Weeks after a merge with Disney, Marvel Entertainment has hit the kids demographic flying with The Super Hero Squad Show, which debuted Sunday in Canada.
The new animated series, which lands on Cartoon Network this Saturday, could easily find a home on Adult Swim: Featuring pint-size versions of Iron Man, Wolverine, Silver Surfer, Hulk and many more cracking wise and kicking ass, it's another great entry for kids (and for their elders who refuse to grow up).
The Super Hero Squad Show's crossover appeal is enhanced by its expansive voice cast, which features actors from sci-fi standouts Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
That's on top of animation heroes like Steve Blum (who voiced Wolverine for Marvel's more mature Wolverine and the X-Men). Someone in the casting department has a digital Rolodex the size of Modok.
Like previous Marvel winners Wolverine and the X-Men and The Spectacular Spider-Man, the show hit Canada's Teletoon first. Episode 1 showed up on torrent networks shortly after airing in Canada, but that's what happens in a global entertainment multiverse where time zones have been nearly erased. Might as well get used to it.
Wherever viewers happen to catch the show, they'll be rewarded for their time, given Marvel Entertainment's goal of pleasing every demographic possible. From quick wits and fart jokes to sizzling action and some subtle phantasmagoria, The Super Hero Squad Show works on enough levels to bring families together.
That's good news for Marvel, which has been playing catch-up in an animation landscape dominated by DC Comics and Warner Bros., who have been hitting homers for decades with toons based on the Justice League stable. And that's not counting DC's animated films like Batman: Gotham Knight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Wonder Woman or the forthcoming Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
Until Wolverine and the X-Men landed, Marvel was hitting singles and doubles in the animation game. (There's a reason that few people went nuts for the animated Invincible Iron Man film.) With the help of Disney, Marvel will likely ramp up its game: After teaming up with the Mouse, the House of Ideas has more firepower than ever to blast us with killer toons going forward.
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Image courtesy Marvel
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