Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

[Avaitor]

I've been wanting to catch up on this show for a while. As a big Avengers fan, I was really pumped up to get a new series featuring the team with actual effort put into it, unlike the 90's show. But since I tend to avoid Disney XD like the plague, I never got around to watching the show, until about a week ago when I decided to see it for myself.

So I've been watching it online and have already caught up with the US broadcast schedule. The rest of the first season has aired in Australia already and I'm going to finish it later, but I wanted to make this thread after I caught up to see if anyone else is watching it.

So far, it's a great Avenger show and pretty good series in general. It's a little slow and wonky like Justice League's first season, but I think it's improved greatly since the first few episodes and has already surpassed that. If it keeps up the good streak it's been going through with the Kang episodes especially, which I thought were epic, then it has a chance of topping JL for me.

All the characters are done very well and get plenty of development first in the microsodes that aired before the pilot, which are compiled into a few episodes and are required viewing, and later during the series. I think Hawkeye especially has been done well. He's able to call out all the faults the team has, like Iron Man's initial ineptitude regarding leadership, Wasp's carefree attitude, and Cap and Thor's relatively ancient methods of teamwork, but is also able to do something about what he's complaining about and holds his own. The other characters get a chance to prove their worth and work on their problems throughout as well.

The action is also very well done. The stronger members have a couple of good solo brawls, like Iron Man and Thor's, and there have been a bunch of good team-ups and meshs as well. The animation can be a little wonky on the show, but the fight scenes are always done impressively.

I'll talk some more about the show when I watch the rest of the season, but first I have to know if anyone else is watching.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I checked out the first episode just a while ago. I have to admit I got pretty lost as to what was going on in the plot kind of quickly, not necessarily because I was unfamiliar with some of the heroes and characters featured in it, but it seemed to be jumping around to show a bunch of characters in one episode. I'm not exactly sure what the micro-episodes are or what order they even go in, but I should probably watch those before going onto episode 2 since Avaitor told me to watch some of those first.

Overall, though I thought it was kind of a rushed start, but maybe that might be for the better if that means it gets to more important plot point episodes earlier on (well, I'm sure this series is mostly episodic, but I heard somewhere that it has a bit of a main plot going on in the background).

[Avaitor]

Wait, did you watch both parts of the pilot, or just the first half?

I'll send you the episodes compiling the microsodes in a bit. There isn't an actual order for you to watch them, but you might as well watch them in the episodes they come from.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I meant to say that I had watched the entire pilot, but I kind of just counted it together as one episode, even though its technically 2 separate episodes, I guess.

[Avaitor]

Ah.

Well, I saw the pilot first, then the microsodes. I enjoyed it but thought that there was too much going on. The next few episodes aren't too much better and still have that problem going on, but by the next two parter, the pacing becomes a little better. It's worth sitting through.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I watched the Microepisodes first and watched the show and thought it was easy to understand. It all builds up to the premiere.

The show's okay. It has kind of the same problem I have with W&TXM where something is keeping me from enjoying it to its fullest. I can't quite put my finger on it, though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I'm currently 6 episodes into the show (I'm assuming the episodes I've been watching so far, excluding the first 2, are the micro-episode compilations). Up to this point, I'd say that the most interesting episode for me was The Hulk's episode. I liked how they portrayed The Hulk still having enough human elements from Bruce Banner in him to be more intelligent than the "mindless ogre" that the film adaptations have portrayed him as, which felt a bit refreshing to me (but then again that's probably just being more faithful to the comics).

The Captain America episode seemed like a good throwback sort of episode with the classic comic book feel it had going for it (at least that's what I think they were going for, based on the whole tone of the episode and how the dialogue usually played out). the other episodes so far didn't leave too much of an impact on me, honestly, but none of them were bad or totally boring, so the show seems fairly decent, so far. Still, I think its main weakness up to this point is that it hasn't really managed to make me care about any of the characters that much except for The Hulk (and maybe that's just me, but so far I think he's the most interesting character that I've seen in this series up until now, to be honest). In comparison, I already feel like I care about most of the characters from Young Justice, but to be fair I'm still only 6 episodes into Avengers, so I'm sure it'll pick up its pace after I get past the micro-episode compilations.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I'm currently 19 episodes into the show, now. The three-parter with Kang as the villain really felt like the first time in the series that it was a situation so big that it truly called for The Avengers to handle it together rather than a situation which probably could have been handled by 1 or 2 heroes (though, to be fair, most of the previous episodes usually only featured varied parts of the team rather than all of them at once). Overall though I thought it was a pretty good three-parter. One thing that got on my nerves about it a bit, though, was how many times they pulled the "villain has the hero in his grasp but misses a chance to kill him because he won't shut up with his speech" card. At first I thought of this being done on purpose as more of a throwback to older comics and classic villains and such, but in the bigger situations like this that are much more serious with higher stakes, it just sort of puts me off, especially since Kang was making such a big deal about how Captain America needed to die to save the future, but had plenty of opportunities to kill him had he not wasted time talking about it so much (the first time was OK, but every time after that just made no sense to me).

