The Quarter Bin

When it comes to super hero cartoons, DC is, without question, the top dog. With their serious tone and minimalist art style, the Batman and Superman cartoons from the 1990s revolutionized American animation, and paved the way for other, more mature cartoons like Justice Leaugue Unlimited and the recent Justice League: New Frontier DVD. While Marvel had its own slate of popular cartoons in the 1990s, from Iron Man to the Hulk to the extremely successful X-Men, the level of character design, storytelling, animation and voice work were never up to par with DC’s offerings. In recent years, Marvel has attempted to capitalize on their Hollywood success by releasing a slew of direct-to-DVD projects, and while they’ve certainly been a step up from the company’s previous efforts, they still lack the polish and style that DC has in spades. With their newest offerings, Hulk Vs. Wolverine and Hulk Vs. Thor, Marvel is looking to catch up to their rivals by focusing on high-quality production and a more serious story.

Chris and I sat down to watch each of the movies, along with all the included special features. Our impressions are after the jump.

Hulk Vs. Wolverine (Chris)

Many non-comic fans may not know this, but Wolverine’s first appearance was actually in a Hulk book, back in 1974. In his first appearance, Logan is sent to deal with both the Hulk and Wendigo, a Canadian, sasquatch-like monster. This is just one of the many storylines covered in the sweeping story of Hulk Vs. Wolverine; it also deals with Logan’s childhood, the experiments performed on him by Weapon X, and even his association with the Weapon X program. Some changes have been made to each of the storylines, but overall, the Wolverine seen in the video is the same Wolverine you’ve been reading in the comics, and die hard fans will not feel at all let down by this version of the Old Canucklehead.

The version of the Hulk we are treated to is somewhat less distinct. In fact, the Green Goliath acts as more of a plot device than an actual character, giving Wolverine something to fight against while his story is told.

While both movies are less about the Hulk and more about his adversary, the real star of this show is Deadpool. The deadly, insane “Merc With a Mouth” is a well-known smart-mouth, and here, he does not disappoint. Every quip and barb he hurls finds its mark, and will have you, at times, laughing out loud. The guy even stays funny during dismemberment, which is a hell of a thing.

Hulk Vs. Wolverine might be the best looking Marvel animated project to date. Jeff Matsuda, former X-Men comic artist and lead designer for DC’s The Batman animated series, is the design lead for Hulk Vs. Wolverine, and he’s done a fantastic job of creating designs that not only work as animation, but reflect the nature and personality of each character. In fact, there is such variety in the characters’ designs that it seems like they were designed by different people. Sabretooth has a hyper-stylized look that would fit in well with The Batman’s animation, Hulk and Wolverine look as if they stepped directly out of the comic page, and Lady Deathstrike strongly resembles the designs of Peter Chung, creator of Æon Flux. That said, it all meshes together well, and no one feels out of place.

Hulk Vs. Wolverine is by no means a kid’s cartoon. When dealing with characters like Wolverine, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike and Deapool, any action sequence is bound to feature a healthy dose of bloody violence, and this movie doesn’t skimp on the red stuff. It’s not a gore-fest, but there are some decidedly mature action sequences that would be inappropriate for kids. With the mature tone comes some excellent fight choreography, making for some of the best animated combat scenes in recent memory. There is one action scene in particular, where Wolverine deals with a hallway full of Weapon X soldiers, that is especially slick and frenetic, and shows just how far Marvel has come since the 90s. The only noticeable visual hiccups come in the form of occasional miscolorations, but these are rare and not too distracting. That being said, it’s action-packed, funny, thoroughly entertaining, and better than just about any other American action cartoon out there.

Hulk Vs. Thor (Luke)

I may have drawn the short straw when Chris and I were picking who would get to review which movie, but after watching Hulk Vs. Thor, I didn’t feel slighted in the least. I’ve always enjoyed a good Thor story, and I think J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Coipel’s recent take on the character is pretty damned good. Even though it seemed as if everyone was buying the DVD just for Hulk Vs. Wolverine, I can almost guarantee the second feature in the set will pleasantly surprise them.

Stylistically, Hulk Vs. Thor is quite different from Hulk Vs. Wolverine. Characters have a more European look, with sharp features that better suit the look of Norsemen (and seem to be riffing a bit on Walt Simonson). A great deal of attention was paid to all the mainstays of Marvel’s Norse catalog, but it comes at the expense of the locations. While the Warriors Three, Baldur, Sif, Valkyrie, Loki, Enchantress, Hela, and Thor all look cool, Asgard and the surrounding areas look rather ordinary. Marvel’s animation has been progressively getting better the start of their direct-to-DVD days, and the two features in this set showcase some pretty solid action sequences, which show off how comfortable the teams are getting in their storytelling abilities. While still nowhere near as nice looking as the Distinguished Competition’s efforts, Marvel Studios is making progress, and within the span of their next few movies should be able to go toe-to-toe with Warner’s features.

Both the scripting and the voice work are good. Christopher Yost’s screenplay does provide quite a bit of dialogue to make use of the talent, and even manages to create a reasonable excuse for the green goliath to be in Asgard to start with. There’s a lot of exposition for a feature about two people fighting, but it’s all very well written, and doesn’t feel unnecessary at any point. Yost manages to cover some decent ground in the short time frame, even managing to cram in a trip to Hel. As for the acting, Matthew Wolf’s Thor is good, as is Kari Wahlgren’s Enchantress and Bryce Johnson’s Bruce Banner, but it’s Graham McTavish’s Loki that truly steals the show. He never sounds demented, but there’s just a bit of crazed jealousy mixed with the cold, calculating wit we’ve all come to love in Loki in McTavish’s voice work, and his performance makes this DVD worth viewing all on its own.

It’s impressive to see how far Marvel’s come since the days of the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, and it’s nice to see that they’re now in the business of making high-quality animated features instead of low-rent daytime TV cash-ins. Hulk Vs. may be their best effort so far, eclipsing the respectable Ultimate Avengers, but it still isn’t quite up to par with some of DC’s finer works, like Superman Doomsday and the upcoming Wonder Woman. For Marvel faithful, it’s a must-buy. For everyone else, Hulk Vs. is definitely worth checking out. Hopefully this animated feature is just a taste of what’s to come from Marvel Animation.