10. Breakout
While the first two episodes of the series, and technically I'm cheating by putting both on here but Breakout was a great way for the show to give us an idea of the scale and grandiose nature we were due to see in EMH. Graviton was an excellent villain and the Avengers fighting Graviton ranks up there as one of the coolest moments in the series. It may have not been deep in lore, but it made up for that by setting the stage for what was to come.
9. Behold...The Vision
The reason I like this episode so much is because it did a great job of telling Visions basic story while giving Vision a great reason to fight The Avengers. Many people seem to forget how awesome Vision is and this episode was a great introduction to newcomers and a reminder to even the most hardcore fan that you don't mess with Vision.
8. Ultron-5/The Ultron Imperative
A damn fine telling of Ultron's origins, I don't know what else to say here....
7. The Kang Dynasty
Like Vision, I felt like the three episode arc that concluded with The Kang Dynasty did a great job of giving you the background on Kang, his ominous warning regarding Captain America also laid the seeds for what was to come. All around great writing for these episodes in my opinion.
6. Infiltration/Secret Invasion
Again, I'll cheat and add these two as one entry. These two episodes concluded the Skrulls story pretty damn well in my opinion. Giving us great fights and the return of many Avengers members to the roster including Thor, Iron Man, and the non-Skrull Captain America (I got to calling his doppelganger Captain Skrull). This was such a great way to incorporate the story from the comics while also incorporating the mythology of the show. Something the show did very well over it's two season run.
5. The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill
In the search for Surtur, Thor encounters Beta Ray Bill. An excellent character in his own right, this was a great story that forged a great alliance between the two. It's also a damn shame as the loose plot threads of Surtur and Ragnarok were left unanswered when the show ended. A damn shame!
4. Assault on 42
Perhaps you have an affinity for the larger plot threads of EMH but I always found a great love for the one-off stories. Assault on 42 was a fine example of that; leading a truncated band of Avengers and allying themselves with many Avengers villains -- the battle to defend the prison from Annihilus was a great one and again, showed that the show didn't always need to rely on on-going conflicts to produce a damn fine episode.
3. Emperor Stark
Another great Vision storyline. Awaking to find that Stark had taken over the world, it's only until Vision disovers that Tony and co are under the control of the Purple Man (voiced by Data himself, Brent Spiner) it wound up being just a great episode all around but also a specific reminder as to equally powerful and vulnerable Tony really is.
2. The Fall of Asgard/A Day Unlike Any Other
When I look back at the Season 1 finale I think about how every single character had a major revelation. Captain America being replaced, Tony got to try some Asgardian armor; and ultimately the revelation that everything was a manipulation of Loki. A cool play on the classic story of the team forming to fight Loki, which happened albeit in a different fashion. For what it did, and what it set up, this was an excellent season finale.
1. Michael Korvac
Maybe it was because we got to see the Guardians on-screen finally? Maybe it was seeing the Avengers fight the Guardians? Nope (although those were all cool) on top of being a great standalone story this episode did a great job of playing with the notion of who Korvac was. He shifted from being a sympathetic victim to outright villain. His transformation is obviously truncated from the original version you saw in the comics but again the writers did a great job on this show of incorporating storylines in smart and effective ways and I think when you look back at what the show was, and what it accomplished this was it's shining achievement.
Here is what a few others had to say...