Well, watching the movies? Not necessarily a bad idea. Watching Ultimate Avengers: The Movie, Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise Of The Panther (Well, kind of. See below), The Invincible Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Next Avengers and the Hulk Vs. movies in one sitting? One of the dumber ideas I've had in a long time. I love superheroes as much as the next man - even if the next man is Stan Lee himself - but I now believe that the human mind has a limit when it comes to this kind of thing. And that that limit is somewhere around four hours... Which, considering these DVDs average 70 minutes each, is a shame.

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie


On the one hand, I can understand why Marvel went with this for their first direct-to-DVD animated movie: It's pretty much a straight adaptation of the first volume of a critically-acclaimed reworking of the origins of a franchise featuring some of their biggest names. On the other, much of the reason for that critical acclaim had to do with the "mature" tone that's pretty much stripped away in this movie, leaving what really feels pretty much like a particularly grim, overlong episode of a generic superhero cartoon show. There's no real excitement here in the writing, performances or visuals; it's just... there. I have the feeling that, if I was fourteen and hated the world but still thought Captain America was awesome, it might be better, but as it is...? Not the greatest start to the viewing marathon.

Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise Of The Panther


And here's a bad sign for the rest of the movie marathon. Perhaps sensing how little I enjoyed Ultimate Avengers, the DVD Gods took pity on me: The review copy of this disc wouldn't play. But judging by the trailer, this is a weird mash-up of the Black Panther's first appearance in Fantastic Four and a retread of the Ultimates villains, which is... um... interesting, perhaps? I'm not feeling too bad for missing this.

The Invincible Iron Man


If nothing else, this movie makes you appreciate Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. just that little bit more by how clumsily it handles Tony Stark's origins at That Guy In The Robot Suit. Yes, bringing in the Mandarin gives the movie more visual impact, but almost everything else that they change - whether it's the "I'm under investigation by the FBI so I'll just hang out in the alley beside my work" scenes or the "I hate you, Dad! I hate you I hate you I've bought the company somehow and you can run it because I love you" plot - would bring you as close to nerdtears as it did me. It's at this point that I start to wonder how much Marvel Animation is/was being used as a testing ground for the live-action movies, and whether the Iron Man movie was so good because they looked at this and saw what didn't work. Meanwhile, visually, everyone still looks very generic. For a comic book company with such strong artists, it's really surprising that Marvel seemed to be happy with such dull visuals for their animated movies (Compare and contrast with any of the DC animated projects of, what, the last two decades? Or most of Cartoon Network's output, for that matter).

Doctor Strange: The Sorceror Supreme


Here's the first piece of magic about the Doctor Strange movie: It seemed like it would never end. Also, and maybe it's because I was struggling to pay attention at this point, I'm not sure that it really made sense. It's another origin story with additions to make it more like a movie and less like something Stan Lee and Steve Ditko came up with in a mix of inspiration and deadline sweat but, just like in Invincible Iron Man, the new stuff - like the addition of a magical super team that recruits Strange so that he can learn about magic - just serves to confuse and bog down the movie and fill it with non-descript characters it's hard to care about. Watching so many of these in a row, I've started to realize how bad the characterization has been in these movies so far - either it's pretty much non-existant (the super team here are cannon fodder, really) or done with no subtlety whatsoever (Strange's switch from asshole to good guy, complete with "What about the children?" dialogue). Fans of the crazy Steve Ditko designs of the original comic will want to stay away; this is another - and, thankfully, the last - of the visually boring movies, completely lacking the off-kilter plasticity of the comic at its best.

Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow


Is it so wrong to want to kiss a movie? Probably, particularly an animated movie full of kids. But, really; after the last four movies, Next Avengers seemed like the greatest thing in the world - Fast-moving, original (Well, as original as a mash-up of Young Avengers and Avengers Next could be, but not an adaptation, at least) and with some interesting character design? I'll take several, please. Yes, it theoretically skews younger than the other movies, but somehow felt like it was pandering less (And, really, starting a movie with "Oh, all your favorite superheroes? They're either dead, abandoning their offspring - Yeah, really, nice move Thor - or enslaved by the bad guy" shows that this isn't exactly the most comforting movie you can imagine for kids) and if skewing younger means more enjoyable, then I'd be happy if Marvel kept doing movies for young'uns. The first genuinely good movie of the bunch, although I may be grading on a curve and/or lost whatever critical faculties I've had by this point.

