First of all before I get into my review of the latest three part episode of ‘The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’, I want to say first and foremost that I am writing this review as a hardcore Captain America fan, and thus my review will be from this perspective. By the end of the article I am sure that you will be able to see how much I love this character and that when I watch this show I am watching it as a Cap fan.
Now onto the review. I want to say that I love this show and look forward to watching the latest episode every week. I believe that the latest three part episode could be a changing point for this show. Traditionally, Captain America has been seen as the unquestioned leader of the Avengers in the comic books. Even during the mega storyline, Secret Wars, where a group of heroes were collected to battle a group of the world’s greatest villains, Captain America was nominated as the leader of the heroes. Cap has always been the first one in and the last one out, the fearless and honorable leader of the group. This is how I have known him since I was a child, while running around playing with my Captain America action figure. This however is not how he has been portrayed on the Avengers EMH animated series though.
On the current series Iron Man has been shown as the leader of the group, even screaming out Cap’s iconic line of ‘Avengers assemble’. I truly believe that the decision to make Iron Man the leader of the group is entirely due to the success of Marvel’s first independently produced film, the much beloved ’Iron Man’. While I fear that the film version of the Avengers may also make Iron Man the leader of the group, I am hoping that the director, Joss Whedon, will stick to the tradition of the classic Avengers and have Captain America in his rightful role as the leader of the team.
At first I was not pleased with Cap not being the leader of the group but I have grown to accept it and I am just enjoying watching my childhood hero on television every week.. Having said this, after watching the last three episodes of the series, based on Kang the Conqueror attacking earth, I actually began to feel a change in the way that Cap was being portrayed.
The show starts out with Steve Rogers and Tony Stark discussing the use of technology versus basic fighting techniques in a battle. Tony is certain that he does not need to know how to ‘fight’ in order to combat criminals when he has his technology at his finger tips. After Cap lays the smack down on an armor less Tony they are attacked by a future ruler known as Kang the Conqueror. Kang says he has come from the future to kill Captain America because he is not suppose to be in the current timeline.
Cap, Iron Man, and eventually the rest of the Avengers battle Kang at the Avengers mansion. Kang, who easily beats the team, takes the Avengers ten years into the future, where they see New York in flames and the sun in a deformed state. Kang tells the team that this is the result of Captain America’s presence during a war between two alien races. Kang offers to help the world by destroying Captain America and then conquering earth, advancing the military, and making the world strong enough to protect itself from the coming war.
After Cap offers to give himself up the other Avengers decide that they will not let their planet be ruled by Kang, even if his plan might work. The team battles the conqueror again and is unable to stop him until Tony is able to hack Kang’s advanced chair and send them back to their own time. Kang retreats and the team seems to have won for the day. That concludes the first episode.
The second episode is about Kang’s forces coming to earth and invading the entire planet. We see the city under attack and then that is when we view one of my favorite moments of the show. Two young kids are running away from the giant robots that are chasing them. One of the kids is knocked to the ground and so his friend comes to help him get back up, that is when they are faced with a thirty foot robot pointing its weapon at the two of them. Just as it fires its weapon Cap jumps in front of the two boys and protects them with his shield. He then defeats the robot and screams out the two words I have been waiting for him to say the entire series, ‘Avengers Assemble!!!’.
The team then begins to battle the army of robots and that is when we see Cap take front and center showing his leadership qualities. He starts to give tactical commands to each of the Avengers, he even shouts an order to the monstrous Hulk. As the Hulk looked back down at Cap, clearly not happy with being told what to do, I found myself in Cap’s shoes for that split second and imagined myself repeating the statement, but in a much nicer way and asking please…but not the Sentinel of Liberty. Cap looks at the Hulk, never backing down, and shouts ‘Move!’.
When the Avengers meet back at HQ Tony is clearly frustrated, and so Cap takes charge of the situation. He tells Tony to find Kang while the others get back to the streets and help the citizens. During the rest of the episode Tony is looking for a way to locate Kang, while Cap and the others reprogram Ant-Man’s army of robots, known as Ultron, into fighters in order to help them defeat Kang’s invading forces. They send many of Kang’s forces back to the future, while Tony is unable to find Kang himself, until the very end of the episode. This concludes the second chapter of the trilogy.
The third episode shows the team going into space and attacking Kang’s ship. After dealing with some minions the team finally encounters Kang himself. After a brave fight Captain America and Iron Man are left to battle Kang alone. The two are eventually able to defeat Kang and send him to a high tech prison. Here Kang informs Cap and Iron Man that Cap will betray the world and that the apocalyptic future will come. The last shot shows Tony and Steve looking at Kang in an iconic pose. To me, this symbolized the two becoming equals and ready to face the future together.
Overall I would have to say that I quite enjoyed this story arch and look forward to seeing it play out in the future. Although Kang the Conqueror is not my favorite villain, I did still enjoy seeing the episode play out. Another small easter egg that I enjoyed was a glimpse at a blonde female SHIELD agent who resembled Captain America’s love interest, Sharon Carter.
I believe that this is a great show and that the future looks very bright for it. Having said all of this I would like to point out that I believe a spin off show about Captain America working with SHIELD and showcasing his solo adventures would be an amazing half hour animated series. The show could highlight more of his villains, his partnerships with other heroes such as Falcon and Nomad, give us flash backs of Cap’s adventures during the war and show off the Invaders, and also build his working relationship with Nick Fury as well as his romantic relationship with Sharon Carter. To me this would be a series come true and hopefully Marvel has something like this planned in the future.
Until then sound off on what you thought of the show and how does a Captain America spin off series sound to you?