Crappy Things about Good Stuff: The Superhero Squad Show.

I suppose if I'm going to call it a recurring segment, I'd better do it more than once. Well, today's subject is Marvel's Superhero Squad Show.


Let me tell you, when I first saw that they were making a show even called 'Superhero Squad Show' I died a little inside. Just looking at the image of Iron Man with big cartoony eyes made me cringe at the stupid this series would unleash. When it started advertising here in Oz, I wasn't much more impressed. I died even more inside. Fortunatley, since we're dealing with superheroes, upon actually viewing the show it was revived.

Today I'm going to tell you the good things about the series before I tell you the bad, just to get my point across.

Good.

1. Huge cast.
While our primary Squad members are Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Falcon, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel and some guy called Reptil, the Marvel Universe of characters don't seem to stop. Other appearances include Luke Cage, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Captain America, Captain Britain, Dr. Strange, The Punisher, X-Men, and Wasp. And that's just the heroes.

2. Good Action Sequences.
The show initially seemed hard to watch until I realised that they were serious about the action sequences. You might get a character throw someone across the room, or maybe a villain gets punched, but once the team 'Heroes Up' the action sequences are actually pretty decent.

3. Indept Story.
In a show called 'The Superhero Squad Show' you would expect something simple like 'they started a super villain team! We'd better counter it with a superhero team!' And actually I think that 'is' the plot. I missed the first episode, so I don't know if the villains grouped togethor in episode one or if they'd always been that way. I'm assuming that the squad formed in the first ep. But the interesting part is that they have a recurring theme of 'Fractals,' pieces of the infinity sword which was shattered (in Episode 1 or is it only shown in the title sequence?). Both the Superhero Squad and The Lethal Legion (if I need to tell you they're the bad guys you don't deserve to know) have to search endlessly for them.

4. Introduction for New Fans.
I've seen some pretty pathetic attempts at growing kids into Marvel fans. Already existing cartoons such as Spectacular Spider-Man are examples of good ways, and heck, even Iron Man Armoured Adventures keeps your attention, even if it does change the characters completley. But the most pathetic would have to be a series of books, possibly related to Superhero Squad...It had Hulk playing Hide and Seek with Spider-Man and the others. This wouldn't be so bad, but it looked more like something you'd see on Rugrats. So uh, anyway, the series is a good way to introduce kids to the Marvel Universe.

5. Catchy Theme Song.
I find myself waiting to watch it just to hear it again. Then I stay for the part where they Hero Up and play a snippit. I then hum it to myself oh my god I'm a massive geek.

6. Stan Lee.
He sometimes appears as the Mayor of Superhero City. PRAISE HIM!

Bad.

1. Hulk.
Yes, he's big, he's green, he's strong, and he's named Hulk, but last time I checked, Hulk's powers stemmed from rage, not having the mind of an eight year old. I can understand why he's so tonned down for kids, but really, does he have to be THAT stupid? I'm probably overreacting by putting him here, but after World War Hulk, which was an event comic about Hulk beating up the entire Marvel Universe, I have trouble looking at him this way.

2. Animation.
I'm not saying the animation is bad, but at times I have to just sigh. Many great cartoons suffered from the problem of characters standing idly by while a person punches them instead of blocking the attack. Unfortunatley that was solved years ago, get with the times Marvel. Learn to block, or have your heroes punch faster. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

3. Midgits.
I know, I know, it's what got the original toy line turned into a cartoon, but seriously, I just cannot take any of the characters seriously when I feel like I would be taller than Hulk. And if you know me, then that's saying something, cos I'm short. Oh well, it's easily forgiven.

4. A Brat Walks Among Us.
The first episode I saw. I hate it. I hate it so much. I can not see Dr. Doom as a good villain when he is being beaten up by a little girl. I know, that's the idea, but I don't care. This episode is stupid, but I'm glad they made it so that we could get Stan Lee saying excelsior, and the fights. The rest I could do without.

5. Where is Deadpool?

6. ...Just stuff.
Oh god, it's horrible! What made you think these were good ideas? Seeing Thor in highschool, Sonic Samba? Mama Doom? Ms. Marvel and MODOK running through the fields? It's like they took my revived deadness and killed it again.

7. Battlecry.
Hero Up? That's the best you could do? Hero Up? My god.

8. Where is Deadpool?

9. Voices.
I don't really have many complaints with the voices, but what's with Charlie Adler? He's great as Dr. Doom, I love it, but they should've stopped it there. Plant-Man sounded more like an old woman, and Super-Skrull just sounded strange.

10. Seriously, where's Deadpool?

11. Superhero City.
You actually called it 'Superhero City?' My god. Seriously, my-freaking-god. There is nothing that can top that.

Villainville.

I hate you.

12. Reptil.
You can't have a popular fan favorite like Deadpool, but you can have Reptil. WHO THE HELL IS REPTIL!? That's like saying, 'The Great Comic Book Heroes, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, Spawn, Moon Knight, Wonder Woman.' Notice something? NOBODY'S HEARD OF MOON KNIGHT EITHER!! YOU ANGER ME! Oh, and if you can constantly call Iron Man Tony Stark, and you can change Songbird to Screaming Mimi, why the hell can't you just call Deadpool 'Wade Wilson.'

13. Joe Quesada plugs himself.
I'm trying not to be too specific in stuff that annoyed me, and I'm not against shameless self advertisement but CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES! LEAVE A COMMENT, LINK ME FROM YOUR FACEBOOK but Joe Quesada's moment in the Ant-Man episode was just weird. Reptil tries to show Ms. Marvel how he makes some certain food that I have forgotten. The fact that Iron Man can fly and escape the salsa he's mixing (long story) is annoying enough, and the fact that Ms. Marvel can't tell the difference between a fly and a man in spandex dosn't help, but then we get this moment where Reptil starts cutting up Quesada Joe Peppers or something. They then go tell the camera how much they love Quesada Joe Peppers. It took me a moment to even know what they were talking about. They just stopped the plot to have Hulk say 'Pepper named Joe Hulk's friend' ...right.
I also am not saying that Joe Quesada is doing bad at his job as Editor in Chief, but all the bad stuff seems to be happening under his rule (One More Day, anyone?), I'm sure he's a nice guy in person.

14. Green.
Why are so many of the villains colored green? It's a serious question.

And that's it. And no, just because there's more dosn't mean that the bad stuff outweighs the good stuff, the show is still fun to watch.