Tag: Young Justice

Fans Rejoice! ‘Young Justice’ Officially Getting A 3rd Season!

by The_acz

6 years ago a small animated super hero show premiered on Cartoon Network before being abruptly cancelled 3 years later. This show was Young Justice.  

As a result of its cancellation, Fans spent 3 years begging and pleading for the series to brought back whether it be distributed via a TV network, or a digital means such as Netflix. Well, all those years of petitioning and dedication have finally payed off! DC and WB officially announced this morning that Young Justice will finally be getting its long awaited and deserved 3rd season. No details have been released on when and where the season will premiere, but fans have been assured that the show is indeed in production again. Are you excited for the return of Young Justice? What are your favorite episodes of the series? Tell us in the comments below!

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‘Young Justice’ And ‘Green Lantern: The Animated Series’ Cancelled

by Shawn Madden

Earlier today, a press release was issued regarding Cartoon Network’s upcoming block of cartoons. The release contained information regarding new shows such as Beware The Batman and Teen Titans Go! but contained nothing about their hit series Young Justice or Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

 

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Rumor began floating around that both series were going to be coming to an end and now Newsarama has confirmed via a source that the shows will be wrapping up their runs at the end of the season. You can pretty much expect Beware The Batman and Teen Titans Go! to take their place when they come to an end.

 

Source: Newsarama

New DC Nation Promo Gives Sneak Peek At January 5th Return

by Shawn Madden

After an unexpected hiatus, DC Nation is coming back to your Saturday mornings. Young Justice, Green Lantern: The Animated Series and all of your favorite DC shorts will be coming back to Cartoon Network on January 5th. Check out a sneak peek at what’s in store  when the animation block returns.

How DC Comics Can Save The Teen Titans Franchise

by Eric Diaz

As an Old School DC Comics fanboy, I will admit that the whole “New 52” reboot was a hard sell for me. However, this isn’t going to be one of those articles where I slam DC’s New 52 initiative wholesale; obviously the initiative has worked, at least in terms of sales. And some of the books are downright great; the Batman family of titles are strong and cohesive, and Scott Snyder’s Batman is already one of the best runs on that book ever. Geoff Johns continues to kick ass on Green Lantern and his Aquaman is one of the best comics they have. Then there is Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, the list goes on. Having said that, I think almost a year into this New 52 though, we can now officially count the reboot version of the Teen Titans at the very least as a disappointment. The title is selling decently enough, certainly well enough to get a spin-off in the form of Ravagers, but the book gets tons of online hate from fans and the Ravagers spin off is already tanking two issues in. Scott Lobdell’s writing and (especially) Brett Booth’s art makes the whole thing look like it was an Image or Wildstorm title circa 1996. Teen Titans is a cornerstone DC title that deserves better than it is getting.

According to DC Comics Editor In Chief Dan Didio, one of the main goals of the New 52 was to return the more classic incarnations of these characters to the forefront. In other words, they want whoever is wearing the costumes in the comics to be the characters most widely recognized by the mainstream non comic book reading audience. This is why Barbara Gordon is Batgirl instead of Stephanie Brown, why Barry Allen is the Flash in place of Wally West, and for similar reasons why Clark Kent and Lois Lane aren’t married, as to most average Joe Six Packs, Clark, Lois, and Superman are still in a love triangle.

Based on this logic, it is strange that the Teen Titans books are such a hot mess right now. For a company that is all about “corporate synergy” between itself and parent company Warner Brothers, there hasn’t been much in regards to this book.  If you were to ask a kid on the street, or even a casual comic book fan, who made up the membership of the Teen Titans, chances are they would tell you the characters who made up the highly successful animated version: Robin (the Dick Grayson version) Cyborg, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. Those of course, are the same characters who made up the bulk of the team in the 1980’s New Teen Titans series, which for most of that decade was DC’s #1 selling title and helped keep the company afloat. If there is an “iconic” Teen Titans team, then those characters are it.

The two most successful versions of the Teen Titans have featured these characters; if there is an “iconic” version of the team, these guys are it.

Meanwhile, Young Justice on Cartoon Network currently features Robin (Tim Drake) Wonder Girl Cassie Sandsmark, Kid Flash Bart Allen and Superboy as the core group. But these are the characters who in the current comics go by the name Teen Titans, not Young Justice. Someone dropped the ball. It also doesn’t help that Teen Titans Go premieres next year on Cartoon Network, once again with the classic line-up. It all feels like DC’s right hand doesn’t know what their left hand is doing.

The current cast of Young Justice has more in common with the comic book cast of Teen Titans. So much for corporate synergy.

