The DCAU thread

[Ran]

For some reason, my daughter likes watching Justice League. So we were watching it last night, and afterwards, they showed a Teen Titans cartoon short. It was pretty cheesy.

What the hell is on Kid Flash's head? Is that a hat or his hair?

[Eternal Padawan]

Justice League Unlimited was cool because it basically showcased the ENTIRE DC Universe. I wish they could do a cartoon like that for Marvel, but they got their liscenses spread out too many places.

[Ran]

Thank you for the timely response. It only took 100 something views.

[Eternal Padawan]

I didn't realize the second season of JLU was only 13 episodes! I think I'm going to pick up both of them and soon.

[anarky]

I'm starting this because Best Buy this week is running a fucking amazing sale on all the DCAU season sets except Superman (since it appears to be a tie-in to The Dark Knight) and Static Shock (which still hasn't been released beyond a couple of "best of" DVDs). Some are way less than half normal price!

Batman: TAS (All Seasons): $17.99
Batman Beyond (All Seasons): $12.99
Justice League (All Seasons): $19.99
Justice League Unlimited: Season 1: $19.99
Justice League Unlimited: Season 2: $12.99

Also, The Batman is $9.99 a season. Having dropped over $100 to get the remaining sets I was missing (all four Justice Leagues, all three Batman Beyonds, and Batman: TAS #4), I didn't want to go there yet.

[UKWildcat]

Oh wow, a tad off topic, but Best Buy is finally opening a store in Williamsburg, VA!!!! Fucking awesome!!! The closest Best Buy (or Circuit City for that matter) is in Newport News VA, which is a good 20 minute drive away, each way. I don't spend a lot of money at brick and mortar stores, as you all very well know, but Best Buy is known to have exclusives, some of which I want. So I will no longer have to drive far away with the hopes of getting one. They also have pretty good sales weekly, just like this one, which I can take advantage of and the gas mileage won't kill the deal for me.

The Grand Opening is this Thursday at 6 pm and the first 100 people get $20 gift cards. I have to work that day, so no chance for me. I think my brother is going to give it a shot though, should be pretty crazy.


Okay, sorry... back to topic!

Good deals nark! Thanks for posting!

[Sleazer]

what does DCAU mean ?

(serious question, I'm not playing dumb)

[Diabolical]

DC (Comics) Animated Universe

[anarky]

It's kinda a blanket term for all the DC-based cartoons (mostly TV shows, but a few direct-to-DVD movies and one theatrical movie) set in the same universe, starting with Batman: The Animated Series, and ending with Justice League Unlimited. The only one that's not really DC in the same way as the others is Static Shock, which was based on a Milestone Comics title (published by DC but not set in the same universe as the other DC comics); however, the cartoon version is confirmed to be in the same universe by way of several crossovers.

[Sleazer]

OK, thanks for the update.

[Rollo Tomassi]

I get all of those Dirt Cheap at the Warner Bros. studio store.

[anarky]

Anarky Jr has been on quite a Batman kick lately. I've gotten tired of watching the Music Meister; awesome as it is, you can only watch the same episode of anything about a hundred times before it's old. So we've been watching the DCAU in as close to chronological order as I can figure. (Stuff like the stand-alone movies are a bit tough to work in, and most of Static Shock still hasn't been released yet.)

The fact that the episode "It's Never Too Late" didn't sweep the Emmys in 1992 in every single category crushes my faith in human nature. That episode doesn't feature a costumed villain, isn't what you'd call heavy on the action, and is one of the best Batman stories ever, from any medium. It pulls no punches, deals with some mature issues, and is like nothing else on TV in the past fifteen years.

Right now, "Beware the Gray Ghost" is on. Forgive me for cutting this short, since that episode's just as awesome.

[Diabolical]

It's too bad there hasn't been a passable animated Batman series since.

Batman Beyond (even with Kevin Conroy involved) sucked.
The Batman was boring as all hell, despite some nice character design work.
The less said about The Brave and the Bold the better.
The only DCAU Straight-to-DVD I've seen is Public Enemies, which had potential, but ultimately fell flat.
The only good thing about Gotham Knight was the bonus disc with 4 episodes of Batman:TAS.

[anarky]

The Batman did get better, I'll give it that. I'm watching a Ventriloquist* episode of it right now on Boomerang.

I didn't give Batman Beyond a fair shake when it was on, but have watched a lot in reruns and on video. It's a lot better than I'd expected back when it was on.

We'll have to disagree on The Brave & The Bold.

The direct-to-DVD Justice League: The New Frontier was nothing short of awesome. You should check that one out.

*--Speaking of the Ventriloquist, I was reading earlier summaries and such on Wikipedia about the state of the DC Universe. When I read Ventriloquist was dead (and replaced by a girl), Scarecrow was a Yellow Lantern, Batman had been brainwashed by the JLA and created an army of cyborgs, Superman's origin was retconned back to putting Luthor as a mad scientist in Smallville who swore vengeance on Superman for making him lose his hair, and all sorts of bullshit like this, I wanted to weep. I decided that Earth of the DC Universe was struck by an asteroid the size of Alaska almost immediately after the events of No Man's Land, which somehow went unnoticed by the heroes until it was too late, and life was completely extinguished. It's a disgusting circle-jerk of Silver Age nostalgia, stupid ideas, attempted edginess without the stories to back it up, and letting fuckers like Grant Morrison off their short leashes.

[vynsane]

i really liked batman beyond. i haven't really seen any of 'b:tbatb' but i caught a glimpse of an episode featuring cpt. marvel which looked cool. i may have to check it out.

b:tas was flat-out the single best interpretation of batman in my eyes. and it only got better when it moved to 'the WB' and got a bit retooled. i loved the black and gray, sans-yellow emblem version of the costume, and the fact that nightwing, batgirl and robin were in it. some of the stories they did in that era were fantastic (the one with etrigan kicked ass, the batgirl/supergirl teamup, the episode where superman filled in for batman, being trained by robin to act like him...)