R.I.P. JLU

Melanie McFarland, TV critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, writes about the end of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon on Cartoon Network:

Comic-book aficionados will miss it. Viewers who appreciate splendid animated series, a growing slice of the TV audience, should miss it. A good number of kids, their parents and many, many adults whose only children are their inner ones, may be bereft. (The good news is, the series has started to run weeknights on Cartoon Network's classic toon offshoot, Boomerang.)

Instead of howling at Cartoon Network, one should appreciate just how long the series was on the air. Most cartoon series stop production after 52 episodes, the magic number for syndication. "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" ran for a combined 91 episodes.

The finale of "Justice League Unlimited" could signify something greater: the end of what has become known as the DC Animated Universe. (Emphasis on the could in that sentence; there has been no definitive confirmation of that.) This is the unofficial term for a string of series that date back to 1992, when "JLU" executive producer Bruce Timm first created "Batman: The Animated Series" for Fox's children television block.

Read more