The Future of Marvel Animation

[Hybrid]

Marvel Animation for much of the '10s has been embarrassing for Marvel fans as a whole. They churned out crap show after crap show aimed what kids, or rather the kind of dumb kids Jeph Loeb imagines compared to reality, at the same rate DC was putting out top tier animation. It's a shame too, because Marvel had a trio of good animated series before they took over: Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!. They all met their end so Loeb could produce cheap, dumbed-down tie-ins to the movies with no personality, style or merit of their own. Ever since I got Disney+, I've been watching a lot of older Marvel shows, but I had no desire to see any of the newer shows on the service.

However, late in 2019, something magical happened. Disney restructured Marvel Entertainment so that Kevin Feige is now in charge of the whole thing, not just the movies. Furthermore, Marvel Animation is now a subsidiary of Marvel Studios, rather than Marvel Television. The latter was created to fill the TV void because Marvel Studios was thought to only do movies, but they became completely redundant when Marvel Studios began developing high budget shows that are actually connected to the MCU instead of just being advertised as such with that "It's all connected" crap (by which Loeb means vague allusions to MCU heroes and nothing more). Finally, the millstone that was Jeph Loeb effectively removed, him stepping down to pursue a career at another company. He's out of the picture.

So what does this mean for the future of Marvel Animation?

Here's what we might see:

1. Animated series based off of Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers etc. that are story-based, actually draw from the comics, and aren't there just to be cheap tie-ins.
2. Higher budget shows that allow for better animation itself, making them stick out better.
3. No more forced synergy and cash grabs, but each show has a purpose to exist.
4. Serious, serialized storytelling that proves the legitimacy of the animated medium.
5. Actual action-oriented shows that are on par with DC.
6. Top-tier creators behind the helms of the animated series.
7. All on Disney+.

The only animated series known so far is What If...?, which already looks pretty good in itself. I think Marvel Animation will be much better now that it's answering to Marvel Studios, and not Marvel Television. Don't be surprised if soon they announce a slate of Marvel animated series at some event. We know the original X-Men: TAS creators pitched a revival to Disney, and are now working on a secret project (which isn't a new season of X-Men: TAS but I suspect it's X-Men related given the timing and teases, plus they'd like introduce a new X-Men series as being "from the visionaries behind the classic X-Men series..."). You can bet they're going to announce a Spider-Man series, and probably Avengers as well. I hope they dig deeper, and show us different sides of the lore that could be explored in animation.

It's shaping up to be a very good time to be a Marvel fan. I know they say you shouldn't get too excited, but it's hard when everything is happening the way it should.

What do you think, and what do you hope to see in the future?

Discuss.

[U.N. Owen]

Let's get one basic thing that needs to return to Marvel Animation: proper use of colors. Every single cartoon looks devoid of anything except this washed out look meant to make it realistic. Washed out red, washed out orange, washed out yellow, etc. It looks like this because no shading has been implemented at all.

Browntable has already demonstrated it by going in and adding shading via photoshop. I'll give you one example right here.
Before:
After:

More from here: https://twitter.com/Browntable_Ent/s...58190477938689

[HipHopAvenger]

I'd like something like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes that has the Original 5. Then introduce Namor after Hulk leaves, then Cap and his kooky quartet, then all the way to Avengers Disassembled, then introduce the New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, Secret Avengers, Uncanny, etc...
I'd also like to see the transition of Ms Marvel to Captain Marvel in an Avengers show then make a Cap Marvel cartoon. Introduce these new characters (Miles, Kamala, Sam, RiRi, Rayshaun, etc) after the older guys have been established, not right out the gate.
Thor
Ant-Man & Wasp
Hulk
Cap
Hawkeye
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver

to

Hyperion
Havok
Hulkling
Wiccan
Toni Ho
Ms America Chavez
Ghost Rider
Blade

[Crimz]

I just need a good Fantastic Four animated show.

