The Marvel Super Heroes

The Marvel Super Heroes is an American animated television series starring five comic book superheroes from Marvel Comics. The first TV series based on Marvel characters, it debuted in syndication on U.S. television in 1966.

Produced by Grantray-Lawrence Animation, headed by Grant Simmons, Ray Patterson, and Robert Lawrence, it was an umbrella series of five segments, each approximately seven minutes long, broadcast on local television stations that aired the show at different times. The series ran initially as a half-hour program made up of three seven-minute segments of a single superhero, separated by a short description of one of the other four heroes. It has also been broadcast as a mixture of various heroes in a half-hour timeslot, and as individual segments as filler or within a children's TV program.

The segments were "Captain America", "The Incredible Hulk", "Iron Man", "The Mighty Thor" and "The Sub-Mariner".

Production

Sixty-five half-hour episodes of three seven-minute chapters were produced, for a total of 195 segments that ran initially in broadcast syndication from September to December 1966.

The series, produced in color, had extremely limited animation produced by xerography, consisting of photocopied images taken directly from the comics and manipulated to minimize the need for animation production. The cartoons were presented as a series of static comic-strip panel images; generally the only movement involved the lips when a character spoke, the eyes, and the occasional arm or leg, or a fully animated black silhouette. The series used the original stories largely in their entirety, showcasing Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Don Heck art, among others, from the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books.

Stan Lee, Marvel's editor and art director at the time, said in 2004 that he believed publisher Martin Goodman negotiated the deal with Grantray-Lawrence and that Lawrence chose the characters to be used. Lawrence rented Lee and his wife a penthouse apartment at 30 East 60th Street, near Madison Avenue, for Lee's use while he worked on the series. (Lee lived in Hewlett Harbor, New York, on Long Island, at the time.) Lee recalled, "I really don't remember any reaction from the Marvel artists involved. I wish I could claim to have written the [theme song] lyrics, because I think they're brilliant, but alas, I didn't". The songs were written by Jacques Urbont. In the meantime, Steve Krantz (who was distributing the series), made a deal to subcontract production of The Mighty Thor segments to Paramount Cartoon Studios (the animation division of Paramount Pictures, formerly known as Famous Studios), headed at that time by Fleischer Studios veteran Shamus Culhane.

Marvel announced the series in the "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" of the November 1966 issues, stating in that monthly fan page's hyperbolic style that, "It won't be long before our swingin' super-heroes [sic] make their star-studded debut on TV, appearing five nights a week — that's right, five — count 'em — five nights a week, for a half-hour each night. So you've just got time to make sure your set's in good working order — check your local paper for time and station — and prepare to have a ball!"

Cast

Regular (credited) voice providers

• Len Carlson - Quicksilver, Loki, Odin, Nathan Garrett / Black Knight, Mad Thinker, President, Morgan Stark, Moon Man
• Bernard Cowan - Narrator, Steve Rogers / Captain America, Captain Torak, Morgan
• Jack Creley - Donald Blake / Thor, Asgardian Sentry
• Max Ferguson - Bruce Banner / The Hulk
• Vita Linder - Jane Foster, Scarlet Witch, Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter, Lorelei, Neri, Celia Rawlings, Lady Dorma
• Don Mason - Rick Jones, Clint Barton / Hawkeye
• Claude Rae - Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, Zeus, Seidring, Cerberus, J.B. Stardust
• Henry Ramer - Mandarin, Major Uberhart, Melter, Doctor Doom, Wolfgang, Vashti, Sando / Colonel Kranz
• John Vernon - Tony Stark / Iron Man, Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, Major Glenn Talbot, Major Corey
• Chris Wiggins - Hawkeye, Kraven, Grey Gargoyle, Byrrah, Balder, Professor Shapanka / Jack Frost, Professor X, Count Nefaria, Happy Hogan's grandfather

Semi-regular and guest (uncredited) voice providers

• Carl Banas - Bucky Barnes
• Len Birman - Hercules, Giant-Man / Goliath
• Vern Chapman - Edwin Jarvis, Super-Adaptoid
• Henry Comor - Gargantus, Calvin Zabo / Mister Hyde, Executioner
• Rod Coneybeare - Zarrko, Cobra, Ringmaster
• Peg Dixon
• Gillie Fenwick - Baron Zemo, Radioactive Man, Leader, Batroc the Leaper, Space Phantom, Dr. Cedric Rawlings, Heimdall, Director, Sandu, Premiere Pouldu, Lava King
• Margaret Griffin - Pepper Potts, Black Widow, Countess de la Spirosa, Enchantress
• Tom Harvey - Harold "Happy" Hogan, Iceman, Chameleon, Crusher Creel / Absorbing Man, Super-Skrull, Anton Vanko / Crimson Dynamo, Borok, Edam, Angel
• Paul Kligman - Red Skull, Warlord Krang, Mole Man, Metal Master, Power Man
• Douglas Master - Senator Harrington Boyd
• Ed McNamara - Swordsman, Titanium Man, Boomerang
• Maxine Miller - Betty Ross, the Norn Queen
• Mona O'Hearn - Wasp, Hippolyta
• Billie Mae Richards - Newsboy
• Alfie Scopp - Captain

