For those that don’t know DC comics made an animated show about their characters. Before I even get to this and why I’m writing about it. The artwork in the ’90s… should have stayed in the 90s.
I’m obviously old! So I got to enjoy cartoons and art in the best time TV series were around, the 90s and 2000s, right before it stopped. I’m not a big fan of DC Studios and the work they have done in the movies. But I do have to give them credit when it’s due. Marvel’s characters have been able to somehow hold on to real-life issues between fighting evil supervillains and saving the world. DC Studios, not so much. But their characters do fit very well in the animated world. With lots of colors and weirder situations, the character can make it seem like life issues. Everyone in their 30s loved the superman and batman animated series, even I loved them. As I got older 2005 to 2010 I lost interest cause of the artwork. It’s old, boxy, too simple. Anime was the thing I went to to compensate for the “now” bad artwork and storytelling.
The series debuted with an hour-long special on November 26, 2010. I loved it in the first 10 seconds of the show when Mr. Freeze attacked people and Robin jumped in then Batman finished the villain off. The artwork, amazing! Great cell shading, line work looks fantastic. All the characters looked great. Then Speedy (Red Arrow) hated that they were still being treated like sidekicks. That’s what made me interested in the show. Usually, there wouldn’t be a more realistic issue than someone being treated underappreciated. So I’m hooked.
The series follows the lives of teenage superheroes and sidekicks, namely Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, Superboy, Red Arrow, Miss Martian, and Arrowette, who are members of a fictional covert operation group referred to simply as ‘the team’ (but resembles Teen Titans). Within the show, ‘the team’ is a group of young heroes attached to the famous adult team, the Justice League, but operating outside of the bureaucracy that constrains the more established superhero team. The universe is apart from the previous DCAU and other continuities (designated at one point as Earth-16) during a time period in which superheroes are a relatively recent phenomenon, and supervillains have all began working in tandem in a grand conspiracy on behalf of a cabal of key villains known as The Light.
Season 2 comes around. 5 years late… 5 years later? What? Why! But I have to give it to them. They pulled it off. Robin is now Nightwing. Aqualad apparently is now a villain. Heroes have died. New characters are in. And the writers took the mystery from the 5 years and spread the answer to the question “What happened between season 1 and season 2?” all-around season 2. Giving the writers time to connect the dots and fill in the blanks while moving the story along. Great job guys!
Then that’s it… What!? WHAT????? Are you serious? I had to find out why. “DC/WB wasn’t selling enough toys so they canceled the show” WHAT, ARE YOU F* KIDDING ME?! Why would you cancel a show for toys? I don’t know the financial numbers between making the show and how much you’re getting back on return and the same with the toys but if you got a show that was intended for kids but ended up being more of a teen/adult cartoon the relearn your target audience. So that was it. A great show canceled cause of greed as usual.
Years went by with articles coming out every year saying something about the show will be coming back… November of 2019 came around. Basically 10 years later and they FINALLY came out with a new season. But before I thank DC for bringing back a great show so late in the game. DC obviously only brought the show back so they can start focusing on getting people to purchase their streaming service. The Pandemic came around reinforcing that logic with a season 4. Don’t get me wrong I am happy to see the story the relationships the moments between characters that you would see in the comics on the screen but this doesn’t forgive DC / WB for abandoning the show for greed even though fans have been preaching for the shows return.
So! Season 3 takes place 2 years later. The main storyline here is human trafficking or in the show Meta-Human trafficking, hint hint. The artwork is still the same thank god! But the storytelling is more complicated, the relationships between the characters are more complicated. And there’s blood, more blood than usual usually when someone dies or gets hurt you don’t really see that. I have to say a nice touch that they have added was the ending credit background. They really need to take those, convert them to gifs, remove the credits and give them to their fans as wallpaper or something. They are awesome!
Original Members
- Dick Grayson (Jesse McCartney) is Robin, the protege of Batman and a young genius who uses high-tech gadgets and security hacking. During the hiatus between seasons one and two, he outgrows the Robin identity to become Nightwing.
