Back in February, DC Comics announced that they would returning to the worlds of Richard Donner’s Superman, and Tim Burton’s Batman, in digital-first series this summer. We subsequently asked which other superhero film/TV franchises should be revisited in comics, and surprisingly, the winner was the ’50s George Reeves TV show Adventures of Superman. You can read our entry on what that would look like here, so let’s talk about some more beloved DC/Marvel media that deserve a revival.
Spider-Man ’02
After “Superman ’78” and “Batman ’89,” it’d make sense for Marvel to respond with a comic set in the world of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, especially after the rumors Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker will return in December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. It will have been nearly 15 years if we see his version again (and over 15 years in-universe, since Spider-Man 3 takes place shortly after the second film), so there’d be plenty of room to explore what the reformed “Bully Maguire” has been up to since reconciling with Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson.
We know that when Raimi and Maguire planned to make Spider-Man 4, John Malkovich was set to play the Vulture, and Anne Hathaway was the top contender for Felicia Hardy/Black Cat. According to storyboard artist Jeffrey Henderson, Vulture was intended to be “the most fearsome and formidable adversary that Spider-Man had faced in the series,” and there was going to be “a montage of C and D-list villains” like the Shocker, Prowler, Rhino, and Mysterio, who would’ve been unmasked as Bruce Campbell’s character from the previous films. A comic would be a great place to canonize those ideas, as well as to have Dylan Baker’s Curt Connors finally turn into the Lizard.
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010-12) was a wonderful Disney XD cartoon that perfectly fused the comics’ continuity, Jack Kirby and Bruce Timm’s artistic sensibilities, and elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was a perfect introduction to Marvel’s world beyond the X-Men — so naturally, it was replaced by Avengers Assemble, because it didn’t resemble the MCU enough. The show is the reason I have so much fondness for many previously obscure characters, and I’d often daydream about how virtually every story Marvel has ever published would’ve played out on the show.
Last year, the series’ head writer Christopher Yost — who also penned the show’s tie-in comic — marked the tenth anniversary by imagining “what if” the show had been renewed for a third season on Twitter: he outlined 26 episodes introducing its versions of Doctor Strange, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Nova, Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, Namor, and the X-Men, plus the conclusion of its ‘Surtur Saga,’ Kulan Gath, the High Evolutionary, Chthon, the Celestials, Eternals, Inhumans, ‘House of M,’ and Dark Phoenix. Since Assemble has long since finished, brand confusion will hopefully not be an issue if the publisher ever decides to pick up where EMH left off.
Spectacular Spider-Man
Sony’s Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-09) was the best Spider-Man cartoon we’ve ever had, but it was canceled after Disney bought Marvel. Sony owns Spectacular Spider-Man‘s character designs and storylines, meaning it’s incredibly unlikely we will ever receive a true continuation, but since the same is true of the movies, let’s imagine if Marvel and Sony did come to an agreement that allowed story editor Greg Weisman to continue the show’s streamlined, all-ages versions of classic stories: we could see its ‘Clone Saga’ and ‘Death of Jean DeWolff,’ as well as villains like Carnage, Hobgoblin, and Scorpion — and perhaps, later storylines that wouldn’t have happened on the show when it aired, like Gwen Stacy becoming Spider-Woman.
X-Men: Evolution
2009’s Wolverine and the X-Men was the third great but short-lived Marvel cartoon from the past 15 years, but since it is considered part of the same universe as EMH, let’s talk about its predecessor X-Men: Evolution (2000-03) instead: the series finale ended with a vision of the future from Professor X, teasing its take on Dark Phoenix, Magneto becoming the New Mutants’ teacher, ‘Days of Future Past,’ Freedom Force, and more characters joining the team. Producer Boyd Kirkland once said, “we wanted to keep the series as grounded and realistic as possible,” and that storylines involving time travel, outer space, or the Savage Land were being saved for when the characters “had a few years under their belts.” Suffice to say, the series’ teenage X-Men have had more than a few years under their belts.
Continued below(By the way: did you know writer/producer Craig Kyle, who created X-23 for the show with Yost, said he intended for her to be a lesbian?)
Incredible Hulk/Amazing Spider-Man ’77
Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno’s classic Hulk series was continued in three TV movies from 1988-90, and despite the character’s demise in the final film, The Death of the Incredible Hulk, there were plans for another outing, The Revenge of the Incredible Hulk, which didn’t transpire after Death‘s disappointing ratings. Reviving the characters in a book seems like a nostalgic no-brainer, and it’d be a lot of fun — given how the first two TV movies introduced pretty distinctive takes on Thor and Daredevil — to team him up with other ’70s heroes like Nicholas Hammond’s Spider-Man, Reb Brown’s Captain America, or Peter Hooten’s Dr. Strange. With the number of 30th and 50th anniversaries happening this decade, there’s no better time to imagine how Marvel’s ’70s TV characters would’ve progressed into the ’90s, especially with the larger budget of a comic book.
Teen Titans
Teen Titans (2003-06) has been overshadowed by its fully comedic spin-off Teen Titans Go! (something perhaps reflected by the name of the 2019 crossover film, Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans), but there’s much love for this incarnation of the teens, given it was, for many, the first time they met Cyborg, Raven, Starfire and Beast Boy. The tie-in comic for the original show (which was ironically called “Teen Titans Go!”), picked up some of its tantalizing threads, like Jinx’s redemption and Donna Troy’s introduction, and it’d be great if lead writers David Slack, Amy Wolfram and Rob Hoegee returned to further develop them, along with everything else, in a revival for those who grew up with the series.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
Bruce Timm, Giancarlo Volpe and Jim Krieg’s CG Green Lantern series (2012-13) only ran for one season, thanks to the Ryan Reynolds movie’s adverse impact on toy sales, but what a beautiful season it was, gradually emphasizing the doomed love story between the Red Lantern Razer, and the A.I. navigator Aya. I might be the only person who would read it, but I would love a miniseries that concluded Razer’s search for her, and his hinted at transformation into a Blue Lantern, while Hal, Kilowog, and the rest of the Green Lantern Corps contend with Sinestro’s inevitable betrayal.
Logan
Part of me would love an “X-Men ’00” comic that ignores all the movies after X2 (or even just Days of Future Past), but it feels wrong given the allegations about director Bryan Singer. I do think, however, that James Mangold’s intended Logan follow-up, Laura, deserves to be realized on paper, because the film was such a beautiful end to Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s run, and because Dafne Keen’s Laura lives in a distinctly dystopian world next to her comics counterpart’s — it’d be intriguing to see what kind of Wolverine she becomes there.
Well folks, those were our thoughts on the corners of the DC and Marvel Multiverses that have gone radio silent, presumably destroyed during ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ ‘Secret Wars,’ or Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, until we hear otherwise. Be sure to let us know where you’d like to revisit in the comments — if you can make a compelling case for the Nolanverse, we’d certainly love to hear it.
