I’m channel surfing during the hour before I have to roll into Star Clipper, and in-between Cartoon Network’s advertisements for seemingly the greatest show ever, Andrew W.K.’s ”Destroy Build Destroy,” I come across an episode of ”The Super Hero Squad.” I’m not much for kid shows or kid comics anymore, but I have to admit I was really cranking up to this one. Plus, the cast of characters wasn’t your standards like Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four; it had a whole roster of odd balls, from main team members Silver Surfer and Falcon, to weird villains like Modok and Abomination. The whole Squad consist of the aforementioned Surfer and Falcon, team leader Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, and newbie Reptil. The show is animated in the Hasbro action figure toy line style.

The episode I caught was called “O, Captain, My Captain!” and Wolverine is fed up with the Super Hero Squad. He leaves the team to joins Captain America’s All Captain Squad as the new Captain Canada (Leave Hockey, Rush, or Celine Dion joke here). The All Captain Squad does everything meticulously by the books, and this doesn’t mold well with the old canucklehead’s berserker style. However, together they still manage to defeat the comical ironic Plant Man (The Endangered Rain Forest Menace) before Wolverine returns to Super Hero Squad.

The secondary story follows Thor and Reptil going grocery shopping (anything with Thor shopping has my attention) and happening upon Modok and Abomination. The whole lot of them get captured by the Ringmaster and his circus of crime (Man I hope the 9 – 13 demographic are digging his Fu Manchu and hypnosis-wave top-hat as much as I do). Before being feed to circus lions, the Squad rescues them because Hulk was angry they never came back with the groceries. Lesson learned from the episode: Don’t angry a hungry Hulk.

The episode inspired me to look over the current comic series, and it looks just as fun as the cartoon. The third issue, which comes out on March 10th, features the Warriors Three rocking out on the cover, to what I can only hope is an Asgradian rendition of AC DC’s Thunderstruck. It’s nice to see Marvel promoting their more obscure universe to a whole new generation of kids, and if the comics and shows are as consistently as good as Super Hero Squad, I think if will work just fine.