Marvel may be dominating the big screen in recent years, but before Daredevil, how well was it holding up on TV? Not very. At least, not until 2010, when Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes first started airing.
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (EMH) is arguably the best animated Marvel series to ever be made to date. When it comes to TV, especially with animated shows, DC is usually the one to make the best of the best. They had Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and many others, which were all fantastic. What does Marvel have? the 90’s X-Men cartoon. That was really the only good one they ever had until EMH aired in 2010.
EMH lasted for 2 seasons, with a total of 52 episodes. In many ways, it is just as good as the popular Marvel movies. In some ways, it’s a little better. For one thing, no matter how many feature length films that the studios make, they’re still limited to about 2 hours of run time to develop the characters and the story. They’re limited to how many characters they can have in each of those films. If there are too many characters to follow, the film suffers from what I call the “Spider-Man Syndrome”. It’s the disease that plagues certain superhero movies, especially Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where there are too many darn characters that each have too many darn plots surrounding them. It’s a mess that’s killed movies before. Another limitation with the films is what kind of plot they have. Sometimes, the story from some of those Marvel comics are too crazy to ever be put to film… unless they are heavily modified… which is what Marvel seems to be getting better at, with movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man.
Fortunately, being a cartoon, EMH could do whatever the heck it wanted. It could have whoever it wanted in its episodes, and could have whatever storyline it could find to adapt from the comics. It did not have to be as grounded in reality as the films are. The plots didn’t need to be heavily rewritten in order to fly with audiences. Don’t be mistaken, though- the storylines were never stupid, nor was it an overdone comedy. No matter how weird things might get sometimes, it’s always executed very well. Given that it’s a series, it had plenty of time to develop each character and the stories that surround them. And these characters weren’t static. The events of each new story changed them somehow. Ideals changed, attitudes changed, loyalties were challenged, teams disbanded, friends lost, and a whole lot of other things that were handled with a surprising amount of maturity that I didn’t expect while going into it.
With EMH, it’s hard to really say what it’s about, since there are so many plotlines in the course of the two seasons. Basically, it’s about each of the classic Marvel heroes coming together to form a team in order to better protect the world and make a positive difference in it. Along the ride, they run into horrible, world threatening villains and events, like the opening of the Casket of Ancient Winters by Malekith, Loki nearly bringing Ragnarok, Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, the Skrull invasion, the Kree invasion, Galactus, Hydra, and a significant amount of other things that I can’t remember off the top of my head. The stories that were shown in the series were interesting, engaging, and just plain fun. It’ll also help you learn more about Marvel characters and comic plots, to better prepare you for future films, and show off to your uninformed friends to make it seem like you know what’s going on…. kinda like what I did.
As I stated before, the level of maturity in each of the storylines took me off guard. The writers always seemed to know the right kind of seriousness to put in each episode, and they always knew when to be serious, and when it was the right time to throw in a joke. The tone was perfectly balanced in every way, and coming from a cartoon that started in 2010, the time where cartoon quality dropped harder than my hopes and dreams, that’s saying quite a lot.
One of the things I liked about this series over the films was the variety of characters it has to offer. With the films, they’re limited to which characters they can use. In EMH, here are characters in that I’ve never heard of before, and will probably never be seen in the movies. Characters like MODAK and the Serpent Society team are guys that I hope I’ll never see in the movies. They’re stupid looking and are simply not as cool as the others. Just when I thought I was the only one who saw how dumb these guys looked, the other characters were always there to ask the same questions I had! They were thinking exactly what I was- that those guys are a complete joke! Half the time, other cartoons like this would expect the viewers to just go along with it, but not EMH. It knew when things were stupid, and it took advantage of its opportunities to make some genuinely funny episodes.
Characters that will appear in future movies include Black Panther (my favorite Avenger of the series), Ant-Man, Ms. Marvel, Wasp (hopefully), and a couple others. I simply love that EMH showcased the lesser known characters, and weren’t restricted to only using the ones that were popular because of the movies. There were a few heroes that didn’t make it into the show, however. Apparently, when it came to copyright, the TV shows suffered as well. Spider-Man did make several appearances, as did Wolverine and the Fantastic 4. But for the most part, there were a lot of other recognizable Marvel heroes missing. I would have liked to see them in the show, but for what we got, I have barely any complaints.
If you were to ask me, the best episodes were the ones about Ultron. Don’t be surprised, that’s not the only thing that this series did first before the films could get to it. This show did the Winter Soldier thing, the fall of SHIELD (like we saw in the Winter Soldier film), Thor temporarily becoming a mortal, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and a few other familiar characters and plots. But by far my favorite was the one with Ultron. The ‘hardcore’ fans are sure to like this over the Age of Ultron movie... because it’s closer to the comics. Hank Pym (Ant-Man) is the one that made Ultron, and… that’s really the only thing I think the ‘hardcore’ fans were whining about. Other than Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch not being Magneto’s kids… which is actually accurate to the comics, seeing how it’s been proven that they aren’t his kids. But I digress.
The Ultron episodes were amazing. The stakes were higher here than with any other villain. Not even the episode with Galactus was as threatening as Ultron’s awesomeness, and Galactus was going to eat the planet. Ultron was just one mean and powerful villain. He was going to initiate a global nuclear extinction. Think about this for a second. A cartoon, whose target audience is kids, having something that serious in one of its episodes… in the modern age of cartoons, no less. I thought that parents and the censorship people would be too paranoid and whimpy to let something like this pass! That’s one of the reasons why I loved EMH. It could be serious, and wasn’t afraid to be.
The worst part of EMH is when it ended. In 2012, the Avengers film came out, and the popular image of the Avengers themselves was what everyone saw in the movie. It was the iconic team, after all. Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye became the new standard for the Avengers. So, with a success like… the Avengers…. how could Marvel resist making a new series to cash in on this new popular image? At the time, nobody knew Ant-Man or Black Panther or Wasp or Ms. Marvel or Vision or anyone else in EMH. So why continue a show with characters that nobody recognized from the new popular movie? People, especially kids, are going to want something that they’re familiar with. That means ending Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Luckily, the second half of the final season tied up a lot of loose ends, but I’m dead certain that they left a couple unfinished. The whole thing with Guardians of the Galaxy was never followed up on, and Amora the Enchantress (an awesome character, by the way) was just left to be a giant fire demon’s slave if I remember right. Even though the show wasn’t abruptly cancelled, it didn’t end completely. There was a lot to cover still.
What did they replace it with? The new series called Avengers: Assemble. How is it doing? Well, if you ask any Marvel fan or look at anyone else’s review of it… not good. Surprising right? Who would have thought that only relying on what’s popular instead of actual quality would lead to failure? Well, I do plan on seeing Avengers: Assemble for myself. Reluctantly.
No matter what, though, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes was an amazing show from beginning to end. The very last episode sucked, but everything before that was golden. In terms of overall quality, it’s the closest Marvel will ever get to in comparison to the perfection that was Batman: The Animated Series. It is definitely not as dark and not as serious all the time, but when it is serious, it’s amazing. And when it’s fun, it’s seriously fun! It’s a show I will never forget. It’s one of my favorite cartoons of all time, and I’m glad I watched it. If you can’t get enough of the Avengers recently, and can’t afford to go see Age of Ultron in theaters 47 times, then watch Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. It’s a cartoon, but it’s one that everyone can enjoy.
The theme song kicks ass, too.
FINAL RATING: 5 / 5
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