Preview video for DC's Young Justice animated series

You can see producers Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti talk about the show, along with a lot of character design art and some clips from the show, here. It looks awesome!

 

It looks cool...but why oh why do they have to put Superboy in a black shirt??? Smallville shouldn't have put Clark in that Matrix wannabe outfit.

I am liking Artemis.

 

The black T-shirt is true to Superboy's look in the more recent comics.

 

I haven't bought any comics in a while...my bad. It still reminds me of "Death Of Superman" black with red \S/. Oh well.

 

Intriguing. I hadn't expected the Justice League to play so sizeable a role. And it's good to see (from the character models) that we will be seeing the heroes in their civilian IDs -- it won't be all costumes all the time like in Teen Titans.

And they're using a variant of the Superfriends Hall of Justice again. I have mixed feelings about that; on the one hand, Superfriends was lame and stupid and I'm not nostalgic for it at all, while on the other hand, the Superfriends HoJ is inspired by my favorite building here in Cincinnati, the Union Terminal.

Is it me, or do the JL character designs here look a lot like their Crisis on Two Earths designs? I wonder who's doing their voices.

 

Yeah, they look very similar, with a few tweaks. Aquaman has the biggest changes compared to Crisis on Two Earths, since here he has a beard and long hair.

 

I'm not a big fan of that design where it looks like they are wearing armor under their tights around the shoulders and abs. Some other series did that but I can't remember what. Other than that it looks pretty much on point for DCAU stuff.

Right now, it looks like more of the same if you ask me. Not necessarily a bad thing as it has always better than average but I'm not seeing anything really intriguing at this point. Mind you all this is off of 30 seconds of footage so I'm not making a final judgment on how this series will turn out.

 

It looks like a return to something closer to the DCAU style, which hasn't been used since Justice League Unlimited, since The Batman, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold struck out in different directions in terms of design work and tone.

 

^ True, I guess I don't think of those shows as DCAU proper. Still, I found those more interesting at first blush.

 

^^^
Well, the DCAU ended with Justice League Unlimited, so all subsequent DC shows have been standalones. I'm just saying that Young Justice looks like a return to something closer to the design aesthetic and tone of the DCAU. I think, though, that the focus on teen characters and their relationships with their mentors will give the show its own identity. Plus Greg Weisman produces great shows, so that's reason for optimism.

In other DC animation news, Geoff Johns confirmed at Comic-Con that Green Lantern: The Animated Series will be a CGI series and will debut in fall 2011.

 

Yeah, with Spectacular Spider-Man gone, I'm glad there will still be a Greg Weisman show on TV.

And from what they said, this definitely isn't in the DCAU continuity, even if there are similarities in the look. Although I still think the look is closer to the more recent DCU movies from WB Animation. There's a general similarity of line and color use that's common to most WB Animation productions, but this definitely doesn't have the Timm or Murakami design styles that defined the DCAU's look.

As for the GL series being CG, I'm uncomfortable with that. My impression is that using 3D CG somewhat limits you in the number of different characters, sets, props, etc. you can have; it takes more effort to design and render every model rather than just draw new pictures. And GL is a concept that requires great freedom to show new characters and places every week. I'd be happier if it were in 2D "cel"-style animation like YJ.

Speaking of which, at that YouTube link above, there's also a WB preview for their new The Looney Tunes Show, which includes 3D-animated Coyote-Roadrunner segments, and those look pretty lame. The whole thing looks pretty unimpressive, frankly.

 

How do Superboy and Superman exist at the same time? What's the story behind that?

 

When this version of Superboy was first introduced he was a clone of Superman. I understand that he's since been retconned a bit, but I don't know the details of the retcon.

 

Superboy is a clone they made of Superman after he died.

 

It was the only logical thing to do.

 

Now the question is which Robin is it? and which Kid Flash for that matter?

 

Hey, I'm excited for this show now! The animation was gorgeous and the Justice League is going to appear all the time? Sold!

 

He's a hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. Yes, Superboy has two daddies.

 

In the video, the producers said this is set in a universe where Superman has only been active for 10 years, the other heroes probably no longer than that. So I'd expect them to be Dick Grayson and Wally West, respectively.

 

Curious that they're not using Wonder Girl. But its possible she'll show up later.