The REJECTED Superman Cartoon! 

WB seems to be allergic to FUN Superman!

Such a shame we didn’t get this or that proposed Bat Family cartoon starring Damien, Dick, Tim, and Jason.

A modern Lois Lane animated shorts series would be fun. I like the idea that instead of her trying to trick Superman into dating her, she's instead trying to figure out who he is, but always ropes in Clark to help her. So it's just Clark endlessly trying to both make Lois happy by assisting in her schemes while also keeping her from succeeding to preserve her identity. All while the two slowly fall in love working alongside each other.

As excited as I am for My Adventures with Superman (that show looks like it’s gonna be peak), I will forever mourn the loss of this Super-Family show. We could have had it all

Batman: The Brave and the Bold was heavily inspired by the silver age, and it was GLORIOUS. So yeah, I'd totally be down for more of that.

WB is treating its animated shows abismally. Thank you for giving us a glimpse of what could have been.

This would have been amazing; what’s wrong with a wholesome family show?

The Rebirth-era Superman and Super Sons are good, wholesome fun. They're what got me to appreciate Superman for the first time.

I would love to see a kid-friendly Superman Family adaptation, if it was done well. Silver Age-inspired stories? Sign me up! Too bad it was cancelled. Btw, that comic cover with Lois as a witch looked sooo good!

Let Superman have fun. Even Batman at times in classic comics has sense of humour

This had the potential of being a quasi revival of the Silver Age with how Batman Brave and the Bold did in revamping that charm to modern times, or even a more lighthearted take ala Superfriends since the character designer Sean Galloway is a fan of the show and fun fact, designed Spectacular Spider-Man too. Hopefully a project like this can get greenlit as it may not be likely with how much they are pushing Damian and John to be apart and very much become another brick of their respective mythos rather than a new kind of Superman & Batman team up. Though with the movie that came out, I'm happy that this version of the pair is still relevant

We keep saying “make things darker” but I prefer a cozier Superman. Batman does better dark, but honestly Superman does better cozy but still maturely handles particular challenging themes.

Ah yes, because Superman isn’t known for being family friendly and wholesome

I love how you used Batman the brave and the bold as an example of a good silver age style cartoon because I love that show

I wonder if Conner Kent was also going to be part of the show. I know during the time this show was pitched, it was the first year of rebirth and Conner didn’t make an official return yet, but I could see them doing with the original 90s version of the character. Especially since Conner is brought back to his 90s style with some development from the 2000s TT run in main DC Universe.

Sure, would it be neat to show that adult cartoons don't have to be crass to be adult,yes.....but I would have love to see a fun, zany Superman family show....the art is also adorable

That might have been fun . One of the things I liked about the Batman: the Brave and the Bold cartoon was that we had fun, light stories of Batman et al while we still had darker stories of them elsewhere.

I think we’re going to need more superhero parents.

This seems like it would've been cute but I'd like to see more Superman animated adaptations in general, preferably those that don't feel the need to kill Clark or turn him evil.

This is the animated DC show I never knew I wanted, and now I miss something that was never made!

I would’ve LOVED this, this looks absolutely adorable. Also Brave and the Bold did older stories with a modern twist and that was one of my favorite cartoons of the last decade.

That would've been a good show. I think that DC movies would be better if they didn't try to make Superman edgy, and dark to be cool. He's supposed to be a symbol of hope. They should show us him doing heroic stuff even when a single individual needs saving instead of going from huge save to world saving to show that he has god like powers but works to help everyone. Leave the dark stuff to Batman.

I think this was under the old regime, they pretty much didn't support any hero that wasn't Batman, hence the overabundance of Batman content. Same goes for DC at the time.

I'm glad the new Superman cartoon seems to be going back to a more light-hearted characterization, I really missed that version of Superman... F*** DC's obsession with grimdark. And f*** Warner Brothers too.

Considering how huge the reaction has been for Dad Peter B Parker and Baby Mayday in ATSV, DC left money at the table...

