Marvel Media Mania: Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a Disney XD television series that launched in 2010. It is currently in its second season and there was one "micro-series" that consisted of five minute shorts taken from footage of the first season.

"Earth's Mightiest" indeed!

This series is fabulous. The cast of characters that is involved is stunning it its scope. I think this series more than any other explores the entire Marvel Universe. Although it's the "Avengers" and it focuses on Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Wasp, Ant-Man, The Hulk, Nick Fury, and various other Avengers, the list of villains and guest appearances is a mile long (we even have a Wolverine cameo). The series utilizes villains that don't get a lot of attention such as The Grey Gargoyle, Wendigo, Zzzzax, The Griffin, or The Living Laser along with big name villains such as Modok, Baron Zemo, Crimson Dynamo, and the Red Skull. The character designs for this series are pretty simple, straightforward, and they capture the essence of each character.

The animation is pretty good with the strong use of CGI. This allows the camera to move freely in scenes to great cinematic effect. There's lots of action and the characters aren't stuck in a static environment. For example, when Graviton is crushing the Hulk and the Hulk stands up, his feet sink into the pavement creating cracks all around it.

Each episode tells a self-contained story but there are a plethora of subplots going on as well. The characters don't live in a black and white world so Nick Fury's SHIELD, although it fights the good fight, doesn't always do the "right thing." Each character has their own storylines. So we see Thor weighing his responsibilities to Asgard vs Midgard. We see Hawkeye set up by the Black Widow and his redeption story. There are subplots with the black market sale of Iron Man's technology and the four prisons set up by SHIELD.

Lastly, the theme song to this series is quite memorable. Something all great superhero cartoons have. Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a show that young and old fans will enjoy.

1LR Review: 18 out of 20 - It's a Solid Hit!