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Recommend me one animated superhero series

Darth_Daver

Captain
Captain
I love smart scifi series, I love fun superhero movies (I'd rate Avengers just as high as The Dark Knight), I hate animes with a passion (can't connect at all, so I find them boring as hell), not a comic geek (probably haven't read any actual comic books), but I am fascinated by certain aspects.

Recommend me one animated superhero series please! I'm not a 16 year old (25, actually), so no heavily kid oriented stuff. Internal consistency, smart stories, etc are plus.

Don't pick something dated either, it has to be REALLY good for me to tolerate that.
 
Based on your criteria: Captain Planet

Being more serious, you'd maybe like Batman The Animated Series, The 90's X-Men or Spider-Man (though they may skew to the kids a little), or Justice League. I'm assuming 90's isn't too dated.

I think there's some other nifty stuff out there but I don't know if they'd fit your dislikes.
 
I'm not really sure what to recommend. I'm sure you know all the popular animated shows out there. I'm stretching the definition of superhero a bit for some of these, but whatever.

The entire DCAU (minus Teen Titans and Static Shock -- those two shows are fairly childish)
Gargoyles
The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra
Young Justice
Venture Brothers

And to recommend a few anime (it's not all DBZ-style, badly dubbed, people screaming at each other for episodes on end, crap) In fact, most of it isn't like that at all.

Full Metal Alchemist
Code Geass
Claymore
 
Young Justice is probably a pretty solid choice, I said Justice League but that's probably a better choice and not the least bit dated. :)
 
From what I've seen.

Best team shows:
- Justice League
- Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
- Young Justice

Best solo hero shows:
- Batman TAS
- Superman TAS
- Spectacular Spider-Man

Best comedic show:
- The Tick

Best non-comic-based shows:
- Gargoyles
- Thundercats 2011
 
Recommend me one animated superhero series please! I'm not a 16 year old (25, actually), so no heavily kid oriented stuff. Internal consistency, smart stories, etc are plus.

There's a lot of "kid-oriented stuff" out there that's very smart, consistent, and high in quality. Lots of children are smart, or have the potential to be, so they can appreciate and benefit from smart, well-made, challenging storytelling as well as adults can. Not to mention that children's parents should ideally watch TV along with them, so good children's shows should have appeal for adults as well. Not to mention that the people making the shows are adults and they want to be able to enjoy and take pride in their work.

The gist of all this is that there are a lot of "kids' shows" out there which are very smart and satisfying for adults -- often smarter than a lot of the so-called "adult" shows out there. So you might be missing out if you assume kid-oriented shows can't be intelligent enough for you. Heck, I'm over 40, and a lot of my favorite shows are nominally aimed at preteens. If you set your standards too narrowly, you may cheat yourself out of a lot of enjoyment.

I'd pretty much agree with all of Kelthaz's first four recommendations, except with the clarification that Teen Titans was blatantly not a DC Animated Universe show, but was set in a separate, much more fanciful continuity. It was definitely a "kid-oriented" show and had some offputting qualities -- and it was strongly anime-influenced in some ways -- but sometimes it could be pretty damn impressive and moving in between the silliness. As for Static Shock, I disagree that it was "childish." It was a bit younger-skewing and lighter in tone than the rest of the DCAU, but at least its first couple of seasons were often pretty smart and interesting, although it eventually moved away from the more character-oriented, street-level storytelling in favor of constant superhero crossovers, celebrity guest appearances, and gimmicks.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series is also pretty good; it suffers from the limitations of 3D computer animation on a TV budget, but its writing is strong and smart.

Of the current Marvel animated series on the air, the only one that really stands out is The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But if you go back a couple of years, The Spectacular Spider-Man was a really well-written and well-made show, though I didn't care for the character designs. It was from Greg Weisman, who also made the classic Gargoyles and now runs the excellent Young Justice.

