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I've always loved cartoons. Every kid does, I suppose, but most people outgrow them. Or think they do.
Today, some of my favorite TV shows are cartoons, or some form of animation: The Venture Brothers, Archer, Robot Chicken and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Marvel has had a rough time in the animation world. Every once in awhile, they get close, but this time I have to saw, they've nailed it. The Avengers cartoon is a perfect amalgam of the traditional Marvel Universe, the Ultimate universe, and original interpretations. Like the Justice League and Justice League:Unlimited cartoons before it, for DC, it has something to offer Marvel fans old and young. I have been consistently impressed with the writing and art on the show, and amazed at the depth of Marvel history into which they've delved to create the stories and back-stories.
They have even managed to work Hank Pym into a character I'm actually fascinated with. And Janet . . . don't get me started. To me, she is this series' Hawkgirl. By no means is she on the power level with the rest of the Avengers, but by God she doesn't stop for anything. The only thing I'd change with her is to have her start changing her costume every couple of episodes.
Iron Man is almost straight from the live-action movies, in this series, as is Nick Fury.
Then there's Thor. Not one of my favorite characters, but handled so well in this series that I wouldn't want to see it without him. His interactions with the Hulk are fun, and funny and make the Hulk tolerable, too.
And what they did with Captain America . . . nothing short of brilliant. The final scene with Bucky, saluting just before the Red Skull's escape rocket explodes. Best. Death. Ever. The discovery of the Capsicle in Greenland is a bit contrived, but then it always was.
Couple of things that bug me, however . . . there seems to be a problem of scale. Ants and Wasps are smaller than they appear to be in the show. And I really don't like the Quinjet. Just a personal preference thing, but I think the classic John Byrne variant is the best Quinjet design, ever. I know the angular shape is all stealtifying and all, but I just don't like it. Oh, well, can't have everything.
I was very impressed with the Black Panther's origin, and his motives for joining the Avengers.
And then there's Hawkeye. They managed to work in the whole mistaken-for-a-bad-guy thing and something fishy is up with the Black Widow!
But, here's the thing, it's not just about the heroes. This show is a freaking Who's Who (Sorry, DC.) of Marvel Villainy from the beginning of the Silver Age to the present!
Man-Ape is in this thing. Mandrill is there. The Absorbing Man, too! Barons Strucker and Zemo, Hydra, AIM, and MODOC! Not to mention the Asgardian baddies, Enchantress and the Executioner.
Iron Man is careless and flippant, Thor is arrogant and a bit clumsy in social situations with mortals of the opposite sex, Ant-Man is Giant Man and would rather spend time in his lab than out fighting villains, the Wasp is bubbly and gung-ho at the same time, the Hulk is gruff and irritable, and he has a few fun exchanges with Hank and Thor, and when he and Hawkeye clash, it's totally worth the price of admission.
Like the Iron Man movies, Jarvis is a computer that runs Tony's life. Unlike anything we've seen before, Ultron is a polite, maybe overly polite, guard bot (bots) in Hank Pym's "Big House" a miniature prison for super-villains, where he keeps them shrunk down to (mostly) ineffectual size. I can't wait for one of the Ultrons to make the breakthrough into self-awareness and go rogue.
There's also Wonder Man. An excellent take on Wonder Man's origin, though I would have liked to keep him material a bit longer, before converting him totally to ionic energy. Still, it works in context, and we see the Masters of Evil coming together.
Oh, did I mention Captain Marvel? Yup, they drew him into the story and, based on the last episode I saw, looks like Ms Marvel got her origin, as well. I would have thought this much compression of so much Marvel history into a dozen or so episodes (more on the DVR, now, but I haven't watched those, yet)would create a confusing mess, but so far, it works. The episodes are fun and exciting, the characters are interesting, you want to see what's going to happen with them.
One of the things that impresses me the most about it, however, is more of an technical/artistic thing. The colors they choose for the scenes are muted and, especially in the opening credits sequence, look like color from Marvel comics in the 60s and early 70s, to me. It makes it FEEL like those comics.
Now, it wouldn't be an Artistic License column, if all I did was rave about a cartoon I like, so I have a couple of ideas for the show that I'd like to see. As long as they're barreling along at breakneck speed in the Avengers history, I'd love to see them add the Vision and later, the Falcon to the team. I hope they'll be able to include the Scarlet Witch and the Beast, too, but you never know how these things are going to play out.
I was thinking about Mantis and the Swordsman, too, but I never had a connection with them. It's hard to come up with something for characters I don't really care about.
If you haven't seen the series, I highly recommend it to comic fans of all ages.
See more of my stuff at . . .
heroblog.deviantart.com
www.heroblog.com
www.adastracomic.com
Copyright © 2011 Joe Singleton
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