Favorite action/superhero cartoons of all time
 

Here are mine in no particular order:

1. Ninja Turtles (original, 4kids and Nick)
2. Batman: TAS
3. Superman: TAS
4. Batman Beyond
5. Justice League/JLU
6. Teen Titans
7. Young Justice
8. Avengers: EMH
9. X-men Evolution
10. Wolverine and the X-men
11. Spectacular Spiderman
12. Gargoyles
13. Brave and the Bold

Some of the best superhero/action cartoons ever made from the 80's till now.

Hmm, that's tough. There was a lot of action in The Real Ghostbusters, would that count? I feel like counting it.

It's tough to list in any particular order, just because some of them are favorites based on quality and some are more from nostalgia. It's pretty fluid. There'd be way too many if I didn't stick to only my very favorites...

1. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (original)
2. Justice League/Justice League Unlimited
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
4. The Real Ghostbusters
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (original)
6. Superman: The Animated Series
7. Batman: The Animated Series
8. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2003)
9. Thundercats (original)
10. Super-Powers: Galactic Guardians (last few 1980s seasons of Super-Friends)

There could be a bunch more easily, but those were the ones I watched the most and had the most effect on me growing up. Again, on any given day a few of those could move around.

I assume this is just Western Animation, yeah? I regrettably haven't seen many of the cartoons mentioned here [I plan on Netflixing some of them though; currently going through Justice League] but here's what I like that I have seen:

• TMNT 2003
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Gargoyles
• Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM
• The Powerpuff Girls
• Kim Possible
• Batman: TAS
• X-Men
• Spider-Man: TAS
• Teen Titans
• Jackie Chan Adventures
• Static Shock

1. X-men 90s show
2. The spectaular Spider-man
3. TMNT 80s
4. TMNT 2003
5. Thundercats
6. Spider-man 90s
7. Avengers Earths Mighest Heroes
8.Wolverine and the X-men
9.Thundercats 2011
10.Young Justice
11.Fantastic four
12. Power Puff Girls
13. Real Ghostbusters
14. He-man
15. Batfink
16. Captain Caveman
17. Hong Kong phooey
18. Captain Planet

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ('87)
2. Spider-Man: The Animated Series
3. Dragon Ball Z
4. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
5. Beast Wars: Transformers
6. Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)
7. ReBoot
8. Mega Man (Ruby/Spears)
9. Inspector Gadget
10. Batman: The Animated Series

11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Nickelodeon)

I only have the Nick TMNT cartoon lower now because the show isn't over yet. I'm sure it will be higher when the show is over. It may be higher than some of my other shows already now that I think about it.

In no particular order:

Transformers G1
Teenage mutant ninja turtles 2k3
Justice League/Justice league unlimited
Batman TAS
Spectacular Spiderman
Spiderman 1981


I can't think of any others at the moment

I'm going to put some anime but to be fair to the Western cartoons only stuff that was geared and marketed towards kids in America so no Cowboy Bebops or Triguns or Outlaw Stars here.

1. Dragonball Z (Screw Sailor Moon this needs a reanimation)
2. Batman the Animated Series
3. Digimon Season 3 (Also called Digimon Tamers in Japan)
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2K3)
5. X-Men 90's
6. Batman Beyond
7. Digimon season 1 (Digimon Adventure)
8. Wolverine and the X-Men
9. Spectacular Spider-Man
10 Justice League and Justice League Unlimited
11. Avater: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra
12. Gargoyles
13. Young Justice
14. Beast Wars Transformers
15 Spider-Man the Animated Series (90's)
16 Thundercats 2011
17. Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)
18. Zoids Chaotic Century and Guardian Force
19. Green Lanturn
20. Samurai Jack

TMNT 1987 and 2003, Avatar the Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Mega Man 1994, Sonic the hedgehog, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Underground, Sonic X, Quailman (from Doug).

And here's my list...

1st. Legion of Superheroes
2nd. TMNT 2k3
3rd, Justice League Unlimited
4th. Young Justice
5th. X-men Evolution
6th. Digimon Tamers
7th. Transformers Prime
8th. Monster Rancher
9th. Transformers Animated
10th. Beast Wars/Beast Machines
11th. Digimon Xros Wars
12th. Digimon Adventure/02
13th. Gargoyles
14th. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
15th. Last Airbender/Legend of Korra
16th. Transformers Armada
17th. Jackie Chan Adventures
18th. Wolverine and the X-men
19th. Gurren Lagann
20th. Sonic SatAM
21st. Transformers G1
22nd. Wolf's Rain
23rd. Thundercats 2011
24th. W.I.T.C.H

1. TMNT 2003
2. TMNT 1987
3. TMNT 2012
4.Avengers: Earth`s Mightiest Heroes
5.Justice League/ Justice League Unlimited
6.Transformers G1
7. Reboot
8. Thundercats (Original)
9. Spectacular Spider-man
10. GI Joe

Dragonball Z
Justice League/Unlimited
Batman TAS
TMNT 2k3
Superman TAS
Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm
Street Fighter TAS

I am re watching the 90s X-men show, It's soooooooooooo good, and it has held its age so well.

