‘Marvel Universe Live’ delivers family-friendly comic book action

Yakima native Joshua Murillo was managing a CrossFit gym in Burbank when he got a tip that would change his life.

Several of his gym clients worked as stunt performers in movies and television. They suggested he might be good it at. He picked up a few random gigs, then Murillo auditioned for a job and got it – playing the Hulk in the live-action touring show “Marvel Universe Live.”

“I was looking for a way to leap into stunts full time because I liked it so much,” he said by phone last week. “And this opportunity was the perfect thing.”

As one of the performers who plays the Hulk, he wears a costume that’s roughly 9 feet tall. He walks on springy jumping stilts to give the Hulk a bounding look when he moves. The top half of the costume weighs about 90 pounds and incorporates some animatronics to give the Hulk more-lifelike features. He is, of course, very green, generally angry and prone to smashing things.

The role requires Murillo to perform some high falls off a catwalk and engage in some fight choreography – all while wearing the big green suit.

The show, from Feld Entertainment, is coming to the Spokane Arena on Thursday for a four-day run. Think of it like a stunt show you might see at a theme park, or like an ice show – without the ice. Sort of.

“There’s motorcycle stunts, there’s pyro stunts – by that I mean a full-body fire burn – there are high falls, fight choreography, a lot of action’s going on. That stuff you can’t do on ice,” he said. “But I will say, the stage set up is similar, the amount of space we have is similar, and of course we’re working with Feld Entertainment, who produces all of those (Disney on Ice) shows as well.”

One thing this show does have, Murillo notes, is Spider-Man, Iron Man and Wolverine, all on the same stage. In the Marvel movies, the Avengers, X-Men and Spider-Man storylines have, at least so far, been kept separate.

“I know that they’ve alluded to going in that direction with the films, but it’s exciting that we were the first ones to be able to do that,” Murillo said. “To be a part of that has been a groundbreaking thing outside of the comics. That’s really the only time those characters have gotten together.”

The show is set after the first Avengers movie. Thor has destroyed the “cosmic cube” – the Tesseract, one of the so-called “infinity stones.” Loki, Thor’s brother, has stolen shards from it and started making another cosmic cube for his own nefarious use. The Marvel heroes, therefore, must team up to try and save the day.

While this is a show that will obviously appeal to younger boys, Murillo said there’s plenty for the whole family – girls included – to enjoy.

“The action is definitely aimed at the adults to make it exciting and interesting to watch,” he said. “On top of that, there are plenty of strong female characters that the girls can look up to, like Captain Marvel and Black Widow.”