Earth’s Mightiest Cartoon

I mentioned yesterday that I had been finishing up the first series of “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. And what a season finale it was. After “X-men Evolution”, the rebooted “Spiderman” cartoon and the “Fantastic Four” I had all but given up on the animated Marvel stuff…none of it was reaching the glory days of the nineties when we had the excellent “X-Men” and the spectacular “Spiderman” running at the same time. See, alliteration can be our friend.

Especially as DC then took the ball and ran with it, bringing out (arguable) one of the best animated series ever in “Batman”, followed up by “Justice League”/“Justice League Unlimited”, which until they ceased production I used to hold up as an example to anyone who said they weren’t making decent cartoons anymore. Then DC split into two different avenues of cartoon production. On one hand they were making the extremely child friendly “Batman: Brave and the Bold” and on the other they were created feature length animated movies that were entirely aimed at the adult market. Most of which are brilliant, especially “Batman: Under the Red Hood” and the two Superman/Batman movies.

So Marvel was left to try and fill the gap in the market for an ongoing cartoon series that wasn’t aimed squarely at five-year-olds. In my opinion the first real foray into this was the wholly underrated “Wolverine and the X-men”, which was cancelled after one series (disappointingly, it was just when they’d gotten to the Age of Apocalypse).

So I was somewhat apprehensive about “Avengers; Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, partly because I was always more of a fan of the X-men than the Avengers, and also because it seemed like it was just another merchandising opportunity for Marvel to cash in on the wave of Iron Man, Thor and Captain America fever that they were hoping would sweep the globe. So colour me pleasantly surprised when I found out what a hidden gem this series was.

Firstly, it takes it’s time. This is a much overlooked and undervalued concept in television, especially cartoons. It really felt like the whole series had been plotted before they starting making it, and was all the better for it. The first five episodes (re)introduce the acquainted and unacquainted viewers to characters which they may or may not be aware of (bearing in mind that at the time of first transmission neither the Thor or Cap movies had hit cinemas). Characters like Ant Man, Wasp, Hawkeye and Black Panther were all given at least half an episode to establish them as heroes individually, before Thor, Ant Man, Wasp, Iron Man and Hulk formed the first iteration of the team in episode 6/7. Hulk leaves in episode 8, Cap gets thawed out in 9 and it’s not until the end of episode 13 that we first see the full team together, and that’s halfway through the series. And it’s not just the heroes. They set Loki up in episode 2 and throughout the series progress his machinations before he ends up being the big bad at the end of the season. Most members of “The Masters of Evil” get a whole origin episode, and Kang the Conqueror’s vendetta with Cap is set up from the very beginning. You really feel if shows like “The Event” and “Flashforward” had been plotted this tightly, they wouldn’t have been cancelled.

Secondly, the character development is great – a lot better than you’d expect from a superhero cartoon. Hulk can’t function as part of the team as he thinks they don’t trust him, Ant Man is a pacifist who doesn’t want to solve problems with violence, Hawkeye is in love with Black Widow and conflicted about her betrayal and Iron Man is trying his best to lead the team despite it being obvious to everyone (especially himself) that Captain America would be a better leader. The villains are well drawn too (some of them anyway). Wonder is conflicted by the fact he has to do evil in order to stay alive, and Ultron’s character evolves until he is in full-on, destroy the planet mode.

Finally, it’s just a bit more mature. Characters get killed (more often than not it’s off screen, but it does happen); with Black Panther’s father a prime example. The stories are action packed enough for children to enjoy on a superficial “look at Hulk smash” level, with enough ongoing story arcs and set ups for future episodes to keep more grown up viewers entertained. They’ve already set up stories for season two, which I really hope they make. Look forward to a Skrull invasion and finding out what happened to Bucky...

All in all, a great series that has really redeemed Marvel in the animated stakes. I can’t recommend it enough - it’s a really strong series.

But then, Hulk is strongest there is...

Thank God it's Thor's Day

I’ve been meaning to write about Thor for about a month now, and seeing as I’m due to be seeing X-men First Class this week, now seemed like the ideal time to do it.

I’ll set my stall out early by admitting that I’m a massive comic book fan and sometimes enjoy comic book movies more than they deserve (I’m actually quite keen on the first Fantastic Four…yes it’s light and fluffy but then so are the comics). That said, I really enjoyed Thor and think it stands up on it’s own.

The people I saw it with ranged from massive superhero geek (me), to a comic book fan who’d never read any Thor, to my wife who had no real idea who Thor was outside of Norse mythology. The fact that people from both ends of this spectrum enjoyed it highlights it’s broader appeal as a movie. Whilst the girls got to enjoy looking at Chris Hemsworth (who I’m reliably informed is quite tasty), I got to feel superior for noticing the references to Bruce Banner and Dr Strange (at least I think that was the Eye of Agamatto I spotted in the Asgard Trophy room).

The comedy element worked in the same way that it did in Iron Man, with my personal favourite being the throwaway line “is that one of Stark’s”. Although the repeated slapstick worked during the first part of the film, I was glad they dropped it once Thor’s character had developed a bit more.

Being a massive geek, I loved the Hawkeye cameo, even if it did feel INCREDIBLY tacked on – to the point that it became obvious it had been added after a later reshoot (or it at least felt that way). That said, it was a good way to introduce the audience to a character that will have a much bigger role to play in The Avengers…it’s just a shame that he didn’t get to have as much screen time as Black Widow did in Iron Man 2.

Speaking of The Avengers, I really think that it’s setting up to be a great film. Making Thor work in the same universe as Iron Man was always going to be the biggest challenge, as effectively you’re going from a normal guy in a suit to a God, and hoping that they fit together. The inclusion of Clark Gregg as Coulson helped to bridge that gap, and I can definitely see how it can work. Comparatively Captain America is now fairly easy to do, all that has to happen to him is to be frozen at the end of his film and thawed out by Shield/Stark (although having The Hulk accidentally break him out of the ice might be a good way to remind the audience that The Hulk is still around and will have a role to play next year).

Back to Thor, I thought the supporting cast was equally strong. I can always do with more of the awesome Idris Elba, and whilst I enjoyed seeing The Warriors Three, my brother-in-law (who had no idea who they were) didn’t think they were fleshed out enough (which I can’t argue with, I was seeing them with prior knowledge of their back stories). I thought the stand out performance was Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and think he’ll make an excellent villain for The Avengers (I personally hope it sees him masterminding a Skrull invasion).

As for the “sting” at the end of the film, I think having an appearance from Fury helps tie everything together for next year, and the reference to “unlimited power” is more subtle than the stings of previous films, but is infinitely more ominous.

Now to see what they do with Cap…