4 MARVEL CHARACTERS Who Deserve Their Own Animated Movie


Now that the legendary animation team of Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (the guys behind Batman: the Animated Series, Superman: the Animated Series, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited) are working for Marvel, there are several spandex-clad crime fighters that deserve their own feature-length animated movie. These heroes are either too obscure to star in their own movie (then again they did make Jonah Hex) or were the victims of horrible casting choices (Daredevil/Ghost Rider).

 

1. Daredevil

Whoever decided that Ben Affleck would make the perfect “Man without Fear” needs to be exposed to a chemical spill. Despite good performances turned in by the film’s villains (especially Colin Farrell’s psychotic Bullseye) Daredevil did so much damage to the character that not even Kevin Smith can get a script green-lighted. With its dark and gritty Batmanesque overtones, badass martial arts fight sequences, and a superb rogues gallery to choose from (the Hand comes to mind) a DD animated movie could be just what the doctor ordered to return Matt Murdoch’s credibility.

 

2. Heroes for Hire

Earlier this year, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson tweeted that that he’d been personally selected by Marvel to fill the role of Luke “Power Man” Cage in an upcoming Marvel film (most likely one of the Avengers sequels). If true, this could be one of the best casting choices since Robert Downey Jr. decided to grow a goatee (sorry Mr. Liefeld but no one wants to see the Rock play Cable). What about Iron Fist, Misty Knight, and Colleen Wing? With the exception of maybe Fist, none of them could ever hope for anything better than a quick cameo in one of the big budget Marvel movies. This is unacceptable. Misty Knight is one the strongest heroines in the Marvel Universe and (along with Storm) is one of the very few prominent African-American women in all of comicdom. An animated movie would give this strong ethnic group the spotlight they sorely deserve.

 

3. Ghost Rider

As noted in the Daredevil entry above, the person that cast Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze needs there head examined. With Ghost Rider you have a character that appeals not only to the Goth/Hot Topic crowd, but the Sons of Anarchy biker-types as well. Yet they cast the fracking Wicker Man, but I digress. A GR animated movie might be able to burn (pun intended) away some of those bad memories (though the flamethrower-urination scene from Spirit of Vengeance will be harder to get rid of than Hulk herpes). The storyline is in much of the same vein as Doctor Strange, with its emphasis on black magic and demons. Heck, Doc Strange and Bonehead even share a few villains. With a PG-13 rating, the movie could be the kind of gory, hellish (pun intended again) fun that was the old HBO Spawn animated series.

 

4. Deadpool

The jury is still out on whether Ryan Reynolds, the man who wowed us all as the “Merc with a Mouth” in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, will ever step back into the role he was made for. While we wait, why not whet the appetites of Wade Wilson’s cult-like following with a balls-to-the-wall, over-the-top animated Deadpool movie. If you get Reynolds to do the voice you’ll make a mint (awakening the Philip J. Fry in fanboys across the globe). They have already made a hit video game, he’s had tons of cameo appearances (most recently on Disney’s Ultimate Spider-Man) and his comics are one of Marvel’s bestsellers. The time has never been hotter for a Deadpool animated movie, and if another studio puts out a live-action movie 2 years later you’ll have even more fans that are familiar with the subject matter.