The New Fantastic Four (1978)
Somewhere, deep in the heart of comic book land, someone laughs until the end of time at how utterly stupid this idea was, but a whole team of people got paid for it. When you think of the Fantastic Four, the names of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, and the Human Torch should come to mind – not H.E.R.B.I.E.
Due to the rights to the Human Torch being tied up in another proposed TV show, Johnny Storm’s character was replaced by a robot in 1978’s The New Fantastic Four. You see, when you have a host of other colorful characters to pick from in your comic book universe, it’s best to replace a popular character with a robot. Sigh.
The animation wasn’t bad for its time, but this always felt like the Fantastic Three more than anything else. While H.E.R.B.I.E. was adorable in his own way, he could’ve worked better as a sidekick to the original team. Fortunately, we did receive far better animated series featuring Marvel’s first family decades later.
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999)
On paper, the concept of an interplanetary, sci-fi adventure, featuring Spidey, Carnage and Venom, sounds pretty good for a story arc. Sadly, this idea became a whole 13-episode series and got weird too quickly as we followed Peter Parker’s journey on a Counter-Earth.
Look, credit where credit is due: the writers attempted something original and different here. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and confused the hell out of everybody else – and that’s saying something when you consider that Spider-Man is notorious for clone stories and whatnot. But at least it wasn’t another rehashed tale where we saw Uncle Ben get another cap in his ass, right?
Perhaps Spider-Man Unlimited‘s biggest fault is that it followed the superb Spider-Man: The Animated Series and was doomed to die in its daunting shadow. Still to this day, the only series that’s managed to rival the latter in terms of quality and popularity is 2008’s The Spectacular Spider-Man.
