What are some things about the DCAU you don't like?

[PhoenixAKG]

The DCAU is probably my favourite adaption of the DC universe as it gave us gems like Batman the Animated series, Superman the Animated series, Batman Beyond, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. It really adapted these characters well and for many is the definitive adaption of them

That being said there are some things it had I'm not really a big fan of. The big one is the whole Batman/Batgirl relationship which is creepy as hell. I also don't like how Bruce and Dick never seem to reconcile even by Beyond (the comic goes into why and it's REALLY bad and related to the whole Batman/Batgirl thing). I also don't really like their adaption of Tim Drake. Tim Drake is my favourite Robin and one of my favourite heroes in general but he seemed more like Jason Todd in the DCAU, they didn't give him much of his arsenal like his bo-staff, martial arts skill or Redbird car, and while the Return of the Joker is a great story, it really screws Tim over. I also think Supergirl's exit from JLU was weak as she had problems which came out of no where and then left everything she knew for a guy she didn't know for more than a day.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

The declining animation budgets. (strictly talking about the animated movies)

 

[RedHoodedOwl]

Bruce dating Barbara Gordon.

 

[adj_noun]

Black eyes no lips redesign Joker.

 

[Slayven]

Diluted

 

[Platy]

i see batgirl doesn't even need to be said

so i will say: the idea of using too much cameos when they were not needed was super weird in justice league... i wanted more episodes with just the justice league

 

[iWannaHat]

i see batgirl doesn't even need to be said

so i will say: the idea of using too much cameos when they were not needed was super weird in justice league... i wanted more episodes with just the justice league

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It lead to us getting a Booster Gold episode so you best keep them thoughts to yourself!

 

[ez123]

I remember early Batman TAS having some boring episodes. The Hoop Squad in Static Shock was a shark jump, especially considering how that show started and some of its themes.
Forgot about Epilogue. That's easily the worst part of the DCAU.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

By the time JLU gets around, Superman is a hotheaded easily manipulated bully and perpetual stick in the mud that most of the cast treats as barely staying sane

 

[HeartlessNobody2134]

Superman getting his ass whooped a lot. I get that everything would be too easy if Superman "cut loose" all the time but damn, my man was getting clapped up often in Justice League.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Diluted

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[Arkanim94]

Bruce dating Barbara Gordon.

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I don't know what are you talking about.

Btw, the reveal in batman beyond.

 

[SamAlbro]

The "Terry is Bruce's biological son" reveal was a great ending for Amanda Waller, but undermined Bruce and Terry.

The hoops that had to jump through to get Supergirl around the "no other Kryptonians" rule DC had at the time.

Bruce and Barbara's romantic history.

The Zeta Project.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Terry being Bruce's biological son and Bruce dating Barbara.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

Wonder Woman suuuuuuuuucks in the DCAU

 

[Spring-Loaded]

Wonder Woman suuuuuuuuucks in the DCAU

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Explain

 

[Sibersk Esto]

Explain

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"Great Hera! I am strong and want to have sex with Batman"

That's it. That's the character.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Honestly? The creep of 'Batman is the primary identity, Bruce Wayne the disguise' that really got perhaps its most significant push as the DCAU drew on. It's downright weird going back to earlier episodes where Bruce is clearly expressive in private and thinks of himself as Bruce Wayne, while later on you'll get the whole 'that's not what I call myself in my head' schtick. And while for the DCAU you could make the argument of it as a progression over the course of Bruce's years of crimefighting eroding his sense of self (reflected in how by Justice League you almost never actually see him as Bruce outside of rare moments), wider fandom and the franchise at large likes to increasingly treat this as having applied from the moment his parents got shot. It's just... actually kinda limited for how you treat the character.

 

[Weiss]

JLU's Epilogue episode and Nightwing being a douche.

I'm fine with the other big ones, where Superman is kind of a jerk (he's not, really, he's just gunning for Darkseid) and Bruce and Barbara dating (I took it as Bruce going for one last shot at normalcy when they were both adults before he drove her away too).

 

[HotHamBoy]

everything Livewire

honestly, the weird male gazey shit that Paul Dini writes.

There's a lot of weird sexism and even sexual assault in those shows, too

 

[InspectaDekka]

Any of the Static Shock themes that aren't season 1's theme.

