The '90s Marvel Cartoon Multiverse Was Confusing

[Music] these days you can't walk two feet without tripping on a Multiverse it's like hey man move your Multiverse it's all up in my other Multiverse we have the spiderverse a Multiverse of Madness and whatever they decided to call the one in The Flash movie I still don't know and let's not forget that a couple years ago the Best Picture Winner everything everywhere all at once is all about multiverses multiversal Shenanigans are all the rage in film and TV but really they've just finally caught up to what has been incredibly common in comic books comic readers have dealt with multiversal nonsense for 1 million years Marvel and DC each have multiple different universes each designated by a numerical system in Marvel the mainline universe is 616 and we've designated yours 616 while in DC the main universe is one much easier to remember major Comic events of the past like Crisis on infinite Earths and Secret Wars all collapsed or rebooted the various universes in continuity and different iterations of characters from other universes meet on a semi-regular basis it is the oldest of hats the Assumption it seems is that viewers nowadays are savier when it comes to this kind of metatextual World building wait you dig on multiverses it's as much Rick Dalton gif as it is a storytelling device anything can happen in the Multiverse but even if you've never read a comic all you had to do was grow up in the 9s and watch Marvel cartoons to understand just how weird and confusing such a Multiverse can be from 1992 through 1999 no fewer than eight different cartoon series aired for at least one season but this was not one big happy Animated Universe like the DC one was oh no oh the luxury of knowing Batman the Animated Series Superman the animated series Batman Beyond and Justice League all exist in the same continuity I have no idea who this is waiting through the absolute mind fery of the Marvel shows is another matter entirely you'd certainly assume one of two things first that the Marvel cartoons all of course took place in the same continuity if there are crossovers it only stands to reason the other option is that they each take place in their own separate continuity divorced from ever referencing any of the other shows oh sweet spring child there is in fact a Multiverse of different versions of these options some shows cross over cleanly some never cross over at all but much more frequently these shows cross over characters but not specific versions of the characters even though all the shows were airing at or around the same exact time the Marvel cartoons of the decade aired on two networks mostly most of them were on Fox kids while the others were syndicated or on UPN for those of you too young to remember the UPN or United Paramount network was an American broadcaster roughly On a par with the WB in fact the two of them merged in 2006 to form the CW what weird days those were at any rate I had a basic memory of the UPN shows crossing over and some of the Fox shows crossing over and that being it but that would have been way too easy after revisiting these series all on Disney plus now it turns out they have some wild and wholly inconsistent standards for shared continuity even within the same networks parsing out exactly which of these shows do or don't take place in the same universe has given me sleepless nights I had weird dreams because of this why doesn't any of it make sense someone tell me why it doesn't make sense sh to give you a sense of the madness I'm working with here let's do a quick refresher of the shows in question first you got your X-Men the Animated Series in 1992 this is the grand papy of Marvel cartoons and is still one of the best written and most beloved of all Marvel shows that theme song Alone is mAh Pizza Chef it ran for Five Seasons with a total of 76 episodes that episode total by the way was the highest ever for a Marvel cartoon and remained that until 2012's Ultimate Spider-Man eclipsed it with 104 X-Men 92 is so beloved that it's the one getting a continuation 30 years later with X-Men 97 they only moved 5 years in 30 years the next Marvel cartoons of the era came in a pair both Iron Man and Fantastic 4 premiered September 24th 1994 as part of the syndicated the Marvel action hour block this is a little tricky because in some markets it aired on Fox kids in others like Denver where I grew up it aired on the station that became UPN and in still others it was on the nent WB Network very confusing both shows ran for two seasons of 13 episodes per season we'll get more into that later but but the second seasons of each show are drastically different from the one prior which adds to the delightful multiversal Tom Foolery later in 1994 you get arguably though I'm not sure who'd argue against this the second most popular of the Marvel animated series Spider-Man sh another shred filled theme song this one by Joe Perry of Aerosmith and another superb adaptation of the comics this one ran for 65 episodes across Five Seasons it's also God help us the show that is the most resp responsible for the Multiverse discrepancy