We've got a lot of Marvel-related TV-DVD news for you today: most of it good, but some bad. Let's knock out the bad news first, and address something that Gord and I have gotten a ton of e-mails about.
It's actually our policy not to talk about overseas TV-DVD releases, no matter how "big" the news may be in the eyes of some of our readers. This was typically our response to many folks who e-mailed us about a recent story going around that Liberation Entertainment U.K. had
announced at their website (scroll down to the news area) early this month they had struck a deal for "
exclusive DVD distribution rights for popular Marvel character based animated series". On the other hand, fans wanted to find out if it were possible that Liberation, which describes themselves as "based in Los Angeles, with a burgeoning office in London," might not actually bring these same releases out in their home territory of the USA. After all, indications at
Amazon's U.K. branch are that there are a TON of these "Marvel Original Series" titles coming, and soon! Could the USA see them later on? Readers felt it was our duty to find out for sure.
It seems that the answer is obvious, though, because the announcement by Liberation U.K. specifies that the "
territories covered by the deal are the UK and Ireland, Benelux, Germany as well as German-speaking Austria and Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. All of these are European ("Region 2") areas. Nevertheless, we spoke to Liberation's offices in L.A. to confirm, and they verified that the company does NOT own USA rights to those titles, and doesn't know who - if anyone - in the USA does. It's possible (we're just thinking out loud here) that Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment - formerly known as Buena Vista Home Ent. - still holds the U.S.A. license for these titles, but we have not been able to get solid word on that from either Disney or Marvel. If we hear anything, of course we'll let our readers know as soon as we can. For now, though, it is not likely we'll see domestic releases of those "Marvel Original Series" DVDs anytime too soon...if at all.
While the USA seems to be left out in the cold, at least for now, we can at least go farther north in North America to find upcoming DVD releases of Marvel-based classic cartoon programs. Exactly a month ago today, we had exclusive in-depth stories for you about upcoming releases in Canada from Morningstar Entertainment. Release dates haven't been given yet for 8 of these upcoming DVD titles, but before the end of the year we'll see episodes from Marvel-based shows that include
The New Fantastic Four (1978),
Spider-Woman (1979),
The Marvel Superheroes (1966),
Spider-Man (1981) and
Spider-Man (1967). All of that is in addition to the previously-announced
The Incredible Hulk - When Monsters Meet: Limited Edition DVD: we've already shown off
package art and details for, about this
June 10th Canadian release of the 1982 animated series. But now we also have full-sized cover art of the other 8 titles adapted to DVD by Morningstar, all based on Prism's old VHS "Marvel Comics Video Library". You'll see each of those front covers below, which I scanned a short time ago from an insert which came with Morningstar's recent release of
Spider-Man - The Mutant Agenda.
Yes, I received my own copy of that disc just this morning, imported from Canada via Amazon.ca (all Canadian DVD releases are "Region 1," and work in standard DVD players sold in the USA). I've already watched it while writing up today's news stories, and I can say it's a cool disc, comparable in quality to other DVD releases of the 1994
Spider-Man animated series. It's well worth it alone for the great guest appearances from
The X-Men, crossed over from their own '92 cartoon series (complete with theme song playing when the mutant team meets Spidey, and they go into action against each other!). The disc also has a pair of bonus episodes from the 1992 animated
Iron Man series, which look good video-wise as well.
Want more? Certainly! Morningstar also announced last week that they are bring more episodes of the 1994 series to DVD with their
July 8th release of
Spider-Man - The Hobgoblin. This 55-minute disc will run CA$14.98 SRP and, like all the other Morningstar releases, is adapted from a previous
VHS release. The tape came out in 2002, and contained the first season episodes "The Hobgoblin, Part 1" and "The Hobgoblin, Part 2", and we expect the DVD to contain these as well (the studio's DVD description, below, matches up with these episodes).
In fact, this item came to DVD once before, in a fashion: in July 2004 I
reported that Musicland-owned stores (Media Play, Suncoast, Sam Goody) had put out six titles, each a DVD with a pair of cartoons on it from the '94
Spider-Man series. We questioned if these were legit releases, though, and soon got our answer when
we learned that these releases were pulled from store shelves.
Spider-Man - The Hobgoblin was one of these six titles, but I can confirm that the cover art used on it is both different than the VHS release, and different from the DVD package art that Morningstar has provided for their upcoming release. Here that is, followed by all the other package art we promised!
The danger hits home after the hooded hitman Hobgoblin fails to eliminate Norman Osborn's silent partner, The Kingpin. In a quick switch The Hobgoblin trades sides and kidnaps Osborn's son - who just happens to be Peter Parker's new roommate. For once, The Hobgoblin may have overplayed his hand - as he'll soon find out when he comes face to face with Spider-Man.
