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ReWatching The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes


nate_studio

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Yeah, I'm firmly in the "she's a mutant" camp and it's gona take a lot to dislodge me.

Okay, so I was reading and apparently I can circumvent the Ethernet adapter buy using a wireless internet receiver and plug it into the USB port. Does anyone know if this is true?

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Yeah, I'm firmly in the "she's a mutant" camp and it's gona take a lot to dislodge me.

Okay, so I was reading and apparently I can circumvent the Ethernet adapter buy using a wireless internet receiver and plug it into the USB port. Does anyone know if this is true?

Yep. I use their wireless adapter and it works great. In fact I never hardwire anymore.

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Definitely interesting read you guys. I love the show and think they've really captured the essence of the group. Haven't watched this in a while, but love the show. TM2 I'd definitely recommend the wireless adapter or when you can a new console. I've done my best to go wireless as much as possible. I think our computer is the last step in that right now.

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Hope you figure out your Xbox soon, TM2. Today's Monday, so I'm moving on to:

S1:E9 - Living Legend

On the hunt for the Hulk, the Avengers stumble across another hero, long thought to be lost ... Captain America!

Like I mentioned last time, I love how they are doing a slow introduction for the characters and taking their time adding them to the team. This way we really get a build up of the team, the relationships between characters, and group dynamics. If everyone was thrown together at once, it would be harder to see these things.

This episode gives us Captain America (and to a much smaller extent, Black Panther). Cap is a total champ. He really is a super soldier and I love how he's handled in this show. It's always fun to focus on the man-out-of-time bits with Cap and this episode gives us a little about that, also mixed with some past history and familiar villains. It's great how everything comes together here. Cap goes through a great arc in this episode- from a warrior suspecting the Avengers are HYDRA, to broken hearted when he learns what happened, to rising to action when he's needed. We also get a great little moment between him and Tony at the end of the episode. I like their little connection via Tony's dad. It helps give Cap some kind of roots in this time and place.

Other mentions go to Wasp who is really the heart of the team. She was the first to reach out to Hulk and to try and comfort Cap. She's a big part of what keeps the team together, really. And she does it without being the team mom. She's just sweet and compassionate. Another possible reference to her maybe being a mutant here is Cap asks her about her powers and she only responds with "It's complicated." She doesn't say 'science' or 'Pym particles' or anything like that. Like I said last time, they keep it all really vague which just makes me wonder if they never quite decided themselves which direction they wanted to go.

I also like the little friendly rivalry between Thor and Iron Man/Ant-Man when it comes to technology and science. Thor doesn't really trust any of it at this point while Tony and Hank have dedicated their lives to it. Unfortunately, so have many of their villains. And speaking of villains...

Zemo is given immediate street cred when he easily takes down Reaper (who we saw take down SHIELD earlier). Despite having a TERRIBLE costume (fur trim on purple jumpsuit?) he's a definite threat. And he also has it out for Cap in a bad way. I grew up always thinking Red Skull was the archnemesis to Cap, but Zemo is definite competition. Maybe Miry can lend some insight to that? Also, the glob monsters were really fun. They were enough of a menace to serve the biggest storylines here without being too important. Plus they just looked fun.

The battle between Zemo and Cap was awesome, but it's really true that the shield accounts for 80% of Cap's fighting style. Luckily Panther was there to return the shield to it's owner. We're not really sure at this point what Panther is up to, though. He was sneaking around the mansion, reading info on the Avengers, but able to lend a hand.

Another nice touch (last one, I promise) is how the villains are assembling at the same time the Avengers are. We're still waiting for Panther and Hawkeye to join the team (and for Hulk to return) meanwhile Enchantress is collecting her key players for the side of evil.

Best moment: Iron Man: Avengers ASSEMBLE!

Ant-Man: We're all right here.

Iron Man: *long pause*

Edited by nate_studio
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Another episode that updates the basic premises from the original comics story. In the comics story, the Avengers are in the arctic chasing someone and come across Cap frozen in ice. But the team were hunting Namor... and really wasn't everyone back then? Namor, the Hulk, Magneto, and Dr. Doom. Back in the day, those were your big time villains and everyone took turns fighting them. But specifically the Sub-Mariner had just fought the Avengers the previous issue at the Rock of Gibraltar and escaped into the sea. Anyhow, instead of the Hulk uncovering Cap's tomb in a fit of frustration, Namor throws an unknown figure encased in ice into the ocean just to be a jerk to some eskimo's who had begun to worship the humancicle as a god. (Cultural sensitivty hadn't been invented yet)

All that said, the seen on the Qunijet is almost identical to the 616 comics. Very nice touch.

