Superhero cartoons
I just watched the early trailer for The Avengers and some videos for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on YouTube. I've been watching the old Batman cartoon and I've been reminded of how remarkable it is. I've discovered the greatness of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. (If you haven't been watching this cartoon and you like superheroes and/or animation, start watching it!) I watched Thor and am looking forward to seeing Captain America. All these factors made me think about superhero cartoons. (By the way, Thor was pretty good. It was weird, but good.) I'm going to say a bit about the ones I've watched a bunch of and give them a rating, but I haven't seen most of these in a while, so these ratings are not to be taken too strictly.
The first superhero cartoons were the old Fleischer Superman cartoons, which I covered in-depth in some of my earliest LJ posts. To this day, they remain one of the high water marks of superhero cartoons. They defined Superman as much as the comics did, and had some of the finest animation in a non-feature cartoon. 9/10
There was the 60's Spider-Man cartoon, which I loved as a kid, but which is not very good. I've commented before on how it captures a specific part of Spider-Man's story, very early on, much as Superman did. Then there was Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which would have been good if it wasn't for the awful animation. It's companion Hulk cartoon was okay, maybe. I don't really remember. My brother loved the Hulk. It, like Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, had some great music. There was a movie where some kids are watching the only episode I remember, where the Hulk is fighting aliens who ride around in giant harvestmen/daddy longlegs. Anybody remember what cartoon that is? There was also Superfriends, which was god-awful, and The Power of Shazam and a Plastic Man cartoon, which I presume were both also god-awful.
Things changed dramatically with the release of the Batman cartoon. Inspired by the Tim Burton movie, which showed a superhero in a different light, it really set the bar. Even the bad episodes were good, from what I recall. It took losers like the Mad Hatter, Clock King, and Mr. Freeze (!!!), and made them awesome. It didn't crap all over the Batman mythos (if I may use such a term) or try to apologize for them -- as is often how the characters are treated these days in movies, cartoons, and the comics themselves -- but made weird stuff work, as with those villains mentioned above. To this day, many see this as the definitive Batman, over the comics themselves, from any era. I can't disagree. 9/10
Unfortunately, they changed the art style for the worse -- what the hell was going on with Catwoman?-- a few seasons in, and the animation became cheaper. It was still quite good, but rarely attained the heights of the original cartoons. This came hand-in-hand with the airing of the Superman cartoon, which I very much enjoyed. The new art and the Superman cartoon were introduced together in the excellent (9/10) crossover, World's Finest. I really liked how they treated Superman, and I think they made him work very well, just as they had done with Batman. It was never all that popular from what I gleaned, alas. This was followed up with Batman Beyond, which I never cared for, but was rather popular. I mostly remember that all his villains seemed like poorly-disguised Spider-Man villains. In fact the DC cartoons of the time had a bad habit of stealing from Marvel and other sources. Superman had a character who was essentially a grown up version of the girl from Firestarter, background and everything.
This brings us to Justice League. Man, I wanted to like this cartoon, but it was boring. It was a lot of talking, a lot of the time, and not enough people in tights punching each other. This is part of the misguided fixation on making superheroes legit by not treating them like superheroes. In another case of unoriginality, well, as Monzo put it, we got to see what would happen if the original Defenders (Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, and Silver Surfer) fought Cthulhu. Using proxies, of course (Solomon Grundy, Aquaman, Dr. Fate, and Hawkgirl). Justice League Unlimited was another story altogether! It was quite excellent and full of the fun and excitement that superheroes are all about. My only gripe is that they made Superman kind of a douche. (A fact pointed out by a disillusioned Captain Marvel.) It was all good news (8/10) until season 3, which was mostly bad. It featured stories focused on two lame characters (a cowboy and a knight, if I recall) and was just weaker in general. The dialogue during the finale was just wretched. I expected Superman and Darkseid to do a "Just bring it!" "Oh, it's already brought!" exchange. And we got to see Hawkman reimagined as a stalker of Hawkgirl, and a villain who captured them both so he could force them to watch flashbacks. And it ended with a capper for Batman Beyond. In short, stick with seasons 1-2.
