Amazon.com
There was some amazing, classic animation done for superhero cartoons done as far back as Max & Dave Fleisher's
Superman series of the early 1940s (echoes of which can be found in
Batman: The Animated Series). Those were done for the big screen; by the mid-1960s, superhero cartoons were being brought to television, and some of Marvel Comics' biggest heroes--Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk--were the stars. Unfortunately, television didn't have much in terms of cachet--or production values--at the time, and all four heroes suffer for it.
Captain America comes across fine, if only because he's long suffered from the same wooden boy-scout image that Superman is often given--if nothing else, these cartoons excel at capturing a one-dimensional personality. On the two episodes here--the self explanatory "Origin of Captain America" and "Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull" (why does the Skull's origin rate higher than Cap's?)--the animation is minimal. It looks as if only a couple dozen pictures of the main characters were drawn; for the most part, this is a series of stationary illustrations with voiceovers and plenty of narration. --Randy Silver
