Episode Review: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes : Episode 101 : "Iron Man is Born"

Just before into to the actual episode, I can’t go any further without at first talking about the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes opening title sequence:




Thor throws his mighty hammer, Cap’s shield zips around, Hulk smashes things ... Cool. It's definitely the Avengers I recognise from the Comics. They’re heavily stylised with some of the heroes appearing very angular, but overall they're visually safe character designs and it’s obviously them. No D-list members clogging up the ranks, no unbearably cute sidekicks and thankfully, no ridiculous battle armour!

The Avenger's Earths Mightiest Heroes: An epic introduction to the series from our new reviewer!

Welcome to my first posting here on Jung Justice, of what will be an on-going look at Marvel's latest cartoon: The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Published now for nearly 50 years, the Avengers comic has always been the perfect showcase for seeing Marvel's most enduring characters in action. Now that they’ll be appearing in animation, I'll be reviewing the series regularly here on the site mainly for fun, but also to fill a void in the surprising lack of in-depth reviews of the show on the net. So just before I get stuck into it, I'd like to do an overview of the series which I'll kick off now with a quote from Christopher Yost, the story editor and 'showrunner' for this new Avengers cartoon venture:

"It’s the Avengers. And it’s not crazy armored Avengers. Or it’s not Teen Avengers. It’s the Avengers you know and love and have always wanted to see. It’s Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant Man, Wasp, Captain America, Hawkeye. It’s the Avengers. The premise of the show is literally, Avengers, go. There isn’t any crazy twist like they’re in an alternate reality or in the Negative Zone or some bizarre thing. There is 40 years worth of Avengers’ stories, start telling them."
- Source: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20785 April 13th, 2009

Now this quote, taken from one of Chris Yost's first interviews while the show was still in production, clearly is a huge mission statement. Yost immediately heads off any fears that Marvel's characters will be mishandled, which to a Marvel fan like myself is incredibly reassuring, considering that the Avengers as a franchise has never succeeded outside the realm of Comics. Sure there's been a couple of moderately successful Direct-to-DVD animated features and live-action Hollywood blockbuster on the horizon, but there's only been one real attempt by Saban to bring the characters to TV. Thankfully, the hilarious '90s ‘Avengers: United They Stand’ lasted all of one season and are those 'crazy armored Avengers' mentioned above by Yost. As a fan it's really been a shame that all those classic Avengers tales have never been told in any other medium before, at least not successfully.

X-Men First Class : Stylish first trailer defies expectations

Matthew Vaughn is a very interesting filmmaker. With  the first look at X-Men: First Class now available online, I find myself caught between two reactions. The trailer both defies my expectations for the film and manage to deliver exactly what I should expect from a director like Vaughn.

It was only the other day in my post for the Superman Classic short film, that I commented on a desire to see more comic book movies with a period setting. I can't believe I'd forgotten all about First Class. If there is one thing this trailer does well, it's set up this alternate history Earth where Mutants got caught up in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At the moment, this setup most echoes Watchmen, but like I've previously discussed, it's great that movies like this and Captain America are doing the period setting. X-Men was born in the 60s, and it deserves to start there. It provides a short hand richness to the world that makes it all the more believable than the 'few year from now' setting the first three movies used.

It's also exciting to see them sidestep a teaser and go straight to showing us all a good glimpse of the footage, while still keeping the movie close to their chest. We've got plenty of mutant action, the costumes look much better in motion (and every body bitching about the 'parachute straps' needs to shut up as they're on a jet during this scene. makes sense to incorporate parachute straps to me), we've got a few intriguing hints in regards to the Hellfire Club as well as a snippet of what appears to be Vaughn's largest action scene yet. (Magneto pulling a submarine from the water? wow).

Click though for the embed.

'Superman Classic' short film by Disney animator, Robb Pratt

It's not every day you get to see what a DC animated short might look like if it were owned by Disney instead of Warner Bros, but here it is! Veteran Disney animator, Robb Pratt, has directed and animated a fantastic Superman fan film called 'Superman Classic'. It only runs for about a minute, but it perfectly references that Fleischer era of Superman (with maybe a nod to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). It's a helluva minute, with detailed hand-drawn animation bringing Clark and Lois to life in a way that Warner Bros animation doesn't do. The exchange between Lois and Clark outside the Daily Planet is exquisite, and that's before giant robots arrive on the scene.

