DC and Marvel Animation

[ChainLegacy]

I'd throw in 90's Spiderman and Wolverine and the X-Men in there too, both really good series IMO. Wolverine and the X-Men is another somewhat recent Marvel show (I think it aired in 2007) that was really well done, but cancelled abruptly. 90's Spiderman is the first action cartoon I ever got into as a kid, so it's a special one for me, but if I'm trying to be objective I'd say the only flaws it has are too much internal monologue from Peter and the hilariously outdated 3D animation during webslinging scenes. The multi-episode storylines/mini-sagas in that show were phenomenal.

The thing that makes the DCAU so head and shoulders above everything else is it's just so polished and professional. The production values are fantastic and there's never a dull moment. I always find myself rewatching little bits of the Justice League every year or so. I think Batman TAS and Justice League are a high point for Superhero cartoons that may very well be unmatchable.

[Slayerx]

I wouldn't really say Marvel doesn't care about its marvel animation properties. When it comes down to it, they seem to be putting more energy into them than ever. Not only do they have 3 shows going on at the same time, but Marvel themselves are actually creating them, and they have the marvel universe block on Disney XD.

The problem however is not that they don't care about the animation, its just that they chose the wrong person to handle it. Really its seems like the poor quality of all of these shows falls into the hands of the head of Marvel animation Jeph Loeb. I don't know any of the inside info, but i can't help but think that he's the one choosing the direction of the shows and that part of the failure comes from him picking the wrong writers. Really it just doesn't seem like the man understands what makes a truly great show... With his history in comics i can't help but think he knows how to write for an older audience, but doesn't grasp television which is geared towards a younger age.

Tv takes quite a bit of finesse since you want to make something that anyone, even older teens and adults can find funny, egaging, exciting, or interesting, while at the same time making the writing simple enough that a younger audience can enjoy it. USM misses this mark by a lot... its colorful enough that i'm sure it will be able to hold the attention of little kids, but they will ultimately forget about the show since their is nothing that will hold up as they get older. In a way, i feel like that show writes DOWN to its audience. Avengers assemble is their best show, but that's not saying much because its only mediocre at best; not good, but not really bad either, its just there. Hulk however i feel is leaning towards the bad; Seriously, i am coming to just hate the characters on that show... the Hulk comes off as something of a Gary Stu with how perfect he seems to be; and that webcast format they chose just gives him a chance to preach

Had someone like Chris Yost or Greg Weisman, producers with strong histories in superhero animation, been put in charge of marvel animation, we would probably be seeing some really stellar shows. Marvel IS putting a lot of time an energy into the shows, they just have the wrong creative direction



Oddly enough i would say DC animation has the opposite problem when it comes to TV. They have the right creators in charge but not the right support. DC itself seems to want their shows to Succeed, but the same can't be said of Cartoon Network. The Network has handled their shows quite poorly. Young Justice and Green Lantern were both well deserving of another season, but lost it because CN failed with the toyline; beware the batman is turning out pretty good, but i get the feeling it may suffer the same fate since ratings haven't been that good; again i blame a lack of support by CN since i still think the saturday morning time slot is bad, I seem to never see any commercials promoting the show, lack of reruns, and the show doesn't have any other shows to help support it. Only show that CN seems to give actual support is Teen Titans Go; lots of commerical promotion and put on a prime timeslot; Hell the new episodes don't premiere on DC Nation, but if they did it might actually HELP Batman's ratings (shows tend to do better when they have other premiere's around them). CN doesn't seem to really offer much support to their action shows unlike their comedy.

Wolverine and the X-Men is another somewhat recent Marvel show (I think it aired in 2007) that was really well done, but cancelled abruptly.

Eh, WatXM always bugged me. On the one hand, tkaing on its own merits the writer was pretty good, but what annoyed me is that it does not handle the majority of its cast very well. The show made Wolverine the focus and did so at the expense for the development of a lot of other characters/ There was a lot less screen time to go around with Wolverine the focus and some characters like cyclops were handled terribly so that they could help make Wolverine look good. I like my X-men shows to be about the whole team, and not give priority focus to just ONE of them.

Anyway, that show fell apart I believe because they were not able to secure the budget for the second season. Spectacular spiderman for it's part, i believe ended abruptly because of complication between Marvel and Sony... EHM... there's is no excuse; In that case it seems like a conscious decision was made to reboot the series so that they could make a series a bit more closely resembling the Cinematic universe, to try and maximize the popularity of the films...

