TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 1 episode 6-10

Breakout part 1

So, we’re finally had the main event and we start with Iron Man stopping a sale between AIM and the forces of Doctor Doom, which serves little purpose other than to introduce them. Role credits!

Samson gets a warning from Bruce Banner about them twisting his ideas and cures to use to control the monster. Meanwhile Thor gets a message from Baldar before rescuing Jane Foster from a car accident. Iron Man takes the AIM troops to the vault, a SHIELD agent there wants to discuss vault security after the Reaper incident, a very good idea. Meanwhile Ant-man asks the erm ‘mad thinker’ about his discussion with whirlwind a while back.

Not long after the breakout begins, the big house grows and rips straight through the heli-carrier, Samson is exposed to gamma energy and seems to be getting stronger. Iron Man retrns to the vault as super-villains begin recapturing their weapons (because of course they’re kept at the facility, that makes perfect sense) Ant-man is quickly being overwhelmed by the supervillains escaping from the bighouse as the Helicarrier crashes into the bay. Hawkeye attempts to quell in the invasion as Iron Man arrives to steal his thunder

Hill alerts fury about the breakout at the Big House but he’s more concerned about the Raft, housing some of the most dangerous prisoners including the Purple Man, Baron Zemo and our enemy for this two parter, Graviton. Banner becomes the Hulk as the leader unites the other gamma forces. The Leader does not want to leave the prison, instead making it the centrepiece of his next scheme.

With SHIELD agents evacuated from the vault, he decides the best to do with the vault is blow it up. This will kill exactly 0 of the escaped prisoners. The Hulk takes Samson and prepares to leave but he is delayed by the Abomination and the Absorbing man, they’re stopped when the Hulk escapes and the Leader tells them not to follow.

Meanwhile Fury lays eyes on Graviton. This is an amazing opening episode (excluding the minisodes) establishing some future plot threads whilst keeping a decent amount of focus on the characters

Rating 9/10

Breakout part 2

So, the origin of Graviton. He was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was experimenting on something and continued the experiments despite being told to pull the plug. He ended up with gravity control power and a stint in a prison for very powerful foes.

Hall wants revenge on Fury for imprisoning him but he’s stopped by the timely arrival of Thor, who knocks him back with his hammer. They prepare to fight and we cut to Iron Man crash landing in a cornfield for comic relief.

Nick Fury calls an Omega Level alert, asserting control of everything. Meanwhile the Hulk takes Samson to a diner for more comic relief. Banner reminds the Hulk that he could help Thor take on Graviton. The Hulk agrees to this under the condition that he stays the Hulk, accounting for Banner’s minimal presence in the series (at least they give us something Avengers Assemble) with Thor taken down by Graviton uses the power of mildly annoying sting blasts on her which prove to be ineffective. Soon Iron man arrives, but he’s sent into space. Ant-man becomes giant to try and test his limits but Fury might be right, he doesn’t have any. Still we see Thor able to move to grab his hammer.

Graviton tries to kill Nick Fury, bend only ends up hitting a Life Model Decoy, so instead he takes up New York City. (What did this guy have for breakfast and where can I get it. Anyway, Thor recovers but somehow he’s using the power of gravity to create a force-field around himself (go figure that one out) Thor manages to overwhelm it and knock him down, with Thor ready to slow the city’s descent.

Surrounded by a meddlesome foursome, he tries to knock them all back and says he’s the strongest one there is, but of course no-one steals Hulk’s catchphrase and gets away with it. The Hulk smashes him into a shipping yard away from civillains and seems to be the only one capable of standing when Graviton goes full on crazy and starts creating whirlwinds because that’s gravity, right? With this distraction Ant-man sends an ant to stun Graviton, allowing the others to rejoin the battle. But Graviton is not going down without a fight and it’s actually quite remarkable how all of them use their respective abilities to knock him out. Thor delivers the final blow with a super super super-charged lightning blast.

Naturally SHIELD want the Hulk, but the others are more inclined to help him. Fury says there are more problems, 74 super-villains are on the loose and he offers them a job. But of course Ant-man is more than disillusioned by S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man says they can make a difference together. Fury is then told that Graviton did not cause the breakout at S.H.I.E.L.D.

Again, a wonderfully paced and plotted episode, and I didn’t notice the animation glitches I noticed in the early episodes, then again there wasn’t a quiet moment in the entire episode so…

Rating 9/10

Some Assembly Required

We start with a prisoner wetting his pants seeing all the Avengers before his capture. Roll credits

We next see the Black Panther taking out some thugs, this won’t be spoken of again. Next we get Avengers Mansion a high tech mansion for living and training and otherwise being alert for supervillains. Tony assembled all this in a week, because… Comic books. Oh and the training room is self-repairing, I bet a few wish that shipping yard was.

