Superman Through the Ages! Forum

What superhero has yet to have an animated series, but ought to?

Iron Man has had TWO animated series: one in 1966 ("A cool exec with a heart of steel - as Iron Man, all jets ablaze, he FIGHTS and FIGHTS with REPULSOR RAYS!") and another as a part of the Marvel Action Hour in the 1990s, but truthfully, Iron Man's yet to have a DEFINITIVE animated version, the way Batman has.

If we're talking a character that hasn't seen television yet, though...

How about the Black Panther?

The Panther has an incredible world: Wakanda, the Techno-Jungle, the White Gorillas, and terrific gadgets like the energy daggers and vibranium soles that let him walk up buidiongs. As he is a King, he has a very unique role that few other heroes have. He's a character that's so goshdarned COOL that it can appeal to anybody. The theme song suggests itself - a JONNY QUEST style jazz piece with heavy tribal drums.

They could do a five-part opening serial, ala GARGOYLES, where they can place side-by side the Don MacGregor JUNGLE ACTION origin of the Panther (and maybe some of the Roy Thomas AVENGERS origin), right next to a modern-day story based on Christopher Priest's first arc, with the Hatut Zeraze and their master plan to lure the Panther out of Wakanda.

And the Panther has some pretty great villains: Eric Killmonger, Klaw, the Man-Ape, the White Wolf, A.I.M...

The Panther is surrounded by a terrific supporting cast: big softy Zuri, Amazon teenage karate chick bodyguards, Monica, Everett K. Ross (the world's whitest white man) and all sorts of terrific vehicles that would make fantastic toys. I'd love to have a Prowler, his giant robot panther tank, on my desk, that's for sure. And did I mention...

...THE FLYING SUB?

NO, I DON'T THINK I DID!  :D

THE BLACK PANTHER HAS A FLYING SUB.

My God, the toy possibilities. Everybody can get an action figure.

Worried about there not being enough female viewers? Ha! The Panther is one of the few legitimate, goshdarned STUDS that inhabit the adventure comics world.


You know another guy that needs an animated series, who surprisingly, hasn't gotten one?

Green Lantern!

Like the Black Panther, GL has his own very defined world that he inhabits, with very clear elements. He's got a supporting cast both human and Corps members, a very visual set of powers (one that I suspect works better in animation than in live action). Heck, they can break the show up like they did back in the day and do 15 minutes of Hal, then 15 minutes of some randomly chosen alien in some alien environment.

If I ruled the animated world, I would release one installment of Batman: The Long Halloween on Cartoon Theatre each month for a year. Bizarro would have his own show on Adult Swim.

I would love to see Aquaman, the Avengers, or the Spirit on TV. Although how they could pull the Spirit off, considering his sidekick, I don't know.

Ant-Man. Okay, can't see many merchandising opportunities, but still! An Ant-Man cartoon, wow.

Sorry, I think SNL nailed the whole "Ant-Man" thing years ago:

"Ant-Man, huh?  So what's your super power?"
"I can shrink to the size of an ant but keep the strength of a man."
"Wow.  I guess you really whip up on the other ants, huh?"  :lol:

Honestly, I dont' see how they could get a whole series out of that guy, even though I do dig that groovy helmet.

I second the vote for Green Lantern, a concept with unlimited animation potential.  And which I seriously hope does NOT get made as a live-action comedy with Jack Black.  :shock:

I also really liked that Plastic Man pilot that showed up on the web last week.  But then I even liked the 70s Plas cartoon, bad as it was.  

Dr Strange could be fun.  I understand there's an animated film in the works.

What I'd love to see, but they'd never do it, is a period piece JSA series set in the 40s.  Nazis, mad scientists, robots...the whole ball of wax.

As a really old guy, I tried to flex my feable super brain and remembered that there were a few Green Lantern episodes that ran as part of the Superman/Aquaman adventure hour in the late 60s...

http://www.eskimo.com/~tegan/aqua/media/tvshow.html

The theme music from the few JLA episodes always stayed with me, for some reason...

Plastic Man got a pilot aired on Cartoon Network, sadly it did not get picked up as a series.

You can see it here: http://www.addictingclips.com/Clip.aspx?key=7E602A9F59E39B02

and you can see neat artwork from it here:
http://stephendestefano.blogspot.com/

Astro City

or, perhaps only slightly less realistically...

Spider-Girl, animated by the same team that does Cowboy Bebop/Samurai Champloo

Mostly what I know of the Superman/Aquaman Adventures for the brief, almost single episode Teen Titans series, featuring the original Silver Age roster: Robin, Speedy, Wonder Girl, etc.



Astonishingly, Aquaman has had a pretty interesting animated series career; he was brought into cartoons because they felt that with his nonviolent powers and command over animals is something that the kiddies would really dig.




Ha ha ha! Strangely enough, I just saw that on the SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: 25 YEARS special just yesterday during the "hurricane." John Belushi as the Incredible Hulk is the greatest casting EVER. And check out the seventies Spider-Woman in the background on that one.

