Super Superhero Cartoon Review! SPOILERS!

[matt_zimmer]

Reviews for Legion of Superheroes "The Man of Tomorrow", The Batman "A Matter of Family" and Fantastic Four "Hard Knocks"!


Legion of Superheroes "The Man of Tomorrow":

I liked it. I miss the good ol' days of kick butt DC cartoon premieres that we were treated to with Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond but this was still good. It was better than the premieres of Teen Titans and The Batman and pretty much on the same level as the premiere of Justice League.

What I liked: I like that Superman isn't actually trapped in the future and that he WILL be going home at some point. The statues and pictures of Superman kinda looked like the DCAU version (even though this isn't in the same continuity) but so did Supes in the cameo of the premiere for Krypto the Superdog.

I liked Brainiac Five, Bouncing Boy and Saturn Girl. I thought the Emerald Empress was neat and I'm REALLY glad I had a chance to meet versions of these characters in "New Kids in Town" and "Far From Home" on STAS and JLU respectively so I at least had SOME familiarity with the cast.

I liked that the animation was smooth and that there wasn't a whole bunch of crazy expressions. I liked that the story was simple to follow yet didn't talk down to kids the way the premieres of Teen Titans and The Batman did.

The theme song was neat.

What I wasn't so crazy about: Lightning Lad made me angry. He seems to basically be the jerk in the group for no real reason. I'm sick of him already.

Even though I knew this WASN'T going to be in continuity with Far From Home because Superman would be the star instead of Supergirl, I'm still bummed that JLU is the last DCAU show.

In short, even though it didn't start of with a bang like BTAS, STAS, and BB it still showed a lot of promise which is more than I can say for a LOT of Superhero cartoons nowadays. ***1/2.

The Batman "A Matter of Family":

I loved this episode. The whole thing seemed to be an outright homage to BTAS with the stunt voice casting of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill and the flagrant borrowing from the tone of Robin's Reckoning. This also seemed more like BTAS because Batman was MUCH more driven and Batman was actually fighting street thugs instead of caricatures of Batman's Rogues. I really liked it a lot.

Only beef: I was REALLY bummed Robin wasn't voiced by Scott Menville because having the show be in continuity with Teen Titans would have been fun because we would have had definitive proof that Robin was Dick Grayson. On the plus side at least the Teen Titans continuity issue isn't actually resolved and it seems to share more links to the DCAU than to the The-Verse.

Great episode. And it's awesome that they kept last year's theme. ****.

Fantastic Four "Hard Knocks"

This is the first episode of the show I've kind of liked. It was decent and the format of bringing in guest Marvel Heroes like the Hulk is a good idea. I'd still like to see more well-known Marvel villains than just Dr. Doom but this is only the fourth episode so I'll reserve judgment until the entire season is finished.

I like that the Hulk is back to being a monster here like in the Ultimate Avengers movies. I liked the Hulk on the old 90's cartoon but it seems much more realistic that he'd be terrifying.

Ben was fun in this episode too. I loved how he told the Hulk that he didn't mind if he wrecked the car because it was Johnny's and his first pathetic attempts to make Banner mad which resulted in the Hulk being upset with him anyways.

Yeah, I enjoyed this episode. I still hate Johnny and I'm far from sold on this show but if they delivered more episodes like this the show would actually be watchable. ***.

Comments

[style92.livejournal.com]

I am sick over the fact I missed those premeires. physically shaking. Here's hoping for a rerun.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

It's okay, Style, you are still awesome. They were pretty standalone so I don't think you'll need to see them to enjoy next week.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

I liked LOSH, and it hit all the right notes. It's not JLU, it's not Teen Titans (despite a lot of people from those shows working on it), it'll come into its own. I do want to see more of the other characters, and hopefully Lightning Lad was just like that in the premiere and will come to respect Superman.

The Batman was awesome too, and that rumor about Scott Menville stunk. I checked the cast a month or two ago, so I wasn't shocked or anything. TT Robin is still Dick, but it would've been cool to make these shows in the same continuity. I'm REALLY looking forward to how they deal with Robin on the show since his introduction was so good.

Fantastic Four's not bad. I mean, Johnny needs to be toned down and the people that live in the building are annoying, but, we're getting there. I hope. I find it a little distressing after 4 episodes I'm still saying the animation isn't smooth enough and yet I only had to watch the first act of LOSH to have it click with me. I'll make an entry on that sometime in the future...

Wait, what are you saying about The Hulk?

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

"I liked LOSH, and it hit all the right notes. It's not JLU, it's not Teen Titans (despite a lot of people from those shows working on it), it'll come into its own. I do want to see more of the other characters, and hopefully Lightning Lad was just like that in the premiere and will come to respect Superman."

I thought it was good too. I hope they fix Lightning Lad because he just seems like a big jerk. I'm still bummed the show isn't in DCAU continuity.

