Magic Kingdom

Cancelled Disney TV shows that Marvel should bring back as comics.

As was mentioned in last week’s Sunday Reading article, Boom Studios will no longer be making any more Disney licensed comics as of December. The reason for this is because, last August, Disney bought out one of the largest comic book companies in the world, Marvel Comics. It’s just bad business for Disney to keep licensing out their properties when they can use them to help support their new subsidiary instead. The shift has already begun, as Marvel has reprinted some of the Boom Studios material under the Disney Comics label seen above.

If there’s one thing Marvel Comics knows how to do, it’s utilize their history. They’ve built an empire out of reinventing dated properties from bygone eras. With full access to the Disney back catalog, they now have an even richer history to delve into. Whether they choose to reboot, or pick up right where the last episode left off, there are several TV shows that would be great to see again in any capacity. Many might even hold some appeal to existing Marvel fans. Here’s a few that are worth wishing on a star for:

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

This show within a show was a spinoff of Pixar’s Toy Story movie series. The concept was that this would be the cartoon that the Buzz Lightyear action figure from the movie series was based on. Star Command is the military branch of the Galaxy Alliance, a force made up of several planets and species who have united for the common good of the universe. Buzz is something of a legend within the organization, but the three members of his crew are all rookies. Their missions would frequently bring them up against all sorts of bizarre sci-fi adversaries. The genres of space opera and superhero were blended seamlessly in a way that hasn’t really been matched by anything since.

The crew of Star Command Ship #42, aside from Buzz himself, included Mira Nova, a Tangean with the ability phase through solid objects, not unlike Marvel’s own Shadowcat. Hilariously self-absorbed robot XR is so similar to Bender from Futurama that, if not for the fact the two characters were created at the same time, I would accuse him of being a rip-off. Rounding them out is Booster, a giant of an alien and formally Buzz’s biggest fan.

Antagonists included Buzz’s canonical arch-nemesis from the movie series, Emperor Zurg. Lowlife thug Torque is transformed into a self-replicating army known as the Torque Armada. Perhaps the strangest of all was Nos-4-A2, a robotic energy vampire whose bite would not only drain any robot of its power but transform the victim into an energy vampire as well.

Darkwing Duck

The most successful of Boom Studios’ Disney revivals, Darkwing Duck is the story of Drake Mallard, single father living in the suburbs by day, egotistical and theatric vigilante by night. His sidekick is inept pilot Launchpad McQuack, a holdover  from the earlier Ducktales TV show. Darkwing’s adopted daughter Gosalyn is a rambunctious spitfire, too fearless for her own good.

Darkwing’s city, St. Canard, is plagued by all manner or supervillains, including the Fearsome Five. Megavolt is an electrically charged maniac on a quest to liberate home appliances. Quackerjack is an insane toymaker out to ruin the video game industry that drove him out of business. Nebbish duck-plant hybrid Reginald Bushroot is torn between a life of crime and his crushing loneliness. Former bottled water executive the Liquidator has sales pitches as slippery as the fluid that makes up his body. The team’s leader is Negaduck, a psychotic double of Darkwing obsessed with preserving his position as public enemy number one.

Marvel’s own X-Men were playfully parodied in the episode “Mutancy on the Bouncy” where St. Canard became suddenly rife with mutants and Darkwing was forced to team up with the enigmatic Rubber Chicken. One occasional supporting character was Comet Guy, a cosmically powerful being who comes from a planet where everyone is a superhero.

Gargoyles

Before Boom Studios acquired the Disney license, it was held by Slave Labor Graphics. Their Gargoyles comic was written by show creator Greg Weisman, who’s certainly no stranger to superheroes. Weisman has done an admirable job in keeping this property alive long after the cartoon passed away.

Gargoyles is about seven creatures from the Dark Ages who involuntarily turn to stone during the day and change back at night. Put into suspended animation for a thousand years, they awake in modern day Manhattan and, like many a Marvel superhero, decide to become New York City’s protectors.

The Gargoyles were revived by a man who would become their greatest enemy, corporate gazillionaire David Xanatos, a master planner who’s always ten steps ahead of everyone else. Demona, a genocidal female Gargoyle, intends to cause the extinction of humanity. There were even evil clones of the Gargoyles created by Tim Curry! It’s impossible to do the ambiance and deep mythological complexity of this series justice. It was on a completely different level.

Hercules and Aladdin

Grant Morrison once said that Disney’s Hercules is one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, and he’s right. It certainly has more in common with Superman than it does with any version of the classic Greek Hercules. Apparently, the writers of the spinoff recognized this as well, because one episode, “The Grim Avenger”, features a very Batman-like Theseus forming a World’s Finest team with Herc.

But that’s not all. Another episode, “The Arabian Night”, featured Hercules meeting Aladdin. Nothing says comics like gratuitous crossovers! The premise was that Jafar, having died in the direct-to-video sequel to the first Aladdin movie, was brought to the underworld where he and Hades made a wager to see who could destroy each other’s enemy first. Sorta like Acts of Vengeance.

For what it’s worth, the actual Aladdin animated series wasn’t bad either. It has several memorable villains. Mechanikles was an neat-freak supergenius who once tried to steam clean the Earth by evaporating the entire ocean. Ayam Aghoul could only dwell among the living if he found someone to take his place in the realm of the dead. And Mirage can only be described as a malevolent furry with nearly unlimited supernatural powers.

Kim Possible

I know one member of our forums who will personally string me up at the gallows if I don’t mention Kim Possible. So this one’s for you, Mike!

Kim Possible is the daughter of a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon, who frequently combats world-threatening menaces while still attending an ordinary high school. Comic relief comes in the form of her companion Ron Stoppable, as well as her barely competent foe Dr. Drakken. The program went a long way toward reaching out to new demographics while still appealing to Disney Channel’s base audience of tweenage girls. Though there is much villain fighting to be had, the vibe of the whole thing is more secret agent than superhero.

Not that there weren’t occasionally superheroes in it. “The Fearless Ferret” episode featured a crime fighter of the same name, once again pigeonholing Adam West into playing some variation on Batman. Team Go was a group of siblings granted superpowers when their treehouse was struck by a multicolored celestial object, and their HQ was very reminiscent of Titans Tower. S.H.I.E.L.D. was the basis for the Global Justice organization, complete with a female Nick Fury in charge.

Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. Intelligent duck people from a planet called Puckworld where hockey is revered form a superhero team lead by a guy with an x-ray goalie mask. They travel to Earth in search of their ancient adversaries, an ankylosaurus name Siege, a snake named Wraith, a chameleon named… Chameleon, and Tim Curry.

If you think that’s too weird to have ever really existed, then you’ve never seen the cartoon version of the Mighty Ducks. One episode, “Mondo Man”, is about a human superhero who believes that the ducks are actually invaders. At first, he uses only homemade gadgets, but then the villains give him an upgrade. He even creates ducktonite, a mineral designed to remove the ducks’ superhuman powers, despite the fact that they don’t have any, and then it actually works, physically draining them to the point they can barely move. Plus, I don’t think I even need to mention the obvious crossover possibilities with Marvel’s Howard the Duck.

That’s all of them. At least for now. Say, doesn’t Warner Brothers own one of these kids’ cable channels too…