Tony, I just reloaded it in. Go back and try it again, but before you do get a load of this other tariler I just located, as I searched for that previous one. Holy shit! I'm tellin' ya, this animation is just stunning, no, stunningly fuckin' cool! I think I saw Black Canary doing a little combat training on Superboy:

Thought I'd make a quick post about THE AVENGERS . . . here's a list of the episodes they've aired thus far:

The Breakout (1)

The Breakout (2)
Some Assembly Required
Living Legend

Everything is Wonderful
Panther's Quest
Gamma World, Part 1
Gamma World, Part 2
Masters of Evil
459
Widow's Sting

And, here's what they've got planned for January:

1/9 - The Man Who Stole Tomorrow
1/16 - Come the Conqueror

1/23 - The Kang Dynasty
  

I thought they were cutting this season off at the 12 count mark, but it looks like they're gonna run it as a full 20 or 26 count. So far, I'm still liking it. The action animation has stayed surprisingly consistant, with only "Living Legend" showing signs of clunkiness at the beginning. The "Gamma World" two-parter was the best since the two part debut. It was more of a creature feature, with everyone turning into irraidated gamma beasts at some point in the first episode.

The only episode I didn't like was "Masters Of Evil." and not because of the animation, the story didn't do anything for me. My favorite, or one of them anyway, is "459." Excellent episode, but I have no idea what the title means. Watched it twice and saw no referenece to any "459." Weird.

"Widow's Sting" was excellent, too, with Panther, Hawkeye, Captain America and Mockingbird taking on HYDRA. Big ass fight in their secret lair, with HYRDA scum going down like 2 dollar whores. There was an interesting twist at the end of it, too, which I wasn't sure what I was seeing. So, I had to hit up Wikipedia to find out what the hell I was looking at at the end of that episode. 

Hawkeye has women issues. That whole Widow's Sting episode was about him going after Black Widow. Either that or he doesn't like betrayal. I mean, who does, really. It's a toss up, I guess. Anyhow, he looks like the kind of guy who has trouble picking the right chick.

Very cool that they got two notable genre actors to do voices in the series, Jeffery Combs as The Leader and Lance Henriksen as Grim Reaper.

Found this on MANIA: "Animation superstar Paul Dini tells Newsarama that the new Ultimate Spider-Man TV series debuting this year on Disney XD will have an interesting new look. "I think it’s really going to take people by surprise. It’s going to take people by surprise as much as the Batman show in the early ‘90s took comic fans by surprise."

Hope the action animation kicks ass! 

Don't forget, all, this FRIDAY, 1/7, YOUNG JUSTICE debuts at 7 PM on CARTOON NETWORK.

Here's a quick synopsis of the upcoming episodes, courtesy of TV.COM:

1/7 - INDEPENDENCE DAY (Part 1) - Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Speedy are finally ready to join the Justice League as full members. However, they soon discover that are being given "junior member" status. An enraged Speedy leaves, while the other three strike out on their own to investigate a mysterious fire at Cadmus Laboratories. The trio soon discovers that Cadmus conceals a major conspiracy, and one of its goals is to create a clone of Superman for their own ends.

1/14 - FIREWORKS (Part 2) - Kid Flash, Robin, and Aqualad are captured by the Cadmus genomorph forces, which prepare to clone them and dispose of the originals. Their only hope is the Superman clone, "Superboy", who must choose between freedom and subservience to those who created him.

1/21 - WELCOME TO HAPPY HARBOR - Young Justice battles a villain named Mister Twister, who they believe is really Red Tornado testing them.

1/28 - DROP ZONE - Young Justice goes on its first official mission under Batman, while trying to determine which of them will lead the team.

2/4 - SCHOOLED - (No synopsis available) 

YOUNG JUSTICE starts tonight, everyone!

Gonna re-record the debut. I orginally had it on VHS and just copied it to DVD when I got my recorder, unfortunately, the VHS wasn't all that great, and it kind of looks shitty. Figure I'll just record directly onto DVD this time.

Anyone catch THE AVENGERS this morning? Excellent part one of this Kang storyline. They're also doing more set-up for the Kree-Skrull war, which I'd have to assume will be prominant in season two. I don't think there's enough episodes left to fully get that storyline out for this season. It's on again tonight at 10:30, and YOUNG JUSTICE, the first episode, is finally on KIDS ON DEMAND. I usually record THE AVENGERS and YOUNG JUSTICE when they premiere, then wait until they hit the On Demand channel, and tape them over. This way I don't have to worry about pausing for commercials, for they're run straight through without interruptions.

