It's premiere day for Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the first major cartoon to come along since Disney bought Marvel Comics. Ultimate Spider-Man will follow later, and I've heard rumblings that there a lot more properties in animation development.
Stemming from the success of the big screen live action Avengers character films, we get some cartoon action that promises to hew much closer to the characters, stories, and costumes from the comic book. I've talked to Someone Who Knows Things at Marvel and they said that Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is going to be chock full of guest stars and will be very internally continuity heavy.
If you watched the 20-part micro episodes, you've already got a taste as to what to expect tonight. It would appear that in the premiere episode, we are getting a combination of the original Avengers origin (the original team of Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Ant-Man, and The Wasp) and the New Avengers origin (a major super villain prison break out brings the team together — will Loki be involved?). It should be a blast! I've been looking forward to it.
(The audio isn't synched in the trailer. Not much we can do about that. Also, I really hope that's not the theme song.)
I look forward to your thoughts, opinions, gripes, live-blogging, etc.
Tonight you can find the first two new episodes on Disney XD at 8:30pm / 7:30pm CST and 9pm / 8pm CST. After that new episodes will air every Wednesday at 8:30pm / 7:30 CST.
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I am watching the micro episodes right now on Disney XD and they are amazing fun! i was so surprised they were even able to get Logan into the show. i am loving this!
so far the micro episodes are way better than the actual show…
why all the derision? i like it.
why did they leave them with their costumes and weapons?! i know..i know..it’s an animated show…but, still!!!
THIS IS AWESOME!!!
well damn…the second episode was pretty good…nonstop action…will be back for next weeks episode…
Forgot it was on and then switched to Modern Family. But what I saw was rather impressive. An amazing cast of villains but the style might take some getting used to.
The Mandrill? Arnim Zola? Zzzax? GRIFFIN??? Be still my heart…it’s like they were writing this for me.
looks like its aimed for the 10 yr old crowd. Its no Batman Beyond..yeshhhhhhhhh
i laughed out loud and thought of Josh when Graviton proclaimed, " I am the strongest one!!!!!!!!!!!! ", and then the Hulk showed up.
HULK STRONGEST ONE THERE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
THEY DESTROYED BROOKLYN! YES!
I love that they have new episodes coming out on wednesdays.
Terrible theme song aside, these were, as expected after watching the 20 micro episodes, tons of fun.
(I also could have done without the DisneyXD bug blocking the scene titles, but that’s modern day TV for you.)
It sees like the series is going to be BURSTING with Marvel characters (especially villains – SO MANY VILLAINS) and thick with continuity. That’s a tough line to walk – making each episode accesible but also continuing a season long story. SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN managed to do that really well and I imagine they will be able to replicate that here.
The main character portrayals are all pretty strong. Of course, that’s probabl because after 20 micro episodes I have a lot of character development to work with. I’m not sure what’d I’d think if I didn’t already have so much backstory in my head.
I really enjoyed watching these two episodes. I’m definitely in for the long haul. This could end up being a fantasticly fun cartoon.
Random Thoughts:
– It’s good that they aired the first two episodes back-to-back because the first episode ended rather abruptly.
– Ballsy to make the first major villain someone most people watching probably haven’t heard of.
– I really liked that they found an elegant want to combine the Original and New Avengers origins into one story. I assume that it was Loki who was responsible for the prison break that will, it seems, drive the first season.
– Iron Man not knowing that Hawkeye was a hero was a nice subtle call back to Hawkeye’s early days as an Iron Man villain.
– Thor having a lemonade at an outdoor cafe? I love out of place super hero dining.
– I can’t wait for the Ultron bots to blow up in Hank’s face and come into play.
– Hulk talking to Banner? Creeepy. That’s the kind of interesting psychological stuff I like about Hulk.
– LMD!
– Hate when they show the preview for next week BEFORE the episode ends.
– As much as I want them to hurry up and get to Cap, I like that they are starting with the original Avengers line-up. I wonder if they are going to discover Cap in the fourth episode, which would be a nice touch.
I loved this show/…… Hulk Smash
i loved the LMD. maybe Hawkeye will link up with escaped criminals Screaming Mimi, Fixer, Beetle and Goliath and form the Thunderbolts! How cool would that be?!
awesome show. plus all the destruction to nyc. hope that carries on into the rest of the season.
Damage Control!
I’ve watched the first episode so far. I’m digging how they’re portraying The Leader so far. He seems, demented and kind of melodramatic. Pretty funny. Nonstop action so far.
Yes, it’s aimed at a younger crowd, but I liked it quite a bit!
@Conor, it looks like they WILL find Cap in the fourth episode. I skipped ahead on my DVR listings to find the fourth episode’s synopsis. It’s called "Living Legend" and, unlike the third episode’s synopsis, it mentions Captain America.
By the way, episode three seems to be about Hulk fighting the others after being confused by the Enchantress.
I set my DVR to record the series!
