Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20120108020115/http://tv.ign.com:80/articles/121/1214608p5.html
The last series set in producer Bruce Timm's DC Animated Universe -- the very popular continuity that began with Batman: The Animated Series -- Justice League (later renamed Justice League Unlimited) was far from a sure thing when it debuted back in 2001. Up until that point, the only lasting attempt at a TV version of the JLA was Super Friends, but of course the goal here was to go more "realistic" -- and it worked. (Sorry, Gleek the space monkey fans.) Starting with a core roster of seven major heroes, the show would expand with Unlimited to an ever-revolving cast of DC heroes (and villains) large and small, mainstream and obscure. Facing everything from galactic threats to time-travelling nuisances, to the danger of their own immense power, the Justice League of this series remains one of the greatest superhero teams ever.
There had been successful live-action comic book TV series before, but they'd either been corny or campy in their approach. The Incredible Hulk – still the only true live-action TV success Marvel has had to date -- stood out by bringing genuine pathos to its portrayal of a comic book character. Even among the weaker episodes, and some amusingly dated music and clothing, Bill Bixby's excellent performance as Dr. David Banner stands out, showing a good man tortured by an existence marked by the green monster (Lou Ferrigno) he transforms into, and the nomadic life that has led him to. The sad "Lonely Man" theme music -- so strongly in contrast to the big, heroic music we associate with superhero stories -- from this show said it all about the approach The Incredible Hulk was taking, and the impact of this show continues to be felt today, with the filmmakers and actors involved both in The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers films naming it as a big influence.
Even though the smash-hit AMC series, based on the Robert Kirkman comic series, has made several huge diversions from the source material already, it still hasn't lost the delicious bleakness of those black and white pages. With Kirkman on board as an executive producer and writer, the show holds true to the depressing sprit of the books while taking the characters in new directions that Kirkman himself has always thought "what if?" about. But no matter what changes are made to the original story, The Walking Dead is still about a world overrun with awful, ugly zombies. And they want to tear your flesh with their teeth and wear your guts for garters. And that's probably the only ingredient you need.
This wonderful animated series stands out for how perfectly it captured everything we love about Spider-Man, even as we lament its far too brief two-season run. Spectacular creators Greg Weisman and Victor Cook clearly had nothing but respect for the history of Spider-Man, and this series dug deep into Peter Parker's history, offering us fun and fresh takes on the likes of popular characters like Green Goblin, Gwen Stacy and Venom, but also less-obvious (or outright obscure) Spider-Man players, such as Hammerhead, Silvermane and Frederick Foswell. Easily accessible to kids, yet continually filled with wit, charm and cleverness (not to mention a few innuendos) adults would appreciate, The Spectacular Spider-Man was the Spidey show we'd been waiting for – Marvel and Spider-Man's dead-on answer to a certain Batman animated series you'll be reading more about in a minute. Who knows how it could have grown, had outside circumstances -- involving the TV rights to Spider-Man changing hands – not intervened and cut this awesome show off way too early.
As much as we love Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, for many, it is this series that still offers the definitive non-comics version of the Batman story, and a truly wonderful example of how to adapt a comic book with style and substance. With uber-talented people like Paul Dini and Bruce Timm involved, Batman: The Animated Series took The Dark Knight (voiced, in an iconic vocal performance, by Kevin Conroy) and put him inside an incredibly immersive, stylized and compelling version of Gotham City. The show's villains were some of the best-ever for a Batman story, including a wonderfully evocative Joker (voiced in a go-for-broke performance by Mark Hamill) and a brand new character named Harley Quinn, who would quickly become a fan favorite. There were also layered, poignant new interpretations of familiar characters like Mr. Freeze and Two-Face, which would influence many other Batman stories that would follow, including the comic books themselves. Followed by several spinoffs and series set in the same animated universe (many of which made this list), Batman: The Animated Series' incredible accomplishments are still as impressive as ever twenty years later – and are reinforced in the amazingly cool reunion of Dini, Conroy and Hamill in the Arkham Asylum video games.
From a new Hulk series from Guillermo del Toro to Booster Gold on Syfy, there are a ton of new comic book based TV series in development. Check out our list of Comic Books That Could be Coming to TV.
