Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes vs. Avengers Assemble

[O.Supreme]

Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes vs. Avengers Assemble
A Critical Analysis

Ever since the announcement was made shortly after the release of the first Avengers film (summer of 2012) that a new series: Avengers Assemble would be replacing the then-current Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes, I was thoroughly disappointed that a show I had quickly grown to like so much was already being cancelled and replaced. This odd move already had cast the new show in a bad light with me months before I had seen any artwork, or knew any details about the show at all. Still I was determined to give the show a fair chance.

Fast forward to the present, a little over 3 years later. Avengers Assemble has as of 9/20/15 just aired its 52nd episode, which was its second season finale, equaling the run that Avengers: EMH had. What I am going to attempt to do is with an equal body of work, breakdown and compare both series, providing critical analysis, but I will warn any readers. My biases even now are that the previous series A: EMH, was an all-around superior series in just about every way. And try to understand why A seemingly superior show was forcibly ended in order to make way for an inferior one (Avengers Assemble) that has been renewed for a 3rd season to air sometime in 2016.

The beginning- It’s hard to believe, it’s been 5 years since the “micro series” lead up to A:EMH first appeared online. Basically the first 5 episodes were broken up into 5 minute clips. I literally stumbled upon these by accident one day, shortly before the series’ first aired. I was hooked after watching 3 or 4 short segments. And when the first 2-part aired “Breakout” I knew this was going to be an awesome series.

In contrast, when “Avengers Protocol” part 1 & 2 for AA first snuck online (via Itunes a couple weeks before the Disney XD premiere), in the spring of 2013, I of course insisted on watching them. All I had seen so far told me this would be a shallow movie-verse take, which I didn’t want to believe. Unfortunately my instincts were mostly correct. The Avengers were flat out boring, and the villains in this series were far more interesting. Moving forward after going through the rosters, I will attempt to analyze each series in 13 episode arcs.

Starting Lineups:

A: EMH in its first season features the Original five members from the comics (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, & Wasp), shortly after adding Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Panther, for a well-rounded cast of Eight Avengers by mid-season which continues to the end of Season 1. AA Begins with a team that simulates the MCU Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow) the only new character introduced is Falcon during the series premier, making this Avengers lineup of 7 pretty much a pale version of their MCU selves.

Episode arc 1-13:

A: EMH does a nice job of building up all Eight of its titular members, showing them all from nearly the beginning, but having them not actually come together until “Breakout” episodes 6 & 7 for the original five and “Gamma World” episodes 12 & 13 for the expanded roster of eight. Additionally S.H.I.E.L.D and all its main members are introduced, along with well over 70 super villains, there are simply to many to mention, but of note is The Leader and several Gamma Powered villains during the “Gamma World” 2- part episode. AA basically sets up Red Skull and his “Cabal” as the enemies of the Avengers (consisting of Modok, Super-Adaptoid, Attuma, Hyperion, and Dracula). I’ll give credit to AA for selecting villains, some of which never appeared in the previous series, and to make them the most interesting part of the AA series early episodes. Additionally, using some lesser known villains that also did not appear in EMH made some of the early episodes interesting. However a seemingly “forced” B&W flashback during episode 8 “Molecule Kid” in a vain attempt to connect the two independent series seemed oddly out of place. Also episode 12 “Avengers: Impossible” basically taking Falcon and inserting him into the events of The Avengers MCU movie, was almost shamefully embarrassing.

Episode arc 14-26:

I’ll hand it to both series in that, their respective second half’s of their first season really began to expand to other settings all while building toward a finale that had been hinted at early on. With EMH, you had the Masters of Evil reveal themselves, a battle with a Kree century (and set up for Ms. Marvel would pay off later)an episode with Black Widow & Mockingbird, a F4 guest appearance, and multi-episode arcs with main villains such as Kang the Conqueror and Ultron before building up to the epic finale with Loki. With AA, the threat of red Skulls Cabal was ever looming, but there were episodes that featured guest appearances by The Thing, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, & the GoTG. Featuring villains such as Doom, Mojo, and Galactus were decent, but unlike EMH that spent several episodes treating villains as a major threat, in AA, they were all easily thwarted in the 22 minute run time. The Final Showdown” was a noble attempt at a powerful season finale, but paled in comparison with EMH’s.

Overall season comments:

I can honestly say, that I enjoy on some level, every episode of EMH, but if I had to pick a favorite from Season 1 it would probably have to be #15 “459”. My least favorite would be #10 “Everything is Wonderful”. For AA I’d say my favorite season 1 episode would have to be #19 “The Ambassador”, and least favorite would be #24 “Crime and Circuses”. Also as a final comment, although Black Widow is not featured as a members of the Avengers in EMH, I believe her character, in few appearances did more to further the story in EMH, than how the same character was portrayed in AA Being a full time Avengers member. –Season 2 set ups – EMH- After the final battle, we find out that Captain America has been replaced by a Skrull Agent. In AA, we find out that Red Skull was not destroyed, but now bows before his new master – Thanos.

Season 2 –Unfortunately both series were approached differently. For the producers of EMH, they saw the writing on the wall when Jeph Loeb came in and wanted to rewrite much of what Josh Fine & Chris Yost were planning for the 2nd season. As a result, the season was delayed by almost a full calendar year. AA Season 2 however went full steam ahead, with other shows on Disney XD such as Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk: And the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. to support it. In season 2 of EMH, we would see Ms. Marvel join the Team as well as The Vision, and Hank Pym would change from Ant-Man into Yellow Jacket expanding the teams core roster from 8-10, but as we would soon find out, pretty much any hero in the Marvel Universe could be an honorary Avenger. For AA, the well-timed addition of Ant-Man to capitalize on the MCU film of the same name would expand the team’s roster from 7 to 8.

