Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "animated-series"
The Best Superhero Animated Series of All Time #3: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
This is a fairly recent series that invites comparisons with the earlier Justice League series. To me, the programs took two very different tacts.
In Justice League, we already know Batman and Superman, and the other five members are introduced and we only get snippets of their backstory strewn throughout the series. This worked because those two first seasons of Justice League told 24 separate stories that were pretty much self-contained. Then when the program expanded to Justice League Unlimited, it introduced almost every character who had been in continuity in the DC universe. (I was surprised Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis weren't there.)
Avengers took a different tact. It began with a series of twenty micro-episodes which became the first six episodes on Netflix and other streaming websites which served to introduce the characters and the plot lines before they got into action.
Once the Avengers are formed in response to the events of "Break Out," the series takes off. At its most complex, Justice League had one major plot thread running through the series, Avengers would often go back and forth between two and three different plots while dealing with one-off threats. It kept mostly to the original cast in Season 1 and very slowly began to introduce other heroes of the Marvel Universe as not to overwhelm us in Season 2.
The series capitalized on existing Marvel comic stories like "Live Kree or Die." and "Secret Invasion." but managed to do so without seeming too derivative.
They managed to build believable human dynamics within the team that were believable and not overdone. Another thing I like about this series is the portrayal of Captain America. The series creators respected all he is and all he brings to the Avengers and grit and courage of Cap is definitely on display. I similarly loved the portrayals of Black Panther and Carol Danvers who have never been big players in Marvel animation.
No discussion of this series would be complete without including Iron Man's Asgardian Uru Armor in Season One.
The negatives are few. Yes, Season 2 wasn't really good as Season 1 and the Season 2 opening was bad. The series did leave Hank Pym in an odd spot after he rejoined the Avengers as Yellowjacket. But overall, I think the series began well and finished well and really set a new benchmark for superhero team series.
In Justice League, we already know Batman and Superman, and the other five members are introduced and we only get snippets of their backstory strewn throughout the series. This worked because those two first seasons of Justice League told 24 separate stories that were pretty much self-contained. Then when the program expanded to Justice League Unlimited, it introduced almost every character who had been in continuity in the DC universe. (I was surprised Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis weren't there.)
Avengers took a different tact. It began with a series of twenty micro-episodes which became the first six episodes on Netflix and other streaming websites which served to introduce the characters and the plot lines before they got into action.
Once the Avengers are formed in response to the events of "Break Out," the series takes off. At its most complex, Justice League had one major plot thread running through the series, Avengers would often go back and forth between two and three different plots while dealing with one-off threats. It kept mostly to the original cast in Season 1 and very slowly began to introduce other heroes of the Marvel Universe as not to overwhelm us in Season 2.
The series capitalized on existing Marvel comic stories like "Live Kree or Die." and "Secret Invasion." but managed to do so without seeming too derivative.
They managed to build believable human dynamics within the team that were believable and not overdone. Another thing I like about this series is the portrayal of Captain America. The series creators respected all he is and all he brings to the Avengers and grit and courage of Cap is definitely on display. I similarly loved the portrayals of Black Panther and Carol Danvers who have never been big players in Marvel animation.
No discussion of this series would be complete without including Iron Man's Asgardian Uru Armor in Season One.
The negatives are few. Yes, Season 2 wasn't really good as Season 1 and the Season 2 opening was bad. The series did leave Hank Pym in an odd spot after he rejoined the Avengers as Yellowjacket. But overall, I think the series began well and finished well and really set a new benchmark for superhero team series.
Book Review: X-Men'92: War Zones
X-Men '92, Vol. 0: Warzones! by Chad BowersMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Not at all what I was expecting. It attempted parody (I guess) but really comes off as disjointed, confused, hard to follow, and pointless, not helped by the efforts to tie it in to the main Secret Wars story arc.
View all my reviews
Christians and Superheroes
I'm a Christian who writes superhero fiction (some parody and some serious.)
On this blog, we'll take a look at:
1) Superhero stories
2) Issues of faith in relation to Superhero stories
3) Writing Superhe ...more
On this blog, we'll take a look at:
1) Superhero stories
2) Issues of faith in relation to Superhero stories
3) Writing Superhe ...more
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