DC Universe's Harley Quinn animated series has been a surprise hit for both comic and movie fans of the character, with the recently concluded second season continuing to draw in an older crowd thanks to its adult-aimed entertainment. While fans wait hopefully for the announcement of a third season for Harley Quinn, the success of the animated series has proven that these characters can work just as well when geared for adult audiences, which is a market Marvel needs to explore further with its own mature animated adaptations.
Marvel has quite a few different animated series based on its most popular characters, however, they are all developed to appear to a younger crowd. Characters like Spider-Man and the Avengers work well in that demographic, but Marvel has a few great teams and characters that feel like they were designed for an adult animation adaptation, with a few characters who almost made the jump to adult animation before they were prematurely canceled.
DEADPOOL
The most obvious Marvel character that could potentially fill the Harley Quinn-sized hole in Marvel's adult animation line-up is Deadpool, who has also starred in a successful R-rated live-action franchise, proving the character's appeal to adult audiences.
Fans almost got to see a Deadpool animated series on FX that was in the works from Atlanta creators and comedian/musician Donald Glover that was later canceled due to "creative differences," which seemed to reveal a lack of confidence in an adult-oriented series from Marvel. Thankfully an animation test was leaked to give fans a sneak peek at what the series might have looked like, though the tease is bitter-sweet.
HOWARD THE DUCK
More recently an animated series for Howard the Duck was being developed by Hulu alongside other unique choices for adaptations like Tigra & Dazzler, MODOK and Hit Monkey as part of a new animated comedy block on the streaming service.
Unfortunately, both Howard the Duck and Tigra & Dazzler were later canceled by Hulu though the other two series remained in production, leading fans to believe there might still be a place at Marvel for more adult animated series.
SHE-HULK
While She-Hulk is slated to appear in the live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe as the star of her own series on Disney+, the comic version has at times displayed a similar meta-understanding of her comic reality that Deadpool experiences and Harley Quinn referentially explores which would work well on the small screen.
And while She-Hulk has never attempted to rule the criminal underworld alongside a team of zany villains, she is a lawyer who works alongside a team of zany lawyers representing odd superhuman criminal cases that comedically dive into the history of the Marvel Universe with an animated superhuman Law and Order that wasn't afraid to explore the funny side of She-Hulk's character.
BLADE
Harley works incredibly well as a comedic character, and a number of the series biggest laughs come from the usually serious characters like Bane and Poison Ivy who have been given hilarious reworks to exist in Harley Quinn's unique world of Gotham City.
An animated adaptation of Blade that was aimed at adult audiences would be able to explore his violent extermination of vampires in ways even the comics sometimes fails to portray, and his own dark sense of humor would only add to the series, especially if paired with an equally humorous take on the Nightstalkers or Midnight Sons.
SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN
While the team involved in the Superior Foes of Spider-Man comic series by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber may prefer to be called the Sinister Six, they usually operated with only five members and spent as much time betraying and fighting with each other as planning heists.
The team was organized by Boomerang and included other Spider-Man villains like Shocker, Speed Demon, Beetle (Janice Lincoln), and Overdrive, though they debuted alongside the Living Brain. Superior Foes of Spider-Man hilariously explored the desperate plans of a team of loveable losers that weren't necessarily geared towards an adult audience in the comics, but would certainly benefit from it in an animated adaptation.
X-23
Much like Blade and his no-frills to the point demeanor, Laura Kinney/X-23 isn't exactly known for her comedic timing or hilarious anecdotes. Instead, as the cloned daughter of Wolverine, she is simply the best there is at what she does, and what she does isn't always very nice.
Not only would a mature animation be able to better capture her unique brand of bloody violence, but she also often finds herself working alongside characters like Gambit and her own cloned sister Honey Badger that could be further comedically pushed over the top to better play off of X-23's dark and somber mood while she takes apart the various mutant related threats that could appear in the series.
NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E.
The short-lived Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. series from Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen offered a unique take on the superhero genre with an odd grouping of Marvel heroes who were assembled by Dirk Anger and the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort as its super-powered strike team.
Nextwave included characters like Monica Rambeau/Spectrum, Tabitha Smith/Boom-Boom, Elsa Bloodstone, Aaron Stack/Machine Man, and the man known only as the Captain, whose previous name was so offensive that Captain America beat him senseless after hearing it. The series was hilariously violent and violently hilarious and is without a doubt Marvel's best choice for an adult animated series, plus, Nextwave already has its own theme song!