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

9. It Gave Us The Perfect Superman

Justice League Unlimited Superman
Warner Bros. Animation

No matter your opinion of the DCEU, it's a sad reality that Henry Cavill simply hasn't been given the chance to be the real Man of Steel. Moments from Justice League offered a glimpse into the Supes we're all after, but any sense of gravity was totally squandered by that stiff-upper-lip, or rather, the CGI'd lack thereof.

With Justice League, the series had a stoic and superb Superman in George Newbern, who took over from Tim Daly shortly before the season premier in 2001. Not only was this Man of Steel strong and commanding, but caring too. He completely embodied the strength and optimism of Christopher Reeve's portrayal and supplemented it with the intensity of the character's post-Crisis roots, conjuring a modern Man of Tomorrow for an equally modern audience.

And this isn't to say that the show didn't push Superman in bold and at times uncomfortable directions - quite the opposite. Rather, the series was at its best when Superman was forced to overcome challenges both physical and intellectual, whether it be the machinations of Amanda Waller's Cadmus program, or the sheer strength of Doomsday or Darkseid (exemplified wonderfully in the following sequence).

Contemplative, commanding and brilliant from top to bottom, Justice League's Man of Tomorrow is still yet to be topped, be it on the big screen, or small.

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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.