[Suzuku]

I'll just say they both fucking suck right now. Amazing we went from Spectacular Spider-Man, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice to the shit we have now in the span of 3 years. I blame Loeb and Man of Action. >.>

Only thing saving western action animation is Korra. At least the animated comedies are still pretty good with Archer going.

[Blackbeard D. Kuma]

One series that I still have to get around to seeing in its entirety is Batman Beyond. From the little I've seen of it, it's an awesome series that is quite frankly underrated and overlooked (part of that probably has to do with Terry McGinnus being the main character and Batman and not Bruce Wayne. The quality is on par with STAS if not better, which is a tad below the elites like JL/JLU and BTAS. Its feature film "Return of the Joker" is still considered to be one of the best animated films DC has produced to this day. And speaking of animated films, Marvel really doesn't hold a candle to DC in that department. With DC, we're consistently getting good-to-great animated films; whereas with Marvel, we're getting mediocre-to-crap animated films (and much less frequently at that).

[Destined_Fate]

I don't like DC Animation atm... Picking Katana over Cassandra Cain(Batgirl/Black Bat) for the new Batman series is simply insulting. That and I hate that Young Justice was cancelled on a Cliffhanger right after they showed us Stephanie Brown. This is turn reminds me of DC's ignorant comments that Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are "Toxic" and cannot be used by anyone even when writers for Animation and Comics have asked to use either or both.

Marvel Animation has seen better days as well.

[Suzuku]

Marvel Animation (i.e. Loebanimation) is worse than DC animation right now. At least what DC is putting out is entertaining if paling in comparison to their past work. Marvel Animation has just jumped off a cliff ever since Loeb got put in charge of the department.

[GDB]

Of course, it's Loeb. His writing's been bad ever since his son died (and I wasn't a big fan of it before that either, but at least some people were).

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Blackbeard D. Kuma

One series that I still have to get around to seeing in its entirety is Batman Beyond. From the little I've seen of it, it's an awesome series that is quite frankly underrated and overlooked (part of that probably has to do with Terry McGinnus being the main character and Batman and not Bruce Wayne. The quality is on par with STAS if not better, which is a tad below the elites like JL/JLU and BTAS. Its feature film "Return of the Joker" is still considered to be one of the best animated films DC has produced to this day. And speaking of animated films, Marvel really doesn't hold a candle to DC in that department. With DC, we're consistently getting good-to-great animated films; whereas with Marvel, we're getting mediocre-to-crap animated films (and much less frequently at that).

It's a great show. I'd say it's below Superman TAS, but not by much. I only watched it a bit as a kid, but I watched the series in its entirety a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the reason it doesn't get enough attention is that it's kind of stuck in the shadows of the other big DCAU three. A rare abundance of riches. Then of course, like you said, Bruce isn't Batman and also all the villains were created for the show (other than the joker gang, sorta).

Originally Posted by Destined_Fate

I don't like DC Animation atm... Picking Katana over Cassandra Cain(Batgirl/Black Bat) for the new Batman series is simply insulting. That and I hate that Young Justice was cancelled on a Cliffhanger right after they showed us Stephanie Brown. This is turn reminds me of DC's ignorant comments that Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are "Toxic" and cannot be used by anyone even when writers for Animation and Comics have asked to use either or both.

Marvel Animation has seen better days as well.

Actually, Katana is one of my favorite parts of Beware the Batman. I think she's a good choice. It's not Batman TAS and it's obviously in a different category entirely from Brave and the Bold, but I am still enjoying it well enough.

At least it's better than the complete misfire of the comedy Teen Titans Go... When you think that, for once, they have taken the plunge and decided to revive an old series, they screw it up entirely. Freaking annoying considering they basically ended the original series on a random and unnecessary cliffhanger.

[Ithekro]

I watched the first season or two of it, and then I stopped watching. Though I don't remember way. It might have changed time slots or even networks I guess. To be fair, I didn't even know Justice League existed until a few years ago, so I think that was around the time they changed from Fox or WB to Cartoon Network, as we didn't have that then.

[james0246]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

At least it's better than the complete misfire of the comedy Teen Titans Go... When you think that, for once, they have taken the plunge and decided to revive an old series, they screw it up entirely. Freaking annoying considering they basically ended the original series on a random and unnecessary cliffhanger.

I actually like Teem Titans Go. It is a surprisingly dark and very sexual series. I've seen at least half a dozen episodes that have ended in the death of some if not all the characters, and Robin's hard-on for Starfire is so obvious I'm surprised he doesn't have a cushion firmly implanted in front of his groin so as to draw attention away from the Flying Graysons tentpole attraction.