- Kaldur’ahm (Khary Payton) is Aqualad, an original character and the protege of Aquaman from Atlantis, who can breathe underwater and use hydrokinesis, the ability to increase the local specific density of water and then manipulate its shape.[5] In season 3, he becomes the second Aquaman.
- Wally West (Jason Spisak) is Kid Flash, the protege of The Flash. He is capable of running at hypersonic speed.[4] In the Season 2 finale, he seemingly dies saving the world from an alien bomb. He is later seen in hallucinations by various characters in Season 3.
- Superboy (Nolan North) is a kryptonian-human hybrid who is a genomorph clone of Superman, and shares several of his abilities. He later takes the human name of Conner Kent.
- M’gann M’orzz or Megan Morse (Danica McKellar) is Miss Martian, the niece of Martian Manhunter. Like her uncle, she has unusually strong telekinetic, empathic and telepathic abilities as well as flight under her own willpower, and shape-shifting. In season 1, she lacks the natural Martian ability of intangibility (called “Density Shifting” by Martians) as it is a very advanced technique, but has since mastered it.
- Artemis Crock (Stephanie Lemelin) is the protegee of Green Arrow, although she initially pretends to be his niece to the Team, and a highly athletic expert archer.[15] She takes on the identity of Tigress during most of Season Two and for the entire third Outsiders season.
Additional Members
Season One
- The Sphere, a sentient machine from the distant planet of New Genesis, who can take various forms. It is usually used by the Team as transport, but fights alongside them as well. It develops a strong relationship with Superboy.
- Wolf (Dee Bradley Baker) is an oversized Indian wolf who becomes Superboy’s pet after being freed from mind control during one of their missions.
- Roy Harper / Will Harper (Crispin Freeman) is Red Arrow, formerly Speedy, another protege of Green Arrow who initially declines joining the Team, but ultimately does before becoming a member of the Justice League. In Season 3, he goes by the name Will Harper.
- Zatanna (Lacey Chabert) is the daughter of Zatara and a skilled magician. During the hiatus between seasons one and two, she leaves the Team to join the Justice League.
- Raquel Ervin (Kittie and later Denise Boutte) is Rocket, who is capable of kinetic energy manipulation, usually to create a shield. Like Zatanna, she leaves the team and joins the Justice League between the Season One finale and the Season Two premiere.
Season Two: Invasion
- Jaime Reyes (Eric Lopez) is Blue Beetle, a superhero who became infected with an alien scarab that provides him with powerful armor but is often in conflict with Beetle’s own interests.
- Garfield Logan (Logan Grove in Invasion, Greg Cipes in Outsiders) is Beast Boy. He is initially introduced in season one as an ordinary child who becomes Miss Martian’s adoptive brother. During the hiatus between seasons one and two, he acquires shape shifting abilities similar to hers and joins the Team. In the two-year gap between Season 2 and 3, Gar has left the Team to become an actor and has started a romantic relationship with Queen Perdita, revealing they met at Wally’s funeral.
- Tim Drake (Cameron Bowen) as the new Robin. He is the third Robin to join the team, following Dick Grayson, who became Nightwing, and Jason Todd, who joined and died during the hiatus between seasons one and two.
- Karen Beecher (Masasa Moyo) is Bumblebee, a girl who possesses bee-like wings, uses sonic force blasts, and can shrink to an insect-like size. She originally appears briefly as a civilian in season one.
- Mal Duncan (Kevin Michael Richardson) is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and Bumblebee’s boyfriend. He later takes the identity of Guardian. He originally appears briefly as a civilian in season one.
- La’gaan (Yuri Lowenthal) is Lagoon Boy, an amphibious citizen of Atlantis highly skilled in water and capable of gaining size like a pufferfish. He originally appeared briefly as a student at the sorcery school in Atlantis in season 1.
- Barbara Gordon (Alyson Stoner) is Batgirl, another protegee of Batman. She originally appears briefly as a civilian in season one. She later becomes Oracle after becoming paralyzed and assists Nightwing.
- Cassie Sandsmark (Mae Whitman) is Wonder Girl, a protegee of Wonder Woman who possesses super-strength, speed, flight, durability, as well as hand-to-hand combat skills.
