News

Marvel and DC are both in the middle of a new movie strategy where they release animated films of some of their most popular characters direct to DVD. The two rivals have arguably been doing it for ages if you count the spin-off “movies” from their animated television series, but the last 4 years have seen a leap in activity. Have any of them topped Batman: Mask of the Phantasm? No, not really. However, each of the studios seems to be making huge strides with each successive movie. Marvel, having reached its 6 film marker (DC isn’t far behind at this point), have released them all in a box set. While it’s nice to have an anthology to put on the shelf instead of individual DVD cases, it ends up serving as a reminder of how far the films have come since the original Ultimate Avengers: The Movie back in...

The cry of "Avengers assemble" will soon be coming from the television.

Marvel Animation, the cartoon division of Marvel Entertainment, is beginning production on "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes," the company's latest animated series.

Film Roman, the company behind "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill," has been tapped to produce the 26-episode series, which will be available for broadcast in 2011, in time for Marvel Studios' releases of the tentpole live-action movies "The First Avenger: Captain America" and "The Avengers."

Producing the series is Ciro Nieli, whose credits include "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!" and "Teen Titans," based on the DC Comics title. The series' story editor is Christopher Yost, who has worked on the Marvel cartoons "Iron Man Armored Adventures" and "Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes."

"Avengers," based on the long-running comic, features some of the company's most popular characters, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Giant Man,...