Continuing my look at superhero animated series, this time I turn my attention to another big publisher.

Marvel Comics has a huge stable of characters and they have been transferred successfully to the small screen in various guises.

Marvel had a few animated series in their early years with basic animation and varying degrees of success.

In particular, the 1960’s Spiderman series had a catchy, though corny theme song, which if you heard it today would still stick in your head. Flash forward to the early 1980’s.

The word on the street at that time was Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. The hot new series from Marvel which also featured Iceman (from the X-Men) and Firestar and introductions from Stan Lee himself!

Click here to check out New Spider-Man - Season 1, Volumes 1 & 2 [DVD] (Marvel Comics)

The characters complimented each other and the show was thoroughly entertaining, fun and a must see.

This was coupled with the Hulk animated series, which showed at roughly the same period.

Also very good, with some great emotional pieces capturing the tragedy of the character.

The early nineties brought a massive expansion in the number of Marvel’s animated series on TV.

I have to mention the one series that became a worldwide phenomenon.

The X-Men. Based on superstar artist Jim Lee’s redesigns of the characters this whole show was a work of art.

From the opening credits, continuing to the theme tune, carried forward to the voice actors, all the way to the scripts this was paradise.

Click here to check out X-Men - Season 1, Volume 1 [DVD] (Marvel Comics)  

The harrowing Dark Phoenix saga was adapted beautifully and I recommend it to you.

Spiderman gained a new solo series and this was very faithful to the original material and many characters were pulled directly from the comic books.

This was refreshing to see for long time fans and also for casual viewers as the stories were typically dramatic and well written.

Click here to check out Iron Man - The Complete Series [DVD] (Marvel Comics)

Fusing computer generated 3-D backgrounds with traditional 2-D artwork, this was groundbreaking and provided some great stories.

The Fantastic Four Animated series featuring the entire original cast (as opposed to an earlier version which replaced the Human Torch with a robot!) debuted and was a moderate success.

This was a faithful reproduction of the essence of the comic book as opposed to many previous TV shows that disregarded history in favour of ratings figures.

The second season in particular really paid homage to the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby version of the team.

This was also well produced and borrowed heavily from Jack Kirby’s original artwork.

An Iron Man series followed which finally brought a great character concept on screen.

I was initially disappointed with the first adaptation of the Avengers due to the radical change of costumes but after watching the series I quite enjoyed it. They used quite a bit of Avengers history throughout the run and I have to say it was a good effort.

Which the depth of history this team has I’m sure a more faithful version of the Avengers will surface soon and this will be a major hit rivalling the X-Men animated series .

I have to briefly mention Todd McFarlane’s Spawn series which was the first ‘adult orientated’ superhero show to be screened.

Based on the smash hit comic book character, Spawn.

Click here to check out Fantastic Four - Complete Season Two (Marvel Originals Series - 90s) [DVD] (Marvel Comics)