Throwback Thursday: Fantastic Four: The Animated Series

For the month of March, here at ComicBook.com, we are presenting March (Animated Marvel) Madness. Last week we dove into  Iron Man: The Animated Series, but today, we're going to cover the other half of the Marvel Action Hour with a look at Fantastic Four: The Animated Series. 

Much like Iron Man, the Fantastic Four lasted for two years and went through a major overhaul with overall appearance and theme song. You can compare the two below. 

From a theme song that sounds like Linda McMahon's entrance music to a more heroic score and dynamic intro that showcased their world at large with Dr. Doom and an homage to the cover of Fantastic Four #1. The episodes themselves offered little to nothing new to the Fantastic Four mythos, as it was essentially retellings of popular stories, including the origin of the Silver Surfer and Galactus. It did however introduce other characters that weren't seen anywhere else like the Black Panther and the Inhumans, and the first appearance of Hydro-Man, a week before he debuted on Spider-Man: The Animated Series.  

Much like Iron Man, the retooling in the second season brought a new handling of the show with better animation and was more influenced by the John Byrne run of the FF back in the 80's visually and storytelling-wise. The writers of the show did away with one and dones and concentrated more on multi-part arcs. Here, we had the "Inhumans Saga" which brought out a slew of new characters for the show and touched on Johnny and Crystal's relationship, as well as a plot involving the Inhuman Royal Family. 

Towards the end of the run, there were characters being thrown around in the mix who weren't exactly "part" of the FF's world such as Ghost Rider (who had an animated series being shopped around), Daredevil (who would also appear in Spider-Man), and Thor (voiced by John Rhys-Davies). 

Also like Iron Man, there was a crossover event with The Incredible Hulk animated series, which we'll get to next week, that involved Dr. Doom and getting his metal grill handed to him by She-Hulk. It's actually one of the better episodes that demonstrate the whole "we are really family" which the FF was built upon. And as always there were the toys. 

Since the first season involved Galactus and a new herald, this is one of the few times you can actually get a Terrax figure. Future waves included the likes Johnny Storm in the middle of "flaming on" as well as full Human Torch, Blaastar, Dragon Man, Gorgon, Annihilus, Firelord, and the Wizard. Some of these are the only time a character has been made into action figure form. 

Fantastic Four: The Animated Series wasn't the last time we'd see Marvel's First Family in two dimensions nor was the it the first. There was a season three in the works that would have dealt with Sue's pregnancy, with She-Hulk and Medusa put on the team, as well as Sue's "relationship" with Namor, who only appeared briefly in the first season. There's something about the FF that adapts well for television and here's hoping there's a new iteration sometime in the new future. 

So, readers, do you remember this series and have good memories of it, or was the theme song just way too much to handle and you turned the channel to watch something else?