While many have been celebrating this year’s Thanksgiving by turning out for Macy’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, a resurfaced video of the 1989 parade, and specifically the elaborate Marvel Universe float, has been attracting the attention of comic book fans on social media. 35 years later, the vibrant display of assembled Avengers, X-Men and more has delivered a nostalgic reminded of how some of the greatest superheroes of Marvel Comics looked before the days of the MCU.

The incredible float, designed to resemble a cityscape, served as the stage for a dynamic and energetic performance that played out like a mini-movie in itself. Singer Melba Moore delivered a rendition of “Holding Out for a Hero,” surrounded by characters such as Spider-Man, Captain America, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, and the Hulk. Opposing them were villains, including Magneto, Doctor Doom, and the Green Goblin. The wildly choreographed spectacle at a time when superheroes were not the huge box office draw that they are today, and in the same year that DC brought Batman to the big screen in Tim Burton and Michael Keaton’s movie.

While recent adaptations of Marvel’s iconic heroes and villains have usually come with less comic-accurate costumes, the characters seen on the parade float were both more in line with their comic book counterparts and gives younger viewers a retro experience that contrasts with today’s mega-budget superhero productions. However, in many ways, the float, which originally debuted in 1987, became part of Marvel’s attempts to expand their audience, and ultimately, that would lead to the eventual creation of Marvel Studios and everything that followed.

Marvel Comics’ Appeal Continues to Endure

The viral appearance of footage from the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade highlights the way the internet allows fans to rediscover long-lost events from the past that would otherwise have been consigned to the memories of those who saw them when they happened. When specifically looking at footage of older Marvel productions, no matter what their context, there is always something new to discover, and this parade footage has proven to be something many have never witnessed before.

The resurfaced footage shows how Marvel Comics has continued to enthrall and endure over the decades, and even the recent struggles of the MCU in cinemas and on Disney+ will not change that. In an era where superhero media dominates popular culture, revisiting historical depictions such as in this performance also allows those who have grown up watching Robert Downey Jr. and co flying around the CGI world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to see how some of these characters have changed and evolved over the decades.

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Marvel Studios is coming to the end of one of its least productive years in terms of output. After releasing up to four movies in any 12-month period for over a decade, along with several TV shows arriving simultaneously, 2024 saw the MCU come to a near standstill with only Deadpool & Wolverine arriving in cinemas, and Disney+ live-action content being limited to Echo and Agatha All Along. Now, the franchise is ready to ramp up its output once more, with Captain America: Brave New World kicking off a new era of epic storytelling.

Release Date May 4, 2012 Cast Chris Evans , Robert Downey Jr. , Mark Ruffalo , Chris Hemsworth , Scarlett Johansson , Jeremy Renner , Tom Hiddleston , Clark Gregg , Cobie Smulders , Stellan Skarsgård , Samuel L. Jackson , Gwyneth Paltrow , Paul Bettany , Alexis Denisof , Tina Benko , Jerzy Skolimowski , Kirill Nikiforov , Jeff Wolfe , M’laah Kaur Singh , Rashmi Rustagi , Powers Boothe , Jenny Agutter , Arthur Darbinyan , Donald Li , Warren Kole Runtime 143 minutes Expand