Justice League (TV series)/Justice League Unlimited

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Batman: The Animated Series | Superman: The Animated Series | Batman Beyond | The Zeta Project | Static Shock | Justice League | Movies

Justice League Unlimited | Characters: Heroes • Villains • Supporting • Cameos • Organizations • Evil Organizations | Settings | Episodes | Cast and crew | Movies | Comics | Video games | Broadcasting | Awards | DVD releases

Created by Starring Carl Lumbly Michael Rosenbaum Kevin Conroy Phil LaMarr Susan Eisenberg George Newbern Maria Canals Genre Run time 21–23 minutes per episode Original channel Cartoon Network Original run No. of episodes Origin Country c4tdompa Rating Website

Justice League Unlimited (or JLU) was an American animated television series produced by and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and specifically based on the Justice League superhero team, it is a direct sequel to the previous Justice League animated series. JLU debuted on July 31, 2004 at 8:30 p.m. EST/PST on Toonami and ended with the episode aired May 13, 2006 at 10:30 p.m. EST/PST.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Connection with Batman Beyond 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Overview

The series is a continuation of its predecessor, taking up soon after Justice League ended. It is sometimes considered to be the same series as the original; the first season of Justice League Unlimited is referred to by the producers as the third season of Justice League. However, seasons referred to below treat Justice League Unlimited as a separate series.

It features a greatly-expanded League, in which the characters from the original series are joined by a number of superheroes (in the first episode, well over 50 characters appear), as well as a number of DC heroes who had made guest appearances in the first two seasons of Justice League.

Also unlike Justice League, which primarily consisted of two- or three-part stories with only light continuity between them, Justice League Unlimited features ongoing story arcs, the first involving the building conflict between the league and a secret government agency known as Project Cadmus. This plot line heavily builds upon events that occurred during the second season of Justice League, and has affected the plotlines of most of its episodes. It was resolved in a four-part story at the end of the second season of Justice League Unlimited. The third season story arc focuses on the Legion of Doom as the main villains, a loose-knit organization formed to combat the increased superhero coordination of the first two seasons.

Besides the addition of dozens of new League members, the show has changed format somewhat, though keeping the same Bruce Timm style artwork. The stories in the second and third seasons of Unlimited have, however, tended to align along a season-long story arc.

Also, towards the end of the series, certain characters became off-limits to the show. Namely any character mainly associated with Batman (aside from Batman himself), and every Aquaman character. This was due to un-related animated series The Batman, and the pilot of a Smallville-like series for Aquaman which wasn't picked up. Many have seen the decisions to outlaw these characters odd, seeing as Smallville and Justice League Unlimited make use of several of Superman's supporting characters, namely Lex Luthor. However, this ruling would seem to apply to JLU's use of Lois Lane, as she did not have a speaking role once the character was added to the cast of Smallville. On the other hand, the sibling superheroes who are featured in the League, Hawk and Dove, are among the few Teen Titans who do not appear in the television series depiction of that superhero team, while Speedy, a recurring character on Teen Titans, appeared in an episode of JLU soon after the end of Teen Titans run. While it is believed that the end of Teen Titans played a role in this appearance, it was conceived of while Teen Titans was in production, roughly around the time that an appearance of Titans mainstay Kid Flash was planned (voiced by Michael Rosenbaum, JLU's Flash, no less).

Although he is featured prominently in the opening credits, and was one of the original members of the league in the previous Justice League series, the character of The Flash appears only fleetingly in the third season, though he has a more substantive role in the fourth and fifth seasons.

Justice League Unlimited, similar to the second season of Justice League, is animated in widescreen. The show also features a new theme song. It was the last Dini/Timm show in production, although there are currently two other, nonrelated animated series set in the DC universe: The Batman and Legion of Super Heroes. The two-part series finale was aired in the UK on February 8 and February 18 2006 and in the United States on May 6 and May 13 2006. Paul Dini, writer for the show, announced on January 25, 2006 via a reply to a blog entry that the show had been cancelled.

Dini himself had by now left the writing/scripting of Warner Brothers' animated series to become the writer of Detective Comics, the flagship Batman title.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Connection with Batman Beyond

The term "Justice League Unlimited" was used first in the two-part episode ("The Call") of the animated series Batman Beyond that aired more than a year before the first Justice League series began. Decades into the future of the DC Animated Universe, the Justice League still exists, and is referred to as the "Justice League Unlimited". This future League consists of Superman, a new Green Lantern, Big Barda, Warhawk, Aquagirl, and Micron. Like his predecessor, the new Batman becomes a part-time member of the League.

Justice League Unlimited's first season two-part finale ("The Once and Future Thing") again features the league of the future, with a reduced lineup. Villain David Clinton and the Jokerz killed most of the future members of the league, leaving only the original Batman (now the 80-year-old Bruce Wayne), the second Batman (Terry McGinnis), Warhawk and Static alive. This episode also features the revelation that Warhawk is the son of John Stewart and Shayera Hol. Some of these members appear again, along with the rest of the now-restored future heroes, in the season two finale, "Epilogue".

[edit] See also

• Justice League: Worlds Collide, a cancelled Justice League DTV feature set that was originally going to be produced concurrently with the first season of Justice League Unlimited, bridging the gap between the second season of Justice League and the relaunched show. The production was shelved just before the start of filming.[1]

[edit] External links

Template:Wikiquote

• Official site
• Justice League Unlimited at The World's Finest
• Template:Imdb title
• Template:Tvtome show

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