Avengers Assemble

[BentonGrey]

Holy Hannah!  I cannot believe that the morons behind Marvel's TV properties canceled Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes for this.  I mean, it looks AWFUL!  Check out the teaser here:
http://majorspoilers.com/2013/05/22/television-marvels-avengers-assemble/#more-205084

That animation...are they serious?  Is this some kind of early storyboard version or something?  Watch and try to believe your eyes.  Apparently someone thought that this amateurish garbage was better than EMH.

Those classic 60's 'barely animated' Marvel cartoons could give this thing a run for its money.

[Talavar]

That does look pretty amazingly bad.  Terrible animation and dialogue lifted almost word for word for the movie, except made somehow stilted.  Ouch.

[Tomato]

While I don't think it's quite AS bad as Benton is saying... it is pretty bad. Adrian Pasdar's performance as Iron Man is probably the worst of it, because he sounds like he's just reading the lines off a sheet of paper. It's kind of a shame too, dude's done some decent VA work as Iron Man in the past, but this was just boring.

Not that I really care anyway though... I'm boycotting Marvel animated stuff until this show is cancelled, so the worse it is the better.

[BentonGrey]

Gahh, I just watched it again.  If anything, I was too generous.  I've seen better drawings, forget even the animation, simply better art, from school children.

[lugaru]

I make a strict point of being a devils advocate and not agreeing with everyone else on the internet... but ugh.

Especially Ugh since I'm halfway through season 2 of Earths Mightiest Heroes and I'm shocked at how often I catch myself yelling outloud at something awesome/funny/unexpected.

Just to cut it a little slack I'm sure that if it was not for EMH being cancelled, most people would be a little excited, but in this context I have the following line popping into my head "Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first."

[Tomato]

I'd contend that the comment about 60s animated shorts was hyperbole, but yeah, it' pretty horrible. You can almost feel the lack of enthusiasm coming from that trailer, and that's a HUGE problem for a series to start without even the people working on it caring about it.

[Jimaras8]

I am at S02 of EMH and i cant beleieve they cancelled it for an Avengers movie crap spinoff. Its ridiculous. EMH was very good and although i wanted some elements to shine more( like caps leadership and more avengers coming in) it presented many unfamilliar characters to the audience. They could intergrate every single marvel crossover event in EMH and waht did they do? They cancelled it. Really bad call from Marvel. I hope at least Agents of Shield be somehow equal to Arrow(although different style overall).

[Silver Shocker]

Just so y'all know, on Monday the US iTunes store put the first episode of the show up for free. If you guessed it's already taken off, then congrats, this ain't this your first rodeo.

[Midnite]

Watched the first episode. It was horrible, it felt rushed. The dialogue, writing and animation was pretty bad. They canceled EMH for this crap? 

[Cyber Burn]

I may watch the first episode, just to form my own opinion about it, but from the preview, I'm not expecting to put this on my DVR list.

[crimsonquill]

I had high hopes for this show.. not that Ultimate Spider-Man standing alone with it's semi-serious tone was making it any easier to feel hope for Marvel's animated future.

After seeing the previews for Marvel's HULK and Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (where they confirmed it was made as if they were being filmed on a reality show and breaking the fourth wall like they do on Ultimate Spider-Man) and the very confusing storytelling in the two-part Avengers Assemble premiere (Iron Man acknowledging M.O.D.O.K. as an old villian and the Hall Of Fallen Heroes in Avengers Mansion which made NO sense if you approached it as a spin-off from The Avengers movie) seemed to imply that the Cinemaverse merged with the stories from EMH: Avengers show.

While Marvel Studios seems to have everything well planned out for the Cinemaverse.. It seems Marvel Animation Studios threw out what worked with many perfectly successful shows such as Wolverine And The X-Men, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes: The Avengers to just tie everything into their live action incarnations hoping their new young audience would embrace them and the rest of us would just step in line behind them.

- CQ

[Starman]

I haven't watched this yet but does the presence of the Avengers Mansion, MODOK, etc, mean this is supposed to be in the same continuity as Earths Mightiest Heroes??

[Podmark]

I haven't watched this yet but does the presence of the Avengers Mansion, MODOK, etc, mean this is supposed to be in the same continuity as Earths Mightiest Heroes??

The answer is probably "kinda". The show is likely written as if it is it's own thing (in continuity with Ultimate Spider-Man) but could be a continuation of EMH (or the movies). The use of the Falcon makes it clear it's neither as he doesn't follow EMH and won't follow the Winter Soldier, but the writers have written it in a way that seems like it is.

I've watched it, and... it's not very good. The pace is way too fast, the story moves at fast forward. Animation was poor, and little of the story stood out.

Some things I liked:
-The voice of Captain America. Never liked his EMH voice and his new voice makes me smile because he's Chris Redfield.
-The Red Skull's plot actually seemed like it could have been a pretty cool story. Not here though.
-I like the art design here much more than EMH.

Probably the thing I disliked the most was the use of the Falcon in the first episode. He's not in it very much and I think a lot of story potential is lost that way. Either he should have been our entry character, the new rookie hero joining the team, and the main character of the first episode following him as we (re)introduce the audience to characters and concept. Or he should have been a long running plot, first being introduced as the moonlighting SHIELD agent Ironman recruits as the first episode told us, and we'd see them working together over several episodes before he finally dons the costume, probably to save the team. Instead he's just kinda there. Such a waste.