 

I have to reiterate, from a previous post, that BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD is the best solo Batman animated adventure DC has done to date! Period. End of story.

Now on to Marvel . . . anyone keeping up with THE AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES? Excellent show, they're currently starting a three-part story arc about Kang, The Conqueror trying to off Captain America for percieved crimes against the universe's time stream, and for personal matters that also revolve around Kang's beloved, which also stem from "his reality" getting all fucked up. Part one was quite excellent. The commercial for part two shows Kang waging an all out war against Earth and the heroes with his armada of starships. God knows where part three is heading.

Mania posted some first images from MARVEL ANIME's WOLVERINE, and a plot. I'm getting a little excited for this new Wolverine anime show now!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MANIA: While it's not scheduled to air in America until sometime later this year, the Marvel Anime series Wolverine has debuted and we've gone through it and pulled a few images from it to whet your appetite before it hits G4. The initial promo created by Madhouse a couple of years ago alongside the Iron Man promos didn't earn the show a lot of fans, but Madhouse was quick to point out once they found out about the reaction that it wasn't a final design but rather a proof of concept more than anything else. With the very long haired and too thin Wolverine shown in it, fans reactions were understandable.

The first episode of the series brings us to a time where Logan is drawn back to Japan to rescue Mariko from her father. At this point in his history, it's to set up his great Japan adventure that helped truly define the character in the 80's where he gained his concepts of honor and family. The episode deals with him going into household and intending to take Mariko back but he ends up fighting her father with wooden swords and he's soundly defeated, not understanding what's going on and why he wasn't able to take down an old man.

The opening episode covers a lot of ground that takes us back to the early 80's incarnation of Logan. He's rough, somewhat easily riled and a bit more animalistic. The episode brings in Mariko and Logan easily enough and it also introduces A.I.M. to the show as the background villain organization through which various ties will emerge. Wolverine kills off several people in the episode, A.I.M. and yakuza alike, and it's got a fair share of bloody but it's not exploitative violence with entrails all over the place. 

The show brings in some good mythos pieces both through the main episode and the opening and closing sequences. Wolverine is definitely more beefed up here with some serious muscle but not over exaggerated either. Madripoor is given a nod in name and visuals, Logan's chugging down some solid Canadian beer and there's flashes of images to his Weapon X days when he was created. Time is spent in New York and Tokyo and the episode teases that Yukio will define the second episode. 

Holy shit, guys! You need to see this new trailer, like ASAP. I found it on YouTube, and it's for the new WOLVERINE anime series. The dude who posted it says it will follow IRON MAN and this it will run 16 episodes. I am so recording this series. WOW!!!!

The opening credits for IRON MAN Anime!

Found this most excellent article on MTV's SPLASH PAGE: 

'Young Justice' Q&A: Producers Talk Team-Building, Going Real, And Comics Crossovers

Posted 1/14/11 5:01 pm ET by Rick Marshall in DC Comics, interviews

 

 

Last week, we gave you an exclusive first look at "Young Justice" villain Mister Twister, who will make his debut in next week's episode of the new Cartoon Network animated series. Before that happens, however, the two-part series premiere continues tonight (7 PM Eastern on Cartoon Network) with "Independence Day, Part 2."

Given the great response to the six-minute "Young Justice" trailer we premiered here on Splash Page back in November, the adventures of DC's new teen superhero team have found quite a following — which is why I reached out to producers Greg Weisman ("Gargoyles") and Brandon Vietti ("Batman: Under The Red Hood") for more info about how the series came together and what to expect this season.

 

From team-building decisions to finding a place for the series in DC continuity, Weisman and Vietti offered a great look at the past, present, and future of their teenage team.

 

MTV NEWS: So when it comes time to build the roster for a team like this, what goes into the decision? Are you picking names out of a hat? How does the selection process begin?

 

GREG WEISMAN: First, I compiled a list of about 50 or 60 teen DC heroes. We started with as wide a selection as we could and then we tried to narrow it down based on a number of criteria. The criteria included a good mix of powers, skills etc. It had to do with it being a good diverse group, but we had our own personal geek preferences, too. There was also age, gender, and a number of other things, like personality or origins. We also looked for characters that had, frankly, baggage — something we could make some hay out of. And that's how we wound up with our half dozen.

 

MTV: When the series was first announced, people thought it would be a cartoon based on the old comic book series with that name. Then there was some confusion when the roster got out and it didn't match up. Where does "Young Justice" fit in the greater DC universe?

