Que the music. No, the good music!

I don't know about everyone else, but when I was a kid there was one thing I held above all else in the world. My cartoons. I liked Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Transformers, but none of them help a candle to the super hero shows. I'd sit down to watch them every weekend, and if my dad didn't have something to do, he'd watch them with me, because he grew up with these characters, and he wanted to see what I was learning about them. From the interest he saw that I had with these characters, he started hunting down the cartoons he watched as a kid, so I could see them, and see how he got into comics. The thing I could never get past on any of them was the themes. With that in mind, I'm going to share the themes from then and the themes we grew up with, to show you how far we've come.

First of is The Hulk.

And now the theme from the show that started after the movie by Ang Lee.


Next is one of the few old themes that most people know, Spider-man.

Here's the little known Spider-man and his amazing friends.

And now, the 90's version.


Everyone knows about the Adam West Batman show, and how campy it is. Well, that just makes the theme even funnier to watch.

And then, when Bruce Timm, who previously had started Tiny Toon Adventures finally got the go ahead to make a Batman animated series, he did the unexpected. He used a Danny Elfman score for a cartoon theme. (Thanks for the catch)

The music and art style went together so well, and I doubt it will happen that well again.

I know that most people that have been in an arcade of any type have seen the X-Men arcade game. It is arguably one of the biggest arcade games of our generation, but did you know it's based off of a failed tv show?

And then a few years later they released the show that everyone remembers.

And then a few years after that ended came X-Men Evolution.


The next stop on our comparison trip will be the slew of Iron Man cartoons. The first one if from around the same time as the Spider-man show.

Then came the first season of the 90's show.

And then the second season, which was much better all around.


The last comparison we make is of the Fantastic Four shows. I put them here because when it aired, it was the second show of "The Marvel Action Hour" placed behind, you guessed it, Iron Man. Speaking frankly about the themes, I think this is the only show who's theme got worse on the remake. But I'll let you judge for yourself.

And now the 90's version.


Having gone through the whirlwind of cartoon themes, I know I'm a little tuckered out, so I'll keep the writing to a minimum. These shows were fun and the themes really show you where we were at the time of release, and for that you can't bash too much. Some of the younger readers my notice that we're missing a couple theme songs. Namely the newest Spider-man, Iron Man, and Batman themes. Here's the deal. I didn't watch them, so I left them out. And before you ask, yes, I watched X-men Evolution. I was just young enough when it came out to not know any better about how bad it would be.

So did I miss any other themes. Do you feel jaded that your favorite didn't make it? Let us know! We're always open to new ideas! And speaking of new ideas, do you have a post you want to see made? Tell us in the comments, or e-mail us, and we just may write it!



If you're still reading, I've got something special for you. Extra Credit Videos. I couldn't include them in the meat of the post, because they aren't being compared with a remake, but they're too good not to share.

Captain America


The God of Thunder: Mighty Thor


I dare you to get through this one.

"First Class" casting is second rate.

Just a quick story I found and thought I'd share. James McAvoy, who played the main character of Wanted, and that goat boy from Chronicles of Narnia, will be playing Charles Xavier in the upcoming movie X-Men First Class. The story is early on in the mythology, when Xavier and Eric Lensherr were still friends, and it leads to the start of the war between them. Granted, I think they need to leave the franchise alone, seeing that X-men as a series is turning to crap, but let alone doing a prequel. Has Hollywood no shame? Of course not, that's why we see all of these crappy license movies.

But that's not my real problem. My problem is casting. McAvoy isn't a bad actor, he's just not a Charles Xavier type. I mean take a look and judge for yourself.



Vs



Nope, bad casting.

The reason I don't read X-men.

When I was a kid, the only comic I could seem to get into was X-men. Somewhere between junior high and high school, my parents stopped buying me comics on a regular basis, because they were using them as a way to get me to read real books, and I had picked up that habit pretty hard. That's not to say I stopped reading about superheroes. I would pick up every Spider-man, Avengers, or X-men book I could get my hands on, but most of them were just re-tellings of older comics for a new generation.

When I started picking up comics again, I went with the safe bets. Captain America, Batman, Green Lantern, but I kept away from X-men because I didn't like the team at the time. Plus, it's incredibly hard to jump into an X-men story. They tend to build. So when issue 500 hit stands in July of 2008, I picked it up for the cover, and a part of me that hopes the 500th issue becomes a collectors item down the road.

Having bought it, I decided to read it, and I was shocked as to the horrible things they've done to that group. Honestly, I'm not getting into that now, this post is already too much like a rant. I just wanted to share some videos making fun of what writers have done to the X-men in the last decade. I had no part in making these, but love them so much, I had to share.









Hope you enjoyed, and I'll have more like this for you soon.

Where are the pants?

In the early 90s Marvel Comics had a fascination with scantaly clad super heroes, and seemed to do whatever they could to show them. I'll level with you. I saw these pictures and had to share them. I didn't do much research, and probably won't when I'm done writting this. In fact, as soon as I'm done, I'll probably bleach my eyes, face, and hands, but only because they typed the words that found this stuff.

And with that, we shall begin.
This is the first image along this line I ever saw. It was in an issue of X-men from around the time I was watching the cartoon. In all honesty, it isn't that bad. It's very tame and not very fun(except for he right reasons. Iceman freezing the pool, Jubilee trying to flex like Collasus, etc.). But this is hardly where it ends.
This next picture is trying to be in the same vein, and it might have succeeded if it weren't for the characters still wearing their masks. Also notice that Iron Man is not only wearing his armor, but he has a swimsuit on over the armor.

These two pictures are of She-Hulk. They show two very different art styles for the character, but neither make much sense to me. The one on the left shows a lot of muscle definition in the upper body, but as you work your way down, the body looks more and more like a model. Whatever the artist was told to do, I think he forgot about it until the end of the work. The picture on the right can be summed up in one phrase and one word. Side boob and dragon. We've all had moments where those two words work together... Oh, is that just me...?
This picture begins the "what were you thinking Marvel?" section of our time together. Make your own comments on this one.

This picture is supposed to be sexy tiny Wasp, but all I see is Wonder-thong and the Patriotic Package. You'll understand if I don't linger to talk more about it.

This last piece is the reason first I came across tonight. I was researching another piece I'm working on, stumbled across this and had to share. Here's what I see in this picture. Captain America, wearing an American flag as a speedo. He's holding his shield. I get it so far. Who hasn't stripped down to their skivies, which demean everything you stand for, and feel so darn exposed that you hold a piece of armor. Below him is a blonde bombshell, wearing another American flag as a bikini. But the real notice isn't what she's wearing, it's how she's wearing it. Her top and bottoms are being worn in opposite directions. Now look at where she's looking. That's right, directly into his crotch. If that doesn't say "child-friendly" I sure don't know what does. Next we look behind them. And what do we see? A tribe of people with shields and spears WATCHING them. None of them is doing anything but watching the half naked people sit there. It's like the inverse of National Geographic. Oh, and there's also a waterfall.

Well, I hope you enjoyed, and I hope to have a real piece in the near future.