The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow

This is a great, really well done Marvel story and the kids in no way take away from its appeal - they rather add to it. I was shocked to find that I enjoyed this much more than the previous Ultimate Avengers DVDs (which I felt suffered from unavoidable comparisons to the graphic novels they were based on). As another reviewer mentioned, Next Avengers has a lot of heart, and far more depth and action than you would expect from something for the kids. This would be a great series if they can maintain the level of the writing. Highly recommended.

This movie has a lot of action and a lot of heart. I really enjoyed it, and loved all the nods to modern Marvel Mythology. This movie, while featuring a new cast of characters, really respects the Marvel universe and Marvel fans.

The writing is good, the action is great, the characters are well done, and there's even some pretty sharp, funny dialogue. Storywise this holds up very well and is much, much better than the recent Gotham Knight release (which pretty much didn't have a story at all) so hopefully this outsells that.

My family has watched this movie twice now and highly recommends it. The moment it finished the first time my son looked at me and said "I hope they make another one." I'm really looking forward to Hulk vs Wolverine and Hulk vs Thor, but for fans who were worried about Marvel making this one for a younger audience or about Marvel creating new characters for -- you can relax. This is a very fun movie that works very well.

I am often very skeptical of "young" or "kid" versions of these types of stories; take Anakin in the Phantom Menace or many anime cartoons i simply have trouble getting my arms around. But this cartoon treated the kids more like teenagers and there was little or no "fart" humor and with the addition of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, etc. it took on a serious tone without being overwhelming for kids. Put this team in charge of any product aimed at appealing to kids and their parents - great stuff! Only minor complaint was it seemed to end quickly with some battles left to do and you are left feeling maybe they are thinking tv series - which i wouldn't mind but it seemed to end quickly... my son has watch it twice in two days. If your kid (and you) likes comics, Ben 10, etc. this is your speed.

Three and a half stars, and some minor SPOILERS.

It's not great, but it's pretty good. NEXT AVENGERS: HEROES OF TOMORROW is the latest from the Marvel line of animated direct-to-video dvds, this time introducing a new and very young generation of superheroes. Sometime in the near future, the Avengers have a fateful last encounter with the invincible robot Ultron, and the Avengers fall. This gives Ultron free rein to begin his world conquest. Tony Stark survives and manages to whisk away the sons and daughter of the Avengers to the Arctic Circle. There, the offsprings while away the years in hiding, trained and mentored by an aging Stark and raised on stories of their legendary parents. And, then, one day, another Avenger appears, this event resulting in Ultron finally tracking down Iron Man and finding out about the children.

There are four kids, initially. Torunn, the daughter of Thor. Pym, son of Giant Man and the Wasp. Azari, son of the Black Panther (and X-Men's Storm?). And James, the red-headed son of Captain America and Black Widow. And, later on, Hawkeye's kid enters the picture as the leader of a fugitive band barely surviving in Ultra City. These kids have huge footsteps to follow, and, because they're kids, they flaunt unblemished confidence and don't really think that far ahead. Some good character development unfolds as these kids are soon easily humbled by Ultron and his Iron Avengers (which used to be Stark's Iron Avengers, until Ultron corrupted their programming). The vigorous Torunn, in particular, who before was unshakeable in her self-belief, sinks the furthest. How she regains her faith, not only in herself but in her father, the Thunder God, is one of my favorite moments in the film. It falls to James, being the son of Captain America, to inspire and lead this team. But, ultimately, the last desperate hope for beating Ultron may rest on unearthing a certain giant green grump...

Yes, most of the adult Avengers are dead and Ultron has just about taken over half the planet. With the stakes so raised, an undercurrent of gravity permeates the film, this tone also tremendously aided by the film score, which bears faint echoes of THE MATRIX theme. Yet NEXT AVENGERS: HEROES OF TOMORROW caters to a younger audience than did Marvel's first four flicks in its animated direct-to-video line. The kids will eat this up. Originally under the working titles of Teen Avengers and then Avengers Reborn, NEXT AVENGERS can't help but give off faint vibes reminiscent of the Teen Titans cartoon, only with not so much anime. This similarity is marked mostly in the kids' behavior and dialogue, which often strays towards the lighthearted. The animation isn't shabby, but certainly doesn't hold a candle to what I glimpsed in the First Look segments included here, which showcase the two upcoming movies: Hulk Vs. Wolverine and Hulk Vs. Thor.

This brings us to the dvd's special features. There are two blah documentaries: the self-explanatory "Legacy: The Making of Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow" and "Kid Power: Next-Gen Marvel," which focuses on Marvel comic books featuring teen superheroes (New X-Men, Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, Power Pack, etc.). What's definitely worth checking out are the First Looks for Hulk Vs. Wolverine (with Deadpool) and Hulk Vs. Thor (the Hulk comes to Asgard). The animation previewed for these two films is eye-catching, to say the least.

