Comic book cartoons have been rather hit and miss over the years. Of course there have been a lot of reasons where they have been rather miss for reasons that were no fault of anyone involved in the show. Even the best cartoons out there after all have to deal with the whims of the almighty network after all. The network obviously offering mandates for various things, the standards and practices department being the key issue, as there are things that might be only a tiny bit questionable if you squint that are axed, thus causing much of the story to be lost. There is also a bit of a curse that many comic book cartoons get cut down before they really get rolling.
I tend to refer to this as the Spider-Man curse, where the last four Spider-Man cartoons got cut right off at the knees before they really got going for various reasons. Granted for the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, it did get sixty five episodes, but there was a bit of a cliff hanger, involving finding the real Mary Jane Watson. Then there was Spider-Man Unlimited, while not the best cartoon in the world, was left with an ending that obviously showed that they intended for more. The MTV Spider-Man show did set up a bit later and perhaps there were more episodes to come but maybe not, it was a loose tie into the first movie. Then Spectacular Spider-Man, do not get me started on Spectacular Spider-Man. Granted I know the reasons why, with the rights and all that but it doesn’t really make it any less painful. Perhaps the new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon will be the one to reverse the curse.
Wolverine and the X-Men was another victim of Marvel being sold to Disney, and the tangled mess involving the rights. Obviously there was an intention for a second season but it was not to be. It is a good idea for anyone to treat your season finales as quasi series finales, as you never know when the rug is going to be cut out from underneath you by some trigger happy network or some legal mess.
After nearly eighteen months we finally saw Iron Man Armored Adventures return for a few episodes, then go back on hiatus. It’s returning with new episodes shortly in October. Cartoon Network has been rather strange about airing Batman the Brave and the Bold and Young Justice to a lesser extent as well(although that was more of a problem of enough episodes not being produced).
The fact of the matter is comic book cartoons could very well get cancelled. Most are lucky to get two seasons. Some are lucky to get one thirteen episode round. Hopefully we get more content but the Networks live and die by the ratings and the merchandise. It is a nasty money driven business. And they tend to be weird about scheduling sometimes. There’s also the problem where episodes air months overseas before they air in the United States. At another time, that could rather be acceptable but in this day and age, it’s going to be up on YouTube within the next day or any number of places online. Then the Networks who delayed the episodes in the first place have their ratings get slightly cut.
Some people will never learn. There have been many quality comic book cartoons out there but many could have been so much more with a couple more seasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment