THE MARVEL SUPER HEROES HAVE ARRIVED!

Most guys my age could probably sing the theme song from the opening of 1967 Spiderman cartoon note for note. That should come as no surprise, considering it aired on afternoon TV cartoon blocks well into the 80's. At least for me and my pals, along w/ daily dollops of Brady Bunch, Monkees and (best of all) Munsters re-runs it was a Channel 32 staple.

Not as equally as revered and/or remembered, was the Canadian-produced Marvel Super Heroes show that was originally syndicated to local TV the year prior. Loosely based on the Avengers, each episode featured The Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Sub-Mariner in their own separate mini-adventures...

The series had extremely limited animation produced mostly by xerography, a process where photocopied images are taken directly from the comics and manipulated to minimize the need for animation production. The cartoons were presented as a series of almost static comic-strip panel images...the lips might move slightly when a character spoke and the occasional arm/leg motion in the midst of a throw-down.

This rudimentary, not quite Clutch Cargo-esque animation combined w/ the uber-cheesy theme music, completely buries the needle on the kitsch-o-meter and, all things considered, still managed to maintain an irony-free coolness in my youth. Marvel announced the series in all of the November 1966 'Bullpen Bulletins' that:

'It won't be long before our swingin' super-heroes 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!'

So, 'have a ball' w/ the following roll-call of sorts (my favorite is the one for Iron Man):