The idea of a lighthearted Superman family cartoon reminds me of the similarities between Superman and Popeye the Sailor Man. 1) Comic characters who became popular in the mainstream when adapted onto the big screen by Max Fleischer studios. 2) When DC sued Fawcett about Captain Marvel, Fawcett comics countered by saying Superman was a copy of various earlier characters, citing Popeye as one of them. 3)Their girlfriends had alliterative names (LL and OO.) 4)They both had a large surrogate "family" (Popeye had Olive Oyl and the Oyl family, Sweet Pea, Wimpy, Roughhouse, Poopdeck Pappy, etc.) as well as super powered pet creatures (Krypto and the Jeep) 5) "The sailor man" and Super Man. 6) In Popeye's theme song, he states he will fight any poolooka who "ain't on the up and square. So keep good behavior, that's your one life saver." Its not so different from Superman's old catchphrase, "I fight for truth and justice."

It would be good to have a kid-friendly Superman with Superman as a father and married to Lois Lane that is a superhero and Family Guy at the same time. Teaching Jonathan how to use a super powers for good like using heat vision to bake a pie

Brave and the bold is a great example of getting that silver age right as well as a compelling kids show

The Superman Family with Sean Galloway's art style would've been great! I've been enjoying your latest videos on cancelled animated projects. It would be cool to see you talk about the cancelled Batman cartoons before Beware the Batman: The No Man's Land adaptation that was shot down TWICE and a Batman/Superman show with younger leads that was going to have a weird love triangle with Wonder Woman.

I'm mostly into Bronze Age, Superman, but I do love a crazy Sliver Age Superman story... However, my favorite Superman is the DCAU's STAS

Now that Gunn has said that he is going to be using secret identities to differentiate his DC from Marvel, I am hopeful that he will also go for a lighter and more hopeful version of the universe than the Snyderverse. I don't think he will go nearly as light as the Silver Age, though. Here's hoping he hires some of the writers from the animated movies as well! I have always been a fan of the 'mullet Superman' reboot, but there are also Silver Age elements I like. I am hoping for a lot of 'mild-mannered but buff old-fashioned Kansas Clark' contrasting with a theatrically calm, reassuring and confident Superman. Ideally with a power level somewhere north of Omni-Man but south of One Punch Man. If Gunn brings over the character=genre convention from Marvel, I can see a Superman with a 'disaster movie/ripped from the headlines' genre (with some pulp undertones).

I would've watched this. I wish they kept going with Justice League Action which was a more kid friendly take on the JL. I would love a Batman Brave and Bold type Superman show

I want to live in the alternate timeline where this show actually got made

I’m really enjoying this tear you’re on with unmade animated projects.

I would've been in full joy seeing this series make it to air based off what I'm seeing. The concept alone is a great take on the mythos. Shame we'll probably never see it as of right now.

Would be cool if the popularity of “My Adventures With Superman” leads to this concept to being picked up again, strike whilst the iron is hot

The problem with trying to "recreate" another time period is the constant desire of trying to shoehorn in modern sensibilities or thinking into the story, rather than just reflecting what was going on in that time period. Or, worse, trying to show how things were handled or treated then as being motivated by malicious and evil intents, even when they weren't. Those stories should reflect the time they occurred, not now. As for my favorite Superman era... Definitely the 70s. They were coming out of the silliness of the 1960s and trying to tell better, kind of more grounded, stories. And who didn't love seeing Curt Swan's artwork every month. I especially fell hard for "Superman Family", and the mix of original out-of-continuity stories with reprints of classic Superman stories.

Very cool! I'm already a fan. I've been watching your channel fairly regularly for awhile. I love you your deep dives into comic lore. You definitely got it. Thanks for the review.

This should be done at some point. I'd love it. The current series is getting prople invested in Superman more, so maybe we can get this eventually.

