7. Animated Superheroes Dominated Saturday Morning Television
Before I continue, I will state one simple fact. Kids cartoons were at its peak in the 1980s.
Thundercats. Transformers. Mysterious Cities of Gold. Dangermouse. These were the titans of kids television. That being said, the 1990s took animation in a different and exciting direction. In this decade, we were presented with some of the finest superheroes ever assembled. Sure the cartoons are good now. (My kids watch
Earths Mightiest Heroes: Avengers and
Ultimate Spiderman and I find myself paying attention too) But we probably wouldn't have these if it wasn't for the outstanding animated series we got in the 1990s. Allow me to present three brilliant shows.
X Men. Every week I was gripped to the television as Professor Xs School For The Gifted battled for mutant rights and the evil machinations of Magneto, Mr Sinister and Apocalypse. I dont read comics, though I love comic book films, however I can appreciate that what this show tried to do was present some of the X mens greatest hits. The sentinels. The Savage Lands. Age of Apocalypse. The Phoenix and Dark Phoenix sagas. It seemed like the writers had free reign to take these big stories and present them with dramatic flare and style over four exciting series. This is the show that broadened my knowledge of superheroes beyond Batman, Spiderman and Superman. Suddenly I loved Wolverine, Storm and Cyclops too. Its just a shame that while the majority of the big screen films were great, they were never as exciting as the world this animated series presented. Next is
Spider-Man. I
adored this show. And in the last year, my son watched it on Netflix with equal passion. Sure it might be a bit cheesy now but it brought us all the great villains. Green Goblin, Doc Ock. Venom. Kraven. Lizard. Like the
X Men, this was a show given free reign to take Spider-Man to a whole new audience. It might have got a bit convoluted around the clone saga but it was just as thrilling as ever. And once they crossed over with
X Men, my over favourite cartoon, I was in heaven! By the end of the show we were also introduced to our Marvel favourites like Iron Man, Thor, Captain America (you've probably never heard of them), introducing me to a whole plethora of superheroes in the same manner as Marvel is doing today on the big screen
And finally, we have the best of the best
Batman: The Animated Series. This was something very different. A dark, classy, film noir style superhero that leaped from Burtons stylish films to the animated screen. It was beautifully made and without any of the cheese or melodrama that the above two shows tended to stray into at times. It was an animated show for a slightly more mature audiencein fact its still just as good today. With an amazing soundtrack and brilliant villains this was the series that introduced me to Riddler, Two Face and Poison Ivy, while still retaining the greats like Catwoman and the Joker (stunningly voiced by Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill). The villains were given the same depth as the hero. We saw Harvey Dents tragic descent into Two Face and the equally somber story of Mr Freeze and his cryogenically frozen wife. And best of all, we were introduced the psychotically brilliant Harley Quinn, a character created for the show but so amazing that she soon found herself crossing over the comics from where her fellow comrades had come.