Check Out These Banned Episodes of Superhero Cartoons (If You Can)

via Check Out These Banned Episodes of Superhero Cartoons (If You Can)

Despite ample evidence to the contrary, both superheroes and cartoons are regarded as inherently childish. For that reason, superhero cartoons are often subject to censorship designed to keep the program nice and wholesome, however the censor chooses to interpret those words. Whether that censorship is justified or not is another matter entirely.

But let’s start with an episode that ran into trouble for a reason that had nothing to do with “protecting the kids” and everything to do with “protecting the IP.”

“Apokolips…Now” – Superman: The Animated Series

Technically, this episode was never banned, but a particular sequence from it was unavailable for a while, so I’m counting it.

The second part of this episode featured the death of a minor character, Dan Turpin. Turpin was based on artist Jack Kirby, who created the planet Apokolips and the characters associated with it. It made sense for Turpin’s funeral to double as an homage to Kirby. This included designing the mourners to look like characters Kirby helped create, including several Marvel characters, such as the extremely distinctive-looking Nick Fury.

Perhaps to avoid trouble with the competition, subsequent airings of this episode altered the mourners so they didn’t look quite so suable. But the original sequence has since been restored and is available to view on HBO Max.

(Now, why they were worried about this episode and not the horrifying “Unity,” I couldn’t say).

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