so it has a lot to answer for looking at you Peter next beginning in 1996 we have the Incredible Hulk which ran for two seasons with a total of only 21 episodes you'd be forgiven for forgetting the show even existed since as the sole UPN only series it was probably the hardest to find it aired on Sunday mornings too which was a notoriously rough day to try to get kids to watch Saturday morning ass cartoons Hulk lost hate big shitty the last three of the 90 these are fairly unaffected by the Multiverse but worth mentioning all the same all of these were on Fox first up we have 1998's Silver Surfer which lasted a single season of 13 episodes a shame because it was awesome then we have the Batman Beyond variant known as Spider-Man Unlimited which also only lasted 13 episodes but which somehow spanned from 1999 through 2001 and finally the death Nell of the '90s Marvel cartoons The Avengers United they stand which ran from 1999 to 2000 with 13 episodes despite the title it's more of an ad adaptation of West Coast Avengers it featured a team consisting of Ant-Man wasp Wonderman Tigra Hawkeye vision and Scarlet Witch nothing about this one crosses over with anything else so it won't factor into our multiversal talk at all it's also not a good show so avoid this one like the plague so now we know the culprits how could things have gotten so rough in a span of only a few years I think it was down to two very important factors one character rights and two complete indifference on the part of the people making the shows obviously all of these series had different creative teams and Marvel being what it was at the time had licensed all these particular properties to different production houses it also wasn't really a thing at the time for cartoons to take place in the same universe at the same time and have periodic crossovers in the incredibly consistent DC Animated Universe only Superman and the new Batman adventures crossed over while both were on the air and even then it only happened on two occasions so I've beaten around the bush long enough let's dive into the shows and see where the Wheels fell off the multiversal wagon we're going to go character by character just so you can see how wildly inconsistent these things are let's start with the titular characters and then go from there first up we have the X-Men they of course appear on their own show as well as a couple of appearances on Spider-Man the Animated Series this one is very easy the X-Men who appear on Spider-Man have the same character design the same voice actor and even the same light Motif as they have on X-Men the Animated Series no doubt about it these X-Men are the same X-Men from their own show fun fact Wolverine was supposed to appear in the episode of The Incredible Hulk where the big greeny fights the windigo but that never happened due to rights issues what could have been Spider-Man is also pretty easy because pretty much he only appears on his own show sa for a single silent Cameo appearance on the X-Men series before the Spider-Man series had launched take a breather here this Spider-Man is the same Spider-Man now there are many different iterations of Spider-Man within Spider-Man the Animated Series but that's a function of story and not weird multiversal stuff Iron Man appears on Iron Man voiced by Robert Hayes you know from airplane surely you can't be serious I am serious and don't call me Shirley this version of Tony Stark Hues very closely to the comics of the time including overcoming a drinking problem and needing Stark Tech to help him overcome spinal paralysis this Iron Man also appears on Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk same actor same Incarnation huh so maybe this isn't difficult at all wrong wrongo okay so the Fantastic 4 let me remind you the Fantastic 4 premiered on the same exact day as Iron Man that Series in Iron Man never didn't have a new episode on the same day okay okay so with that in mind the Fantastic 4 premiere on their own show though in different gues even within that their first season was a cartooner animation style and more comedic takes on the comic stories it was a bit hokey and had some lame humor at times I don't particularly care for it however the second season of the show got much more serious and the animation style fell more in line with the other series and while they retained almost the exact same voice cast it felt like a totally different show the season 2 darker versions of Reed Richards and Ben Grim also appear on the Incredible Hulk later on Iron Man as I said a moment ago also appeared on the Incredible Hulk though he and the FF never crossed over also very important the Fantastic Four appeared on Spider-Man the Animated Series in an episode that also includes the same exact version of Iron Man and and the same X-Men and yet it's a totally different Fantastic Four different voice cast different suits different everything we're just getting warmed up here we move on to the Incredible Hulk this is truly unhinged so Hulk appeared in both Fantastic 4 and Iron Man series in both cases he was voiced by Ron Pearlman who took on the roles of both