Marvel Animation

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I was originally going to post this in Marvel Live Action, but I care enough about distinguishing the medium to just make a separate topic for it.

Anyways, I know part of the fun of "What If...?" is supposed to be just allowing bizarre alternate Universe ideas to play out, but as a huge fan of Captain America: The First Avenger (my favorite MCU film), the nitpicky side of my brain was at work the whole time. So stuff like how Howard Stark thought to build an Iron Man-esque suit, and even the fact that it worked as well as it did bothered me a bit. For one thing, he wasn't so buddy-buddy with Steve before the Super Soldier Serum experiment, so I don't buy that he would go that far for him to build a suit exclusively for him to be part of the fight at that point in their relationship. Even putting that aside, Howard Stark was showcased to be kind of hit-and-miss with his less conventional inventions. He couldn't even get a flying car to work, let alone a fully functional flying suit. He also had notable duds in the Agent Carter TV series, and Iron Man 2 also emphasized this point with him being limited with what he could pull off by the technology of his time. I don't quite see how Carter becoming Cap instead of Steve would change his long-established character traits.

That said, putting my ass-hole nitpicky side away, it was fairly enjoyable for what it was. It does look like they will be using the same animation style throughout the whole series, though. While I actually quite liked the animation style myself, this feels like a huge missed opportunity to showcase different animation styles that can express unique artistic visions that fit the tones of each different kind of story, which I would argue is more fitting for an anthology series like this. I'm sure this was done to save on cost and production time, though, as what I'm suggesting would require entirely different animation teams for each individual episode.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Was the squid at the end supposed to be Shuma-Gorath, or an Agents of SHIELD thing?

Thought the first episode was okay, but the premise isn't weird enough to be an interesting What If since we've already seen Peggy lead the Howling Commandos into battle before. Though I'm having a hard time thinking of a cool What If revolving around the first Cap movie's events. Secret Empire's notoriety made "What if Steve joined Hydra?" too noxious for future plots, and too complicated for a 30-minute episode.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Now I liked the second episode a lot more, mostly due to Thanos' new jovial personality and the Black Order having stuff to do this time.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This definitely felt like it's own story rather than a cliff notes version of one of the movies with the main character swapped out.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Heard that the story where Spider-Man mutates into a hideous man-spider was considered for this show but turned down for being too dark, which sounded confusing since the 90s cartoon adapted that plot. And that was the same 90s cartoon rife with censorship. So that decision's even more confusing in light of this episode, with Hank Pym going insane with grief and murdering all the Avengers out of revenge.

[LumRanmaYasha]

You know, I really liked the Starlord T'Challa episode and found the relationship between him and Yondu and the questions explored about identity and destiny compelling and thought the altered personalities of Thanos and Nebula were really fun. I thought the Captain Carter episode was an ok attempt at commenting on sexism in the military through the thought-question of how the army in the 1940s would react to a female super-soldier, but more than anything just appreciated the supportive relationship between Peggy and Steve and thought it was really sweet and cute. But man, I just thought the latest episode was dumb. The premise of all the Avengers being murdered before they could assemble is interesting, and I thought Hulk being exploded from the inside-out was morbidly funny (though it was kinda a weird censorship choice for him to explode into green gas instead of blood and guts). But the reason for all of it happening just being that Hank Pym went insane over Hope dying was hard to take seriously, but it didn't seem like they were playing it for laughs. 

[Dr. Insomniac]

Now I liked the latest What If more than the actual Doctor Strange movie. Especially Cumberbatch's performance. He was rather stiff in that film, likely owing to him struggling to do a convincing American accent. But he showed a wider array of emotion here.

[Daikun]

The original X-Men: TAS is getting a direct sequel on Disney+.

https://www.thewrap.com/x-men-97-1990s-x-men-animated-series-2023

[Dr. Insomniac]

No better time for a recap.

[Peanutbutter]

The Spectacular Spider-Man is now on Netflix!! 

https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20spectacular%20spider%20man&jbv=70204944


Young Justice's run on Netflix is what opened the door for season 3 to finally happen. I REALLY hope history repeats for the best Spidey cartoon.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Except Sony owns the rights to SSM while Marvel owns the rights to make Spider-Man cartoons, so they'd have to negotiate for anything like that to happen. It's not like YJ where DC owned the rights and the ability to make more of the show. And unless SSM got extremely high views on Netflix, like higher than Stranger Things, or a team of Sony and Disney execs were huge fans and willing to put aside differences, I don't see it in the cards. Unless Disney bought Sony or vice-versa, like how they can make a continuation of the 90s X-Men cartoon because they bought Saban ages ago, but I'd rather that not happen.

And even if all the rights were settled, it's been a while since "Make more Spectacular!" was the loudest voice from the Spider-Man fandom. Now, it's "Make TASM 3!" or "Make Raimi's Spider-Man 4!" I've even seen a few recently say they want a continuation of the MTV show.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I think I've mentioned this before, but Greg Weisman is known for being optimistic about his shows returning. He knew that Young Justice had a shot at a revival if it got high streams on Netflix, and it did, and it's more a question of when Gargoyles is coming back than if at this point. But he'll always be the first person to squash down excitement for Spectacular to come back. That says it all.

[Daxdiv]

IIRC on his personal blog/place where Greg Weisman answers fans questions he did go into detail about the how/why we'll never see a Spectacular Spider-Man Season 3 and beyond for reasons already stated. From what I remembered, it went something like this:

Sony sold the rights to make cartoon series based on Spider-Man back to Disney/Marvel so that Sony could be able to keep the rights to making the movies since the movies are very profitable for them. Sony owns the rights to everything they did for SSM like the story line and designs and if Disney/Marvel wanted to use those, they had to negotiate/license them with Sony (Keep in mind, this was before things like the MCU blowing up into the juggernaut it is) & even Greg thinks that Marvel would rather have their own Spidey cartoon to call their own rather than having to give money to another party.

[Peanutbutter]

I'm aware Sony owns the rights, but sometimes in business unexpected things can happen. If Playstation 5 doesn't end up doing well for them in the long run that could result in them losing enough that they wouldn't care about handing the rights over Spidey over. But right now its only a possibility. Getting high ratings on Netflix will at least get it attention and recognition it deserves if nothing else. Maybe it would inspire a newer series with the same writing spirit?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, unexpected things can happen, but the odds of a 14-year-old show doing so well on Netflix that Disney decides to revive that and split the profits with Sony instead of just making their own Spider-Man cartoon is astronomically slim. And as for "same writing spirit", maybe it's how stupid YJ's gotten since the revival, but I'm not as enthused for a new season of SSM as I used to be.