Zemo... as I mentioned on another thread, this Zemo is an amalgam of a father and son, given a serious premotion. Hienrich was the 12th Baron Zemo, and a brilliant scientist. Like Zola, he flurished under the immorality of the Nazi regime. Zemo creates a practicle particle beam rifle he called his "Death Ray" and then turns his attention to chemistry. Ordered by Hitler to develope a Nazi Super Soldier Serum, one of Zemo's side projects creates the unbreakable adhesive Zemo dubbed Adhesive X. Fearing being targeted by allied spies or reistance members, Hienrich starts wearing a hood to try and hide his identity. But the allies discover the location of his lab anyway, and Captain America himself is given the mission to take Zemo down. During the fight, a shield throw spills some Adhesive X onto the Baron's head, permentantly affixing the hood to his head. Zemo escapes, but goes mad with his situation. Hitler takes advantage Zemo's new bloodlust, and starts putting Zemo in charge of sabotage operations. Zemo proves surprisingly adept at military operations, and soon becomes a rival of the Red Skull as Hitler's chief terror operative. In the closing days of the war in Europe, Zemo sneaks into Europe to steal an experimental drone plane. By stroke of luck, Zemo and his android operative get the upper hand on Cap and Bucky, who had come to stop the theft. They tie the heroes to the plane, with a bomb and launch it to Berlin. Though they get free as the plane soars over the North Atlantic, Cap orders them to jump before the bomb can explode, but Bucky thinks he can disarm it. Plane go boom. Cap get's frozen, and Bucky "dies". Zemo on the other hand, gathers some soldiers who were personally loyal to him and heads to South America. There he carves out a little kingom for himself in the Amazon jungle, enslaving some local tribesmen for laborers. He supports himself by developing designer drugs and co-ordinating smuggeling operations. He also perfects his version of the SSSerum, unimaginativly called Serum X, it provides him moderate physical gains but mostly reverses and retards his physical aging, leaving him a man in his physical prime for decades. And for decades he is content to run his little jungle kingdom. His son Helmet, whom he abandonded as an infant, joins him after Helmet is a grown man, curious to know his father. Zemo's contentment is shattered when he learns of Cap's revival. Zemo organizes a group of villians, all foes of various Avengers, into the first Masters of Evil in an attempt to eliminate Cap's new allies so Zemo can get his revenge by killing Cap. This of course fails, as do Zemo's next several plans, until Cap finally tracks Zemo to his jungle base. There Hienrich dies in a moment of bad slapstick, as a stray Death Ray blast triggers a rockslide that crushes the Nazi dead. Thus ends the 12th Baron Zemo. No affiliation with Hydra, and more a rival of Zola and the Skull's than anything else.

Helmet decides to get revenge for his fallen father. After a disasterous first attempt left his face horribly scarred, he adapts Hienrich's usual battle garb, itself modeled after the formal uniforms of the previous Barons Zemo, into an outfit very much like what you see in EMH. A mechanical engineer by trade, he comes to understand his father's scientific works enough to duplicate most of them. But unlike Hienrich, Helmet turns to the reborn Red Skull for help killing the Captain. The Red Skull takes Helmet under his wing and the young Zemo learns much from the elder mastermind, helping the Skull in what should have been his master stroke of vengence. (Cap v.1 #300, good stuff, go read it) When that fails, Helmet Zemo organizes one of the largest, and certainly most successful versions of the Masers of Evil to date, ransacking the Mansion, beating Jarvis, the Black Knight and Hercules nearly to death, (the later only saved because he is an immortal) and humliating and torturing Cap as well. Even after this defeat, he returns to bedevil Cap and the Avengers again and again. He greatest success came when he transformed his newest Masters of Evil into the heroic Thunderbolts in the wake of Onslaught. By the time the ruse was uncovered, Zemo had assembled what he needed to take over the world and only his betrayal by some of his teammates stopped him. Embittered after being rejected by the hero community after an honest attempt at later reform, the 13th Baron Zemo continues to seek revenge on all who he feels have wronged him.

So how is EMH's Zemo an amalgam? It is large parts of Hienrich's background, but in attitude, style, costume, and compitancy it's all Helmet. Hienrich was... well... not nearly as compotent or dangerous as he was given credit for, he never found a way to get his hood off, and none of his plans even remotely worked. Now even his biggest "achievement" of being "the guy who killed Bucky" is prove to be false too. And he was a nutcase and a ranter, not the cold customer who fought Cap in the mansion in this episode, that was all Helmet.

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This show is awesome. Miry, you're really giving me a better appreciation of it - knowing little bits and pieces that were directly inspired by the comics. One question I've been wondering, though: do the Avengers ID cards have any 616 significance?

S1:E10 - Everything is Wonderful

A business decision by Tony Stark leads rival Simon Williams to go to extreme measures for revenge: He seeks help from the Grim Reaper and Aim.

Tony has some really bad communication problems in this episode that lead to the creation of Wonder Man. Although I don't think they actually called him that in this episode. We also get a glimpse of Wonder Man's brother, Grim Reaper, and the hilarious MODOC (I'm going with the EMH acronym here instead of traditional MODOK).

Not my favorite episode, but not bad by any means. I'm just more interested in Cap and Thor than Iron Man and Ant-Man. Everyone has their personal preferences. I did appreciate the different views represented by the different scientists here. It's interesting to see how Ant-Man tries to reason with villains mid-battle while every other super hero is 'punch first, ask questions later'. It was also fun to see how excited Ant-Man was about researching Wonder Man even if it left him wide open for attack. Pym just really isn't a fighter and it's nice to see them use that in this show for both laughs and philosophy.

Cap gets a nice moment with Fury and gets his motorcycle back. He even makes an appearance in the show looking a lot like that recent leather jacket Cap minimate. Like I said last episode, it's nice to give Cap a few ties to this modern world he's suddenly found himself in.

I also liked the team of Thor and Wasp. Their encounter with MODOC was great. The two of them really worked well together - Thor being so big and powerful and Wasp being small and crafty. I also like how the guys on the team feel such a need to protect Wasp. She's small and she's so caring that when she's in danger, the guys will risk themselves to help her. Cap last episode with that bomb in the mansion and Thor here when the lab exploded.

Best moment: Ant-Man getting punched in the face because he got too excited about science to focus on fighting.

