Superhero shows have been a staple of the TV landscape for some time now, but only a handful stand out as the best of the best. While superhero shows have always been popular among younger viewers, it’s taken more time to win over mature audiences, with this only happening in some cases as the cartoons those kids used to watch on Saturday mornings continued to be comfort staples in their regular rotations.

However, there are a number of incredible superhero shows, both blasts from the past and more recent entries into the genre, that managed to deliver a stunning, complete story that appeared to have little to no weaknesses whatsoever. These shows remain the extremely high bar that new releases need to stretch to meet, with their profound storytelling, complex moral explorations, and stunning ability to make these fantasy worlds feel deeply connected to people on an emotional level.

Batman: The Animated Series

No list of the best superhero TV shows of all time would be complete without Batman: The Animated Series, so it may as well get a mention right here at the top. This is the series that introduced Gotham’s Dark Knight to an entire generation, along with some of the most intriguing characters from his rogues’ gallery, many of which have yet to see their live-action debut.

Batman: TAS was able to perfectly explore the darkness and depth of a character as flawed as Bruce Wayne, while still making it entertaining and accessible for a young audience. And over the course of four seasons, the show became the definitive article in terms of who Batman is to modern audiences.

Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones was one of the few Marvel shows Netflix was able to make during their brief partnership, which led to a full Defenders crossover series that was ultimately a complete disaster. However, while the crossover didn’t live up to expectations, some of the solo shows fared much better.

Yes, Daredevil is lauded and praised for its accomplishments and the absolutely perfect casting, but Jessica Jones deserves to get its flowers too. With Krysten Ritter playing the badass, super-strong detective with a drinking problem and a reluctance to maintain any strong relationships, and David Tennant appearing as her ex/nemesis, Kilgrave, this show was stunning.

The show continued for three seasons, and in that time, Jessica arguably became the core of the Defenders, forming connections with several of her other teammates. However, due to the character being less popular than her peers, the show seems to fly under the radar, despite being one of the best complete superhero shows ever made to this day.

Daredevil

Image via Netflix

Of course, we can’t leave out Marvel Netflix’s Daredevil. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are a match made in Hell’s Kitchen as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. The show explored a darker, grittier aspect of comics that Marvel tended to avoid, and it managed to captivate audiences from beginning to end.

And while Daredevil season 3 ended on a major cliffhanger with Benjamin Poindexter beginning to transform into Bullseye, the MCU thankfully saw fit to bring all of this back in their reimagined MCU version, Daredevil: Born Again, which picked up a lot of the pieces of this earlier series.

Agent Carter

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. often gets a shout-out as being a great comic book TV series, but AoS took its time to find the groove and connect with audiences. Meanwhile, Agent Carter, a series that goes all the way back to the founding of S.H.I.E.L.D. with Steve Rogers’ old flame, Peggy Carter, as the lead, hit the ground running.

Agent Carter was part of a short-lived effort by Marvel Television to create shows that worked alongside the MCU all the way back in the Infinity Saga, and while AoS ended up following its own path, Agent Carter was a much more faithful spin-off that explored a great deal in just two short seasons.

Justice League Unlimited

Revisiting the world of DC and their spectacular animated efforts for a moment, Justice League Unlimited is another incredible series that, in many ways, remains the best shared DC Universe to be adapted from the comics. Where the DCEU struggled to have consistent storytelling, and the DCU is still laying its foundations, Justice League Unlimited managed to bring some of the most powerful heroes in entertainment together and see them take on a wide range of villains across three seasons.

The series also ignited a whole world of stories across the DC Animated Universe, and featured some of the most iconic voice talent in any animated series ever made.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series

Spider-Man: The Animated Series brought the Spider-Verse to the small screen years before Sony started either their animated film series starring Miles Morales, or their live-action universe that focused on the villains and side characters like Madame Web.

Spider-Man is arguably the most popular superhero of all time. And with that status, the hero has starred in numerous TV shows, films, and almost every type of medium for storytelling. However, Spider-Man: TAS got a lot of things right before the character became such a big box office draw.

The show featured incredible stories and characters that, like Batman: TAS, pioneered and debuted many characters and storylines that have yet to make it to a live-action setting. But more than that, in five swift seasons, this series delivered the most compelling and complete version of Peter Parker to date in a TV show or film.

Loki

The MCU has managed to put out some impressive shows of its own in recent years, with one of the most notable complete shows being Loki. While the God of Mischief only got to star in two seasons of his own series, they managed to turn the original villain of the MCU into potentially one of the strongest and most beloved characters of the entire franchise.

Loki traversed realities, confronted powerful villains, and managed to gain a mastery of time, all across 12 episodes. Not to mention the outstanding performance of Tom Hiddleston, who had grown to embody this role over almost a decade when the show debuted.

X-Men: The Animated Series

Today, X-Men ’97 has picked up the story that was left open-ended in the extraordinary X-Men: The Animated Series. However, the original show deserves recognition for creating such an enthralling and expansive version of this comic book world across five seasons.

X-Men: TAS dived deeper into the lore of the X-Men than any other media, aside from the comics, to tell the real story of the mutants who faced intense discrimination, while serving as protectors to all of humanity, and striving to find a way to live in peace. It’s a show that challenged the status quo and wasn’t afraid to challenge the kids who watched it with big moral questions, all adding up to an exceptional TV show.

Teen Titans

The last animated series to appear on this list, and compared against the others, is potentially the most immature, but that doesn’t make it any less great. Starting in 2003, this five-season show shifted the focus away from the big-name heroes and finally shone a light on the sidekicks and younger generation of heroes who had yet to leave their mark on audiences beyond comics.

Teen Titans did a lot of similar things to the other animated entries here, bringing awareness to a broad array of lesser-known comic book heroes and villains, while also meeting the audience where they were. Today, Teen Titans Go! is a poor attempt to recapture the magic, but the original series contained all the spectacle, without the pointless slapstick and toilet humor.

Superman & Lois

Finally, DC gets another notch with their recently completed series, Superman & Lois. This show only ended up getting four seasons due to the DCU creating a combined effort across various media and trying to avoid confusion with multiple Supermen. However, Tyler Hoechlin’s take on Clark and his super alter ego remains one of the best of all time.

The series took the Superman story out of a familiar setting like Metropolis and brought Clark and his wife, Lois, back to Smallville, along with their two sons. Seeing Superman deal with the challenges of being a father to teenagers, and how the family was able to grow together, is genuinely one of the best superhero stories ever to appear on TV.