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Superheroes have been portrayed in animation since the early 1940s. Up until the late '90s animated cartoons have been the most common venue, right after comics, to depict superheroic adventures. Contrary to live action productions, they do not require expensive sets and special effects, although animation production standards can vary widely in cost. As a result, cartoon shows featuring superheroes became a staple of children's entertainment with a few shows reaching adult audiences.
In late 1941, Superman became the first superhero to be depicted in animation, The Superman series of groundbreaking theatrical cartoons was produced by Fleischer/Famous Studios from 1941 to 1943 and featured the famous "It's a bird, it's a plane" introduction. One of the most successful imitations/parodies was Terrytoons' Mighty Mouse series, which became the flagship property of the studio.
A frame from the opening sequence of the 1960s Spider-Man series
With the rise of television in the 1960s, superheroes have found success in animated television series geared towards children, including Filmation's Superman-Batman Adventure Hour and Grantray-Lawrence Animation's Spider-Man, featuring the "does whatever a spider can" theme song.
A frame from the opening sequence of Super Friends
In the 1970s, Japanese anime strove to emulate American superhero cartoons with their own creations. The most successful was Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman (Science Ninja Team Gatchaman) which became a television classic that created a template that many other anime series followed.
In the 1970s and 1980s American superhero animated series were constrained by the broadcasting restrictions that activist groups like Action for Children's Television lobbied for. The most popular series in this period, Super Friends, an adaptation of DC's Justice League of America, was designed to be as nonviolent and inoffensive as possible. The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends were similarly tame. Kagaku ninja tai Gatchaman aired in North America as the Battle of the Planets but it was so severely edited for violence that plots were incoherent although it still won many fans for its distinctive take on the genre.
In 1994, Phantom 2040 made its debut, loosely based on Lee Falk's legendary superhero The Phantom, and adapted into the screen by Aeon Flux-creator Peter Chung. The series followed the descendant of the Phantom of the original comic books in the year of 2040. Despite critical acclaim, the series was cancelled after two seasons, but remains a cult favorite. Similarly, Disney Television Animation produced the highly acclaimed television series Gargoyles, created by Greg Weisman. This production presented the adventures of a clan of heroic night creatures in stories that owed as much to William Shakespeare and medieval history as they did to traditional superhero fiction.
HBO's Spawn, originally aired from 1997 through 1999, was one of the few animated superhero series to be aimed exclusively at an adult audience,
In 1998, Cartoon Network began airing The Powerpuff Girls, a superhero parody designed to appeal to both children and adults. The show spoofed both specific superheroes (like Wonder Woman, Sailor Moon and Spawn, among many others) as well as general conventions of the genre (like how violence is often presented as the best/only solution to problems in superhero stories, for example). In the 2000s, the Nickelodeon series, Danny Phantom, earned its own appreciative following with its intelligent humor and appealing character story arc narrative structure. This was complemented in the Cartoon Network's ongoing Ben 10 franchise. In 2013 Mattel released a superhero influenced reboot version of Max Steel (2013 TV series) which aired on Disney XD.
Concurrent to these broadcast productions, original animated video release series featuring the superhero characters of Marvel Comics and DC Comics respectively began with success in the 2000s, such as the DC Universe Animated Original Movies. Considering that DVD retail does not have to contend with network television audience demographics expectations, or government broadcast regulations from the Federal Communications Commission in the United States or the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in Canada, the format affords a level of content freedom for an older and more sophisticated audience.
Animal superheroes
In addition to the human superheroes found in comic books, animated superhero series have often featured comedic anthropomorphic animal superheroes. These series combine two timeless niches in children’s television: superheroes anfunny animals. The first such series was the Superman-inspired Mighty Mouse, which was the flagship series of the Terrytoons company in the 1940s. Underdog, ThunderCats, Darkwing Duck, Biker Mice from Mars, "Street Sharks" and Earthworm Jim (based on the video game series of the exact name) are popular examples from later decades, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles combined martial arts clichés and conventions with the more sci fi, fantastical, and outrageous elements of superhero stories. The most recent popular example of such series is Krypto the Superdog, which featured Superman's dog as well as Streaky the Supercat and Ace The Bathound, all more cartoony versions of original characters from the DC Universe.
A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that possesses superpowers, abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, or dedicating themselves to protecting the public and fighting crime. Superhero fiction is the genre of fiction that is centered on such characters, especially, since the 1930s, in American comic books, as well as in Japanese media.
The Justice League is a team of superheroes in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #28. The team was conceived by writer Gardner Fox as a revival of the Justice Society of America, a similar team from DC Comics from the 1940s which had been pulled out of print due to a decline in sales.
