@James: Seems awfully reductive to me to say JL was successful. CN didn’t know what to do with the hour format, significantly retooled (and retitled) it in season 3, and by the last season it had huge gaps in airing — months at a time, maybe even over a year. And I don’t think YJ’s season 2 plot is much more complicated than the JLU/Cadmus arc.

My recollection is that Batman: TB&TB really came and went in a hurry, too, with frequent weird scheduling decisions and, at both season ends, people wondering if there would be another season coming.

I can see what you’re saying about scheduling on Saturday morning, though, and the title change affecting DVR’s is a wrinkle that wouldn’t have affected previous retitles like Batman: The Animated Series becoming The Adventures of Batman and Robin or Justice League becoming Justice League Unlimited.

I like Green Lantern and I think it hooked me in with Razer’s character right from the beginning. But I got the impression DC had already given it up as a lost cause from day 1 because of the movie. A pity. And yeah, the animation’s pretty lackluster even if I like the writing and (small) cast. And you make a good point about Hal being a boring lead.

I’ve also got a theory on Young Justice’s “5 years later” time jump. Have you ever read an interview with Greg Weisman? He’s always got these lengthy, elaborate 5-year-or-more plans for all his shows…and they always get cancelled after season 2. (He had Gargoyles all mapped out for not just 5 seasons but for multiple spinoffs; technically the show made it to season 3 but he was kicked off it. He also had Spectacular Spider-Man mapped out for a full 5 seasons, leading up to Peter’s graduation, and then a plan to continue the story as direct-to-video movies, targeting a slightly older audience because the kids who grew up watching the show would in fact be slightly older by then.)

So I think Weisman, knowing this history of his shows getting cancelled after only two seasons and cutting off all his long-term planning, decided that this time he was just going to jump right into the “5 years later” plan in season 2 while he had the chance.

I enjoy some of the stuff they do with Green Lantern, but I do find the CGI a bit lackluster. I’m dubious as to whether it will work on Batman.

I am curious about the prominence of Katana. I wonder why DC is pushing that character?

DC’s cartoon shows that had success on CN, Justice League and Batman Brave & the Bold. Came on primetime, where families could watch them together at night and appealed to all ages. Saturday mornings I think tend to just be for youngers kids these days with shows like Spongebob and the like leading the way.

Young Justice’s stories got incredibly complicated in season 2 with the leap ahead of 5 years. Add in a huge amount of continuing subplots, some that have yet to be resolved. If you missed an episode you could not easily follow what was going on, which is not good for Saturday mornings.

The name change of the show, to Young Justice Invasion, causing DVRs to miss it didn’t help much either.

Green Lantern was just ugly to look at, and not very interesting storywise for a while. Then near the end of the 1st season it seemed to find a good look and the story picked up.

Then season 2 was even better looking, and the stories were really fun with some interesting ideas. Of course it still had a major flaw, and it was one I saw the Superman TAS have as well.

They didn’t know how to make their lead interesting, without going outside of their comfort zones. So they filled it was guest stars, many of whom outshone the lead character. (Guy Gardner was more fun & interesting in 1 episode than Hal was in 1 and a half seasons)

Add in that most of the shorts(outside of Teen Titans Go ones) were awful things that seemed to be adults with no kids writing what they think kids like. And it was a disaster that I can see repeating itself even with these new shows that at least have a history of success.