The Wild Anime That Turned Marvel's Greatest Heroes Into Pokémon

Marvel superheroes, when written well, have sophisticated and relatable human backstories, and each hero has a group of fans behind it, drawn to the characters' down-to-earth plight. Spider-Man, for instance, is a "regular guy" who has to balance his superhero duties with practical concerns such as paying rent, landing photography gigs, doing laundry, and taking care of his wife. Iron Man is a super-genius and a playboy, but he has also wrestled with alcoholism and is constantly criticized for his ego. 

But who are we kidding? The human traits of Marvel superheroes are secondary to their colorful costumes, fantastical powers, and outlandish ultra-fights. When Marvel fans get together, they don't have nuanced discussions of Spider-Man's personal development and maturity, they talk about which character he could beat up in a fight. Indeed, the premise of most of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the simple question of "Who would win in a fight?" Iron Man, or Captain America? The Hulk, or Thor? Thanos and his minions, or, like, fifty Avengers? At some point, the base appeal of the "Avengers" movies reveals itself: they provide the same childish thrill as bashing action figures together. 

And, as long as that's true, why not re-define the Avengers themselves as mere playthings of children. In the 2014 anime series "Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers," superheroes and supervillains can be reduced to mere energy, and stored inside wrist-mounted widgets called Digital Identity Securement Kits, or DISKs. The series followed a team of children who travel the world looking for and collecting scattered DISKs, each one with a superhero hidden inside. 

In a pinch, the kids could extract the superheroes for a mere five-minute-and-thirty-second period, mostly just to force them to fight. The Avengers were essentially turned into Pokémon. 

Also, just like in the world of Pokémon, the Marvel superheroes were organized by "type," or "Bio-Codes," and each of the main characters of "Disk Wars" could only extract and manipulate Marvel heroes of a certain Bio-Code classification. The show's protagonist, Akira (Veronica Taylor, better known as Ash from the English dubs of the "Pokémon" TV shows and most of the movies), possessed the Tech Bio-Code, allowing him mastery over Iron Man, War Machine, The Falcon, and any other superhero with technology-based superpowers. They were coded red. Hikaru (Steve Staley) possessed the Energy Bio-Code, allowing him to enslave Thor, Cyclops, Nova, and others. They were coded purple. And so on. 

Most of the Avengers as one saw them in the Marvel Cinematic Universe appeared, but they were joined by characters like Deadpool, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and several X-Men. "Disk Wars" lasted 51 episodes over its single season, so there was plenty of time to introduce new energy-imprisoned Marvel characters into the fold. 

In the United States, "Disk Wars" aired on Disney XD, a strange side-imprint of the Disney brand reserved for slightly "edgier" fare. In Japan, the series was produced by Bandai. It is a little unusual that "Marvel Disk Wars" stages its young audience-insert characters as kids who control the Avengers, and not as Avengers themselves. Perhaps young Gen-Z kids watching the series had given up on the power fantasy of being superheroes, preferring instead to own the Avengers brand and being their manager. "Disk Wars" allowed its main kids to control superhero video game avatars essentially in "real life."

Given the premise of "Marvel Disk Wars," it should come as no surprise to learn that it was the animated version of a collectible Pogs-like game, called Bachicombat, also produced by Bandai. A wiggly, Marvel-loving kid could collect Marvel-themed DISKs out of coin-operated, hand-cranked gashapon machines. Gashapon machines usually contain unique, expensive collectibles inside plastic bubbles, and one can find entire gashapon machine shops in Japan. Think of a high-scale version of the plastic toy bubble machines one sees outside of grocery stores in the United States. Bachicombat disks had to be randomly collected.

Bachicombat involved slamming heavy disks into a playing area, striking and flipping other players' disks to determine a winner. In the mid 2010s, Marvel licensed redesigned anime versions of their characters to Bandai, allowing kids to have Marvel-themed Bachicombat disks. The resulting game was called Marvel Disk Wars, and packaged disks, while discontinued, can be found on eBay to this day, and some can easily be shipped from Amazon. And, because it pays to be mercenary, Bandai also produced a tie-in TV series based on their toy. On "Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers," kids could be seen playing the very game they were encouraged to go out and buy, only with real superhero battles. 

One can see the Pokémon parallels pretty easily, although if the premise was young kids evoking monsters with real-life-collectible playing pieces, one can also see a parallel in "Yu-Gi-Oh!" There was also a "Marvel Disk Wars" tie-in video game, only ever released in Japan, for the Nintendo 3DS. 

Was the whole "Marvel Disk Wars" phenomenon a money-grubbing commercial enterprise that exploited Marvel characters merely to lure kiddos into spending hard-earned money on plastic-stuff slot machines? Yes. But did the commercial enterprise produce a fascinatingly odd redux of familiar Marvel heroes, leading to one of the oddest pieces of pop ephemera of the 2010s? Also yes.