United They Stand

''The Avengers: United They Stand'' (also known simply as ''The Avengers'') is an animated series based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Avengers. It consists of 13 episodes, which originally premiered on October 30, 1999, and was produced by Avi Arad. It was canceled on February 26, 2000.

The series features two founding members of the team, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and introduces Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, Falcon, Vision and Scarlet Witch.

Plot

The series features a team broadly based on the roster for the 1984 Avengers spin-off series, the West Coast Avengers, composed of the Wasp, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch (Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch were also both in the '' Iron Man'' animated series as members of Force Works) led by Ant-Man/Giant-Man, with the Falcon and Vision joining in the opening two-parter. For undetermined reasons (perhaps due to their rights being tied up in planned movie projects), the Avengers' "Big Three" were not regular fixtures in the series – Captain America and Iron Man made only guest appearances in one episode each, while Thor did not appear outside of the opening titles (though he was intended to make an appearance in a future season if the show was renewed). Captain America appears in one episode "Command Decision". The story involves the Masters of Evil and a flashback to Captain America defeating Baron Zemo. Meanwhile, Iron Man in the episode "Shooting Stars", helps the Avengers thwart the Zodiac's plan to send a radioactive satellite crashing to Earth.

The series features many of the Avengers' major comic book foes, including Ultron, Kang the Conqueror, Egghead, the Masters of Evil (consisting of Baron Helmut Zemo, Tiger Shark, Absorbing Man, Moonstone, Whirlwind, Boomerang, Cardinal, and Dragonfly) the Grim Reaper (this version wore full body armor and a helmet featuring a skull-like paint job and a scythe-like weapon on his armor; his ties to Wonder Man remained intact) and the Zodiac, as well as associated characters the Swordsman, the Circus of Crime, Namor, Attuma, Agatha Harkness, and the Salem's Seven.

The show made several fan-friendly references to aspects of the characters' comic book history that were otherwise not expanded upon for the uninitiated; such as Falcon and Captain America's partnership, Hawkeye's partial deafness, or Namor's half-breed nature. Beyond this, the series bore little in the way of similarity to the comics, mainly due to its wholesale redesign of the cast, characterized by asymmetrical costume design and the most infamous element of the series – Ant-Man, Wasp, Hawkeye and Falcon all wore suits of battle armor. Also in this incarnation, Tigra is an athlete who underwent genetic treatments to give her a competitive edge. These treatments went awry, leaving her with the form and abilities of a tiger.

Cast

* Linda Ballantyne as Janet Van Dyne / Wasp
* Tony Daniels as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Aries, Aquarius, Brutacus
* Graham Harley as Edwin Jarvis
* Ray Landry as Raymond Sikorski
* Carolyn Larson as The Computer
* Stavroula Logothettis as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
* Hamish McEwan as Simon Williams / Wonder Man
* Gerry Mendicino as Cornelius Van Lunt / Taurus
* Martin Roach as Samuel "Sam" Wilson / Falcon
* Ron Ruben as Vision
* John Stocker as Ultron
* Rod Wilson as Dr. Hank Pym / Ant-Man / Giant-Man
* Lenore Zann as Greer Grant Nelson / Tigra

Additional voices

* Denis Akiyama as Dr. Chris Johnson (in "Kang")
* Philip Akin as Attuma
* Oliver Becker as Carl "Crusher" Creel / Absorbing Man
* Wayne Best as Scorpio
* Normand Bissonette as Maynard Tiboldt / Ringmaster
* Dan Chameroy as Steve Rogers / Captain America
* Conrad Coates as Remnant Leader (in "Remnants")
* Rob Cowan as Frederick "Fred" Myers / Boomerang
* Carlos Diaz as Todd Arliss / Tiger Shark
* Francis Diakowsky as Tony Stark / Iron Man
* Paul Essiembre as Jacques Duquesne / Swordsman
* Nigel Hamer as Gemini: Male Head
* Ken Kramer as Kang the Conqueror
* Robert Latimer as Elihas Starr / Egghead
* Julie Lemieux as Gemini: Female Head
* Stephen Ouimette as Nicholas Scratch
* Susan Roman as Karla Sofen / Moonstone, Dragonfly
* Tate Roswell as Andrew Wilson (in "Kang")
* Allan Royal as Grim Reaper
* Elizabeth Shepherd as Agatha Harkness
* Phillip Shepherd as Baron Zemo
* Raoul Trujillo as Namor
* Peter Wildman as Donald Clendenon / Cardinal
* Peter Windrem as David Cannon / Whirlwind