Hulk and Bruce Banner who are you why I'm your friend Dr Doom Rick Jones is Hulk's only friend when UPN launched the Incredible Hulk series it is demonstrably not the same Hulk Lu fno who was the liveaction Hulk in the 70s and 80s took on the snarls and Roars of the Hulk while Neil mcdna played Banner Hulk friend not hurt okay fine you say Hulk is just in a different continuity except did you alreadying forget the same exact Fantastic Four from that animated series appears on the Incredible Hulk you might next argue that since the FF from their own show weren't on Spider-Man and neither was Hulk that they exist in the same universe as each other but let me again remind you the Ron Pearlman Hulk appeared on Fantastic 4 and Iron Man the same Iron Man Who was on the Spider-Man show and in this Hulk series how can this be you that's how was that big enough good that was good the Spider-Man Iron Man Fantastic 4 Hulk shenanigans continue once we get to a non-titular character to get the easiest one out of the way Silver Surfer and Galactus appear on Fantastic 4 as does U The Watcher and all three of them appear on the Silver Surfer TV series however they are completely different versions from one show to the next uatu also appears on X-Men but it's probably Yeti third different weird version what if it were the same version what if it were the same version see what I did there Captain America you know him the Star Spangled man with the pl he appears on X-Men in season 5 as a flashback to when Wolverine helped cap fight off Red Skull during World War II what are you too so happy about he also appears in an alternate future episode but we won't count that one since it's already in a dark timeline Captain America later appears on Spider-Man during the secret Wars ARC which is also where Iron Man and the Fantastic 4 and the X-Men come along along with the Red Skull the voice actor for cap is different but given that the Red Skull voice actor is the same Cedric Smith who also voiced Professor X hear me X-Men I need you in the War Room immediately I feel confident saying that these are the same versions of the character and simply a recasting Thor God of Thunder played by gimy himself John Reese Davies appeared in both Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk and has a non-speaking cameo in X-Men all the same version of the character as far as I'm concerned it is Thor who owes a debt to thee read Richards war machine is basically the second lead of Iron Man as it should be and as such the same version of War Machine appears the same place as iron does X-men Spider-Man Iron Man The Incredible Hulk supremely consistent however another fun fact for the first six episodes of Iron Man James Uncle Phil Avery played roie and after that he was replaced by Dorian herwood for the rest of the series and most of the characters guest appearances except James Avery came back for the episode of Spider-Man because herwood was already voicing Tombstone on Spider-Man Doctor Strange is another of those characters with a silent Cameo and X-Men he later appears in an episode named after him in Spider-Man the Animated Series on that show he's voiced by John Vernon AKA Dean wormer from Animal House fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son strange appears next on the Incredible Hulk but different in both appearance and attitude here voiced by Marice Lamar why wouldn't John Vernon come back to voice him oh probably because Vernon was already a series regular on the Incredible Hulk voicing Thunderbolt Ross get new casting director shows Wanda maximov AKA Scarlet Witch is a main character on Iron Man season 1 and also appears in an episode of X-Men the Animated Series however the depictions and voices are drastically different Daredevil AKA Matt Murdoch appears on both Spider-Man the Animated Series and Fantastic 4 the Animated Series totally and completely unrelated to each other Daredevil was possibly going to get his own animated series on Fox which would have presumably been the same version of the character from Spider-Man but who can really say Nick Fury on the other hand appears in both Spider-Man and Iron Man and is for sure the same character while Dr Doom is the same on Fantastic 4 and the Incredible Hulk but totally different on Spider-Man you're just a very disturbed human being are you staying with me Spider-Man also had a million other Marvel characters pop up like blade morbius Punisher Kingpin dormamu and Wong but none of them ever appeared in any other Series so there's nothing to contradict does know Spider-Man he's cool knowing Spider-Man does not make him cool and that is essentially all the pertinent characters who cross over so can you see why this has driven me to the point of Madness so let's see if we can actually nail down how many different universes we're dealing with here because clearly they can't all be the same one we know X-Men and Spider-Man all take place in the same continuity nothing about those particular shows contradict each other X-Men never really worried much about the greater Marvel Universe given the XE has roughly 94 million characters so thankfully