New Justice League on CN in 2016

Like I said, things might be different. CN's under a new president now. Maybe things will change.

I'll say this: I like new CN. Yeah, Teen Titans Go is a thing, Young Justice got cancelled. But that was during a really big transition period for the channel as a whole, and let's not pretend that 90% of action cartoons haven't gotten fucked over constantly since the late 90s. Even Batman TAS got its fair share of spite from the network.

I personally think, looking at what I can tell of the artstyle seen in the poster and current CN, this is going to be closer to Batman The Brave and the Bold, probably a bit Denser and Wackier than Young Justice. Remember that CN has no need of two Teen Titan Go's, hence why we really don't see Johnny Test anymore (I think it got cancelled or something, I wasn't really keeping up with it).

At the same time, CN is nowhere near ready for another fully fledged action cartoon yet, and I am most definitely not ready emotionally to see yet another fully fledged action cartoon build itself up, get a good Myth Arc going, and then get torn apart limb by limb by the network that created it through shit scheduling, out of order scheduling, and in the end leaving the show off on an unsatisfying cliffhanger with twenty plot threads still hanging.

Depends. Young Justice didn't have a movie it was tying-in for. Green Lantern TAS was a tie-in for a Stillborn Franchise. If this is a tie-in for Dawn of Justice, it has a lower chance of being screwed over (since it could help the lead-in hype for Justice League), and if Dawn of Justice bombs, well, Warner Bros will have heads rolling in a far bigger capacity to worry about the fate of one animated series.

The JLA move was a win-win, since Aquaman became an independent yet strong character - no one would dare to mock his JL incarnation - while Hawkgirl was amazing.

On another note it looks like they won't even pick John Stewart this time around. Whiteass club (And J'onn) is back again.

Because you would need to remove one of the others, which would make fans of GL/Flash/Aquaman scream that it's Ruined FOREVER and will give it bad press. J'onn is probably the only one without a fanbase huge enough to be "removable", but he is the token non-human (and even token non-white in this version), so he is probably protected by his chromatism.

I know, it's the most famous roster of the League, blah blah...but it comes from a time when no one cared about notions such as gender balance, or racial diversity, and it remained this way because writers are afraid of the kind of Fan Dumb that would jeopardize any chance of a change. Even worse, it's actually a regression compared to a 15 years-old series.

edited 9th Oct '15 1:57:10 PM by Julep

The thing about Black Canary is that her power set doesn't contribute to the League in an interesting way. Certainly a great character overall, but without the Canary Cry she's just another Badass Normal. And between Birds of Prey and Green Arrow she's certainly not being ignored in the DCU. Hawkgirl was certainly an unexpected character for JL, probably more than John Stewart, but she cemented her role in the group by making her mace very powerful (sometimes too powerful) and being a warrior who uses it extremely well.

She has an Area of Effect attack, basically, which few others have. Superman's super-breath or a wide-angle beam from GL, but nobody else is quite as good at crowd-control.

That's an extremely narrow contribution to an action scene and nothing that couldn't be replaced by something like Batman carrying concussion grenades (Arrow had her use almost exactly that). The big question is what does she bring to the show in terms of personality and individual mythology. Even Martian Manhunter, whose standalone comic has never really worked, brings some enemies worthy of a Justice League story.

She would be a second street-level hero for the team, and so bring in more street-level villains who aren't from the Gotham Rogues (although in Arrow's case, they seem to borrow decently from overflow of the lesser-known Gotham rogues).

I mean, historically Black Canary "belongs" in the League more than some of the more recognizable characters too, so if we're talking about appeals to tradition, she has that in her corner.

I'll keep my skepticism. If there's one thing I loved about The Brave and the Bold and especially Justice League Unlimited it was the commitment to expanding and creating these incredibly large character rosters, and even Teen Titans Go, what with it currently having the position of Most Hated Cartoon On Television and all, still manages to include a lot of DC lore in it.

Right?

IIRC, TTG even snuck in a reference to freaking Dr. Manhattan in one episode.

After what's happened to DC shows/action shows over the past few years on the network, I can only make two guesses as to what would happen.

1. The show's going to be a Justice League-themed variant of Teen Titans Go! and/or similar ilk; to which I can't say I would be looking forward to it.

2. The show might turn out to be a genuinely good action show that only the female Periphery Demographic will buy merchandise for, so toy companies contracted to make merch for it would declare it as a bomb and encourage CN to throw it under the bus and write it off as soon as possible, in spite of whatever ratings it gets. To which I would likely appreciate the show, but not the inevitable treatment CN would give it.

edited 10th Oct '15 2:12:23 PM by Yeow95

I can't see Justice League Go! with this. They cancelled Johnny Test for Teen Titan's Go!, so why would they once again run the same show twice?

EDIT: On Scenario #2, I'm unfortunately sure that this'll be the scenario. Despite their frequent acclaim there has not been a single action-adventure cartoon since the Merchandise-Driven age of the 80's that hasn't gotten screwed over by corporate affairs. That's why even shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe, somewhat action-y shows that have wide acclaim especially in fan circles, are usually advertised as LOL SO RANDUM nonsense.

edited 10th Oct '15 2:39:51 PM by InAnOdderWay

-sigh- I know people here hate Go! (not without good reason, mind you), but please, we don't need multiple posts echoing it. Saying you hope that it won't be like that show is enough to get the point across at this point.

I doubt this show would be Go! 2; that'd be shooting themselves in the foot (unless they end Go! and retool Go!'s format into a DC Universe-encompassing show starring the League). If it is a "light-hearted or comedic" incarnation of the League, I expect it to be different from Brave and the Bold and Go!'s brand of comedy.

Even if it's an straight-up action cartoon, unless it was trying to play off the upcoming films, I kind of feel like it'd still have more comedic elements than the earlier CN JLA cartoons had.

I'm just going to wait for more info though. No use stressing over it right now.

EDIT: Were action shows really cancelled because their merchandise only appealed to the Periphery Demographic instead of kids/males? Doesn't the fact that the merch sells at all mean they were worth keeping around?

edited 10th Oct '15 2:44:03 PM by Customer

I'm not really joking with the TTG - Johnny Test comparison here, they kind of are pretty similar in styles. The main difference is that one's made in house and the other was imported from the strange foreign land of mediocre flash cartoons known as Canada. And both shows were played in a lot of timeslots.

I won't say that TTG's awful or anything, but they don't really have any use for two shows of such a similar style.

There are probably a lot of reasons why networks for one reason or another hate action shows, but there is a distinct pattern with very, very few exceptions to the rule. More often than not it's merchandising that's cited by the creators/PR on why the show was cancelled, so that's typically the reason that's cited.

We have to remember, again, that this is a tie-in to the DCCU. The show will only get screwed over if the ratings are bad or if the DCCU is stillborn.

What are the chances of that happening?...

I suspect it'll be more along the lines of Avengers Assembled/Ultimate Spider-Man/Agents of SMASH.