The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes premiered this past week on Disney XD and it was not a terrible attempt at a cartoon based on Marvel’s mightiest super-team. That said, there’s nothing here for adults to find enjoyment in except for spotting some of the throwaway appearances by classic Marvel villains (Baron Zemo, Grey Gargoyle, the Absorbing Man, Mad Thinker, Mandril, and a menagerie of others).
The opening story was a two-parter called “Breakout”—this is the same title as Brian Michael Bendis’s first New Avengers arc. The storyline is similar in that the catalyst of the Avengers coming together is the breakout of 74 super-villains from the Raft, a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison compound.
However, the heroes involved in bringing the peace are the five original Avengers: Wasp, Ant Man, Iron Man, Hulk and Thor. The heroes join forces to take on Graviton, a villain jailed by Shield Agent Nick Fury who is extremely upset to have been placed in something of a coma for the last decade. Hawkeye appears and joins the fight briefly, and there’s a walk-on by Black Widow.
While there are some bones to be thrown at the fanboys (mainly in the way of villain cameos), this is strictly a show aimed at teenage boys and younger. The storytelling is simple and should be enjoyable for its target audience. The voice-acting is competent, with two exceptions: Colleen O’Shaughnessy (Wasp) and Eric Loomis (Iron Man) are both ingratiating. I don’t blame the actors as much as I do the direction they were clearly given. Loomis is forced to perform an impression of Robert Downey, Jr. and O’Shaughnessy plays Janet Van Dyne as a pixie-ish teenager.
It appears that the goal of this series is to get a younger audience interested in The Avengers before the film is released in 2012 (or maybe even to get them interested in comic books), but there’s still a part of me that simply desires a Bruce Timm quality treatment for classic Marvel properties.
