Longtime cartoon fans are often obsessed with the '90s. It’s not hard to see why, as some of the most memorable cartoons of all time emerged from that era, whether we’re talking the resurgence of Warner Bros in shows like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, or the mega popularity of superhero cartoons like Spider-Man, X-Men, or Batman. The '90s were also the last period where the Saturday morning animated block in which all these shows had a home was at its most powerful, with cable companies all wanting to have their own Saturday morning cartoons to rope in young viewers. On the other hand, by the '00s a combination of 24-hour channels dedicated to cartoon series and kids programming, combined with changing regulations was gradually leading to the end of the morning block. At this point, even the very concept of Saturday morning cartoons is more about nostalgia than anything else.

But despite all of that, we shouldn’t sleep on cartoons from the new millennium -- many of them have been fantastic, and in some cases, they’ve even managed to surpass the series of old. That’s why for this list, we’re looking at 20 top tier cape cartoons made since the year 2000. Now to be clear, “superhero”, doesn’t always have to equal the Big Two -- his list isn’t just exclusive to DC and Marvel characters. Being gifted incredible powers and keeping your abilities and/or identity a secret can happen in a lot of cartoons, and this list won’t discriminate.

20 TEEN TITANS GO!

This show catches a lot of flack it doesn't deserve because of the unfortunate timing of its launch. Cartoon Network decided to put this on immediately after announcing they were cancelling Green Lantern and Young Justice. It felt like a betrayal not only for fans of those shows, but to longtime Teen Titans fans as well.

But people who give it a chance tend to wind up reaching the same result: Teen Titans Go! is a good series. It manages to be a self-aware comedic deconstruction of comics and cartoons, knowing exactly when to poke fun at itself resulting in the series being entertaining for kids and adults alike.

19 GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Just as Young Justice was getting going, Cartoon Network chose the Emerald Guardian to be its companion series for a new Saturday morning block of theirs called "DC Nation". The show encountered its skeptics at first due to it’s 3D artstyle, but Bruce Timm put fans at ease relatively quickly by creating his own world where he could explore the Green Lantern mythos his own way.

Timm would introduce new characters like Razer, a Red Lantern questioning his purpose in the galaxy, and Aya, a computer gradually gaining sentience, both of which would grow to become just as popular as the main cast as they all fought together against the Manhunters and the Anti-Monitor.

18 MARVEL'S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

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Backed by Disney, Marvel is a marketing juggernaut. The Guardians went from a super-team no one’s ever heard of to getting their own cartoon that’s three seasons deep already. And while the show isn’t perfect, what other cartoon gives fans such a far reaching glimpse into the wider Marvel Universe?

This series has managed to give guest appearances to everyone from J’son to Adam Warlock (and his Magus persona) to Howard the Duck. How can anyone be mad at a series that gives us Howard the Duck? There are always superhero series placed on Earth, but Guardians gives us one of very few set amongst the stars.

17 AVENGERS ASSEMBLE

Marvels-Avengers-Assemble

Avengers Assemble isn't quite Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It tries to pander a bit much to the movie crowd by completely altering the line-up to fit what we’re used to from the films. But Avengers Assemble can be addictive for how indulgent it is in exploring Marvel Universe lore.

One week they’re fighting Dracula, the next they’re up against the Super-Adaptoid. Lately they’ve even gotten to have fun by basing entire seasons around single storylines like battling Ultron or their own adaptation of  "Secret War". All in all, this show is probably the only place we’re ever going to see the Avengers throwdown against the Squadron Supreme, and that’s gotta count for something.

16 TEEN TITANS

Teen Titans

The first DC cartoon in roughly a decade to be set outside of the DC Animated Universe continuity, Teen Titans would follow an altered version of the Wolfman-Perez cast. The series was initially most noteworthy for its anime-esque art style, but fans would also eventually notice these heroes were “always” on duty, as none of them seemed to actually have secret identities or lives outside of being heroes.

Though the first season was largely just episodic standalone action comedies, the series would really take off once it started bringing the drama, introducing classic Titans villains like Slade the Terminator and Raven’s father, Trigon. By the time the series eventually signed off, fans were as big on it as they were any of the DCAU stuff.

