Best Marvel 'toon?

[Stu]

Which recent Marvel animated series was/is the best? The poll starts from 1992 - the present. Comments on why you like them/hate them are welcome.

 

[Czar Gato]

Well, X-Men was always my favorite, but I liked the original Spider-Man as well. i never really watched any of the others, so I don't have an opinion on any of them.

 

[Lord Zedd]

I voted for X-Men TAS. It was my fav all the characters were done great the best voices action was awsome and old stories put with the new characters. were else would you see gambit takeing on the Hellfire Club (Inner Circle). Also Lady death Strike and Wolvie take on an alien in the Morlok tunnels. I loved it now here are the rest in order.

(1-7 I like)

2) Spiderman

3) Iron Man

4) The Incredible Hulk

5) Fantastic Four

6) Spider-man Unlimited (This show had its god points but alot of bad ones to)

7) Silver Surfer

(Now for the bad shows I wish were never made)

8) Avengers

9) X-Men Evoloution (I have been an X-fan since a child I loved almost everything X but this isn't one of them. This show is an insult to any true X-men fan in my opinion. Sorry I just had to vent I really dont like this show)

 

[J.C.]

From my favorite to least:

1. X-Men
2. Spider-Man
3. Fantastic Four
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Iron Man
6. Spider-Man Unlimited
7. X-Men: Evolution
8. Avengers - This is the only show listed I didn't like.

Skipped Silver Surfer since I never watched it.

 

[Mister Intensity]

I'm going with X-Men Evolution for staying true to the original X-Men concept and successfully doing something different with it while being enjoyable. Out of the current crop of Marvel series, other than Spider-Man Unlimited, this one was least reliant on the comic books. The other shows adapted the comic books to varying degrees, some were more faithful than others, and some were more successful than others, but they contained an element of adaptation nevertheless. It's funny, historically, Marvel cartoons were more likely to adapt the comics than DC cartoons. I think the current DC approach of taking the best elements of the various eras of the comic books and doing something thats faithful, yet new, is the best approach since, despite their similiarities, comic books and animation are two different mediums.

My rankings of the various Marvel shows are as follows:

1. X-Men Evolution
2. Spider-Man Unlimited: Much better than expected. The episodes I have seen I enjoyed immensely.
3. Spider-Man: The show fell off after the third season. It just became much too convoluted for its own good.
4. Fantastic Four: The second season was the best animated interpretation of Lee-Kirby comic books ever. Hopefully, the Fantastic Four appears in animation that they actuall do original stories. All three of their series were Lee-Kirby adaptions.
5. Incredible Hulk: The recent ABC Family showing made me realize how much I enjoyed the first season. The last three episodes of the first season and the entire second season were terrible.

The last three on the list were shows I didn't enjoy. For the most part, the plot lines were too convoluted, relied on eras of the comic books where the storylines were going downhill -- at least in the case of Iron Man and X-Men -- and the most important reason for it's unwatchability, bad dialogue and voice acting.

6. Iron Man: The first season was a bad remake of Challenge of the Superfriends and the second season took itself way too seriously and was based on the forgetable Armor Wars era Iron Man. Tony needed to get over himself and stop whining, no wonder he didn't have any friends. The second season theme song was kicking though.
7. X-Men: Yeah, a lot of people loved this show but the recent ABC Family run reminded me of how unwatchable this show is. The pseudo-Clarmont dialogue, the convoluted continuity that couldn't keep itself straight, the constant whining from all the characters, the unnecessary cameos, the need for a reference manual to keep track of whats going on, watered down versions of comic stories taken out of context, the clunky animation, the impractical character designs, the bad voice acting, need I go on. This show was more of a reaction to the complaints about network interference on Spider Man and His Amazing Friends than an indepedent series. This is a perfect example where less is more needs to apply. It tried to do too much and what we wound up with was a mess of a series. Can this show really be evaluated outside of the popularity of the X-Men and stand on its own as an animated series? I don't think so, outside of the fact that it starred the X-Men, I can't see any reason to watch this show. It really doesn't stand the test of repeated viewings or the test of time.
Then there's...
8. The Avengers: The reason for its failure is not the lack of Capt, Thor, and Iron Man, it's bad writing pure and simple. Adding those silly armors didn't help either. Mercifully it only lasted thirteen episodes.