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Best moment for me? Thor's reaction to MODOK.

And hey, MODOK! Gottah say, I will always have a soft spot for the SHS version but this one is growing on me.

The Avengers ID cards were introduced in the early 90's in the 616. Among the features I doubt EMH will mention is they function as ATM cards for access to their personal stipends. (through the late 80's, full time Avengers are paid $1000.00 a week, I'm sure they've adjusted that up for inflation) They are also the door keys for the mansion, and the activation key's for their vehicles. (which Tony may have mentioned in show)

Simon Williams, as I mentioned talking about Eric, was a business rival of Tony's in the 616 too. But there is no desire in the 616 on Tony's part to save a business rival, no there's no evidence Tony even noticed SI was putting Williams Innovations out of business, Tony was too busy being Iron Man, and thus no Stark buy out. WI was simply going under, and in desperation Simon turns to his mobster brother for help, not for revenge but to try and save the family business through Eric's "family" connections. But Eric's mob connections needed money before they would break any legs, so Simon embezzled from the company for his mob payoff. Simon was a lousy thief, and was caught. At the end of his rope, Simon is confused when a blonde stranger and her hulking bald companion paid his substantial bail. Amora asks what Simon would be willing to do to get his company back and get revenge on Stark. Next this you know, the Asgardian duo have spirited the bitter buisnessman to the South American lab of Baron Zemo. Zemo uses his greatest creation- the ionic ray treatment, to empower Simon Williams to superhuman levels. Despite having super-human strength, speed, durability, and endurance, Simon still looked human. But not being a fool, Zemo introduced a form of radiation poisoning o the process that only Zemo could reverse. With a new powerful pawn under his thumb, Zemo grabs Williams in a green and red costume and dubs him Wonder Man (this first costume look almost exactly like the suit AIM put on Simon in EMH) and gives him simple orders- infilatrait the Avengers, gain their trust, the lead them into an ambush. If he fails, Simon will not receve his cure. Everything goes according to plan, until Simon realizes he would be responsible for their deaths and betrays Zemo. Out of spite, Zemo fires a blast from his "Death Ray" that excelerates the poisoning. The Avengers rush WOnder Man back to Hank's lab, but they cannot save him. Before Simon dies, Hank uses one of his devices to make a recording of Simon's brain engrams, hoping someday they could be used to bring him back in some way. Simon's body appears dead, and Eric claims his brother's body and his "cause" of revenge on the Avengers. No embalming was done on Simon, his body was placed in a special test tube like coffin design to spot all decomposition. But then, Simon wasn't dead. In what would become a pattern of the ionically powered, Simon had entered into a deathlike chrysilis-like state, from which he emerged a being of living ionic energy. As the year went by, SImon learned more and more about his new body, (which appeared human except for his glowing energy eyes) learning to fly on his own, change shape with concertration, and eventually he began shifting to a purple energy form whenever he employed his powers over a certain level. (no energy blasts as a regular thing)

So as you can see, many things were the same and many things were different. Biggest is in the 616 Eric becomes the Grim Reaper to avenge Simon, while EMH Eric seems disappointed Simon survived the transformation.

This was done as a single issue story when it was first written. Simon was introduced and "killed" in a single issue. A lot of the background was added later. But this issue is one of the subtly most important of the entire run:

  • Simon's brother became one of the teams greatest foes,
  • Zemo's machine will be used to empower mercanary Eric Josten as Power Man in a scheme by the Enchantress. Amorra's imperfect understanding of the machine ment that Josten's ionic powers faded down to a 10th what they'd been at their peak. In an effort to get his powers back, Josten gets infused with Pym Particles and becames Goliath, and now Atlas.
  • And lastly those brain patternes will be used as the non-liniar programing element in the Pym Type positronic brain that is the basis of the Vision.

ANd now, seeing it again- Civil War Cap is so totally the same as EMH's Cap's motorcycle outfit. All we need now is a motorcycle.

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Funny to think the Avengers are given a salary for what they do. I mean, I guess they have living expenses and risk their lives on a daily basis, but still seems weird.

Anyway, I figured Simon's red/green suit had to have some kind of 616 nod. As far as his story comparison between 616 and EMH, it might have been cool to do it more the way of the comics. At least the part where he infiltrates the Avengers to betray them. That could have been cool, but would have needed at least two episodes so maybe they didn't want to spend the time at this point while both teams (good and evil) are still assembling. Then again, it could have been cool if the Avengers were betrayed by a new recruit and then were skeptical when someone like Hawkeye or Black Panther - who have had sketchy pasts in episodes so far - wanted to join. That said, I still like this episode and love how this show has so much respect for the comic history.

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Funny to think the Avengers are given a salary for what they do. I mean, I guess they have living expenses and risk their lives on a daily basis, but still seems weird.

It was more expenses than pay to fight crime. Reservists got $500 a week. This was an "on call" fee, to compensate them for dropping everything and coming running when called.

Now most Avengers never actually access their funds, especailly those who live at the mansion. Occassionally they would mention the money, IIRC Vision and Scarlet Witch used their accumulated pay to buy their first home, and you can imagine preptualy broke Spidey's reaction after turning the team down twice to hearing they got a stieped.

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Yeah, that probably could have helped keep Aunt May's medical bills down...

Anyway, on to:

S1:E11 - Panther's Quest

The Prince of Wakanda has been stalking the Avengers for weeks, and now the Black Panther strikes!

But wait... Where's Thor?

