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

3. There Was Real Pathos

One thing that you'll definitely struggle to find in the DCEU is a genuine sense of pathos. It oozes tragedy, but on a pretty puerile level, typified in full by Affleck and Cavill's 'MARTHA' contest at the end of Batman v Superman.

The cartoon series, on the other hand, had bags of the stuff. Characters died, others mourned, and there were moments of genuine weight. No JL fan could possibly forget Epilogue, the 26th episode of the second season that served as a finale of sorts to Batman Beyond. There, we see Ace - again losing control of her powers - on the cusp of wiping out an entire city. Things don't look good and, without hesitation, Batman volunteers to bring her in.

Except, he knows that this isn't any other arrest. Ace is dying, and could potentially obliterate the city as a direct consequence. Given an experimental weapon by Waller - one that would kill Ace and disrupt any potential psychic backlash - Bats heads into her fortress to end it all for good. What makes the resulting scene so great (and so emotional), isn't that Bats decides to use the device - because he doesn't - but because he went in there with the intent of reassuring Ace in her dying moments.

The image of Bruce emerging from the fortress with Ace is one of, if not the, defining moment of the series. Not only does it embody all that Batman's meant to be, in that it represents the character at his most vulnerable, it proves to everyone that the character can be so much more than he's often held to be.