There was a point when Fox Kids was a dominant source of superhero cartoons and raked in the ratings across several demographics. However, the network was soon bombarded by its competition, as Disney purchased and uplifted ABC, Nickelodeon bolstered its dedicated viewership, and the WB grew off the backs of cartoons that used to air on Fox. They had the idea to go back to the well one more time and tap a specific set of characters who had been guest stars throughout the years but were never given their time to shine. What fans received wasn’t what they expected, some even calling it the worst Marvel animated show, but is that really the reason The Avengers: United They Stand is barely remembered?
This 1999 program, sometimes simply called The Avengers, was the fourth animated show produced by Saban Entertainment, along with the other four Marvel cartoons the company helped distribute. The story goes that writers Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg had garnered praise for their work on other Fox superhero shows and were asked to write a treatment for an Avengers show. The pair turned in a program bible and 13-episode story draft, but the network shifted lanes and wanted to make something focused on Captain America instead. This was, unfortunately, around the time that Marvel was dealing with its bankruptcy – filed in 1996 – and had been selling off different sets of rights to their characters to fend off an early grave. A show featuring Cap just wasn’t possible then, and when things were eventually settled, the original writers had moved on, and a new team would need to come in and make up for lost time. Director Ron Myrick (Sonic the Hedgehog, Garfield and Friends) would take on directing duties, while Eric and Julia Lewald accepted the role of story editors after the couple’s success with the 1992 X-Men cartoon.
Those names make it seem like the show would be in excellent hands, but the first thing to note in the troubles United They Stand faced was that it became the product of two different sets of showrunners, the second of which was given many more restrictions and a tighter timetable. Icons like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor could no longer be main characters (though the first two make guest appearances, and the Asgardian is featured in the title sequence), likely causing major rewrites and a wildly different team roster. The crew attempted to turn this into a positive, allowing them to focus on a team dynamic instead of one or two people stealing the spotlight, and in a way, that became the show’s stronger aspect.
This team was built with the ‘80s West Coast Avengers comics in mind. Although my brother is the only person I’ve ever heard praise that team, I have to admit that I was eager to see some characters we don’t often get much from take on bigger roles. Ant-Man acts as the leader alongside his wife and veteran member of the team, Wasp. Together, they help guide Hawkeye, Tigra, Scarlet Witch, and Wonder Man into battle, with Vision and Falcon joining the team within the first two episodes. On paper that seems like a balanced squad, people with flaws that would have to live up to the Avengers name. I was excited to see more Wonder Man since he has a new show coming up, but they couldn’t even space the poor bastard’s name properly in the intro and he spends most of these episodes in a coma. Well, at least this is a good version of Ant-Man and people won’t keep making jokes solely about him beating his wife, right? (Wrong.)
We’re given a decent selection of villains as well, too many to name them all but I enjoyed this version of Kang the Conqueror, Egghead was surprisingly effective, Swordsman and Attuma are entertaining, and they aren’t great, but I thought making the Zodiac a threat was an interesting turn. We also have one episode with the Masters of Evil and the Salem’s Seven pops up here to attack Agatha Harkness long before that Disney+ show. I’d say the worst antagonist award goes to Grim Reaper for his presentation, but honestly, it has to be Ultron, who acts as their main baddie, almost showing up too much and jumping wildly between being threatening and ridiculous, a machine who is unmatched when it comes to daddy issues and is prone to sulk at a moment’s notice.
The artwork for the characters is interesting, at least, as it’s a supply of bold lines and hard angles that attempt to stick to a traditional style while pushing some of the gloss and highlights too much. Infamous Marvel producer Avi Arad is quoted as saying that they wanted something traditional yet distinctive, and he thought the result was sophisticated. To that point, I don’t think anyone can say it’s boring, but somehow, they used a ton of color and dulled most of it to the point where nothing pops off the screen. Several individual elements are complex and look intriguing by themselves, like close-ups of the eyes, but seem mismatched in wider shots, while intricate backgrounds get wasted. It’s not a complete mess, but some character movements look jarring and the CGI use is distracting. The intro is the perfect showcase of the art at its best and that says enough I think, also showing where their minds were at with the presentation, having this incredibly distracting split screen going on and showing so much group footage that it’s hard to follow. There is a solid song by Sky Flyers and someone trying to say “Avengers” in their best ASMR voice, but it’s just not as catchy as many other themes from this genre.
Our heroes were also given armor for this show. It was meant to help them stand out, but also because transformation sequences were popular in things like Power Rangers and Sailor Moon. Plus, reusing them helps save on animation costs. In the story, it is used for operating in different environments, which we see different versions of, and the tie-in comics claim the suits also use Pym particles to help the combatants ignore pain even if their limbs are broken. Some of these look fine, and at the time, they acted as an update for a few outdated looks, especially with the masks, but it doesn’t quite work together, and some of the designs (mostly the bad guys, one of them has a studded codpiece) remind me more of art from the Mega Man X series. I do like their vehicles, especially the plane, but it’s hard not to realize how many of these decisions were probably made solely to help sell toys.
