6d ago

I want to start watching the DCAU and got overwhelmed by the watching order

Sorry if this isn't the right community for this, but I couldn't find any other place to post this.

I want to start watching the DCAU, starting with the 1990s shows and eventually the films. However, I couldn't find out online in what order to watch everything.

Here is what I could figure out so far:

The watching order of Batman TAS is a mess. I should stick to the production order and expect some continuity issues
There are 2 DCAUs: The Timmverse and the DCAMU, which is the newer one
There are some projects in the Timmverse that I don't have to watch (like Static Shock or The Zeta Project), and I intend to skip them unless they are important
I should skip the epilogue to Justice League Unlimited's finale for some spoilery reason
The watch order for the DCAMU is very clear, since they are just movies, I can base the watch order on the release date
Most of the movies in the Timmverse are related to Batman TAS, but there are 2 movies well into the DACMU era that are canon to the Timmverse
Batman: The Caped Crusader is made the the same team behind the Timmverse but not related to it (should I watch it anyway? Is it any good?)

So, having all of this in mind, what is the preferred watch order? Should I mix some shows based on their release date (The New Batman Adventures/Superman TAS)? Should I maybe pick up Lobo/Gotham Girls?

7 comments

I like to say first 3 seasons of Batman, then Superman, then the rest of Batman, then Justice League, then Batman Beyond, then Justice League unlimited.
Id save the movies until after the shows personally.
Also yes, caped crusader is awesome. As is My Adventures With Superman. They are unrelated but both very good.
- When should I watch the epilogue of JLU?
  
  If you watch Batman Beyond first, then you should be watching JLU afterward and that would canonically be in order. Technically the Batman Beyond movie is before that episode, so as you watch Batman TAS watch the movies and then batman beyond, watch that movie too. Then you can just watch JLU in order just as it comes.
As a 90s, my watch order was basically whatever I could catch.
I managed to watch all of Justice League and Unlimited in order later in my life, but remember that streaming wasn't invented yet and DVD rentals of episodes was extremely niche (not a thing Blockbuster would keep on hand). You pretty much just saw whatever came on, often reruns of the same episodes.
The shows were designed with this format, an ill defined watch order.
I recently(ish) watched everything(ish) in the DCAU and I found Wikipedia to cover the crossovers between shows pretty well.
Within a given series things mostly just work, except as you noted Batman. I watched it in HBO and that order mostly worked ok. There were a few weird out of order moments, but it wasn't a huge problem.
In terms of things to pick up, I recommend Young Justice after you watch Justice League. It's a separate canon from the DCAU but it's the logical(ish) next step.

7 comments