older, in addition to having a noticeable shining streak to his hair; he was redesigned to appear larger in physical girth than in the previous series. Fans did not like the older appearance and in the second season the streak was toned down to the point of almost disappearing and the squint was removed, in essence reverting Superman to his earlier animated look. As an in-joke, Superman's season one facial designs are used for an older Jor-El in the '' Justice League Unlimited'' episode " For the Man Who Has Everything". A recurring gag in the first season was Superman's powers being toned down even more than in ''Superman: The Animated Series'' to the point of being portrayed as unnaturally weak and vulnerable to harm, most episodes showing him being consistently taken down by foes he should be at least be a match for and not have a problem with. The episode "War World" being the primary example, which was hated by the fans of the show. They called out Bruce Timm and the co-creators for this with them saying they deliberately did it, only to end up overdoing it. This was changed from the second season onwards, where his power-levels were upped. Several actors who voiced members of the League's villains in previous DCAU shows also returned to reprise their roles, including

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards f ...

, Clancy Brown, Corey Burton,

Ron Perlman Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...

, Arleen Sorkin, Peri Gilpin, Mark Rolston, Ted Levine and Michael Ironside as the Joker, Lex Luthor, Brainiac,

Clayface Clayface is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Most incarnations of the character possess clay-like bodies and shapeshifting abilities, and all of them have been depicted as List of Bat ...

, Harley Quinn,

Volcana Volcana may refer to: *Volcana (Marvel Comics) *Volcana (DC Comics) See also *Volcano (disambiguation) A volcano is a geological landform usually generated by the eruption through a vent in a planet's surface of magma. Volcano may also refer to: ...

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

Sinestro Thaal Sinestro () (or simply Sinestro) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, particularly those featuring Green Lantern. Sinestro is a former Green Lantern Corps member who was dishonorably discharged for abu ...

, and

Darkseid Darkseid () is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer-artist Jack Kirby to serve as the primary antagonist of his "Fourth World (comics), Fourth World" metaseries, and was firs ...

, respectively. Additionally, Michael Dorn returned to voice Darkseid's son Kalibak, Lisa Edelstein reprised her role as Luthor's former bodyguard

Mercy Graves Mercy Graves is a supervillain appearing in multimedia and American comic books published by DC Entertainment and DC Comics. Created for the DC Animated Universe (DCAU), she first appeared in 1996 on '' Superman: The Animated Series'' as the perso ...

, and Brad Garrett reprised his role as the bounty hunter

Lobo Lobo may refer to: Places *Lobo, Batangas, a municipality in the Philippines *Lobo, Texas, a ghost town *Lobo, Indonesia *Lobo, Cameroon, a town in Cameroon *Lobo Hill, near Belchite, Aragon, Spain * Lobo, Ontario, near London, Ontario, Canada Pe ...

. Other villains were re-cast for various reasons. Brion James, who had previously voiced Parasite, died in 1999 and was replaced by Brian George. Due to budgetary reasons in the episode "Hereafter," Corey Burton replaced Bud Cort, Malcolm McDowell and Miguel Ferrer from their respective roles as Toyman,

Metallo Metallo () is a name used by multiple supervillains appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of Superman. Metallo is usually depicted as a cyborg with a kryptonite power source in his heart, which he ...

and Weather Wizard (although both Cort and McDowell would return for ''Justice League Unlimited''). Maria Canals (who provides the voice for Hawkgirl) replaced Lori Petty as

Livewire Livewire(s), Live Wire(s), The Live Wire or Live Wired may refer to: * Live wire (electricity), a wire with a flow of electrical current Computers * Livewire (networking), a digital audio networking technology * LiveWire Professional, computer ...

in the same episode. Most of the characters retained their general comic book origins and continuity, with Wonder Woman being the notable exception. In the ''Justice League'' series continuity, the premiere story arc "Secret Origins" revises the plot of Diana's competition against her fellow Amazons to be the ambassador of peace to man's world, and she is referred to as a "rookie" superhero during her first encounter with the League. (Subsequent episodes touched on her attempts to adjust to her new world). In an interview segment on the Season One DVD, Bruce Timm stated that he initially ran into some legal issues in using the Wonder Woman character, but was adamant that she be used in the series. Additionally, the character of The Flash was portrayed as somewhat younger and significantly more brash than his comic book counterpart, taking on a number of personality traits of Plastic Man, who provides a similar comic relief function in the ''JLA'' comics. Charlie Schlatter, who voiced the Flash in one episode of ''Superman: The Animated Series'', was unavailable to reprise the role and was replaced by Michael Rosenbaum. Major changes were also made to the Hawkgirl character. The character of Hawkgirl became romantically involved with the John Stewart Green Lantern as the series progressed. A romantic relationship between Batman and Wonder Woman was also "shown" (hinted at but never "official" unlike Hawkgirl/Green Lantern) by the show's creators, who disliked pairing Wonder Woman with Superman despite fan requests.