 

BRANDON VIETTI: As we were developing the show, we looked at "Teen Titans," and at "Justice League," and all of the other DC shows that came before us. It was up to find a new way to do a superhero show. For us, it was about making the show as realistic as possible — more realistic than "Teen Titans" or "Justice League" or "Legion Of Super Heroes. " We decided realism would be the stamp of our series. All decisions about the stories and the characters and their costumes were spun out of the question of how we make it real.

 

MTV: Whenever anyone starts talking about making a superhero project "real," the conversation inevitably turns to making it "darker." Is this a "darker" teen superhero series?

 

VIETTI: I don't know that it's darker. I think, when you decide to go more realistic with your tone, it can feel heavier. Danger feels more real when it happens. The dramatic consequences of dangerous situations impact your characters psychologically, and we play that as well as we can. I think there's more gravity, certainly. That's not to say that we're a completely dark show. We've put a lot of focus on bringing our teenagers to life with moments of levity. Teenagers in real life are all about having fun, and we've tried to create fun situations to make our characters feel as realistic as possible, too.

 

WEISMAN: In this day and age, comics going dark seems to be their go-to mode. If anything, we tried to think in terms of grounding the series instead of going light or dark. This is a world where you have a strange visitor from another world flying around Metropolis, you've got a guy in a cape swinging around Gotham City, and you've got magic, science-fiction, and all sorts of staples of the superhero genre — which, of course, is a bastard genre. I say that with tremendous affection. It's a genre that's cobbled together from every other genre in existence, whether it's science-fiction or fantasy or detective stories or anything else you can name. We look at it as if these things exist in the world, but we don't take them for granted.

Grounding the series extends to how these kids react to situations, too. Being a teenager really means having something to prove — you have to prove things to your peers, to your teachers, to your parents and most especially to yourself. You're trying to decide who to be in this world. When you're also superheroes, that exponentially aggravates all those problems. Everything that's funny about being a teenager is in there. Everything that's dramatic about it is in there. You've got six teenagers with their hormones running wild, as well as lots of other characters in there. It sounds like we're throwing everything and the kitchen sink in there, but that's how life is.

 

 

 

MTV: You mentioned having some geek preferences for certain characters. Who were you campaigning to have on the team when the selection process began?

 

WEISMAN: Well, the characters weren't really selected from a geek standpoint, but more from the concept of the universe. It's a young universe. Superman would only have put on the cape 10 years ago. The Justice League was founded four years ago. Given those facts, it defined for us as geeks who we didn't want to include to some degree. The example I've given in the past is that I wrote "Captain Atom" for DC Comics for years and have a huge affinity for the character, and he's in the show, but he has a really minor role. I wanted to give him a bigger role in the show, but because he's got no particular relationship with any of these teens, it just never worked out. So once we sort of figured out the basics of the universe, the series told us who was or wasn't in it.

 

VIETTI: I'll say this about some of the character choices: I can't go into names of our guest stars or villains, but we fond some guys in the DC universe who seemed a little ridiculous in the past, or maybe seemed a better fit for a show like "Batman: The Brave and the Bold," but once we looked into those characters, we found some great ideas in them and reimagined them for our series. They're very different and very cool now.

 

MTV: Everyone wants to know if more of the classic teen characters will make an appearance in the show — other George Perez-era Teen Titans, for example...

 

WEISMAN: No one's off limits. No one's off the board. We're going to meet more teen characters in this season than the six or seven we start with. We have 26 episodes this season, which we're thrilled about, but we won't pretend we don't want to do additional seasons. So if the audience wants to see more teen characters, they have to keep our ratings high so that they keep ordering more episodes. But even in the first 24 episodes, we have 174 DC characters. That doesn't even count episodes 25 and 26. There will probably be about 180 by the time we're done.

 

MTV: And I'd imagine you have many more stories to tell with this cast, given the chance...

 

VIETTI: We could probably keep telling stories in this universe for a long, long time...

 

WEISMAN: Plus, we've got the comic book Kevin Hopps and I wrote. Issue #0 is coming out this month. We have six issues from Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani, who pitched in while Kevin and I were deep in production, then starting with issue 7, Kevin and I take over the writing again. So in addition to the 26 episodes, we have an ongoing comic set in the same universe and very much in continuity. All the animated series' episodes have timestamps on them, so you'll know exactly where these episodes fit in with the comic, because the comic will also have timestamps.

 

"Young Justice" airs Friday nights at 7 PM Eastern on Cartoon Network.