Yeah, 90's X-Men really has aged pretty well -- I came across a couple episodes recently on an old recorded VHS I found, along with some 87 turtles. Good stuff.

Agreed. I love it's version of the Phoenix Saga, the happy ending they gave it actually shows just how problematic the bleaker comics version proved to be and how it was'nt neccersary at all


As for my own list of favourite superhero shows (this list has went through some changes in the past few years due to rewatching some shows)

1. Spectacular Spider-Man
2. Batman: The Animated Series
3. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
4. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2003)
5. Young Justice
6. X-Men: Evolution
7. Justice Leauge/JLU
8. Teen Titans
9. X-Men: The Animated Series
10. Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
11. Kim Possible
12. Digimon Tamers
13. The Guyver (90s OVAs)
14. Beast Wars
15. Princess Starla and the Jewel Riders
16. TMNT 80S
17. Transformers G1
18. Jackie Chan Adventures
19. Sonic SATAM
20. Centurions

I'm not sure if Jackie Chan Adventures and Sonic qualify as Superheroes, but they're fantastic show nonetheless.

Ducktales is what I consider to be the greatest cartoon of all time. So that would be my favorite action show, although maybe it is more "adventure" than "action". As far as superheroes go, it is easily Batman the Animated Series and it's not even close.

Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck for sure.

I just can't get into Transformers.

They don't start out that way, but in time they possess items that give them significant powers, (Chaos Emeralds make Sonic SUPER, Jackie has the tailsmans, in Satam's case, the rings enhanced his speed and then there was the time gem in the finale)

Hmm. Kind of a grey area. I love Sonic SatAM a bunch, but I left it off since it wasn't as super-hero-y. I'll go with "Honorable Mention" for my list, as it's definitely among my favorite cartoons.

UGH Tough one...

1 . Justice League

2. Batman Beyound

3. TNMNT 2003 series

4. Speed Racer Next Generation ( I don't care what the old timer fandom thinks, I enjoyed the action the most out of all the Speed Racer shows. Season two is when things really got rolling though. Too bad I can't find the episodes other than Amazon and that costs money :

5 . Teen Titans ( Ignoring the odd Animation, a.cation and some of the plots was good at times. )

6. Young Justice ( It would have been higher had it not focused so much on Super boy and what's her name ) Not to mention what a mess season two in the end turned out to be. What was up with the random Alien plot in season two? What happened with that? Too many characters were added and hardly used, they destroyed Nightwing's character, he could have been an awesome leader too :( )

Jackie Chan Adventures ( Seasons one through four were a blast, than it started being more about Jade and her annoying acting stupid to tag along plots ) I got tired of that.

If we are counting old school Animated shows

Darkwing Duck is a must seen, funny villains and fun action, like able characters. Don't know what number I should add this in.

Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers was cool. Duck Tales of course, loved the film too. Aladdin the series was one of my favorites along with the films.

Sadly we don't have too many good shows these days, Legend of Korra season three so far has been good but I can't judge till it's over. TNMNT 2012 series when it's in the Shredder plot is fun.

As far as Anime goes, that spot goes to Gintama when in bad ass arcs it awesome. Dragon Ball towards the end in the the Piccolo Jr arc, than Dragon Ball Z in the Cell saga. Pokemon in the early series, I'd say Kanto to the D / P series was at it's best but that's me.

I have different taste compared to most I'm sure LOL.

Well since a lot of people have brought up anime and I purposely left it out of my list I'll name a few anime. I mean why not.

• Digimon Tamers
• YuYu Hakusho
• Dragonball Z
• Zoids Chaotic Century/Guardian Force
• Pokémon Origins
• Dragonball
• Digimon Adventure/Digimon Adventure 02

Also, on the note of "Sonic SatAM and Jackie Chan Adventures not being superhero shows", the thread title is action/superhero cartoons. They are definitely action.

Point taken. Feel free to slide Sonic SatAM "officially" onto my list in place of Galactic Guardians.