Appearing in the comics

Other characters that appeared in the comic but not the show:

* Natalia Romanova / Black Widow No. 2 and 5
* Baron Strucker #2
* HYDRA #2
* Nathan Garrett / Black Knight #4 – Nathan Garrett appears and attempts to steal a device from the organization A.I.M.
* Doctor Doom #4 – He attempted to execute the Avengers and Black Knight.
* A.I.M. #5
* The Collector – He chooses to preserve a good population of Earth as he feels the planet is on the verge of ending. Although the Avengers escape, some citizens on Earth prefer to stay with the Collector.

Production

In 1997, Roland Poindexter, the supervising executive in charge of animated series at Fox Kids Network, approached two ''X-Men'' (1992) animated series writers named Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg to develop a proposal for an ''Avengers'' cartoon. After creating a detailed Bible that included a 13-episode story arc, the network decided a '' Captain America'' series would be more suited to its schedule. But before Fox Kids could green light either series, Marvel went into bankruptcy, effectively ending the development process for all its shows. It wasn't until after the publisher's financial woes were resolved in late 1998 that Poindexter revived interest in the Avengers project, using the series bible written by Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg; because Skir and Isenberg were already committed to spearhead ''Beast Machines: Transformers'', the network approached former ''X-Men'' animated series story editor Eric Lewald and his wife, Julia, to come on board as story editors for the series. In January 1999, Fox finally gave the official go-ahead and Ron Myrick was hired to oversee the show's visual development.

The Avengers roster for the cartoon is loosely based upon the roster for the 1984 Avengers spin-off series ''The West Coast Avengers''. Notably absent from the lineup are the traditional core members: Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, who were originally prohibited from appearing in the series due to licensing issues. Story editor Eric Lewald has commented on their absence and had said "We want this to be a team of Avengers, instead of making it 'Captain America and the Avengers' or 'Thor and the Avengers. We prefer to have a balanced team of superheroes rather than a superstar on the team." However, Captain America and Iron Man each made one guest appearance (in "Command Decision" and "Shooting Stars", respectively), while Thor did not appear outside of the opening sequence.

The decision to pair Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man up as a couple was based upon the storyline then running in the Avengers comic in which Scarlet Witch resurrects Wonder Man to serve as her protector after an evil sorceress transforms the planet into a medieval world under her control. During their time together, the two fall in love and become a couple.

In the promotional images of the series, and the action figure photos, Hawkeye didn't wear a mask. However, in the series and the final version of the figure, he wore a mask similar to that he wore during the ''Avengers: The Crossing'' storyline.

This series was commissioned by Fox in the wake of the success of ''Batman Beyond'' (1999). In order to attempt to emulate ''Batman Beyond'', changes were made to the Avengers franchise as the series was set in the future. Myrick explained that they were "setting the series about twenty-five years in the future" and that "New York City will be a mix of future and contemporary looks, sort of the way the city looked in the movie ''Blade Runner'' (1982) but not as dark." The Avengers were also featured wearing elaborate armor costumes when they went into battle. Myrick explained, "The armor will give them the capability to go into different environments like extreme heat or cold, or underwater, or outer space, and it'll enhance their abilities." The Avengers also featured an "A" on their costumes that was like a '' Star Trek'' comlink