Oh and Bruce Banner’s got mopey and thinks that they don’t trust him. Of course it really isn’t him, the Enchantress is trying to take over his mind. Janet gets excited and decides to move into the mansion. Nick Fury meanwhile pays a visit to Tony Stark and the Enchantress begins lowering the mansion’s defences. JARVIS meanwhile is convinced there’s something wrong and alerts Thor

The Hulk gets mad and leaves (what else is new) time for Thor and Hulk to fight. Iron Man finds out and calls in the rest of the Avengers as the battle moves to Central Park. Iron Man catches up and sees some weird energy around the Hulk, he has been enchanted. Banner escapes the chains the enchantress had locked him in and begins to leave. Before they can recover the Executioner takes down Stark.

Banner trells the Hulk to go back as the others fight the Enchantress and her Executioner, and are losing until the Hulk returns. Thor uses his lightning to recharge Iron Man after the Enchantresses attack left it leaking. They’re defeated eventually but retreat out of this realm. But the Hulk decides to take his leave. Oh and the Black Panther is watching again.

The Hulk smashes some Arctic tundra and we see Captain America in the Ice.

It was another good episode, I have little to fault it for.

Rating 9/10

Living Legend

The Avengers head off to find the Hulk and persuade him to return before he does something stupid. Instead they find Captain America’s body, frozen in ice.

They thaw Cap out but he’s less than aware, attacking them on sight and defeating Thor via martial arts. I repeat; he defeated Thor. Meanwhile, the Black Panther does some more sneaking. Cap takes on all the avengers and is winning until Wasp makes him see the memorial statues for him and Bucky

On HYDRA Island, Baron Zemo arrives to take over HYDRA from Baron Strucker, easily defeating the Grim Reaper. A HYDRA agent alerts them of Captain America’s survival, and instead seeks out Arnim Zola.

We see in his origin that Zemo had developed a virus X which would wipe out the allies. Cap and Bucky stop them but in the process Zemo was exposed to the virus and a mask he’d been wearing for some reason had fused to his face.

Zemo arrives to see Arnim Zola, who undergoes treatments for his condition and to enhance his speed and strength. Arnim Zola provides a Zemo with a creature to hunt down the good Captain and his allies. A DNA sample would potentially find a cure for his condition.

A creature captures Ellis Island and the Avengers, minus Wasp investigate (Cap also stays because man out of time). Another one arrives at the mansion, easily evading the mansion’s defences. Wasps sting blast seem to hurt it a bit though. So much so that she destroys it, unfortunately Zemo knocks her down.

They fight and Cap wins but Zemo uses a bomb to escape (oh and Black Panther throws his shield back to him) with the others. Cap reveals to the others that it’s one of Arnim Zola’s creations.  Hank reveals that all of his creations were unstable and so they modulate a frequency to destroy it.

Tony offers Cap a place with the Avengers and he delightedly accepts. Zemo meanwhile finds the Enchantress waiting for him with an ‘offer’

Another good episode

Rating 8.5/10

Everything is Wonderful

I introduce to you, Wonderman

He becomes a super-villain because Tony Stark is a d*ck. Only giving a meeting half his attention and blurting things out in a way so uncaring it’s a hardly a surprise Simon Williams walked out angrily. Stark had intended to buy his financially failing company to save it, but to someone like Williams it looked like he was doing the exact opposite.

Thor and the Wasp had interrupted another AIM deal and were pursuing an escape ship, Thor damages it but Wasp holds him back, wanting that ship to lead them to a secret base, because AIM soldiers really are that stupid.

Meanwhile Simon Williams reaches out to his brother, the Grim Reaper. You know you’re just asking for death when you’re associating yourself with someone of that name. He wants revenge on Stark and they take him to AIM, the same people that made his scythe (and my probably helped with his lovely disposition) they meet the leader, M.O.D.O.C. (yeah, they don’t like using the world kill, so it’s conquest here)

He offers Simon a way of getting his revenge, transformation via zeta beams and ionic energy (just throw any science mumbo jumbo you like and you get a supervillain) he undergoes the treatment. Reaper asks for an update on HYDRA’s secret project (spoilers and leaves)

Nick Fury calls in on Cap, revealing a secret headquarters in a barber’s shop. Inside he gives Cap back his bike back and promises S.H.I.E.L.D. will provide whatever the good Captain needs. Hey, it’s been a while since we checked in with Wasp and Thor, they’re inside AIM’s secret base and are easily taking down the usual thugs. They both seem perplexed by M.O.D.O.C.

Simon goes straight for Stark, tearing through his armour. Of course Simon being a bad listener doesn’t really help matters. Stark is forced to leave, leaving Ant-man to deal with Simon. Thor and the Wasp have AIM on the ropes but M.O.D.O.C. forces his escape.

Giant-Man and Simon fight, causing many thousands of dollars of damages. Pym wants to talk things through and was getting through until Iron Man returns in hulk-buster suit. Simon’s energy begins to destabilise and tear him apart. Tony tries to save his life by chucking him into the arc reactor (go figure) but he’s too late.

But the enchantress gets to him and manages to restore him, at a price.

I think this is one of the weaker written episodes of the series, I can’t put my finger on what I don’t like but there is something about it.

Rating 7.5/10

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Images used in this review are from Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Marvel's Avengers Assemble and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use