I don't understand why companies dish out mediocre stuf then cancel the good stuff ?!?! Like I thought they Wanted more money

I still can't believe WB never pushed a Super Sons cartoon when the comics were doing great. WB and DC seem to periodically forget comics are supposed to be fun. Edit: This definitely sounds like Batman the Brave and the Bold (cartoon) but with Supes and I love it. We'll never know how it'd have been executed, but I really feel like it's something DC needed to round out it's portfolio. Modern DC adaptions feel really confused in that they take themselves way too seriously or somehow not seriously enough (it's always one end of the spectrum). DC has always had a problem with adapting current comics and various stories without starting from year 0/going back to basics, but now there's also an issue with overall tone and storytelling. Like the R ratings really don't fit the tonmorowverse style of animation and how it started with Man of Tommorow. There's just so little diversity (in types of shows not representation) in DC's lineup today. The DCAU was goated because we had the darker themed Batman and Superman animated adventures and then got the JL/JLU which shook things up again and Static Shock. Then over the next decade we got Teen Titans, The Batman, Batman the Brave and the Bold, GLTAS, Young Justice, Beware the Batman, and probably some I'm forgetting. This is along with the many animated movies and Dark Knight Trilogy. Each of these could appeal to different audiences and a lot of them multiple at once. I really hope the new Superman show does well (though I'm worried with the time slot and I heard Adult Swim only picked it up after Max denied it) and Young Justice sees a return. Stuff like Harley Quinn and Peacemaker are great, but everything can't be either R rated or TTG. Even though I absolutely hated the arrow verse, it is ending (or ended? I don't follow it) and had a lot of fans who have been introduced to DC through it and will be looking for... whatever style of content the arrow verse was. WB needs to actually be willing to invest in a diverse portfolio of content again for DC if they want to see the growth. If I'm being honest considering how often they've cancled their best show in the past (some like Swamp Thing right out the gate), I personally can't find any hype in the James Gunn promised golden age of adaptions.

I was totally typing in that the art looked liked Sean Galloway's when you mentioned that it was....

Keep in mind that DC won’t air this for being more lighthearted…. But they still keep making new episodes of teen titans go.

now that i know this even existed, i'm sad that it never got made! the super family and the super sons are both really fun concepts, so getting a light-hearted animated series with those dynamics would have been fun. the art style is ok, but i would really need to see it in action to form a proper opinion, although the designs themselves look really nice; familiar and mostly comic accurate, but also softened up and cute to fit the tone this series was going for. if this show had been produced it could have been up there with batman: the brave and the bold as well as krypto the superdog, both of which are absolutely iconic dc adaptations and some of my favorite of the wholesome, more "family-friendly" superhero cartoons! :)

I'd do the Marvel family, back when it was Shazam (The Wizard), Billy, Mary, Freddy, (Uncle Marvel, if they must, but I wouldn't miss him,) and Tawny the talking Tiger. (Honorable mention to: The "Lieutenant Marvels", Fat Billy Batson, Hill Billy Batson, and Tall Billy Batson - though they'd probably have to change the first two names. Kid Eternity (Freddy's brother). Hoppy, Captain Marvel Bunny.) (And I guess Black Adam should get a mention too.) As always, thank you so very much for the videos.

I'm sick of DC and its obsession with grimdark and turning heroes into edgelords.

This is part of the reason why I loved the Kent Family Adventures episode in the Webtoon!

We could have gotten an animated Natasha???? That would have been amazing.

Do you happen to have a video that breaks down what you meant by the different era superman being different? I'd love to hear your superman breakdown

...I, remember, the late twenty-tens...Escalade ripped out my left-leg-bones...

I enjoyed Superman from the 70's to the early 2010's . My favorite story guest starred Supergirl in Superman 308 to 310ish where Superman was doubting his Kryptonian origin and Supergirl was backing him up.

I would like to see a lighter series, but not necessarily a kids-oriented show. I've recently been watching the Krypto animated series, which clearly was directed towards younger viewers. It has its moments, especially with Streaky and Bat-Hound, but I still feel like they missed out on the chance to tell more interesting stories.

After seeing the new Superman show and how good it is, I can see them looking back into this

Family friendly Supes? Listen, if he's not snappin' necks is he REALLY even Superman? 😭

Thats sad we missed out on this! It looks like it could've been fun and had a delightful artsyle! WB needs to get their act together as were missing out! Were loosing Justice League Action, Young Justice...and now this!

Absolute crying shame that this was never produced.

I'd have watched this! Sounds fun! I think there's room for a lot of different takes and tones of various IPs. I think one of the biggest killers I see happen is when IPs aren't honest about who they're targeting and try appealing to an audience that is just not likely to be receptive upon the realization.

