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

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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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“The Mask of Matches Malone!” – Batman: The Brave and the Bold

I covered this one extensively last year, so I won’t harp on it here. Still, this highly enjoyable episode got banned everywhere except Australia due to a raunchy musical number in which Catwoman, Black Canary, and Huntress insulted the male heroes’ skills in bed — uh, I mean, crime-fighting. Skills in crime-fighting. Yup.

Like “Apokolips…Now!” it has since been made available in its full glory on HBO Max.

“Insane in the Membrane” – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 series)

Scientist Baxter Stockman had an extremely rough go of it in this series, body-wise. He eventually required a cloned body, which he succeeded in making for himself. Sort of. Before long, the clone’s body started literally falling apart. That’s where the trouble with the network started, too.

The scenes of Stockman’s body falling apart were deemed so graphic that the episode never aired on television. But you can now watch the whole thing on Paramount+, if you’ve got the stomach for it.

“The Gatekeeper” – Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

In this episode, our middle school-aged hero confronts a very different sort of villain: a bigoted volleyball coach who doesn’t think Moon Girl’s transgender teammate should be allowed to play.

Do I even have to explain why the folks in charge of Disney at the time refused to release this episode on Disney+? When called out for their behavior, Disney insisted they weren’t being transphobic: they were just trying to be considerate of transphobic parents who might not want their kids learning that it’s okay to be trans from this episode — which, incidentally, Disney said is not banned, just “held.”

Despite that claim, this is the only episode on the list that you still can’t watch, at least not legally.

Comics have a long legacy of being targeted by censors, and today they are among the most censored titles in America. Here’s a look at what last year looked like in comics censorship.