Marvel has no qualms about spreading its net wide when it comes to sidekicking gaming-industry partners. The comics aficionados have teamed up with a variety of publishers in recent years to varying degrees of success, including Sega on the just-released Iron Man game; Activision on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, a sequel for which was announced in February; and Microsoft and EA on their respective recently canned fighting game and massively multiplayer online venture.

　　Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, has never looked so happy. Now, THQ is getting in on the Marvel licensing party. On the heels of its deal with DreamWorks earlier this week, the publisher said it has entered into a multiyear agreement with Marvel to make games based on the child-oriented Marvel Super Hero Squad franchise. The deal extends to all current and "next-gen consoles," as well as handhelds and Windows PCs.

　　The Marvel Super Hero Squad franchise puts a lighter spin on the gripping good-versus-evil struggle between mutants and their diabolic counterparts. As per the description of the alternate Marvel universe today, "Fun and humor are waiting around every corner in Marvel Super Hero Squad, where popular characters including Iron-Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, The Fantastic Four, and many more are thrust into adventures in a single caricatured Super Hero City."

　　THQ expects the deal to bear its first fruit in fall 2009. No details on the Marvel Super Hero Squad-branded game have been made available.