Ideal Avengers animated series?

[Adrian J. Watts]

Remember when reading this, folks, that Australia is way behind America TV-wise. We only have five channels.

I finally got to see an episode of Justice League Unlimited at a reasonable hour the other night (it used to be on at 4:30am, but is now on at 9:00pm).

I'm no DC fan, but I was hooked from the moment I heard the opening music - the JLA may be a joke, but that music does inspire awe - and I found that the episode rocked.

My experience of DC comics has generally been that, with a few exceptions, things often fit within the 'black and white' comic book stereotype - the characters are either GOOD or BAD, and there are clear lines which are never crossed, let alone pooped on.

(As I said, there are some exceptions - Batman's actions in the months leading up to Infinite Crisis, for example.)

The episode of JLU I saw, though, proved to me that Superman and the other JLAers can actually be cool! There were moral quandaries! Pathos! And it was all done in a way that I doubt would ever happen in the comic without it being an "event".

So, to the point, I was watching and thinking "Man, why do all attempts at Avengers cartoons not go too well? UTS and the mid-1990s Iron Man cartoon with the Whackos... not quite the awesomeness."

I think the JLU format would be PERFECT for the Avengers. Maybe half a season to build up the concept, with cameos by the FF, Spider-Man, etc. (to build a shared-continuity animated universe) to show how badly the Avengers are needed, then the Avengers could be properly founded with a rotating cast, JLU-style. Imagine it!

What do YOU think would be a good approach to an Avengers animated series?

- Adrian

P.S. - the JLU episode I saw was "Question Authority".

P.P.S. - I just learned that the Green Arrow's name is "Ollie" (Oliver?). What a sap! *returns to his DC-ignorant life*

[Shiryu]

Oliver Queen I think
As for me, I'd like an Avengers cartoon to reproduce more or less the comics, adapting the stories to 20 min episodes, skipping the crap ones and may be doing some "solo episodes" here and there. However, they could only use the comics as a starting point and develop from there, for example I liked the X-Men series in the 90nties.
I don't know if it would be possible to make an inter cartoons continuity. For example Cap is the SpiderMan series, and it would be difficult to adapt that to the Avengers.

[greggallinson]

For the line-up, of course, I'd go with Cap, Thor, Iron Man, The Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and- if we can get things straightened out with the X-Men folks- The Beast. To me, that's the most "classic" Avengers line-up. Maybe the first episode could feature an old enemy menacing a former member, so new viewers can get the idea that this is a team with some history that has a rotating membership. Naturally, Ultron victimizing Hank and Jan is the most logical choice. An epic Kang arc (three, four episodes) in the tradition of Avengers Forever would be a good choice for a season ender, or even a cliffhanger (maybe the season ends with a Kang two-parter and season two opens with the resolution to the storyline). I guess for the most part, I would focus on multiple episode storylines, so that all the characters can get their due (trying to cram seven leads into a half-hour story is rough; an hour or hour and a half is more managable).