 

Let us know what you think of the interview in the comment section or on Twitter! You can also follow me, Splash Page editor Rick Marshall, on Twitter! 

First a couple of cool-ass clips from YOUNG JUSTICE. This is from the upcoming episode this Friday, "Welcome To Happy Harbor." The first clip was posted before, apparently it belongs to this episode. They're not on YouTube, so you'll have to click here to go see them: CLIP ONE, CLIP TWO.

Now, for a revealing interview about THE AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST SUPER HEROES from Comic Book Resources. And, yes, there will be a season 2. Thank God!

Talking Comics with Tim | Christopher Yost

Disney XD’s The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is the kind of show that connects with classic Avengers fans like myself, as well as children seeing the team for the first time. So I considered myself fortunate to catch up with the show’s story editor, Christopher Yost, to discuss the show recently. This Sunday, January 9 at 10 AM EST, in a new episode, The Man Who Stole Tomorrow, Kang the Conqueror, the undisputed ruler of Earth in the 40th Century, and the Avengerscross paths in the 21st century. In addition to discussing  the show, Yost entertained a few questions about the four-issue The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes miniseries, which Marvel launched in November. Marvel has been kind enough to provide an episode guide, as well as video teasers at The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! hub page.

Tim O’Shea: On a most basic level, what all do you get to do as story editor for The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes show?

Christopher Yost: I’m in charge of the writing, from top to bottom. A few years ago now, Supervising Producer Josh Fine came to me with Marvel’s desire to do an Avengers animated series, and I put forward two concepts for the show, general frameworks for which the series exists in. We ended up using both, more or less.

I plan out the overall season arcs with Josh, I write episodes (usually the kick-offs and the finales) and hire the incredibly talented writers that freelance for the show. I make sure the stories all flow, and the characters all sound like they should.

Within the production, I try to work within the budget and schedule, ie limit the number of characters, the number of new locations, props, etc. I often fail at this part of the job… Avengers is a BIG show.

O’Shea: In a recent Marvel.com piece, you said: “Clint Barton for me is the one guy that if he’s not there, it’s not really the Avengers.” Can you talk a little bit more about why you feel that way about Hawkeye–and how you have been able to convey that sentiment in your use of the character in the show?

Yost: Well, you generally need one of the big three as well, but honestly… In my mind, Hawkeye’s the fourth of the big three. To me, if the team is Black Knight, Sersi, Doctor Druid, Photon and Namor, I’m skeptical – and obviously I love those characters, I mean two of my top five are in there. But you could just as easily call them the Defenders or something. But throw Hawkeye in that mix, and it’s the Avengers again.

He’s the guy you or I could be, if we worked hard enough. Iron Man is similar, but his armor is one step past reality. Not Hawkeye. He’s got the attitude…. he’s a normal guy, standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods, and he’ll get right in their faces. He’s the Han Solo of the team.

O’Shea: Again, Marvel.com in that post, got you to rank your top five Avengers, call me greedy, but can you tell me who you would rank 6-10 (to make your top 10)?

Yost: Ms. Marvel. Hercules. Black Panther. Wonder Man/Beast (combo!). Vision.

O’Shea: I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly you introduced Captain Mar-Vell to the series. But it looks like this Captain is not going to be the blond-haired variety that long-time fans know. Can you talk abut the approach to the character for the series?

Yost: Honestly, Captain Marvel was kind of after my time. I never had any real great love for him, but I did like his red and blue costume. Plus, I’m a Mark Gruenwald Quasar guy. But I did love the Ultimate Secret version of the Captain Marvel character, that Warren Ellis and Steve McNiven did. Which we pretty wholly lifted for the show. He felt alien, he felt military, and he felt cool. Not a super hero, but an alien warrior/scientist, here to examine us more than anything… and then fell in love, something unheard of in the militaristic, science fascism of the Kree Empire.

Aliens that look exactly like humans are a bit boring/improbable, no offense to anyone. Plus, we’ve got a few blue-eyed blondes going as it is. So there were all kinds of factors going into ‘blue guy’ Mar-Vell.

O’Shea: How early in the development of the series did you decide you wanted to incorporate Carol Danvers?

Yost: Day one. But we wanted to take our time with her and do it right, because this in many ways will be her introduction to a huge new audience. And we want that audience to love her like we do.

O’Shea: Developing a new series, you get to use characters and situations in a far different way than Stan, Jack and the gang did. How enjoyable is it to get to use Nick Fury and the whole SHIELD dynamics in the Avengers?

