Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes 'Avengers Assemble' Review

I remember when Earth's Mightiest Heroes was first announced. It was four years ago when they released a promo image, featuring Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Hulk, it was pretty exciting. The previous and only Avengers show, United They Stand, not too many people were fond of. (I still enjoy it.) This series looked to be the definitive Avengers show and quite possibly the Justice League of Marvel Animation. When the trailer was released it got for the most part positive reception. There were quite a few however who did not like the art style, in fact, some thought it would be kiddy because of it. But, when Breakout premiered two years ago, it was met with positive reception. Today, a lot of fans are disappointed that it's been cancelled in favor of the upcoming Avengers Assemble. (Technically it takes place after EMH, so we'll see.) There was a rather long hiatus between Season 1 and Season 2, about a year. The first part of Season 2 was about the Skrull Invasion with the Surtur subplot in the background. After the Skrulls were finished, the show went on to tell some one-shot stories, aside from the Kree two parter. Now we're at the final episode, which ironically is called 'Avengers Assemble.' It's pretty much an episode comic fans will have fun with, seeing all the heroes battling Galactus for the first time in amimation is pretty exciting. It's a cool episode, but would have worked better as a two-parter. It feels too rushed and Galactus was handled horribly. 

The beginning is pretty appropriate, a nice dialogue sequence with Tony and Cap. The former is curious about how the Avengers will be remembered in history. Soon a bunch of gigantic space debris appear, so the team is called in. A being called Terrax is the cause of this debris, which takes over Stark Tower. "I am Terrax, herald to the Devourer" and then the fun begins. It's always exciting when Galactus is involved in a story, because you know things are about to go down. As I've said, this should have been a two-parter. Terrax comes and right away announces Galactus is coming, then the big guy's ship appears some moments after. There's not enough time to grasp it for the "Wow" effect. Soon Cap calls in a bunch of heroes, including the Heroes for Hire. the Fantastic Four, War Machine, Winter Soldier, Wolverine (where's the other X-Men?) and of course Spider-Man, among a few others. It's pretty much a fan service episode to see all these heroes together. There's plenty of action as they take on Terrax and the other three heralds. (No Silver Surfer though.) I do have to question how the Human Torch's fire blast beat a cosmic water herald's blast. There are some really memorable parts from the script. I like how Tony said "Why is it always my building?" as the debris goes around Stark Tower. My favorite is when Terrax says "You believe you could defeat a herald of Galactus?" with Cap replying "We don't just believe monster, we're doing it." The show's writers did a great job with the scripts in this show, I hope Assemble lives up to it. Now this brings me to my major criticism with the episode, Galactus. 

Galactus has appeared in two different shows in the past. His first appearance was in the 90's Fantastic Four series. His major appearance episode was in 'The Silver Surfer and the Coming of Galactus.' He made a few other appearances later in the show. His next appearance would be in the very short lived Silver Surfer cartoon. (Never heard of it? Thanos was in it too.) In both shows he is displayed as omnipotent and has a personality. Neither good, nor evil, arrogant, but not without understanding. In this show it's the complete opposite. To be fair, not too much can be done in one episode when there are other focuses at the same time. The problem is that he has no personality. Reed Richards is correct when he says Galactus is a force of nature, but that's too literal in this incarnation. He doesn't even talk. Now that was a letdown, part of the reason why watching Galactus is so much fun is to hear what he says. He's defeated rather too quickly and if you weren't a longtime Marvel fan, you wouldn't fully grasp how powerful he is. If anything, you'd think Ultron was more powerful just basing things on this show. I would have really preferred if they had substituted Galactus for Surtur. Even if it was going to be rushed, and least we would have had closure to a major story. (Yes, even though Assemble is technically a sequel, it won't carry over previous plot threads. In fact, you can bet it won't even reference previous events at all.)

Overall, on the surface this is a pretty fun and explosive episode. Looking deeper, you begin to notice its faults. It feels too rushed and just put together so the show can have some kind of finale. There isn't much to Galactus, he has as much personality as Sentry 459. (Except the latter was actually cool.) It is admittedly fun to see all the heroes together, with Spider-Man naturally getting the most spotlight of the guest stars. (Now that's Spider-Man, none of that Ultimate nonsense.) In the end, it's a rather rushed finisher for this great series, like it was put together quickly so a deadline could be met. Still, it's a blast if you've been a loyal watcher of the show or a longtime comic fan. I hope Assemble lives up to this series, we shall see next year.

3/5