I would have loved to see this show so many potential story ideas and I think it will being very popular these days

Looove the Doctor Who clip at 9:58! R.I.P. Bernard 'Wilf' Cribbins ❤

As long as Jimmy Olsen occasionally shows up to babysit and gets mutated into a crab or something

I liked the line up overall. Natasha and Keenan are underrated imho. Solid supporting cast alongside Superman & Jon and the usuals.

Looks as if it could have been good, but that art is slightly reminiscent of Riley Rossmo's. But a bit stronger. We'll never know if it would have worked, though. I like Kong Keenan a lot. I always like it when we get characters from outside of America. It's nice to have a bit planetary diversity. Although Batman the Detective did a very good job of explaining why there aren't so many. Still need a few more Brits, mind. And bring back the Janissary! She was cool.

I think the series would've worked. On a side note I'm tempted to read the Cary Bates Supergirl series but after "The Trial of the Flash" I don't know if I have energy for it (even almost'10 years later!").

I'm not sure if you have a video on it but a dive into the Gotham high line would be awesome.

Sean Galloway is the artist who did that character design. Very much his style. Yes it is very cartoony but he is very passionate about his craft.

DC has had notable kid-friendly shows like Teen Titans Go and DC Superhero Girls, so they're not above dipping into the kiddie pool on occasion. I do agree with Sasha that there are attempts at Silver Age-type stories that are a little try-hard; I don't really think it's possible to capture the right alchemy of those comics today without coming off as too self-aware.

I have the run of Superman Family' it had some interesting stories, including a story of a girl named Elizabeth Windsor who became the Queen of the USA

what if we get an animated musical where the music meister reforms and becomes a hero so now everyone sings and dances (we need a cast neil patrick harris is music meister)

My Silver Age idea combines Leave It To Beaver and Lost In Space- basically they all gather for a family get together and then are trapped in an alternate dimension and have to find their way home.

I do lowkey wanna see Damian Wayne partake or react to the would-be silver age shenanigans on this show. Too bad how it turned out.

I also heard that this show was rejected because DC favored the Harley Quinn animated series.

I would’ve loved this show because it would’ve gave me everything I ever wanted especially seeing Clark kent and Lois lane and their son Jonathan Samuel Kent Superboy as his little 10 year old self and Damian Wayne robin as the super sons going on fun adventures on this amazing animated Superman family show looked amazing and fantastic, also another bonus seeing Jonathan Samuel Kent superboy as his little 10 year old self reacting to his father turning into mermaid sounded so funny and really cute that I would’ve jumped to joy to see that happen at least in my opinion but my point still stands this show sounded fantastic and it drives me crazy Warner bros animation rejected this show because it looked amazing and badass. Why did Warner bros rejected this Superman family animated show Just boggles my mind because it looked liked it would’ve been freaking success and not taking that leap of faith is just sad and depressing and just such a waste of potential it’s not even funny but just sad, especially because damn it loved Superman rebirth so much and seeing my favorite Superman family adapted in silver age stories sounded amazing show I would’ve really loved to watch in a heartbeat but that’s just me and my opinion.

Well, that's just a shame it didn't get made, probably would have been quite a success. As for Silver Age I'd like to see more of in the modern day - more along the lines of Jack Kirby's brief Jimmy Olsen run, please. Cadmus stuff maybe, or whacky hijinks with STAR Labs experimental tech, or go back and revisit the Planet Transilvane concept and Darius Drum's other mad science shenanignas. Just no Don Rickles, please. Even the King could make the rare mistake, and that was his worst.

the Late Twenty -Tens? Ouch ouch ouch. Actually that has a flow to it...song phrase!

A Superman based cartoon like Batman The Brave and the Bold with the Super Sons would have been awesome.

It would have been GREAT (especially IF Streaky the Supercat was in it, I am sure I have the support from Alvin and Theo on THAT one. Lol ) I always LOVED Batman brave and the bold, was silver aged leaning, I would LOVE to see a JLA/JSA crossover series, with mostly their silver aged stories.

Sucks this show didn’t get green lite! WB & DC need to focus more on their animation department cause that’s where their success and potential lies

Warner Brothers be bull$#!tting. The silverage stuff worked well in Batman Brave and the Bold. No reason it wouldn't work for Supes.

