2009 SDCC Day 2- Marvel Animation

Today at the San Diego Comic Con, Marvel's Director of Animation, Josh Fine, lead a panel featuring the state of animation at Marvel.

Marvel is partnered with Nick Toons and is enjoying the very positive success of their current programming. Iron Man, the Armored Adventures has been well received and will be continuing into the future. Join him soon is the Fantastic Four, World’s Greatest Heroes.

Nick and Marvel have years of programming planned for their animated series. They plan to compliment the upcoming Marvel live action feature films with cartoons.

Iron Man, the Armored Adventures, continues tonight on Nick Toons with a brand new episode. Coming, Iron Man will face a variety of villains - a giant Ultron, Ghost, Modok, Controller, AIM and the Living Laser. Iron Man will also fight the Hulk and team up with the Black Panther.

There will be several new armors for Iron Man, including Stealth Armor, Arctic Armor, Space Armor and Hulk Buster Armor.

Joining Iron Man in the near future will be The Fantastic Four, the World's Greatest Heroes.

Wolverine and the X-Men are also continuing. They'll be fighting Sentinels and Master Mold, Mojo, Sinister among others. Wolverine will be teaming up with Havok, Colossus and Magik, and . . Deadpool.

The accomplished voice talent on the Wolverine series have a great time doing their readings.

The characters on the show will go through a lot of changes in the upcoming season. The new season starts next week on Nick Toons.

*spoilers* -

Wolverine gets captured by Mojo who takes control of him and forces him to do his bidding

Angel gets transformed by Sinister into Arch-Angel.

There are a variety of Sentinel robots, one of whom as energy claws. He hunts Wolverine after the mutant escapes from Sentinel custody.

The original X-Men team are shown in a time trip, which includes seeing how Cyclops is recruited by Xavier.

*end spoilers*

Coming up in the feature animation department is . . Planet Hulk. This done with Lionsgate and will be available in February 2010.

Madhouse will be doing anime for Marvel. Warren Ellis will be writing the stories.

Teasers for Marvel Anime were shown. The Japanese market is the primary target, though Marvel hopes these will also work in the US. These are re-imaginings of Marvel characters in the anime style.

Wolverine has a mullet and a ballet dancers body. He fights demon ninjas and appears to be able to fly. You can tell it's Wolverine because of the shiny claws. He will be coming to anime in 2010.

Also shown was Iron Man, in familiar red and gold armor. He's fighting a pirate with black armor and Pepper Potts seems to have green hair.

The teasers being shown are just test animations and do not reflect the actual stories that have yet to be made. Iron Man will be set in Japan and will have an ongoing theme of culture clashes. The Wolverine stories has its basis in the 80's Chris Clarmont series.

Blade is also coming as a Marvel Anime series. Blade will take place across South East Asia.

The X-Men will also be told in Marvel Anime form.

These will appear in Japan in 2010 and will be in the US shortly after.

Marvel will also have a Superhero Squad show coming up. There will be a panel tomorrow, Saturday, regarding this new show. Stan Lee will be there, as well as several of the voice actors.

There is a new Thor animated feature coming from Lionsgate. It features a young Thor, on his quest for manhood. Many of Thor's regular crew will be seen, as children. Plenty of Ice Giants and monsters stand in the way of young Thor's quest.