Justice League - Newbie or Long Time Fan

[Joe Wagner]

After reading some of the posts about the continuity issues of JL:TAS I started to wonder - just how many people are watching the show and had watched the previous shows (B:TAS, S:TAS and BB) versus how many people were completely new to the show and would miss some of the continuity references, subtle as they may be.

Personally, I've been watching the shows since Batman first premiered on Fox all those years ago and have spread over to Superman, Batman Beyond, Static Shock and Zeta. I know that I personally would love to see some direct points at the previous continuities and hope we'll see more in "Injustice For All" and Season 2.

-Joe!

[Maxie Zeus]

I edited the wording of option #3.

If this is going to be a somewhat meaningful poll, the questions shouldn't use loaded language. Wording option #3 as: "I don't want references to the past" makes it sound like the only choices are between deep continuity, and a total rejection of continuity.

That's a false dilemma. Most of those who have been cool toward continuity have simply said that they don't particularly worry about continuity. That should be reflected in the poll.

But, if jjwspider wants me to change it back, I will. :)

[Joe Wagner]

Nah it's kewl - I just want to get people's opinions on the matter. Thanks for the change Maxie! :D It's always good to have an editor - one thing I've learned from all the fanfic I write.

-Joe!

[Squall]

I've been a watcher and a diehard fan since the premiere of Batman: The Animated Series! And I've seen it all, up to the latest episode of Justice League. :D

I think that all four TV shows (and their movies) should exist as one giant 'storyline' with continuity -- in other words, a package deal. They would exist as a package deal in chronological order, like this:

Batman: The Animated Series --> The Batman/Superman Adventures --> Justice League --> Batman Beyond

It works perfectly like that. You start out with Batman, then add Superman, then have new heroes guest star on Superman, which in turn builds up to Justice League, the crescendo of the package deal! Then, after Justice League, this giant storyline "goes back to the basics" with Batman Beyond -- which ends with the Justice League returning in "The Call"!

(Note: "The Call" was originally the last two episodes of Batman Beyond, but was moved to the middle of the final Season due to Winter sweeps week on the networks.)

That's what I think! You could even say that Batman & Superman are in fact part of Justice League, but derivative storylines. (Read the thread "How would you bring them in?" and "Is the JL team underestimating fans when it comes to continuity??" for more info and opinions. :D)

[Mr. Obsession]

Well, since Maxie was kind enough to change the third choice I voted for that.

I've been watching seen BTAS premiered way back when, and well, I like they way continuity is being handled (minus the whole Kyle bit). Basically as a long time fan I know there's a continuity for the shows, so they don't need to blatantly say it in every episode of Justice League.

But I also appreciate it when they do toss out a bone to the long time fans. Like the General's line in "Secret Origins": " We can't trust the security of the world to one man". I agree with Timm said that for new fans this way it's not that confusing, but for long time fans you know it's a direct reference to "Legacy" (especially if you know what was originally suppose to be the rest of the line: "...especially not him!"). And then there's Supe's line about working long and hard to earn the peoples trust. New fans take this to say that he's protecting the Earth for a while and people trust Superman, long time fans recognize that it just backs up the previous dialog as a reference to "Legacy". And then again in "War World", there was Superman's line: "I've dealt with others like him". New fans could take it as Superman's been around the galaxy a few times. Long time fans take it as a reference to Darkseid, Jax-Ur & Mala ("Absolute Power"), and maybe one or two other stories form STAS).

Batmam:TAS, Superman, and TNBA take place in the same continuity but you weren't expected to have seen all the episodes because they were, for the most part, stand alone stories. In fact the only time it actually helped to have seen any of the previous episodes was when they did a continuation story, the only times I can even think of this would be: the Mr. Freeze episodes, the Clayface episodes, "Heart of Steal" & "His Silicon Soul", The later Harley and Ivy team-ups, "Last Son of Krypton" and the other Brainiac eps, the Darkseid eps, "Blasts from the Past" & "Absolute Power", the Inque eps, the Royal Flush Gang eps, the Blight Saga, "World's Finest" and what ever that Batman/Superman team-up against Ra's was called but I'm blanking on the title right now, and a few other episodes but I think that's enough for now. That's what? 25 - 30 episodes, out of 215. And in each of those it did help to have seen the previous episodes, but it wasn't that big of a deal because any episode that was directly tied to a previous one usually had some dialog that quickly brought the new fans up to date.

Justice League is only be in it's first season, but given the creative team's track record I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that there will be more references in the future, especially when they're two or three seasons in and they have to reference things from previous JL eps. :D

And yes, I know that it shouldn't be that hard to reference something important from a previous series. In fact they've already given us a good example of how it can be done. In "The Call", when they revealed where Starrio came from instead of either confusing new fans or not linking it to a previous series, they create an entirely new animated flashback and monologue sequence referencing "The Main Man". Long time fans were happy and new fans weren't confused.

Now if they don't do the same thing next season and directly bring "Legacy" into the picture when Darkseid shows up then I'll be pissed. But until then I'm just going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Because in the end it's just a cartoon. :cool:

[JusticeLeagueLegion]

I've watched Batman and Superman and would like to see more references to the past series.

[G. Wen]

I would like to see references to the past here and there, but I'm not too bogged down by the fact that JL doesn't allude to B:TAS and S:TAS as much as some people want it to.

[Ricochet]

Diehard fan that yearns for the past! :D