Episode arc 27-39:

The Main thrust of the first portion of EMH season 2 would be the Skrull invasion. Though this had to be greatly trimmed due to pressure from Loeb to have fewer overarching plot lines and more standalone episodes, because, ya know, kids are dumb…But that being said, there was still an awesome beginning to season 2 with Dr. Doom and the F4, additionally there were episodes which featured the introduction of Scott Lang as the 2nd Ant-Man, the GoTG (refreshingly pre MCU), Beta Ray Bill, Spider-Man, Red Hulk, and the conclusion of the Skrull Invasion story. AA on the other hand, unfortunately just seemed to turn into a jumbled mess in season 2. It almost seems as if the producers were chasing their own tail as to which MCU villain they could capitalize on the most, and kept switching back and forth, and amongst it all, somehow, there is a fairly interesting threat in the Squadron Supreme, if you can find it. Between Thanos and the slow introduction of The SS, there isn’t much going on in AA, additionally, since there is for some reason only 5 infinity stones in this shows version if the Infinity Gauntlet, it makes the show all the more difficult to watch. As with season 1, although some villains do exist for multiple episodes, other than the SS, most are dispatched way too easily, especially Thanos.

Episode arc 40-52:

By this time, EMH had become entirely Loeb’s, and the mostly episodic nature really comes through, though at the end, we get a nice finale with the Kree, and what I call an “Epilogue” with Galactus. This second arc had Ultron return in a couple of episodes to build The Vision storyline, Loki returned with The Destroyer, and Annihilus as well, and a couple of nice episodes with Red Hulk, Winter Soldier, and a few other characters brainwashed working for The Red Skull. Even the episodic nature of these stories still did not detract much from the wonderful storytelling. I think also episode 52 was a gift to fans. They knew EMH was going out, so they wanted to do it with a BANG! – Basically every hero that had ever been in the show vs. Galactus. For just 22 minutes, it is a fun addendum, as I feel the Kree story arc that preceded it was more the official ending. As for AA, Ultron was introduced, seemingly out of nowhere, and although he was around for several episodes, again his defeat felt unsatisfying. The squadron Supreme episodes that filled the rest of season 2 were surprisingly decent; unfortunately the threat of Thanos return was always kept on the Horizon, so that is how the season ended. Additionally somehow now, Thanos is stronger than he ever was with the Infinity Gauntlet, and can grow to Giant proportions, which I don’t ever recall happening in the comics. This was obviously more a set up for the new GoTG animated series than a true Avengers story, but for the AA series, they will get a chance to go on for a 3rd season, unlike EMH sadly.

Overall 2nd season comments:

Unfortunately because of Loeb’s meddling, season 2 of EMH was not all it could have been, but fortunately the scripts and rich pool of characters kept the show very entertaining. Sadly, there was a huge missed opportunity in leaving a story line with Surtur unresolved. I’d say my favorite season 2 episode would probably be #38 “Secret Invasion”, and my least favorite would be #45 “Emperor Stark”. For AA, my favorite Season 2 episode would be #38 “Widows Run”, and my least favorite would be #33 “The Age of Tony Stark”

Conclusion:

Ideally I think most adult fans would have preferred Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes to continue. Why Disney/Marvel/Whoever chose to make the change I guess can only be attributed to the desire to make a show whose design is closer to the MCU, and will sell toys, and thus make more money. So sad when quality is destroyed in the name of profit, but oh well. I would love to poll some children (the main target audience), to get an unbiased opinion of which show they like better, or even if they care, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. Avengers Assemble Season 2 is being added to Netflix on October 20th. So if you have the service you can watch all 52 episodes of BOTH series and compare/contrast for yourself. Finally Avengers Assemble has been renewed for a 3rd season subtitled “Ultron Revolution” in 2016. – With Thanos being tied up with GotG, Ultron appears to be set to take center stage, although naming an entire season after one villain seems risky, considering no one villain, or group of villains has appeared in the series consistently for more than 5 episodes in a stretch. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if this series can truly break the MCU mold and take on a life of its own, or remain as it is. Only time will tell.

[mbozzo]

I only saw a few episodes of Avengers Assemble and very little, if any, of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Could Marvel do a direct to DVD continuation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes?

[O.Supreme]

Of course they could, but unfortunately I don't see it happening. Marvel had some decent direct to DVD films through Lionsgate from 2006-2011 (they actually started before DC by almost 2 years). Then there were a couple of Anime films, and a couple of really bad CGI films. Seems like they are out of the direct-to-DVD market for now, and just focusing on TV animated series on Disney XD. The entire ty of both series on Netflix. - Again I cannot recommend Earths Mightiest Heroes enough.

[sentaison]

Very nice comparison with which I heartily agree. EMH had the better characters and better overall stories. AA does have some gems, I really enjoyed the Squadron Supreme storyline, but falls down overall. Favorite overall moment, in the second season opener of EMH when the Thing and Hulk get into it over the poker game continuing into the fight with the Doombots.

[O.Supreme]

Agreed. The premier episode of season 2 of EMH was filled with quite a few gems, and the ongoing poker game was definitely a highlight.

Additionally, as announced today, an Ant-Man sequel tentatively titled "Ant-Man and Wasp" has shoehorned its way into an already overcrowded Phase 3 MCU.

Another great thing about EMH is that, before Disney and Marvel got all PC, EMH had great female characters. My daughter absolutely loved The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne). Ms. Marvel was a great addition to the season 2 roster as well. I've already commented about how I think Black Widow did more for EMH, though she was not even on the team, as opposed to AA where she does very little. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents such as Maria Hill, and Mockingbird were well played as well as Abigail Brand heading up S.W.O.R.D. Basically -sometimes people try to hard. EMH had a great diversity and richness in its female characters.