Black Panther is probably the team member I know the least about. I know he's the King of Wakanda and that Wakanda has super advanced tech but keeps to themselves, but I know very little about his own abilities or personality. It's nice to see him finally join the team after creeping around for a few episodes. I also liked how he was originally just using the team of heroes as a distraction so he could get revenge on Man-Ape/reclaim his throne. Even in asking for their help, he still believed he didn't need it.

This was also the first episode where I realized Iron Man was the leader. I just assumed originally that Cap would take the lead after joining the team, but really it makes sense that Iron Man is in that position. He's not the best leader, but he owns the mansion and the jet and really helped bring the team together. I still expected Cap to take charge at some point this season, but he still respected his place and took orders. Maybe something will happen early on in season two where they decide Cap would be a better leader. Or maybe I misunderstood my history of the Avengers and Cap wasn't really ever in charge? I don't know. I thought he lead the Ultimates at least.

Anyway, here Iron Man's leadership leads to a bad call (that works out in the end). I appreciate how this show develops its characters. You have Iron Man in charge even though he isn't that great a leader and has communication and responsibility issues. There's Black Panther who joined the team more to just get out in the world rather than feeling a need to depend on the others. There's Ant-Man who doesn't even want to be a super hero and who is somewhat of a pacifist. Cap who is a natural leader, but takes bad orders because he's such a soldier. Hulk who is seen by the world as a monster, but wants to make a better name for himself. And so on. They just feel way more real and interesting than if everyone got along and just wanted to do good and fight crime and hang out and be best friends like a lesser show might do.

But seriously, where was Thor?

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They explain that the next episode... Thor did not realise that the beeping card was his teammates trying to call him.

And while this episode is an amalgam of two or three very different stories, it does serve as a good introduction to T'Challa. BP's personality is pretty much exactly the same in the 616 as it is in EMH. Smart, proud, loyal, not a talker, but finds his voice when he has something to add. They have added a lot of the newer elements of the Panther to EMH, the knivesa and claws are only about a decade old in comics, as is the rivalry/irratation with/for Stark.

Kinda tired after staying up too late last night, so I'll give my usual long winded explinations and thoughts on it all tomorrrow.

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Okay, hitting these quick like a bunny.

Some Assembly Required.

Again, I love everything about Wasp in this episode. I love her interaction with the Hulk, especially when she winks at him then sticks her tongue out. And her 'fireman' line. Hank's reluctance shows in this episode, but i love his smile when Stark is showing him the lab. Also when he's talking to Ultron, which I freaked out the first time I saw this. Mandril giving up in a show of force was amusing. Amora shows to be a real threat. And i hope we get that version of the Executioner.

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Good to have you back, TM2! Hope you can catch up fast, because we're on to

S1:E12 - Gamma World: Part 1

A dome of gamma energy envelops the Cube, turning everyone inside of it into a gamma monster.

A pretty accurate episode description, if short. Most of the episode deals with the gamma dome around the Cube, but there's also a side story continuing Hawkeye's adventure with Black Widow. It still looks like Widow is a traitor and was trying to give Hulk's blood sample to HYDRA, however both the Avengers and SHIELD think that Hawkeye is the traitor. Hawkeye is able to out maneuver a slew of HYDRA agents and capture Black Widow (it was pretty impressive arrow slinging there) with the intention of turning her over to the Avengers.

But back to the dome... The Leader is planning something big turning ordinary people in to gamma monsters and then controlling them with some sort of headband thingy. He starts (relatively) small at the Cube, turning SHIELD agents into his first batch of monsters. The Avengers show up to stop Leader, investigate the dome, and help the SHIELD agents. This leads to the team getting their first mission-specific costume change. Well, everyone but Thor gets a costume change. He's just too awesome to need anything else. Once they make it inside the dome, we get an awesome action scene. It's fun, it's fast, it's fluid, and there is some humor mixed in. Great stuff. After knocking the snot out of the first few monsters, they get inside the Cube where they face a few legit super villains. I can't name many of them but they were cool looking and gave a great challenge to the heroes. One thing I do have an issue with is Vapor getting inside Cap's helmet. Isn't his suit designed to keep air out? Other than that, it was a great second round. I loved it when Thor stood up to that electrical guy (sorry I don't know his name... Zaxx or something, right?)

Some other great character moments are follow ups to things I mentioned in the last episode. There are a few different instances where Iron Man isn't quite cutting it as the team leader. He just doesn't really think about field tactics or group dynamics. Cap fills in some of the blanks, though. It was also really funny when Wasp reacted to Black Panther speaking. He's very much the 'still waters run deep' kind of guy. He even breaks away from the team without telling anyone his plan and (again) lets them be the diversion while he goes for the goal. Ant-Man... oh wait. He wasn't in this episode was he?

Just kidding, Ant-Fans. Just having some fun at his expense since I made such a big deal about Thor's absence last episode.

Just kidding. There are no Ant-Fans.

Oh and I love that this is a two-part episode! Can't wait for the next one.

Favorite moment: "Leaders lead."

Edited by nate_studio
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Living Legend.

I like this episode, and it starts off with my favorite thing about the show. The rotating cast at the end of the title screen. Whenever they add or take away members, the silhouettes change. I think that's so cool.

Barron Zemo. He always struck me as a much more credible threat than most villains, and this shows it. He took out the Grim Reaper in one move, and was completely ready to clean Strucker's clock when he got news Cap was back.