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1985 on ABC as part of its Saturday-morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.
Static Shock is an American superhero animated television series based on the Milestone Media/DC Comics superhero Static. It premiered on September 23, 2000, on the WB Television Network's Kids' WB programming block. Static Shock ran for four seasons, with 52 half-hour episodes in total. The show revolves around Virgil Hawkins, an African-American boy who uses the secret identity of "Static" after exposure to a mutagen gas during a gang fight which gave him electromagnetic powers. It was the first time that an African-American superhero was the titular character of their own broadcast animation series.
Justice League Unlimited (JLU) is a 2004—2006 American superhero animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and specifically based on the Justice League superhero team, it is a direct sequel to the previous Justice League animated series and picks up where Justice League left off. Like its predecessor, the show is also a prequel to Batman Beyond. JLU debuted on July 31, 2004, on Toonami and ended on May 13, 2006. It is the eighth and final series of the DC Animated Universe, which started with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.
A superhero film is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes: individuals who usually possess extraordinary – generally superhuman – abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature action, adventure, fantasy and/or science fiction elements, with the first film of a particular character often including a focus on the origin of their special powers and their first confrontation with their most famous supervillain or archnemesis.
Bruce Walter Timm is an American artist, character designer, animator, writer, producer and voice actor. He is best known for his contributions building the modern DC Comics animated franchise, most notably the DC Animated Universe.
The DC Animated Universe is a shared universe consisting primarily of superhero-based animated television series, produced by Warner Bros. Animation and based on characters that appear in American comic books published by DC Comics. The shared universe, much like the original DC Universe in comic books, was established by crossing over common plot elements, settings, cast, and characters.
Paul McClaran Dini is an American screenwriter and comic creator. He has been a producer and writer for several Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics animated series, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, and Duck Dodgers. He developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog and contributed scripts to The Transformers, Animaniacs, Freakazoid!, and Static Shock. After leaving Warner Bros. Animation in early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the popular ABC adventure series Lost. He has written a number of comic books for DC Comics, including Harley Quinn and Superman: Peace on Earth. October 2010 saw the debut of Tower Prep, a new live action/drama series Dini created for Cartoon Network. It was announced that after two decades of doing DC-related animated projects, Paul Dini had gone over to Marvel Comics to serve as a writer and producer for Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..
In comic books, an intercompany crossover is a comic or series of comics where characters that at the time of publication are the property of one company meet those owned by another company. These usually occur in "one-shot" issues or miniseries.
The American comic book character Superman has appeared in many types of media. Since his first comic book appearance in 1938, Superman has appeared in radio, television, movies, and video games each on multiple occasions, and his name, symbol, and image have appeared on products and merchandise.
The New Adventures of Superman is a half-hour series of six-minute animated Superman adventures produced by Filmation that were broadcast Saturday mornings on CBS from September 10, 1966, to September 5, 1970. The 68 segments appeared as part of three different programs during that time, packaged with similar shorts featuring The Adventures of Superboy and other DC Comics superheroes.
The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure is a Saturday morning Filmation animated series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1968. Premiering on September 9, 1967, this 60-minute program included a series of six-minute adventures featuring various DC Comics superheroes.
Superhero fiction is a genre of speculative fiction examining the adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess superhuman powers and battle similarly powered criminals known as supervillains. The genre primarily falls between hard fantasy and soft science fiction spectrum of scientific realism. It is most commonly associated with American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works.
Frederick Whitney Ellsworth was an American comic book editor and sometime writer and artist for DC Comics during the period known to historians and fans as the Golden Age of Comic Books. He was also DC's "movie studio contact", becoming both a producer and story editor on the TV series The Adventures of Superman.
Superhero comics are one of the most common genres of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and became extremely popular in the 1940s and has remained the dominant form of comic book in North America since the 1960s. Superhero comics feature stories about superheroes and the universes these characters inhabit.
Dennis Marks was an American screenwriter, producer and voice actor, mainly for children's animations. Marks wrote for several big production companies during the 1960s through to the 1990s, including Hanna-Barbera, DC and Marvel. He wrote screenplays and stories for many popular animation shows including Batfink, The Beatles, Dungeons & Dragons and Spider-Man, providing the voice for the Green Goblin in the latter. He also worked as a producer for Children's TV show Wonderama, chat show A.M. New York and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
DC Nation Shorts are animated shorts featuring characters from DC Comics that aired in a series on Cartoon Network on Saturdays at 10/9c.
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