Off My Mind: The Need for More Animated Comic Book Shows

Wonder Woman still needs her own animated series

It may be a less popular opinion but there was even some good qualities in {shudder} Super Hero Squad. My daughter learned, at a very young age, who Carol Danvers, MODOK, Abomination, Thanos, Mole Man, Punsher, etc were. Of course their portrayal wasn't exact but it was a start.

They tend to cancel stuff that is well-received by older viewers and reboot it for a younger audience. So there's not much left to watch for us older folks.

Yes, yes sir. We do need a better and longer running action based superhero cartoons. I wouldn't know but i'm sure when there shows are good their sells go up. I know it works for manga, they dubbed it the "Cartoon Network effect". Both Comics and Manga had great years and both markets believe there boom is about to die down and from everything I seen it looks like a over saturation of material in the market.

Having video-games and movies help bring in new customers and something else for the old ones to buy

but nothing will expand your market like a good cartoon.

As a kid, I was drawn to shows like Batman: The Animated Series and X-men because of the more serious tone and matters of much older characters. I would eventually become an adult myself.

I agreed with everything but the altered Batman action figures. I still cherish my Batman and Catwoman pharoah action figures. They looked so epic that I wished I saw an animated version of them!

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@batshrine: I was talking more stuff like this:

@g_man: lol my immediate thought..."oh goodness"

I'm hoping for a series based exclusively on Cap with the Avengers only making cameos.

@g_man: Aww, Raven looks like She-hulk's personal fairy godmother in that photo shopped image lol.

@g_man Thank you so much for writing this article! I totally agree with you! Animated super hero shows that currently air aren't worth much and after the cancellation of Young Justice, I've just about given up on any good super hero shows to air. I hope that a top network executive reads your article, agrees with you, and green light a really cool super hero show in the likes of Batman: The Animated Series, Young Justice, and Spectacular Spider-man. Anyway, thank you again!

I got into comics because my mom showed me X-Men 90's tv show and it's action figures and I also watched Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Movie with Adam West

Still don't know why they replaced EMH with Assemble, it was such a blindly stupid move.

I grew up during a time where comic based cartoons were very prevalent and I consider myself lucky. Even though most of them were centered around the "bigger" comics, they were very good. Batman TAS, X men (Fox) and Spiderman TAS still hold up in my opinion. But the bar has been raised with some of the fantastic work I've seen in the last few years in animated films, so I'm hopeful that shows will get a push again.

Great article G-man, and I completely agree. YJ and GLTAS were probably the last quality animated comic book shows (not to mention some of the last action animated series, the only remaining one being Legend of Korra) and it just greatly saddens me that today's children (as well as fans like myself in general) wont have anything on the level of the DCAU or Spectacular Spiderman probably ever again

I couldn't agree with this article more. About comic-cartoons & just about Saturday Morning cartoons (/cartoons on the cartoon-centric channels). It seems they just pump out goofy stuff for kids - hardly any action cartoons anymore. I sort-of remember watching the 90's X-Men & Spiderman, but it was JL & Superman:TAS (and the comic-toons that followed, including the 00's X-men shows) that really hooked my interest. I've gone back & re-watched all those series; they still hold-up even in my 20's.

With most of them rated PG-13, they’re not exactly appropriate for the younger crowd, despite many parents taking their kids to them.

So true. I was baby sitting my neighbor's (almost) 5yo girl recently & she told me she saw DoFP. Sometimes she makes things up so I quized her a bit & she really did, said her dad took her. I just thought......WHAT? I was later told both her mom & step-mom didn't think it was a great idea ("I showed her the trailer & she said she wanted to see it"...me thinks dad doesn't have as many guy-friends since he settled down & wanted someone to share it with), and I'd be inclined to agree. People getting stabbed through the torso by sentinels definitely isn't child appropriate.

This is as good of a place as any:

I want to ask for a recommendation. Should I watch Avengers Assemble &/or Hulk atAoS? I know everyone has different tastes, so I can tell you I liked Ultimate Spider-Man (though I haven't watched S2). It definitely wasn't my favorite comic-toon nor is it even in my top tier (I know a lot of people here HATE it). It wasn't "accurate" & it includes more humor than necessary for an older viewer, but I enjoyed the animation style & thought the action scenes were good (give me my fill of hearing & seeing the fight-scenes I normally have to see in still-frame).

Is there enough of that type of thing in AA &/or Hulk to warrant watching them too? (I'm close to "jonesing" for more animated super-hero content. We only get a few animated movies a year & that's mostly DC. Aside from these toons I've got nothing Marvel to watch (orig. that is, you can only re-watch the older stuff so many times).