Robin Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

is not paired with Batman in this animated series like he was on '' Super Friends''. In addition to Conroy, Newburn, Canals and Rosenbaum, the rest of the main cast includes Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Phil LaMarr as Green Lantern and Carl Lumbly as J'onn J'onzz. Canals, Rosenbaum, LaMarr and Lumbly had all appeared on different shows within the DCAU, all appearing as different characters before their casting on ''Justice League''. Although the series itself is animated in traditional 2-dimensional style, the opening credits are rendered in 3D with

toon shading Cel shading or toon shading is a type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make 3-D computer graphics appear to be flat by using less shading color instead of a shade gradient or tints and shades. A cel shader is often used to mimi ...

. The intro is a "stock" intro used throughout the series until ''Justice League Unlimited'' premieres.

Episodes

Voice cast

Main cast

* George Newbern – Superman / Clark Kent, D.J. Rubber Ducky * Kevin Conroy – Batman / Bruce Wayne * Susan Eisenberg – Wonder Woman / Princess Diana * Phil LaMarr – Green Lantern / John Stewart, Ed Reiss * Michael Rosenbaum – Flash / Wally West, Arkkis Chumuck, Colonel Josef, André, Deadshot, Franzee * Carl Lumbly – Martian Manhunter / J'onn J'onzz, Krizblack * Maria Canals-Barrera – Hawkgirl / Shayera Hol,

, Py'tar

Recurring cast

Home media

From 2006 to 2011, Warner Home Entertainment (via

DC Entertainment DC Entertainment is an American entertainment company that was founded in September 2009 and was based in Burbank, California. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery that manages its DC Comics units and characters in other units, ...

and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released the entire series of ''Justice League'' on DVD and Blu-ray, and presented in original broadcast version and story arc continuity order. Season releases Warner Home Video also released another DVD set titled ''Justice League: The Complete Series.'' It contained all 91 episodes of ''Justice League'' and ''Justice League Unlimited'' on a 15-disc set with the 15th disc containing a bonus documentary. This was later re-packaged and sold as a 10-disc set without the bonus documentary. ;Individual releases ;Boxsets

Soundtrack

A 4-disc soundtrack of musical highlights from both seasons of Justice League was released by La-La Land Records in July 2016. It is a limited edition of 3000 units and can be ordered at the La-La Land Records website. The set includes tracks from fan-favorite episodes like A Better World, Hereafter, Wild Cards and Starcrossed. La-La Land are hoping to release a soundtrack for '' Justice League Unlimited'' as well, provided that sales of the Justice League soundtrack improve significantly and that there is sufficient demand from fans. A second Justice League volume may also follow if fans support the existing release.

Broadcast history

The series premiere on November 17, 2001, set a Cartoon Network record with over 4.114 million viewers. This made it the channel's highest rated premiere ever, a record it would keep until September 13, 2009, when the world premiere of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins gathered over 6.108 million viewers. The show was aired in the Republic of Ireland on

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known a ...

in both Irish and English from 6 September 2002 to 2007.

Reception

The series has received acclaim. In January 2009, IGN named ''Justice League/Justice League Unlimited'' as the 20th best animated television series of all time.

Accolades

Cancelled film and reboot

Circa 2004, Bruce Timm announced that a direct-to-video ''Justice League'' feature film was being planned. The film was intended to make a bridge between the second season of ''Justice League'' to the first season of '' Justice League Unlimited''. The film was planned to reveal how Wonder Woman acquired her Invisible-Jet, and also planned to feature the

Crime Syndicate Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

as the main antagonists, an idea that was originally conceived for the two-part episode "A Better World", until the Syndicate was replaced by the

Justice Lords Justice Lords are a fictional team of anti-heroes/anti-villains who first appeared in the two-part ''Justice League'' episode "A Better World", which was broadcast on November 1, 2003. The Justice Lords were brought into DC Comics' canonical Mult ...

. Dwayne McDuffie wrote the script and

Andrea Romano Andrea Romano may refer to: * Andrea Romano (voice director) (born 1955), American casting director, voice director and voice actress * Andrea Romano (politician) (born 1967), Italian politician * Andrea Romanò Andrea Romanò (born 23 July 1 ...

assembled the cast, but Warner Bros. finally scrapped the project. However, in 2010, the film's plot was used for the non-DCAU film '' Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths'', but removing all references to the continuity of the DC animated universe, and replacing

with

Hal Jordan Harold "Hal" Jordan, one of the characters known as Green Lantern, is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created in 1959 by writer John Broome and artist Gil Kane, and first appeared in '' ...

as the Justice League's Green Lantern.

Adaptations

''Justice League Adventures''

DC Comics published a series of 34-issue numbered comics based on the television series, between 2002 and 2004. * #34 (2004-08-04): Guardians Against Darkness!

Compilations

* ''Justice League Adventures: The Magnificent Seven'' (2004-01-01): Includes #3, 6, 10–12.JUSTICE LEAGUE ADVENTURES VOL. 1: THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
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