Yost: It’s pretty great, to be honest. I’ve said many a day that I think of this as a Marvel Universe show, with the Avengers as our guides. So bringing in Nick and SHIELD was high on the list. Everyone in the production has such a great love of them, too… [supervising director] Ciro Nieli and his team really went back to the comics that made all this great and tried to bring it all to life.

O’Shea: Can you single out particular character moments or scenes from season 1 that you were really pleased to see how they turned out, in terms of execution?

Yost: You’re about to see my hands down favorite in the second half of season one. Gamma World exceeded everything I expected, too. I’m seriously like a kid on Christmas morning every time an episode comes in. I really haven’t been let down yet, and don’t expect to be. I’ve been watching season 2 stuff now, and it’s just as strong.

O’Shea: You have developed a strong following for your animation writing thanks to your work on series such as X-Men: Evolution. How satisfying has it been for you to do the effective world-building/restructuring that you’ve achieved with both series?

Yost: It’s insane beyond belief, I’m so grateful to be able to work on these shows, with this world and these characters. The Marvel Universe is a great place to work.

O’Shea: The comic book industry is always trying to figure out new ways to get more kids to read comics, how much do you think series like yours is effective in getting kids interested in comics?

Yost: I love comics so much, I honestly try to put the love of them into every show I work on, hoping that kids will see these characters, these stories, and look to their parents and say ‘I want more.’ If I could put a ‘GI Joe’ esque ad in the last 30 seconds of each episode, with an Avenger pushing comic books, I would. Because knowing about comic books is half the battle! Kids won’t know unless someone shows them.

O’Shea: In addition to getting to bring the comic book characters to life with the TV series, you are also writing an Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes comic book miniseries, where you get to use characters that have yet to appear in the show. Can you talk about what you wanted to achieve with the comic (as opposed to your goals with the TV series)?

Yost: Marvel publishing came to me with it, they’re really pulling out all the stops in supporting the show. So that when kids DO ask for more, and convince their parents to take them to the comic store, there’s something there they can buy that IS the show.

I really wanted to flesh out the world of the series, do some of the things we couldn’t do in the show for this reason or that, and just to have fun. We’ll have Batroc’s Brigade, Super-Adaptoid, Mad Thinker, the Winter Guard, Elders of the Universe… we just go for it. This is the Marvel Universe, and it’s full of amazingness. And working with Scott Wegener and Patrick Scherberger has been a blast and a half.

O’Shea: Anything you’d like to discuss that I neglected to ask you about?

Yost: The response from comic fans has been amazing, I’m really grateful to everyone watching… but even more, hearing about comic fans sitting down with THEIR kids, and introducing their children to the Avengers… that’s just the best.

And on Sunday, January 9th, our biggest story on the show yet begins as Kang the Conqueror arrives in the 21st century. The Man Who Stole Tomorrow begins the Kang Saga for The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on Disney XD, Sunday mornings!! 

Found some info and clips YOUNG JUSTICE'S next ep, "Drop Zone." This one looks better than "Welcome To Happy Harbor." At the bottom I inserted two clips from the episode I found on MANIA.com, and here's the official plot summary:

Cartoon Network have provide us with two videos and a handful of images from this Friday's episode of Young Justice, entitled "Drop Zone". Here's the description of the segment:

"On their first official assignment – a covert recon mission to the Venom-producing island of Santa Prisca  – The Team finds itself caught in a struggle between the deadly Bane and cult leader Kobra for possession of something far worse than they suspected."

"Drop Zone" airs Friday, January 28  at 7:00 p.m. on Cartoon Network
 

Looks like I'm gonna have to add this to my DVD Wishlist now:

DIGITAL BITS: Warner Home Video is soon to announce the Blu-ray release of Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker . . . 

Wish they'd put it off until Christmas, that's when I get my player.

Got some more BATMAN BEYOND: RETURN OF THE JOKER Blu-Ray news (i.e. cover art, and a date, APRIL 5th), but there seems to be some controversay as to which cut this is. If this ends up being the edited version, count me out. Anyhow, read on faithful viewers . . . 

Anytime there's two versions of any movie, yes, both should be included. Any of you guys get this DVD, make a post and let me know if this was indeed the uncut version. I also don't like that they didn't LBX it, if that's to be believed, too.

I got the uncut version, too, and they do list it as being in standard format. But, it is letterboxed, just not anamorphic.

Amazon doesn't have it up for pre-order, but DVD Empire does, for $15.99.

