Take 5: Favorite Animated Super-Hero Shows

Karen: Last weekend my husband and I were watching the Green Lantern animated series again, and were struck by just how good it was -the story, the characters, the design, the whole she-bang. It got me to thinking about super-hero animated series, and which ones were my favorites. So without further adieu, I'm going to list my five favorites, seeing as this is a "Take 5" post, and then I'll leave it up to the rest of you to discuss the merits of my list, your own list, each others lists -you get the picture!

1. Justice League: I'm definitely a Marvel fan more than a DC fan, but this show, to me, is just the epitome of animated super-hero shows. A perfect selection of characters, great writing which demonstrated understanding of all those characters and how they fit together, excellent voice casting -Kevin Conroy will always be Batman to me - and stories that drew from the breadth and depth of the DC universe. Plus fabulous Bruce Timm designs. Even when it became Justice League Unlimited it was still a winner. Although the first theme song was the best.

2. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: If only this show had gotten another season or two! Instead it was replaced with a watered-down, unwatchable  22 minute ad for toys. This series was everything a Marvel fan could have hoped for. It followed many traditional storylines but subtly incorporated elements from the Marvel films too. The characters acted like they should and we got guest stars from across the Marvel universe. My only complaint would be the art, but it was acceptable if not outstanding.

3. Batman the Animated Series: A classic. It's got Kevin Conroy. Mark Hamill as the Joker. That great opening sequence. This cartoon 'gets' Batman better than any of the films.

4. Green Lantern the Animated Series: This is space and super-heroes done right, with a surprising amount of pathos thrown in. At first I thought I would dislike the animation style, but I came to really enjoy it. The show did a great job fleshing out the main characters and the major storyline in the later half had some spectacular space battles. A sad ending though -I wish they had gotten another season (this is becoming a common complaint).

5. (Tie) Young Justice/ Wolverine and the X-Men: OK, I cheated, but I couldn't decide between these two very good shows! Young Justice was essentially the Teen Titans plus regular guest appearances by the Justice League. Wolverine and the X-Men had a strong storyline that utilized elements of Days of Future Past but put them together in a unique way.

Avengers Pre-Assembled

Karen: The new Avengers cartoon, Avengers Assemble, has been on the air for about 4 weeks or so now. Not sure if any of you have noticed. We've been watching it sort of half-heartedly in my house. We're trying to give it a chance, but it just lacks the smarts and style of its predecessor, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Karen: It's quite obvious that Marvel is doing everything they can to make this animated show resemble the movie version of Avengers as much as possible. As far as I know, that's the main reason they cancelled A:EMH and started up this new show, to try to present some sort of 'unified front' in their entertainment I suppose. The costumes look more like the movies outfits, and at least for Iron Man, the actor doing the voice seems to be trying to sound like Robert Downey Jr.

Karen: There's also the jokes. I don't think a line of dialogue can end without a joke, unless it's Captain America talking. He's the only one who gets an exemption it seems. And there's little to no character development. I think the only character who has seen any actual time devoted to understanding who he is would be the Falcon, and that's because he's used as a viewpoint character. Of course, they've also completely changed him from the comics, but I guess that doesn't matter, because the cartoon doesn't appear to really be referencing the comics.

Karen: So far I believe I've seen five episodes (including the two-part premiere) and it's pretty much been wall to wall action, with characters crashing and smashing across the screen but little in the way of plot or motivation. It's obviously geared to keep the kids interested and ready to buy toys. I know I had read that Jeph Loeb said they were going with "done in one" stories because the multi-episode stories of A:EMH were basically too much for little kids to handle. I guess good plotting and character development are too.

Karen: They do a segment at the end of the show comparing an Avenger's powers to a real life athlete and they use clips from A:EMH and it just reminds me every time how much better that show was than this new show. I'm hoping we'll see improvement but I doubt it. I think, for me, a big part of the problem is that this show seems so removed from the comics, whereas A:EMH embraced the 40+ years of history Marvel has and drew upon it. They had episodes with the Kree Sentry, for Pete's sake! Now we have seen some old- time villains in the new show too, but they keep having to tie them into the movies somehow  and it just feels weird: the Super-Adaptoid created by Justin Hammer?

Karen: I haven't even touched on the animation. While I never thought A:EMH was fantastic, it looks far better than AA, which sometimes makes me think I am watching an old episode of GI Joe. Seriously, who is drawing this thing?

Karen: While there's nothing inherently wrong with Marvel wanting to promote their movie line, it's a shame they had to take off a really well-made show like A:EMH and replace it with pablum like AA to do it.

The new:

The old: