TOM KANE DEAD AT 64

 

You can read the full story here.

He was the announcer of Birthday Land and additional voices in The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat; Dr. Doom in Spider-Man: The Animated Series; a soldier and tech in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; The President of Outer Space, a rebel, Walter Carbonite, Cooter, Nostrillian Captain and a crewmember in Duck Dodgers; Roswell in Power Rangers S.P.D.; Ultimos, Donovan GrandSmith and Arcticguana in Ben 10 (2006); Magneto, Professor Thornton and a scientist in Wolverine and the X-Men; Announcer #2 and a dad in Back at the Barnyard; and Yoda, Admiral Yularen, Captain Jayfon, Tactical Droid, Police Droid, Twi’lek Punk, Secret Service Officer, Police Captain, Orderly, Major Rigosso, Oked, Balnab Bounty Hunter, Mr. Borkus, Kraken, Medical Droid, Cultist Aide, Cultist Gunner, a creature, a guard and the narrator in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

GERRY CONWAY DEAD AT 73

 

You can read the full story here.

Best known for his character-defining run on The Amazing Spider-Man, Conway had long tenures at both Marvel and DC comics.  Characters he’s co-created have appeared in various adaptations, including:
 
DC: Atomic Skull in Superman (1988) and Young Justice; Black Spider in Young Justice; Firestorm in Super Friends and Justice League Action; Hamilton Hill in Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman and Young Justice; Killer Croc in Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, The Batman, Beware the Batman, and Teen Titans Go!; Killer Frost in Young Justice and Justice League Action; Jason Todd in Young Justice and the New Teen Titans shorts; Count Vertigo in Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman, and Young Justice; Vibe in DC Nation, Teen Titans Go! and Young Justice; Vixen in Teen Titans Go! and Justice League Action.
 
Marvel: Marvel’s Dracula in Spider-Woman and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends; Glory Grant in Spider-Man: The Animated Series; Hammerhead in Spider-Man (1981), Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and The Spectacular Spider-Man; The Jackal in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man; Man-Wolf in Spider-Man Unlimited and The Spectacular-Spider-Man; The Punisher in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series; Spider-Man clone Ben Reilly in X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series; Tarantula in Marvel’s Spider-Man; Tombstone in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and The Spectacular Spider-Man.
 
For the screen, Conway wrote for Dino-Riders, Batman: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series.

JIM SHOOTER DEAD AT 73

 

You can read the full story here.

He began his career at DC Comics at just 14-years-old and went on to revitalize rival Marvel Comics as editor-in-chief. His adherence to absolute editorial control made him a polarizing figure to other creatives and he was eventually fired. He then found Valiant Comics and later Defiant Comics. Characters and concepts he created went on to be featured in various media, including Secret Wars and the Beyonder in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, with the latter also a central character in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur; Esper Lass, Ferro Lad, Karate Kid, Nemesis Kid, Controller, Grimbor the Chainsman, Mordru, Chemical King, The Dark Circle, The Fatal Five, and The Dominion alien race in Legion of Super Heroes; Parasite (Raymond Jensen) in Young Justice; Tabitha Smith in X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men; and Henry Peter Gyrich in X-Men: The Animated Series.

RICHARD MOLL DEAD AT 80

 

You can read the full story here.

Best known as “Bull” Shannon from the original Night Court, he voiced Two-Face and the Bat-Computer in Batman: The Animated Series; Emperor Spooj in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series; Wolf Man and Vorn the Unspeakable in an episode of Freakazoid!; was the second voice of Scorpion in Spider-Man: The Animated Series; and Krick in an episode of The Zeta Project. He also provided additional voices for The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and The Legend of Calamity Jane.

JOHN ROMITA SR. DEAD AT 93

 

You can read the full story here.

He had co-created numerous characters that would find themselves adapted to television and film, including Mary Jane Watson, the Shocker, Wilson Fisk, the Punisher and Wolverine, as well as original character Firestar who began on screen and ended up in the comics. He served as an art consultant on Spider-Man (1967), and was art director for Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

NICHELLE NICHOLS DEAD AT 89

 

You can read the full story here.

