Marvel's comic heroes to be made into Japanese anime

As if mega movies like Iron Man and X-Men haven't been cartoonish enough in their antics, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. is joining with Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel Entertainment to turn the characters into actual cartoons later this year.

A new deal will see famous U.S. comics remade in Japan by Madhouse studios for cartoon channel Animax Broadcast Japan, and then broadcast globally. The cartoons are already being lined up for broadcast in Japan from October 1, 2010 according to Bloomberg.

The success of the film "Iron Man 2" alone brought in US$133.6 million in its opening weekend earlier this year, the fifth highest ever, short of another comic-turned-movie "Batman: The Dark Knight" which holds the record with US$158 million according to Entertainment Weekly.

Characters like X-Men have been turned into cartoons from their comic book origins since as far back as the 1960s when a Canadian-made show "The Marvel Super Heroes" first broadcast. The Japanese cartoon versions will go down in a long list of interpretations of the now familiar stories, but it has not yet been announced which Marvel hero will get the anime treatment first.