Making an animated MTV Spider-man series at all that had to loosely follow the movies was pretty ridiculous.
It was originally due to be based on Ultimate Spider-Man, which was why Brian M. Bendis was one of the producers involved. But once 2002's SPIDER-MAN film grossed nearly a billion worldwide, they switched gears, probably for a faster cash-in. MTV's inane demands to the show (Peter, Harry, and MJ had to be in EVERY episode, no "old people", and constant guest voices from music people like Eve and Rob Zombie, etc) pretty much reduced Bendis to a token role, and the rest of the writers didn't measure up. Plus, as the series was moved as a "sort of" sequel, it couldn't have Green Goblin, nor could it have Dr. Octopus, or allow Peter & MJ to develop beyond friends.
I WILL say that the MTV Spider-Man show had the coolest version of Kraven the Hunter, though. Cool redesign and voiced by Michael "Worf" Dorn. And the fight sequences were actually pretty damn good. It was the writing that fell flat, though, and without that, MTV Spider-Man really couldn't overcome mediocrity. I am glad we have something better in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN.
Also, Yost did a good enough job with the action on Hulk VS.
I haven't watched that. It won't be out until Jan. 2009. Once it is, though, then we can judge. The previews do make it look impressive.
Hulk's overseas BO wasn't that much better. Also considering it's 5 years later, the differences due to inflation make it less impressive.
I think the cancellation of Gamma Corp. just cements that the Hulk movies just aren't successful enough to warrant it's own TV show. Kevin Feige announced that they are putting Hulk aside for a while and doing other movies first. While Marvel says they are happy with how the movie did, the movie still did not do well enough to warrant an Incredible Hulk sequel while Iron man 2, Thor, Cap, and Avengers are in the works. I think if the movie did bigger business, no question there would be TIH 2 talk right now plus the Gamma Corp. show.
Yeah, I liked THE INCREDIBLE HULK but the public didn't like it or the prior HULK enough to really catapult them into stardom. The Hulk may be well known in popular culture, if only for the cult appeal of the 70's TV show, but that isn't enough to push worldwide grosses into $300 million, which is a major benchmark for a modern "summer blockbuster" that takes at least $150-200 million to make. It is selling well on DVD, though, and hopefully will find it's audience.
That said, I am not the biggest fan of the Hulk. I often find his status quo boring and he is usually physically unbeatable in a fight, which gets old quickly. Even Superman can be challenged with Kryptonite or Magic, but few things weaken Hulk for long. While there have been plenty of Hulk adventures that played with more unique things, like Joe Fixit, The Pantheon Era or, more recently, Planet Hulk, but in the end it always boils down to simple Hulk who talks in 3rd person, being chased by the military, and that can only be interesting for so long on a network TV cartoon show. The Hulk has a simple schtick, but it is one that wears out quickly. Thus, he often gets more mileage when paired with other superheroes. Even the last Hulk cartoon, circa 1995-1996 from UPN, relied HEAVILY on guest appearances; Thor, Thing, Iron Man (and War Machine), Ghost Rider, Sasquatch, and She-Hulk showed up in the first season alone. Dr. Strange popped up in the abysmal season 2.
The other big problem is Hulk only has so many "decent" enemies. Aside for Leader, Abomination, Wendigo, and Absorbing Man, who is left? Not too many who are decent or recognizable.
Pairing him with the Avengers, so long as he doesn't overshadow the show with his own plots, could work out a lot better for him.
Dread is right that Hulk has appeared in plenty of Marvel animation, and it's time to do something that fans have been wanting for a long time. Avengers as a movie franchise has no baggage like the Hulk franchise sort of does right now. This show will hopefully finally put the terrible memories of United They Stand to rest.
As cynical as I am, with standards as low as "be better than AVENGERS:UTS", I am fairly certain it will exceed that. The worst episodes of X-MEN EVOLUTION, FF:WGH or TEEN TITANS were light years ahead of the BEST episodes from A:UTS.
The comics rely on the Avengers line more than the X-Men at this point, or at least as much. The movies are leading up to it. All the fans want it. Yeah, this is the right move; so right I doubted it would ever come.
Sure, by the time it hits the airwaves, I'll be nearly 30, but whatever.
Also, I hope the action isn't all like JL. the problem with season 1 of JL is that all the show was. There was virtually no character development, virtually just nonstop supervillain brawls and some bickering. It was really hard to like characters in the first season like Hawk-Girl and GL since they are just angry, bossy jerks most of the time. I think there is a lot of room for improvement to make this show far above JL/JLU and Wolverine And The X-men, and Spectacular Spider-man.
The first season of JUSTICE LEAGUE did get in some character lines and interaction. If anything, the plots were kept simple so you had a few minutes of talking in-between action. Once it shifted to JLU, so much got packed into every 22 minutes that it got insane, even with storyarcs. That said, JL/JLU may be the best team cartoon out there, but it certainly did need to make some trial-and-error type moves.
AVENGERS: WGH has some hindsight to avoid a lot of those mistakes.