YOUNG JUSTICE EPISODES FOR FEBRUARY

The Continuum has exclusively obtained the loglines for upcoming episodes of Cartoon Network's Young Justice animated series.

All episodes are scheduled to air at 7 p.m.; schedule is subject to change by Cartoon Network.

Friday, Feb. 4: "Schooled" -- Superboy's anger over his non-relationship with Superman is getting out of control. He refuses to train with Black Canary, and when The Team faces an opponent that even the Justice League had trouble defeating, the Boy of Steel goes rogue.

Friday, Feb. 11: "Infiltrator" -- Artemis faces an uphill battle winning over her new teammates, as she tries to fill Red Arrow's boots on a mission he initiated: saving a brilliant young scientist from the League of Shadows.

Friday, Feb. 18: "Denial" -- When The Team investigates the disappearance of Kent Nelson (formerly Doctor Fate), the scientific-minded Wally West is forced to confront his disbelief in magic while battling Abra Kadabra and Klarion the Witch Boy, for the ultra-powerful Helmet of Fate.

Young Justice will not air on Friday, Feb. 25. The Friday, March 4 episode is titled "Downtime." 

Here's the first image from GREEN LANTERN: EMERALD KNIGHTS, DC's latest animated movie that'll be hitting Blu-Ray and DVD on June 7th. Oh, and Wikipedia indicates BATMAN: YEAR ONE will follow on 9/27. Now, that one I'll probably be getting.

 From MARVEL.COM

'

This Sunday, February 13, relive some of the Avengers' greatest battles in the special Villaintine's Day event from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET on Disney XD. Catch your favorite episodes of "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!" as the team faces off against their deadliest threats yet, and check in with Marvel.com every day this week for a look at the diabolical menaces the group will face!

 

Ready to celebrate the Avengers' greatest threats with the "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!" Villaintine's Day marathon beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET this Sunday on Disney XD?! Well, just in case you need a touch more convincing, we spoke with Supervising Producer Joshua Fine about the process of creating some of Earth's Mightiest Villains. Along with Story Editor Christopher Yost, Fine has helped shepherd the Marvel Universe's greatest heroes and villains into animated action with the show.

 

The Leader, Abomination and Absorbing Man from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Marvel.com: What was the most difficult part of deciding which villains to include in "Breakout"?

 

Joshua Fine: Chris Yost and I dug through every Marvel handbook, encyclopedia, and archive we could to find as wide a variety of rogues as possible. Populating four different super villain prisons with distinct sub-types of villains--radiation-types, tech-types, genetic-types--meant going for some pretty obscure faces in a few spots. But overall, I think we got a nice spread of characters in there.

 

Honestly, the hardest part of figuring out which villains to showcase was figuring out if there were any villains that we didn't want to imprison at the start of the show, so that we could either give them an origin story in a later episode or tie them into one of the other ongoing villain plots.

 

Marvel.com: How and why did you settle on Graviton being the main one?

 

Joshua Fine: We looked at a few different scenarios for launching the series, bringing the team together, and being an overall threat for season 1. Eventually we settled on the super villain breakout as being the perfect mechanism for all three of those things.

Kang from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

(Avengers Trivia: the other leading contender for launching the series? The Kang Invasion. Chris and I worked up a scenario where Kang could be a season-long big-bad, but none of the folks involved with development--ourselves included--liked it as much as the breakout direction. So we ended up condensing that story into what became our epic Kang three-parter.)

 

Once we knew we were going the Breakout direction, Chris very astutely pointed out that we were going to need a major focal villain for the second half. This would allow the Avengers to actually work together against a single threat and have a distinct victory at the end of the pilot. Since we knew we wanted the Breakout itself to feel huge, widespread, and largely uncontained as a way to set up more stories later in the season, the Avengers couldn’t stop the whole Breakout, just one part of it.

 

It took us some time to come up with the right baddy for the job. Some of the names we talked about initially for guys with the right power-levels were Magneto, Doctor Doom, and the Molecule Man. Magneto and Doom had the unfortunate stigma of being arch-enemies of other Marvel super teams, and it just felt distinctly wrong to bring the Avengers together by fighting the most iconic foe of either the X-Men or the Fantastic Four. Molecule Man worked better as an Avengers villain, but his character itself was just a bit too awkward. On one side of the spectrum, his powers let him do virtually anything he can think of--something that’s virtually impossible to beat by force. On the other side, his personality is a bit goofy and unintimidating--and in the past he’s been defeated primarily by appealing to that side of him.