I grew up with 1990s-2000s DC/Marvel cartoons including JL, JLU, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, X-men: Evolution and whatever Spider-man show was on. We also had Captain Planet as well (which kinda counts I guess.) These were brilliant, though-provoking and had awesome action. And they all hold up today. I wish studios could go back this: WB still superhero animation with their DVD movies but they could more (they also need to bring back the proper Looney Tunes back) and Disney is first and foremost animation studio and yet they haven't thrived in TV animation for a while (Phineas and Ferb is the only highlight.)

I think they need creatives back or comic book companies to make an effort to join in the process.

Only the X-Men can save comic book cartoons of the future.

Now if only that cartoon would come out already.

I agree that we need more better superhero cartoons. The fact that the only cartoon we have from DC is a comedy is really enraging. I haven't seen that much of Marvel's current stuff, but from what I've seen, I really don't have a problem with it. It's true Avengers Assemble isn't as good as EMH, but it's still good. Do I agree with their decision to give EMH the axe to shoehorn in a cartoon featuring the same roster they had in the movie? Of course not. But I don't think it's nearly as bad as many who are saddened by the loss of EMH make it out to be. Similarly, your complaint about the video journal in the current Hulk cartoon seems silly to me, because I don't know what that feature has to do with it being dumbed down for kids. It's just that any other media take on a comic book character puts its own spin on things. Young Justice was a spectacular series but wasn't very true to the comics either.

For series like JLU and GL:TAS, the TV shows were actually great and engaging, but the comics based off of them were unreadable due to being significantly dumbed down for kids. Now series like B:TAS and etcetera that you brought up as being appropriate for children yet still engaging for adults. Now that's all great if you can do it. But I don't think it's absolutely necessary. This ties in to the fact that I disagree with the point made in the article that parents should not take their kids to see PG-13 movies. I don't believe that children are as incompetent as people make them out to be. And if they act like they are it is because it is what society expects of them. They really are people and deserve a lot more respect than they get. In my opinion, in a perfect society children would have all the same rights and responsibilities as adults. Of course this would take a lot of tweaking to how society works because all skills, even reading and basic math must be learned. But I don't believe it is too difficult. I believe a child would feel much more fulfilled this way than playing hide and seek over and over again for several years in the same back yard with the same limited number of only a dozen hiding spots. Times have changed. Depending on what one's family is like this may happen at different ages, but in general children watch stuff like Family Guy younger than they would have in previous generations. This would appall my grandmother. But I believe this is called progress. I just find it a so pathetic that people would rather children read stories that are so dumbed down than the mainstream comics because they deem the content of the mainstream comics inappropriate for them. I believe that everyone should enjoy the mainstream comics. Part of this is my belief that the content does not matter partly because I find shielding this kind of content from children to be lies of omission. Anyway, I can shpiel about this issue for a long time, but I'll leave it at this.

I would like to see an Ambush Bug show. He beaks the fourth wall and I thing breaking the fourth wall is a great advantage in cartoons because I think kids like the whole idea of the character specifically talking to them and because a fourth wall breaking teleporter can have quite a lot of other super hero team ups. The reason why I would not choose the more popular deadpool is because he might be to violent for kids and if he is watered down like in Ultimate Spider-Man then he would be a disaster.

To think the future looked so bright around two or three years ago. Young Justice had the potential to create a new DCAU, Green Lantern and the DC Nation shorts opened the possibilities of doing shows about DC heroes beyond just Batman, even Beware the Batman by its end had the potential to dethrone B:TAS as the best Batman show. Now all that potential is gone.

Marvel also had something great going with Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but again, they chose to pander to the movie crowd and killed it. They didn't try to capture the spirit and substance of something like that or Spectacular Spider-Man. A huge shame.

I blame Teen Titans for the low quality of Comic Cartoons these days

don't get me wrong, I don't think it was bad, but it was a deep polar shift in the style that Comic Cartoons were made in.

the 90s X-men, and a greater extent (of my point) the DC animated Universe was setup for kids to watch with their guardians, with more adult friendly themes, plots and tones (more serious) Bat TAS set it that way and it continued as so through Superman, Justice League and JLU. but these shows still fulfilled the main goal Cartoons have had since they figured out the real profit in cartoons in the 1960s, toy production (something early 90s TMNT animated series did in spades as well as 90s x-men and BTAS)

when JLU was just starting out Teen Titans was the OTHER hit series out at the time, with three MAJOR differences, this was first of all the first DC cartoon outside of the DCAU, Justice League Unlimited was then intended to be the last of the DCAU, second this also was the first WILDLY successful comic cartoon with a TVY7 parental rating, with lighter tone and less serious nature mixed with slapstick and a bit of campy humor. this cartoon was miles different from all the other dc cartoons of the past two decades which were all two ratings higher at TVPG. as well the toys were selling much faster than Justice League toys, or indeed any DCAU toys since BTAS, taking things less serious adding more campiness and lower the general tone (and therefore lowering the rating to a much lower target audience) was CLEARLY THE TICKET.

