| The Super Hero Squad Show | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster |
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| Genre | Action Adventure Comedy Sitcom |
| Created by | Stan Lee |
| Voices of | Tom Kenny Charlie Adler Alimi Ballard Steven Blum Dave Boat Jim Cummings Grey DeLisle Mikey Kelley Stan Lee Tara Strong Travis Willingham |
| Theme music composer | Parry Gripp & David Ari Leon |
| Opening theme | "The Super Hero Squad Show" Theme |
| Ending theme | "The Super Hero Squad Show" Theme (instrumental) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Alan Fine Simon Philips Eric S. Rollman |
| Running time | approx. 22-24 Minutes |
| Production company(s) | Film Roman Marvel Animation |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Cartoon Network |
| Original run | September 14, 2009 – October 14, 2011 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Super Hero Squad Show is an American cartoon series by Marvel Animation. It is based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad action figure line from Hasbro, which portray the characters of the Marvel Universe in a cartoonish super-deformed-style. It is also a self-aware parody of the Marvel characters in that the heroes find themselves in comedic situations and have cartoonish bents to their usually serious personalities, such as The Incredible Hulk being jovial and good-natured but with "major anger issues". The series' animation was produced by Film Roman and Marvel Animation.
The show's first season was to debut on Cartoon Network in the United States on September 19, 2009,[1] but aired five days earlier on September 14, 2009. The second season of the series, based on The Infinity Gauntlet, premiered on October 23, 2010 at 6:30am (ET) and stopped being shown on Cartoon Network on February 19, 2011, with episode 40 ("Fate of Destiny!"). Afterward, new episodes aired only on Teletoon and were available to purchase on iTunes. On July 23, 2011 the series returned on Cartoon Network, at a new timeslot of 12:00pm (ET).[2] Although the next following weeks no new episodes aired. In September 2011, Cartoon Network announced that The Super Hero Squad Show will be airing new episodes on weekday mornings at 7:00am (ET) starting Monday, October 3, 2011.[3] The series ended on October 14, 2011. A total of 52 episodes were produced for this show.[4]
The series first premiered on Teletoon in Canada on Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 8:30am (ET) as part of the network's Action Force block. The show returned on Teletoon on Sunday, February 4, 2011 at 7:00am (ET) for the debut of the second season. All 52 episodes aired in Canada, ending on July 10, 2011.
The series premiered on December 4, 2009 in Australia, on ABC3,[5] and in the UK on NickToons in October 2009.[6]
A massively multiplayer online game, entitled Marvel Super Hero Squad Online was released to the public in April 2011. The game is heavily based on the Super Hero Squad franchise, with The Super Hero Squad Show's character designs returning.[7]
Contents |
Prior to the beginning of the series, the villainous Doctor Doom, in pursuit of universal domination, attempts to acquire the limitless reality-bending power of the "Infinity Sword." He is stopped by Iron Man, but as a consequence of their battle, the sword is shattered into numerous "fractals" that rain down on Super Hero City.
Doctor Doom has forged alliances with just about every supervillain forming the Lethal Legion in order to hunt down the scattered fractals, each of which possess dangerous and different powers of their own. Doom's forces, including his two primary henchmen MODOK and the Abomination, dwell in Villainville which is separated from Super Hero City by a giant wall directly seen at the start of the series premiere. Once again opposing Doom's plan is Iron Man, now leading the elite team known as the Super Hero Squad, consisting of Falcon, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Thor, and Wolverine. Marvel initially intended to put Spider-Man in at least one episode of the show, but Sony Pictures Entertainment (then-owners of Spider-Man's television rights) possibly chose not to lend the rights. However, Spider-Man appeared in Marvel Super Hero Squad's video games and other tie-ins. Spider-Man was later briefly mentioned in "Election of Evil" as "a guy who got incredible powers for being bitten by a radioactive bug".
The Super Hero Squad are headquartered in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, and are frequently aided in their defense of Super Hero City by their boss Captain America, S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Ms. Marvel, rookie "Squaddie" and Wolverine's apprentice Reptil, and many more of their superhero friends.
By the end of Season One, the Infinity Sword is reforged when Galactus arrives to devour the Earth. It is later revealed that the Infinity Sword can be wielded only by someone who wields The Infinity Gauntlet. Silver Surfer rejoins Galactus as his Herald and leaves the team with the Infinity Sword in his possession. As of the aftermath of the battle, Villainville is destroyed, and Doctor Doom and his henchmen are arrested.
