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Episode Review
Filmography
Gallery
History of New Fantastic Four
Quick Facts
Voice Cast
History of New Fantastic Four:
A Filmation TV cartoon
series from 1978. The animation, for a TV cartoon, is actually
pretty decent. This show has the distinction of NOT having the
Human Torch as a character. He was replaced with an original
character called H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot. A lot of people have
thought this was due to the fact that a character who could light
himself on fire would give kids bad ideas. This is not
true. The real deal is that the Human Torch character was not
legally available to be in the cartoon show. Marvel tried to make
a live-action TV series of the Human Torch with Universal Studios and
CBS-TV. They were on kind of a kick with "The Incredible Hulk"
and "The Amazing Spider-Man." At any rate, the Torch was going to
be solo. However, due to the fact that budgets were limited and
special effects were even more limited back in the 1970s, the TV show
never came into being. Plus, they were planning to merchandise
the Human Torch if he became a live-action show, and did not want that
merchandise to conflict with that of a cartoon Human Torch.
Although not visually as exciting as the Human Torch, H.E.R.B.I.E. was a good character. He pestered The Thing, just like Torch always had. What really bothered a lot of fans at the time was that there was no explanation of Torch's abscence...it was as if he never existed! Still, it was a funny character and it was neat to see a robot in a team of superheroes. The stories are also a lot of fun. Bright and colorful animation! Worth seeing!
Although not visually as exciting as the Human Torch, H.E.R.B.I.E. was a good character. He pestered The Thing, just like Torch always had. What really bothered a lot of fans at the time was that there was no explanation of Torch's abscence...it was as if he never existed! Still, it was a funny character and it was neat to see a robot in a team of superheroes. The stories are also a lot of fun. Bright and colorful animation! Worth seeing!