Speaking about Superman shows... Will you be talking about the My Adventures With Superman when it releases?

Given that Home Fires is one of my favorite Young Justice episodes because of the Justice League playdate, this feels like such a loss

This show could have worked ! And if done well, episodes inspired from the silver age could be very fun. Unfortunately, other nonsensical projects like "batfamily" and "merry little batman" (aka damian in "Home Alone" ) are produced... It can work but batman and especially damian aren't the "family friendly adventures for children" vibes. With superman and jon it's like plastered on their brand ! I don't understand corporations sometimes...

Sorry to go off topic and maybe you have already addressed this in an earlier podcast, But what were those beads on Supergirls shorts? I mean they were hot pants right? Great podcast and very informative as always, Thank you for the work that you do...

Warner Brothers Logic: A cute, family friendly show starring two fan favorite characters getting in adorable adventures together? Nah, wouldn't work. Another season of Teen Titans Go? GREENLIGHT IMMEDIATELY. Seriously though, I just got into Supersons and I'm so disappointed we didn't get this show.

The fact Krypto and Streaky would be present makes my response a resounding *YES* .

I prefer the final pitch designs to the original. They look too close to Spumco character models and that's not a direction I want to see Superman go. Otherwise I really like the idea of a show that could show kids WHY Superman believes the things he does through teaching his son, while watching Jon become his own Superboy. It would have been a good concept done right.

I definitely agree with the guy about needing more stuff for children with these characters. Everything now is either for preschoolers or dark and "edgy" PG-13 (or now R, I guess) content, with no all ages stuff in between. (I remember a few years ago on Free Comic Book Day DC had some crap where their popular superheroes' severed limbs and torsos were attached to a bunch of robots and other machines on the cover. WTF?!) I really liked the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold. That was something that everyone could enjoy. This cancelled series seems like it was going for a similar tone. 7:00 Looks like Jimmy Olson has become addicted to Superman's "turn you black" machine. He was black in that CG Super Sons movie and he's black again. I guess the old saying is true: "Once you go black, you can't go back."

I love the silver age shenanigans 😂

😎 Silver Age , Yes! I would loved to have seen an episode where The Family travels to a reservation and discovers artifacts of early alien and monster presences leading them to meet the descendant (s) of Super Chief ; one of my all time favorite SA , albeit very brief, back up feature characters who appeared in All Star Western. A back up series I wish had not been so brief. 😱 During this meeting with SCD we get another SA trope in reverse Jor El and Lara had traveled to Earth long before Krypton's doom and met Super Chief! Maybe even leading to a Super Chief miniseries that has him encountering Martians , Thanagarians , Oaens, etc. 🤓 Okay , wishful thinking but the question was asked what character was a SA favorite.

If Gunn fucks up Supes and makes him like the Snyder Supes, I’m seriously done with the DC universe like fucking period.

Honestly I would love a show like that. I am STARVED for good, fun and wholesome content.

Just do Batman: Braave and the Bold again... But with more Superman family.

Dude it sucks that this show died just to get replaced by My adventures with Superman.

YES! PLEASE TALK MORE ABOUT YOUNG JUSTICE PLEASE! I love that show so much. I like how the story ages like the audience would've (there are big differences from season 1 to 4).

im not surprised. It didnt look like a steaming pile that is current DC so they canned it

I'm a big fan of super families and how it can make a character's world bigger. The art style is also adorable for this scrapped project. Very Webtoon-ish

I definitely would have loved a series like this especially if the Super Sons were a major focus on the series. I loved the Super Sons comic series because of how great the friendship between Damian and Jon was. I am still very annoyed that they aged up Jon and kept Damian the same age since it seemed to really screwed up the dynamic that I loved between two and there really seemed to be no reason to age up Jon instead of letting him grow up along with Damian.

I think this would have been fun, it's a shame it never got off the ground.

I just love Sean Galloway's art and would have watched just for that

From Mistress of the Silver Age to Young Adult guide? My brain hurts. Forever changes, good album.

*raises fist* BENDIIIIIIS!!!