An animated series that is based on the long running, popular Marvel Comics superhero team, “The Avengers”. “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Super Heroes” captures the heart and soul of the original comic book series and were written by fans of the comics who wanted to bring the characters to a modern setting. Enjoyable, action-packed and fun! Definitely recommended for the young and even the old, who grew up reading the comic books!
©2011 Marvel Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.
DVD TITLE: The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 3 and 4
DURATION: Vol 2: 135 Minutes / Vol 4: 148 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Widescreen (1:78:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
COMPANY: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
RATED: Not Rated
RELEASE DATE: October 25, 2011
Directed by Vinton Heuck, Ciro Nieli, Sebastian Montes
Written by Joshua Fine, Brandon Auman, Kevin Burke, Chris Wyatt, Christopher Yost, Paul Giacoppo
Supervising Producer: Joshua Fine
Music by Guy Michelmore
Edited by Steve Ingram
Casting by Jamie Simone
Storyboard Artist: Ben Jones
Visual Effects by Thomas D. Moser
Character Design Supervisor: Thomas Perkins
Character Designs by Brianne Drouhard, Walter Gatus
Featuring the Voices of:
Eric Loomis as Iron Man
Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Janet Van Dyne
Rick D. Wasserman as Thor
Wally Wingert as Ant-Man
Fred Tatasciore as The Hulk
Brian Blossom as Captain America
Chris Cox as Clint Barton
James C. Mathis III as Black PAnther
Phil LaMarr as Jarvis
Alex Desert as Nick Fury
Robin Atkin Downes as Baron Zemo
Jim ward as Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker
Vanessa Marshall as Black Widow
Gabriel Mann as Bruce Banner
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is a television series on Disney DXD that is inspired by the Marvel Comics Super Hero team of the same name. In each episode, the Avengers defend Earth from unimaginable threats – dangerous Super Villains, time-travelling conquerors, alien invaders and mythical beasts bent on the total destruction of humanity. When the forces of evil are so overwhelming that no single hero has the power to save the world, when no hope is left… the Avengers Assemble! Join Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and many more of your favorite Avengers, as they discover the value of teamwork and friendship in the fight against evil!
The pulse-pounding action continues on October 25th with six unforgettable episodes in the Volume 3 release of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Enjoy all the thrills as Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk and the rest of the Avengers face off against Baron Zemo’s Masters of Evil and defend earth from a full-scale alien invasion led by the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror!
For any Marvel comic book fan, “The Avengers” was a comic book series that featured popular characters from the Marvel Universe, most who had their own solo titles, all together as a group to take on the powerful super villains which required these heroes to work together as a team.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in Sept. 1963, “The Avengers” along with the “X-Men” and the “Fantastic-Four” are Marvel Comics flagship superhero groups that still continue on today. But the main difference is that the Avengers would have a rotating roster and to keep stories fresh, there were always characters that would be called in to battle and it was the direct competitor to DC Comics superhero group (also with a rotating roster), the Justice League of America.
Similar to both the “X-Men” and the “Fantastic Four”, the Avengers received an animated series consisting of 13-episodes and appeared to be more “West Coast Avengers”-like with the main characters being Ant-Man as the leader, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, the Falcon and the Vision.
But with the upcoming “Avengers” live-action film (2012) being planned, what better than to create some buzz by releasing an animated series that feature the original core members of the group (Iron Man, Wasp, Ant-Man, Thor, Black Panther, Captain America, Hawkeye and The Hulk) and thus we have “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, created by Marvel Animation and Film Roman (known for their animation for “The Simpsons”, “King of the Hill” and “Garfield”).
The animated series debuted on Disney’s XD as a 20-episode micro series episodes in September and full-length episodes in October 2010 and a total of 26-episodes for the first season have been shown on television and with the release of the first two volumes in 2010 covering the first half of the first season, the second half featuring vol. 3 and 4 have been released on DVD.
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” consists of the following episodes. Here is a spoiler-less summary of each episode:
VOL. 3
- EPISODE 14: Masters of Evil – Baron Zemo along with the Enchantress, Executioner, Wonder Man, Crimson Dynamo and the Abomination form the Masters of Evil to takedown the Avengers.
- EPISODE 15: 459 – Wasp and the Avengers meet with Captain Marvel who needs them to help stop a Kree Sentry from destroying their planet. Also, featuring Carol Danvers receiving her powers.
- EPISODE 16: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow – Kang the Conqueror comes to the 41st Century to destroy Captain America.
- EPISODE 17: Come the Conqueror – Kang uses the Ultron robots as weapons to fight against the Avengers.
- EPISODE 18: The Kang Dynasty – The continued fight against Kang.
- EPISODE 19: Widow’s Sting – Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther and Mockingbird take on HYDRA in orders to find Black Widow.
VOL. 4
- EPISODE 20: The Casket of Ancient Winters – The Avengers take on Malekith the Accursed who obtains the Casket of Ancient Winters.
- EPISODE 21: Hail Hydra! – The Black Widow goes to the Avengers for their help in retrieving the Cosmic Cube.
- EPISODE 22: Ultron-5 – A member quits the team while Ultron tries to bring peace to the world.
- EPISODE 23: The Ultron Imperative – The team are devastated after a loss of a teammate. Iron Man and Ant-Man try to destroy Ultron.
- EPISODE 24: The Hostage Earth – The Masters of Evil are back and the Avengers must try to stop them!
- EPISODE 25: The Fall of Asgard – The Avengers are separated and must try to survive in the nine realms.
