The Marvel Action Universe, originally called The Marvel Action Hour, was a syndicated television block from Genesis Entertainment featuring animated adaptations of Marvel comic book heroes the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Biker Mice from Mars. The Marvel Action Hour lasted two seasons before being cancelled.
Format[]
The first half of the hour was an episode of Iron Man: The Animated Series; the second half, an episode of Fantastic Four: The Animated Series. During the first season, Stan Lee introduced the episodes.
The show underwent a notable modification when broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom; because the BBC does not feature commercial breaks, the two shows that made up the Marvel Action Hour would actually only have totaled about forty minutes, and so episodes of the 1980's Incredible Hulk series were added between the two original shows to bring the whole bundle up to the promised hour in length. The Stan Lee segments were, however, dropped.
Both the Fantastic Four and Iron Man were radically retooled for the second seasons, sporting new opening sequences, improved animation, and more mature writing, though the introductions by Stan Lee were shortened and now against a green screen displaying various production paintings from both shows.
In most markets, the second season was known as Marvel Action Universe, which was the name of a previous syndicated programming block in the late 1980s, with the addition of Biker Mice from Mars extending the block to 90 minutes.
Characters[]
The following is a list of characters that appeared in the opening theme to the Marvel Action Universe in order of appearance.
- Eternity
- Silver Surfer
- Avengers
- Scarlet Witch
- Vision
- Captain America
- Giant Man
- Wasp
- Black Panther
- Ghost Rider
- Fantastic Four
- Human Torch
- Mister Fantastic
- Invisible Woman
- Thing
- Galactus
- Doctor Strange
- Thor
- Captain Marvel
- Hercules
- Namor, the Sub-Mariner
- Adam Warlock
- Inhumans
- Crystal
- Medusa
- Black Bolt
- Triton
- Karnak
- Gorgon
- Spider-Woman
- Iron Man
- War Machine
- Hawkeye
- Century
Gallery[]
