A version of this review ran in Friday’s The Oklahoman:
The children of superheroes are the world’s last hope in “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” the latest direct-to-DVD animated feature from Marvel. ”Next Avengers” features a possible Marvel future in which the children of the Avengers must
defeat the foe their parents could not.
The Avengers — including Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and others — were defeated in their final battle with Ultron, the indestructible robot bent on world domination.
Tony Stark, Iron Man, escaped with four of the Avengers’ children, and raised them in hiding.
James, the son of Captain America and the Black Widow, is a slovenly teen that nevertheless keeps a cool head in a crisis.
Torunn, the daughter of Thor, has an enchanted sword and an Asgardian’s power.
Azari, the son of the Black Panther, has agility from his father and lightning-based powers from an unnamed-in-the-film mother who’s most likely the X-Men’s Storm.
Pym, the son of Giant Man and the Wasp, is a tech-savvy wisacre with both of his parents’ abilities.
A fifth young Avenger was raised outside the safety of Iron Man’s domed campus.
Hawkeye, named after his father, has also inherited has father’s archery skills. He lives in the city, under the shadow of Ultron, and leads a squad of resistance fighters.
When Ultron discovers the young Avengers, he wants to eliminate the last threat to his world dominance; these five teens must work together to face down a threat even their parents couldn’t stop.
“Next Avengers” is the most young adult-focused of all of the Marvel animated films so far, but it still brings in lots of the Marvel legacy for longtime fans.
– Matt Price
September 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I watched this last night. I was both surprised and disappointed.
it’s the first Marvel Animated DVD i’ve watched, i haven’t seen the others. And i guess I hoped it would be as good as DC: New Frontier, which was all kinds of amazing.
And so the animation and direction let me down. In fact, the directing was boring and uninspired. The best part was the opening… so cool.
But i enjoyed the characters. It reminded me a lot of the final issue of the second volume of What If?, wherein the Secret Wars lot are trapped there, have kids, and they’re the next generation. And that’s one of my all-time favorite comic issues.
So this, compared to that, was eh. But i think it has potential. if it was a series, i’d love it. I’d love to see other children of heroes.
But i had complaints. I thought Black Panther’s son’s mom being an unnamed Storm was a cop out, and for what reason? Why not name her?
I thought Betty Banner was weak. She should have died, hence why Bruce was alone.
I would have liked more of other legacies… Hawkeye was cool, but we saw Ultron’s whole trophy room, so there should be more.
OH. And the biggest fault: Tony did NOT create Ultron. Hank Pym did.
Pym begat Ultron begat Vison. Vison and Simon Williams are half-brothers. Vision had magical babies with Wanda, who really loved Simon, who’s brain patterns/emotions were ingrained on VIsion. Ultron created Jocasta and Akehma both as suitors.
I love the Pym family tree.
And this movie cut it down.