15 BATMAN: BRAVE AND THE BOLD

Batman in The Brave and The Bold

After airing three different series about Batman (and one about his descendant from the far future), it was going to take a bit of doing to place a fresh spin on a character who had already gotten so much exposure. But fortunately, sometimes what’s old can be new again and for Batman: Brave and the Bold, the creators decided to give us a revamped version of classic Silver Age Batman.

He was still very much the dark avenger of the night, but he also had quips for his encounters with bad guys and always had just what he needed in his utility belt, all while teaming up with heroes from across the DC Universe.

14 X-MEN: EVOLUTION

X-Men-Evolution-Mutants

After having already done a largely comic faithful version of the X-Men to great success in the '90s, Marvel decided to go with a different approach when they brought the team back in the 2000s. Following in the footsteps of the early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comics, it put Xavier’s team of mutants in high school, and made much of the conflict they dealt with native to that setting.

The team would not only deal with garden variety human bullies, but eventually Magneto’s Brotherhood would form around a selection of teenaged mutants who felt particularly forgotten by society. Though the teenage angst could be a bit much sometimes, this show was solid, and if nothing else gave us the awesome X-23, Wolverine’s daughter.

13 ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN

Ultimate-Spider-Man-Hulk

While Spider-Man is often viewed as the quintessential loner, for this series that aspect of the character would have to be thrown completely out, as Spidey was placed in charge of a group of young heroes in a subsection of S.H.I.E.L.D. Young versions of Iron Fist, Power Man, White Tiger, and Nova were all placed under the Wall-Crawler’s care, with the team facing off against updated versions of Spidey’s classic rogues gallery.

With five years and over 100 episodes under its belt, this is the 2010s-equivalent of the '90s series, only with cutaway jokes and much less over-dramatic narration. Still, where else can we watch Spidey team up with his descendant from 2099?

12 IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES

iron-man-armored-adventures

When giving Iron Man his first cartoon in just over a decade, it was a pretty bold choice to go with placing Tony Stark in his teen years, invoking long-term fans’ least favorite time period. Still, it paid off for Armored Adventures, as the series turned into a fairly strong adaptation for Ol’ Shellhead.

The show embraced Tony Stark’s decades long history, giving us everything from its own version of the '80s classic "Armor Wars" to the "Stane International" arc where Tony found himself losing his company to one of his most dangerous business rivals. It also wasn’t afraid to delve into the fan service, providing us with a supporting cast of James Rhodes and Pepper Potts in the War Machine and Rescue armors, respectively.

11 BEN 10

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Young Ben Tennyson was an ordinary 10-year old boy until he stumbled upon the Omnitrix, granting him the ability to transform into a variety of alien creatures. Over the series, viewers would watch as Ben protects the Earth from all manners of threat both extraterrestrial and supernatural.

What makes this series stand out perhaps more than any other is its absurd popularity -- rather than end, it just kept reinventing itself, keeping the same cast and expanding on its universe. The show ran nearly 10 years and for over 200 episodes, following the lead as he grew from 10 to 16 years old, becoming a better and better hero.

10 STATIC SHOCK

Static Shock flying

Static Shock followed the story of a teenaged kid known as Virgil Hawkins, a kid who was completely regular until he found himself caught up in a gang fight that somehow resulted in a chemical explosion. Known as “the Big Bang”, Virgil suddenly found himself as one of the only good guys in a city where suddenly a bunch of gang members had superpowers.

Featuring an all-star collection of creatives like Dwayne McDuffie, John Semper Jr, and Denys Cowan, Static Shock enjoyed a spot near the top of the ratings for all four of its years on air. Not bad for a comic book hero no one had ever heard of before.

9 BATMAN BEYOND

batman beyond

This one crosses the line just a bit, as Batman Beyond first aired in 1999, but a show this futuristic just feels like it had to come from the new millennium. Set several decades into the future after Bruce had long put the cowl down, Batman Beyond saw him start to train a new Batman.

Donning a sleek new suit and an even cooler Batmobile (that flies, no less), Terry McGinnis fights crime in the cyberpunk-noir streets of Neo Gotham. This show struck a great mix between doing updated versions of older Bat-villains like the Jokerz and giving us plenty of new villains, putting this new Batman through his paces and giving us one of the best futuristic hero shows of all-time.

8 WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN

Wolverine-and-the-X-Men

Set in a world where the X-Men have disbanded thanks to the destruction of the X-Mansion, Wolverine, the member of the team who often felt least attached to the group, is forced to bring the team back together at the request of an Xavier from the future.