- Bart Allen (Jason Marsden) is Impulse, a time traveler from the future and the grandson of The Flash. He travels to the present during season two in order to alter history and save Earth from an upcoming apocalypse, joining the Team in the process. Like his grandfather, he can run at hypersonic speed; he can also use his powers to cause molecular vibration on himself, thus allowing him to phase through objects.[17] He took the title of Kid Flash in the final episode of season 2.
- Roy Harper (Crispin Freeman) is Arsenal, the real Speedy, of whom the above-mentioned Roy Harper is a clone. He previously appeared in season one, following the revelation that he had been abducted and cloned years prior, and kept prisoner since. After being freed and receiving a cybernetic arm from Lex Luthor, he joins the Team but is later fired for his impulsive and unsafe behavior on missions. He is given the chance to rejoin the Team after the Reach is defeated, though ultimately declines in order to be a solo hero.
- Virgil Hawkins (Bryton James) is Static, a young man abducted and experimented on by aliens in season 2, who gains the power of electromagnetism from it. He joins the Team in Episode Forty-Six, “Endgame”, the Season 2 finale. This version’s electromagnetic abilities are colored blue-white; whereas in his own animated TV show, they were a pale purple/lilac. He mentions that “his folks are cool” which implies that his mother, Jean Hawkins, is alive here.
Season Three: Outsiders
- Kelly Stables as Cissie King-Jones / Arrowette. She originally appears briefly as a civilian in Season One.
- Mae Whitman as Stephanie Brown / Spoiler. She originally appeared briefly as a civilian in Season Two.
- Lauren Tom as Traci Thurston / Thirteen
- Troy Baker as Prince Brion Markov/Geo-Force: The younger Prince Twin of Markovia and elder brother to Princess Tara/Terra. He becomes infatuated with “Violet”/Halo. As with his younger sister and uncle Fredric, he exhibits earth-related abilities; capable of controlling lava and magma to create miniature volcanoes and emit bursts of lava from his hands.
- Zehra Fazal as Violet Harper / Halo: A young Quraci metahuman who was nearly buried by Bedlam thugs, believing her to be dead, before she suddenly resurrects herself and is rescued by Tigress; joining the Outsiders as a result. Later on, it is revealed that her real name’s “Gabrielle Daou” and that she was a refugee who used to work for Markovia’s royal family. Despite this, she says her name is “Violet”, after Brion gave her the name after seeing her violet aura. It’s further revealed that “Violet” is actually the spirit of a Mother Box, which inhabited Daou’s body after she was killed by Bedlam’s experiments. During her time with the group, she discovers a vast range of powerful abilities and develops a romantic relationship with the exiled Prince Brion of Markovia.
- Jason Spisak as Forager: A bug-like alien from the world New Genesis. He is eventually given a glamor charm from Zatana for him to take on the human form and alias “Fred Bugg” to go to high school and interact more with the human race. He speaks in the third person.
- Zeno Robinson as Victor Stone / Cyborg: A high school football player hoping to earn a football scholarship. His deeply strained relationship with his father, Dr. Silas Stone, results in him becoming critically and fatally wounded via a massive explosion. To save his life, his father had infused him with the evil cybernetic components of a Father-Box. His left arm, rib cage, and half of his chest now have gray robotic armor, as opposed to his other animated incarnations, showing his wholly robotic except his left face. After Halo was revealed to be host to a Mother-Box, he is now fully purified of his Father-Box’s dark influence.
- Tara Strong as Princess Tara Markov / Terra: Unlike her other animated counterparts, she is the Princess of Markovia and has a German accent as do her elder twin brothers Gregor and Brion/Geo-Force. Her earth-controlling abilities were awakened when her inherent meta-gene was activated at the behest of her power-hungry uncle. Since then she was mind-controlled to carry out the League of Shadows plans. Rescued in the finale of the first saga “True Heroes”, she is revealed to be willingly working with Deathstroke- now leader of the League of Shadows-in order to attain crucial and personal information about the Team to him.
