Marvel's latest entrance into the young demographic is their new Cartoon Network series, The Super Hero Squad Show, based on the Hasbro toyline.

The toys and the series feature small exaggerated/cartoonish versions of all the popular Marvel characters and the show takes them all and combines them into The Super Hero Squad to fight a combination of villains from all of the different Marvel books.

Since I'm a Marvel fan I thought I'd give the show a viewing by checking out its premiere and tell you what I thought. Continue on to see my feelings on the series and to check out some pics for the series as well as a list of the incredible voice talent they've gathered to play our favourite Marvel characters.

In short, this is just a big pile of awesome for kids. For adult Marvel fans, it's still a fun watch too, especially if you have children of your own to share the experience with. There's a lot of shout outs (and a few jokes) for the fans that only adults would pick up on.

The premiere episode, titled "And Lo? A Pilot Shall Come," featured Dr. Doom as the sort of mastermind villain behind the scenes with the primary bad guy being the Mole Man as he unleashes several monsters into Super Hero City, including Fin Fang Foom the dragon. Their mission: to gather the fractals of the Infinity Sword for their evil plans.

The hero team consists of interesting variants of the key heroes from the Marvel Universe including Ms. Marvel and her attitude, Thor and his cool accent, Iron Man and a bunch of cool gadgets, Falcon and his bird, The Silver Surfer who's literally a surfer dude, an angry and dumb Hulk, as well as a Wolverine and Storm similar to their incarnations in all of the X-Men cartoons. All in all, not too far off from the comics ;)

The characters look great and they all wear their most iconic, classic or original costumes from Marvel history. They make for a cool cartoon team but with the sheer amount of characters, each episode will feel pretty random - especially with all the stuff they throw into it and the loads of action in nearly every scene.

That being said, if I were a kid, that's all I'd want anyway. Plus, the more characters they show off, the more figures they can sell.

I can't stress enough how awesome the voice talent is behind the series - even the premiere opened up with the Mayor of Super Hero city speaking to the people, voiced by none other than Stan Lee. Here's an image featuring some of the talent you can expect to hear in the series:

Super Hero Squad Show Voice Cast

Greg Grunberg, Taye Diggs, Lene Headey, Mark Hamill (!), Robert Englund, Wayne Knight (Newman!), George Takei (Sulu!), Adrian Pasdar, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Sorbo (Hercules!), Ray Stevenson (the actual Punisher!), James Marsters, LeVar Burton (The Reading Rainbow!...err... Geordi La Forge!), Tricia Helfer, and tons more!

Can you believe that cast? They even got some of the actors who played these characters in the movies to do the voices here. Note the love of actors from Heroes, you can see a target audience they're also trying to capture here with this geek-star-studded cast.

Click to more on the premiere and to see some images of the show and characters...

Super Hero Squad Show Villains

Now, a lot of stuff is obviously childish for the target audience and if I was a kid, I'd be completely in love with the show. This may mainly for kids but that's not stopping me from wanting to check it out more. It's pure fun and there are some legitimately funny parts for mature viewers -  I hope it brings in the next generation of fans, something Disney is very hopeful of.

Two quick things that drive me nuts in this otherwise fun cartoon: Them calling themselves "squadies" and that theme music which has already become annoying - It played several times during the episode and I don't want to hear it again for a while.

Now, to the pics!

Here's the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier which acts as the "Squadies" base of operations. It's entirely empty when they aren't on it. Following that are two shots of the beautiful Super Hero City.

Super Hero Squad Show Shield Helicarrier
Super Hero Squad Show City
Super Hero Squad Show City Park

Click to see images of some of the many other heroes we'll see in The Super Hero Squad Show...

Super Hero Squad Show Heroes
Super Hero Squad Show Ms Marvel
Super Hero Squad Show Colossus

Super Hero Squad Show Iron Man
Super Hero Squad Show Thor
Super Hero Squad Show Captain America

Super Hero Squad Show Wolverine
Super Hero Squad Show Hulk
Super Hero Squad Show Hawkeye

The premiere showed off a ton of characters from the show's roster but in the grand scheme of things, barely scratched the surface of amount of heroes and villains they have still yet to show.

If you're a fan of anything Marvel, are looking for a good cartoon or have a child of your own, this show has my recommendation.

Did you get a chance to check out any of the first three episodes and if so, what did you think?

The Super Hero Squad Show airs weekly on the Cartoon Network and has already played their first three episodes.

Source: Marvel