It doesn’t stand out right away, but this series is meant to take place around 25 years in the future, conveniently putting us in about 2024. This explains some of the technology and a few of the more interesting backgrounds – like Blade Runner if daylight was still a thing. This leap in years was supposedly due to the success of Batman Beyond, but that was a show where the time felt important to the setting and gave the program more character.
The writing has its moments of brilliance and clever bits, but most of that is tied to relationships between the characters and potential setups for episodes we never received. Ant-Man attempting to live up to Captain America’s legacy as a leader is handled well, and it manages to explain how Vision ended up with Wonder Man’s mental patterns (something about brain engrams) without all of the comics’ baggage, setting up the love triangle with them and Wanda. We see some solid moments with the bad guys living up to their potential in this program, and things don’t end well for all of them, which was cool to see in a kids’ show.
At the same time, the show fails with the relationship between Ant-Man and Ultron, giving us no reason to care about the leader of this team having created their greatest enemy. Since this show was likely going to try and line up with the other Fox superhero programs at one point, it seems like they wanted to have it feel like there was already an established known history for these heroes and villains, which isn’t a bad idea, but we still need reasons to care. The “bro-ship” between Hawkeye and Wonder Man feels forced, especially with bits of awkward dialogue, some of which come off as sexually charged, even if unintentional. Some of the logic is confusing as well, with moments where the characters overcome tense problems too easily, almost like parts were cut for time. This show also made me question how Absorbing Man’s powers actually work, even though I thought I knew.
There are some character details that I wish had been expanded on, like Wanda and Wonder Man’s relationship, Falcon’s earlier work with Captain America, Hawkeye’s hearing disability, and although I get it, some of these will make no sense to those who don’t read the comics, like Namor being questioned because he’s a half-breed. This cartoon also tweaked Tigra’s origin and I wanted more explanation on her past with the team. Hawkeye probably gets it the worst in this show, however, as they made him such an angry try-hard who keeps talking about coffee like they wanted their own Wolverine or Grifter but were stuck with Clint. They spent a lot of time reining him in from showing off, not following orders, and talking trash, but the writers did let him shoot arrows and be effective in space.
The voice acting isn’t part of the problem, well, for the most part. Once again, we have some incredibly talented names on paper, with Linda Ballantyne (Sailor Moon, George of the Jungle) as Wasp, Tony Daniels (X-Men: Mutant Academy, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension) as Hawkeye, Stavroula Logothettis (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) as Scarlet Witch, Martin Roach (Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, Locke & Key) as Falcon, Ron Ruben (X-Men, Sailor Moon) as Vision, and Rod Wilson (WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, Resident Evil 2) as Ant-Man. There were even a couple of smaller performances, like Carolyn Larson (Mega Man Legends) and Ray Landry (X-Men: Mutant Academy), that stood out, but not all of the voices worked. I hate to clown on Ultron again because he’s played by John Stocker (Babar), who was superb as Toad in the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, but I can’t say his voice worked here, and I have to wonder if some of that was the direction he and others were given. Also, a big shout-out to Lenore Zann. Most of us know her as Rogue from the 1992 X-Men or maybe Outlaw Star, but sadly, she isn’t given much to work with in this show, and her being so recognizable is distracting, while placing her as Tigra feels a bit like a letdown.
I don’t think United They Stand was horrible, but it certainly didn’t live up to its potential. The right people were involved, but so much didn’t click, and the poor ratings reflected that. This was the first Avengers cartoon (Many of the characters showed up in The Marvel Super Heroes (1966), but the team wasn’t the focus), but it aired over a year later than anticipated, and this was before the average person knew who most of these characters were. There was plenty of marketing behind the product, as it saw a tie-in comic and toy line. It came out facing down the doomsday clock as Fox was preparing to make some dramatic changes to their programming. The show would have needed some pretty substantial viewership numbers to stick around, but there were already plans being ironed out for the proposed second season.
The showrunners wanted to do stories to give more background on Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch as well as bring back many of the villains from the first set of episodes, but the big selling point was going to be a slew of new guest characters. Thor would finally get his time to shine and fight his brother Loki. He even already had an action figure in the toyline to help with the hype. Bruce Banner was believed to be on the slate as well and they really wanted an episode or two with the X-Men, since there was bleed-over from the cast of the 1992 show and they were on good terms with the rest of the voice actors.
Would that have been enough, though? It’s hard to say if a second season would have fixed most of these problems, but several people seemed to think so until everything came crashing to a halt. It’s hard not to speculate how much better the show would have been if they’d been able to use the original scripts or maybe different members, but no one knows for sure. This team of Avengers simply couldn’t rise to the challenge, and they wouldn’t try again properly for another ten years with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The show is streaming on Disney+ for those who want to check it out for themselves, and see this interesting Marvel oddity, just don’t be too surprised if this approach doesn’t feel too familiar.
