Monday, February 20, 2012
Cartoon Hype: DC Nation VS Marvel Universe
I don't know if Marvel calling it's animation block of Avengers and Ultimate Spider-man, Marvel Universe is a big FU to DC, because they were calling everything DC Universe a year ago. DC Universe Online, DC Universe Vs. Mortal Kombat, it was a stupid title. So is Marvel Universe, but for kids and comic fans of today it matters little to dedicated blocks of cartoon based on superheroes. There starting a month apart form each other. WB/DC/Cartoon Network's DC Nation will be Saturday, March 3rd at 10 a.m with Green Lantern and Young Justice. Disney/Marvel/ Disney XD's Marvel Universe will be Sunday, April 1st, no time listed yet with Ultimate Spider-Man and the return of the Avengers.
On one side, Marvel has some great talent with Ultimate Spider-Man which snatches up Paul Dini and Man of Action who gave us us Ben 10 and Generator Rex. Avengers packs the punch of almost every big name Marvel hero except Wolverine and there don't seem to be plans for a next X-men cartoon, but let's hope.
DC Nation on Cartoon Network on the other hand has Young Justice, CGI Green Lantern and a new Batman cartoon scheduled to come out some time later, possibly a year or more down the road. Right now both that batman cartoon and the awful looking Green Lantern Animated Series by Bruce Timm seem like a huge mistake. His design doesn't translate well into 3D at all. Another huge problem is inconsistent writing and poor connections to the comic. From what I've seen so far the show takes some huge turns from the material it's taken from. The show also seems poorly formed and with the movie it was made for bombed, it doesn't have high hopes.
I can't say much about the Batman cartoon because no footage is out yet, but with news of Alfred shooting guns ( a big no-no for Batman) and his new sidekick being Katana, things don't look good. I think some veterans of WB animation are working on the show, but the first episodes will probably fail to entice you to watch. The only jewel of DC Nation seem to be the shorts that will be shown including Chibi Teen Titans. These cute new version of the Titans with original voice actors has me super excited. It looks like Glen Murakami got to have his fav show back.
What I find funny is how old some of the shorts might be, I also wonder if they"ll get repetitive and boring if shown too much, but will have to see starting next month
I've got to say I think I care for Marvel a lot more than DC in this.