Picked this up yesterday-not too bad. Standard comic fare-BASED on is the key here. They got the characters right-well, except for Hank Pym, which is an odd way of looking at him-but the base story is changed from the comics.
Animation is better than JLU, but not as good as a feature film.
The good stuff is in there-Tony is having alcohol troubles, Cap is a bit confused, Nick is nutz, Hank and Janet are having issues-but the beating scene from the last of Ultimates I is not in there- kinda a cop out, Thor is well-Thor. The Norseisms spoken out loud are pretty funny. Banner and Betty are true to U I, and the Hulk is grey-which is a nice touch.
The fight at the end is Marvel geek goodness. Hulk vs…well, everybody-but Thor v. Hulk and Cap v. Hulk really shines. Hulk just kicks the crap out of giant man-twice. Brutally too-not the standard smack through a building beating.
They did a good job of showing why Cap is really the best at what he does and is who he is. This is the best Cap on film-which honestly isn’t saying too much after the ‘movie’ and tv show.
There is a great interview with the ‘creators’ of the Avengers-Bendis,Perez exc…good stuff. None of the old guys though-for once. I love Stan but how many times can I hear him wax poetic on the same stuff.
If you are a comic geek, this is a gotta see.
Thanks! I started a thread in the other section, I wasn’t sure if this fell more into the movie category or the comics and TV category, but glad to hear your impressions.
Thanks. Does it have the feel of a movie length feature or more like a couple of episodes of a serial? Sometimes 71 minutes (anything less than 90) seems really short, and sometimes it’s about right. Speaking of which is this the start of a series of some sort or clearly a standalone project?
I don’t know how far they plan to take it, but apparently there’s a preview on the disc for the followup. No idea of there will just be a few sequels, or if it will be a regular thing, nor if it will continue to follow the comics or do its own thing. Here’s hoping for an Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine though…
The upcoming is Ultimates II in Aug., Iron Man in the fall, something else which I forgot, and Doc Strange in the spring of '07.
The length feels just right.
Honestly-this is the best Marvel cartoon ever made, and is totally worthy for any collection.
Hrm…Second season of Fantastic Four was good- the first season was total crap-except Galactus.
Spidey was good and bad-mostly good(the one that was on Fox sat mornings.
Was really fun toward the end with all the team ups.
Love the old 60’s Spidey for pure wierdness. Great music too.
Hulk- meh.
Iron Man and friends or whatever it was called- meh
Silver Surfer- the closest we will ever see to Kirby in motion. Loved the style, disapointed in the stories.
Spidey and his amazing friends- does not hold up well, but I do remember the X-Men episode with juggernaut from childhood.
X-Men - hey they did the Pheonix saga-sort of. Loathed the animation but they did a good job of capturing the 80/90’s X-Men
X-Men Evo- blech
Avengers Sat Morning- this NEVER happened.
Old 60’s Cap/iron Man/Hulk- well, great stories but what animation? Loved it when I was a kid, but unwatchable now.
Wow, I don’t even know about most of those – are the Hulk, FF, Iron Man and Silver Surfer pretty new?
My thoughts on the ones I’ve seen:
old 60s ones (other than Spidey) - cool to see Kirby’s art for nostalgia’s sake, but not really watchable.
60s Spidey - classic, although pretty terrible now. I’ll always associate that guy’s voice with Peter Parker though, er, vice versa. Bonus points for remaking an exact episode of Rocket Robin Hood.
Spidey Amazing Friends - that was the firestar/iceman one, right? Pretty lame, although it was cool to see some of the comic villains, animated better than they were in the 60s.
FF 70s (oh, is that what you were referring to - the one with HERBIE?) That was really lame - I didn’t know they had Galactus in it though. That would be cool.
X-men 90s – I thought this was excellent. Great adaptations of some classic stories (the Phoenix story was really well done, I thought, and made more sense than the comic/retconned version, since they knew where they were going in the first place). I liked this enough it got me back into collecting comics, even though I didn’t know who this Gambit guy was or how Jean was alive again, heh.
