Super Superhero Cartoon Review! SPOILERS!
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. ***.
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. ***.