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The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes - Season One Volume Two
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (13th May 2011). |
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The Show
 The first volume of Marvel’s new animated series “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, which is produced in collaboration with youth-oriented network Disney XD, spent a lot of time setting the stage by introducing characters and dropping hints at plot elements to come. The first five episodes offered glimpses of the super-heroic troupe the Avengers – Iron Man (Eric Loomis), Thor (Rick D. Wasserman), Captain America (Brian Bloom), Hulk (Fred Tatasciore), Ant-Man (Wally Wingert) and Wasp (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) – but rarely were they on screen together. And it wasn’t until the final two-part episode of volume one, when a massive breakout at the Raft super villain containment facility alerted the superheroes to the need for them to team up, that viewers really got a chance to see what the series title promised: the heroes (minus Captain America, who’s frozen in the artic until episode nine, “Living Legend”) fighting together against a common enemy. “Volume 2: Captain America Reborn”, the next six episodes of the series’ first season, still has some groundwork to lay down but it is by far the better of the two volumes, with a more consistent tone, better production values, and overall, a stronger narrative with a tighter focus. Most importantly it gets all of this done without any of the awkwardness that came from four mini-episodes being forced together into a 22-minte show, which was the main problem that plagued most of volume one. “Avengers: EMH” rather nicely mixes the style and designs of the live-action films with the classic print material. The nature of the narrative, which sometimes even follows the original Jack Kirby and Stan Lee stories, plays with introducing the characters and, especially in the second volume, the trouble many of them face in working together for the first time. The updates are tasteful and even tie the series to the films for the better – in the same way that “Batman: The Animated Series” (1992-1995) tied itself to the Tim Burton “Batman” (1989) film universe. Jarvis (voiced by Phil LaMarr), Tony Stark’s – and the Avenger Mansion – butler is updated to the supercomputer that appeared in the Jon Favreau directed-features; Nick Fury takes on his Ultimate Marvel persona, but voice actor Alex Désert channels a bit of the awesomeness that is Samuel L. Jackson. For the most part I find the series’ art direction, and voice acting and casting to be strong. My one complaint would with Iron Man/Tony Stark. Eric Loomis tries to ape Robert Downey Jr. but he just comes off as annoying. Only RDJ can do dickish playboyism and still be charming and funny. Loomis’ portrayal just comes off as troubling and whiny. I also hate the current design of the show’s Iron Man suit – it looks awful, which is a shame because the other character designs are perfect; a bit simplistic perhaps, but overall very well done for a weekly TV serial. Joshua Fine and Christopher Yost decide to handle the Hulk character interestingly, in that he has a bit – just a tiny, tiny bit – of smarts and isn’t as “Hulk Smash-y” as usual. Non-Hulked-out Bruce Banner (voiced by Gabriel Mann) makes more than a few appearances, and has a pact with Hulk that he must work with the Avengers. (Weirdly, it seems as though Banner can even turn into Hulk at will; and does so on at least one occasion. Perhaps Ed Norton’s contributions of a Banner well versed in Zen and Yoga carry through here?). In the end “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is better than the usual Saturday morning cartoon slop – because it doesn’t air on Saturday morning – and even if its not an amazing series, it seems, in the first grouping of episodes anyway, to be pretty good. The addition of traditional (if somewhat obscure to only casual fans of the feature films) characters like Hank Pym/Ant-Man and Wasp into the lineup is welcomed. The show is something that both youngsters – ages seven and above – and a (somewhat forgiving) more-adult viewer can easily stomach. The series offers a solid update to classic stories, and is pretty entertaining and well made – you can’t really ask more than that. “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes – Season One, Volume 2: Captain America Reborn!” includes the next six episodes in the Disney XD and Marvel series run, picking up from where the concurrently released “Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” left off. Note that together with “Volume 1” this brings the total to thirteen episodes, which is merely half of the original 26-episode order that just recently finished airing on TV in April. Presumably volumes three and four – containing those next thirteen episodes – and hopefully some sort of “Complete Season One” will appear around October when season two kicks off in broadcast. The six episodes contained in “Volume 2” are: - "Some Assembly Required" - While Iron Man introduces the Avengers to their new digs – the Avenger Mansion – the Enchantress (Kari Wahlgren) uses her powers to start trouble for the newly formed team by manipulating the easily agitated Hulk into thinking that the others are deceiving him. Meanwhile, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D and Tony Stark have a conference regarding Stark's new team. - "Living Legend" - Captain America reborn! The World War II super solider is found frozen in the artic and the Avengers attempt to revive him. Meanwhile, Arnim Zola (Grant Moninger) unleashes Doughboy (Grant Moninger) and Baron Zemo (Robin Atkin Downes)– an old enemy of ol’ Cap – learns of his rival’s return and sets about wreaking havoc. - "Everything is Wonderful" - When Tony Stark buys rival Simon Williams’ (Phil LaMarr) company out from under him, Iron Man makes a powerful new enemy. With the help of brother Eric (aka. Grim Reaper), M.O.D.O.C (Wally Wingert), and a gang of brillianty-insane scientists, Williams becomes Wonder Man (Phil LaMarr) – a being of pure energy. Meanwhile, Hank argues that Tony values money and business over people, and Captain America meets Nick Fury. - "Panther’s Quest" - The Black Panther (James C. Mathis III) needs the Avengers’ help to defeat the Man-Ape (Kevin Michael Richardson), who has killed the old Black Panther (the new one's father) and taken over his homeland of Wakanda. While in Wakanda the team must deal with other, more familiar foes – the Grim Reaper, Klaw and HYDRA. - "Gamma World, Part I" - The Leader aka. Samuel Sterns (Jeffery Combs) has placed a dome of gamma energy – which mutates anyone under it into a Gamma monster – over the Cube, a prison for super villains. The Avengers try to infiltrate the walls of the Cube and shutdown the dome. Meanwhile, Hawkeye (Chris Cox) confronts Black Widow, whom he thinks is a double agent. - "Gamma World, Part II" - The dome has expanded, now covering most of North America, and almost everyone under it – including some of the Avengers – has become a hideous gamma monster. Hawkeye and an immune Thor convince a reluctant Hulk (who left the Avengers a few episode earlier) to help them battle the Leader in a final showdown.