Best known for her trailblazing role as Lt. Nyota Uhura from the original Star Trek, a role she reprised for Star Trek: The Animated Series with the additional roles of Dara, Davison, Anne Nored, a female miner, Devna, Kali, an alien entity, Dr. Sarah April and Karla Five. She also played the SS Stella in the “Commander Toad in Space” episode of ABC Weekend Specials; Diane Maza in episodes of Gargoyles; Miriam Brooks, aka The Vampire Queen, in two episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series; and Chief in an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

CROSSOVER: TANGLED WEB

 
            Before comics became a lot less insular thanks to annual events, when it came to crossovers—or “team-ups”—at Marvel Comics, Spider-Man was typically their go-to guy. Either someone would be passing through his friendly neighborhood, or he would be popping up in their books (usually as a ploy to increase sales). Heck, not only did he headline one of the books whose sole purpose was crossing over characters, the very first issue of his series featured him meeting the Fantastic Four and he heralded the first intercompany crossover with rival publisher DC Comics!

The X-Men have come to play!

The Spider-Man cartoons since the 1980s continued this tradition. In his animated adventures he’s met Captain America, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, the Hulk, the Punisher, and even ushered in the first Blade appearance outside of comics (predating Wesley Snipes, even). But the most unprecedented crossover came during the two-part Spider-Man: The Animated Series episodes “The Mutant Agenda” and “Mutants’ Revenge” when Spider-Man (Christopher Daniel Barnes) met the uncanny X-Men! Now, Spidey has met the X-Men twice before in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends as part of Marvel Productions’ attempt to get a network interested in a series about them. What made this encounter so unique was it was the first time a Marvel show crossed over with another as these were the X-Men from fellow Fox Kids program, X-Men: The Animated Series (albeit slightly off-model when compared between the shows).

Mo' mutants, mo' problems.

            Written by John Semper, Michael Edens, J.M. DeMatteis, Francis Moss and Ted Pedersen, the crossover saw Spidey seeking out mutant expert Professor Charles Xavier (Cedric Smith) to help cure him of the mutation occurring in his irradiated blood. What he found instead was a mansion inhabited by the X-Men—Wolverine (Cal Dodd), Cyclops (Norm Spencer), Rogue (Lenore Zann), Gambit (Chris Potter), Beast (George Buza), Jean Grey (Catherine Disher), Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) and Jubilee (Alyson Court)—and the news that curing mutants isn’t what they do. Beast’s attempts to reach out to and console Spidey resulted in his being captured by Herbert Landon (David Warner), who was secretly working on a way to destroy mutants. Landon is mutated himself during an attempt to rescue Beast, and Spidey and the X-Men work together to stop him.

Iron Man and War Machine, from their own show (top) to Spidey's.

            However, that was only the Saturday morning crossover. Spidey ended up having two others with the syndicated branch of the Marvel TV family. Running concurrently with the debut of the series, Marvel Films produced a syndicated programming block called The Marvel Action Hour, which featured Fantastic Four and Iron Man. Iron Man and War Machine appeared in the episodes “Venom Returns” and “Carnage” voiced by their Iron Man actors Robert Hays and James Avery, respectively (again, looking similar but different from their prior appearances, much like the X-Men before). Iron Man alone would return one more time for the three-episode “Secret Wars” story arc, which also featured the Fantastic Four. Showrunner Semper wasn’t a big fan of the animated series and not only had the characters completely redesigned, but also didn’t seek to cast the voice actors from there--save one: Quinton Flynn was tapped to reprise his role as the Human Torch, which he took on during that show’s second season.

Spidey teaming-up with the Marvel Universe.

            It was planned for the X-Men to make another appearance on the show, but they were unable to fly the Canada-based cast down to record again. Instead, only Storm returned during “Secret Wars” as her first season voice actor, Iona Morris, was based in Los Angeles where they recorded.

ED ASNER DEAD AT 91

 

You can read the full story here.

His long and prolific career in television and film expanded to voice acting in the late 80s. Among his Saturday morning credits was the recurring role of Roland Daggett in Batman: The Animated Series; Vern in an episode of Animaniacs (1993); Hudson in Gargoyles; J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series; Sgt. Mike Cosgrove in Freakazoid!, which he would later reprise for an episode of Teen Titans Go!; General Araneus in an episode of The Magic School Bus (1994); Mr. Applegate in an episode of Life with Louie; Agent K’s father in an episode of Men in Black: The Series; Granny Goodness in Superman: The Animated Series; Thaddeus T. Third V in an episode of Recess; Chuck Marshak in Max Steel (2000); Fixer in an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; a guard captain in an episode of Duck Dodgers; Uncle Ben in an episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man; Kent Nelson in an episode of Young Justice; and an angry old timer in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.