by Merrill Barr:
Last year at the NYCC Marvel Television Presents panel, we got word that Clark Gregg would be cast in the now-airing Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The reception the news received was huge and led Marvel to do something new this year, separate their television coverage into two entities, the lesser of which happened today with coverage of all the work coming out of Marvel’s animation department.
Jeff Lobe, after a hefty amount of unnecessary crowd-work (including a reminder that AoS was picked up for the it‘s back nine and Ultimate Spider-Man was renewed for season three), took the stage to show off some new clips and episodes for Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Avengers Assemble. The clip of Ultimate Spider-Man featured news that Blade would be appearing in this Sunday’s one-hour premiere as well as feature Marvel’s version of Dracula as the villain Spidey and his team of junior S.H.I.E.L.D. agents must face off against.
The panel was then treated to full episodes of Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Avengers Assemble. Having never viewed either before, I was curious to see what the cartoons offered. Sadly, the answer is not much. Much of Hulk is filled with annoyingly unstructured story-telling that simply jumps around from place to place instead of getting into the dynamics of the team, unlike Ultimate Spider-Man. In addition, the show is annoyingly jokey at times, and filled with far more childish humor than I’ve come to expect from Marvel based on my enjoyment of Ultimate Spider-Man.
As of Avengers Assemble, while better than S.M.A.S.H., it pales in comparison it its predecessor Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Again, like S.M.A.S.H., the show features an abundance of extremely childish and unstructured story telling that just jumps from set piece to set piece, and in this episode’s case (that airs this Sunday), from hero to hero.
The only announcement Lobe made at the panel was the launch of a new charity initiative called “Marvel Share Universe,” which is an effort to bring together families in their Marvel fandom. An effort surly to gain the support of many philanthropists, but has nothing to do with the cartoons we saw today at the panel.
I am a fan of Marvel’s animation work in recent years. They have been trying real hard to match their competition in DC which has a Hulk-like grip on the market. But, sadly, I find very little to like in the two latest offerings from the studio, and can only hope the next set of properties improve over these.
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