The challenge of creating a animated television series that would attract and retain an audience of non-comic fans has invigorated the superhero genre. In comics the ingrown continuity that has developed around the genre is slowly choking any creative life from them. Freed from those constraints and faced with the requirement to actually entertain, the creative team behind Justice League, the animated series, rise strongly to the challenge.
What this series has done is to re-discover the science fiction aspect to super heroes and to use that as the basis for the stories. They travel through time and space, they fight galactic villains, they use super powers to beat gigantic enemies. This is the best collection of superhero stories I have seen in a very long time. They are simple, straightforward and never ever stupid. The audience they are primarily aimed at, children, have no tolerance for stupidity, they expect to be taken seriously enough to have creators work for their attention. The great problem in the comic versions is that the audience is willing to be taken for granted and will put up with stupidity.
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl combine to form the Justice League and the stories give each of them an opportunity to shine. The interaction between the members of the Justice League is skillfully done and they each have distinct personalities.The animation is excellent, fluid and clear, the action is crisp and effective with sufficient detail to feel solid. The voice talent is excellent, it goes a long way to establishing the people inside the costumes.
Superheros are naturally optimistic, the future is bright and making that work in our unsurprisingly cynical times is a big achievement. Making it just so enjoyable and a wonderful reminder of some of the pleasures of comics as well is just super heroic.