Graviton from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

I knew we needed an epic throwdown to kick-off the series and I didn’t want the Avengers to be able to talk their way out of it, something that Ant-Man definitely would have tried against Molecule Man. I kept coming back to the idea of Magneto’s powers going full-blast, leveling city blocks, hurling skyscrapers--stuff that would visually make the audience feel like the team was up against a threat that was totally unstoppable. Once we decided that that was the right kind of feel for the fight, Chris dug through his encyclopedic memory of Avengers comics and came up with a lesser-known West Coast Avengers villain called Graviton. I did a little reading up and agreed that he was the perfect fit for what we wanted to do.

 

Marvel.com: Out of the Avengers, whose “rogue gallery” is your favorite?

 

Joshua Fine: Tough call here…Cap brings Red Skull and Zemo, Iron Man has Mandarin and Crimson Dynamo, Ant-Man has…um…Egghead.

 

I’d probably go with Thor. Loki is my favorite villain in the Marvel Universe and additionally you get Amora, Skurge, Hela, Surtur, Frost Giants, and a veritable menagerie of threats from the length and breadth of the nine realms.

Marvel.com: Which villain would you ideally like to have on the show that hasn’t been on yet?

The Leader from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Joshua Fine: I feel like this is a trick question. There are still seven episodes left in Season One and another 26 in Season Two that are already in post-production. And I can tell you that there are a lot more villains appearing in Season 2 that I’ve been wanting to see. So you’re just trying to get me to give away someone that I’m saving for a possible Season 3, right?

 

Okay…I’ll go with Taskmaster. Chris and I tried to find the right place to work him into the first two seasons, but just never got him in there. I love pretty much everything about this guy, from his look, to his abilities, to his motivation, and I know there’s a great episode just waiting to happen with him.

 

Marvel.com: Do you feel that developing a villain is more difficult than creating a well-rounded hero?

Joshua Fine: The challenge is about equal in the sense that in both cases you need to figure out what drives the character. Where do they come from? What have they been through? What do they believe in? And what are they trying to achieve? What is their personality and how does that come across?

 

With villains you have two extra challenges though--the first is that your villain usually has to demonstrate something about your heroes. His motivations and goals have to do something to your hero’s character arc for the series--usually by changing the way the hero thinks about something. The second challenge is that you usually have less time to develop a villain on screen. Where the heroes come back week after week to face new threats, the villains usually show up for one or two episodes and then disappear for long stretches of time.

 

The advantage you get though is that the plot of the episode that a villain is in is usually driven by the villain. The threat a villain creates for the episode is usually very indicative of who that villain is, whereas with heroes, you have to show who they are by how the cope with a threat.

 

Baron Zemo from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Marvel.com: Which villain was the biggest challenge in making sure they translated well onscreen, in terms of design, voice acting, etc.?

Joshua Fine: Our design team and voice cast have done such an amazing job that it’s hard to say that any one character ended up being more challenging than any others, because on the hardest characters the team really rose to the occasion. I’ll give special acknowledgement to Grim Reaper, Baron Zemo, Kang, and the Leader though, because they all had the deck stacked against them.

 

Grim Reaper’s original costume in the comics looks, frankly, ridiculous. But when Ciro Nieli did the updated design for him, he hit the ball way out of the park. Just so incredibly cool. Incidentally, it was also Ciro’s idea to use Lance Henriksen as Reaper’s voice. This worked out so well that Chris and I abandoned our intention to use Reaper as just a one episode throw-away, and made him a recurring character in the first season.

 

Baron Zemo--let’s be honest--he’s clad head-to-toe in purple and polka-dotted fur and has a sock over his face. But thanks to a slick costume design, a horrific disfigurement sequence in our World War II flashback, and some amazing voice acting…you don’t even notice it. When Robin Atkin Downes opens his mouth as this character, you just shiver. Yeah, he’s wearing purple and fur, but you know he can kill you.

 

Kang was in a similar spot. One of those more far-out comics designs, where you’re just not sure it’ll work once it’s brought to life. But the updated version looks great, and Jonathan Adams did a superb job bringing all of the gravity and cool confidence to this character that he needed.

The Masters of Evil from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

The Leader was a character that we had huge aspirations for right from the beginning. We wanted to make him a more impressive, brilliant threat than he’d ever been before. Thanks to Jeffrey Combs, I think we were able to achieve this. He’s the kind of actor where you can give him a three page monologue to read, and he’ll do the whole thing start-to-finish brilliantly the first time. And then come up with something even better the second time. It’s one of those cases where you could actually listen to the Leader read the phone book, and it would still end up being supremely entertaining.