I love Wasp in this episode, and it helps re-establish her as an important character, both in her bubbly and loving personality, and in the fact that she's the only one who can fight Dough Boy. Which is good. She could easily be the 'weakest link' but they go out of their way to fix that. it's nice. And she had some great lines and expressions.

BP is cool. It's like a friend and I were discussing, T'challa is Stark's scientific and intellectual equal. He just uses his brains in a different way. And the fact that he threw Cap his shield rather than becoming involved is a cool thing.

The fight with Zemo was awesome and downright brutal. And the fact that Zemo, who establishes himself as a lethal threat, just strolls in, and afterwards joins Amora, is scary. I love Zemo's back story, and how in 1943 he was wearing another costume. Nice touch.

Tony was drinking in the last scene. :lol:

Growing Pains

This was probably my least favorite episode since the Ant Man episode in the introduction. I thought the opening scene was very unique and added flair, and I loved the Thor/Wasp team up. They work great together.

Hank and Tony working together is to be expected, but they really don't even like eachother that much. Tony's slight about Jan was hilarious though.

The entire episode I was just like "Tony, you really need to learn how to talk to people." This episode was just one big sad mis-communication.

I did like MODOK though. :)

Black Panther.

Good episode, strong. Love T'Challa. Tony is not a leader and it really shows in this one. I think after this episode we've warped up all the loose ends from the intro stories. There were some funny lines, especially with Tony trying to contain Claw and then stop vibrating. I liked Cap in this one though.

Edited by TM2 Dinobot
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Are we going through these too fast? Should I take a break for a little bit to let you two catch up?

S1:E13 - Gamma World: Part 2

The Leader's master plan has been unleashed, and half of North America has been turned into Gamma Monsters, including the Avengers!

Awesome. This episode is, of course, a continuation of everything that was going on last time. Hawkeye is still trying to bring Black Widow to the Avengers who are recovering after their encounter at the Cube. Now, the Leader is using his device on a much larger scale. His gamma dome has enveloped Las Vegas and keeps spreading outward. His plan is a little crazy, but it seems like something a guy would do who believes to be the smartest person on the planet -- reduce everyone else to dumb monsters that he can control.

When Las Vegas gets covered, all of the Avengers turn in to monsters except for Thor, who is unaffected due to his Asgardian status. It's a little cheesy that Wasp becomes an insect monster, Panther becomes a panther monster, Iron Man becomes a tech zombie and Cap becomes... well I'm not really sure. It works for the most part. Hawkeye is able to outrun the dome and find Hulk/Banner for help. Banner creates an anti-gamma arrow for Hawkeye to use on the Avengers and the two head back to the dome. Meanwhile, Thor is getting the snot beat out of him by Abomination and Absorbing Man. The fight between Thor and Absorbing Man is really cool though, and Thor definitely proves himself more than once in the fight.

So the heroes win over evil and save the day from the gamma dome. But, wait... there seems to be

ONE GLARING PROBLEM WITH THIS EPISODE!

Leader keeps telling Thor, Hawkeye and whoever will listen all about how smart he is and how he thinks on a different level that we can't understand. He goes on and on about how this plan is perfect and how he's predicted everything that's happened and has a million contingency plans if something goes wrong. And yet, he's defeated by Hulk breaking his equipment. SERIOUSLY?!! You even expected the Hulk to get involved, but you somehow failed to think that he would BREAK SOMETHING? He's your main nemesis, man! He even said he was there to smash things! Granted, he didn't 'smash' the equipment so much as 'rip it apart', but it's basically the same thing, right? And you DIDN'T PLAN FOR THAT? The Leader lost all credibility. Unless his plan all along was to be defeated so that the League of Evil could recruit him or something.

Favorite moment: Thor controlling Absorbing Man.

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Are we going through these too fast? Should I take a break for a little bit to let you two catch up?

Yeah, maybe. So, so behind.

Detailed thoughts on the Panther's Quest:

Like most of the show, this episode takes several classic and modern takes on a character and their origin and distills them down into something new yet familiar. The best way I know to explain is a brief 616 history of Wakanda, which will also explain BP, Klaw, and Man-Ape in comics.

Black Panther is a title. For generations the people of Wakanda have worshiped the "Panther God", the male aspect of the Egyptian god Bast. The leader of this panther cult wears the ceremonial garb of the Black Panther, and is also generally considered the king of all Wakandans. Once there were other competing cults, most notably a cannibalistic cult that worshiped a rare white omnivorous gorilla, but these were all outlawed by T'Challa's grandfather (maybe his great grandfather, though some versions have his father banning them). Part and parcel of becoming the Black Panther was the consumption of a rare heart shaped herb that granted heightened abilities to those who survived eating the poisonous plant. Over the generation's T'Challa's line developed an natural immunity to the harmful affects of the herb. Another key to the Black Panthers' reign had been control of the sacred mound, which Wakanda lore says fell from the stars centuries ago. Yep, you guessed it, the metal now known as Vibranium. Don't think too hard about how a literal mountain of metal could fall to Earth without reducing central Africa to a crater, let alone there be an oral tradition describing the event, but I'm sure the metal's strange properties had something to do with it. But this amazing metal and the people who lived around it went unknown to the rest of the world for centuries.