(Reading Stephen King's autobiography many years ago, which was half-writing advice, he advised you to never use a trite expression. The aforementioned dialogue in that finale reminded me of that. This is also the biggest flaw in Avatar: the Last Airbender: overuse of modern expressions. I've become very sensitive to this lately, and it grates on me whenever I see it. Many children's shows are rife with this type of dialogue, and it's just lazy. Remember this while writing yourself, please! Ahem! Moving on!)
In the early 90's, the X-Men cartoon was a big deal, but I always hated it. Having read the comics, it paled in comparison, storywise, and the art was just dreadful. The characters were dumb and the action was awful. It was a far cry from Batman. Nevertheless, it was quite popular. It still has it's fans, but I suspect it's mainly due to nostalgia. I have nostalgia for Transformers, but I have no belief that it was something amazing. The Spider-Man cartoon that came out not too long thereafter was quite a step up, and I enjoyed it a lot. It felt like Spider-Man, even though the art wasn't TOO much better than X-Men. I only had minor gripes, though it kind of fell apart later on. (Venom didn't work too well, and Black Cat was a disaster.) Still, 6/10.
Then there was X-Men Evolution. This cartoon took after the recent first X-Men movie in a bad way (non-costumes, treatment of Mystique and Sabretooth, etc.) but it somehow made it work. This show proved that it wasn't about getting the details right, but about getting the essence of an adaption right. (Nightcrawler being funny, Gambit being an amazing fighter, Pyro making fire monsters with his power, Iceman being younger than the others, etc.) The characters were in completely different positions than they were in the comics, but they were recognizable as themselves. And it as much more mature and thoughtfully written than the older X-Men cartoon. Okay, I won't lie, season 1 was pretty mediocre (5/10). Season 2 picked up in a major way, though, and season 3 was even better (7 and 8/10). The finale to season 2 was outstanding,and one of the best season finales in a cartoon series, up there with season 2 of Avatar. Season 4 was hit or miss, but generally good (6/10).
I have only seen a bit of the new Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but it seems really excellent. It takes a few bad cues from the movies, but other than Tony Stark sounding like a dork, I have no gripe with it. I am a bit weirded out by the inclusion of the Hulk, though... It seems that Marvel finally got a great cartoon that follows the comics. It's about time!
The first superhero cartoons were the old Fleischer Superman cartoons, which I covered in-depth in some of my earliest LJ posts. To this day, they remain one of the high water marks of superhero cartoons. They defined Superman as much as the comics did, and had some of the finest animation in a non-feature cartoon. 9/10
There was the 60's Spider-Man cartoon, which I loved as a kid, but which is not very good. I've commented before on how it captures a specific part of Spider-Man's story, very early on, much as Superman did. Then there was Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, which would have been good if it wasn't for the awful animation. It's companion Hulk cartoon was okay, maybe. I don't really remember. My brother loved the Hulk. It, like Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, had some great music. There was a movie where some kids are watching the only episode I remember, where the Hulk is fighting aliens who ride around in giant harvestmen/daddy longlegs. Anybody remember what cartoon that is? There was also Superfriends, which was god-awful, and The Power of Shazam and a Plastic Man cartoon, which I presume were both also god-awful.
Things changed dramatically with the release of the Batman cartoon. Inspired by the Tim Burton movie, which showed a superhero in a different light, it really set the bar. Even the bad episodes were good, from what I recall. It took losers like the Mad Hatter, Clock King, and Mr. Freeze (!!!), and made them awesome. It didn't crap all over the Batman mythos (if I may use such a term) or try to apologize for them -- as is often how the characters are treated these days in movies, cartoons, and the comics themselves -- but made weird stuff work, as with those villains mentioned above. To this day, many see this as the definitive Batman, over the comics themselves, from any era. I can't disagree. 9/10
Unfortunately, they changed the art style for the worse -- what the hell was going on with Catwoman?-- a few seasons in, and the animation became cheaper. It was still quite good, but rarely attained the heights of the original cartoons. This came hand-in-hand with the airing of the Superman cartoon, which I very much enjoyed. The new art and the Superman cartoon were introduced together in the excellent (9/10) crossover, World's Finest. I really liked how they treated Superman, and I think they made him work very well, just as they had done with Batman. It was never all that popular from what I gleaned, alas. This was followed up with Batman Beyond, which I never cared for, but was rather popular. I mostly remember that all his villains seemed like poorly-disguised Spider-Man villains. In fact the DC cartoons of the time had a bad habit of stealing from Marvel and other sources. Superman had a character who was essentially a grown up version of the girl from Firestarter, background and everything.
