by JLRoberson

Created on: July 11, 2007   Last Updated: July 13, 2007

What I liked about this straight-to DVD release: at least when it came to Captain America they preserved huge chunks of Millar's writing from the comic almost verbatim, and in one or two cases Bryan Hitch's layouts. I liked Cap's fall into the water in that regard. Thor was actually pretty cool. I liked that they kept him an anti-globalist protester, and I loved his answering Fury's invitation with a hearty belch of contempt. As they're having this Thor talk a lot more like Marvel's regular Thor, it helped make him a bit more down to earth.

Man, people sure do drink a lot in this thing, though...

Overall, it wasn't bad or boring. I can't say I'm very fond of the style but that's Marvel animation for you. I thought it was interesting that it was mostly cel animation-I'd have thought these days that was prohibitively expensive.
But it was unsatisfying and incomplete(and amazingly short!), in the way a TV pilot is. And this felt like a pilot. And without the stuff they'd added they could have easily fit in all sorts of neat stuff from the book.

I found it odd that they reverted so much to the regular continuity versions, all the way to including "Avengers" in the title. I though the whole idea was to make a version that would work in a movie, which the comic easily would, and yet they take those elements out and add back in the really geeky stuff.

But all in all, not as good as DC's animated stuff(particularly JLU), but okay.
Speaking of really geeky stuff, though...the extras. Oh murder.

I liked the trivia track thingie. Particularly that it pointed out what they'd changed. (Though some of it is bizarre promo fluff-like how the head of Marvel wanted it to be not just a good animated movie, but a good movie, period. Uh, no, that it isn't-this is, at best, TV-level stuff)

The Avengers documentary- is anyone as enthusiastic and effusive as George Perez? Interesting to see him, Kurt Busiek, and Mark Millar talk. Not enough of Millar though. But I wasn't sure of the point, apart from promoting the New Avengers, which it mostly seemed about. It glossed over the creation and history of the Avengers, and people like Jack Kirby, Steve Englehart and the like. And Perez almost bragging how he ganked the Avengers from George Tuska(when Perez was only supposed to be filling in) was a little gross. And who's the big guy who looks like Harvey Weinstein?

And my god, why is everyone in mainstream comics a bearded tub of lard? Or does it only seem that way?

But that wasn't nearly the mind-bending torture that was the Voice Talent Search. Which was like watching American Idol while being electrically tortured after being dosed with some horrible hallucinogen. It made me thank god for superhero comics, as they apparently take so many really creepy guys out of the gene pool. These are the fanboys that make me ashamed of comics and I cringed. In fact, I didn't make it past two minutes. (Not shocked that none of these guys were picked, though) What I found particularly annoying was how none of these guys acted like he was doing a professional voice audition or had any idea how to make a tape for one. Eeesh.
Actually, that's kind of what I found annoying about the whole thing. Millar and Hitch managed to remove most of the geekery from the book and these guys put it back in, probably because they know that, no matter what they say about the Ultimate line, Marvel knows it's the fanboys that will buy this thing.

Learn more about this author, JLRoberson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.