Until WWII, when Nazi scientists stumbled on a sample of the metal during their African expeditions. Wanting more, the Nazi's mounted a force to take the mound, but they were stopped by fledling hero Captain America, who earned the respect of that era's Black Panther. Cap was allowed to take a sample of Vibranium with him as long as he pledged to never reveal the location he found it. This sample made it's way to the States and into the lab of whiz kid metallurgist Myron McClain, who stumbled on a way to combine the Vibranium with steel alloy so create a new near completely indestructible metal, which he cast into the shape of a 2.5' disc for testing. This disk went on to become... wait for it... Cap's famous shield. But try as he might, McClain could not duplicate his original work, the closest he ever came was another metal you may have heard of- Adamantium.

But the encounter with Cap and the Nazi's changed Wakandan thinking. Realizing that they had to modernize to protect their sacred metal, they began to send their sons to western universities to study science and engineering. Bringing what they had learned back to Wakanda, and combining it with the metal's properties allowed this once primitive people to make strides in technology that quickly outstripped most of the rest of the world. Yet in spite of this advanced technology, Wakanda remained deeply rooted in their ancient traditions, and in general they still chose to remain hidden to the outside world. But they were not forgotten, one of the original Nazi scientists, a Dutchman named Ulysses Klaw, was obsessed with obtaining more Vibranium. The small sample he possessed had proven key to the development of his sonic based weapons and he wanted more. So amassing a mercenary force armed with his sonic weapons, Klaw lead a strike deep into Wakanda, making it all the way to the Vibranium mound. T'Chaka, T'Challa's father and the king and Black Panther of the time, confronted Klaw as the Dutchman was securing more Vibranium and was slain by a powerful sound blast. Only ten at the time, T'Challa grabbed the weapon when Klaw turned his attention back to the mound and used it to blow the villain's hand off. Cutting their losses, Klaw and his men took their spoils and escaped. T'Chaka's brother ruled as regent until T'Challa was ready to take up the mantel himself. When it came time for T'Challa to leave for his western education, he left his close friend and great warrior in his own right M'Baku to serve his aging uncle as his countries defender. The brilliant T'Challa quickly earned several advanced degrees and returned home to undertake the ritual tests to become the next Black Panther, which he of course passed.

But still he refused to formally claim the throne from his uncle, wanting first to finally defeat Klaw who was rumored to be amassing a new force to return to Wakanda. So logically, (okay logically only to Lee and Kirby) invites the famous Fantastic Four to Wakanda on a ruse, then proceeds to come within a hair's breadth of defeating them as a personal test reasoning if he could defeat four of the worlds most famous super beings he could in turn defeat an aged, one handed Dutch Nazi. (seems legit) Of course heroes untie, bad guys thwarted, day saved. Klaw is thrown into his sonic converters, and despite emerging as a living being of 'solid sound' and wielding his prosthetic sonic claw weapon (he looked like the minimate we got with Mohawk Storm, not a translucent Roper) he was beaten. Later BP shares an adventure with Cap, who suggests to T'Challa that he take the Captain's place in the Avengers. The Panther accepts, but unknown to all at the time (read retcon decades later), he agreed to join to spy on the group to determine if they represented a threat to Wakanda. To be fair, at the time he was invited, the team consisted of three recently reformed super-villains, a guy claiming to be an Olympian, Hank and Jan. Fortunately; BP not only found no threat, but that he truly enjoyed being an Avenger and remained with them for years. And under his direction, Wakanda entered the world stage, sharing both limited supplies of their metal and their advanced technology via a company called the Wakandan Design Group. One of their best known products was the supersonic Quinjet used by their chieftain's team. (Tony designed the first prototype ships, but the one we all know best is of Wakandan design.)

But during a return trip home, T'Challa discovers to his horror that M'Baku is not his friend afterall. The warrior taken by brute force the throne from BP's uncle, angry at the technological decadence the Panthers had brought to their land and seeking to return Wakanda to it's primitive roots. Further, M'Baku revealed to be a member of the outlawed White Gorilla cult and had undergone rituals to become its own champion warrior: the Man-Ape. Well since Hawkeye and Vision were with BP on his visit, you can guess how well that cue went. Eventually, T'Challa's regent uncle dies of natural causes, and T'Challa finally accepts his role as king ending his time as a full time Avenger.

Both Klaw and Man-Ape would go on to form the core of Black Panther's rogue's gallery (with Eric Killmonger), becoming recurring foes of the African Avenger and his team (with or without him on it) for years to come and challenging other heroes on occasion.

So from all of that, you get an episode of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I do hope Klaw returns in his more classic form, the pink anemone thing was neat but not what I call Klaw. And the inclusion of the Grim Reaper was a nice touch. One because he came off as totally badass here, and also because BP's first fight as an Avenger was also Reaper's first appearance in comics.

Hopefully, when this whole Skrull thing is resolved, the Cap/Iron Man leadership thing can get resolved too. Tony is certainly charismatic and intelligent, but even in comics he's too self centered to be an effective leader. Cap's a more natural leader, but is just as comfortable taking as giving orders and is at this point in the story still 'wrong-footed' from feeling out of time.

So I think that's more than enough for this episode... guess I need to start work on my Gamma World review.

Edited by Mirymate
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Well after feeling like I wrote War and Peace last time, I think I'll try to be more concise this morning.

Gamma World part 1.

Oh Jeffery Combs, you could read the phone book and I'd like it. So when he turned up as the Leader for this show, I was very happy. And the Leader, Combs does a wonderful job of playing this genius with a combination superiority and inferiority complexes. Why the later? Well we don't know what EMH's origin is, but in the 616 Sam Sterns was a janitor, and a bad one, who spilled a drum of gamma irradiated toxic waste on himself. And like so many others in the Marvel Multiverse, instead of a nasty cancerous death, he turned green and got superpowers. In his case a super advanced mind and the large skull to put it in. His new intellect caused a megalomania common among super intellects, but on some level he still sees himself as a loser janitor the world is mocking and is ticked about it. But Sterns certainly outmaneuvered everyone this episode.