we don't have a ton of problems with the X-Men cartoon the only times X-Men had any crossovers with the larger Marvel Universe in their cartoon was during the multi-episode episod Phoenix Saga and dark Phoenix Saga that's where you'll find most of the non-speaking cameos I've been mentioning they were there essentially to show just how large the problems are the X-Men and the Earth are facing if even doctor strange and Thor can't with dark Phoenix how are Professor X in the team supposed to you can watch that show almost totally in isolation anyway Spider-Man has the highest number of crossover characters mostly owing to that secret Wars ARC toward the end of season 5 just like in the comics Secret Wars here prided itself on bringing in characters from all across the Marvel Universe teaming up with Spider-Man to battle a larger Cosmic threat I remember as a kid thinking this was the coolest stuff I'd ever seen especially after watching all of those other shows Secret Wars aired at the tail end of the golden age of Marvel cartoons a year after X-Men had concluded and well after Iron Man and Fantastic 4 Ended as such it's a bit of a bow for the Marvel animated Universe which was really the Marvel animated Multiverse the series as a whole offers us a few weird discrepancies but almost entirely with characters who appeared elsewhere first also not really anywhere else to put this but Spider-Man Unlimited depending on who you ask this is a maybe kind of sort of supposed to be a continuation of Spider-Man the Animated Series taking place in an alternate dystopian version of New York where Spidey from the main Universe ends up over there this was just an attempt to get some of that sweet futuristic hype viewership from Batman Beyond but that never worked out completely different voice cast almost unrecognizable characters and a premise that feels a lot less like the comics I would say in every way that counts it's not not connected you can watch it on its own and never feel like it's the next chapter of anything the Iron Man of it all is really something if not for the Iron Man series the two continuities would be more or less completely fine Fox shows and UPN syndicated shows but Iron Man crosses the streams even more curiously it's Iron Man's appearances on the other shows on the network his show is actually on that caus all the problems how can the same Iron Man and War Machine appear in four different shows but characters that appear in the Iron Man Show with those same two characters have different versions in the other shows that they cross over with the Crux of the issues are different doctor Stranges appear in both Spider-Man and Incredible Hulk same with Daredevil who is different between Spider-Man and Fantastic 4 and different Scarlet Witch appears in X-Men and Iron Man and this is all fine but the same X-Men and Iron Man both appear in the Spider-Man series Iron Man as played by Robert Hayes is really great I'm happy he appears on so many shows but godamn it if he doesn't totally play Havoc with this entire continuity no he doesn't play Havoc he plays Iron Man all of these shows both do and do not appear in the same universe as each other and yes we can say that it's just down to something being like Oh hey we're going to put Iron Man in the show let's get the guy who's been playing him already but how can you watch all of these shows and not sit there and pick apart all of this forever it's the Multiverse wait you dig on multiverses that's the answer for everything is Tony Stark jumping universes maybe is he the only constant in the entire Multiverse that's possible maybe Tony Stark is uatu the Watcher and that means he technically does appear in Silver Surfer and simply watches over the entirety of '90s Animation Tony Stark is on Darkwing Duck if you look for him Iron Man was on Dexter's Laboratory and Captain Planet Too don't argue with me just take my word for it everything is one thing as a kid I never cared one way or another about this but now as an adult who spends his entire life picking apart the multiversal implications of fictional universes the '90s Marvel animated series have proven so confusing and so nonsensical in their seeming attempts to cross over that I want to write a letter to Green Piece about it in summation the '90s Marvel cartoons have done my head in my head she is done please offer your condolences by leaving a comment and liking this video it it do wonders for my well-being what was your favorite of these Marvel animated series from the 9s besides X-Men everyone knows it's X-Men Why did the symbi hate shocker so much never figured that out shocker we'll be back with another long video and for everything else in the world of Pop Culture please keep it glued to nerdist.com good night [Music] folks

Channel: Nerdist

Views: 51,255

Keywords: Nerdist, Marvel, Cartoons, 90s, 1990s, X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, MCU, Avengers, Animated Series, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Multiverse, Explained, Fan Theory, Breakdown, X-Men '97

Id: TObLeQ5r5Co

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2024