There was essentially a "Force Works" cartoon before there was anything remotely resembling an "Avengers" cartoon. The Avengers have been the step-child property at Marvel ever since their title passed out of its hey day in the 70's. It's hilarious to me to see the lengths they went to in order to adapt other properties while having absolutely no faith in the Avengers title. When they finally did do a cartoon, they had to radically alter the look and reinvent the wheel to believe that they could attract an audience with it.

And I still love Quesada's response to Avengers fans reservations about "Disassembled", where he said that if he were a fan of the book, he'd be thrilled that it was getting such all-star treatment... Of course, that treatment included killing off the core of the classic line-up (Cap, Thor, Vizh, and Hawkeye have all died since the star treatment began, while Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver went to full-blown crazy villainy) and replacing them with Wolverine, Spider-man and edgy street-level characters.

I also note that, walking into toy aisles, I can find Ultimates toys, and New Avengers toys easily enough (assortments of mini-figures for each team were quick to be produced), while classic Avengers stuff is few and far between, and has been since the 70's.

I'd say it's understated to call it "almost" deliberately spiteful. However, unlike the apparently unanimous reaction here, I find this all new approach with brand new characters that are tied to the *unaltered* classic characters (Hell, they showed the team facing off against Kang, Baron Zemo, Ultron and more without a redesign among them) less offensive to my sensibilities than reworking the classic characters into Ultimates or giving them pointless Manga armor, or any of that. I'd *much* rather have a true Avengers cartoon, but the inclusion of the true Avengers in this thing has at least piqued my curiosity.