this continues to be the way of the world in Comic Cartoons, as TVY7 dominates the parental ratings for these cartoons. (parents just aren't watching their kids during cartoon showtimes I guess) sure there are attempts at a more serious tone and throwbacks to the TVPG rating, Young Justice and GLTAS were two such as that, and failed Miserably. ohh sure the viewer ratings were there for the more serious Young Justice, but it was very clear by the complete and utter lack of toy sales, the Target audience (for all cartoons on morning and afternoon blocks since the 60s) was NOT being reached (kids young enough to want to buy toys). and the only acutal profit to be had in producing cartoons without a Mature rating, just isn't there.

hmm.. maybe we need a comic cartoon made for adults only, make it crass and rude, vulgar and with partial nudity and catchphrases having to deal with sex or violence....maybe we just need an after midnight Deadpool Cartoon. adults buy more toys off a cartoon when its vulgar (look at the South Park and Family Guy toy Sales) and it might have a better opportunity (if well made) to not be cancelled.

The 5 year old girl living next door was screaming at her brother that Deadpool was better than Punisher.. I dont know how why or where or what or... I was confused and so happy at the same time.

What a good cartoon needs, whether it be superhero or comic based or otherwise, is to be on a network that cares about the fans and not just little kids. Kids can and will still watch it, but if a regular network aired it, we wouldn't have to deal with the dumb people at Cartoon Network and Disney XD who think dumb comedy is all. And of course, you don't see toys being produced about Arrow. Or mainstream shows like CSI and NCIS. So the major networks don't really care about toy sales. I still couldn't believe it when people said Young Justice was cancelled because toys didn't sell. Of course a major network probably wouldn't pick up a superhero cartoon either. I'm sure there are parts of Arrow's fanbase that don't realize it's based in comics. They probably figure knowing something is based in comics might turn some people off for some reason. And they may be right, though I certainly wouldn't understand that. And then there's the fact that WB automatically sends their cartoons to CN and Disney sends theirs to their channel. That would have to change. Honestly, I think the best option would be to create an entirely new network, that shows only comic book stuff. But that would be difficult.

I'm a lot older than most on here, hell I was a teenager when the Siperfriends first aired ( and I'm not talking re-runs). I was introduced to Superheroes with the "new adventures of Superman" and the Boom, Wap, bamb of Batman. The first cartoon I can recall was the Superman/ Aquaman action ( or adventure) hour ( I been had some instalaments on a view master real - ask your parents/ grandparents). My first look at comics was All Star Western and weird war tales, etc that a neighbor read to me.

I can't say kids don't get enough superhero cartoons because my son ( who's five, I was lucky enough to finally marry and start a family in my 40's with a woman almost a decade my junior) is superhero mad. Yes he gets some of that from live action movies but he's also a Flash and Green Lantern nut as well as Hulk and Spidey. He watches Justice League and JLU as well as the green Lantern Cartoon, Batman Brave and the bold, Spider-Man and friends ( with Nova and IF not sure when they started going to school with Pete) and a Marvel show ( where all the heroes look wired sizes sort of short and stocky ). That plus Ben 10, Thundercats, TMNT, Transformers ( he's a bumblebee nutcase as much as Flash and Hulk). Most of these things are still on Cartoon Network ( at least over here ) or free to air TV in reruns if not new. I even have for him DVD's from my mid to late teens of Challenge of the Superfriends and the superpowers show ( that finally added the likes of Cyborg and Firestorm to the mix) that he watches from time to time.

There is still plenty for kids to see to get them in I'd say video games are more important to get new interest. Both my kids prefer an interactive experience and my son will more likely spent time playing his Capt America or batman brave and the bold game on WII or PS3 than watching a cartoon anyway. With him for example cartoons wouldn't compete with Skylanders if not playing it he loves to watch it being played in YouTube to learn the cheats or level beats

I would love to see a Young Avengers cartoon

Netflix is really the only place where you can see the good cartoons anymore,yes they have the crappy ones to,but atleast you can pick and choose.YJ,JL,JLU,Batman beyond,Spider-Man,they are all there,just wish Netflix could develop new episodes of these like they have with other shows.

ok your bitching about the TTG! series is pointless, it is not meant to be an exct representation the teentitans, is supposed to be comedy, like the tinny toons, and such

They have no idea Batman pretty much always wears dark suits and would never wear some of the funky brightly colored 'armor' we've seen over the years in various action figures.

yeah... because he doesn't

I tell you who should get a series, new warriors, or at least one of those "hulk vs thor"-like movie, espcially if it has the current roster

did anyone see the ultimate spidey with the guardians of the galaxy this past week? it was great. they finally ended the 4th wall breaing.