In doing so, the two of them hope to avoid a horrible future for both man and mutantkind alike. The creators built up a season long mystery, letting each episode serve as a piece of the puzzle, all working towards saving the future. Well, or so we hoped. Not only is this series good, it’s also the last time we’ve seen the X-Men in their own show, so it’s worth watching just for that alone.

7 SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN

spectacular spider-man tv

The series Greg Weisman tackled before working on Young Justice, the love he and the rest of the creative team had for this character was evident in every scene. In sharp contrast to all the Spider-Man cartoons to date, Spectacular would finally set the character in high school, forcing him to deal with navigating complex high school hierarchies just as much as he had to fight the Sinister Six and criminal mastermind Tombstone.

This series specialized in giving character development not just to its lead but to Spidey’s supporting cast and villains as well, which is why all the villains on this show have an origin instead of just showing up out of the blue like Rhino and Shocker tended to in the '90s series.

6 JUSTICE LEAGUE

Superman Kills Lex Luthor in Justice League cartoon

At the dawn of the new millennium, the DC Animated Universe decided to take a bold step forward and did their universe’s first team-based superhero cartoon in well over a decade. Justice League brought the sense of epic, widescreen storytelling to superhero cartoons, with nearly every story too big to be contained to one episode.

The result was every Justice League episode felt like a movie, with the biggest characters taking on the biggest threats in their universe. Easily one of the most beloved series ever created, it's no wonder Justice League would get a sequel series set in the same universe in the form of Unlimited.

5 VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER

It seems to be a rule that Voltron will find a way back into pop culture every decade, and will almost always be a great series. This time the series follows a group of teens from Earth who are abruptly thrown into a battle with a galactic empire they didn’t even know existed after they discover alien tech from an advanced but nearly extinct race.

The Voltron series on Netflix has been a beacon of hope for those of us who have been looking for a solid superhero action cartoon. Watching this cast figure out how to be heroes while battling against an undefeated alien empire has been a delight, and it's a shame this series is coming to an end.

4 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES '03

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when people didn’t like the ’03 Turtles all that much. But ultimately, despite how many people loved the original, it’s pretty clear 4Kids was in the right, as they introduced us to a series that was much closer to the original comics in tone.

They gradually built the Turtles up from a group of inexperienced teenagers fighting gang violence in New York, to hyper competent ninja brothers repelling alien invasions and battling in tournaments made up of fighters from across the universe. The ’03 series didn’t just surpass its predecessor, but for several years it was one of the best superhero shows on television.

3 AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES

Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series

Earth's Mightiest Heroes is probably the most pure version of the Marvel Universe we're ever going to get in animated form. The series doesn't go out of its way to match up with the film versions of its featured characters (probably because most of its featured characters didn’t have film versions when it was being made), and is instead free to tap into the classic comic versions.

This gave us a world that looks vastly different than what we’re used to today and allowing for the team to experience a few more mix-ups in roster. It’s a shame then that it was only allowed to air for a mere 52 episodes before coming to an end in in 2012.

2 JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED

Justice League Unlimited cast

In the aftermath of an invasion by Hawkgirl's people of Thanagar during the movie Justice League: Starcrossed, the heroes of the DCAU united as a team… and decided maybe they should just stay together. Where the original series would be a constant string of two part mini-movies, Unlimited would instead focus a variety of casts for largely episodic storytelling, generally building towards a major plot point in the background for the end of each season.

Like this we got cool stories like the "Seven Soldiers" and an adaptation of "For the Man Who Has Everything". Unlimited represented the culmination of everything the DC Animated Universe had been, and was a solid send-off to that era.

1 YOUNG JUSTICE

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When this series was announced, it was hard to understand what made it more than a repackaged version of Teen Titans. But over time, the differences would make themselves clear. From the beginning, Young Justice eschewed episodic storytelling to gradually build its own universe, unfettered by the need to focus on any specific cast of characters.

In this way we wouldn't just be introduced to a single group of heroes, but a constantly expanding roster of young heroes across multiple years, battling everything from Legions of Doom to famous alien invasions. This series was so popular that after coming to an end, a fan campaign to bring the series back resulted in the show actually being revived, with season three coming in 2019.