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The 35 Best Superhero Cartoons of the Past 30 Years


From ’90s breakout hits Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men to this year’s outstanding X-Men ’97 and Batman: Caped Crusader.

In short, it’s a constant battle of: “Is this gonna look dumb?” Cartoons, on the other hand, might be the most natural format for the superhero adaptation, providing a more liberating canvas and allowing for all manner of fantastic derring-do without the limiting factor of having to stuff real people in the frame. Though certainly not treated well by its network (its schedule was pushed around as they attempted to fill every possible space with Digimon, and it went out with a whimper), Big Guy is great to look at with a story line that combines Silver Age comic-book wackiness with a likable cast in a way that belies its notoriety and feels tailor-made for the cartoon format. An outrageous success for Cartoon Network in an era that produced Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Powerpuff Girls is a triumph of a unique vision and clever writing.

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