Mister Intensity

 

[Storm]

X-men & X-men: Evolution

 

[James]

Spider-Man. I found it worked the best. X-Men was good, but Wolverine's inabilty to cut anything except metal walls and robots made him seem impotent - especially when he insisted on unleashing his claws every 5 seconds... ooo, I'm scared - well I would be if I was a bench or a metal door...

 

[Anarky]

Evo hands down. Started out corny but has made some serious strides, especially the last few eps involving Magneto, Mystique, & The Rogue. Not to mention the coming of Apocalypse. And Cyclops is developing into a character with a lot of edge to him. Not the boyscout I'd often thought him to be.

Spidey Unlimited was crap, absolutely no redeeming values.
Spidey TAS was an average series at best. As big a Spidey fan as I am, I never got into the series. I can't shake those memories of the Rocket Racer, the Big Wheel, and The Spot.

the first X-Men series had a good voice cast and some good stories (mainly borrowing from the title) but that animation was horrible

all the others were garbage: silver surfer, FF, Iron Man, the Hulk, & The Avengers (which was really the West Coast Avengers). How can you have the Avengers without THE AVENGERS?!?!?!?!

I'm hoping the MTV Spidey series kicks! If it's as cool as the Spider-Man games for the PSX, then we'll be fine.

 

[Spider-Man]

While Spider-Man did get a bit too cosmic for my taste near the end of it's run, it'd first three - four seasons were great. But once the Madame Wed stuff started kicking in full speed, it got really...weird. I thought the series did a great job updating some origins and switching things up abit. I really like how the series dumped Black Cat's ridiculous "bad luck" powers and had her be the female equivilant to Captain America - a bold move for the series.

I also thought they could've handled the Green Goblin/Mary Jane situation better. I was incredibly dissapointed when Mary Jane turned out to be a clone later on in the series. Then again, I wasn't overly fond of her voice acting on her character, either. Yes, she's a fun person but why does she sound like a 12 year old?

The Hobgoblin was handled near perfect in the series, I believe. Mark Hammill (who does an awesome Joker on 'Batman') really made the character work for me. I would've loved to have seen him in the role as Norman Osborn since his role as Ferris Boyle in Batman episode 'Heart of Ice' showed he could play the ruthless business man.

As for X-Men...well...it could've been much better. When that show had bad animation...dear lord it stunk. X-Men had some of the worst animation and design work I've ever seen. Sketchy back rounds with chunky animation. Charatcers seemed to change size and shape on a regular basis. Plus, it seemed like I needed to know what happened in every previous episode to be caught up to speed. I like continuity, some 'Batman' handled great, but there was too much continuity here.

The voice acting was alright, though. The voice acting for Wolverine and Cyclops were great. Some voice acting, specifically the always over-melodramatic Storm, seemed really awful at times. And Gambit's accent? Good lord...

The writing was okay at times, although usually overbaring. It was just mainly the poor animation that got to me. I was a fan of the show when it first premiered but going though the old episodes now is almost painful. The first season especially.

And anything I saw about The Avengers can't make it seem worse than it was. Pure garbage...quite possibly the worst comic book animated series every made.

 

[czyznyck99]

1. Spider-man. The show dropped a little in Season 4, but had a great conclusion for Season 5. The focus was always on the Peter Parker/Spiderman conflict, which is why the comic books were very good. Strecthing the massive story over 65 eps gave it a real comic book series feel. The basic story took a completely different turn with "neogenics" and the portals. It will always be my favorite.

2. X-Men Evolution - The first season had me on edge, but Season 2 and Season 3 thus far have been great. Most of the time I think it's just a corny teen drama representation of the X-men, but then we have "Day of Reckoning." And I know they won't have sappy stuff when Apocalypse arrives...

3. Fantastic Four - The second season just blew my mind. I've this over and over again. It took the classic Kirby/Lee stories and turned into epics. I am surprised that many of the eps were one-shot. too bad fewer people knew about this show then than they do now, the fact that it was cancelled because of rating gave us "Hopelessly Impossible" and "Doomsday" at the end, not two of my favorites.

