Justice League

Our Review

The Timmverse’s crowning achievement and the gold standard of superhero animation. Justice League (2001-2004) assembled Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter in the WWF-era of the DC Animated Universe — and spent two seasons proving an ensemble superhero show could be both Saturday-morning fun and genuine mythology. The three-part premiere staged an alien invasion; the two-part Starcrossed finale (Hawkgirl’s betrayal, the Thanagarian invasion, Batman nearly dying in the Watchtower crash) is one of the great TV finales of the decade.

Episodes like A Better World (the Justice Lords — the League’s fascist alternates, the single most influential DC story of the 2000s), Hereafter (Superman’s death and the world without him), and the time-travel two-parter are as good as network animation ever got. The writing trusted kids with moral complexity; Kevin Conroy’s Batman defined a generation’s Dark Knight.

Verdict: Watch it. The foundation of everything good about DC animation since.