Spidey 90s – mainly disappointed that it wasn’t as good as the X-men series, although it was definitely the best Spidey. I only saw a few of these though (just downloaded the series though, since it’s not available on DVD), and was amazed to realize that they did Secret Wars - that’s awesome.
Avengers 90 - saw one episode of this and thought it was abysmal
X-men Evolution – wtf?? This kinda offended me on principle, after the amazing 90s series.
I thought X-Men Evolution was one of the best marvel animated shows. That was probably because it wasn’t butchering characters I knew and liked in the way that all the other shows did, but I still enjoyed it.
However, almost all the DC shows kick each marvel show individually and collectively to hell and back. Even including the somewhat bizarrely characterized “Teen Titans”. (None of the Teen Titans books I read really featured the “pre-teen titans” like the cartoon. Then again, if they featured the comic book Starfire, I doubt even Adult Swim would have her.)
What was the one where Spiderman went to some alternate reality? That series was decent, but I think it was separate from the normal Spiderman 90s. I was disappointed in the X-Men 90s, mainly because it had such potential to be cool but never really reached it, IMO. It’s hard to say exactly why.
I loved the mid-90’s Spider-Man and X-Men series. I thought they did a great job of bringing major historical story arcs from each franchise to life, from the Goblin and Venom to the Sentinels and Phoenix. I wish they’d put them out on DVD already.
I never really liked X-Men Evolution. The first X-Men series had a graver, more epic tone to it, while Evolution felt more like Kiddie X-Men.
How long did Silver Surfer run? Was it more than a few weeks? I remember seeing the pilot, and then it vanished forever.
The old FF cartoons were kind of hokey in the same way as the 60’s Spider cartoons, but they were still better than the more recent FF series. The first season of that was AWFUL, and had arguably the worst theme song in the history of television.
I recall Spider-Man Unlimited (http://imdb.com/title/tt0207120/), but I believe Fox pulled the plug on it after just a few weeks.
There was also the MTV Spider-Man series (http://imdb.com/title/tt0290983/), which had some cool CGI and Neil Patrick Harris and Lisa Loeb doing the voices. I didn’t like it as much as the Fox series, but I thought it was pretty well done nonetheless.
Missed a couple:
70’s FF-with Herbie- these never happened.
The FF I was thinking of was the late 90’s one. With the human torch.Yeah that theme song does suck badly. It is out on DVD.
MTV Spidey- Good stuff- odd animation. Also out on DVD
Spidey Unlimited-where he goes to the other planet- loved LOVED the art of this and what’s his name from Clerks as Spidey was a good pick.
Sluggo- Surfer actually ran a full season- but I haven’t found them on DVD yet. Way to gloomy/freaky for sat morning TV.
OK Now the wish list time:
Spider-man team up show. New buddy every week. Give those second tier heroes a chance!
Avengers Classic- like issues 50-200 or so.
Daredevil-film noir style like the Spawn cartoon
On MTV or HBO-Ghost Rider-Johnny Blaze version-with the flame chopper(2nd bike)
Capt. America- but like the run that is going on now
More X-Men
in the never happen dept:
Alien Leigon
Astro City
Marvels-all CGI with Alex Ross styling.
Authority
Rising Stars-just one single animated movie telling the whole arc.
You know what is cool? I dreamed of all this super hero stuff as a kid- and my boys already have it all waiting for them on the shelves. What I would have done for that 90’s Spidey cartoon when I was 9 or 10 instead of 20 something. And superhero movies?!? Unthinkable when I was a kid.
Robert- X-Men disapointmnet- that’s easy. They were never able to go all the way with anything- Jean’s death, Wolve kicking the shit out of guys…X-Men is tragic for the most part, and kiddie cartoons just don’t allow for that.
is a pretty cool pic some guy mocked up of what a FF movie vs. Galactus might look like if it was done faithfully (apparently that is the next FF movie).
Hmm, I picked up UA this morning. Wal Mart seems to be open pretty much anytime.
So far i am enjoying the movie.
One question though. I’ve been reading comics since I was a lad and don’t really remember Nick Fury being, hmmm, so tan. When did this happen? (Not being an ass or anything, just wondering when they made this change.)
