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2001 TV News Archives

September 25, 2001: Nine New Animated Justice League Images

Cartoon Network has released a set of nine new images promoting the up-coming animated Justice League show.

Calling the show "the Superfriends for a new generation," Producer Bruce Timm said that the the show will take a traditional approach to the Justice League.

"This is such a big thing for comic book fans, for DC Comics, and for us, that we wanted to make sure we do the show right," Timm said. "Based on what we've seen -- other attempts to do this kind of show in the past in cartoons -- we needed to go with the big guns, we needed to put the 'big seven' in there."

Of course, at the top of the "big seven" are DC's "big three": Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. While the first two are veterans of the animation scene, Wonder Woman hasn't appeared as a series regular in quite some time.

Wonder Woman will be depicted as being new to the civilized world after living mostly on Themyscira and a little aloof. "It's not that she's really arrogant or snotty, it's just that she's used to being treated like a princess," Timm said. "She's so, 'What is with these weird humans? They don't treat me right.'"

Timm also stressed the importance of having Wonder Woman's character differ from Hawkgirl's. "We wanted to be sure their personalities would really contrast with each other, and that they are not just 'the girls.'"

The Flash (Wally West) under the mask provides the comic relief for the show. "He's young, he's pretty much immature," Timm said of the character. "He's fresh out of puberty and ready to go."

The exuberant character will play off of Green Lantern John Stewart's disciplinarian character. "He's such a wild card. And our Green Lantern is such a straight arrow that we have to team them up as often as possible," Timm told fans.

Timm said that J'onn J'onnz's powers would be limited somewhat over what is seen in the comics. The Martian Manhunter will be depicted as strong (but not quite as strong as Superman), will retains his telepathic abilities, and is still a shape-shifter. "But we're trying not to overdo that because it would be a lot of, (mock-Wonder Twins) 'Size of... an elephant.'"

"Justice League" is set to begin airing on Saturday, November 17 on Cartoon Network.