That said, I should say some more positive things about this series since on the whole I have found myself enjoying it more than I initially did. Then again, I find that the quality kind of varies between episodes. I haven't seen a single episode that is downright bad, which is a good thing, but there were a few that were pretty meh. Most are fairly entertaining, though, and the best can be really exciting to watch, like the Kang three-parter (minus the few plot cliches that kind of ticked me off).

As far as characters go, I still find The Hulk to be the most interesting of the group, though a bit less than before since they haven't focused on his character that much in the later parts of this season. Captain America is a pretty interesting character, being that this is the first time that I have seen him featured as a regular on any animated superhero show that I have watched (and I'm pretty unfamiliar with him in the comics being that I still haven't had the opportunity to read any), so this is probably the most exposure that I've gotten to his character at one time. I can't really say how good or bad it is in terms of being a faithful adaptation from the comic books, though. Personally, I thought it was most interesting to see how he first reacted to being revived in the present day, where everyone he knew from the past were already long-since dead (except for one of his arch enemies, anyways).

In terms of most bland characters, I'd have to go with Ant Man and Wasp. Ant Man doesn't particularly annoy me or anything, but I can't help but feel indifferent towards him, and Wasp can get really irritating at times. As for the rest of the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, and Hawk Eye kind of fluctuate for me. They can be interesting at certain times but kind of average at other points in the series, but at no point do I ever really feel bored watching them, so you could still say that's a good thing.

Nick Fury kind of comes off as an ass-hole to me, but maybe that's just me....

Overall, though, its certainly an above average superhero show. Maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on it with some of my criticisms due to inevitably feeling the need to compare it (more so in my mind when I'm watching it) to Marvel's best animated production thus far, The Spectacular Spider-Man, and to a lesser extent the contemporary running DC animated series, Young Justice, but the bottom line is that I do still enjoy this show for what it is, and in the end that's probably all that really matters.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I couldn't help but compare the show to SSM and Young Justice. Compared to those, Avengers misses the mark, but it doesn't have a genius like Weisman working on it, so that's not too surprising. I like it as much as I do because I really like the team and characters, and feel that they've been given a better portrayal on this show than in just about any other media so far, aside from the Iron Man movies.

Hulk has a really epic part near the end of the first season. A few of them, actually. I won't say what, but I will say that it's related to Thor. And the reason he's so underused is that Hulk has never been an Avenger for too long of a period of time. Hell, he left the team in the very second issue. I'm surprised that he's stayed with them for so long, but he'll probably continue to come and go throughout.

Speaking of Hulk and Thor, I also want to say that I really like their connection together. They start off hating each other a little, both being the incredibly powerful, hotheaded characters they are, but I feel like they've grown a strong bond since then. Those small moments when they show one of the characters really worried about the other for the time being work especially well, since it feels like they've both become better at balancing their emotions since the beginning.

I really like how they handled Cap, myself. He's always been the leader of the team since his rebirth, so to speak, and he already comes out to take charge when he's out. His discussions with Iron Man about teamwork and the group add to their relationship and help to build his character. Everything else about him works well, too.

Wasp I think is supposed to be annoying. She has the carefree, feminine touch that the group needs, but sometimes gets a little too rambunctious. When her softer side shows, she becomes a better character.

And yeah, Fury is an asshole. He always kind of has been, and his recent appearances, including the ep of W&TXM with him and Hulk, build on that even more. It's kind of fun sometimes, annoying others.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Indeed, I rather enjoyed the dynamic character interactions between the Hulk and Thor, and for that matter I think I enjoyed the ways the characters interacted in this series more than the actual characters alone themselves (and to be honest, that's what these team-based superhero shows should be aiming for, anyways).

