[TheBlueMarvel]

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Originally Posted by En Sabah Nerd

It's often baffled me that Marvel hasn't cooked up a response to DC's regularly churned out animated movies. The DC offerings aren't always winners but we've gotten a good chunk of gold that the fandom readily embraces and hold with the same regard as the better live-action adaptations. It seems like they tried to at one point (as we got the projects you referenced) but just said "screw it, the MCU will be up and printing legal tender in no time" and gave up.

I believe it has to do with the MCU taking off and Marvel's odd decision making that was mentioned before. While not the best 'toons Avengers 1, 2, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange were well received. The first feature preceded the first Iron Man movie by two years and sort of set the template for the flics with an odd origin than mixed and matched representations of the heroes. (i.e. Cap seemed to be the stronger version from the Ultimates universe) The animated features were being developed at a fairly rapid clip initially, but that all slowed down once the MCU came into focus. I'm not sure if it was a budget thing, or the nascent stages of this brand confusion conundrum Marvel's dead-set against.

The killer was the presser they held after Planet Hulk, the most ambitious project, at the time. They talked licensing issues, but shared their upcoming Hulk Vs and discussed plans for Annihilation. However, something must have happened internally as projects apparently were shelved and everything slowed then stopped.

As far as the comparison to DC, originally, Marvel's animation efforts couldn't hold a candle to them. But, then Dwayne McDuffie died and DC, I believe, brought over the guy that was responsible for the Marvel cartoons and DC's offerings have been hit or miss since.