So here is how you fix this DC; cancel both the current Teen Titans and Ravagers comics, Ravagers being that cheesy 90’s style spin off series that no one seems to like. It has been established that in the New 52 DC Universe, this current team is the first group of teenagers to go by the name Teen Titans in the five year old new DC universe. So reconfigure the current version of the group currently going by the name Teen Titans into a new version of Young Justice instead. There has not been an in continuity Young Justice team in almost a decade at DC, and with an animated series on the air, now would be the time to do it. Have the current members of the Titans now training under the auspices of the Justice League, and doing secret missions for them much like in the animated series.

The starts of Ravagers, the Teen Titans spin off no one asked for. Hey Ravagers…1990’s Wildstorm called, and they want their look back.

Meanwhile, re-launch Teen Titans with the characters most people associate with that team. DC has stated that being Batman’s sidekick is more like an internship now, as a way to explain away how there have been four different Robins in a five year old DCU. Which means that Dick Grayson as Nightwing could still be as young as 19 for all we know. Get that weird blow up sex doll version of Starfire out of Red Hood and the Outlaws and put her back on the Titans, and correct any weird personality changes done to her along the way. Bring in Beast Boy, Raven, and have Cyborg as their “older” mentor figure (I say older as he is only 21 at best in the Justice League title) This line up of characters is what both younger and older fans recognize as the Teen Titans most, so DC should capitalize on this fact. I’d also throw in Donna Troy, as she’s a beloved Titans character and missing from the reboot, to much fanboy unhappiness. While I hate that the new DCU has erased the now classic New Teen Titans series from continuity, at least it has freed them up to all meet again for the first time, and introduce a new generation of readers to that iconic team.

Maybe the version of Starfire shown in Red Hood and the Outlaws is like, an evil clone or something.

As for who is going to be the creative teams, well…there are a ton of talented people to choose from, it isn’t a short list. But I don’t think writer Scott Lobdell’s sensibities have really worked for most of his Titans run so far, and certainly not for Starfire over in Red Hood and the Outlaws. I’d get someone like James Robinson, who is doing a great job on Earth-2 right now. Robinson wrote the previous versions of Dick Grayson and Donna Troy in the last incarnation of JLA before the New 52 reboot, and has stated that he’d love to work on Donna again in some capacity. Well, this would be the perfect chance. There are lots of great artists working at DC right now who would be perfect, but of course my #1 vote would go to Phil Jimenez who is currently working on Fables spin off Fairest for Vertigo. Whoever they get, it’ll be better than what they’ve got going on right now.

So there you have it DC, my free advice on how to fix on of your most valuable properties before it eventually gets cancelled due to fan apathy. Teen Titans was once one of your cornerstone books DC, you can make it great again.

Check Out The ‘Young Justice’ Footage From Comic-Con!

by Shawn Madden

During yesterdays DC Nation panel fans were given a preview of Young Justice. When we last left Young Justice before the hiatus, Artemis faked her death to work undercover with Aqualad against The Light. The video features a whole slew of new villains and heroes that we will be introduced to. No return date has been announced yet but is expected soon.

The WonderCon 2012 Marvel/DC Comic Book News Round Up

by Eric Diaz

Despite Hollywood and the video game industry trying to steal the spotlight as per usual at one of these large comic book conventions, WonderCon, much more so than Comic Con in San Diego, is still very much comic book centric. And thus, there was a nice amount of comic book announcements this weekend that might have gotten lost in the flurry of excitement over other media if this were San Diego, with Marvel taking adavantage of the Con more than any other publisher to make a few big announcements this time. So let’s get to Marvel’s news first:

Girl Power Returns To Marvel!

Why, it just seems like yesterday I was bitching about the fact that Marvel has been neglecting their female heroes and letting them languish without titles of their own. It appears that they are aware of this little fact themselves, and made a few announcements of upcoming projects that are attempting to please Marvel’s female hero fans.

Ms. Marvel No More; Say Hello To The New Captain Marvel

Carol Danvers is ditching the bathing suit and thigh high boots and getting a haircut, as she becomes the official bearer of the title Captain Marvel, in a new ongoing series debuting this July. Not only that, but the writer of said title will actually be a woman for a change. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick (Osborn) and artist Dexter Soy (Army of Two) are the creative team, with initial covers being done Ed McGuinness. The new ongoing series is said to at least in part spin out of Carol Danvers’s role in the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men. The new Captain Marvel series is said to focus on Carol’s “Chuck Yeager” like civilian life as a pilot, and her other life as an A-List Marvel super hero. Writer DeConnick also dropped the hint that we’d be seeing Mystique in the book as well (Mystique made her first appearance in a 70’s issue of Ms. Marvel, not Uncanny X-Men as most might assume) As for me, I’m just happy she’s keeping the sash.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the new Captain Marvel.

