Theatre

Five things we loved about Marvel Universe LIVE!

The Marvel Universe finally arrives on stage as it’s spectacularly brought to life in a live, action-packed arena show for the whole family.

We managed to catch all your most treasured Marvel superheroes battle it out during their opening night at London’s The O2 – and you’ve still got time to get tickets as they tour the UK!

Here we round up our five favourite things about the Marvel Universe LIVE!

The special effects

There’s hundreds of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments as your favourite superheroes (and villains) come to life in front of your very eyes. But the arena is great at using its vast space to light up the stage whenever any of them duke it out: Hawkeye fires exploding arrows, Loki’s sceptre glows when he’s performing some evil doings, Thor disappears in a cloud of smoke as he uses the Bifrost, and when Tony Stark first suits up as Iron Man, it’s a truly fist-pumping moment.

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The stunts

The amazing choreography that goes into pulling off this vast, huge and sprawling show of battles scenes, fist-fights and super powers is truly breath-taking. Your eyes will dart across the landscape as you jump from battles between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin to see Thor take on Rhino and the Lizard… it’s just like watching a movie.

But it’s not just the fighting that’s incredibly well done: the bike stunts are also awe-inspiring. A bike chase between Captain America and the Red Skull in his hideout is just the start of it – the stunts put on by Wolverine and Bruce Banner as they journey to rescue Wolverine’s fellow X-Men are just insane (clue: there’s a back-flip).

The audience

One of the best things about Marvel Universe LIVE! is the audience. We saw hundreds of kids all dressed up as their favourite heroes ready to battle against the likes of Loki and the Sinister Six – and it really feels like a family show; it was great to see so many kids enthralled by the adventure in front of them. Plus, there’s a tonne of merch available to really kit your kids out. They’re guaranteed to rival even Tony Stark in the gadget/outfit stakes by the end of the night.

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The cast of characters

We’ve mentioned a number of them already, but it’s so great to see so many Marvel heroes and villains all in one place. Unlike the movie universe, which has been hampered by studio rights and contract issues about which heroes can appear together, Marvel Universe LIVE! finally lets audiences see what cool stuff can happen when the likes of the X-Men team up with the Avengers. Even the amazing Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) gets to show us what she’s made of – and that’s three years ahead of big-screen debut.

The super cool story

Marvel Universe LIVE! certainly borrows some key elements from the cinematic universe (anyone remember the Tesseract?), but ultimately tells a brand new, original story that allows for all your favourite heroes to come together and experience a totally different kind of adventure – all in front of your own eyes, in the flesh. There are real moments of peril (not least brought on by the sheer number of high-wire, acrobatic stunts being performed), and some real cinematic sequences that certainly wouldn’t feel out of place in the next Avengers movie.

We won’t give too much away story-wise, but suffice to say, it’s one helluva show!

Tickets for Marvel Universe LIVE!’s UK tour are on sale now. Get yours at Ticketmaster.co.uk.