Hulk Vs.

Easily the best of the bunch, Hulk Vs. is a weird split-DVD, offering two 45-ish minute movies, Hulk Vs. Wolverine and Hulk Vs. Thor and both of them are better than... well, everything else I've watched so far, apart from maybe Next Avengers. Ignore the title, though, because in both cases, the Hulk is kind of a bystander/McGuffin for the guest-star to jump off've and shine, and of the two episodes, the Thor one is by far the best. With a plot straight out of a mid-1970s issue of Marvel Team-Up (Loki brings the Hulk to Asgard to fuck with Thor! And it all goes wrong!) and a couple of unexpected twists (The death of one of the title characters, for example) packed into its short running time, it offers the kind of fast-paced thrills and spills I'd been looking for all along. Hulk Vs. Wolverine, meanwhile, feels like an odd mix of the comic book and movie versions of the character's history, as the rest of Weapon X try and take Wolverine back "home" and the Hulk complicates matters. It's... interesting, I guess, but feels more like the middle chapter of something instead of a standalone story by itself. But, again, it's better-written and more enjoyable than the earlier movies, and both Thor and Wolverine edge ever closed to a distinct visual style that the movies have lacked up to this point. Of the six DVDs, it's the only one I'd really recommend to anyone other than a Marvel completist, or animation masochist.

Watching all six of the movies so close together, you can see their evolution and understandable growing pains, from adaptations to all-new stories with Next Avengers and Hulk Vs., and also visually and in terms of trying to work out how to tell their stories - Both Next and Hulk feel rooted more in fan-friendly continuity, but that also makes them less bogged down with the need to explain everything, making them more enjoyable to watch for new viewers, ironically. Even though the movies are clearly improving, there's still a reverence to the original comics that holds the cartoons back in a way that, say, Batman: The Animated Series or The Brave and The Bold don't share - The people involved seem too concerned with keeping the spirit of continuity alive, at times, instead of the spirit of the characters, and the result is writing that feels lifeless at times, even in Hulk Vs. Wolverine. As soon as they can work out how to replicate the live-action movies' ability to pick and choose what works, and as soon as the powers that be look for bolder ways to visualize those stories, then they'll be in good shape. For now, what's there is a public growth from awkward beginnings to... well, an only slightly less awkward present.

The Marvel Animation 6 Film Set is available now.

First off, let's remember that Marvel doesn't have access to all of their own characters when it comes to movies; Fox have the rights to the X-Men characters, the Fantastic Four and certain related characters, and the Daredevil franchise, while Sony will doubtless do everything it can to keep hold of the hugely-successful Spider-Man license. So where does that leave Marvel? Well, with plenty of other characters, it seems... Here are our suggestions, complete with high concept pitches to sell them to the execs, and split out into genres:

Action
Comedy
Fantasy
Thriller
Trippy SF

You're welcome, Marvel.

The Eternals
The Pitch: "Learn the true history of humanity!"
The Explanation: Forget Neil Gaiman's recent attempt to restart this franchise and go back to Jack Kirby's original, which said that humanity was just one of three races created by giant, godlike robots called the Celestials, who have come back to Earth to judge us. Oh, and those two other races? They're the idealized Eternals and the evil Deviants, and they're at war over humanity's survival. Imagine a story this epic (and, admittedly, dumb) being given to JJ Abrams and prepare for box office success.
Must Read: The Eternals by Jack Kirby volumes 1 and 2.

