I've said before that I love cartoons. Based on the cartoons I've talked about here before, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out that I also like superhero stories, and like everyone I've been mostly impressed with the recent live action Marvel Comics movies. So based on the evidence, it can't be hard to conclude that I was a fan of the recent cartoon series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Also, because I'm sentimental as all getout, you can probably figure that I wasn't very excited when EMHs was cancelled in favor of a new Avengers cartoon meant to more closely resemble the Ultimate Spider-Man series that currently wastes thirty to sixty minutes of good airtime every Sunday morning on Disney XD (Glob, I hate that show). Well, kiddies, it turns out that the two part premier episode of Avengers Assemble is up online, and I've found the time to check it out. Short story: it's pretty good. Long story: well, keep reading because it gets pretty complicated.
As this is a TV release, I'm not going to worry about avoiding spoilers (sorry), and so let's jump right into the story. We start things off with Iron Stalker spying on his now former teammates, as a noodle incident has caused them to go their separate ways since curb stomping Galactus in the EMHs finale. He wants to jump in and help someone, as he's too rich to work and it's made him bored, but he doesn't want to step on anyone's toes. So he has JARVIS calculate the probabilities that the former Avengers (apparently not counting Wasp, Yellowjacket, Vision, Black Panther, or Ms. Marvel, because I guess they weren't important characters or anything) will win their various fights. If they can make it on there own, he stays out. Meanwhile Captain America is fighting some Hydra goons when the assumed-dead Red Skull appears to make things harder for him. Tony jumps into action, but he's a little too late and Cap is vaporized by an energy beam that looks a lot like a teleporter. Tony gets pissed and attacks Skull and his goons, only to find that MODOK, of A.I.M, is working with Red Skull. Tony can't beat MODOK as MODOK can control tech with his mind, and MODOK and Skull escape into a portal, the energy of which looks a lot like the energy beam that "vaporized" Cap a little earlier, and leave Iron Man alive for some reason, even though both of these villains are cold-hearted murderers (gotta love plot contrivances).
Iron Man makes his way back to the Tony Cave and calls together Hawkeye, Hulk, and Thor, and an entirely new character who we've never seen before and in fact is unknown to the world even though he was a prominent minor character in the previous series, Falcon, who here is Tony's apprentice (an interesting addition) and a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. until he is fired for choosing Tony's call to arms over his orders. They speed off to find Red Skull and avenge their fallen comrade, with the designated estrogen, Black Widow, following them, as she has been spying on Tony for the government and doesn't think he and the Guy Squad can handle their mission alone (she's right, by the way).
The team flies to Remotesnowyplaceistan and immediately lose their jet and come under fire from Skull and MODOK's mooksquad, as well as some automated gun turrets that actually seem to be shooting bullets rather than the cartoon-standard laser beams (because those are somehow less violent). Everyone gets to show off their abilities in some pretty cool ways, but Iron Man has trouble commanding them effectively (or at all, really), especially after he runs off to fight Red Skull and that one big-headed guy who he literally cannot defeat alone, completely alone (smart plan, Tony). The Avengers who are not Iron Man and who are therefor allowed to work together in this episode are working together, but it's not enough, until Widow shows up and tips the scales. They charge in to help Tony who has discovered that, in a surprising twists worthy of M. Night Shyamalan, Cap is still alive (gasp!). He frees Cap from a sinister machine that is obviously a mind switch machine, as Skull is also in it, and energy is passing between them, only to discover that (another gasp!) Red Skull and Cap have switched bodies! The Avengers defeat Skull Cap (pun intended), and put the two super soldiers into their correct bodies, but MODOK is still a thing. He uses his technokinetic powers to put Tony's armor and chest reactor on Red Skull, making him stronger and starting Tony on the path to Death's doorstep. The Avengers must let Skull and MODOK escape so that all of them can do the one man job of using Black Widows awesome flying car to get Tony back home in time to not die.
