In the '90s, cartoons provided children with the comic book journeys of Marvel and DC superheroes. While audiences have grown up since then and enjoyed these properties on the big screen, many still have '90s cartoons to thank, which fostered a great love for them to begin with. Of these cartoons, and there are many, one could argue that the top two were X-Men: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series.
X-Men provided a slew of characters and a world where mutants were not only shunned but actively hated. Batman provided a serious world where a man with ingenuity and intellect could stop super-powered enemies with wits and fancy gadgetry. However, both carried on for multiple seasons of pure entertainment.
10 X-Men: Long, Epic Sagas
X-Men had some significant multi-episode arcs and great villains to steer them well. Not only were sagas like the Phoenix Saga, Dark Phoenix, and Beyond Good and Evil full of drama and action, they lasted four to five episodes each.
In this, the X-Men would go up against enemies with exceptionally powerful abilities and it was never clear if the team could unite and fight against them. In particular, the Dark Phoenix saga pitted the X-Men against one of their own, and nearly tore the team apart.
9 Batman: Its Gritty Film Noir Style
Batman was best known for its spectacular imagery. Very few could forget the iconic dark pose of the caped crusader on top of the building. With a beautiful orchestral score and sharp, film noir directing, the style of the show was especially prominent throughout the series.
Batman would run throughout the series in dark shadows and the show would very rarely venture into the brightness of day. In this, Batman's belief of criminals as a superstitious and cowardly lot would only be more cleverly shown as Batman would slink through the shadows to leap upon his unsuspecting foes.
8 X-Men: Its Multitude Of Characters
The X-Men universe itself is deep and rich with hundreds of mutants and characters, and the show did an exceptionally good job of bringing them into the television world. While the show undoubtedly did this to sell toys, the writers and producers did a great job of introducing adaptations and sagas slowly and organically to bring in the many villains and heroes of the X-Men.
In one episode, they would journey to Russia and have Colossus fight Omega Red. In another, they would go to Africa and see Storm fight the Shadow King. Wherever they went, they explored the deep mythos and rich characters and never did a bad job in doing so.
7 Batman: Rooted In Reality
The reality of Batman was a very refreshing take for children's cartoons. When most cartoons had giant anvils falling from the sky, or superheroes who could fly or stick to walls, Batman was a human in a costume.
Not only was this something the show did well, and in spite of the fact that Batman had meta-human enemies, there would also be a clear explanation as to why. Clayface fell victim to a kind of chemical clay, or Bane had a super-steroid. In this, there was always just enough reality to make the situation and characters truly believable.
6 X-Men: Explored Space And Worlds Beyond
The great fun of X-Men was that they never really remained on Earth. The Phoenix Saga and Mojo episodes had the group fly off into space and fight aliens. Other episodes like Days of Future Past bring the X-Men into the past and future and have them deal with battles upon the timeline.
Even the techno-organic virus episodes explore other timelines in the past and do a great job of having the characters deal with spiral effects that even films like Interstellar couldn't clearly do. And the X-Men would continue to explore things like time itself when Cable went to the axis of time control center.
5 Batman: Created New Characters Who Evolved
While most know that the show created Harley Quinn, who went off to become a movie star played by the amazing Margot Robbie, few know that the character of Renee Montoya was also created for the show. Indeed, the film Birds of Prey has two characters who were devised by the brain trust in Batman: The Animated Series.
In addition, the Batman universe would go on to spawn other characters like Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond. In many ways, the creation of Batman: The Animated Series helped create compelling and powerful characters that evolved and formed new life for this current generation of the DC universe.
4 X-Men: Fantastic Superpowers
The mutants of the X-Men had fantastic powers that went on to become exceptionally iconic. From Wolverine's amazing Adamantium claws and healing factor to Storm's ability to control the weather, the X-Men had spectacular powers that inspired many children in the '90s.
Even moving past them, the carbonadium coils of Omega Red or the mystical magic of Spiral would also be intriguing powers that sparked the imagination of many children. Overall, the X-Men: The Animated Series did a fantastic job with these characters and their powers.
3 Batman: Serious, Dramatic Stories
Few fans of the show could forget just how impactful some episodes could be. Episodes like "Robin's Reckoning" or the film Mask of the Phantasm were just a few examples of serious and dramatically powerful storytelling.
Even the tragic love story of Mr. Freeze and his beautiful wife Nora would be told in such a sad, and wonderful way in the show and in the film Batman & Mr. Freeze Sub-Zero. The dramatic moments and the serious overtones made Batman: The Animated Series so much more than a simple children's show.
2 X-Men: Explored Characters Intensely
Despite Batman's great abilities to have impactful episodes and dark overtones, it couldn't truly match up with the standalone episodes that X-Men: The Animated Series did for characters like Wolverine and Jean Grey. In the episode "Weapon X, Lies, and Video Tape," Wolverine would experience the tragedy of his memory loss and meet those in the Weapon X program who he used to know.
This deep character introspection showed viewers more than Logan's anger, but also his deep mental trauma from the cruelty of the dark government program.
1 Batman: Opened An Animated Universe
While X-Men and Spiderman would help foster a large Marvel universe of cartoons, their attempts paled in comparison to that of Batman: The Animated Series. Not only did other Batman offshoots come in, but the show also had multiple films and notable spin-offs including Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, and even the Zeta Project.
In addition, the series also created a consistent collaboration between Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, who would continue to expand the DCAU into films and even the spiritual successor show of Young Justice.