[Force de Phenix]

I think they drained all the money from animation and told them to make them as close to the MCU as possible so no one could get confused. Avengers wasn't the only one to suffer. The last decent Spider-Man show was from the 90's. Wolverine and the X-Men didn't portray the stories very well. Jean's story was a quasi-copy of the movies too. The Phoenix Saga of was disgusting. The 90's show raised the bar too high for any other show to go back and try to repeat the same story instead of moving forward with the hundreds of available X-Men stories.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver suffered as well. The reason the animation looks so bad is because there are NO shadows/shades. If you have light, you need shadows.

Earth's Mightest was good, but they wanted to do what the X-Men shows did, which was ignore the Avengers completely.

We need to see this again:

[Digifiend]

There's also the possibility of Marvel cartoons from third parties. Moon Girl's getting a cartoon which is by Disney itself, but unlike Big Hero 6, will still carry Marvel branding.

Marvel Rising will probably continue too, as that one exists to promote a merchandise line.

[Frontier]

Marvel Rising will probably continue too, as that one exists to promote a merchandise line.

I've been wondering about that.

Cort Lane talked about writing new specials but he also talked about new cartoons that never materialized, and with his ouster I wonder if there was a major cleaning house done when Feige was made Chief Creative Officer.

[Reviresco]

Since it doesn't appear MCU films are going to do anything with Namor, I'd LOVE to see an animated series. And then Marvel could go to town on the underwater stuff and really build up Atlantis. It could be something unique, genre wise, in the MCU if they did something fantasy influenced like The Quest, or the Suma-Ket arc, or an epic Serpent Crown conflict with Lemuria.

[Hybrid]

Since it doesn't appear MCU films are going to do anything with Namor, I'd LOVE to see an animated series. And then Marvel could go to town on the underwater stuff and really build up Atlantis. It could be something unique, genre wise, in the MCU if they did something fantasy influenced like The Quest, or the Suma-Ket arc, or an epic Serpent Crown conflict with Lemuria.

Actually there are prominent rumors he'll appear in Black Panther 2. Don't count him out yet.

[Reviresco]

Actually there are prominent rumors he'll appear in Black Panther 2. Don't count him out yet.

That would be the worst possible scenario for introducing Namor. I'd almost rather not see him in the MCU at all. Fortunately, I think most of those rumors are just fanboys who have only read Namor in Hickman's New Avengers.

Far more intriguing, is after decades of being ignored, Namor has shown up in a number of Marvel games this year -- and he's almost always rolled out with the Fantastic Four. So IF Namor was going to appear in the MCU, I think it would be in an eventual FF movie. However, since he isn't getting an actual push by editorial, i.e. a solo book, I'm not holding my breath for an MCU appearance.

[Hybrid]

I don't think editorial in the comics has much weight on the movies, just saying.

[Reviresco]

I don't think editorial in the comics has much weight on the movies, just saying.

No, editorial doesn't, but the tail wags the dog now. IF a character is getting used in the MCU or a TV show, then editorial starts pushing the character in the comics. I think the only one that hasn't happened to is Cloak and Dagger ... though they did get a digital comic, IIRC.

[9th.]

I think they drained all the money from animation and told them to make them as close to the MCU as possible so no one could get confused. Avengers wasn't the only one to suffer. The last decent Spider-Man show was from the 90's. Wolverine and the X-Men didn't portray the stories very well. Jean's story was a quasi-copy of the movies too. The Phoenix Saga of was disgusting. The 90's show raised the bar too high for any other show to go back and try to repeat the same story instead of moving forward with the hundreds of available X-Men stories.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver suffered as well. The reason the animation looks so bad is because there are NO shadows/shades. If you have light, you need shadows.

Earth's Mightest was good, but they wanted to do what the X-Men shows did, which was ignore the Avengers completely.

We need to see this again:

That is not true Spectacular Spider-man was excellent

[Batman Begins 2005]

I miss The Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Marvel's best two shows in that order.

[Frontier]

I miss The Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Marvel's best two shows in that order.

Probably the last time they really had strong and phenomenal cartoons in my opinion (although Marvel Rising is pretty solid).