As much as I love Hank Pym (and I do) there are some characters that work because of what they bring to a team dynamic, not just for their solo appearances. Characters like Red Tornado, Elongated Man, Vision, the Scarlet Witch, as well as the Wasp and Giant-Man. If they do an Avengers series, they should definitely have Hank Pym involved.

I was recently reading the series proposal for Kurt Busiek's AVENGERS run; originally, he wanted Hank Pym and the Wasp to be members of the team instead of occasional guest-stars as they ultimately were.


Speaking of Busiek, here's one series that I'm absolutely flabbergasted that during its heyday, there was never any talk of it becoming an animated series:

THUNDERBOLTS!

A bunch of great characters with interesting powers (and an absolutely mind blowing twist ending on the first issue). It has a very strong concept, and terrific villains. True, lots of the events of 'Bolts are related to events in the Marvel Universe (e.g. Heroes Return) but that doesn't mean the stories can't work on their own, just as SPIDER-MAN 2 seemed to compress several stories in one.

Beppo, that clip is down.  Or did you just want us to see all those monkeys in the banner ad?

:s:

sorry about that, it keeps getting pull off lots of websites.

try doing a google search for Plastic Man pilot

SHAZAM!

On CN, imagine watching Billy and the rest of the Marvels foil the arcane threat of Dr. Sivana and his Monster Society of Evil! This series would be complete with special appearances by Tawky Tawny, the mystical magician Ibis, and the nerfarious super-criminal master Mr. Mind.

no Captain Nazi for obvious reasons

 :roll: Mhhh...I fear it will be short lived like is comic book series.....

 :s:  :s:  :s:

Oh all right, forget about Ant-Man. How about The Atom? I'd pay to watch him surfing through the subatomic porridge, changing his size and mass and stuff. Or Doll-Man! Yes, I like superheroes who can shrink; please don't ask me why.

Other than that, yeah, a good Shazam! cartoon would be nice.

By the way, I found the Plastic Man pilot on YouTube; it's not a very good resolution video, but get it while it's on:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=plastic+man+pilot&meta=
Or just wait for someone else to post it.

Er, sorry, posted the wrong link there. I meant to say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J0-sHI0_HA
I'll be back later in the show.

 

Actually, Robin WASN'T part of The Teen Titans in those days, nor was Batman a member of The Justice League of America.  I think it had something to do with ABC-TV's live action Batman show.  

The Dynamic Duo didn't even become part of that DC Filmation Universe until 1968, when ABC cancelled the show.  

Does anyone have any idea why Aquaman was never in any of the JLA cartoons?  He was featured in the promos, as shown in this link:  

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hpbRNw9YyFE  

You can find all three of the cartoons here!  :)

There was a Shazam! cartoon back in the early '80's by Filmation, as part of the "Kid Super Power Hour" on NBC... the animation was very faithful to the CC Beck/Kurt Schaffenberger style.

Since this is a SUPERMAN board, let's at least keep it DC.

I also vote for a Hal Jordan Green Lantern cartoon series or a Flash series and of course, Capt Marvel

BUT the problem these days seems to be the poor animation I've seen coming out of the DC sanctioned stables lately... this manga look they're going for lately.  It doesn't work.

Oh for the days of Timm and 1960's Filmation

Well, I'm not a huge fan of the anime style of Legion of Super Heroes, but the Filmation style was very primitive.

Well, yeah, the Filmation ANIMATION was primitive, but the heroes looked heroic.  Superman looks like Curt Swan did the animation...

I DO like anime style... just not on my DC heroes

Well, only the original Superman Cartoons had great animation!

The rest had really bad to ok animation.

Never watched the TT 'toon, but I like the anime/Timm mixture in the LOSH cartoon.

My understanding is the whole Jack Black thing got blown way out of proportion.

I mean, I don't think they wanted Jack Black to be HAL JORDAN, that's the thing. They just wanted him to be some very goofy, other guy that becomes a Green Lantern. That's a world of difference between the two ideas.

As long as he's not Hal, I wouldn't mind seeing Jack Black in a Green Lantern outfit, hamming it up Adam West style.

Hey-- its that deStefano guy who's the doing ALIEN BABY comci strip in the Weekly World News!!!

A Justice Society cartoon, set on a different earth (or at least a different era) from the Justice League would be fun. We saw a JSA knock-off in a two-part episode of the JLA animated series, but never the real thing.

I think a Shazam! cartoon would be awesome. Especially in the age of Harry Potter and Ben 10, Shazam! would be right at home. Don't make it too silly, but still have fun with it. You'd need a sort of Genndy meets Timm artstyle for it. Take a cue from Jeff Smith and make Billy a *little* boy. You can have lots of magic monsters and he can also encounter heroes like Spy Smasher, the Bulleteers, and Isis. Billy could have a crush on her.  ;D

Billy could also do some traveling in order to find his sister Mary and he could have help from Uncle Dudley.

Sivanna could still be a mad scientist but he discovers that magic exists and wants to harness power like the Shazam lightening for himself and his inventions. I can see him doing something to free Black Adam thinking he's gonna get him to work as minion to which Black Adam quickly schools Sivanna and the master ends up the lackey. Kinda like, one day you're Lex Luthor then you do something boneheaded and suddenly you're Deesad.