Widow and Hawkeye, probably my other favorite part of the episode. Hawkeye tearing thru Hydra like a buzz saw, 'Tasha getting the drop on him, but ultimately losing.Good stuff. And it was this episode that made me sure I'd guess the Widow's secret correctly back when she first turned traitor. But more on that in a later episode.

Interesting Clint and Natasha 616 tidbit- though EMH uses their Ultimate Universe origin as SHIELD covert agents, Hawkeye and the Black Widow were partners in their early 616 appearances too. But unlike the 1610, mainstream Marvel had them as a criminal duo fighting Iron Man. The Widow was introduced first, as an evil Russian saboteur trying to destroy Stark Industries and steal its secrets for her communist masters. Hawkeye originally intended to be a hero, but fell for the beautiful Natasha as soon as they crossed paths and joined her in crime. But their repeated failures earned the Black Widow her the extreme disfavor of the party, after an attempt on her life by her superiors,she wanted out. SHIELD and the State Department took Natasha in and hid her fora time, while Hawkeye tried out for the Avengers. The rest is history.

And the Gamma Goons showed up in force. The Wrecking Crew, the U-Foes, Zzzax, even Doc Sampson and Clay Quartermain show up. Okay, Clay's not a gamma mutant but he was the SHIELD agent assigned to Ross' Hulkbusters and Gamma Base for a longtime. Of course, in the 616 none of these guys are gamma powered. The U-Foes are an evil quartet's attempt to purposely recreate the circumstances that created the Fantastic Four- an unshieled rocket into a cosmic ray storm. So those four are cosmic ray created. I said before, the Crew are magically empowered. Zzzax is a standard only happens in sci-fi stories accidentally created sentient monster composed entirely of electricity who feeds on any source of electrical energy, including the human mind. But for whatever reason,they are in the Cube and capable of being powered up by the Leader's little gamma boosters.

Thor and the Panther really shine in this one. They really save the day here, especially T'Challa. Or at least, that's what they all think.

Gamma World part 2.

Hawkeye saves the day!! He figures out what he needs to do, and implements a plan to get it done. And his insane confidence- to look the Hulk in the eye, tell him that you intend to kick his butt, and mean it. Yes its laughable, yes its crazy, but Clint was completely serious. Lordy I love that guy.

And we get some great grudge matches in this one, Hulk vs Abomination, Thor vs Absorbing Man. Good stuff. As much as Hulk came off as the uber-powerhouse in Breakout,here Thor great to flex his might more. He whips the Abomination, and takes everything an uru powered Creel can throw at him. Oddly, of the allegedly gamma powered inmates at the Cube, only Sterns and Blonsky would qualify in the 616.

The Absorbing Man, like the Crew, is a product of Asgardian magic. In Crusher Creel's case Loki infused the violent bruiser with the power to take on the properties of anything he touch. There are limits to his power- he lost his first fight with Thor when he tried to duplicate the power of the entire planet itself and exploded. He similarly could not control the power of Quasar's Quantum Bands. But for the most part Loki successfully created the most powerful jobroni in the Marvel Universe- you want your hero to look tough, have them defeat the guy who can trade punches with Thor or the Hulk and walk away.How you might ask? Well if you hadn't guessed from this episode, Crusher ain't that bright, and can be easily out maneuvered.

Emil Blonsky on the other hand is a gamma powered monster in both versions of the stories.In the comics, Russian spy Blonsky is trying to steal Banner's gamma technology for the USSR.(it was the 60's remember, Soviet spies were responsible for about half of early comics plots)(The other half being Doom, Magneto, or the freak-of-the-month) He see's Bruce constructing a powerful gamma emitter, talking about how concentrated and powerful the bean would be. Emil also hears Bruce speak of using a similar device to change back and forth from being the Hulk.(at this point not only was Bruce being the Hulk still a closely guarded secret, but he used tech to purposely trigger his transformations) Just as the scientist finishes the device, he's called to see Ross. Craving the Hulk's power for himself, Emil turns Banner's new device on himself. What Blonsky didn't know was this was a much more powerful emitter than the others, intended to overload Bruce's gamma irradiated cells and kill him. (Yep, suicide as a plot point. Who says the SA comics weren't dark?) But of course Blonsky doesn't die;he's transformed into an even bigger more monstrous gamma being called the Abomination. There are several key differences between the two monsters,Blonsky's personality and intelligence remains very much unchanged, unusual among gamma mutations, and he is unable to transform back to human form. Oh,and did I mention in his first appearance, the Abomination was much, much stronger than the Hulk and easily beat him. But as Banner he rigs a gamma energy draining device that siphons away much of the Abominations strength before it's destroyed. In the end Blonsky is left about twice as strong as a 'calm'' Hulk. But the Abomination lacks the ability to increase his strength as he becomes angrier, so the Hulk can become much stronger than his foe.

But back to the episode-

The whole Gamma World plot came from a Warbond spin off miniseries after WWH, starring,well, the Warbond. No Avengers, and the Leader usurped Hirron's "old strong power" (I think it's called) instead of an evil radio tower.

