The Marvel Characters You Forgot Transformers Voice Actor Peter Cullen Played

Peter Cullen, whether you were aware of it or not, probably influenced your childhood. Most famously, he was the voice behind Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise, but he also lent his talents to "Winnie the Pooh," "Voltron: Defender of the Universe," and "Invincible." But there's plenty you may still not know about the man behind the voice of Optimus Prime, including the fact that he's voiced numerous Marvel characters. 

Two Spider-Man cartoons debuted in 1981 — "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" and the simply-titled "Spider-Man." These don't exactly rank among the best iterations of Spider-Man, but they were childhood favorites for many. "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" saw Peter Cullen debut in the episode "Spidey Goes Hollywood." There, Spider-Man travels to Hollywood to make a movie, but Bruce Banner goes berserk and transforms into the Hulk. Meanwhile, everything goes wrong thanks to Mysterio. Both Hulk and Mysterio are voiced by Cullen, showing off some impressive range. He would also appear in a later episode as Crusher Hogan, a wrestler.

Cullen also lent his voice to the 1981 "Spider-Man" series in various capacities. However, his most notable role is that of Red Skull in the episode "The Capture of Captain America." Red Skull plans on kidnapping Captain America and swapping minds so that he can take over the United States military, but thanks to Spidey, his plan doesn't work out as planned. 

There is one other Marvel-adjacent project Peter Cullen was part of. In 1979, NBC aired the animated series "Fred and Barney Meet the Thing," one of the weirdest old-school cartoons. Despite its title, Fred and Barney from "The Flintstones" never actually had adventures with Marvel's Thing from the Fantastic Four. Instead, each episode was divided into two segments, and there was one Thing adventure where he goes up against the Clunk, a malfunctioning robot the Thing needs to stop. Cullen voiced the Clunk.

Few remember "Fred and Barney Meet the Thing" these days, but voicing a robot could be seen as an early precursor to Cullen eventually taking on the role of Optimus Prime. But Cullen wasn't strictly a Marvel guy, as he has some low-key appearances across some DC shows, too. For instance, he was part of "The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show" that ran from 1979 to 1980. Yes, Plastic Man had his own show, but it was really comprised of a bunch of different segments centering on different heroes, including Mighty Man, voiced by Cullen, and his faithful companion, Yukk, the world's ugliest dog, voiced by Cullen's longtime friend (and Decepticon foe) Frank Welker.

Cullen also voiced the Hunter in an episode of the 1988 "Superman" cartoon. The Hunter is one of Lex Luthor's creations, whose body can transform into any material it gets ahold of. Of course, eventually he becomes kryptonite.

Throughout his illustrious career, Cullen voiced all kinds of monsters, villains, and automatons. He was truly a one-of-a-kind talent, and the silence he leaves behind will hurt. Fortunately, there are countless hours of his voice available to carry his memory onward.