A second season involves having the Scarlet Witch as a replacement of the Silver Surfer and focuses on traveling to different parts of the Marvel Universe, the galaxy, different dimensions, and through time. Thanos becomes the main villain for the first half of the season, as he will seek the six Infinity Stones in order to prove his superiority to Nebula and gain supremacy over the universe. He does eventually gain all six Infinity Stones; however, the Silver Surfer (who was corrupted by the Infinity Sword) steals the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos, takes over the universe, and Silver Surfer transforms into the Dark Surfer. The Dark Surfer replaces Thanos as the main villain of the season. The squad's roster was changed in the season, due to Silver Surfer leaving the cast to once again become a herald of Galactus. Scarlet Witch[8] replaces Surfer, with original squad members Iron Man, Hulk, Falcon, Wolverine and Thor returning.
To reflect the updated version of Marvel Universe Thor receives his "chain armor" as a gift from father, Odin.
The second season premiered in the United States on October 23, 2010 on Cartoon Network,[9] to coincide with the release of its video game follow-up Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet.
Comedy is the driving factor of The Super Hero Squad Show, and the members of the squad have some comedic bent that parodies their usually serious personalities and their powers:
During the first season in the opening sequence of the show, there is a running sight gag similar to The Simpsons where the Hulk picks up an Infinity Fractal and is transformed by its power into something different every episode, such as the classic grey-colored Hulk, a toddler Hulk, a disco Hulk parodying John Travolta, and a Hulk similar to Homer Simpson. This feature was removed in the second season.
Additionally, each episode's title card is an homage to a classic comic book cover as are some of the episode titles.
The show's executive producers include Alan Fine, Simon Philips, and Eric Rollman, with Joe Quesada and Stan Lee as co-executive producers. Cort Lane is supervising producer. Mitch Schauer, creator of the Nickelodeon series The Angry Beavers, is the show's supervising director and character designer. Matt Wayne is the show's story-editor and head writer.[10] Other writers include Michael Ryan, Nicole Dubuc, Atul N. Rao, Eugene Son, James Krieg, and Mark Hoffmeier. Novelty song writer, Parry Gripp composed the theme song.
A four-part comic book series, titled Marvel Super Hero Squad, based on the show was released Fall 2009. The series was a success and Marvel renewed the series in January 2010 as an ongoing series, now entitled: Super Hero Squad. The comic does not feature only characters from the show, but also characters outside the show. As of December 8, 2010, Super Hero Squad had a total of 12 issues released. No new issues have been released, assuming the comic book franchise has been canceled. Trying to bring back the franchise, Marvel released a Super Hero Squad Spectacular where the Beyonder sends them to another planet with their Lethal Legion foes.
Most of the episodes have been released on DVD across several volumes by Shout! Factory.
Five volumes have been released on DVD so far. Hero Up contains episodes 1-6, Hulk Smash contains episodes 7-11, Don't Call Me Wolvie contains episodes 12-16, Tales of Evil contains episodes 17-21, and Mother of Doom contains episodes 22-26. Home video releases of Season 2 have yet to be announced.
Magna Home Entertainment released The Super Hero Squad Show: The Infinity Fractal War (Vol 1) and Titanic Team-Ups (Vol 2) on June 2, 2010 and The Lethal Legion Strikes (Vol 3) on September 8, 2010. Each DVD includes 6-7 episodes of the show, as well as character profiles. (Australian Release). The final volume of Season 1, entitled Quest for the Infinity Sword (Vol 4) was released on November 3, 2010, containing the final six episodes of Season 1. Season 2 The Infinity Gauntlet (Vol 1) is currently available. Infinite Thanos (Vol 2) will be released on November 2, 2011.
Vivendi Entertainment under the named Vivendi Entertainment Canada released two volumes under the names of The Super Hero Squad: Hero Up, Squaddies (Vol 1) and The Super Hero Show: Titantic Team Ups (Vol 2), both released on May 4, 2010.[20] A Vol 3 was announced to release on June 29, 2010.[20] But to a conclusion the Vol 3 DVD never hit markets. Since this happened, Vivendi didn't release a Vol 4 DVD ether. On September 28, 2010[21] Vivendi released a The Super Hero Squad Show: The Complete Season 1 DVD set containing an unnamed Vol 3 and Vol 4. It is unknown if there will be any Season 2 DVD releases.
The following have been confirmed to do voice work in this series:[22]
| Country / Region | Channel | Original premiere |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Cartoon Network | September 14, 2009 |
| Canada | Teletoon | September 13, 2009 |
| United Kingdom | Nicktoons | October 16, 2009 |
| Australia | ABC3 | December 4, 2009 |
| Taiwan | Cartoon Network | April 5, 2010 |
| Finland | Disney XD | June 7, 2010 |
| Poland | Disney XD | August 7, 2010 |
| Netherlands | Disney XD | August 22, 2010 |
| Pakistan | Cartoon Network | July 12, 2010 |
| South Africa | Disney XD | May, 2011 |
| Singapore | Okto | July, 2011 |
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