I remember back in like 2008 they said they were going to make a Mockingbird cartoon and it never happened.

@g_man: Agreed. I still remember watching re-runs of the Shazam/Isis Hour on CBS. That was my introduction to comic books.

I also appreciated the thought that there is new generation of kids out there that don't really know who these characters are. Maybe companies should look at this medium as more of a stepping stone into comic books as opposed to re-booting an entire comic universe to increase the number of readers.

It seem DC is more likely to actually go as far as to tie their universe into continuity in the comic books which is cool (Flashpoint, for example). I would love to see more of this.

Great points.

I think the problem lies in the lack of cartoons in general. Networks used to compete against each other, and have Saturday morning blockbuster lineups. We used to hurry home from school to watch the Disney Afternoon or Fox Kids. It's not like that anymore. Sure they have 24hr channels that we may not have had in the beginning, but those channels basically show the same thing all day, everyday. It's just once in awhile you'll get a "Legend of Korra", or "Ninja Turtles".

And on a side note, "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.", This latest "Avengers", and "Ultimate Spider-Man" are some of thee worst shows in Comic Book cartoons history.

It was a shame that Green Lantern and Young Justice were canceled because of low toy sales and I'm in no mood to watch any of the current comic book shows. I've been waiting the longest time for a new X-men show since they're my favourite comic book characters and I've enjoyed all the X-men cartoons shown thus far. It makes sense from a toy perspective as with just how many X-men and X-men villains are out there it would be easy to introduce new toys whenever needed. Plus the themes of cultural tolerance and combating racism with non-violence would be and interesting topic for all audiences and may set a good example for children.

Batman TAS

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Avengers: EMH

Wolverine and the X-Men

Young Justice

There's your top five animated comic shows to-date.

We need more adult-oriented animation in the west period. I mean, what do we got besides sitcoms? The DC animated movies? That's really it. Animation is such a great medium for superheroes because you can put the comic on the screen without worrying about the silliness factor that comes from live action. I want some adult superhero cartoons that don't have to be restrained for children's television.

With movies like X-Men movies, Avengers solo movies, Avengers movies, DC solo movies etc and a TV based on comic book characters every year at least within a few years at most I think superheroes have a bigger impact on the next generation than ever.

Though the initial idea of a comic was to entertain a younger audience and while that has shifted, I don't think its completely fair to blame TV shows of today. The real heroes and villains we know of in comics are much more bloody up than what is shown on TV. Wolverine for example in "Wolverine and the X-Men" despite having a healing factor never got bleeding at all.

As far as superheroes and comics go I don't think it'll go as far as to entertain us when we're in our elderly. While we can still try to be as entertained as we can abandoning everything else for superheroes isn't choice but neither is ignoring them.

Probably I was most disappointed in was Marvel's Earth-8096/Earth-80920 TV shows "Wolverine and the X-Men" and "Avengers EMH" where the animation was good, story arcs were good, characters represent themselves great, men looked like traditional superhero shapes, girls were hot looking and the sequences made you made to see more. Shame they were cancelled with so much more mysteries left unsolved especially EMH. No new X-Men cartoon, X-Men don't get the hype Avengers do. "Avengers Assemble" only did a great job of Iron Man and that was it. Everything else especially animation and colour sucked.

After seeing both DC animated movies > Marvel animated movies IMO. Would've had a different opinion a couple years ago.

"Batman TAS" was good but old. Wouldn't mind changing the animation though. "Beware the Batman" is so much better than I anticipated.

"Young Justice" kept me wanting to see the next episode and so on but shame it fell under the same problem Disney is having with Marvel TV shows.

Overall we don't need more. One good TV show is enough from DC or Marvel and if not at least long lasting seasons should cram enough info into the audience.

I think we need to face the real problems: The networks are too narcissistic and greedy to treat their programming as anything other then a way to make their fat wallets even fatter and the viewers are too lazy and complacent to do anything other then whine like spoiled babies. bottom line is nobody really cares so this problems won't ever be solved and animation along with most other arts and entertainment will be hollowed out of integrity and commercialized till society collapses which I expect to be in 10-20 years

It's surprising how all of a sudden, many superhero cartoons are too campy nowadays instead of having complex story lines and engaging characters like the older cartoons did. I remember I grew up with X-Men the Animated Series and Batman: the Animated Series and I loved the fact that they told complex story lines and yet still managed to be entertaining for the younger crowd. It feels like nowadays, the networks believe that kids don't care about the story lines and the characters in the cartoons anymore, so they make the cartoons so campy that it would be hard to really get into the characters. I actually wished that there were more superhero cartoons that actually take the characters seriously and managed to provide a good balance between humor and drama (I think that Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-Man did that very well and I'm still mad that they got cancelled so soon).

We're still living in one of the best time periods of superheroes ever.