4. X-Men - Could these guys ever find a steady animation house? Or at least pick one a little better than Akom? I was bummed that even though Wolverine is the most popular X-man, he got a good part of the episdoes. Jubilee never took on the big bads, save for one short takedown by Sinister in Season 4. But I still watched it every Saturday morning.

5. Iron Man - The second season went deadly serious, which is just how I liked it. "Armor Wars, Part 1" is my favorite episode. I also liked how they ditched the Mandarin for most of it and got to some of IM's more deadly foes. The constant armor changes were a little weird at times, but Season 1 had that big armory and all we ever got was the hydro-armor.

6. Spider-man Unlimited - This show was great, but no one decided to finish it. The 13 episodes we got we like an introduction, it wasn't until the 12th one that we finally got into the story, and then it disappeared.

6 (tie). Silver Surfer - Same as above. Tons of good stories, above average CGI, Season 2 already written out, and it disappears.

7. The Avengers - I could never see where this one was going. Not the worst I had ever scene, but I was expecting better.

Later.

 

[Frank White]

I voted for the Fantastic Four. You know this series had to be good for people to wake up 6:30 in the morning just to watch it. FF is my pick because the animation was good, the story lines weren't continuity-bound, and the writing was good. Every Dr.Doom apperance was golden. I loved the ep. where they teamed up w/ Daredevil because they lost their powers.

 

[Stu]

1. Spider-man. Simply put this one was the best. Decent characters, well written season long story arcs that I really got into and a faithful adapation. Unfortunatly it all got tedious when it was about "Peter and MJ". Reminded me of Lois and Clark Tv series. Got better when MJ left and I thought secret wars was awesome. And Spider-wars was a great way to end the series (even if he didn't find MJ)

2. X-men. I've always liked season long story arcs and how this series was somewhat adult orinated. The first season has dodgy animation but I really enjoyed the sentinal arcs. Then season 2 followed them finally being accepted and the friends of humanity come along and screw up thier world. I thought the voice acting was top notch. Simply put you couldn't find a better bunch to play the X-men. Except Jean Grey, she was really annoying.

3. X-men Evoloution. Season 2 really picked up on things (UK TV hasn't got season 3 yet, its said to appear in May, around X2). But it has decent writing, developed characters and is fun to watch.

4. Iron Man. Season 1 was awful. Good animation wasted on poor writing. Season 2 picked up without the Mandarin (a sucky villian IMO). Better character desings too.

5. Hulk. An entertaing first season with decent animation that unfortunatly wasn't as good as the 80's Hulk series. Then they went and hired whatshername to play She Hulk (an extermely annoying character) and things just went downhill.

6. Fantastic Four. Another crap first season with annoying voice actors (minus the Thing) with bad writing. Things picked up in season 2 but the way they made Daredevil a wise ass in "A blind man shall lead them" was NOT appreciated. That episode is soon to be released on DVD.

7. Spider-man Unlimited. Makes a mockery of Spider-man. Unbearable voice actors, a screwed up plot and just a plain show that sucked.

8. Silver Surfer. Oh dear. Hated this show.

9. Avengers. No comment as it hasn't aired over here yet.

 

[Anarky]

9. Avengers. No comment as it hasn't aired over here yet.


__________________


let me put it this way
would you watch a series called "The Avengers" that didn't have Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, or the Incredible Hulk?

It featured B-Leaguers: the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man/Power Man (either/or, does it really matter???).

Vision & Hawkeye were musts, so they belonged. But the rest of the line-up:

People b**** and moan about JL. You should be thankful it didn't turn out like Avengers TAS (which died a fast death )

JL rocks, Avengers did not...out!!!

 

[Good Ol' Batmanuel!]

Had to go with Silver Surfer. I didn't know much about him at all, but I found the series very interesting and enjoyable. Can't say much about the other series, because I haven't seen much of them.

 

[The Detective]

Definantly X-Men Evolution. A lot of people don't like it because it doesn't follow the original X-Men comic continuity. But I think that's a good point. Unlike the previous X-Men series, every episode isn't an adapted comic story line. And I like the way the way the've almost reinvented the characters by putting a fresh spin on them. And it's had some good one ep story lines withou going into these huge story lines that take a whole season to complete. It's a definant improvement over the original X-Men series. Watching some of the first series I realized how superior the voice acting is in Evo.

