Greetings, True Believers!
May 17, 2011 8:56 AM   Subscribe

Marvel.com now has many animated series (all episodes, in their entirety) available to view online at their website including The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Superheroes, X-Men, The Animated Series, X-Men Evolution, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, and Spider-Man (1967) (Full list inside)

Also on Hulu: Astonishing X-Men: Motion Comic (Episodes 1-6) / Episode 1 is available on Youtube.

Also on YouTube: Episode 1 of the Spider-Woman Motion Comic
posted by zarq (34 comments total) 70 users marked this as a favorite
 
YES! Now I can finally watch the pilot episode of X-Men, The Animated Series!

I loved that series in the early 90's. It's what first got gawky adolescent me interested in comic books. I even created two small X-Men related websites back in tenth grade, hosted on my AOL account *snicker*, one a fangirl site for M (before Scott Lobdell et al butchered her character -- oh the pain of the retcon) and the other a collection of X-Men filks. Oh yes, I was a comics nerd, and that show was the genesis of the nerdity. And now I can finally watch the pilot, the genesis of the genesis!

*scurries over to site*

Nooooo! The pilot's not posted yet. :-(
posted by Asparagirl at 9:05 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Neat! I've been hoping to see those full Japanese Spiderman episodes.

Apparently there exists a Wolverine anime series also.
posted by cazoo at 9:06 AM on May 17, 2011


Asparagirl, the pilot episode was aired in two parts, called "Night of the Sentinels." So, Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2.

The navigation on the pages is a little counterintuitive. But you can see all the episodes in any given series on one page by clicking the little box that says "20 per" slightly below the "Browse Videos" tab.
posted by zarq at 9:16 AM on May 17, 2011


The recent Fantastic 4 series was surprisingly watchable - Reed was remote and distracted, Johnny obnoxious and insecure, Ben sullen and self-pitying and Sue exasperated with it all. The villains were name-brand, top-ticket baddies, and the art design and animation were above average for Basic Cable. I wish it had better promotion.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:19 AM on May 17, 2011


Oh bless you, zarq. To give you some idea of how I first encountered the series, I missed the pilot back in the day because it aired weekend mornings and I was busy...going to Hebrew school and studying for my Bat Mitzvah.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:27 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Thank you, zarq! I had a nerdy-girl crush on Gambit for so long that I had to buy the X-Men video game for my brother's Sega Genesis.
posted by jillithd at 9:30 AM on May 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


Japanese Spiderman apparently owns a series of vehicles that turn into a flying battle tank and then into a giant robot with a sword that he uses to MURDER THE HELL OUT OF PEOPLE and that is OKAY because he is JAPANESE SPIDERMAN.
posted by Shepherd at 10:02 AM on May 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


Welp, there goes my summer.
posted by bettafish at 10:20 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Holy shit, this doesn't seem to have any of the usual region restrictions that constantly keep me out of the fun video links here. I think I'll need a couple min to unboggle my mind, please excuse.
posted by Iosephus at 10:29 AM on May 17, 2011


I missed the [X-man] pilot back in the day because it aired weekend mornings and I was busy going to Hebrew school and studying for my Bat Mitzvah

And that's just typical of Jehovah, isn't it? What a fucking killjoy.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 10:34 AM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


This is about 8,000 kinds of awesome. I LOVED the X-Men animated series, Rogue was my favourite and i also nurtured a huge crush on Gambit. Hurray!!
posted by ukdanae at 11:05 AM on May 17, 2011


Quidnunc is clearly a Jehovah's Witness for the Prosecution.
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:05 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


MORPH!!!!!!!!!
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 11:08 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


Asparagirl: "Oh bless you, zarq. To give you some idea of how I first encountered the series, I missed the pilot back in the day because it aired weekend mornings and I was busy...going to Hebrew school and studying for my Bat Mitzvah."

Awwww!!

Well, I hope your Bat Mitzvah went well! :) :)
posted by zarq at 11:16 AM on May 17, 2011


ah X-men. Nearly unwatchable early 90s american animation? Check. Awesome intro music? Check. Use of word "dweeb" within first five minutes of first episode? Check. I can feel it working.
posted by Jibuzaemon at 11:22 AM on May 17, 2011


Jillithd, you're very welcome. :)
posted by zarq at 11:31 AM on May 17, 2011


Yesssssssssssssss. My childhood.
posted by zeek321 at 11:31 AM on May 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


I've just realised I wrote "X-man" in my comment, rather than "X-men". I conceive of X-man as a superhero whose arms and legs have atrophied in an outstretched position, such that his silhouette describes a perfect X. He cartwheels through the streets of Alphabet City, fighting crime and is widely considered to be an unknown quantity. His weakness is exposure to Xenonite - after which, he undergoes tripartite multiplication and becomes XXX-man, the porniest Super-slut that ever wore bulging underpants on the outside of his trousers. His nemesis is the Y-Axis of Evil, an organisation so corrupt its moral compass points at right angles to our own.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 11:34 AM on May 17, 2011 [4 favorites]


I conceive of X-man as

Dude, there are a bunch of comics from the late '90s just lying out there waiting to break your heart.
posted by Shepherd at 11:37 AM on May 17, 2011 [5 favorites]


It wasn't that long ago that I was at a house party where most of the people, myself included, were card-carrying Children of the Nineties. The hostess had the good sense to include, in the midst of the dance-pop indie mix, the X-Men theme song. We all hummed along with drunken glee and then tripped over the dog.