"The Batman was awesome too, and that rumor about Scott Menville stunk. I checked the cast a month or two ago, so I wasn't shocked or anything. TT Robin is still Dick, but it would've been cool to make these shows in the same continuity. I'm REALLY looking forward to how they deal with Robin on the show since his introduction was so good."

I think so too. If they AREN'T in continuity it would have been even better if Teen Titans could have at least tried harder to be DCAU canon. It wouldn't have actually been that hard.

"Fantastic Four's not bad. I mean, Johnny needs to be toned down and the people that live in the building are annoying, but, we're getting there. I hope. I find it a little distressing after 4 episodes I'm still saying the animation isn't smooth enough and yet I only had to watch the first act of LOSH to have it click with me. I'll make an entry on that sometime in the future..."

It actually IS kinda bad but this episode was alright. I'm still not sold on this show yet.

"Wait, what are you saying about The Hulk?"

I like that the Hulk was scary and out of control here. On the nineties cartoon Hulk seemed actually kind of rational and not really that monstrous. It makes it that much worse if Banner actually turns into a force of destruction. Otherwise he IS just like the Thing and there is absolutely no contrast between the two of them.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Matt, this DCAU stuff can really hurt your enjoyment of something. I mean, look at Teen Titans. Yes, it wouldn't be that hard to make it DCAU canon. Speedy and Kid Flash having the same VAs on both shows means some connection, but if they really wanted to make TT DCAU, it would hold them down to certain restrictions.

We do have an unaccounted for period of time when Dick was Robin but before he went off to college, but there's always the Donna Troy problem, and Teen Titans' wackiness would lessen the effect of aliens on Earth (as seen in early Superman and "Starcrossed"). It seems like they were going to make TT part of the DCAU, but when they realized it'd already be bogged down with 4 or 5 different shows worth of continuity, it gave them more freedom not to be DCAU. Hence LOSH being its own show as well as future DTV projects being free of previous continuity.

The great thing about the Hulk is that here's a character whose personality is really fractured. A lot of Marvel heroes have their problems, but Bruce Banner has SERIOUS issues. You're saying you like the Savage Hulk, which is always good when he's around other heroes and becomes a force of nature. The Hulk from the 90's series is the child-like Hulk, who can be a protagonist, but I wouldn't say he's like The Thing (Thing wants to be normal again, Hulk thinks he is normal, he just wants to be left alone). That Hulk is confused by everything and can feel more than just anger. He's got all this power and doesn't understand his place in the world or why everyone is chasing him. Banner has gone through lots of other changes too, and even though I find some more compelling than others, I think the concept of the Hulk in general is a good one and has many places to go.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Continuity is fun.

I liked the child-like Hulk a lot too but Savage Hulk is kind of scary. And since the entire concept of the Hulk is scary it makes more sense. What do they call the Gray Hulk and the Hulk that possesses Banner's intelligence?

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

Originally, the Hulk was gray. I never read any of those old stories, so I'm not even sure what he was like. Because it was hard to color him, he became green. Later on, they decided to bring back Gray Hulk, but they gave him a meaner personality (as in, cruel, he was a jerk). He's either called Gray Hulk or Mr. Fixit (he was a mob boss in Las Vegas for a time). I think the Hulk with Banner's intelligence is just Smart Hulk.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but even though Grey Hulk was mean he was actually intelligent which was a pretty cool trade-off. What is the Hulk currently being used in the comics?

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much you know about Marvel Civil War (or if any of my strange posts about it made sense), but slightly before it happened, Hulk rampaged in Nevada, which caused a few innocent deaths (which he never did before, lots of injuries, yes, but no deaths).

So this secret inner circle group of heroes called the Illuminati (Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange, and Black Bolt) launched Hulk into space. They aimed for a peaceful uninhabited planet, but instead, Hulk landed on another planet full of strange and diverse aliens. The Hulk is currently involved in a year-long story (I think it's on month 5, actually) called Planet Hulk, which has been REALLY good so far. The planet has put limits on Hulk's strength, and he has some smarts (he likes to smash, but he talks somewhat intelligently).

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

That sounds neat-- and also too complicated for me to understand. :D

[dcauyojimbo.livejournal.com]

I was robbed!!! Because of the UPN-KWB collapse, my local channel had paid programming leading up to college football, which my college's team lost anyway. I really hope CN will start airing soon, but probably not. :(

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

That's a bummer. This merged network thing has undoubtably screwed up a LOT of fans. :(

[stewie-14.livejournal.com]

Which demo Legion Of Superheroes aiming for? The BTAS/JLU crowd, or the Teen Titans/The Batman crowd?

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

It seemed to me to be somewhere in between. It wasn't as dumbed down as The Batman or Teen Titans and it wasn't as adult-oriented as BTAS or JLU.

[90scartoonman.livejournal.com]

I'd say TT crowd mostly because of the cutesy re-designs, particularly Brainiac 5. And also, the premiere was no more intelligent/mature than the better episodes of Teen Titans and The Batman.

[mattzimmer.livejournal.com]

Still more intelligent and mature than the early episodes of both series.