This brings us to Justice League. Man, I wanted to like this cartoon, but it was boring. It was a lot of talking, a lot of the time, and not enough people in tights punching each other. This is part of the misguided fixation on making superheroes legit by not treating them like superheroes. In another case of unoriginality, well, as Monzo put it, we got to see what would happen if the original Defenders (Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, and Silver Surfer) fought Cthulhu. Using proxies, of course (Solomon Grundy, Aquaman, Dr. Fate, and Hawkgirl). Justice League Unlimited was another story altogether! It was quite excellent and full of the fun and excitement that superheroes are all about. My only gripe is that they made Superman kind of a douche. (A fact pointed out by a disillusioned Captain Marvel.) It was all good news (8/10) until season 3, which was mostly bad. It featured stories focused on two lame characters (a cowboy and a knight, if I recall) and was just weaker in general. The dialogue during the finale was just wretched. I expected Superman and Darkseid to do a "Just bring it!" "Oh, it's already brought!" exchange. And we got to see Hawkman reimagined as a stalker of Hawkgirl, and a villain who captured them both so he could force them to watch flashbacks. And it ended with a capper for Batman Beyond. In short, stick with seasons 1-2.
(Reading Stephen King's autobiography many years ago, which was half-writing advice, he advised you to never use a trite expression. The aforementioned dialogue in that finale reminded me of that. This is also the biggest flaw in Avatar: the Last Airbender: overuse of modern expressions. I've become very sensitive to this lately, and it grates on me whenever I see it. Many children's shows are rife with this type of dialogue, and it's just lazy. Remember this while writing yourself, please! Ahem! Moving on!)
In the early 90's, the X-Men cartoon was a big deal, but I always hated it. Having read the comics, it paled in comparison, storywise, and the art was just dreadful. The characters were dumb and the action was awful. It was a far cry from Batman. Nevertheless, it was quite popular. It still has it's fans, but I suspect it's mainly due to nostalgia. I have nostalgia for Transformers, but I have no belief that it was something amazing. The Spider-Man cartoon that came out not too long thereafter was quite a step up, and I enjoyed it a lot. It felt like Spider-Man, even though the art wasn't TOO much better than X-Men. I only had minor gripes, though it kind of fell apart later on. (Venom didn't work too well, and Black Cat was a disaster.) Still, 6/10.
Then there was X-Men Evolution. This cartoon took after the recent first X-Men movie in a bad way (non-costumes, treatment of Mystique and Sabretooth, etc.) but it somehow made it work. This show proved that it wasn't about getting the details right, but about getting the essence of an adaption right. (Nightcrawler being funny, Gambit being an amazing fighter, Pyro making fire monsters with his power, Iceman being younger than the others, etc.) The characters were in completely different positions than they were in the comics, but they were recognizable as themselves. And it as much more mature and thoughtfully written than the older X-Men cartoon. Okay, I won't lie, season 1 was pretty mediocre (5/10). Season 2 picked up in a major way, though, and season 3 was even better (7 and 8/10). The finale to season 2 was outstanding,and one of the best season finales in a cartoon series, up there with season 2 of Avatar. Season 4 was hit or miss, but generally good (6/10).
I have only seen a bit of the new Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but it seems really excellent. It takes a few bad cues from the movies, but other than Tony Stark sounding like a dork, I have no gripe with it. I am a bit weirded out by the inclusion of the Hulk, though... It seems that Marvel finally got a great cartoon that follows the comics. It's about time!