Marvel And Toei Team For ‘Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers’ Anime In 2014

It's not exactly the return of our beloved Japanese Spider-Man, but Marvel has at least re-teamed with Toei for a new 2D anime set to launch in spring of 2014, with Bandai set to release merchandise (like, tons of toys). Titled, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, the series sounds kind of like... Monster Rancher? That's right, Loki has trapped most of the world's heroes and villains inside of new disks -- that were originally designed to capture and secure bad guys like Pokéballs -- and it's up to Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and Wasp to team with Spider-Man and a group of teens and "harness their respective fighting skills and superhuman powers to foil Loki’s scheme to take over the world."

From Marvel's official press release:

The Avengers team up with a group of teens to reclaim the scattered disk, and using their special abilities and techniques (waza), thwart Loki’s evil schemes to save the Earth from ultimate destruction.

Marvel's press release underlines the fact that the show is targeted at boys 6-12 quite a bit, but if this show is anything like the Toei shows I watch, I'm pretty sure they could get by telling potential advertisers that it's targeted to "People Who Like Cool Things."

Given the aesthetic of most of Toei's superhero series, though, I'm a little surprised to see everybody but Iron Man without a sweet helmet covering their entire faces. I guess since Marvel made $1.5 billion with The Avengers, they can get by with defying convention with exposed faces, although Warner Bros. even conceded to having Batman come packed with an extra face-covering helmet as part of Bandai's S.H. Figuarts line for Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Still it'd be nice to see a Spider Bracelet in the mix...