Me neither, and it's on a lot in my house! Although I did quite enjoy watching Transformers: Prime the other day, certainly my preferred version from what I've seen.

My favourites (in no order) include X-men, He-man, She-ra, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, Teen Titans, Batman, Dungeons & Dragons, and of course, all 3 TMNT cartoons.
With most of these I like all versions I've seen as the 80's/90's ones hold sentimental nostalgia whilst the newer ones are usually better in terms of animation, plot and acting.

In addition to the Ninja Turtles OT and the first and second Movie:

http://i1276.photobucket.com/albums/...psa42b4b82.jpg

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. That's it really! I mean I've seen shows like Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-Man and they're all good but Avatar is on a whole different level.

I've never watched Avatar. I want to watch it but I feel it has, "Harry Potter" syndrome in that the cult status of it turns me away from trying it.

Oh boy, there’s so many. Here’s a few I haven’t seen mentioned yet in no particular order:

• Swat Kats
• The original 1952 “Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century”.
• Freakazoid
• The Fleischer Studios Popeye cartoons
• Super Secret Secret Squirrel from 2 Stupid Dogs
• The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (Rocky is “a real life TV hero”)
• Sailor Moon
• Hong Kong Phooey
• Sam & Max: Freelance Police
• Earthworm Jim
• The Super Mario Bros Super Show

Harry Potter is overrated IMO. Avatar does have a cult following but that's because the show was a breath of fresh air for Nickelodeon's reputation which basically was that it produced nothing but kids crap during that time period.

I'm not gonna write a whole review but if you're a fan of animation or just good storytelling in general, Avatar is up there with the very best.

Would Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers qualify? If so that show was/is just the sh#t. I couldn't get enough of it. The intro had like the best intro song ever!

I can see what you mean, but personally I love Transformers, and I think the G1 cartoon is one of the greatest cartoons ever.

Transformers is like the one big childhood fad I never got into.

Loved TMNT, DC and Marvel superheroes, Pokemon, Star Wars, etc. but I just never got into Transformers. It's just something that never clicked with me.

That's fair, but chicks dig giant robots. 8)

The Batman wasn't that good, aside from a remarkable Season 4.

This turned me away from it for years, myself. That and the fandom was batshit. After it ended [during that period between ATLA and Korra] I decided to give it a try and I was really really impressed with how amazing it was. It and TMNT 2k3 are definitely my favourite western cartoons ever. I'd give it a shot someday!

- Megas XLR
- Batman The Animated Series
- Avengers : Earth's Mightiest Heroes
- Justice League
- Samurai Jack
- Symbiotic Titan
- Avatar The Last Airbender
- Codename : Kids Next Door
- The Legend of Korra
- The Powerpuff Girls
- X-Men 1992
- Batman Beyond
- Static Shock
- TMNT 2012 and 2003
- Transformers Prime
- Jackie Chan Adventures

I've also never been a fan of Transformers, my generation was just one that didn't have a Transformers cartoon while growing up. I only caught a few episodes of Transformers Generation 2 which apparently is just a re-broadcast of the original show but didn't really like it, I got to watch Beast Wars and loved it but it's far from a "real" transformers show, will watch one of these days. The fact that I don't care about cars probably doesn't help. There's a few times I thought about getting into it but I think it's one of those franchises that if it doesn't appeal to you it just doesn't. I watched the first three episode "movie" of the Animated show from a few years ago and it didn't do much for me either. The franchise just has so much content it's hard to get into it, the original show just screams of 80s and without Nostalgia I don't think I'd be able to make it through most episodes.

As far as Avatar, now that is a franchise that even if it doesn't appeal to you, you should watch. It didn't appeal to me but decided to watch it. At first during the first season you think the concept is not good and it's an interesting show, but it's not until the first season finishes that you realize it's much more than that. Truly one of the best cartoons ever made, highly recommended to anyone, especially if you love animation.

So, Jackie Chan Adventures is actually good? The concept seems dumb, the only reason I've ever been vaguely interested in it was because I love Jackie Chan movies which is dumb since this only takes his name for the title..

It was OK. It's nowhere as good as the big DC and Marvel shows, or stuff like Gargoyles or Avatar or TMNT, but its a decent action show.

Jackie Chan Adventures was an interesting experiment that somehow worked and made a good show. It isn't a great show though, simply a good one. It won't blow your socks off or anything.

This is pretty much my list except for the Avengers, street fighter, replace those two with Avatar the last airbender and Legend of Korra