The Avengers: United They Stand

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The Avengers: United They Stand
Format Animated
Starring Linda Ballantyne
Tony Daniels
Ray Landry
Caroly Larson
Stavroula Logothettis
Martin Roach
Ron Rubin
Rod Wilson
Lenore Zann
Hamish McEwan
John Stocker
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
No. of episodes 13 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)		 Avi Arad
Running time approx. 22 minutes/episode
Broadcast
Original channel FOX
Original run October 30, 1999 – February 26, 2000
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary
The Avengers: United They Stand logo
The Avengers: United They Stand logo

The Avengers: United They Stand (also known simply as The Avengers), was an animated series based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. 13 episodes in length, it originally aired from October 30, 1999 to February 26, 2000, and was produced by Avi Arad and distributed by 20th Century Fox Television. The show is generally regarded as one of the worst Marvel cartoons of all time[citation needed], and was canceled due to Marvel's bankruptcy of the late 1990s after only one season.[1]

Contents

[edit] Roster

The Avengers roster
The Avengers roster

The series featured a team broadly based on the roster for the 1984 Avengers spin-off series The West Coast Avengers, comprised of the Wasp, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch (Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch were also both in the Iron Man animated series as members of Force Works), led by Ant-Man (aka Giant-Man), with the Falcon and the Vision joining in the opening two-parter. For undetermined reasons (perhaps due to their rights being tied up in planned movie projects), the Avengers' "Big Three" were not regular fixtures in the series - Captain America and Iron Man made only guest appearances in one episode each, while Thor did not appear outside of the opening titles.

The series featured many of the Avengers' major comic book foes, including Ultron, Kang the Conqueror, Egghead, the Masters of Evil, the Grim Reaper and the Zodiac, as well as associated characters such as the Swordsman, the Circus of Crime, the Sub-Mariner, Attuma, Agatha Harkness and the Salem's Seven. The show made several fan-friendly references to aspects of the characters' comic book history that were otherwise not expanded upon for the uninitiated, such as the Falcon and Captain America's partnership, Hawkeye's partial deafness or Namor's half-breed nature.

Beyond this, however, the series bore little in the way of similarity to the comics, mainly due to its wholesale redesign of the cast, characterized by asymmetrical costume design and the most (in)famous element of the series - Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye and Falcon all wore suits of battle armor, which they donned in sentai-inspired "power-up" sequences. This, coupled with the number of suits of armor and costumes the characters wore in various episodes ("jungle" suits in episode #6, "ultra-armor" in episode #7, "undersea" suits in episode #8, spacesuits in episode #9; all very carefully designed to be character-specific, rather than generic), as well as the several different body designs that arch-villain Ultron rotated through in the course of his appearances, seems to suggest that the series was designed with the mechanics of a toyline in mind, offering many different variations of the characters to make action figures out of.

On a side note for episode one, portraits of Beast, Black Panther, Hulk, Namor, Quicksilver, and two unknown heroes are seen in the conference room when Mr. Sikorsky is ranting about the events where the president was attacked.

The entire cast from X-Men: The Animated Series were going to appear in a planned, but unmade two part episode during Season 2. The series was, however, cancelled before Season 2 was made. The X-Men were to have be voiced by their respective voice actors/actresses. Some of the voice cast for Avengers started from X-Men. Lenore Zann, voice of Rogue, for instance voiced Tigra.

[edit] Episode guide

Main article: List of Avengers: United They Stand episodes

[edit] Proposed second season

Scripts were written for a second season that would have included guest appearances Thor and his half-brother Loki, and the X-Men, with the Toronto based cast from the 1990s series reuniting.[citation needed]

[edit] Comic

The Avengers: United They Stand Comics

cover of The Avengers: United They Stand #4
Publisher Marvel Comics
Format ran for 7 issues
Publication date November 1999 to June 2000
Main character(s) Avengers
Creative team
Writer(s) Ty Templeton
Derec Aucoin

The Avengers: United They Stand comic book series by Ty Templeton and Derec Aucoin was published to accompany the series and is considered vastly superior to the animated series by fans.[original research?] Due to low sales it lasted only seven issues.

The first two issues are set before the series premiere, Avengers Assemble, Part 1 & 2. #1 has the Avengers injured by an early version of Ultron. This issue was used to explain the armor worn by Hawkeye, Wasp and the Falcon in the series, which uses Pym Particles to reduce the pain caused by injury. It is mentioned by Hawkeye that Hank built his own armor after his legs were broken by Dragon Man, and felt no pain in his legs until he removed the armor. #3 takes place after the premiere as the Vision is being interviewed about his membership. He is also briefed on how Wonder Man and Hawkeye joined the team.

The Black Panther would appear in #1 and 6-7 of the series. In #1 he is among the Avengers who are injured by Ultron. Because of that, he refuses to rejoin the team until Hank steps down from being leader. Captain America appears in #6-7 as well. Quicksilver is mentioned twice in the series. In issue 1, Wanda is shown writing a letter to him. Issue 3 shows him in the flashback alongside Captain America, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch.

Other characters that appeared in the comic but not the show:

[edit] Toys

Toy Biz released a line of action figures for the cartoon series. The figures included Ant-Man, Captain America, Falcon, Hawkeye, Kang, Tigra, Vision, Ultron, Wasp and Wonder Man. Air Gilder and Sky Cycle vehicle toys were also produced. In the promotional images of the series, and the action figure photos, Hawkeye didn't use a mask. However, in the series and the final version of the figure, he used a mask similar to that he wore during the Avengers: The Crossing storyline.

[edit] DVD release

On May 21, 2007 Maximum Entertainment released the complete series on Region 2 DVD in the UK. The 2-disc boxset features all 13 episodes of the series. Due to continuing legal issues between Marvel and Disney in the U.S., the series remains unreleased on Region 1 DVD.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main

[edit] Supporting

[edit] Minor

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Marvel Animation Age Presents: The Avengers: United They Stand. marvel.toonzone.net. Retrieved on 2008-03-03.

[edit] External links

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The Avengers
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Marvel animated universe
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X-Men (1992) · Iron Man (1994) · Fantastic Four (1994) · Spider-Man (1994) · The Incredible Hulk (1996) · Silver Surfer (1998) · Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) · The Avengers: United They Stand (1999)
List of episodes
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Keith Emerson (Iron Man) · Shuki Levy · Giorgio Moroder (Fantastic Four) · Joe Perry (Spider-Man) · David Sibley
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