On the Leader's seeming loss to take into account the Hulk showing up and breaking something. Actually Sterns had a pair of plans to deal with the Hulk. First the Leader was hoping the Hulk would ultimately side with him against humanity.Knowing that probably would not work, he figured a gamma boosted Abomination aided by the mind controlled Avengers would be enough to stop the Hulk. What he didn't plan on was a smart mouthed archer fouling up the works, freeing the Avengers and damaging Blonsky's booster. And he certainly underestimated the power of Thor, specifically Thor being able to command Creel as he would his own hammer. But when in doubt, push the button with the angry face on it I always say… at least I will now.

And it's the Masters of Evil, not the Legion.

Another solid episode, with the whole first season team finally all assembled.

Favorite part- "You got 5 seconds to give me Banner or I'm gonna to take you down."

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Not sure that the WW Hulks story did not happen too late for this episode to be partially based on it. Writing on it had to be done about a year before the original air date.

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Not sure that the WW Hulks story did not happen too late for this episode to be partially based on it. Writing on it had to be done about a year before the original air date.

i just remember that this episode came out around the same time as this event as well as the super hero squad hulked out event....so maybe they stole it from the avengers cartoon then? :P

also fun note, these two episodes aired on my birthday :D (along with the young justice premiere)

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Oh good I can catch up! PTL! If it's alright with y'all, can we cut back to just Mondays for a while. I'm getting beat pretty hard over here IRL.

Gamma World 1.

I love how this episode starts. The the team was put together to recapture bad guys, and they're being true to their roots. T'Challa has superior technology, but he doesn't brag about it like Tony (let's see him walk on walls). "*gasp* I forgot you could talk!" And Cap makes me love the wave 41 Cap all the more. :)

Whenever SHIELD needs anyone's help, run. It will only end badly. Wasp has a nice little moment where she laughs at Quartermaine in the briefing. I also love Cap's "Why does that man have green hair?"

The animation in the episode is superb. The scene where Natasha first shows up is so beautifully animated, it looks like a wall scroll. I absolutely love it. Though I do have to wonder what is the point of Hydra wearing full helmets if they can't even stop a little gas?

The fact that Tony isn't a leader and Cap is, and Steve keeps pushing him into the position, it's nice character development. Again, just like cap and Thor fighting together.

I can honestly say I'd never heard of the U-Foes before this but they seem very cool. And I'm sorry, but Zzzax totally just raped Wasp and that other agent.

Madame Hydra for the first time. Nice. But how come it took Ironman 3 episodes to defeat the Dreadnaughts, but Hawkeye could melt them with 2 arrows? I love how when he cuts Natasha loose, he totally drops her on her head. :P

wasp_motivation_poster_by_van55555-d33p7wq.jpg

Which takes us to Part Two!

Which starts with Hawkeye doing the exact same thing I would do in his situation: turn around and drive faster! ...And then shoot his prisoner. And then screaming like a little girl as he and the Hulk go flying away. :P

Like Miry said, Jeffery Combs could make reading the phone book sexy. He OWNS the role of the leader, commanding a villain presence rarely seen outside of cinema. And i love how all his equipment is so retro. A giant Tesla coil, the 1950's robot suit, the uniform. It's all very cool. Though I disagree with Nate in that there was no way the Leader could have planned for Absorbing Man to come crashing through his pod. Really that robot suit should have kept the hulk plenty busy so the tower wouldn't be destroyed.

Those are my thoughts, I guess. I wonder if that Gamma Tower will play a role later on.

You know, it would be cool if we could watch part of season 2 while at C2E2 together. Get to do this in person. :)

On a side note, does the cast remind anyone else of the BW crew? Specifically the Maximals?

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If it's alright with y'all, can we cut back to just Mondays for a while. I'm getting beat pretty hard over here IRL.

Cool with me if Miry agrees.

On a side note, does the cast remind anyone else of the BW crew? Specifically the Maximals?

I hadn't tried to compare the Avengers to Beast Wars.... but now that you mention it I'll try. PS- It has been years since I've seen Beast Wars, so I guess I'm a little foggy.

Cap = Optimus - heroic hero in red, white and blue

Iron Man = Cheetor? - charismatic fun guy who's not quite ready to lead?

Thor = ...? Am I forgetting a Maximal? Depth Charge?

Wasp = AirRazor? - girl who can fly?

Ant-Man = Rhinox? - brilliant scientist who would rather not fight (but is a heavy hitter when you need him)

Hulk = Dinobot - rough around the edges with a heart of gold

Hawkeye = Rattrap - sarcastic guy who's great in a pinch

Black Panther = Tigatron - quite, reserved, and lethal

I don't know, man. That's my best guess.

wasp_motivation_poster_by_van55555-d33p7wq.jpg

Is it just me or do they show a close up of Black Widow's butt every chance they get? (Not that I'm complaining)

And Miry, again, thanks for the info. I love reading your little histories. I never knew the same guy developed both Cap's shield and Adimantium. I never knew about ...well most of the stuff you mentioned. Really, unless it's been in a cartoon, movie, or the few dozen X-Men and Spider-Man comics I've read, I probably don't know it. So given that this show is about the Avengers, I'll take the opportunity to learn everything I can. That's part of why this show is so great. It's a cleaned up, stream lined, focused version of Avengers history. Capturing and recreating some of their greatest moments.

That's also why I'm glad it's not really the same universe as Wovlerine and the X-Men... that show left out a lot of their great parts and actually created a universe where a lot of them can't ever happen.

Edited by nate_studio
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