Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostones

Often there's a fine line that exists between a kids' cartoon and blatant commercial. Marvel Battleworld: Mystery of the Thanostone sees that line and then takes a Hulk-sized leap over it. The series does little to explain any real plot outside of a bit basic exposition with Thanos explaining how he devised a plan to trap heroes and villains while taking over their worlds. Taken on its own, it's a convoluted and head-scratching concept. After all, why keep all the captured people in one place? Why not shoot them off into deep space in different directions? Or why bother capturing them at all when Thanos could feasibly just snap them out of existence altogether? It's only after picking up the tabletop game the cartoon is based on that you fill in the gaps and start to realize it all (loosely) ties together.

Rampant commercialism aside, there's actually some fun and charm to be found in each three-to-five-minute episode of Marvel Battleworld. The animation is clean and colorful, and the characters are light-hearted, fun, and fitting to their comic book counterparts. The witty banter and cockiness of Tony Stark is matched by the snarky commentary from Spider-Ham. While the bravado of the Frog of Thunder, Throg, is balanced by the naivety and cuteness of Baby Groot and the sheer power and no-nonsense heroism of Captain Marvel. There are also blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos by characters like the Thor Corps, Croctor Strange and Captain Americat that are an extra little love letter to comic book fans. Ultimately, while fulfilling its primary purpose of advertising the Marvel Battleworld game, this series of shorts still manages to pack in just enough mayhem to at least pique the interest of fans of the Marvel universe.