10 Reasons Why The Justice League Cartoon Is Better Than The Film

2. It Wasn't Just There To Sell Toys

Justice League Green Arrow Black Canary
Warner Bros.

While any cartoon series will have to vindicate its existence with a bevy of merchandise, Justice League wasn't just created to sells toys, and neither were its predecessors. Each and every entry in the DCAU was conceptualised yes, as a means of diversifying DC merchandise, but more-so to take a hold of the medium in a way their competitors simply weren't.

BTAS, STAS, Static Shock and Batman Beyond all embodied that mantra before Justice League came along, but when it did, it served as a true successor to the series that kicked it all off a decade earlier. There isn't a show out there that can easily lay claim to the same plaudits BTAS did when it first aired, but if any were to come close, it would be Justice League. It just carries itself in such a way that, be it in the first season or the last, you feel its salience.

A lot of this stems from the fact it's a character-driven series, and that by default, it succeeds on the strength of its heroes, villains and the supporting cast more generally, but it's important to remember that this was all down to the strength of its writing and the talents of the actors involved. Dwayne McDuffie was phenomenal as the series' main showrunner, and the likes of Susan Eisenberg, Michael Rosenbaum and Maria Canals-Barrera were electric in their respective roles too.

There isn't a wardrobe change, vehicle switch or gimmicky shift to be found. It had the heroes. It had the villains. It was more than enough.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.