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.
The Hulk gets short shrift here; the interesting thing about the character has always been twofold: the misunderstood misfit trying to make a quiet life for himself, and the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde duality of the Hulk and his alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner. On the two episodes here--"The Power of Dr. Banner" and "The Origin of the Hulk"--the animation is minimal and barely serves to capture a single facet of either character's personality. 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