For WNAC-TV in Boston, Arthur Pierce portrayed Captain America in live-action segments for the show. Actors portraying other characters, including Dr. Doom, Hulk, and Bucky, also appeared in live-action segments. The segments were scripted by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

Guest characters

Appearing in guest roles were:

• The X-Men — The original lineup of the Angel, the Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Marvel Girl appeared in a Sub-Mariner episode, "Dr. Doom's Day / The Doomed Allegiance / Tug of Death". The story was an adaptation of Fantastic Four #6 (Sept. 1962) and Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) but since Grantray-Lawrence Animation did not own rights to the Fantastic Four, the producers substituted the X-Men — although referring to them instead as "Allies for Peace". However, the characters retained their original designs and individual names from the comics.
• The Avengers — Episode 8 of The Incredible Hulk was an adaptation of Avengers #2 (Nov. 1963), and co-starred Thor, Iron Man (with his early golden armor recolored to match the red-and-gold design featured in the Iron Man episodes), Giant-Man, the Wasp. The lineup beginning in Avengers #4 (March 1964), with Thor, Iron Man, Giant-Man, the Wasp and the newly installed Captain America, appears in several Captain America episodes, as does the later line-up from Avengers #16 with Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch.

Episodes

Each episode consists of three chapters.

Captain America

The Incredible Hulk

The Invincible Iron Man

The Mighty Thor

Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner

Sources:

Home media

United States

In 1985, Prism Entertainment released several segments from the series on VHS as part of their "Marvel Comics Video Library" series. Best Film & Video Corp. continued this range in the Early-1990s under their "Marvel Video!" imprint. Goldstar Video released two compilation releases which contained three videocassettes each: Marvel Superheroes: Triple Pack #1 (UPC #024543004127) and Marvel's Mightiest Heroes: Triple Pack #2. Fox Video released a version titled Marvel's Mightiest Super Heroes Gift Set (EAN #0024543004134).

In June 2003, a selection of Hulk segments giving his origin story were released as a bonus feature on Buena Vista Home Entertainment's DVD release of the 1996 animated television series The Incredible Hulk.

In September 2004, Buena Vista Home Entertainment announced that they would release a five-DVD set titled "the 60s Superheroes" on June 28, 2005, which would contain all segments from The Marvel Super Heroes Show, each on their own disc. By February 2005, however, Buena Vista announced that the release was off the schedule.

United Kingdom

In May 2004, Maximum Entertainment released two boxsets that each contained one disc for the Captain America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner and Thor shows, alongside The Avengers: United They Stand. Both box sets made up all the respective segments from the series. The Hulk segments were not included due to Fox Kids Europe previously sub-licensing them to Buena Vista the year prior. On August 1, 2005, Maximum re-released Iron Man as a two-disc standalone set. On May 21, 2007, Maximum re-released each of the respective segments on separate two-disc sets, with each episode re-edited into continuous, half-hour segments. The sets, alongside the Iron Man set, were later bundled as part of the "Marvel Superheroes Classic Collection" boxset, released in November 2007. In April 2008, a five-disc boxset containing the Iron Man segments with the 1994 series titled "Iron Man - Ultimate Collection" was released. Segments were also included with the standalone Iron Man 1994 DVD releases, which was soon bundled as a boxset titled "Iron Man Collection" on November 24, 2008.

In April 2008, Liberation Entertainment secured the home media rights to select Marvel shows from Jetix Europe in select European territories, including Hulk. On August 25, 2008, the company released a two-disc set of the Hulk segments, re-edited into 13 20-minute episodes, in the United Kingdom and Germany.

After Liberation closed its UK branch at the end of October, Clear Vision took over home media distribution of the Marvel properties. The company first released the Iron Man segments on April 19, 2010 with the 1994 series as a six-disc boxset titled "Iron Man: The Ultimate Collection" in the United Kingdom and on May 3, 2010 and May 7, 2010, they re-released the Hulk sets in the United Kingdom and Germany respectively. In 2011, the company began releasing stand-alone DVD sets of the segments which edited them similarity to the Maximum releases. In 2012, the company released a four-disc set that contained single volumes of the Captain America, Hulk, The Mighty Thor and Iron Man segments respectively, to coincide with the release of Avengers Assemble.

References

External links

• The Sub-Mariner at IMDb
• Captain America at IMDb
• The Incredible Hulk at IMDb
• Iron Man at IMDb
• The Mighty Thor at IMDb