I fuck hard with the first theme:

 

[gilded_Pb]

Superman being so underpowered is annoying for me.

Bruce and Barbara relationship.

Batman and Wonder Woman pairing.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Superman being so underpowered is annoying for me.

Bruce and Barbara relationship.

Batman and Wonder Woman pairing.

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Superman being underpowered doesn't bother me as much as him just being an absolute idiot of a fighter who constantly flies directly into oncoming attacks and rarely tries to avoid anything. He just wins by virtue of the fact that he can't die.

it's frustrating to watch because he fights like a moron with no skill. On the other hand, it is kind of amusing to consider that a dude with godlike invulnerability would never have to actually learn how to get good at fighting.

 

[Loxley]

Bruce Timm's constant fellating of Batman, to the point where he's practically a god.

By the time JLU gets around, Superman is a hotheaded easily manipulated bully and perpetual stick in the mud that most of the cast treats as barely staying sane

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Superman getting his ass whooped a lot. I get that everything would be too easy if Superman "cut loose" all the time but damn, my man was getting clapped up often in Justice League.

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This. As a life-long Superman fan it pains me to watch his characterization in the DCAU. He's a total wet noodle in the 90% of the time.

Here's a fun drinking game if you're watching Justice League or JLU: take a shot every time the League gets into a fight and Superman is the first one to fly in, only to get bitch-slapped into a wall like an idiot. By episode 3 you'll be completely shitfaced.

+ Take a bonus shot every time Supes gets electrocuted. I feel like it happens every other episode.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Oh, here's a big one i forgot: THE ABSENCE OF SHIRLEY WALKER starting with Justice League.

oh, you feel it. big time.

 

[PhoenixAKG]

JLU's Epilogue episode and Nightwing being a douche.

I'm fine with the other big ones, where Superman is kind of a jerk (he's not, really, he's just gunning for Darkseid) and Bruce and Barbara dating (I took it as Bruce going for one last shot at normalcy when they were both adults before he drove her away too).

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How was Nightwing a douche?

 

[Mr. President]

Batman and Batgirl's relationship is supposed to be a self-destructive character flaw isn't it?
The way it causes a rift between Batman and the bat family is an important character development for him in Beyond.

 

[Weiss]

How was Nightwing a douche?

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Dick Grayson in the comics is basically the canonical nicest, friendliest guy around.

DCAU Dick was angry and pouty and in full on I'M ON MY OWN, OLD MAN mode, and none of it got resolved because he never showed up after B:TAS.

 

[Sibersk Esto]

Hey DCAU, when it comes to Batman and Superman, the biggest icons of your genre, what are your central ideas about them? Your grand thesis that you want people to understand about these two characters?


Despite his disposition, there is "no one who has more love for his fellow man".

A little girl is dying, and Batman is told that killing her is the pragmatic thing to do. But Batman isn't going to kill her, won't even consider it, because he's Batman. Instead he comforts her in her dying moments and solves the problem that way. At his heart, Batman never wants another child to experience what he went through ever again.

And because of this, the idea of Batman is everlasting and able to inspire future generations until the proverbial end of the universe.

Superman?



Superman can punch really, really hard. Most of the time, he has to stop himself from punching really really hard because he might kill someone. But don't worry! Superman looks forward to the times he gets to punch really, really hard and save the day!

...Except he doesn't save the day. Superman is a blunt object to throw at a villain in order to have a big setpiece. When the day actually needs saving? That's for people like Batman and LEX FUCKING LUTHOR to do because they're actually smart.

 

[Weiss]

Okay yeah, I guess I have to admit Justice League mostly did Supes dirty.

This is why S:TAS is still the best one.

 

[DragonSJG]

Superman got better in JLU as it went on and stopped being a wuss. I mean, they had to nerf him as he's too op
But yeah, everyone has echoed what I said. Bruce and Dick never reconciling is sad as Dick was his first son and TAS showed they were super close. And Bruce pushing everyone away is sad as hell

 

[Bor Gullet]

This. As a life-long Superman fan it pains me to watch his characterization in the DCAU. He's a total wet noodle in the 90% of the time.

Here's a fun drinking game if you're watching Justice League or JLU: take a shot every time the League gets into a fight and Superman is the first one to fly in, only to get bitch-slapped into a wall like an idiot. By episode 3 you'll be completely shitfaced.