 

[Sandoz]

X-Men: Evolution. While the first season was pretty lackluster, it's really picked up, and it's the highlight of my Saturday mornings. I try to enjoy the show for what it is, without worrying about the comic book that inspired it. They're two completely different things, and if they told the exact same story it'd be pretty boring, IMO.

 

[Pyro]

Umm... here's my order and why I guess.
1. X-Men- I just like it. the animation didn't bother me. I liked the stories, and I liked the characters. I just like it. and I don't really feel like explaning why right now.

2. X-Men: Evolution- A very, very close second. The only reason I didn't vote for it is because it's not over yet and I don't believe it's reached its full potential. ( not that I want it to be over. I want it to live a long full life and then come out with a movie and have a bunch of baby DTV's. or can I call them DTDVD's)

3. Spider-Man Unlimited- I liked it enough, it was ok. It was the best animated Spider-Man character I've seen so far. If only they could keep Rino Ramano and let him voice a new normal Spidey cartoon.

4. Spider-Man- What a waste of my life. I was a faithful viewer for quite some time until I realized that it was a terrible show. I am a huge Spider-Man fan but this is one of the things I can't bear. The only reason I did watch it was because it was Spider-Man's show. The animation was bad and jerky, the character designs were bad (Mary Jane, the mode, wore a yellow sweater and cowboy boots for goodness sakes! ), the music was out of place, unoriginal, too strong, and overused( I think I heard the same music in one of those bad Casper movies), the stories were based off old comics I've read before, the stories were too convoluted and always continued (which was bad beacause they weren't shown in order when I saw them). And the final worst problem I have with it was that (all who know how it ends don't worry about it)

Spoiler

Mary Jane was never found!

5. The Incredible Hulk- I never cared much for the Hulk so I barely watched the show and when I did I don't think it held my interest.

6. Fantastic Four- I never got to see the series but I'd like to.

7. Iron Man- I never got to see the series but I'd like to.

8. Silver Surfer- I never got to see it but I'd check it out if I could.

9. Avengers- I never got to see it but from what I hear it doesn't sound too good anyway.

Originally posted by Anarky
I'm hoping the MTV Spidey series kicks! If it's as cool as the Spider-Man games for the PSX, then we'll be fine.

My sentiments exactly.

 

[The Detective]

Well I've alreadsy said that X-Men Evolution is my favourite but I feel like ranting.

X-Men-It's all been said before but I'll say it again. The animation was horrible. And on top of that, the character designs were pretty bad too. Just as an example: Wolverines hair. I mean, when he wasn't wearing a mask his hair still was in those little horn shapes. I mean, for crying out loud! The story lines were extra long drawn out affairs that you couln't even keep straight if you loyally watched it every day which I didn't. And most of the stories were just drawn out adaptions of comic stories. The dialoge was pretty bad most of the time, and the voice acting was really pretty poor. The characterzations were poor too. Rouge was reduced to a southern belle, Gambit a cajun hick, Wolverine a beserker who just went around clawing everthing metal he could get his hands around, Jubilee was a useless character that got thrown in And Jean and Cyclops were just a couple of love birds.

Spider-Man-Really, it wasn't that bad but it still has it's problems. The animation was usually jerky and kinda wierd, and the story lines were usally poor adaptions of comic story lines and way to convoluted. The character designs and clothes were uggg. The characters were just cardboard cut outs without any real substance. The music was loud, poor, and overbearing.

Spider-Man Unlimited-All the problems of the first one and more. I men, it was a terrible story premise, and the whole animal thing just got annoying. His new costume design stank, and his sligthly new powers were uggg.I see no reason to go on. Everything I said about Spider-Man is true for this one as well.

The Incrdible Hulk-Never watched this one much. But the stories were pretty unoriginal and usually centered around one thing: Banner trying to find a way to get rid of the Hulk.

I have not seen Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Avengers, or Silver Surfer but would like too.

 

[Matthew Williams]

My opinions, in no particular order. (Tirade time! Get ready!)

