TV Retrospective: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 episodes 21-26

Hail Hydra

It’s time to conclude our HYDRA chapters. We start with Hawkeye attempting a near impossible shot, Cap is the only person that thinks he can make it (although Hulk doesn’t really care) but they don’t find because the mansion is hit by an EMP, 3 of them in fact, taking out the mansion systems and Stark’s Iron Man suit, for a brief moment.

They head out by are confronted by the Black Widow who… needs their help? Roll credits

Naturally the avengers are not best pleased. She reveals that Nick Fury sent her as an undercover agent to get into HYDRA. Hawkeye gives her a chance to speak owing to the fact that she saved his life. She reveals that Baron Strucker is preparing an attack on AIM in order to secure the Cosmic cube, a device that can reshape reality to reflect one’s deepest desires. In this case, a reality where HYDRA wins the second world war. M.O.D.O.C. hasn’t used it so it’s probably incomplete but they need to strike now else they won’t get the cube in time.

This was Black Widow’s mission, but she can’t report to Fury because he’s gone dark and she can’t return to S.H.I.E.L.D. without being arrested. Cap and Iron Man are sceptical but as long as HYDRA and A.I.M. are attacking each other the city will face casualties.

The Avengers head out, Iron Man spots M.O.D.O.C. but even scanning the cosmic cube temporarily shorts out his systems. Iron Man recovers but encounters a new HYDRA dreadnaught ship thing. The Wasp saves his life and they’re encountered by S.H.I.E.L.D., they train their guns on the Avengers and now Maria Hill is revealed to be the new head.

Ant-man, Black Widow and Hawkeye try and stop some of the ground war, whilst chewing each other out in the process . They find the tracker Black Widow placed on Stucker’s ship but Strucker was already a step ahead

Hulk and Cap face those new dreadnaughts. Cap reminds Hulk to watch out for civilians (erm, I have yet to see any in this episode) and Hulk gets grouchy. Cap gives the usually motivational speech, telling Hulk he’s a hero.

The cosmic cube attains full power but before M.O.D.O.C. can use it his ship is shot down. Maria shows she has real priority issues in a crisis. Telling Iron Man if they don’t surrender to S.H.I.E.L.D., they’ll be treated as criminals.

Strucker defeats M.O.D.O.C., whose powers can’t be used against his dreadnaughts. He’s about to touch the cube and the only way for the Avengers to succeed is for a shot  from Hawkeye to bring Ant-man into the fold. Struckers sends his dreadnaughts to distract him

Iron Man is knocked into the water by a shield blast but thankfully Thor and Black Panther arrive. Iron man recovers and Maria tells the Heli-carrier to fire on them (seriously, Maria! You could be out there saving lives right now, instead you’re stopping others from doing the same thing, you’re an idiot!) A HYDRA automaton ship thing attacks the Heli-carrier, Iron Man orders the avengers to save it

Strucker makes a run for the cube but Cap arrives in time to stop him, they fight, with Cap gaining the upper hand until Strucker touches him with his robo-hand and absorbs his energy or something.  Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Hulk arrive to help eventually returning Cap’s strength back. They both make a run from the cube and touch it at the same time.

Nothing changes and Strucker is arrested. Maria gives some hints of Civil War. Black Widow says she has to find Nick Fury. We see back when Bucky was supposedly killed that he too survived and fell into the water.

It’s a strong episode but really the wrong one for the Civil War foreshadowing. It makes Maria hill look like a woman who lacks priorities.

Rating 8/10

Ultron 5

We begin with the Avengers taking on the Serpent Society. Ant-man interrupts the stand-off wanting to work out a peaceful solution. To be fair, they have hostages, you should not be so quick to violence.