Captain America and Thor : Superbowl Spots

Captain America. Marvel

I doubt I'll usually link to much in the way of upcoming films and projects, but these two Superbowl Spots from Marvel are going to have to be an initial exception. Marvel Studios has a pretty good track record so far (3 for 3, with a few minor quibbles), so I'm expecting these to be knocked out of the park.

I've had a good feeling about Captain America for a while now, with every bit of casting news sounding like gold to me. That even includes Chris Evans (as Steve Rogers, see Poster on left), who has been a solid actor in a few films as well as experienced dealing with the ridiculousness of comic book movies. I also don't think that his role as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four will mess with peoples heads. He's an actor, let him take the job!

Joe Johnston also gets a bit of a bum rap for the work he's done. The Rocketeer is still a favourite of mine for pulp adventures, Jurassic Park III was a more accurate version of the book than JPII and he managed to salvage something gorgeous and occasionally interesting from The Wolfman.

Just like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk, there's seems to be a genuine desire to find the best way to translate these comic book ideas and visuals to the silver screen, without sacrificing what made them great in the first place. The Spider-Man films had their moments, and the X-Men films were fairly true to the premise of the books, but they often deviated wildly from established designs and characterisations. Spidey may have looked right, be he never really acted like Spidey, going silent during melees instead of slinging as many witticisms as he does webs. X-Men got the underlying thematic stuff right (as you'd expect from Singer), but failed to find a believable way to translate the colourful visuals. 

With that in mind, take a look at the first footage for Captain America: The First Avenger after the jump.

DC Showcase: The Spectre, Jonah Hex, Green Arrow and Captain Marvel

In my last post about Young Justice, I went on a tangent about how impressed I am with the some of the current crop of animation directors working in television. Within that crowd there is one in particular that I've been keeping an eye out for, and that is Joaquim Dos Santos. I loved every minute of G.I. Joe: Resolute and he'd contributed to some of the best episodes to Justice League: Unlimited and Avatar: The Last Airbender. With this in mind it was no surprise to see his name on the credits for the DC Showcase shorts.

That is to say, each of these short films is excellent.

Over the past few years DC, via Warner Bros Animation, have been delving into the direct-to-dvd market. The films have varied in quality, from average to oustanding, but they're always too short. Or too long. Either way, it's an awkward running time with each film playing like a three-parter of a well produced tv series.

Typically, these films have to focus on the big three, or at least the original power players of the Justice League. So far we've had Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, a couple of Batman films and a couple of Justice League films. While we occasionally get to glimpse some of the lesser known heroes, its always in a supporting role and usually in combat, meaning we get very little character. In response to this we have the DC Showcase, a series of awesome short films released alongside the larger features.

Episode Review: Young Justice "Schooled" : Episode 1.05

'If dislike is the opposite of like, is disaster the opposite of aster?' - Robin

Well, to paraphrase Superboy in this weeks episode, 'I am totally feeling the 'aster'.

I think it's safe to say that Young Justice has already done things with the team superhero format that neither Teen Titans or Justice League ever did. There's a richness to the character dynamics between Super Heroes that usually plays out solely in the realm of the costumed escapades. Unless your name is Smallville, in which case the costumes are an afterthought. My memory of Justice League may be a little hazy, but I don't recall them ever exploring what these people are like out of costume. That sort of stuff was kept for shows about the individuals. You didn't want to see Bruce Wayne hanging out at Watchtower, you want to see Batman. Teen Titans always had our heroes 'in character' and in costume, whether they were in the field or watching movies in their ridiculous T shaped headquarters.

Young Justice says, 'we've written that before and you guys have seen it before'. So by episode five, a series centred around the teenage heroes indulges in a quiet moment between Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent in a diner (in civvies), discussing the complex paternal relationship that needs to form between Kent and his clone, Superboy. In another show, this conversation would have happened on a rooftop, and in costume. For the first time I realise how absurd it is for these Gods amongst men to make every little conversation more melodramatic than it needs to be; in outer space, or in a hollowed out mountain, or a Bat-cave. It makes so much more sense for this intimate moment to take place between the two real people, as opposed to their public personas. They're all friends after all right? The exchange itself is superb, succinctly defining the two characters and their differing approach to the dilemma of a perpetually pissed off Superboy (with a cute gag involving Clark and Bruce ordering Apple Pie and Devils Food Cake, respectively) The banner at the top of the review may say Young Justice but I'm certain this series will encompass as much (maybe more) of the DC Universe as any one series before it.