First in-game shots of Marvel Super Hero Squad Online

It's safe to assume that, when it was announced last March that upstart Gazillion Entertainment would be making a Marvel Comics-based MMO, something Microsoft and Cryptic Studios had tried but eventually abandoned, most people weren't expecting the result to be so ... cute. Having released some CG images from Marvel Super Hero Squad Online last week, its publisher today debuted what the game actually looks like.

As it turns out, the visuals seen in the gallery below aren't much different than those of the previously released images or the (entirely CGI) trailer we've posted above -- which itself has the look of the toy line down pat. Pitched as "family friendly" by its publisher, Marvel Super Hero Squad Online will launch in 2011.