Netflix? No way. The Disney-owned company has its sights set on a new partnership: with Hulu, one of Netflix’s current competitors both in streaming and in original content. On Monday, Marvel Studios announced that it will be teaming up with Hulu for four new adult animated series, including Howard the Duck, following a similar format to the Defenders series that previously launched on Netflix, starting with Daredevil.

According to Variety, Marvel and Hulu will partner for series based on the following characters: the aforementioned Howard the Duck, M.O.D.O.K, Hit-Monkey, and Tigra and Dazzler. Then, these characters will team-up for The Offenders. Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s head of TV, will executive produce each project.

Here are the details on Howard the Duck and the other Offenders:

Kevin Smith and Dave Willis will write and co-executive produce Howard the Duck. The series follows Howard as he struggles to leave a world he never created. While Beverly tries to help, the evil Dr. Bong attempts to turn Howard into literal fried duck.

Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt will write and co-executive produce M.O.D.O.K. The series will follow the egomaniacal supervillain as he struggles to maintain control of his evil organization, as well as his over-the-top family.

Josh Gordon and Will Speck will write and co-executive produce Hit-Monkey, which will follow the titular character as he makes his way through the Tokyo underworld, guided by the ghosts of an American assassin.

Tigra & Dazzler will be written and co-executive produced by Erica Rivinoja and Chelsea Handler. Variety did not provide details on the plot, but we can only imagine it will be incredible.

In many ways, this move makes sense. Variety notes that Disney will become a majority shareholder in Hulu once its merger with Fox is complete. Hulu is ideal for Marvel Studios’ darker content, like its Netflix shows. Most of those were canceled in recent months, though season three of Jessica Jones has yet to air. Likewise, following the premiere of season two in January, the future of The Punisher is seemingly up in the air.

There has been speculation about how Disney and Marvel will handle these types of stories for Disney+ and it seems that now we have our answer: Hulu. Launching adult animated series on the platform is a bold move; it will be interesting to see how things shake out.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Howard the Duck created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerick.

    M.O.D.O.K. created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

    Tigra created by Tony Isabella and Don Perlin, based on The Cat created by Roy Thomas and Wally Wood.

    Dazzler created by a committee, primarily Tom De Falco and John Romita Jr.

    Hit-Monkey I’ve never heard of (yes, I’m old), but Wickipedia says the character was created by Daniel Way and Dalibor Talijic.

    There!

  2. Thanks, George. I would add that Gil Kane designed the look of Tigra, as well as note how easy it would have been for The Beat to include this information in the article.

  3. “I would add that Gil Kane designed the look of Tigra”

    Thanks for the info, Tony. I would have assumed John Romita Sr., who was designing a lot of Marvel characters at that time, including Wolverine and the Punisher.

  4. You’re welcome. I’m not sure why Roy called in Gil to work out the design with us, unless he was hoping to have Gil draw my story. But I remember the brief meeting and that Gil effortlessly designed the character while they three of us were talking. It’s like one minute he sat down, I blinked, and there was Tigra.

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