Justice League was one of those shows that really dived deep into DC lore, pulling characters from across its run, all the way from the golden age to the modern run of comics. This requires some changes to be made to the characters to make them more appropriate for the animated run.
The show introduced a myriad of villains, some of which were very deep cuts from the comics. Of course, some of them were the most popular during their respective runs, when sensibilities towards creating characters were different. So, when Eclipso was supposed to be introduced in the show, Bruce Timm decided that the character needed a little updating.
Eclipso had to be changed to be adapted for Justice League Unlimited
Bruce Timm revealed to The World’s Finest what the philosophy was behind changing the character from his 80s roots. The creator revealed:
“Some characters can be adapted pretty closely to their comics’ counterparts, some need to be drastically re-thought/re-imagined. Eclipso was one of those characters that we felt needed to be updated somewhat in order for modern audiences to take them seriously as a convincing threat to the assembled JL. If we ever do bring him/it back, I’d like to do something that honors his Silver Age version a bit more. I like “Eclipsed” a lot, but I do kind of regret that he became little more than a vengeful spirit-thing.”
Silver Age versions of certain characters would have been too confusing for the shown, and given that the show was being developed for children, it would make sense that certain characters revamped, not only to keep the tone of the show consistent but also to allow the creators to create a separate universe.
Justice League Unlimited remains the definitive version of the League for an entire generation
Justice League and its sequel series, Justice League Unlimited managed to be the definitive version of the superhero team for an entire generation. The characters, despite having a parallel version in live-action television, cinema, and animated films. Not to mention there were parallel shows like Batman Beyond which also presented us with versions of the League.
The show was able to do that James Gunn will try to emulate this in his new and improved DCU, which is set to take inspiration from the definitive version of the show and and the Timm-verse in general. This is largely a great idea for the films, given that the show was able to weave together a shared universe, that allowed for it to be expanded to more niche parts of the universe, something that the MCU has achieved on the big screen, but DC has failed to achieve so far.
