The Marvel Superheroes



"The Marvel Super Heroes have arrived!"

- from the show's main theme

An animated anthology series from the 1960's featuring several Marvel Comics superheroes, and one of the first to do so. It is remembered today mostly for its extremely limited animation and zany theme songs, but it also was the debut in animation for several major Marvel characters, particularly those from these series:
 * Captain America (comics)
 * Iron Man
 * The Mighty Thor
 * The Incredible Hulk
 * The Sub-Mariner

The stories were all from the early comics, and so featured the origins of the heroes and most of their main enemies. The segments were short (about 7 minutes each) and were sold as a package, to be aired however the TV station wanted.

Contrary to popular belief, the So Bad It's Good songs were not written by Stan Lee. They remain earworms to this day. (lyrics here ).

For all that it is made fun of today, the series made the "Marvel style" of superheroes (which during the Silver Age of Comics was relatively more serious than its rival DC Comics') more popular; even more so than the other then-current Marvel animated adaptations (Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four) which were toned down for television. As these stories were taken directly from the comics, you could tell the difference.


 * Angst: Every hero had some: The Hulk for being hunted, Captain America for outliving his loved ones, Thor for being forbidden to love a mortal, and Iron Man for always being near death. (Prince Namor the Submariner also complained a lot but he really had few reasons to.)
 * Bragging Theme Tune
 * Clip Art Animation: The series basically took the artwork from the comics, and added moving mouths and limbs, spoken dialogue and sound effects. Still, considering the artwork was from people such as Jack Kirby, it was still impressive to see.
 * Expository Theme Tune: The Hulk's theme contains two or three lines about the accident that gave Banner his powers.
 * Family-Unfriendly Violence: Not that much, but when compared to many other western superhero cartoons (such as He Man and The Masters of The Universe) definitely.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The studio apparently could not secure the rights to any Fantastic Four characters, other than Doctor Doom. Because of this, a Sub-Mariner vignette featuring Doom replaced Reed and his companions with the first five X-Men, albeit with their team's name changed to, "The Allies For Peace."
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The Grey Gargoyle doesn't sound French.
 * Spiritual Successor: Motion Comics.
 * Vocal Dissonance: Especially if viewers come in expecting voice-acting reminicent of modern Marvel cartoons and movies.