And Avatar and Korra are simply the cream of the crop -- not technically superheroes, but the best thing in TV animation in decades, and one of the best things on TV period. And yes, that's even with being rather "kid-oriented," especially the first series.
 
Another vote for Batman: The Animated Series. The animation and the mood are terrific. Mark Hamill's Joker is a revelation.
 
I'd pretty much agree with all of Kelthaz's first four recommendations, except with the clarification that Teen Titans was blatantly not a DC Animated Universe show, but was set in a separate, much more fanciful continuity. It was definitely a "kid-oriented" show and had some offputting qualities -- and it was strongly anime-influenced in some ways -- but sometimes it could be pretty damn impressive and moving in between the silliness. As for Static Shock, I disagree that it was "childish." It was a bit younger-skewing and lighter in tone than the rest of the DCAU, but at least its first couple of seasons were often pretty smart and interesting, although it eventually moved away from the more character-oriented, street-level storytelling in favor of constant superhero crossovers, celebrity guest appearances, and gimmicks.

I actually debated on whether or not I should include Teen Titans on the same line as the DCAU. I agree that it isn't officially part of the DCAU, but in my own personal canon I view it as part of the same universe. In the end, I just didn't want to put Teen Titans on its own line when I'm not recommending it.

As for the quality of the shows, I thought Teen Titans was an incredible show. I only saw a few episodes of Static Shock, but I enjoyed what little I saw. Both shows are also more intelligent than people give them credit for, but they are childish in tone. When someone specifically states that he doesn't want anything kid oriented, those shows are not good recommendations. I strongly doubt that Darth_Daver would enjoy them.
 
I actually debated on whether or not I should include Teen Titans on the same line as the DCAU. I agree that it isn't officially part of the DCAU, but in my own personal canon I view it as part of the same universe.

I can't understand that, since it's a far more fanciful and cartoony universe than the DCAU, with Tex Avery-style reality-bending gags like a tower anthropomorphically spitting out its occupants, and all sorts of weird, comical, and absurd things happening in the stories. I don't see that happening in the DCAU unless the whole thing was being controlled by Mr. Mxyzptlk or something.
 
I'll second the recs of:

Young Justice
Green Lantern TAS
Justice League
Batman TAS (This is about 20 years old, but the stories hold up really well and the voice cast is absolutely stellar)
Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra
----------
All of these are solid choices and are a little darker than the typical cartoon, which is why they appealed to me.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, while I enjoy it, is definitely geared more toward younger kids rather than preteens/adults, but it does have a serious (though I hesitate to say dark) tone to it. It's worth checking out, though based on your criteria, I have a feeling you'd enjoy the darker, more thematic stuff.
 
Don't forget about the DC animated movies either. Yeah, they're technically not a series, more stand alone stories, but they do rate amongst some of the best films I've seen in awhile. Some of the best ones are the adaptations of actual storylines from the comicbooks

I highly recommend Batman: Year One, Under the Red Hood, Gotham Knight, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Wonder Woman, and Superman: Doomsday
 
Batman The Animated Series. Watch Mask of the Phantasm (The movie) if you want to catch it at its peak. Throw in some random Fleischer Superman shorts on occasion and you'll be off to a great start.
 
Batman TAS
Superman TAS
Justice League
Avengers EMH
X-Men

If don't mind teenaged heroes

Young Justice
X-Men Evolution
Spectacular Spiderman
 
I'm surprised that no one mentioned Batman Beyond.

In some ways, in order to appreciate any part of Justice League (and Unlimited) you really need to watch all of Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond since JL(U) makes plenty of references to both. Hell the finale of the second season on JLU is a cap stone on Batman Beyond, while the grand finale for the series (and ultimately for the entire DCAU) was a direct reference to Superman: TAS. Static Shock, though part of the DCAU is not really necessary since its rarely mentioned on Justice League.

If you like JL(U) you'll also like Young Justice which is sort of a Who's Who of DC characters without any of the character restrictions that were in place during Justice League.

I also really enjoyed Green Lantern: TAS.
 
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