And Carol Danvers isn’t the only neglected female hero at Marvel getting a chance to hog the spotlight once more; At WonderCon Marvel released the first official info for X-Treme X-Men, a new ongoing series coming this July from writer Greg Pak, spinning out of a recent storyline in Astonishing X-Men. Although the series will focus on a motley crew of alternate universe versions of popular X-Men characters, like a fifty year old cowboy Wolverine or a ten year old Nightcrawler, the main focus will be on “our” world’s version of Allison Blaire, the former disco dancing mutant known as Dazzler.

What do you mean, "dead as Disco?" F**k you. I'm BACK bitches.

Writer Greg Pak had this to say about his new leading lady – “DAZZLER! It’s kind of hard for me to contain how much I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS CHARACTER. As soon as I started writing her, all the lights went on (pun intended). She’s wry and funny and tough and vulnerable and the Marvel Universe’s greatest showbiz surviver turned superhero and SHE WILL SAVE THE WORLD WITH ROCK AND ROLL.”

Hmm. I think the last part of that sentence should be “save the world with Disco” not Rock and Roll, but the fact that he’s giving Miss Blaire a spotlight after so long means I’m giving the man a pass. Don’t let me down Pak.

A steampunk Emma Frost, a cowboy Wolverine and a ten year old Nightcrawler are among the stars of X-Treme X-Men, which is set to center on the regular Marvel Universe's Dazzler as the lead.

Marvel’s Thunderbolts Becomes The Dark Avengers

The long running title Thunderbolts is getting a title change, and this summer officially becomes Dark Avengers. Strangely enough, Marvel has decided to keep the numbering of the old Thunderbolts comics, so instead of Dark Avengers #1, we are getting issue #175 instead. Since first appearing in 1997, the Thunderbolts have been a team of former villains working towards redemption, with the most recent iteration being led by Luke Cage. Luke Cage will be staying on when the title becomes Dark Avengers, but it looks like he’ll be joined by Skaar (Son of Hulk), Ragnarok (the clone Thor) and Dark Spider-Man and Dark Scarlet Witch (they really need to find new names for those last two) Conveniently, all are counterparts to more famous Marvel heroes; it seems this change in title and line up has to do more with marketing and branding than anything else. On the plus side, the creative team of writer Jeff Parker and artists Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey are all remaining, so that should keep at least some of the purist Thunderbolts fans happy.

The Thunderbolts fall prey to the gods of corporate branding, and become the Dark Avengers.

Brian Wood Becomes Writer for X-Men AND Ultimate X-Men

X-Men, The book most often referred to as “adjective-less X-Men,” will be getting a new writer in June with issue #30, when DMZ creator Brian Wood joins the book. Aside from a few cast changes (Warpath is being replaced by Pixie, and Jubilee is out) what makes this X-Men line up most interesting is that for once, instead of a token female on the team, there is but one token male instead in the form of Colossus. The rest of the team will be made up of Storm, Psylocke, Pixie, and Domino. The notion of this book being Utopia’s “security team” will remain, although writer Wood said the shift will be to more grounded threats than before, including a proto-race of mutants never seen before in the Marvel universe.

The cover to the newly revamped X-Wom--uh, X-Men #30.

Also in June, Brian Wood takes over Ultimate X-Men as well. The Ultimate universe version of mutuant plight is significantly worse than the regular Marvel Universe at the moment, with mutants being rounded up and imprisoned and sometimes killed. Front and center to all of this drama will be Kitty Pryde, although which other mutants will remain on the book is still being kept under wraps at the moment. Most interestingly, Wood becoming the writer of Ultimate X-Men and regular X-Men makes him the first writer to tackle both universe’s versions of the team at the same time since Ultimate Marvel began back in 2000.

Ultimate Kitty Pryde longs for the days when her main problems were whether Peter Parker liked her or Mary Jane better, and not trying to evade government capture and experimentation.

DC Takes A Back Seat To Marvel At This Year’s Con, But Still Manages A Few Surprises

Despite having several panels at the convention, there wasn’t any huge news coming out of WonderCon from DC this year. A Before Watchmen panel was had, but it was mostly DC editorial regurgitating information we already knew and trying to defend the whole project to skeptical fans. Jim Lee’s take on Nite Owl was shown (he’s just doing a cover, not interiors) and while very pretty, just feels wrong to the whole Watchmen aesthetic. I dunno, I don’t think I’m ever gonna get behind this one, no matter what line DC tries to sell me on this. But I’m aware a lot of you out there feel differently, so for all of you guys out there who want this, I sure hope it doesn’t disappoint.

