Industrial Light & MagicThe Super Friends are getting some super company on the small screen.
Fresh off the boffo debut of Iron Man, and with a slate of new superhero flicks in the pipeline, Marvel Entertainment is ready to start cranking out the cartoons, giving the greenlight to Marvel Super Hero Squad, an animated series bringing together the publisher's best-known comic-book stars under one roof à la DC Comics' Super Friends.
Super Hero Squad will see Iron Man team up with the likes of Captain America, the Hulk, Thor and the Fantastic Four to defend Super Hero City from such baddies as Magneto, Doctor Doom, Loki and the Abomination, per the Hollywood Reporter.
The target audience will be 6- to 8-year-olds (and, more likely, fanboys of all ages). Marvel has ordered 26 half-hour epidoses and is in talks with broadcast and cable nets to debut the series in 2009.
Super Hero Squad will join two other new 'toons on the company's after-school roster—Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures—both of which are due to premiere on Nicktoons early next year.
Of course, there's also the obligatory toy line courtesy of Hasbro, and Marvel Comics is set to unveil a book series among other ancillary offshoots. Marvel is also plotting a direct-to-DVD Super Hero Squad feature for 2010.