The society got a message they’re getting support from Madame Viper and HYDRA, they attack and Hawkeye is injured – roll credits

They fight with most of the society getting away. Hank is berated for his actions, and he decides to quit the team, he discusses his feelings with Ultron who says that humanity is inherently flawed (seriously, if you’ve seen any movie involving robots at all, you should know this is never a good sign)

They have Jane Foster look over Hawkeye. The Wasp tries to get Iron Man to talk to Hank, but Iron Man is stubborn and refuses, he does understand why Hank wants to quit. The Wasp however decides to go and stop him. Thor asks Iron Man for help in returning to Asgard in what actually is a good development of his distrust of technology.

Hulk and the Black Panther arrive. They had captured the Red Ghost and his super-apes, who had received schematics for the Baxter Building from an anonymous tip. Iron man decides this is worth investigating. He discovers the message came from inside the mansion. But before long his systems are overridden and his suit begins to attack Thor

Hulk is sent into space with the Red Ghost, Black Panther is attacked by the other Quinjet and Hawkeye and Cap are attacked in the training room (Hank and the Wasp have already been detained) Iron Man manages to regain control just long enough to tell Thor to hit him with everything he’s got, this time doing that shorts out his systems (guess last time it was slightly less than everything)

The others manage to escape their traps with relative ease and they come to confront Ultron. Thor charges in and is seemingly killed. Yeah, if you think he’s really dead given who the main villains of this series are I have this bridge I’d like to sell you

Tony awakens Hank and tells him that Thor is dead. The Wasp manages to escape confinement by growing, an ability rarely shown because clearly it doesn’t leave her in a great state. The fight continues but even Hanks interventions don’t seem to do anything. The Hulk arrives having dealt with the Red Ghost and manages to be completely unaffected by the blast that killed Thor. I smell bullsh*t, anyway he rips Ultron in half and Hank destroys its power core, shutting it down, or does it?

Thor awakens (see, told you he wasn’t dead) in the grip of the Enchantress. Hank destroys everything Ultron related accept a head which warns that an upload has completed. It’s another strong episode. Particularly nice for Hank’s character. I actually quite like his pacifist roots, it fits pretty well with the kind of person he’ll eventually become and provides nice motivations for how Ultron got the power it did.

Rating 9/10

The Ultron Imperative

So, we’ve seen Ultron practically wipe the floor with the Avengers but now he’s taking on the world, hacking into dozens of military systems and announcing his intention to wipe out humanity.

We start with the avengers mourning Thor, Cap’s in the hospital from his injuries and things are only set to get worse. Hank begins to contemplate what exactly went wrong with his machines (I mean, you designed a robot to create peace and rehabilitate criminals and then taught it the concept of violence, what did you think was going to happen) Hank blames himself since it was his brainwaves that were mapped onto the machine. Tony discovers that Ultron has been uploading himself into new bodies and he did it last after his defeat.

Someone takes control of all the Iron Man suits at the mansion (ok, it's Ultron) whilst at Stark Tower Ultron flies away. The suits begin to attack the avengers.

Ultron bursts on board the heli-carrier, taking out the majority of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents on the bridge. Ultron wants the security codes for the S.H.I.E.L.D. nuclear arsenal which only Maria Hill possesses.  Thor meanwhile is under the Enchantress’ spell but he begins to resist it. He demands to be returned to Midgard and the Enchantress angrily obliges

Iron Man intervenes using his prototype armour, the Hulkbuster armour and the invisible armour are destroyed but the Heli-carrier attack is a priority. Hawkeye and Black Panther are left to deal with the remaining Iron Man suits whilst Iron Man, Hulk and Wasp head the Heli-carrier.

Ultron scans and replicates Maria Hill’s mind but before he starts commanding the launch the Avengers intervene but Ultron converts Hulk to Banner (he can do that?) and without him they’re badly outmatched. Ultron releases the full S.H.I.E.L.D. nuclear missile arsenal, intending to wipe out all life.