I voted "Iron Man". I know, I realize that the first season was horrible. But personally, the second season was so well-written, so true to the characters, with wonderful music, animation and theme... it makes me forget that the first season ever existed. A wonderful series, wonderful show.

"X-Men": I haven't gotten into it, but then again, that's my opinion of the 80s-90s X-Men: characters and storylines just didn't appeal to me. It's just my opinion, though, and what I saw was technically good... I'm just not an X-Men fan. Same goes for Evo as well, which I haven't seen an ounce of, even though I want to... hafta check it out one day if it doesn't interfere with my Power Rangers viewing.

"Incredible Hulk"'s first season was just as good as Iron Man's second. But they had to ruin it by a really, really awful second season where they insisted on making She-Hulk the co-star. Saban took over and everything just went straight to hell.

"Silver Surfer" was also incredible... and a very, very close second to Shellhead. The storylines were extremely well-written and close to the character and concept, and the voice acting(with the exception of Frankie Raye/Nova) was just superb. But what really pulled it over the top was its visual style. With the exception of Batman: The Animated Series, this is the most visually striking animation series that I have ever seen. CGI and cel aniomation were combined and given a certain "style" that gave it the look of a comic book. Others have tried this method; but only this one succeeded.

FF I watched as religiously as Iron Man, and it didn't come to those same lofty heights as it did. Yet, it rebounded from a poor first season to a really good second season that was truer to the characters, and really "got" them. Even the first season wasn't too bad, with the exception of horrible music video attempts such as "It's Clobberin' Time!" It's the animation that was a problem. The second season's animation was good, but not as good as Koko's work on Iron Man. And the first season boasted incredibly cartoonish character designs (just look at Thing!) as well as some instances of animation from probably the worst animation house I have ever seen, Kennedy Cartoons.

"Spider-Man" got the most votes, and it's easy to see why: it's a close interpretation of Peter Parker and his life, closer than other cartoons. So naturally, I hate the show. Not for the story, which was good... but the character designs, animation, and voice acting are so far from what constitutes a good Spider-Man series that it completely ruins the show. The casting of Christopher Daniel Barnes as Peter Parker/Spider-Man is a particular travesty: he absolutely cannot emote. Every line of dialogue sounds wooden. The animation is even worse; it's jerkly, the visual quality is often very poor, and it's integrated with really bad CGI visuals. Oh, and those awful character designs! Peter Parker is not supposed to be that built. He is not supposed to have that hairstyle. He is supposed to be a little scrawnier and lankier.

*ahem*

I haven't seen much of Spider-Man Unlimited, and the base concept isn't terribly good... but from what I've seen, even with the changes, the staff "got" Spidey. Voice, design, and attitude. Animation is kinda dark and muddy, but it works and is a HELL of a lot better than that travesty of a series.

And Avengers: United they Suck. Ahh, the worst superhero animated series ever produced. This is everything you DON'T want your superhero show to have. When your heroes are lead by arguably a second-stringer(Ant-man, for God's sake. ANT-MAN.), when your top three heroes are, by design, delegated to cameo appearances, when one of your heroes, a fascinating character in the comics, is portrayed as a Wolverine clone, AND when they all have power armor to "morph" into(thus making them the "Mighty Morphin' Power Avengers")... you need to check what you're doing. There is no reason that quality control should have let this through to the Fox Kids airwaves. Absolutely no reason. It's not just that this is a poor port of a revered Marvel franchise, it's a poorly made animated series PERIOD. Even if this was original, I would have ordered serious rewrites and rethinks. Really bad show.

And, uh, that's about it.

 

[Mister Intensity]

I love the differing opinions regarding the different Marvel shows. Especially, how some shows are praised by some while those same shows are called overrated by others.

One thing is becoming clear in my eyes, Spider Man Unlimited should have been treated as episode 66 of Spider Man. Considering Spider Man Unlimited's storyline, more interest would have been generated if that shows storyline focused on the search for Mary Jane. The alternate universe set-up was perfect for that story and they could have still have used many of the same concepts. I still enjoyed the series but the "episode 66" approach was a better set-up than the one they used.

Mister Intensity