+ Take a bonus shot every time Supes gets electrocuted. I feel like it happens every other episode.

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Superman getting his ass whooped a lot. I get that everything would be too easy if Superman "cut loose" all the time but damn, my man was getting clapped up often in Justice League.

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That was only in the first season. They rectified that later on (like most things season 1).

 

[Zaied]

I don't really understand the Superman complaints when he was largely a behemoth in his fights by Justice League S2. There's when he beat Amazo after he steamrolled the rest of the Justice League at once, when he fought Doomsday in the volcano, literally rearranged Mongul's face, beat Shazam in that MoS-esque duel, reluctantly pummeled Captain Atom after he became a government pawn, and when he lost his powers and had to kill man-eating cockroaches and wolves to survive the post-apocalypse. He was pretty impressive relative to other non-comic adaptations of Supes.



If speaking strictly Justice League S1 or STAS then I could understand: Superman didn't really have a defined power level in STAS — he could be anywhere from getting stunned by gunfire, to shrugging off explosions powerful enough to destroy Metropolis. With Justice League S1, they unintentionally made him a pushover, according to Timm, for more dire threats in the narrative, which they corrected in the following season. It's also worth noting that the writers were probably still getting accustomed to using a character like Superman for action scenes, having only done Batman at the time.

 

[Kelsdesu]

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Batman was such a dick. Clayface was about to cure himself and Batman destroys the machine.

 

[Pau]

Almost everything involving Bruce's relationships with his kids (and Barbara) once Batman Beyond comes around.

 

[just_myles]

Superman being woefully under powered until the last couple of seasons of JLU.

 

[Bor Gullet]

By the time JLU gets around, Superman is a hotheaded easily manipulated bully and perpetual stick in the mud that most of the cast treats as barely staying sane

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This reads like selective memory. The whole point is that as the league amasses more power, Superman gets more and more arrogant. He literally says in an episode that he's felt a lot of the same temptations that the Justice Lord Superman did.

His whole arc in JLU is him becoming arrogant with power and then realizing his mistake because he was starting to drift away from the people. By the end of the Cadmus arc, he publicly states this and creates the Metro Tower.

 

[TheMadTitan]

Aside from the things already mentioned, the fact that they didn't add a little bit of snap to their fights. Anime was big at the time and getting bigger every single day. Fight scenes in the anime Toonami felt snappy, weighty, and with impact.

As shown with the above Amazo vs Superman fight, parts of it lack umph because the animation lingers. Even in fights that are snappy, they still linger too much. It was hard going from fast and impactful DBZ and Cowboy Bebop and then to Justice League. Superman didn't need to zip around like Goku all the time, but he, as with everyone else, needed a little speed boost.

Young Justice managed to avoid this thankfully, but it has its own nagging problems.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

S:TAS not having a Blu-ray release.

 

[SamAlbro]

Gonna add another one:

Not knowing what to do with the Hawks (although this is an overall DC problem) - They went all in on the Thanagarians early on and had a good, focused vision for Hawkgirl. Then they muddied the waters by bringing in Golden Age Carter Hall in JLU.

 

[Kard8p3]

Amazo, probably the strongest character in the DCAU/JLU series just gets written off :(

 

[PhoenixAKG]

Amazo, probably the strongest character in the DCAU/JLU series just gets written off :(

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That's why he was written off. He was too OP, and made the League unnecessary.

 

[Strings]

I've hated a majority of the last decade or so of output (everything post 2014's Justice League: War basically).

Bruce Timm's constant fellating of Batman, to the point where he's practically a god.






This. As a life-long Superman fan it pains me to watch his characterization in the DCAU. He's a total wet noodle in the 90% of the time.

Here's a fun drinking game if you're watching Justice League or JLU: take a shot every time the League gets into a fight and Superman is the first one to fly in, only to get bitch-slapped into a wall like an idiot. By episode 3 you'll be completely shitfaced.

+ Take a bonus shot every time Supes gets electrocuted. I feel like it happens every other episode.

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The episodes where Superman is alone are wonderful though. Like For the Man Who Has Everything and that one where he's sent to an apocalyptic future where Vandal Savage destroyed everything, plus has to use his resourcefulness because it's a red sun. He just doesn't gel that well for group action scenes.