Star Brand
The Pitch: "Man has discovered the ultimate weapon. Watch out, Pittsburgh."
The Explanation: Marvel's 1980s attempt at "realism", the New Universe, contained one particular classic, the story of a man who gains the universe's ultimate weapon - a brand that gives its owner unlimited power - and, well, loses his mind in the process, accidentally destroying his home town of Pittsburgh and launching the world into a nuclear winter as a result. We want to see what Charlie Kaufman could do with this, to be honest.
Must Read: Star Brand Classic volume 1 starts the story, but things get more interesting - and more weird - in the not-yet-reprinted later issues.

Machine Man
The Pitch: "What does it mean to be human, when you're not?"
The Explanation: Jack Kirby - yes, him again - created this character, an android just trying to make it in a world of fleshy humans, as part of his continuation of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so you could almost say that he's fated to be a movie star. Downplay the character's various attempts to be a superhero and cut to the core of the character: Kirby's lonely, melancholic outsider wondering what the human condition actually is. Add Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, and let rise, slowly.
Must Read: Currently out of print, you'd be best served by looking for Kirby's short-lived run on the original, 1970s, version of the Machine Man series.

The Winter Soldier
The Pitch: "It's The Manchurian Candidate with cyborgs!"
The Explanation: Ignore the comic version's association with Captain America - He was originally Cap's WWII sidekick Bucky, and took over as Cap after Steve Rogers' assassination a couple of years ago - and focus on the character's origin story: An American soldier, saved from near death by Russians only to be brainwashed and given cyborg implants before being used as an assassin during the Cold War, struggling to break free of his programming. How could that fail? Just get rid of the long hair he had in the comic.
Must Read: Captain America: The Winter Soldier volumes 1 and 2.

SHIELD
The Pitch: "Everything you've ever wanted James Bond movies to be... but better."
The Explanation: It's Marvel's premiere spy agency, made up of grizzled veterans of wars both Cold and World, keeping the world safe with gadgets that would make James Bond jealous: Flying cars? Artificial intelligence decoys? A floating helicopter city headquarters? Even their terrorist nemesis organizations have cool-sounding names: AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics)! Hydra! You'd have to try to mess this one up. Or, you know, cast David Hasselhoff.
Must Read: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD by Jim Steranko.

Agents of Atlas
The Pitch: "The A-Team does Mission Impossible on a much larger scale."
The Explanation: A resurrected FBI agent inherits a terrorist organization and decides to use it to save the world from itself. Oh, and his best friends include a talking gorilla, a siren, a robot and a nice Jewish boy for Uranus. Jeff Parker's wonderful series repurposing old characters from Marvel's pre-Fantastic Four days is funny, smart and, while it may not seem like it at first glance, exactly the kind of thing to make a movie out of. Give it to the Coen brothers and see what happens.
Must Read: The collection of the original 2007 Agents of Atlas series. Although you wouldn't go wrong with the current monthly series, either.

Black Knight
The Pitch: "What if Martin Lawrence's Black Knight movie wasn't played for laughs and didn't suck?"
The Explanation: Simplify this Avenger's backstory considerably, and you've got the plot for a movie: The ancestor of a famous soldier during the time of King Arthur ends up, through magical process, back in that era and creating the legend that his ancestor was supposed to have personified. Yes, it's Hiro's plot from the second season of Heroes, but Black Knight did it first. And, let's face it, better.
Must Read: Essential Defenders volume 1 gives you some of the character's time traveling history.

Killraven
The Pitch: "War Of The Worlds by way of Planet of the Apes."
The Explanation: Set in an alternate world so far out that it may as well be Middle-Earth, Killraven is the story of War of The Worlds Round 2: The Martians from HG Wells' original story have come back and enslaved humanity, forcing breeding so that they can eat babies (Subtle, this isn't) and otherwise just using and abusing humanity as they see fit. Only one man - Jonathan Raven, apparently called "Kill" to his friends - can save the human race in what can only be described as Battleground Earth done right.
Must Read: Essential Killraven volume 1.

