Marvel might do movies better, but DC is no doubt way ahead of them when it comes to TV series. In the animated genre, DC shows have always been superb, with the Justice League series in the DC Animated Universe never losing its quality even now after almost fifteen years since it has ended.
You could find great action, funny moments, and awesome storylines here, but the series’ penchant in delivering punches straight to our hearts was extra unique. During the tenure of the show, we had more than dozens of instances where we felt sad; however, these ten things broke our hearts in particular.
10 Batman And Wonder Woman Don't End Up Together
As far as “shipping” goes, fans wanted very dearly to see Batman and Wonder Woman become a couple. And boy, was there was a lot of teasing for this to happen. For Wonder Woman, there was no problem except that Batman was reluctant to get involved; she was good to go.
Unfortunately, the one time we saw them confront their attraction was when Batman shot Wonder Woman down and made it clear he would never date her because it would be too much of a distraction. It broke fans’ hearts especially to see Bruce become an old man and never having married. Wonder Woman was truly the one that got away.
9 Hawkgirl Betrays Green Lantern
Actually, she betrayed everyone in the Justice League and Earth itself. The Thanagarians arrived with the guise of wanting to be friendly, only for the big reveal to be that Hawkgirl was scouting the planet so her race could arrive - they ended up trying to enslave humans.
The real kicker, though, was the fact that Hawkgirl was playing with Green Lantern’s feelings, as she was shown to be the fiance of the Thanagarian leader. This meant that poor Jon Stewart had opened himself up for love for nothing, and in the end when the war was over, he had nothing.
8 The Justice League Breaks Up
It was on the cards for the group to start fighting one another, as there was no real training that went into forming the Justice League and Superman had impulsively suggested the whole idea.
When everyone realized they were butting heads too much, the answer turned out to be a mass walkout in every direction, with the Justice League breaking up rather than making amends with one another. It turned out to be very short-lived, but the gap between the episodes airing had fans shattered with the possibility that this really was the end.
7 The Flash Almost Gets Lost In The Speed Force
The Flash had been generally a bystander during Justice League Unlimited’s run, having zero lines in the first season and just a supporting role in the next. So, when he unleashed his full powers against the Lex Luthor/Brainiac hybrid, it was natural to assume this was his last hurrah.
Wally’s dangerous move led to him being sucked into the speed force itself, and he vanished from Earth. For a few torturous moments, it seemed like Flash was gone; however, the full effort of the whole League enabled them to pull Flash out of the speed force.
6 Justice Lord Batman Cares For The Flash
It’s the little things that show how much Batman really cares, and we found this out in another little detail - the Batman in question being the Justice Lords version. Since his world’s Flash was killed by Luthor, this Batman was secretly overjoyed to see the main universe’s Flash, as it brought him back the younger brother figure Batman viewed him as.
Even the main universe’s Batman noted this, telling the Flash that he seemed to be the weak point of the Justice Lords Batman. Flash was skeptical if that were true, but found out for himself that this Batman did in fact care for him very dearly.
5 Green Lantern Chooses To Stay With Vixen
Hawkgirl’s betrayal of Green Lantern was too much for the latter to overlook, and he we never saw him forgive her for doing so. The one chance they had to be together was when the time traveling Lantern saw his future son and assumed he and Hawkgirl would get together at some point.
However, the shippers who were ecstatic at this prospect were sent crashing back to Earth when Green Lantern informed Hawkgirl that he “wasn’t destiny’s puppet” and wouldn’t leave his relationship with Vixen just because fate was telling him so. The series ended without us ever having gotten to see these two as a couple again.
4 Superman Finds Out Batman's Plan
During the Thanagarian invasion, the Justice League found out the invaders had their main stronghold too expertly protected, with there being no option but to destroy it with humongous impact. Batman devised a plan to crash the Watchtower itself onto it - the problem was, he planned to be in it when it exploded onto the enemies.
Superman, being Batman’s best buddy and all, was terrified when he learned of this plan. Batman deliberately withheld this information to avoid Superman flying into harm’s way, but the latter knew no reason when he found this, yelling “Batman!” and launching himself toward the burning Watchtower to save his best friend.
3 Terry Finds Out Warren Isn't His Father
Throughout Batman Beyond, one wondered why Terry and Bruce were working in conjunction, as there was no familial relationship between the two. As it turned out, Bruce was Terry’s biological father all along.
Due to Terry’s legal father, Warren McGinnis, having his DNA altered to be a copy of Bruce’s, it made Terry the latter’s son. When Terry found out about this, he was distraught and figured he had been manipulated into becoming Batman. Terry would fall into an identity crisis, hurt with the assumption that perhaps Bruce never actually cared for him. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case.
2 Martian Manhunter Leaves The Justice League
J’onn was grieving his dead civilization for all of the original Justice League series, but we saw too less of him to realize this in Justice League Unlimited. The realization dawned on us, though, when J’onn chose to walk away from his friends.
His reasoning was that he had spent too many years on the Watchtower, and that being stuck in space meant he was cursed with loneliness. In order to have a chance at happiness, J’onn left the Justice League, and with it broke our hearts. He did come back for the final episode, but that was clearly a one-off team-up.
1 Superman's Funeral
Superman wasn’t even really dead, but the show did a beautiful job at making it seem as if he was. After he was zapped into the future by Toyman, everyone believed Superman was gone and had a touching procession for him.
Here, we saw all of Superman’s allies once more, and they were wracked with sorrow at having lost the greatest defender of Earth. The sight of his parents, cousin, love interest, among others with their heads down in grief was already saddening, but Wonder Woman and Batman’s depression brought in a whole new level of heartache.