DC Nation on Cartoon Network however was a whole different story from DC Comics, at least  in terms of showcasing new stuff for the fanbase at their panel. A trailer for season two of Young Justice was shown, and confirmed by producers as joining the team were Blue Beetle (the teen Jaimie Reyes version) and Lagoon Boy. Don’t know Lagoon Boy? Neither did half the audience, so don’t feel bad. Season two will carry the subtitle “Invasion,” and producers Greg Weisman said we’d be seeing a lot more outer space action this year, as well as visits from classic DC characters like Lobo and Adam Strange.

Also previewed was the first season of Green Lantern: The Animated Series. Clips were shown showcasing the Thanagarians, Star Sapphires and even Saint Walker, the Blue Lantern, all of whom are showing up in season one. Not shown yet, but heavily hinted at in the panel, was the eventual appearance of Sinestro and his Corps. Producers didn’t rule out an adaptation of Blackest Night somewhere down the road either. Also all but confirmed as appearing are Green Lanterns Kyle Rayner and Guy Gardner, which made many fans pretty happy.

The highlight of the DC Nation panel though had to be the premiere of several shorts  focusing on various oddball characters of the DC Universe. Included among these shorts was The Doom Patrol, Animal Man, and confirmed as coming soon would be forgotten 80’s gems like Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, Sword of the Atom, and even the much loathed Puerto Rican breakdancer character from the JLA known as Vibe is getting his own short. Most of these shorts were played for laughs, so I wouldn’t worry about a new “serious take” on Vibe coming from DC Comics any time soon. If proven successful, season two would include an all pet version of the Justice League, and even Starro the Conqueror. Yeah, you read right…the giant alien starfish.

But the highlight was the premier of the first on several 75 second shorts from producer Lauren Faust’s Super Best Friends Forever, a series featuring hyper stylized Powerpuff-esque versions of Supergirl, Batgirl and Wonder Girl.  Faust, creator of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic explained her take on these DC Icons; “I really wanted to put a super-spin on being a teenage girl; Supergirl has all the same powers as Superman, and Superman gets all the credit, Batgirl is a superhero fan who has action figures of supervillains in her bedroom, and Wonder Girl as an isolated Amazon who doesn’t understand the world of men.”  All I know is I want Super BFF products like…now. Please get on that Warner Brothers…do it just for me.

Attention "Bronies"- My Little Pony creator Lauren Faust has all new creepy masturbation material for you in the form of Super Best Friends Forever.

Young Justice Will Bring ‘Legacy’ To Your Gaming Console!

by Joe Starr

DC Animation always knocks it out of the park, so this could be a winner… an upcoming multi-console video game based on the Young Justice cartoon series.

Here’s the official press release:

Fan Favorite DC Comics Franchise/Animated Television series From Warner Bros. Animation Set to Make Videogame Debut in a Multiplayer Action RPG

Little Orbit, a worldwide game publisher, announced today that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Young Justice: Legacy video game set to ship in early 2013 for PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo’s Wii(TM) system, and the Nintendo DS(TM) hand held system.

New episodes of the Warner Bros. Animation series Young Justice will air beginning Saturday, March 3, at 10:30 a.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network as part of DC Nation, the network’s brand-new one-hour block of exclusive kids’ television programming and shorts based on DC Comics characters.

In Young Justice, teenage heroes Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis are tasked by theJustice League to act as their covert operations team. Armed with superior skills, weaponry and powers, the team must do battle against a wide array of villains from the DC Universe while trying to prove to themselves, and to their superhero mentors, that they too have what it takes to be a hero. Their journey is further complicated when they face the many unpredictable obstacles that arise in their path from inexperience and youth.

In Young Justice: Legacy fans can look forward to an original storyline set in between Seasons 1 and 2 of the television series, written in collaboration with show writers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti.  The game is packed with fan favorite playable characters, cameo appearances by popular Justice League heroes and villains, and includes online multiplayer as well as local multiplayer modes.

“The TV series is a fantastic combination of compelling writing, witty humor, iconic art, and exciting action sequences. The creators have done an amazing job blending over 180 DC Comics characters into their show filtered through a new, youthful perspective,” said Matt Scott, CEO of Little Orbit. “The new video game contains a slew of cool features and a large playable cast of familiar heroes, but our core mission is to create a unique experience that fits seamlessly into the world of the show and offers a new way to interact with these popular DC Comics characters.”

For more info, check out the game’s official website:
http://www.youngjusticelegacy.com