The remaining Iron Man suits are taken out by Thor, a very angry Thor. Thor then intervenes at the Heli-carrier, bringing in Black Panther and Hawkeye to distract Ultron. Maria Hill can recall or remotely detonate the missiles without unleashing the nuclear warheads but she’s locked out of the system.

Ultron unveils guns from a modified Stark Industries body (because he didn’t already have weaponry apparently?) Hawkeye uses his shield disrupting arrow (he has one of those now) to disrupt Ultron’s shield as Ant-man arrives on the scene. Ant-man flies into Ultron’s processing codes and adds a logic component to Ultron, shutting him down.

With only seconds to spare he detonates all the missiles, thankfully doing no damage whatsoever. Hank had noticed a flaw in Ultron’s logic, since his programming is based on the human mind, he has a flaw that means he couldn’t exist in his own imperative.

This episode is largely an action episode and it makes perfect sense, if anything I think they made Ultron a little too powerful in these episodes, it does make his future appearances feel a little unsatisfying, but we’ll get to that next season.

Rating 8/10

The Hostage Earth

We open with the Enchantress, Skurge and the Grey Gargoyle attacking Carmilla, the Norn queen. Upon her defeat they kill the Grey Gargoyle (for some reason). They return to the Masters of Evil, now joined by Chemistro and the Living Laser with their prize, the means for them to become the masters of Earth.

Iron Man demonstrates his means of returning Thor to Asgard. They use a weak point in the dimensional barrier and a machine to create a wormhole. Cap says it reminds him of the machine the Red Skull used to bring out monsters.

The Wasp tries to stop Hank from leaving (again) but fails as Cap tells his story. The HYDRA base is at one of the weak points. JARVIS detects an energy flux at each of the locations, aside from one in an active volcano (the gates to Muspelheim) they split up to investigate.

The wasp lands in the Arctic/Antarctic and lays eyes on the Norn stone, she is then ambushed by the Abomination. Iron Man is attacked by the living laser. Cap lays eyes upon one and is confronted by the Crimson Dynamo (no doubt disappointed that it isn’t Iron Man) Hawkeye is confronted by Chemistro, Black Panther is confronted by Wonde-rman. The Hulk meanwhile has to contend with the Executioner. Thor lands at the former HYDRA base and encounters Zemo and the Enchantress

Zemo manages to knock out Thor and portals begin to open. As Abomination is about to kill the Wasp an angry Giant0man punches him down a portal opens and frost giants appear, with Hawkeye pixie creatures and light elves appear. With Cap ghost creatures appear. Thor warns Zemo not to trust the Enchantress, but Zemo never did, he locks a control device around her neck, so the armies of Asgard will answer to him. The Executioner is knocked away leaving the Hulk with his axe.

Black Panther wards Wonder-man away leaving him to face the dark elves before. Thor knocks Zemo down with his hammer and tells the Avengers to destroy the stones and they do so. Whilst the magical activity has ceased JARVIS cannot detect the Avengers. Thor wakes up on Asgard to discover Loki on the throne.

Be prepared for a lot of action. These episodes deliver it in droves and yet none of it feels superfluous because it’s weaved into a very tight narrative, the leading conclusion to the masters of evil arc that’s been building since the series began.

Rating 9/10

The Fall of Asgard

Hawkeye awakens in the realm of Alpheim and discovers a light elf running from Loki’s forces.

Loki gloats about exactly how his plan came to pass. With Thor not on Asgard defending Odin while he slumbered Loki found a way to tap into his power. He has conquered 7 of the 9 realms, and whilst Muspelheim doesn’t interest him at all Midgard is the only realm that remains

Hank and Janet wake up in Jotenheim and are attacked by the frost giants. Cap awakens in Niffleheim hearing voices from his long dead friends. Hulk awakens in Vanaheim to find trolls (I think) carrying prisoners, the Hulk confronts them and they attack.

Iron Man wakes up on Nedavilir being taken into a cave by the Dwarf King, they head to the forge, the last stronghold of the realm and an Uru production plant. They are attacked by a creature, Iron Man knocks him back with the one operational hand he has remaining.