I loved it! Great mixture of New Avengers 1, Avengers 1, and Avengers 159. I’m on board totally! But since it’s on Disney and aimed at a younger crowd I will cringe when/if they introduce the teen supporting characters ala Wendy & Marvin, Wonder Twins, etc. They did that on Super Hero Squad, but one can only hope….:)
why am i the only one NOT getting this " younger " vibe? it’s rife with action and continuity. DisneyXD is for tweens and up. this is not Super Hero Squad. it feels like Marvels equivalent to the Justice League animated series.
The hulk brought down a building to punch a guy in the face. I love this show already.
@k4blazer: They’re not going to do that.
Does anyone know if there’s a place to watch this (legally) online?
I think its the animation style that is giving the impression of it being a strictly “Saturday Morning”, “just for kids” appearance. At least thats what I thought of at first. However after actually watching it I quite enjoyed it. Every time they stick in nods to us hardcore Marvel continuity types, a part of my brain gets giddy.
Actually hearing the words “Arnim Zola” come out of my television set makes me happy.
If you’re an animation afficiando do NOT judge this show based on its micro-episodes (even patched together in the proper story order). A lot of the things that were like fingernails on a chalkboard in the microepisodes were absent from the two premier episodes. However, Premiers often have a higher budget and more time dedicated to them than a standard episode so some caution is advised.
What bugged me in the micro-episodes?
1. Hideous direction – ALL the pans are COMPLETELY linear (one direction, one speed, zero acceleration or inertia) with the exception of the simulated hand camera from the first few seconds. Similarly the use of zoom is completely mechanical and artless. And pans and zooms are never combined or mixed to create a greater sense of motion or setting or organic camera work. Add to that the clear "fill-in" action (places where it’s just a drawing of a haphazard light squiggling about in the sky to stand-in for a chroreographed dogfight) and the whole thing feels incredibly cheap, rushed, and untalented. The premier still has some of these problems but nowhere nearly as prevelant.
2. Bad Animation / Character Design – There’s not much to be done about the design, either you like it or you don’t, either it grows on your or it doesn’t, but I’d argue that it’s weaker as a cohesive style than many other animated superhero efforts. I could not just sit down and immediately draw a character matching this style when on one hand you’ve got a geometrically complicated face like Tony’s and then a very simple one like Thor’s… similarly the facial design of the women seem to be all over the map. That said, it’s animation so if everything’s moving it’s OK… the only problem in the micro-episodes is that the quality of that moment is routinely poor. A lot of frames are stutter steps, motions are unrealistic, stilted, or awkward, and there’s still no sense of "house style" as to the animation where, once again, it’s all over the map. When the animation is poor it makes the character design all the more grating… you ask yourself, "Do the Shield Agents really need that many lines on their costume if it’s going to make them that much harder to animate properly? If I had to draw that many lines couldn’t I have taken them from the costume and used them to make better faces?" In the program, however, the animation isn’t as poor across the board… in fact, you get rather great moments like a beautifully animated cape flapping in the wind. It still is uneven, sure, but again the overall quality of the show is higher than found in the micro episodes.
4. Relentless Generic Music – The microepisodes had no themed music, rarely let up on the sound track, and just blasted away without regard to the choreography, tone of the scene, or trying to be dynamic beyond "Play guitars, action is going on!" The show music is a little better but the biggest enhancement is allowing for more silence.
5. Horrible Dialog – "This isn’t the best use of our time" "No you’re wrong this is the best use of our time … to help people" "Science helps people!" "Ugh! You’re not getting it!" "No, I am getting it" When half of your lines consist of repeating the other person’s line in negation that is terrible uneconomic use of dialog. The microepisodes are filled with repetitive expository lines line this. The show isn’t quite as bad, assuming a basic level of competency and ability to follow the plot even unspoken (I would’ve thrown my remote if Nick had said, "Good thing my Life Model Decoy was destroyed and not me!").
6. Iffy Choreography – A lot of battles don’t exactly end rationally or intelligently they just sort of do. I have to admit this wasn’t really mitigated that much by the Graviton fight, where his uses of shields seemed completely arbitrary (albeit with a prejudice against Thor yet allowing Wasp right in) and no particular rhyme or reason why any attack should be effective. That said, when you’re getting Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk acting as heavy hitters it’s far more rewarding that seeing just Iron Man arbitrarily win by himself.
The story and the continuity points for both the micro episodes and the show are strong and enjoyable, assuming they can maintain the quality of the premier and perhaps polish and refine their process as they continue, this could be a show worth watching.
Quote from my 5 year old, "You don’t understand. They are all together now, and that is awesome!" I have 3 boys (3,5 and 8) and it was a big hit in my house.
@popaklaw: That’s great!
The first episode of the Avengers cartoon had more action than the last 7 years of Bendis’ run on the Avengers comics.
This show was a TON of fun! I LOVED the obscure villains all over the place. MAndril on my TV set? MORE PLEASE!
Why the hell don’t we see Graviton in comics more often?