#Marvel Animated Series

[sjbattleangel]

Shake It Off Sunday

[wolvierinez]

have you guys seen this. you should watch it.

[ledatoons13]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur gifs

[mister-faltine]

"Aftershock" in the Moon Girl animated series:

[lehoodcollector]

Can't nobody say Bishop didn't get busy!!!! (From Wolverine & The X-Men)

[episodicnostalgia]

Spider-man: The Animated Series, 105 (Feb. 25, 1995) - “The Menace of Mysterio”

Written by: John Semper Jr, Marv Wolfman, & Stan Berkowitz Directed by: Bob Richardson

The Breakdown

Spider-man has taken to a life of crime, and no one is more surprised that Peter Parker!  When news footage airs of Spider-man robbing a museum, Pete heads over to the scene of the crime (where Jonah is holding an anti-spidey press conference) in search of clues to clear his name.  Pete’s snooping gets him caught by Detective Terri Lee, but she opts to let it go (for the time being) when some weirdo in a fishbowl and purple cape interrupts the press conference. This particular nutcase calls himself Mysterio, and assures everyone that he is the hero who will finally bring Spider-man to justice.  He then disappears in a theatrical puff of smoke, before Jonah has an opportunity ask any follow up questions, but NOT before terrorizing the crowd with some frighteningly realistic illusions; finally a hero that New York can feel safe around

Spidey’s initial encounters with Mysterio do not go especially well, and he finds himself both defeated and publicly humiliated in the process; worse yet, it also results in Peter missing a date with Mary Jane.  After licking his wounds, Pete visits Detective Lee as Spider-man, where she helps him uncover Mysterio’s identity by pulling up an old police file.  It turns out Mysterio was once a Hollywood Special Effects technician, Named Quentin Beck, who was the best-of-the-best until he went too far and almost blew up a helicopter for some action movie.  Thankfully Spider-man was on hand to save the day and expose Beck’s criminal negligence, bringing him to justice… for a little bit.  Since getting out of prison, Beck has used his expertise (and apparently limitless resources) to exact his revenge by masquerade as a superhero, frame Spider-man, and then defeat him publicly.

Of course, Spider-man ultimately foils Mysterio in their obligatory climactic showdown, using his Spidey-sense to determine which of his adversary’s traps are lethal, or merely illusions.  As a nice bonus to Mysterio’s defeat, Terri Lee and Spidey become allies.  Oh yeah! And Mary Jane even decides to cut Pete some slack and give him another shot at taking her on a date.  Another happy ending all around.

The Verdict

I must confess, I’ve never had much interest in Mysterio. That’s not to say there isn’t a time and place for the character, and some iterations are more worthy of consideration than others, but his gimmick quickly grows old. It’s always the same: Something out of the ordinary happens that makes Spider-man question his reality, until he’s forced to trust his spider-sense, revealing it was an elaborate illusion all along. Rinse. Recycle. Repeat.  It’s no surprise to me that the showrunners would use the character sparingly, moving forward.

The strongest parts of this episode are those that don’t focus on Mysterio at all.  The subplot (which I skipped over in my breakdown) features Peter wanting to give up on being Spidey altogether after his initial defeat.  Thankfully Terri Lee conveniently makes a comment to Peter that causes him to reconsider early retirement, but it’s in this character beat that we’re finally shown Spidey’s fabled origin.  It’s actually a pretty economical way to bring a young target audience up to speed on the wall-crawler’s backstory, while tying it to his current existential dilemma.  World building aside, it’s the theme of power and responsibility (overstated as it has come to be) that has always endeared me to the character; If only that theme could have been introduced in a stronger episode.

In the end, I can attribute neither love nor hate toward ‘The Menace of Mysterio’, but rather an apathetic “Meh.”

2.5 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

I realize that supervillains being in possession of expensive toys is a trope that one sometimes has to accept; but seriously, HOW is Mysterio paying for any of this?  In this episode alone he has tiny cubes capable of projecting a wide array of complex illusions, animatronic dinosaurs/pirates/zombies/spiders, and a giant hydraulic spinning wheel (the original purpose for which I couldn’t possibly hazard a guess).  Having actually worked in the film industry, I am confident that even a highly paid SFX technician wouldn’t be able to afford all those gadgets without additional funding.  Indeed, I’ve only worked on a handful of films that would have possessed a budget large enough to accommodate even half the technology utilized by Mr. Beck, and even those would have been rentals.  I’m beginning to suspect the writers didn’t even care about the financial logistics of supervillainy.

Responsibility count: With Uncle Ben's Introduction, Peter utters the show's very first use of "with great power comes great responsibility." But don't worry if you missed it, we're gonna hear that chestnut MANY times before the series comes to an end.

Pete’s missed connection with Mary Jane was supposed to be a study-date for her requisite physics class (MJ is otherwise a student of the arts/acting), hence why she’s miffed when Pete fails to show.  Thankfully it all works out, as she explains she chose to just knuckle down and do the studying herself, passing the test in the process.  That’s all well-and-good, but then she drops some platitude about how arts and sciences are basically the same thing because “they’re both about trying to understand the world around us”.  I appreciate that, broadly speaking, that may be philosophically pertinent, but it’s just such irrelevant point to make, considering that truth derived through artistic mediums is often considerably more subjective (particularly in a class setting).  It’s also precisely the sort of comment I would have once nodded at ponderously in theatre school (especially if it was said by a cute redhead), and I don’t appreciate being called out like that.

[batboyzloverz]

I feel bored spending so much time with Batman O.O

[liquidsludge]

Day three of the LiquidSludge spooooooky villain posting, of different villains i really enjoy from all kinds if media. And todays bad guy is not other than:

Ultron!! From avengers earths mightiest heroes.

Probably my favourite version if the character and a really recommend watching the show, its one of my favourites of all time.

[stevefightmerogerss]

remember how in the earth's mightiest heroes series, steve yells out "BUCKY?!?!" as soon as he wakes up from the ice and tries to find him? and then wasp convinces steve that she's not hydra by showing steve a memorial statue of bucky and himself?? ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ⁱᵈᵒ

[animusrox]

X-Men (2000) dir. Bryan Singer X-Men '97 S01E09 "Tolerance Is Extinction, Pt. 2"

[guardianjameslight]

I don't know about you, but I really hate mentality that says that we don't get good animated projects anymore, especially when these exist.

And there's more.

[dailyworldecho]

[comicexpertt]

Oh my queen. I admire you.

[ledatoons13]

I need people to turn their shipping brains off for a moment because seeing this image shared as content for shipping is quite uncomfortable to witness

The context is Lunella is feeling insecure about her hair after a white girl's hurtful remarks and she looks to Casey in this moment as "this is the hair I want to make me feel pretty and not get made fun of". In the episode, she learns to embrace har natural hair and take care of it. It's a very touching episode, don't reduce it for shipping nonsense.

Shipping can be fun but please don't do things like this. It's so insulting to the writing and to anyone who have been in Lunella's position.

Stuff like this is why people turn away from things. It's okay to ship for FUN but we kindly ask that it shouldn't be a main priority when consuming media. I say this as someone who enjoys a lot of shipping and I ship these two. Just know where to draw the line.

[primal-slayer]

X-Men: The animated series vs X-Men '97 opening

[padawan-carol]

💪