Mmm, that’s good geekery…

Updated on April 2, 2012 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is probably my favorite Marvel cartoon series since the original (non-Bakshi) Spider-Man show of the ’60s. Still not up to the Timm / Dini DC shows, which is saying something because I don’t love DC like I do Marvel. Still, those connected animated series are easily my favorite discrete version of the DC universe.

Anyway, they had several heroic guest stars in the first season of the Avengers show, and a metric ton of villains. My main question was, as Marvel has under previous regimes sold off various character rights to other studios (not likely to happen again now that Disney owns the company), which characters would be flat out excluded from appearing on the show.

This still largely answers the question. If the FF, Spidey and Wolverine are kosher, then it’s possible that there are no character restrictions at all.

Probably won’t see the show until the season hits DVD, but damn, that’s sweet right there.

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    I remember a conversation on “Arrested Development” in which Michael makes a deal with GOB over “Mr. Banana-Grabber.”  Michael allows GOB most of the character, but he says “I retain animation rights.”

    I wonder if there’s something like that at work here, that animation- and live-action- versions are separate permissions, and maybe Marvel never sold the animation rights.  Seems unlikely, but…damn, that is one nice still up there.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    By the way, I recognize most of those folks (except guy with one odd arm at extreme right, woman with star on her chest, woman with orange arms in front of star-woman, and huge black guy on the left).

    But aren’t Ant-Man and Yellowjacket the same person?  Admittedly I’ve been out of the comics loop for some time…

  • Ken_Begg

    Oh, they definitely are different. Live action TV would be yet another discrete area, unless the character rights were broader. However, various entities have done Marvel animated shows, too, so I wasn’t sure if Disney had the rights to all the characters or not in terms of animation.

    Most of the deals (although I have to wonder about Daredevil, since it’s been a goodly while since that movie came out) require a film to at least be in actual production in X amount of time, or the rights revert to Marvel, now Disney. That’s why they made a 2nd Ghost Rider movie, and why a third FF movie–hopefully a hard reboot–is supposedly being ramped up. It could be decades before Disney gets back the rights to all the characters. Or never…Sony might continue to make Spider-Man movies in perpetuity, unless two or three of them really bomb.

  • Ken_Begg

    They are; theories at present involve the shape-shifting Skrulls being at work.

    Luke Cage (formerly Power Man) is the black guy. Star-chested Woman is Ms. Marvel, back in more or less her original costume. Guy with Odd Arm is the Not Really Dead Bucky Barnes, Cap’s WWII fighting partner, who was captured by the Soviets and made into an assassin codenamed Winter Soldier. He’s since come back to himself and was, in the comics, Captain America for a while when Steve Rogers was, as happens, killed. Before, as happens, coming back to life.

    The woman with orange arms was unknown to me as well, thus presumably being a character appearing after my comics heydays, which probably ended in the early ’90s. Buzz has her as perhaps a superpowered SHIELD agent named Quake.

  • I heard this last week that there is, in fact, going to be a new Daredevil movie which again starts over from scratch. Personally, I didn’t think THE TRIAL OF THE INCREDIBLE HULK was a bad intro for the character, even if it was heavily influenced by the recent Burton BATMAN. 

  • Mendou

     Actually, Scott Lang took over as Ant-Man many years ago (probably in the 1980s), leaving Hank Pym the freedom to be Giant-Man (also taken by somebody else), Goliath (again, taken by someone else), Yellowjacket (for a while taken by someone else, if I recall correctly), or just plain Doctor Pym (as yet unclaimed by anyone else).

  • Ken_Begg

    That’s all true, but Ant Man / Giant Man on this show is established to be Henry Pym. Perhaps in the second season he adopts the Yellowjacket persona and leaves Ant-Man to be filled by another, but that’s still pretty arcane stuff. I’m going with the Skrull theory.

    Clint Barton became the Giant Man-ish Goliath after Pym abandoned that identity as well, but that’s *really* obscure. And with Hawkeye being featured in the new Avengers movie, I’d be highly amazed if he left his primary superhero identity.

    I kind of liked the Dr. Pym persona; Pym used his brain and carried around a ton of gear he’d miniaturized in numerous small pockets. An interesting idea.

  • Beckoning Chasm

     I was wondering if that was Luke Cage, but boy, they have REALLY changed his costume completely.  Of course, his original costume was just a yellow shirt, jeans and a funky metal headband…and I do see he still has the original chain belt.

  • The Rev.

    Wow, I did good on that picture.  The Ant-Man/Yellowjacket thing threw me, but I knew both; I wondered why Winter Soldier was with the Avengers (recognized him from that Marvel Alliance video game) since I didn’t know he had come to the good side; and I knew all the others, save that mystery woman in orange.  I don’t even read comics that much anymore, outside of “Hellboy” and “Hack/Slash.”

  • The Rev.

    I did recognize him, again thanks to that Marvel Alliance game, where he looks a lot like that.  I realize they probably wanted to update his look, but man, those jive turkeys needed to put their weight on it, now can you dig it?

  • Toby

    “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is probably my favorite Marvel
    cartoon series since the original (non-Bakshi) Spider-Man show of the
    ’60s.”

    No love for the 1990s X-Men and Spider-Man series?

  • Ken_Begg

    Not really an X-Men fan, past the Claremont / Byrne era. The Spider-Man cartoon was competent, but it looked pretty lackluster compared to Batman: The Animated Series (which is 20 years old now!).

    Actually, my favorite Marvel toons during that interim were, somewhat surprisingly, the NBC and UPN Hulk cartoons. Not my favorite character (although I like him; he’s the Hulk), but both shows were very, very solid. And the UPN one featured a ton of guest stars, which was very fun.