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In
one instance during the prequel mini-sodes that
explored the characters before the series, Hulk
punches the head off of one of the villains. And on
rare occasions there are themes of marital discord
between Wasp and Antman, as well as peeks in to the
whole war that occurred before Cap Am was frozen.
"The Avengers" is a show that many will be fearful
of going in to, but once they warm up to it, they'll
find that Disney and Marvel really do let out all
the stops. There are cameos from heroes like
Spider-Man, the Punisher, lip service to the
Fantastic Four, and there are appearances from every
single superhero we've seen in the team. Black
Panther, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye,
Antman, Wasp, Black Widow, Iron Man, the gang's all
here, and they're all allowed a moment in the
spotlight with their own episodes and one-shots as
well as recurring storylines, most of which are
quire interesting. Why is the Black Panther breaking
in to the Avengers mansion unnoticed and seeking out
their individual roster profiles on the mansion's
computer? What does he want? What ever became of
Hawkeye after he broke out of prison? Will we see
the Red Skull any time soon? Most importantly, how
long will it be before Antman's Ultron system
finally decides that it's time to stop obeying and
start commanding? Even folks who saw the entire
minisodes epic that set up storylines for the series
will have their own nagging questions. The animation
is marvelous and matched with the top notch voice
work, this is a series that many will have a blast
with. Paired with a wicked catchy rock theme song,
the animators do everything to match the series with
the upcoming movie.
Tony Stark sounds exactly like Robert Downey Jr.
with his wit and droll temperament, Thor's
girlfriend looks and sounds like Natalie Portman,
Captain America resembles Chris Evans to some
degree, Nick Fury is still African American
(unfortunately), Black Widow sounds like Scarlett
Johannsen, and Hawkeye bears a weird resemblance to
Jeremy Renner. Not to mention the Hulk is in green
form most of the time on screen with Bruce Banner
acting as a conscience to the goliath. A hint at the
storyline for the big screen version, perhaps? In
spite of the audience it's appealing to, the series
is most of the time very exciting with appearances
from most of the title's banner villains while also
knowing where its audiences mentality lies. There
are rarely times when our heroes are out of costume,
and there are almost no peeks behind the personal
lives of our individual titans beyond Tony Stark's
bickering with Pepper Potts, and the romance between
Antman and Wasp. The only downfall among the group
is Wasp who, while providing a female element, is
probably the least interesting of the group, doing
very little to fight the villains beyond giving them
pep talks and zipping around like Tinkerbell during
big matches only to conveniently get through to a
menace when the episode is almost done. In spite of
that flaw, "The Avengers" is quite addictive and is
very much in the vein of Bruce Timm's "Justice
League" series where the characters are larger than
life and they all get their days in the sun. Anyone
looking for a masterful version of these characters
in motion should check out "Earth's Mightiest
Heroes," a series teeming with creativity,
entertainment, and excitement. |