Tooned Up

Being a comic book fan also makes me a huge fan of animation, and those two genres go together like eggs and cigar ashes. What? That's just me? But what comic book cartoons are truly the best? Here it is, The Panel Biter's Top 5 Comic Book Cartoons!

5. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Premiering in 2010 and developed by Ciro Nieli, Joshua Fine, and Christopher Yost, "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" is the next best adaptation of The Avengers comics right after their film. While the artwork was angular, colorful and fully motioned, the two season storyline offered an ever changing roster, loyal interpretations of characters, and story arcs pulled straight from the comics. Even characters outside The Avengers got great attention in this series, like Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. Stories like "The Kree/Skrull War" and "Secret Invasion" were written to match the context of the show, mature material like Hank Pym's downward spiral were tamed for the younger audience, and overall the show was a love letter to the history of The Avengers. It's follow-up show "Avengers: Assemble" is so bad by comparison it only gives you more of a reason to love this cartoon.

4. Teen Titans

Premiering in 2003 and developed by Glen Murakami and David Slack, this animated series sits in the hearts of many young adults. Focusing on a team of teenaged heroes and their five seasons of character development, thoughtful stories, and colorful villains, this cartoon mixed elements from the classic comics while presenting the stories in an anime-inspired fashion. The characters are so diverse and expressive, none go without humor and none go without complexity. Villains spanning from mercenaries to cult leaders to demons challenge our five heroes as their universe gets progressively bigger and bigger. The limitations to what the show could use only make what it offers a lot smarter and gives importance to these individual characters. Without a doubt, this is a fun show that can turn any loyal viewer into a Teen Titans fan!

3. Spectacular Spider-Man

Developed by Greg Weisman and Victor Cook and premiering in 2008, "The Spectacular Spider-Man" gave a breath of fresh air to one of America's favorite heroes! This show starred a version of Peter Parker who harkened back to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's ideals, but fits right into the modern world. The characterizations of supporting characters like Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, and Mary Jane Watson makes them feel tangible and gets the viewer invested in characters who don't even slip into spandex. The handling of Spider-Man's villains can go from identical to off-the-wall, but they always stick! The art and animation for the show is quick when it needs to be and pleasing when it wants to be, overall it's a very great design for this kind of show. Like AEMH, this show benefits further when you compare it to it's awful successor, but I've talked to death about that!

2. The DC Animated Universe

This may be a cop-out, but The DC Animated Series began with "Batman: The Animated Series" in 1992 and ended with "Justice League: Unlimited" which ran until 2006. For fourteen years and across seven animated series the DCAU was one of the first shared universes in animation, with one series following the other. Characters like Batman and Supeman may have received entire shows, but that didn't stop creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm from fleshing out famous heroes like The Flash and Wonder Woman and bringing out the potential of Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter. When the show got to JLU, the creators were given a splendor of DC's characters. Villains like Vandal Savage, Gorilla Grodd and Amazo, heroes like Booster Gold, Green Arrow and Deadman, and many fun stories that ultimately challenged viewers on the ethics of superheroes. Time travel, multiple dimensions, magic, there were no science-fiction topics untouched by the geniuses behind this series of shows. Truly, The DCAU was the Golden Age of comic book cartoons.

1. Young Justice

 Hello, Megan! Of course this is the best comic book cartoon ever! Lead by Brandon Vietti and Greg Weisman, running from 2010 to 2013, "Young Justice" was a combination of The Teen Titans, The Justice League, and the masterful writing of Greg Weisman. Rearranging the canon of DC Comics-if there is any at this point-and placing the right adjustments in order, "Young Justice" tells us the story of "Sidekicks" becoming a team of their own, of young heroes struggling with the lifestyles they live, and the many twists and turns of an epic tale. Each character is written lovingly, every battle done with excellent coordination, but it is the interpersonal relationships of the characters that sell this show. How two best friends can fight on another over the morals of leadership, how a man struggling with his identity can take responsibility, how two lovers divided by a moral code can still come together. I don't care if it is a cartoon, this show was beautiful. The art makes what these characters do seem real, the movement and effects that are pulled up it's cinematic quality and the shout-out to comic book fans is loyal. With two seasons exploring very diverse threats, this show was cancelled before it's third season. Lucky for you, the second season has just been added to Netflix so go check the full series out! There seems to be a lot of buzz of a Netflix exclusive season 3, so go show some support while you're at it!
Thanks for reading!

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