Video
2D animation in one of the few things that can, and often does, still look marvelous on standard definition DVD. It’s no surprise then that “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” – which is presented in the original 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio and was mastered in high definition by Film Roman (known for producing the animation for “The Simpsons” 1989-Present) and “King of the Hill” (1997-2010)) – translates almost perfectly to the SD format. The style of the animation offers a sleeker, less textured appearance, favoring instead solid but bold colors so the image isn’t exactly brimming with rich detail, but primaries are bright, line art is well defined and edge definition is strong even in medium and wide shots. Banding, especially in skies, is an infrequent but bothersome nuisance, and seems to be the one major flaw of this release – thankfully it’s fleeting.
Audio
Disney’s new animated take on “The Avengers” offers plenty of action sequences that are frequently accompanied by an action-heavy soundtrack – booming explosions, crashing and crumbling structures – so it’s sort of disappointing that the English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix (encoded at 348 kbps) is as front heavy as it is. Stereo panning is well done, but surprisingly little of the sonic material is funneled to the rears. Chalk it up to the TV origins, but, while “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” certainly sounds decent with fine clarity, I was more than a little disappointed in how dull the rear activity is on this track. Optional subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
Extras
Supplements are highly promotional. Fans hoping to find commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, or concept art and storyboard galleries are out of luck. Instead Marvel/Disney have included just one extra of note, a featurette which is basically an extended trailer for the second season plus a collection of bonus trailers. “Season 2 Sneaks: New Stories, New Threats” (16x9-enchanced widescreen, 5 minutes 59 seconds) is a featurette with supervising producer Joshua Fine and story editor Christopher Yost. They discuss the new characters and plots that we can expect in season two. Again, I giving this section a third of a grade point because Marvel really could have just forgone bonus materials altogether. At the very least this feature gives fans a peak at the good stuff to come from a series that they like or love. A barrage of bonus trailers is also included. A quick trailer for “Thor” (32 seconds) – which will either be awful or awesome – plays before the menu, as do promos for “Cars 2” (1 minute 29 seconds) and the Disney XD original animated movie “Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension” (22 seconds). Video game spots for both “Thor: God of Thunder” (1 minute 10 seconds) and “Captain America: The First Avenger” (1 minute) can be found under the additional “Sneak Peak” menu. Finally, a blu-ray trailer for the eagerly awaited Fall 2011 release of “The Lion King: Diamond Edition” (1 minute 23 seconds) closes off the disc.
Packaging
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” arrives on DVD from Marvel Home Entertainment and, new owner of the Marvel content catalog, Walt Disney Studios in a single disc eco-case with a embossed cardboard slipcover. Dubbed “Season One, Volume 2: Captain America Reborn!” this release includes the final 6 episodes from an original 13 episode run, broadcast on television in Fall 2010. “Season One, Volume 1: Heroes Assemble!” has also been released on DVD by Marvel and Disney on the same date – it includes the previous 7 episodes in the series.
Overall
As a whole “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” has plenty of action, strong art direction, excellent voice work (with one disappointing exception) and enough storylines that honor the original source material to please fans – both young and old. The second volume of the series is far more consistent than the first, with actual episode arcs that don’t feel as through four different plots have been crammed into 22-minutes. As with the first volume DVD: video is excellent aside from some minor banding, but the audio is disappointingly front heavy and extras are weak. Worth a look, but I really wish Disney had just released to first 13 episodes together in a 2-disc set rather than split them into these volumes.
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