Hawkeye is rescued by a light elf who allows him use of his special arrows. Hulk easily takes out the trolls, using the executioner’s axe. Loki continues to gloat: his attack on Asgard was meant to fail, knowing he’d be exiled. He influenced an argument between him and his father forcing him to Midgard. He was the one who caused the breakout, and he instructed the Enchantresses to create the Masters of Evil.

Hank is knocked back when the frost giant leader uses the casket of ancient winters. He grows free and is backed up by Lady Sif and the Valkyries. With Ant Man and the Wasp rescued they retreat. The Black Panther finds another portal and dives through it. The Hulk defeats the captors and rescues the prisoners, including the Warriors 3. Cap is weakened by the appearances of fallen comrades but eventually finds the strength to overcome it.

Hawkeye and the Light elf, Faraday use the last of their arrows but they’re aided by the Black Panther in holding off the last of Loki’s forces. With no suit left remaining Tony uses the sword to unseal his arc reactor, defeating the monster. The Dwarf King replaces the seal, saving Tony’s life.

This episode is largely made up of more action but the narrative is so well constructed it doesn’t matter that little is actually accomplished here.

Rating 8.5/10

A day unlike any other

In the Forge, Tony Stark and the Dwarf King work on creating the suit whilst the Sif, the Valkyries, Ant-man and the Wasp head to Asgard, Hawkeye and the Black Panther do the same on a separate vessel as do Hulk and the Warriors 3.

The Bifrost opens to the Hulk  and the warriors 3 smashing their way through the frost giants. They are soon given back up by Giant Man, the Wasp, Lady Sif and the Valkyries. Then soon after by Hawkeye, Black Panther and Faraday, who had already been successful in their sneak attack before the others ruined it. They take down the remaining pawns.

Cap talks to Hela, the leader of Niffleheim. He says his work isn’t done. Hela knows that Loki will betray her eventually. Hela offers to take Cap to Asgard on the condition that if Loki beats him, she claims his soul. Loki is told of the incoming attack and summons Horfun, the Ice Wolf, to attack the Avengers. They are aided by the return of Cap, and between them they manage to take it down and crash it into the palace.

Loki isn’t even slightly fazed and he soon shows why as he takes them all down with ease, even managing to shatter Cap’s shield, much to his horror. As Loki prepares to finish them off, he encounters Uru man. You know there’s a step between making a hammer and a fully functional suit of Iron Man armour. I’m smelling slight hints of bullsh*t.

Using this distraction, Hank and co. manage to rescue Thor. He reveals that Loki must have corrupted Yggdracil, the Tree of Life to command the Odin force, if they can break his connection they can reduce Loki to his regular power. However the tree holds all of reality together so destroying it may be a bad idea.

As Asgard’s ravens attack leaving only Ant-man able to deal with the tree, Loki begins to lose control of the Odin force. Giant Man uplifts the tree and a new one grows in its place, the Odin force is returned to its rightful owner. Odin confronts Loki and banishes him to a different isle.

Thor reveals that the Avengers are responsible for the defeat of Loki and should be respected. Odin gives his thanks to the Avengers, calling them the mightiest heroes in the 9 realms. Loki is left under the watchful eye of… I think that’s the Midgard serpent.

Time for baiting! Cap returns to his room with the remains of his shield. He’s knocked out by a guy in the same uniform as him, a skrull impostor.

It’s very rare that you can have a villain that’s all-powerful and have been satisfactorily defeated. They’ve done it with Ultron, they did it again with Loki, that takes some major writing talents, kudos to those on the writing team of the show. The animation is brilliant (I have a suspicion it might’ve been my television as opposed to the animation causing the glitches in the earlier episodes) and music was always entertaining. We’ll return for season 2 in the near future as the cast expands a new threats emerge.

Rating 9.5/10

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