The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Volume 3 & 4 – DVD Review

The Series:

Marvel has been a Hollywood juggernaut (pun intended) in recent years with box office successes such as Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, X-Men: First Class, & Captain America: The First Avenger. However, that success hasn’t transferred well to the small screen. Marvel has had quite a difficulty in the animation field, what with a small line of animated films, short-lived cartoons series, and stiff competition from rival comic book company, DC. Though, that’s not from lack of material. Marvel produced series like The Spectacular Spider-Man & Wolverine & the X-Men. Both of which were promising shows and personal favorites of mine. However, their production was shut down prematurely, before ever really being able to develop a fan base or following.

So then why bring up such negative history before reviewing a Marvel animated product? The answer is quite simple, because Marvel has managed to turned things around with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The series premiered on October 20, 2010 on Disney XD, and has since sparked the fan base and following that Marvel has been searching for. The series features the original team conceived by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby in 1963, which includes Iron Man, Giant Man, the Hulk, Thor, & the Wasp, and later introduces Captain America, Black Panther, & Hawkeye into the mix. The story centers on the team, who have banded together to fight the world’s most dangerous super villains, all of whom have escaped from Shield’s containment prisons, the Vault, the Cube, the Big House, & the Raft all in the first episode. The story also focuses on the characters individually, giving much insight into their origins & history. Volumes 3 & 4 offer the last 13 episodes of the first season, in which the heroes uncover the truth behind the breakout and engage in an epic battle to save not only the earth, but all the worlds in the Marvel Universe.

Much credit goes to the cast and crew for their part in creating this series. The voice cast is excellently assembled (another pun intended), all of which deliver believable performances of their respective characters. Christopher Yost leads the writing team, who has done a terrific job in adapting and constructing the material. The characters and their development are handled particularly well. Each is given a back-story, motives, reasoning, etc. But it’s the details in the relationships that make the show stand out. Creating a star studded team and the players learning to accept each other and work together is at the heart of the series, and it’s where the show is at it’s best. The story is also expertly crafted. Yost and the team pay homage to Lee and Kirby, inheriting many of the comic books’ original stories. Yet, they also incorporating elements found in more recent comics, as well as the Marvel films. Their melding and blending of the material is done surprisingly well, especially when you take in consideration how much story they manage to cover in just 26 episodes.

Finally, what I find most appealing to this show is that it feels like a throwback to the Marvel animated series of the 1990s. Whether that’s intentional or not, fans of the older series will find themselves swept away into this show’s universe. I find this to be a feature, not a flaw. Because many of us who grew up with those series are adults now, and whose most likely to buy this series on DVD? We are, if not for ourselves, then for our children, which I think is Marvel’s overall goal. There’s something quite powerful about sharing these characters with other generations, that’s why they have lasted as long as they have. This is what has kept the comic book industry alive, and Marvel has managed to achieve that with this series. The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is a fun viewing experience for comic book and cartoon fans young and old, and quite possibly, the best Marvel cartoon since Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Now that’s saying something.

The DVDs:

Audio/ Video: Both are top notch for a DVD release.

Special Features: Avengers Unmasked – An in episode feature loaded with fun facts about the superhero team and their most formidable villains.

The Series Rating:

The DVDs Rating:

Larry Williams

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