Marvel Animated Shows With Bizarre Plots

Highlights

• Marvel’s animated series have taken wild risks and made confounding choices, but some have become beloved classics.
• The New Fantastic Four
  (1979) replaced The Human Torch with a robot sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E., due to rights issues.
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series
  (2003) embraced early 2000s weirdness with its CGI design and MTV-style appeal.

Marvel has been a powerhouse of animated series since way before the MCU began in 2008, with cartoons based on their heroes dating all the way back to the 60s. Many of these have become beloved classics, while some others feel nearly completely forgotten.

Then there are the Marvel animated series that are remembered, but only for how strange or specific they were. It’s tough to be considered weird in a world where animals talk and trees fire guns, and yet, somehow, some shows do it with ease. Series that took wild risks or made confounding choices and either pulled them off or failed horribly for them.

11 The New Fantastic Four (1978)

The Fantastic Four Only Has Three Members And A Robot Sidekick

• Number of Episodes: 13
• Network: NBC

Marvel’s first family is made up of Reed Richards as Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm as The Invisible Woman, Ben Grimm as The Thing, and Johnny Storm as The Human Torch. To do a series without one of them seems insane, but that is exactly what Marvel tried.

Because The Human Torch’s rights were tied up with Universal, Marvel couldn’t use the hero in this show. Instead of scrapping it, they instead replaced him with a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. and kept the other three heroes of New York. The episode plots are just as bizarre as the show’s conceit. For example, one episode in particular has Magneto, the nemesis of the X-Men, randomly show up for a hostile takeover, briefly turning the Fantastic Four into villains.

10 Marvel Anime (2010)

Four Series’ Reimagined For Anime Fans

• Shows:Iron Man, Wolverine, X-Men, & Blade
• Number of Episodes: 12 Each

This series went for four seasons, each covering a different superhero. The seasons involved Iron Man, Wolverine, the X-Men, and Blade, with Wolverine showing up in all four to help create a shared universe. The show is odd because it was created for Japanese audiences but still received an American adaptation on G4. All four seasons find a storyline reason to take their heroes to Japan, where the anime plot kicks off, hitting many of the tropes and conflicts that make up the genre.

Some of the strange episode plots include Wolverine killing the Yakuza to find his missing girlfriend only to find out the Yakuza are supplying AIM with weapons to kill superheroes, the X-Men fighting a strange Japanese recreation of themselves called the U-Men who are recruiting mutants only to harvest their organs, and Blade being in Japan to hunt a cabal of vampires only to coincidentally run into the German vampire lord Deacon Frost who just happens to be there for unrelated reasons.

9 Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003)

A CGI Experiment For The Early 2000s

• Number of Episodes: 13
• Network: NBC

While this show mostly follows typical Spider-Man-esque plot lines, the overall design makes it one of the weirdest Spider-Man adaptations ever. The show brings forth some iconic characters from Spider-Man’s cast but also places itself in this weird spot between its own thing and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man canon.

One of the weirdest aspects of this Marvel show involves most episodes bringing in a brand-new female love interest and shoehorn her into a love triangle with Peter and Mary Jane, but then some over-the-top plots go way past high school drama, like episode 11, where Peter covers an event as a student journalist, only to accidentally become deeply involved in a European diplomat assassination plot.

8 Marvel Mash-Up (2012)

Disney XD Parodies Old Marvel Animations With Commercial Breaks

• Number of Episodes: 30 (Under 5 minutes each)
• Network: Disney XD

These 79 micro-sized interstitials were only about two minutes in length, and they aired during commercial breaks on Disney XD during their Marvel programming. Many of them have recently resurfaced on YouTube and are worth a watch.

The short parodies take clips from older animated Marvel series and re-dub the voices, creating new ridiculous plots including things like Thor deciding to be a rock star, Spider-Man practicing one-liners in the mirror, and The Green Goblin needing a hug.