Fucking dog.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:02 PM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Don't call me "dude". My name is X-man.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 12:06 PM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


g. We all hummed along with drunken glee and then tripped over the dog. Fucking dog.

ALL of you tripped over the dog? That must have been some dog.
posted by happyroach at 12:52 PM on May 17, 2011


ALL of you tripped over the dog? That must have been some dog.

Well, that was its mutant power.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:07 PM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


As I recall the sixties Spider-Man cartoon, the famous theme song was literally the only good thing about it. Even at a very tender age, I knew good animation from shit.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:22 PM on May 17, 2011


60's Spiderman was cheap but trippy. Mysterio episodes were always good for messing with my 7 year old brain, and I recall a lot of episodes featuring Spidey webslinging (as in he moved from the left third of the screen to the right third and back again without ever actually being in the center of the screen) in underground caverns with alternating color backgrounds while the black stalactites & stalagmites never changed.

Also, BOO! to the lack of the cheap 60's Marvel cartoons of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Sub-Mariner.
posted by KingEdRa at 1:46 PM on May 17, 2011


It's a shame Spectacular Spider-Man isn't available, as it's very likely the best Spidey adaptation out there (yes, it blows the Raimi movies out of the water, including the second one). Highly recommended if you can catch it on Netflix or somewhere. Iron Man: Armored Adventures is also good fun.

Spider-Man: the Animated Series is still pretty good, and long enough to keep anyone occupied for a while. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is one of the newer entries which I've been enjoying a lot, but I'm a few episodes behind so it'll be good to catch up.
posted by bettafish at 1:50 PM on May 17, 2011


I recommend against watching the "motion comics." Essentially they took frames from the comics and made them into bad Flash animations.

Admittedly my bias against them is that the comics themselves, Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's Astonishing X-Men and Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's Spider-Woman were quite good. In the case of the former, it's a good comic series that really should be appreciated in the format it was intended for. In the case of the latter, creating the motion comic ended up taking so much time for Maleev that he got burnt out and never did more issues of the actual comic. So making a crappy cartoon prevented the making of more of what could have been a good comic.
posted by davextreme at 3:02 PM on May 17, 2011


"I missed the pilot back in the day because it aired weekend mornings and I was busy...going to Hebrew school and studying for my Bat Mitzvah."

I had the same issue, just a decade earlier, with Star Blazers. They ran the series twice, and each time the finale came up, I had either Tuesday or Thursday afternoon Hebrew school. I begged and pleaded to stay home and watch it, but no, I had to go and study. I hated Hebrew school.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:36 PM on May 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


The Black Panther motion comic is extraordinary.
posted by Mike Mongo at 5:31 PM on May 17, 2011


What a coincidence, we started watching the FF again on Netflix this afternoon. It's one of our favorite Marvel adaptations.
posted by dragonplayer at 7:22 PM on May 17, 2011


I just happened to mention this thread to somebody. His comment was, "I bet they don't have the 80s Spider-man cartoon." I said, "You mean Spider-man and his Amazing Friends?"

"That's the one. It's one of those shows the parent company never wants to admit ever existed. It's like the Filmation Batman or Tarzan or the Lone Ranger."

So I returned to this thread, and sure enough he was right. No Spider-man and his Amazing Friends -- said friends being Iceman and a made-specifically-for-TV fire-based heroine named, of course, Firestar.

I'm not saying it was good or that I have any desire to ever watch it again. I just felt the need to point out another gap in the Marvel TV lineup.
posted by sardonyx at 7:39 PM on May 17, 2011


However, Firestar was eventually worked into Marvel comic continuity, so Spiderman & His Amazing Friends DID have some impact on the company. They even made some toy figures of the Spider Friends recently.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:15 PM on May 17, 2011


I hate to admit it, but I've got that limited series (or at least a couple issues of it) down in the basement. Somehow I doubt I'd get the $3 to $5 per issue suggested by an online price guide. Which is pretty typical of the collection.
posted by sardonyx at 8:23 PM on May 17, 2011


Holy crap holy crap holy crap holy crap.

I still have the X-Men cartoon VHS that Pizza Hut gave out as a Book It prize.
posted by Loto at 6:38 AM on May 18, 2011


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