Justice League Unlimited was a clear continuum of the
original series. It was also a highly ambitious project, one that didn’t always
pay off. While its predecessor indicated that change was on the horizon after
the destruction of the Watchtower and the departure of Hawkgirl, DC really has
to learn that rebooting a franchise is not necessarily change for the better.
Justice League Unlimited seemed to get lost in the idea of quantity over
quality. It featured a much more diverse team at the expense of character
development, aside from a select few, the majority of the new cast felt one
dimensional and boring, lacking a lot of the charm and whimsy of Justice
League.
The series ran for two seasons one comprising of 26
episodes and one shorter 13 episode season tagged on at the end. While the
first season adopted an episodic format there was an underlying story arc which
came full circle, the second season felt rushed and lacklustre, almost as if
they were running out of ideas, not to mention Superman villains’. The show
took a darker direction than its predecessor through paying homage to an
interesting idea tossed around in the original series. Ultimately this ended up
convoluted and unnecessary since it didn’t go anywhere new. The heroes turn up,
save the day and suddenly everyone remembers why they like the Justice League!
Well duh!
What was memorable about the Justice League for me, were
the seven founding members, as I briefly mentioned in the previous review. This
is where the series came into its own. The cast were incredibly well developed
and complex throughout Justice League and played off each other wonderfully. Whereas
Justice League Unlimited (as the name implies) wanted to expand the league and
rapidly increase the number of characters by creating a secondary cast, an extra
cast and a background cast, to varying degrees of success.
The secondary cast consisted of Green Arrow, Supergirl,
Black Canary, The Question, Huntress to name a few. As reoccurring characters
with relative contributions to the major plot line, these characters were fleshed
out enough not to feel contrived. They were even capable of holding down
episodes largely absent of the founding cast members, in particular the Birds
of Prey saga. The writer Gail Simone might have had something to do with that.
The extra cast were little more than the guest cast of a filler episode –
Captain Marvel, Zatanna, Hawkman, Hawk and Dove, Booster Gold, and these were
among the worse episodes of the series. It shouldn’t be enough to just have these
characters present. The writers have to do something with them other than an
extended cameo appearance. And here we reach the crux of the show; it could be
downright sloppy at times. The background cast were the background, superheroes
that never spoke and were never named. They were simple padding. They were a
waste of animation.
The overall problem with Justice League Unlimited is that
it never when far enough. It relied far too heavily on the original series to
the point that very little progression was made on the already set up cast
members. Opting instead to introduce as many new and unfamiliar faces as
possible but rather than establishing who they were and most importantly why we
should care about them, Justice League Unlimited would immediately return to
its comfort zone – the DC trinity. Perhaps if the series had gone the whole
route and turned each episode into a one-shot dedicated to an entirely new
character, the series would have actually felt unlimited.
In short Justice League ended on a high. Justice League
Unlimited began on a low and only got a little better with time. Unfortunately
DC seems to be repeating their mistakes with Young Justice.
Rating: 6/10
For fans of: Justice League, Young Justice, The Avengers;
Earths Mightiest Heroes
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