JthenR's Comic Vault: June 2012

DICK TRACEY, BACHELOR

A MAD Parody

Written By Stan Hart and Illustrated by Angelo Torres

Sometimes we forget that MAD Magazine started off as a comic book company and a very adult one at that. Sure in the beginning they did some parodies but it was mostly horror stuff. Stuff they would get dragged into congress for and accused of indecency.

hanks to Tales Calculated To Drive You MAD and others like them, the comic industry had to create the now defunct Comics Code Authority in order to convince congress that they could govern themselves. This was during a time when congress was looking for communists instead of doing things that would help our country. So at the time this was not considered ridiculous.

Now, enough with the history lesson enjoy the beautifully written and illustrated work above and if you're not familiar with MAD you'll soon see why they are the masters of illustrated parody.

Here I go again, another nerdy freak-out/rant post. But Why shouldn’t I? This was the best Marvel owned animated series (In my opinion) ever put on television and It’s being disassembled (Puns are fun) for really no reason. OK, maybe there is a reason, but it’s not because of something reasonable like not being a critical or commercial success. Because it was and is, the second season is still ongoing. It’s because Marvel’s new TV head, Jeph Leob, and the powers that be want a series that closely resembles Marvel’s The Avengers, you know the 3rd most grossing movie of all time.

Despite all that, I’m not going to go insane and dismiss all things Marvel or send a tweet to Marvel’s CCO Joe Quesada telling him to “die of AIDS”. No, this will be a rather somber post. Reflecting on what an awesome show Avengers: EMH was and what I hope to see in the future.

Let me start with the facts. Yesterday it was anounced that A:EMH would not have a third season and would instead be replaced by a new series called Avengers Assemble. It will be part of a new Marvel TV block along with the return of Ultimate Spider-Man and a new series called. Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and all three shows will share the same Universe.

Nothing more was said about what to expect from the new Avengers show other than that it will closely echo the movie and Falcon is involved and is soppossed to be the avatar for the audience.

So far this doesn’t sound terrible. But that’s not the point is it? A:EMH was a perfectly good, no great, show. It had everything you wanted in an Avengers animated series. It already established many of Marvel’s well known (and not so well known but just as awesome, looking at you Guardians of the Galaxy) characters to great effect. In the second season alone it took us through the Secret Invasion story line and Hank Pym’s transformation into Yellow Jacket. And the season not even half done.

My point is, same with the original Spider-Man movie trilogy, what’s the point in getting invested in a series if it’s just going to get re-booted in the near future anyway? Why should I keep watching something if I’ll see a new incarnation of it and I’ll have to re-invest myself into another series? I mean The Spectacular Spider-Man and all those X-Men shows were all well liked and just like that they were gone. Now, those shows at the time were on before Marvel owned the TV rights to thier charecters. But A:EMH is completley owned by Marvel, under the Disney umbrells of course.

Now as for the other two shows, Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. I don’t get it.

I gave that Spider-Man show a chance. I’ve seen about 5 episodes. I’m not being unfair when I say I just don’t like it. There may be a few things I see from time to time that I enjoyed, but for the most part, it’s not for me. Even with the great Paul Dini as writer/producer on it. Also, if the problem was to get the Avengers show to match the Avengers movie then shouldn’t that be the case for Spider-Man? Because from what I’ve seen I don’t see how it mirrors the upcoming movie nor the previous 3 films.

I know nothing about the new Hulk show other than I know that doesn’t mirror any of the Hulk movies or the Avengers. Unless there was a deleted scene inThe Avengers where the Hulk teamed up with the Red Hulk, She-Hulk, A-Bomb, and Skaar for some reason (maybe to S.M.A.S.H. shit?).

So back to Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I’ve already said how great it is many times before. I can remember watching episodes where they introduce one charecter after another and all I can think is “OK, they’re building up to something awesome for the finale or something awesome for the next season”. But none of that matters now. All I can do is watch the rest of this great season, enjoy it and re-watch the previous episodes.

I hope the new series keeps some of the charm of A:EMH or at least the same voice actors because I thought they did a great job. I even recognized some of those voices on Marvel vs. Capcom 3. If it mirrors like the movie it’s hard to imagine it will be terrible. It’s the fact that it will be part of the Ultimate Spider-Man TV show universe that scares me.

Afterward:

I know I’ve been hard on Ultimate Spider-Man but it’s only because I love the charecter so much. I may be spoiling this for some (so stop reading if you want) but in a recnet/upcoming episode of A:EMH Spider-Man makes a cameo. He helps Cap with his reputation problem as well as fighting some bad guys with him. That incarnation of Spider-Man was exactly what I hoped Ultimate would be. He was a kid but he wan’t an anoying wise-ass kid. he was actually a super hero in training, not whatever Ultimate thinks thier doing.

All us Marvel fans may act like assholes and send less than flattering tweets or comments but there’s a reason. We love the Marvel Universe so much. Marvel should be lucky to have fans that care so deeply about what happens to it.