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•    Dark Avengers

•    New Avengers

•    Mighty Avengers

•    Daredevil

•    Runaways

•    Fantastic Four

•    ULTIMATUM

Welcome back to the third part of my Catching Up series. After tackling the DC Universe’s animated features and series last week, now is the time to take a longer look at the Marvel animated ‘verse in all its glory. But be warned all you Stan Lee disciples out there, you may not like everything you read.

It has come to my attention (by myself) that while singing the praise of almost everything in animated form by DC Comics, I kept taking little potshots at the Marvel productions. Upon further review for this article I realize I may have been a little unfair of some of my criticisms directed towards comics Evil Empire (sorry, while I am not a total insider I do know a little about how Marvel treats the industry and sometimes I feel they are evil – plus every story needs a villain).

So without further fanfare or ramblings by yours truly let’s take a longer look at the Marvel animated series – specifically Wolverine and the X-Men, Spectacular Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. To my shock and bewilderment I actually like 66% of the shows mentioned above.

Let’s begin with the one I do not care for, shall we? Since Marvel decided to sell the rights to Wolverine and the X-Men to Nickelodeon, which had the bright idea of sticking the show on Niktoons, I am not sure how many people actually get to view this one. And maybe they are better off for it. I gave it a chance, watching on youtube since some nice Canadian (are there really any others besides Sean Avery?) uploaded all of the episodes eh.

While the trailers for the show looked good and honestly got me excited, watching the first episode it became quite evident that this was going to be a painful addition to the Marvel animated family. I am not sure where to begin but the thing that sticks in my mind most is the 1990’s Fox version of the X-Men. I know for a lot of you out there this was your first Marvel animated experience and you remember it fondly while crediting it for getting you interested in the X-Men and comics in the first place. And to that I say, it did its job.

Yes, the stories were classics ripped from the pages, but nothing else about the series was. Wolverine and pals reminds me of the melodramaticness that was the Fox X-Men. It’s like Dawson’s Creek, if Dawson’s Creek was a cartoon. While Wolverine is so popular (which I do not get) I understand making him the lead, but he always serves the story better as part of the team. That is why the character worked (for me) in the beginning. Now its feels forced. Everything about the new series feels forced.

The animation is not that great and I love watching a scene where it’s raining, and a car has its windshield wipers on but there is not actual rain falling. What is that about? Must be the same people who did Ultimate Avengers and decided to have the background drummer just move his arms up and down for the entire scene (No, I am never going to let that one go because they should be embarrassed with themselves).

Anyway, I have wasted enough time on that show as you must know now that I say instead of watching Wolverine and the X-Men, get a root canal, you will have a better time.

Now let’s have some fun, which is what the Spectacular Spider-Man is all about. The animation is different, but good (although it took some time to get used to the big eyes). Pete is a teenager again (ala Ultimate Spidey) and the stories are geared towards the kiddies, but are capable of entertaining us big children as well.

The first season the web-head took on the Goblin, Sinister Six, Doc Ock, Venom, Vulture and more and more and more. It was literally a who’s who of Spidey’s rogue’s gallery, crammed into 13 fun episodes. There was also Gwen Stacy, MJ and Harry Osborn. I am so looking forward to the second season.

Christopher Yost and Craig Kyle capture brilliantly the guilt that Pete carries with him everyday. Remember, with great power comes yada, yada, yada … bottom line, they get it and are showing us how much they do actually get it. Wish they could translate some of that mojo over to the new X-Men show.

Last but definitely not least is the Fantastic Four. In the beginning of the 26-episode run I was a little critical. The animation was good, but severe in places (like Sue and Johnny’s pointy chins, which I still can’t get past). There was a good mix of CGI and animation that impressed me as I watched more and more shows. The thing about this series is that it continued to impress me with each episode and I could not get more fast enough (which was a problem since Cartoon Network only showed half of the episodes produced over a three-year period) – thank goodness for DVD sets.

Now I am a minority when it comes to this, but I liked the FF movies. Appreciated the lightness of the first one and was just happy to get a second one (a third anyone?). One of the things I felt the movies did well was capture who the characters were at their heart. If anything, the animated version did an even better job of showing us the real FF.

The voice work was superb, especially the changing of the Thing’s voice the rare instances he went back to being Ben Grimm because you can’t tell an FF story without making the Thing Ben again at least one time. Besides, it gave Yost and Kyle the opportunity to throw in the She-Hulk (as a member of the FF). Other guests included the Hulk (vs the Thing!), Iron Man and Ant-Man. Victor was back to his arrogant self and the Mole-Man was as creepy as he should be. All was right in the animated version of the FF.

Next time I will review the Marvel animated feature films masquerading as quality (there goes the potshots again). Until then, don’t forget to tip your cab driver – Peace!

Captain Wednesday – Your Friendly Neighborhood Comic Dude

Rather than go the route of a direct sequel to the mega-successful X-Men franchise, Fox has opted to focus on the many spin-off opportunities for the series. This includes Deadpool, a would-be film featuring the character played by Ryan Reynolds in next year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an odd choice for sure considering both the C-list status of the character as well as the simple fact that his popularity with audiences has yet to be gauged.

Also in the pipeline is X-Men: First Class, a rumored prequel being written by Chuck and The OC mastermind Josh Schwartz. This would follow the early years of the team, including teenaged versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Beast (sans the blue fur). The only real question here is how this film would fit into the current X-Men movie continuity started by director Bryan Singer.

A second X-Men Origins film, focusing on a young Magneto and his relationship with an equally young Charles Xavier, was to be written and directed by Blade and Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer, but was recently bumped from it’s summer 2009 release date by Goyer in favor of his Invisible Man remake.

Most interesting of all, Fox seems to be discussing a possible Daredevil revival. The original film, while a flop with most critics, was anything but a financial let-down, earning a world-wide total of $179 million for the $78 million budgeted film. Rather than a direct sequel to the 2003 film, Fox seemed content on doing a spin-off in the form of 2005’s Elektra, which has become a running joke amongst comic-fans, usually competing with only Catwoman as the worst comic-based film ever made. It’s with this spin-off that I believe Fox was originally judging the merit of another Daredevil film on, a mistake that they apparently plan on rectifying in the near future with some sort of relaunch of the series.

Another long discussed spin-off has been a film focusing on The Silver Surfer, who originally appeared in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Originally announced to be scripted by Babylon 5’s J. Michael Straczynski and helmed by The Crow and Dark City director Alex Proyas, the project has apparently been shelved. Whether that was because of the lackluster performance of the Fantastic Four sequel, or the allegedly over-budgeted first draft of Straczynski’s screenplay, we may never know.