That's not to say I necessarily like the lack of any discernible storyline or character progress, but for what it is it is done quite well with a distinct skew towards the comfortably bizarre.

[Destined_Fate]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

It's a great show. I'd say it's below Superman TAS, but not by much. I only watched it a bit as a kid, but I watched the series in its entirety a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the reason it doesn't get enough attention is that it's kind of stuck in the shadows of the other big DCAU three. A rare abundance of riches. Then of course, like you said, Bruce isn't Batman and also all the villains were created for the show (other than the joker gang, sorta).



Actually, Katana is one of my favorite parts of Beware the Batman. I think she's a good choice. It's not Batman TAS and it's obviously in a different category entirely from Brave and the Bold, but I am still enjoying it well enough.

At least it's better than the complete misfire of the comedy Teen Titans Go... When you think that, for once, they have taken the plunge and decided to revive an old series, they screw it up entirely. Freaking annoying considering they basically ended the original series on a random and unnecessary cliffhanger.

I don't like her in it because it feels like she's taking a spot that Cassandra could have filled. Than again I'm mainly bitter at DC, and not Katana as I do like her character, because they refuse to let even the comic writers use Cassandra(and Stephanie) even when they request to use her. Smallville comic was also supposed to have Stephanie Brown but DC Editorial demanded that she be replaced with Barbara Gorden after it was leaked that Stephanie Brown wass Nightwing for Smallville.

Injustice ,the fighting game, also should have had Cassandra, the best fighting Batgirl, over Barbara as well due to its darker theme.

[HasuMasu]

Batman Beyond is my favourite DC animated series.

Spectacular Spiderman reminds me of it; no surprise it's my favourite Marvel animated series.

I don't know, but Terry always seemed to me like a cross between Bruce and Peter.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by james0246

I actually like Teem Titans Go. It is a surprisingly dark and very sexual series. I've seen at least half a dozen episodes that have ended in the death of some if not all the characters, and Robin's hard-on for Starfire is so obvious I'm surprised he doesn't have a cushion firmly implanted in front of his groin so as to draw attention away from the Flying Graysons tentpole attraction.

That's not to say I necessarily like the lack of any discernible storyline or character progress, but for what it is it is done quite well with a distinct skew towards the comfortably bizarre.

Robin's affection for Starfire is probably the only thing I liked about the show since I was a "shipper" of them in the main series (did I just call myself a shipper...? )

The comedy itself is mediocre IMO and the enjoyment level is severely hindered by thoughts of what could have been a proper sequel to the original series.

[Suzuku]

Originally Posted by GDB

Of course, it's Loeb. His writing's been bad ever since his son died (and I wasn't a big fan of it before that either, but at least some people were).

Yeah, something happened then. Now almost everything he does is father/son stories where the dad is a shitty bum. I've never wanted to make fun of a guy grieving over his son's death so much, but it's been going on for too many years with Loeb. Plus, his writing has always been better for DC anyway. His most acclaimed Marvel book, Spider-Man: Blue, I think is really overhyped. Tim Sale's art is better than Loeb's writing on that.

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Suzuku

Marvel Animation (i.e. Loebanimation) is worse than DC animation right now. At least what DC is putting out is entertaining if paling in comparison to their past work. Marvel Animation has just jumped off a cliff ever since Loeb got put in charge of the department.

Originally Posted by GDB

Of course, it's Loeb. His writing's been bad ever since his son died (and I wasn't a big fan of it before that either, but at least some people were).

Uh, Loeb has nothing to do what Marvel Animation is doing now.

Anyway, i just saw Iron Man: Rise of the Technogrove. Great voice acting which also includes Norman Reedus aka Daryl Dixon as The Punisher. Madhouse work with the animation is great as well. The story is kinda mix but it was a nice watch.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Uh, Loeb has nothing to do what Marvel Animation is doing now.

Loeb is the head of Marvel Animation

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

Loeb is the head of Marvel Animation

Oh sorry. I thought you meant Rob Liefeld.

[Dilla]

Originally Posted by james0246

The recent Flashpoint film was pretty damn good. One of the few non-Batman/Superman films released by DC Animation, Flashpoint expertly covers its source material while provide a fun hour plus of entertainment.

Just saw this, and I agree with you. Flashpoint was really good.

Professor Zoom was a great villain.

[MrTerrorist]

Kevin Conroy VS Tim Daly

YouTube

https://youtu.be/nYCVnWStLrg

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Also this.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/ebXB0lBoaQ0

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[Frontier]

The first video: Ten times more awesome than the actual Superman/Batman movie is likely to be .

The second video: Just as awesome .