By no means is this the first dystopian future ever presented onscreen, and there's nothing new or groundbreaking coming from that angle. The grim backdrop, however, does lend more weight to the kids' adventures and firmly elevates the film above a regular Saturday morning cartoon experience. The kids themselves, specifically created for this film, are stock characters (yet with enough flair to keep your kids' eyeballs glued to the screen). It's interesting to note how similar and how different the kids' abilities are from their parents. Hawkeye's ability is exactly the same as his dad; same for Captain America's kid, except that James's shield manifests when his wrist mechanism is activated. Pym boasts both of his parents' powers (including the Wasp's stings), while Azari has his dad's agility and also something extra, an ability to generate electrical surges (again, Storm?). Meanwhile, Torunn is strong, durable and can fly, but wields a bulky blade, instead of a hammer. By the way, for me, Torunn and Hawkeye turn out to be the most interesting characters. I particularly enjoyed Torunn's attempts to speak like an Asgardian, only to then hopelessly fall back to contemporary colloquialism.

As far as I know, this film follows its own internal continuity, separate from that of the Marvel Comics mainstream and Ultimate titles. For one thing, this film has Tony Stark as Ultron's creator, rather than Hank Pym. Of these five Marvel animated direct-to-video films so far, I'd probably rank this behind the two ULTIMATE AVENGERS films (Ultimate Avengers - The Movie & Ultimate Avengers 2 (Rise of the Panther)) and maybe tied with that odd duck, Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme. It's certainly better than The Invincible Iron Man. NEXT AVENGERS: HEROES OF TOMORROW is only an hour and 18 minutes long, but that's time enough to pepper in several great action-packed sequences, culminating with the kids facing huge odds as they go against the Iron Avengers and Ultron. Two observations which made me enjoy the film even more: the Vision's noggin being lugged about like poor Yorick's skull and how the Hulk doesn't lose that aura of menace even when reduced to a receding hairline. Wispy white hair and scraggly goatee be damned, the Hulk is still the strongest one there is.

When I first read the promotional blurp of the idea behind this direct-to-dvd movie, I thought "No Way!" I'm so tired of seeing dumbed-down kiddie versions of my favorite comic book and cartoon characters, I was ready to give this one a automatic pass. Seeing the pre-release art above really didn't inspire me to want to see it either.

Well, I was wrong! This was a pretty darned good little cartoon. Yes, it's aimed at kids, and doesn't have the mature themes present in the first two "Avengers" animated films, and yes, it has giant robot Avengers, but there's a logical reason for their existence and the idea is actually part of Marvel continuity, first used in "Universe X," I think.

The Avengers have made the ultimate sacrifice in their final fight with the indestructible robot, Ultron. But all was not lost for Tony Stark (Iron Man) has kept the children of the Avengers safe and raised them to become the teenage heroes of tomorrow. Now James Rogers (Son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (Daughter of Thor), Azari (Son of the Black Panther), and Pym (Son of Wasp and Giant Man) must finish the fight their parents started. Soon the arrow-slinging son of Hawkeye join their ranks, but it will take more than five teens to destroy the machine that defeated their parents. For the young heroes to have any hope of winning they must find the missing Hulk.

Iron Man (Tony Stark) has a major role as the childrens' guardian and mentor, and an elderly Betty Ross and Bruce Banner appear. Needless to say, if old Banner is on hand, a geriatric Hulk can't be far behind...And once he appears, it's really funny. Let's just say the Hulk is even more...cantankerous than ever. One of my favorite Avengers, the Vision, is also in the movie. There's one more guest appearance at the end, but i won't give it away.

When I saw the trailer below the idea of an old Hulk just seem full of humorous potential: Images of Hulk with a walker and a pair of glasses hanging around his neck come to mind, or how about Banner getting really mad at the drug store cause his arthritis medicine went up 2 dollars, and hulking out on the vitamin isle? "Hulk is on fixed income! AAARRGGHH!"

The mothers of some of the tiny Avengers is left to speculation. I'm willing to postulate with reasonable confidence that Torunn's (Daughter of Thor) mother is either the Enchantress, or more likely, Valkyrie. No explanation is given for Torunn's enchanted sword, but it has many of the same properties of Thor's hammer. Valkyrie carried an unbreakable enchanted sword.

It is implied that Azari's (Son of the Black Panther) mother is Storm. In a brief flashback, Black Panther is shown from behind holding hands with a stately-looking white-haired woman, in current continuity Panther and Storm are an "item," and it would explain Azari's spark and lightning powers.

The only real mystery is who is little Hawkeye's mother? He has white hair, so I was thinking maybe Scarlet Witch, since both her brother Quicksilver and father Magneto had white hair, apparently from birth, but he displayed no mutant powers, so it puts my theory in doubt...

Pym, the youngest of the kids, is the son of Wasp and Giant Man, Janet and Hank Pym. he's a cute kid, but his character is very young and talks a lot and would probably annoy some people, just like real kids.

Ultron is the main villain in this movie, and he's done right this time. In the "Avengers" Saturday morning cartoon from a few years ago, he was so poorly designed and animated it was laughable. In this version, he's big, dark, mean, and scary! For some reason, Tony Stark says he created Ultron, although in Marvel continuity it was Hank Pym, but, hey, anything is possible in an alternate future.