Hellcat
The Pitch: "Buffy for the The Devil Wears Prada audience."
The Explanation: Patsy Walker had it all - Life as a teen superstar, the perfect boyfriend, and her future ahead of her - but somehow, she ended up as a superhero with unexplained magic powers, a former demon as an ex-husband and at least one post-death experience. If someone in Hollywood can't work out how to turn that into a series of allegories for the modern woman, they should just ask writer Kathryn Immonen, whose recent takes on the character's comic incarnation have been quirky, fun and the kind of thing we want to see more of.
Must-Read: The collection of Immonen's Patsy Walker: Hellcat stories comes out a week on Wednesday. You'll want to buy it.

Prime
The Pitch: "Big with superpowers."
The Explanation: 13 year old Kevin Green can turn into an adult superhero anytime he wants... except that he's still the same boy inside, and his adult body reacts to how he's feeling at the time. Which is great when he's feeling invincible and superhuman, but when he's feeling embarrassed or afraid...? Look out. This Captain Marvel (The one with "Shazam," this time) homage adds a layer of self-consciousness and comedy that's perfect for a family comedy... and one that's apparently been in the works for more than five years. So where is it?
Must-Read: All of Prime's appearances are out of print, but hunt the back issue bins for his early 1990s series.

Ka-Zar
The Pitch: "Tarzan meets The Incredibles."
The Explanation: There's little to recommend Marvel's shameless rip-off of Edgar Rice Burroughs' famous Tarzan, with the one exception of the little-remembered late 1990s series by Kingdom Come and Flash writer Mark Waid that brought the character and his family to New York to escape the dangers of his usual prehistoric jungle world, only for those dangers to follow him (and turn out to be something very out of his league). The mix of action, sitcom (especially Ka-Zar discovering his love of gadgets) and drama marks it out as something that could easily work for a mainstream audience, especially if some CGI dinosaurs made an appearance.
Must-Read: Again, nothing in print, but go looking for the 20 issue Ka-Zar series that launched in 1997.

Death's Head
The Pitch: "The Terminator meets Doctor Who."
The Explanation: Everyone's familiar with the concept of the unstoppable killing machine. In fact, everyone's familiar with the concept of the unstoppable killing machine that can travel through time. But what happens when said unstoppable, time-traveling killing machine happens to be a bounty hunter from the future with a strange personal code of ethics and peculiarly English sensibilities, and he's become stranded in our time? Hint: Michael Bay's explosion-filled wet dreams.
Must Read: Death's Head volumes 1 and 2.

Starjammers
The Pitch: "Pirates Of The Carribean in space!"
The Explanation: If Marvel could manage to get these X-Men characters away from Fox (The leader of the Starjammers is Cyclops' dad in the comics), then just imagine the movie that could be made from following a group of intergalactic smugglers-turned-freedom fighters around for awhile. All the fun of Star Wars with none of the Jedi stuff? Surely this is a no-brainer.
Must Read: Essential X-Men volume 3 has a good chunk of Starjammer action.

Vance Astro/The Guardians Of The Galaxy
The Pitch: "Buck Rogers with super-powers and mild insanity!"
The Explanation: The first man sent on a long-term intergalactic mission, Astro wakes up after ten centuries of suspended animation with telekinetic powers and the discovery that the universe is being enslaved by an alien race. Stealing a space ship and gathering together an intergalactic A-Team, Astro dedicates his life to freeing the human race... Or, at least, changing his name to something less dated. I mean, "Astro"? Really?
Must Read: Guardians of the Galaxy: Earth Shall Overcome.

Captain Marvel
The Pitch: "What if Earth's mightiest hero was actually here as an alien spy?"
The Explanation: Firstly, no, he's not the "Shazam" guy. This Captain Marvel is an alien sent to Earth to spy on humanity who ends up empathizing with us a little too much... and pays the price, when his race declare him a traitor for daring to defend Earth. Interstellar politics and a superstrong flying guy who likes to punch things, this is Superman updated for the cynical age. I'm saying, give it to Paul Greengrass and see what happens.
Must Read: Essential Captain Marvel volume 1.

Ever wanted to go on a tour of the world that the Marvel superheroes fly around in? Thanks to Flickr member ChildOfAtom, that's easier than ever. He's gone to four of the real world addresses of some of the most famous addresses of the Marvel Universe and taken photos of what's actually there, and posted those photos online along with comparisons to their cartoon counterparts. Want to see what we have instead of the Baxter Building or Daily Bugle offices? Click under the jump.