7 Spider-Woman (1979)

A Pilot Episode That Features Spider-Man And Alien Mummies

• Number of Episodes: 16
• Network: ABC

The 70s Spider-Woman series is a fan favorite for its campy stories and pun-filled dialogue, but its first episode was a real hodgepodge of out-there ideas. The intro immediately frames Spider-Woman as a one-to-one duplicate of Spider-Man, making her powers and overall vibe match his almost completely.

Then, the very first adventure Spider-Woman goes on is to save Spider-Man from a group of mummies that have taken him hostage inside a pyramid that sprouted out of the ground. Only they aren’t mummies, they are aliens, and it isn’t a pyramid, it’s a spaceship. It’s an utterly bizarre concept that should definitely not return in 2024.

6 Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers (2014)

An Anime Where Teens Summon Marvel Heroes From DISKs

• Number of Episodes: 51
• Network: Disney XD

This confounding anime series clearly sought to combine the popularity of shows like Pokémon Digimon with Marvel superheroes. Loki traps The Avengers inside Digital Identity Securement Kits, or DISKs. The heroes can be released from the DISKs, but only for a short period of time.

Then, Loki releases every supervillain he can and the only hope of stopping them is a group of teens who get their hands on the DISKs holding the heroes. The group travels across Earth, summoning heroes from their DISKs to do battle in a truly bizarre take on the Marvel Universe which begged for a revamp.

5 M.O.D.O.K. (2021)

A Weird Villain Going Through A Weirder Mid-Life Crisis

• Number of Episodes: 10
• Network: Hulu

A recent experiment made by Marvel and Patton Oswalt for Hulu, this stop-motion animated series follows the sinister robotic floating head as he is fired from his job and decides to give up on his quest for world domination over humanity and mutants.

Instead, he decides to spend time with his family and try to figure out what non-diabolical things he wants out of life, although there seem to be few things he’s interested in outside a life of destroying superheroes. Some specific plots include MODOK stealing one of Iron Man’s boots and trying to go to a Third Eye Blind concert, involving strange yet hilarious hijinks of one of Marvel’s most laughable villains.

4 Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (2013)

An Animated Mockumentary Follows The Destructive Hero

• Number of Episodes: 52
• Network: Disney XD

This wild series easily earns the title of bizarre from its premise but becomes full-on confusing by somehow having 52 episodes and being criminally unknown simultaneously. The plot is that the Hulk gets a publicist who wants to rebuild his public persona and make him popular.

The method he comes up with is to have robot cameras fly after Hulk and film his every move for a reality show. It’s firmly tongue-in-cheek and clearly understands how silly its premise is, making it a fun watch despite the core conceit seeming absurd.

3 Hit-Monkey (2021)

An Assassin Monkey Spills The Blood Of Criminals

• Number of Episodes: 10
• Network: Hulu

One of the most recent weird Marvel animated series, this show follows a murder-loving assassin monkey and his ghost handler, played by Jason Sudeikis. It’s a wild comedy befitting of one of Marvel’s oddest characters.

When a hitman has a job go wrong. He’s gunned down along with a monkey’s family. His spirit is then linked to the monkey and the two go looking for revenge. The plots include the duo breaking into prison, then out of prison, being trained by a blind man, and, obviously, getting in ridiculous gun and sword fights. It’s silly, violent, and has the most fitting title any show has ever had.

2 Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (1979)

The Thing’s Hannah Barbera Cartoon

• Number of Episodes: 13
• Network: NBC

This packaged series couldn’t be stranger. Aired on NBC in 1979, every episode consisted of two short segments, with one following The Flintstones and one following The Fantastic Four character, The Thing.

Even though the two only appear together during the show’s intro, the segments following The Thing are weird enough to make this list on their own. The premise is that Benjy Grimm, a wimpy teenager, can transform into The Thing by clashing magic rings together and shouting “Thing Ring, do your thing!” Plus, just in case there was any doubt whether the episode plots are as ridiculous as the premise, the second episode of the series has The Thing meet Bigfoot, which is an utterly odd decision for this already butchered version of the Fantastic Four’s strongest member.

1