- EPISODE 26: A Day Unlike Any Other – The Avengers vs. Loki
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is presented in widescreen 1:78:1 – enhanced for 16×9 televisions and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Picture quality is very good and I will say that the style of animation is consistent with a lot of animated series in the U.S. as of late but noticed with these newer episodes, a much more concentrated effort to have more detail for surroundings and environments.
For the most part, I do enjoy the character designs of the superheroes and like how the series does employ a lot some shading for its characters and backgrounds. While not uber-detailed, for a TV animated series, I felt that the character designs and backgrounds looked very good (I’m still a big fan of the old ’80s “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends backgrounds) and looked quite modern. There are a good amount of colors for the series and for the most part, I feel the look and feel of the series was a major improvement compared to the look and feel of the various Marvel animated series from the ’90s.
If there is one thing that I did notice, it was the use of surround channels for the audio. Because the series employs quite a bit of action, I felt the use of the active audio track was well-done. Also, the voice acting was also very good for this series, as well as the background symphony theme music.
Subtitle are presented in English SDH and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” features the following special features on each disc:
VOLUME 3
- Avengers Unmasked: Masters of Evil – (22:53) A feature that showcases facts about the characters and villains and compares the look of the Avengers animated vs. the Avengers from the original comic book series with the episode “Masters of Evil”.
VOLUME 4
- Avengers Unmasked: Hail, Hydra! – (22:50) A feature that showcases facts about the characters and villains and compares the look of the Avengers animated vs. the Avengers from the original comic book series with the episode “Hail, Hydra!”.
As mentioned in my review for the first two volumes, I grew up reading “The Avengers”.
I have been such a big fan of the comic book series and for me, “The Avengers” (and yes, even its West Coast spin-off) and it was one series I collected as a child all the way through my college years. And if I have to think about why I enjoyed the series, I find it different compared to the “X-Men”, which I have saw as the mutant minorities being discriminated by humans and are always fighting for the betterment of mutankind, while “The Fantastic Four” were essentially a family unit. “The Avengers” was different from these two other superhuman groups, different from other Marvel groups such as The Defenders, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Alpha Flight, X-related groups or other superhero groups that have existed in the Marvel Universe.
Because with the Avengers, you had superheroes who had their own longstanding comic books such as Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk all in one book. And as awesome as they were, the group was quite dysfunctional, always hanging by a thread by Captain America and financially by Tony Stark. Ego’s often got in the way, characters who were in relationships beginning to have interest in other members, substance abuse and even heroes who started to stray off the path of good. “The Avengers” were not perfect.
And while “The Avengers” has had its ups and downs (especially for the quality of its writing), possibly one of the biggest mistakes made by Marvel was how it handled The Avengers first animated series, “Avengers: United They Stand”. The series tried to use a line-up of characters that seemed great for “West Coast Avengers” but for an animated series, why ignore the core membership? Even with its rival “The Justice League of America” animated series, you weren’t going to see them stray from their initial core of primary characters like Superman, Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter. But in the late ’90s, Marvel did just that.
And now here we are with “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” and fortunately, we have Chris Yost (Story Editor) and Josh Fine (Supervising Editor), two individuals who read the original comic books, who understood the popularity of those characters, their group dynamic and dysfunction and they took that original storyline that the series was known for many decades and applied it to a modern setting.
For me, “The Avengers” is all about Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, the Wasp, Ant-Man/Giant Man and throw in Hawkeye, Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird (and many more planned for season two) and I’m thrilled! This is how it should have been before and the fact that you have people who were passionate about the original work and utilizing them for a new generation of Marvel fans is fantastic!
But for any fan who grew up with Avengers, especially in the ’70s and ’80s will know the impact the Kree vs. Skrull War had on the series, especially HYDRA and the no matter how many times you destroy him, he keeps coming back…ULTRON. While the season does feature Kang, to me that villain is more a nemesis of the Fantastic Four than the Avengers but still, I credit the writers for including these storylines but also trying to include so many villains, especially during the Master of Evil storyline.
So, there is a lot of action in this second half of the series, many characters introduced and also the storyline towards the end of the season is much deeper. The writers really delivered towards the second half of the first season and I look forward to what they have planned for season two!
As mentioned, the animation is pretty good for the series, not uber-detailed but yet, are pretty modern and cool looking. The voice acting was great for this series and loved how the series also utilized the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, especially during those action sequences.
As mentioned, the DVD is very good in terms of picture quality (I noticed an improvement in the detail of the environments for the second half of the season) and dialogue is easy to understand and clear. As for special features, each disc does come with one feature and it would have great to have more.
The series is aired on Disney XD and some parents may wonder if the series is safe for children. For those who are 7-years-old or older, I felt the series is appropriate. But it depends if you want your children watching super heroes battling with super villains. If not, then you may want to pass on this series. Otherwise, there is no questionable language or anything majorly violent.
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” is an animated series featuring Marvel’s popular superhero team and it is one that captures the essence of the comic book series and focusing on what made the comic book series so entertaining and enjoyable for nearly 50-years. While not exactly faithful to the original comic book storyline, the series still manages to capture the heart and soul of the Avengers comic book series by focusing on the primary core members but showcasing the value of teamwork but also the challenges the group faces. Because despite the fact they are superheroes, each were busy as a solo hero and needless to say, ego and pride do get in the way.
Overall, “The Avengers” fans of the comic book series will definitely enjoy this animated series but also those of you who grew up with the series and are parents of children, this is a perfect series to watch with them and enjoy together.
“The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” vol. 3 and 4 are definitely recommended!