Here's the real life Baxter Building, next to its comic equivalent:

And what can be found at the address of the Daily Bugle?:

Instead of the Avengers Mansion, the real world has this:

And, finally and most depressingly, this is what we get instead of Doctor Strange's Sanctorum:

Marvel themselves aren't immune to this kind of fanboy tourism; last year, they published The Marvel Comics Guide To New York City, a 256-page book that guides readers around the real life Big Apple that inspired the four-color version. Much cheaper, however, is Wizard Magazine's version from earlier this year:

ChildofAtom's Marvel New York City [Flickr]

Says Hollywood Reporter:

Some question whether the Marvel characters waiting in the wings have the appeal of previously licensed characters like "Spider-Man" and "The X-Men." But Marvel president David Maisel said that the key ingredient to make a film successful isn't "more well-known or less well-known characters but tender-loving care."

Doctor Strange: Created by Spider-Man's combination of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Marvel's "Master of The Mystic Arts" has all the potential to crossover to mainstream success - The story of an arrogant famous surgeon who survives a terrible accident but without the finger dexterity to keep slicing and sewing, only to become the world's most powerful magician after a Tibetan retreat, it's Nip/Tuck meets Iron Man meets Harry Potter. Get someone like Guillermo Del Toro to direct and George Clooney to star, and your summer blockbuster is all taken care of.

Devil Dinosaur: I know, I know; the idea of taking Jack Kirby's admittedly-hokey "first boy on Earth and his pet killer dinosaur that's bright red after getting roasted like a lobster but surviving" late-70s series and making it into a movie sounds dumb, but the whole thing has multimedia written all over it. Literally; the series was initially conceived with an eye towards possible Saturday morning cartoon adaptation. We're saying that it's better than that: Ditch Moon Boy and focus on his unkillable T-Rex eponymous co-star, marauding around prehistory and killing everything he comes into contact with - It's 10,000 BC but with more death and even less need to make sense.

Captain Universe: What do audiences want to see more each summer than a wish-fulfilment fantasy that lets them put themselves in the place of the more-powerful character in the screen in front of them? That's why Captain Universe ("The hero that could be you," as the ads for the comic said) works so well - the concept that Captain Universe is the identity anyone can adopt when randomly gifted with temporary godlike cosmic powers is tailor-made not only for a public that know that it'll never be a genius arms dealer or bombarded with gamma rays, but also for Hollywood executives that don't have to worry about paying more money to stars for each successive sequel: Just replace your lead actors! That's the whole point of the idea!

Nova, The Human Rocket / Star Brand: Let's face it; DC and Warner Bros are going to want to make a Green Lantern movie someday, so why not beat them to the punch with Marvel's two rip-offs of the concept? Nova has teenager Rich Ryder given cosmic powers by a dying alien and inducted into space police force The Nova Centurion Corps, while Star Brand has asshole Ken Connell given cosmic powers by a dying alien and... well, just being more of an asshole, really. Oh, and he blew up Pittsburgh in a nuclear explosion by accident, as well. See what happens when you don't join a space police force?

US 1: Somewhat out of left field, admittedly, but the story of Ulysses Solomon Archer (U.S.A. - get it?), a trucker whose metal skull plate allows him to not only mentally control his truck but also pick up CB transmissions - I swear to you that I am not making this up - who ends up traveling the highways in the sky after aliens introduce him to the concept of space trucking is tailor made for a high concept middle-American comedy movie. Probably starring Larry The Cable Guy and someone who'd previously been on the cover of Maxim or something. Sure, it may not open as big as Iron Man, but imagine the DVD sales after it becomes a cult hit.

There you go - Just five more potential movie franchises that can keep audiences amused and amazed after even Robert Downey Jr. has grown weary of his trademark smirk. With characters like these - and I didn't even get to Alison Blaire, the Disco Dazzler - you can tell that Marvel's movies are, worryingly enough, here to stay.

Marvel looks ahead [Hollywood Reporter]