My family went to see Marvel Universe Live! as media guests of the show last week. When I asked “my guys” their thoughts about the show, they started by throwing out media catchwords like “well put together, action-packed, thrilling and fun for the whole family”. After I reminded them that I would write the Colemans’ Marvel Universe Live review like I would talk to a friend, their input became more helpful! Personally, I was impressed with the stage show. It can be challenging to translate popular movie tie-ins into a live show, but Marvel Universe LIVE! did an impressive job with it. The fact that it was a stage show actually gave it some unique advantages. The main one was that the X-Men, Spiderman, the Avengers and other comic book characters (i.e. Captain Marvel, Black Cat and Madame Hydra) were all able to work together in this one production. You will probably never see that in a movie because the various teams have different movie distributors. (It would be exciting if a combination movie did happen though!)
The live show starts with Thor crushing the Cosmic Cube (an ultimate power source) into pieces. He scatters them across the earth so that no one person can have all of that power. Loki comes up with a plan to clone the cube’s power. His scheme to take over the world includes using the mutant power of Storm, Wolverine and Cyclops. A variety of Super Heroes then join together to find the three original pieces of the Cosmic Cube so that they could put the pieces back together and use the power of the Cosmic Cube to defeat Loki. They split up into three groups to track down the pieces in time. In addition, Wolverine (who has escaped from Loki’s contraption) and Bruce Banner go off to save Storm and Cyclops from Loki. You’ll have to watch the show yourself to see the different groups and if they were successful in their mission to recreate the stone, defeat Loki and restore order to the Universe. (You can also see if The Hulk makes an appearance…)
My family especially liked the Wolverine and Spiderman characters. Wolverine was really good and “more like the Wolverine in the comics”. Meanwhile, Spiderman was very active throughout the show – bouncing around, performing acrobatics and making funny jokes. Practically all of the characters also performed cool motorcycle movies, flew around and performed a variety of sensational stunts during their fight scenes
I just want to note that this show might be a little scary for certain ages. There are loud firework explosions and dark stadium lighting at times. Some of the images on the large screen (like Red Skull) can be scary for small kids too. Although it’s pretty tame, there is also some Marvel-type violence (i.e.. Wolverine claws go through a person that he is fighting. Although there is no blood shown, his claws come out of the other side of his enemy’s body.) Kids with an understanding of Marvel comics should be fine with this show, but it’s good to know about these things in advance.
Overall, I think that Marvel Universe LIVE! is a great family show for families with school-aged kids. It will be showing at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford (July 31st – August 10th); Barclays Center in Brooklyn (August 13th – August 17th) and Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale (August 21st – August 24th). You can also find more information about Marvel Universe LIVE! at www.marveluniverselive.com.