 

Marvel.com: Who is your favorite Marvel "The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!" villain? Your favorite lesser known one?

Joshua Fine: I gave this away above, but Loki’s my favorite. I love working on really smart villains, the ones who think six moves ahead of the heroes--Leader is a runner up because of this. Working with Chris to figure out "The Isle of Silence" Micro-Episode was a ton of fun, because it meant playing the trickster--getting to figure out how Loki was behind everything in that episode.

 

As for slightly more obscure villains, probably the Mad Thinker for similar reasons.

 

M.O.D.O.C. and the Wasp from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Marvel.com: Are there any more plans to explore a villain’s origins, such as in the "Everything is Wonderful" episode with Wonder Man?

Joshua Fine: We have one huge villain origin-story coming up that we’ve been building towards since the micro-episodes. I don’t want to give away who it is, but I’ll give you a hint: he’s an artificial intelligence designed by Doctor Henry Pym…called Ultron!

 

Marvel.com: The Kang storyline was one of the big events of the first season. What were some challenges in getting that story told and condensing it into only a few episodes?

Joshua Fine: From a writing standpoint, the biggest challenge was to figure out what the three parts were. We knew that this story was going to be big enough to be worthy of a three-part event in the middle of the season, but whenever possible we try to design each part to stand on its own as well. Figuring out how to break up the story such that the first and second part had a satisfying ending was a little tricky, but I think it worked out pretty well.

 

The bigger challenge came in production. The middle part of the Kang saga, with the huge invasion force, is the most complex episode animation-wise in the entire series. The action is so huge and sustained for so long, that it was actually an intensely difficult episode for our animators to tackle. Not to mention that our sound designers then had to match all of that visual action with aural good-ness. One of them told me that he stopped counting when he got to the 150^th explosion of the episode, and that wasn’t even at the halfway point.

HYDRA from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Marvel.com: What are the hardest and easiest parts of balancing so many different villains?

Joshua Fine: Keeping them different from one another is probably the biggest challenge. It sounds silly, but the easiest trap to fall into with villains is, “I’m doing this because I’m bad” or “I’m doing this because I’m crazy.” In order to create distinctly different-feeling episodes, with cool, memorable villains, you really have to step back and make sure that your villains all have different goals and different motivations for going after those goals. That means that not everyone can be just about conquering the world because they’re crazy and power-hungry.

 

The easiest part of balancing the villains is that the Marvel Universe provides such a rich, varied, source of villainy to pull from. Sure, sometimes villains' motivations need to be updated a bit, or you need to jump around in Avengers history to find the most compelling scheme that a villain ever had--but the cast of characters is there for the adapting.

 

Marvel.com: Are there any villains whose final appearances onscreen differed drastically from how they were first envisioned for the show?

The villains break out in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Joshua Fine: For the most part we aimed to emulate the characters’ classic looks from the comics. In a couple places we updated them a bit though. Off the top of my head, Graviton changed some. In the books he was thinner, had a cape and a bit of a Magneto-meets-Mister Sinister look to him. When we were initially working on "Breakout" that’s how I was envisioning him.

 

But when it came time to design him, our designers got rid of the cape, mostly for storytelling reasons. He’s been in prison…where would the cape come from? They also turned his costume into more of a practical, S.H.I.E.L.D.-designed restraining suit, and bulked him up a bit to get him away from the Magneto body-type. I liked what they did, so we went with it.

 

Chemistro was another one. Who? Yeah, Chemistro. He’s on screen for about two seconds in "Breakout, Part 1," and wins the award for most not-recognized-by-fans villain in the show. I had envisioned him being as silly-looking as he is in the comics, but then Ciro came back with one of the coolest villain designs I’ve ever seen. I actually teased him for betraying the character’s classic lameness. I liked this version of the character so much that we found a place to bring him back in an equally cool episode later in the season.

Marvel.com: M.O.D.O.C., Grim Reaper, and Enchantress. Who’d win a no-holds fight?

Baron Zemo and Arnim Zola from The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Joshua Fine: Grim Reaper goes down first in this battle--I love him, but he’s not even close to the other two. Between M.O.D.O.C. and Enchantress…that’s an interesting dilemma. Magic vs. technology. That might make a good theme for an episode, don’t you think?

 

We saw that M.O.D.O.C.’s mental blast was capable of hurting even Thor, so we have to assume that Amora would be susceptible to it. But Amora has teleportation, magical shielding, and any number of offensive enchantments on her side. I’d have to give her the edge in this one.