"Justice League" Officially Returning as "Justice League Unlimited"

[BeastBoyWonder]

This should probably be showing up on the newspage shortly, but as one of Cartoon Network's announcements today:

Justice League Unlimited: The heroes of the Justice League return in August with a new series, Justice League Unlimited, which incorporates a bold new look and a much larger scope. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern continue to lead the universe’s most powerful superheroes in an effort to stop criminal plots and alien threats that endanger the universe. Now, in Justice League Unlimited, they are joined by an even greater collection of heroes some of whom are well-known, like Supergirl, Green Arrow and the Atom, as well as some that are less familiar, like Booster Gold, Hawk & Dove, Elongated Man, The Question, Mister Miracle, Big Barda and Zatanna. Each half-hour will tell a power-packed story, combining some of the original heroes with new ones as they band together to battle alien invasions, powerful sorcerers, vast shadowy conspiracies and even ancient gods.

Its official -- Comments?

[Cyber E.]

Wait, J'Onn is supposed to get spotlight in this season, or being considered new series, and he isn't even a member of the League?

But y4y for Zatanna.

[Stu]

Sounds stupid. Everything which stopped making JL great is being expanded upon. Look at all those hero's? I'm glad it's 1/2 hour but jesus, not everything should be about toys.

I've tried to focus on the positive aspects of the show but this news...
not impressed

[JohnStewart-GL]

If supes isnt a member ill be pissed!!!

[Simpler Simon]

Interesting to note that Flash, J'onn, and Hawkgirl are not listed. Hawkgirl's whereabouts can be accounted for due to the events of the season 2 finale, but what about Flash and J'onn?

Are they going back to half hour episodes now?

Coming in August? Sweet

[Eddie G.]

BOOSTER GOLD! THE QUESTION! GREEN ARROW! THE ATOM! I have died and gone to geek heaven. The only thing is I would rather see Plastic Man (the most powerful member of the Justice League) than Elongated Man. But really this just sounds great. My only question is will it be 26 stand alones, or 13 stand alone episodes. I'm also happy that they will be returning sooner then I expected.

[Fernus]

I'm assuming the lack of adding Flash and Manhunter, perhaps even Hawkgirl (though if she is in there, they will never mention it until we see her) was just a typo.

This is sounding really bad. Half hour? Even more guest stars? I can't believe it, but it sounds like Bruce Timm just made some of the, for lack of better word, dumbest moves I've seen.

[B.W.H.]

I'm kinda worried about this,I mean with that many heroes ann a half hour format I just see this failing horribly.

[Bird Boy]

I don't have much of an opinion on this...

...other than "Yes!" to the fact that it's in August...

-BB

[EJill34]

I can't believe we're getting new episodes in August. I guess that explains the delay of "Starcrossed". Still, this sounds pretty awesome. It sounds like they're harking back to the good old B:TAS, S:TAS and BB days with these 1/2 hour episodes.

EDIT: Maybe, I got a little too excited about these episodes being shown in August, but I am a little worried about this series. I hope they still do hour-long shows, but this almost sounds like a new show. I guess that's how I should treat it. And about the "bold new look"...does anyone think it might be a design change?

[screw on head]

i wouldn't get too worked about this format. can't wait for an interview with timm or someone else to elaborate upon things, to get them to smooth things over for me. it sounds like a great format, which would lend itself to that same twisty-turny style of cool storytelling, streamlined into a half hour.
again, until i see the show, can't really gush too much about it, but it sounds good to me!

[EJill34]

Hopefully someone who is "in the know" can clarify some things about this show for us.

[James Harvey]

I can only say that next season - or "series" - will be a surprise. It'll be radically different from the current Justice League, but will also contain alot of the aspects you've grown to appreciate and enjoy from the past 52 episodes. And any continuity set up by Justice League will not be idly thrown aside. It will be acknowledged as Justice League Unlimited gets underway.

And can we expect some Batman Beyond references? Well, watch and see.

I will be back full-time to The World's Finest and Toon Zone News shortly.

-Jim

[Salvor]

When I first read the news I was kindda pissed... like they needed even more characters to develop I have my doubts about this relaunch... especially since JL was a very flawed show to begin with.

But as Jeph Loeb would put it, I believe in Jim Harvey. So I will not judge this show until I see it.

...

Besides I can't wait to see Green Arrow!

[JohnStewart-GL]

I can only say that next season - or "series" - will be a surprise. It'll be radically different from the current Justice League, but will also contain alot of the things you've grown to know from the past 52 episodes. And any continuity set up by Justice League will not be idly thrown aside. It will be acknowledged as Justice League Unlimited gets underway.

And can we expect some Batman Beyond references? Well, watch and see.

I will be back full-time to The World's Finest and Toon Zone News shortly.

-Jim

please tell me supes is still in the show?

[Fernus]

please tell me supes is still in the show?

If you read the article at the top, it says "Superman" in it.

[Salvor]

please tell me supes is still in the show?

Why do you sound so desperate about this? He IS mentioned in the announcement...

[DisneyBoy]

Woah. This was much more of a change than I expected!

And I'm not one for change, so this post will be pessimistic. As nice as it will be to see Supergirl and the rest, it means we'll only be seeing them for half an episode, seeing as how up until this point, JL has been an hour long. The change in time means changes in pacing and storytelling, which were things the show was finally getting down pat.

But if the series had to be re-pitched in order to stay alive, I'm not complaining. Of course, now the whole Wonder Woman meets Ares/origin episode I was so eagerly anticipating will only be half an hour, which bites. I guess half hour episodes are more popular with the network, in terms of reruns. And now I don't have to wait a whole week, or weeks on end (thanks YTV) to find out how stories will conclude. But this does give the original two seasons a kind of "classic" feel none of these new episodes will have, in terms of sheer duration. I mean, are we suddenly going to start looking at War World with more respect than a half hour episode? Will the hour-long stories start to seem more prolonged once the uber-quick half hour tales start coming our way?

I wasn't keen on all the new heroes making appearances (especially since Mattel doesn't really care to make figures of them, Spidey) but now that we know it's going to be half hour episodes, AND with new designs, I'm really skeptical.

I liked how the show looked already. Sure, the animation was stiff at times, but the designs were good. Now what? Another Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman? JL Beyond?

I've got a headache. Hopefully I'll love it.

[randomguy]

Hrm... well, I don't know what to say. I'm a little nervous (Elongated Man is kinda... lame), but I'll keep an open mind. All these superheroes sounds problematic, though. One of the strengths of Batman and Superman was that they never fell into the obvious trap of doing too many DC cameos. Outside of Zatanna, BTAS almost completely lacked them. Additionally, they're struggling to develop all 7 (or six, whatever the case is) members as is- do we really need to add more?

I'm happy about the return to the half-hour format, though. Hopefully, that'll force Timm and Co. to be more economical in regards to storytelling.

Meanwhile, it's becoming increasingly difficult to remain spoiler-free in regards to "Starcrossed".

[DisneyBoy]

Seriously. I can practically piece together the entire story, based on all the rumblings happening around here. Grrrrr...


Oh, and Jim - nice to know you'll be returning shortly!