They make it in time, of course, and Tony dons a new armor that isn't finished and hasn't been tested, while Red Skull gives his new armor a snazzy black repaint that also somehow turns the energy given off by the repulsors red. Skull and MODOK attack the Avengers, Skull directly, and MODOK from a distance using nanobots that give him the power to brain control the Avengers, amping up the tension they feel toward each other. Only Tony, with his full body armor, is immune, but his armor actually turns out not to be ready, as he was informed earlier by JARVIS, and he needs to fix it before going in and saving everyone. He gets his armor working well enough to blast MODOK and free the others from his control, but that's it, and Iron Skull is still a thing, so Iron Man must (a third gasp!) lead the other Avengers and form a plan that they can use to take down what was formerly his armor and defeat Red Skull once again. Red Skull sees that he's lost and escapes, but not before he triggers the Avengers Mansion ARK reactor to explode. Under direction from Iron Man, Falcon and Thor combine their powers to direct the blast from the explosion into space and save New York. They move into Stark Tower (from the movie) and are the Avengers once more. Huzzah!
So yeah, the two part premier actually shaped up to be a pretty good forty-four minutes of TV. It was action-packed, with witty dialogue, a story with just under the acceptable number of plot holes for an episode that was dominated by the need to introduce an entire team of colorful characters. There was some great banter between the Avengers characters, including some very cool scenes showing a very violent rivalry between Hulk and Thor, and the characterization of everyone was not only good, but pretty consistent with their characterizations in EMHs. Hulk even has Fred Tatasciore, his voice from EMHs, as a voice actor here. The new voices for everyone else are for the most part really good, and even though it also seems a bit unpolished at points, the animation is acceptable, even if I prefer the art style of the previous series a bit more. The vague references to the Avengers' past acknowledges the past series, while the vagueness allows for possible retcons down the line. The well-scripted battle scenes give the Avengers a good chance to show off their unique abilities, such as Hulk and Thor shielding the normies from some bullets, and Hawkeye making use of his specialty arrows. Overall, I'd call the premier episodes a success. Not to say there aren't problems.
Some of the issues I have in this show are, surprisingly, directly related to some of the things I liked the most about it. While the dialogue was witty and sharp, the quick leap into action made certain that most of that dialogue was delivered in combat. This makes me worry that the good character building present in EMHs will be overlooked in favor of action and humor, much like how it is in *shudder* Ultimate Spider-Man. I mentioned that the animation sometimes feels unpolished, and that's not the only issue with the visuals. They also do this thing where the camera zooms in to a widescreen shot, probably for emphasis, and while it's an interesting idea, I find it very distracting. Also, while the dialogue between the mind-controlled Avengers is mostly good and makes sense, when Cap and Falcon are affected, the things that the nanites drudge up to turn them aggressive feel forced, as in this retconned continuity Cap and Falcon don't know each other, and there can't be any real tension between them. Thor and Hulk, makes sense, since they're rivals. Hawkeye and Widow, makes sense since they have history, not all of which is good. Cap and Falcon, however, have barely interacted, so they end up making generic comments that mean nothing to anything, and fighting for no good reason. Finally, the exclusion of the characters mentioned above as having been missing from this series leaves a bad taste in my mouth. True, this is a new show and so the cast must remain small so it can grow, but leaving major characters out really undermines the development they received in the previous show. It leaves me worrying that, when these characters eventually return, the series being such a loose sequel will give the writers an excuse to reinvent these characters completely, and that's something I really don't want to see.
Of course your mileage may vary, and these negatives may be a much bigger or not as big a deal to you as they are to me, but I was actually pretty satisfied with this premier as a whole. It didn't immediately alienate me by ignoring the carefully-constructed continuity of the previous series, but it also gave itself room to grow into a series of its own by changing things up, and by leaving us with a bit of a cliffhanger. At the end we see Iron Skull calling together his own anti-Avengers, complete with badass silhouettes of his potential future teammates. It is, so far, a good show, with potential to become a great one. The writing seems mostly solid. The art is good with room to grow. It's not perfect, but I really think it can get better. Because of this I give Marvel's Avengers Assemble a higher-than-expected 7 out of 10, and I eagerly await the next installment.
Oh, and bonus fun fact, the new voice of Iron Man is Adrian Pasdar, also known as Nathan Patrelli on Heroes a few years back. While he looks a bit more like Iron Man than the previous voice actor, Eric Loomis, I think Loomis is a better-sounding Tony, and only time will tell if I can get used to the change. Otherwise it might break the show for me, which would be a bummer.
No comments:
Post a Comment