Comics Continuum has screen shots and plot info up on next week’s The Batman episode on Kids WB! — the first of the two-part series finale — as well as the returning Legion of Super Heroes. The Batman finale features guest stars galore, as Batman and Green Arrow team up to save the rest of the JLA when their powers are transferred into alien robots. Legion, meanwhile, will feature R.J. Brande and the origin of the teen super group.
Update: TVGuide.com has a picture of the evil robot Justice League.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
The link is broken.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
Batman *SERIES* finale? Stupid WB.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am
Meh… If this really is the SERIES finale and not just the season finale I’m not too upset. This show was simply never as good as Batman: TAS nor JL/JLU.
I realize this show was meant more for the kiddies than the grownups, but considering the success the aforementioned shows had, it seems odd to have ended JLU when they did only to essentially do a more kid-friendly, watered-down version of it on “The Batman.”
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
” it seems odd to have ended JLU when they did only to essentially do a more kid-friendly, watered-down version”
That’s not why they ended JLU. JLU ended because the ratings weren’t very good. JLU had a core group of fans who absolutely loved it (I was one of them), but it just didn’t have that many viewers. Just going on ratings alone it actually should have been cancelled after *two* seasons; the crew said they were grateful and surprised each time it got renewed.
By the way, JLU ended in May of 2006, a year and a half after The Batman started. The two shows were marketed to different groups and existed side-by-side. If JLU had been cancelled because of the Batman, it would have been cancelled two years earlier.
http://imdb.com/title/tt0275137/episodes#season-5
http://imdb.com/title/tt0398417/episodes#season-1
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Jason, what I meant to say was that The Batman became JLU-lite not long after JLU actually ended, and that’s what I don’t understand.
As for JL/JLU itself. I never followed the show’s ratings so you may very well be right about that. I’m guessing the show did alright for itself at first, back when it was just “Justice League” though.
Besides new episodes getting pretty good timeslots, premiering in prime-time and then repeating in various slots after that, the show was in reruns (while new episodes were being made)five nights a week for a good while. There were toys in the stores, promotions with BK, etc. It was after the change to JLU that the show started getting bounced around a lot to some pretty odd time slots, the reruns of older episodes disappeared, and the show (which had been pretty heavily promoted when it was just “JL”) would sometimes go months without airing.
My theory on this, and I could be wrong, is that viewers fell off for two reasons:
1) The initial change to JLU was bad. Episodes were now just one part, not two or three-parters, and they did some pretty goofy stuff like turing the heroes into little kids, and the infamous “This Little Piggy” episode. I actually stopped watching after that, and I know others who did too. I only came back after someone told me about the Cadmus arc and how good the show had gotten again.
2.) The hardcore fans stayed on (if/when they could find the show), but more casual viewers fell away when JLU (early on) spent more time on second and third-tier characters than they did on the original 7. Eventually, the Big 7 were brought back into the action more, but I can remember being disappointed with the likes of Hawk & Dove, among others, while Martian Manhunter sat on the sidelines and weeks would go by without Supes or Bats.
Don’t get me wrong, the show definitely regained it’s footing as far as storytelling went, and I enjoyed seeing GA, Black Canary, Huntress, Question, and others. But I’d bet that by the time things picked up again, JLU had lost a lot of viewers. By the final season, after the Cadmus arc was over, I think the show began to slip creatively again… Much of the show seemed anti-climactic after that, and then the show just sort of limped to its conclusion. Still, on the whole the series (both JL & JLU) were pretty great. Certainly better than anything than WB/DC is airing currently.