Anyways, I finished the first season. I kind of hate it when a season ends on such a blatant cliffhanger, but the finale itself was pretty good. To be honest, though, I feel that the Kang trilogy of episodes should have been the season finale, since Kang himself felt like a more serious threat than Loki, who in this series he seemed to be one of those villains who was just way too overconfident and underestimated the heroes too much that you kind of knew he'd get what was coming to him without a doubt (I don't know if he was in the comics, and if he was I don't know how big of a villain he was so I wouldn't be able to make an proper comparisons here anyways). It was pretty cool that his plan involved all of the 9 different realms, though, and Iron Man's Mjolnir armor was pretty bad-ass (it'd be nice if he actually got to keep it, rather than inexplicably never using it again in the 2nd season), so there were definitely some really cool things about the finale. I can't help but feel the ending was a little rushed, though.

I was kind of disappointed that they didn't expand on that plot point that was hinted at by Kang, but I suppose they are saving that to play a major part in the 2nd season. I also wanted to see what would happen after we got to see a brief glimpse that Captain America's side-kick was still alive and got warped into the modern day where he was, but I guess that they are also saving that for season 2, which is kind of a letdown but if it turns out to be worth waiting for then I won't complain when I actually see it. Also, I do have to admit that I like the idea of giving off hints of future events to come, as it helps build them up and makes them feel even more significant when they do actually happen, rather than something happening out of the blue.

Anyways, I enjoyed this first season of the Avengers on the whole. While its by no means a favorite of mine, the series does have a lot of promise and potential and "could" be as great as something like TSSM if they improve it enough in the 2nd season (which I assume is going to happen, being that they left us off on that blatant cliffhanger). The important thing to note is that I am in fact interested in seeing a 2nd season, so that does show that I liked what I saw enough to be left wanting more. I just hope that the writers can take what worked about the 1st season, improve on it (like further developing/expanding the characters and their mythos in this series), and remove the little kinks and flaws that held the 1st season back from being great. Even if it doesn't have the talent of someone like Greg Weisman working on it, the quality certainly can pick up since the writers of this series have proven to be more than capable of putting together good stories when they really get the characters and plot to click together just right.

[Avaitor]

Kane would have been a good choice (he does play a big part in the comics too, BTW), but I think Loki being the big bad for the season works as crosspromotion for the Thor movie. It would if the US would air the rest of the season by the time the movie comes out, but that's not happening. Maybe it should've been Zemo or Red Skull so they could do that for Captain America, I don't know, but I've always been a big fan of the brotherly feud between Thor and Loki, so I enjoyed his use.

Yeah, I think a few of those ideas are being saved for season 2. There's a lot the writers wanted to go through with season 1, which is why they stuck to the basics. I just wonder if they'll have the time to delve into all of that if the Kree-Skrull war takes all season.

I think what may be the show's problem is that it's in between the original Justice League and Unlimited in terms of team dynamics and effort- you have a core group of Avengers set already, but it seems like they're getting ready for the team to have a revolving door of members throughout, meaning that some members will have less development than others and may require you having an understanding of the comics and characters to really appreciate their presence. So the show will basically be a combination of safe super hero entertainment for casuals and fanservice for comic nerds, which can and probably will be both a good and bad thing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm just hoping that this show doesn't get canceled prematurely for some reason while its 2nd season is in the middle of production or something like that. I always get that uneasy feeling that stuff like that will end up happening to decent to good shows these days, such as The Spectacular Spider-man, which was clearly set-up and ready for a 3rd season until some assholes decided to pull the plug on the series for no reason.

[Avaitor]

I doubt that's going to happen. SSM, W&TXM and the Iron Man show were casualties of Disney and Marvel's merger, and since Sony owned them, they didn't get saved.

Disney owns A:EMH lock, stock and barrel and the show seems to be doing well, so there's very little chance of that happening.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's good to know. While I do love my short but sweet series around 26-episodes long, I have to admit that I have been desiring at least one good superhero show that can stay around for quite a bit longer than that.

Anyways, what are your thoughts on what you would want to see in season 2? And what do you think it would take to get the series to go from the status of being just above average/good to being great and memorable in terms of quality?

[Avaitor]

The Kree-Skrull War seems like a given based on the cliffhanger, and I'd like to see more stories for Captain America, past or present.

I think if the show keeps up what it's doing now in season 2, it has the potential to become a great show. The Avengers group we've become attached to have become finely developed and the stories have been faithful to the original comics without being too derivative of them. Just keep things up like this and it'll continue to remain worth watching.