by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor
Marvel Animation came to WonderCon 2012 fully prepared to blow the audiences away as they took the lid off of their Marvel Universe block on Disney XD (premiering April 1st).
Jeff Loeb hosted an exclusive sneak peek at all of the programming coming to the new Marvel themed block including several announcements of new shows. One of which was Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (coming in 2013), which stars Hulk, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, A-Bomb and Skaar -Son of Hulk, all working together to fight aliens… or something. An animation test for the upcoming series was shown, and it wasn’t exactly clear on if there was a plot or anything besides the Hulk family just “Hulk Smashing” (TM) things in a reality show style cartoon. It seems that if you took Keeping Up with the Kardashians and put it in the Marvel Universe, this is what you would get. I forgot to mention that besides Hulk’s Power Rangers, the show also stars the HULK TANK (TM)! The entire preview just screamed “product placement”. Hopefully this show ends up being a bit more substancial.
Speaking of toys to sell, the panel also had the premiere of Ultimate Spider-Man. Taking place about a year after Peter has gotten his powers, this would give the writers the opportunity to skip all the need to explain everything that has happened in Peter’s life thus far and jump right into the action, RIGHT? Sadly no. The series believes that its audience has never seen nor heard of Spider-Man before, or knows anything about its world… therefore, every five minutes Peter stops everything to explain to the audience what is happening and why. The constant fourth wall breakage quickly gets old. Drake Bell sounds like he is trying to imitate Josh Keaton’s take on the ol’ webhead but he cannot pull it off without just coming off as annoying. Half the episode goes into this weird over exaggerated cartoony style, while the rest is very anime like. The two styles conflict and don’t work together well at all in this writers opinion. Overall, Ultimate Spider-Man preview felt painful to watch and I grimaced at almost every single line that was trying to be funny.
Next up at the panel was Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Season 2 Premiere, which featured appearances by the Fantastic Four. Let me just get the bad pun out of the way right now… and say that every scene that had The Hulk and The Thing going at it was Fantastic! The interaction between these two dynamic superhero teams is handled with care, providing some memorable moments. So what happens in this episode? Dr. Doom decides to attack while Tony and Wasp are visiting Sue Storm and Reed Richards at the Baxter Building while Johnny and The Thing visit the Avengers HQ for a nice quiet game of poker. The attack happens at both places at once leaving the two teams trying to put the pieces together on what Doom is after and why. The ending which builds on previously established events will make fans squeal with delight!
Loeb also announced that during Marvel Universe on Disney XD, two different series of shorts will be played in between shows. The first of which being Marvel Mash-Ups: a series of gag dubs which takes footage from classic Marvel shows such as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and spoofs the footage. There were several very priceless moments that I will not spoil here, but when it airs you must see it to believe it. The second batch of shorts is called Fury Files hosted by none other than Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. as he goes over various mission files.
Marvel Entertainment is sure hitting the ground running when it comes to bringing out content based on all of their various heroes to Disney XD on April 1st so be sure to keep an eye out when they air!
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