The show also isn't written as the first episode of a brand new show. Nothing is really introduced, it assumes you know everything from the movie, or EMH, or the comics, or uh... osmosis? None of the characters are really introduced (the worst offender is MODOK) and things move far too fast for the viewer to get their bearings.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

So in basically because viewers are too lazy to keep up with a running storyline and will get confused if they don't know the explanation for things, the solution is to throw out the explanation altogether and assume that's somehow better?  Somebody hire that four year old I mentioned elsewhere.

[Glitch Girl]

Just saw it...  Rant commencing...

Oh yeah, some spoilers in here too.

Spoiler

Yes, it's official: this is completely divorced from Avengers:EMH continuity. It's implied that the group broke up shortly after events in the movie, but it's pretty vague otherwise.  I'm kind of glad in a way, because I would not want to associate this to A:EMH at all.

First some thoughts on the technical: the style here is closer to Ultimate Spider-Man than EHM, leaning a little towards the bland side (IMO).  Most of the designs are fine, though I can't say I'm fond of the new MODOK.  Actual animation feels several steps down though: action scenes are roughly edited and tend to jump around a bit, there are cuts that don't always make sense or are a bit jarring.  The fight between RedSkull-in-Cap and Iron Man in episode one I found particularly choppy.  There are times when the characters lack shading or backgrounds appear rough or unfinished.  At the end inside the new HQ, the background appeared to have been treated haphazardly with Photoshop filters and didn't fit the style of the rest of the two episodes.

Voice acting is... unremarkable.  Most of the cast is competent with what they're given, but the casting itself is towards the bland side.  Nobody really stands out as giving a really solid performance.

Also, why do we have to switch the voices when we switch the minds?  I would much prefer to hear Cap's VA doing his version of the Red Skull and vice versa instead of just having them continue to voice "themselves" even in other bodies.  Argh.

Writing leans towards the quippy, trying I believe to emulate USM  (a series I wanted to like but never did quite click with me).  Much of the dialogue had me wincing  (especially between Thor and Hulk.  Especially ESPECIALLY Thor).  Falcon as the eager young groupie/newbie wasn't particularly enjoyable either.  Of everyone, I'd say Cap and Black Widow came off the best characterization-wise but neither of them were given much to do.  Heck, Cap is out of it and presumed dead for most of the first episode and Widow doesn't get so much as a mention or cameo for the first 7-8 minutes (I was wondering if she actually got the call). 

Plotwise they packed in as many common plots as they could: noted team member seems dead but isn't, getting the team back together, mind switching, villain uses hero's tech against him (seriously, "Iron Skull"?  This is going to be our season big bad?), heroes get mind controlled, hero fights hero, pending explosion threatens to level city...  The emphasis seems to change ever 10 minutes none of which really flows together well.  Things are solved or discovered because PLOT! just to keep it moving along.

Assorted Random thoughts:

• There is no group chemistry here.  Most of the first episode is spent with the team sniping at each other.  Black Widow shows up, things calm down a bit, but not for long because they're back sniping at each other in no time.  I think the writers are trying to be "quippy" but all I get out of it is a bunch of immature people snarking at each other in the middle of a crisis.


• Why everyone wants Iron Man in charge?  He starts off as a really lousy leader, then at some point he's suddenly giving orders in an almost competent fashion, and then it's back to selfish stupidity.  Seriously, WTH?


• I don't recall MODOK being a technopath, is this new or is this strictly for the series?


• Is it just me, or does this show very much have a "boy's club" vibe to it?


• The Hulk/Thor banter is really painful to listen to.  So is the Hawkeye/Hulk banter.


• Apparently someone involved in this series liked it when the Hulk suckerpunched an ally in the movie.  He does it a lot.


• I know I said this already, but "Iron Skull"?  Seriously, WTH?


• Falcon's origin in this series is pretty weak: he's a SHIELD agent who Tony trained somehow in secret, immediately drops everything with barely an explanation to Fury (who comes off as such a chump in this, though he does at least fire him for skipping out), dons some prototype armor, and boom he's an Avenger. He also magically knows how to use Red Skull's mind switching device after barely looking at it.  I'm trying to decide if they're trying to make him a tech head like Tony, a fan boy so the audience can "relate" (yeah, I hate characters like that too) or what per se. 


• Red Skulls call to make  his own evil Avengers includes Doctor Doom.  I fear what this series is going to do to him.


• Iron Skull: "...and it makes me beyond fashionable!"  [cringe]


• I made a few note while I was watching.  Did not realize I wrote "WTH?" four times. That is not a good sign.

I want to like this.  I know A:EMH got cancelled for this series, but I was going to try to go in with an open mind and give it a fair chance, but...this is a mess.  I am not a fan of USM, but even it was better than whatever this concoction is that  they've made under the Avengers name.  This feels cheap, slapped together, rushed, and not thought out.  I'm not asking for Young Justice or even A:EMH quality production, but I do want something that doesn't make me feel dumber for having seen it.

[detourne_me]

GG You are 100% correct here.  Ugh.  Bad decision Jeph Loeb!

[Previsionary]

You guys are so much harsher on this show than I was (probably because I watched it late night before bed or completely disconnected it from the movie/the previous show). I just find that amusing because there are people on this site who have said I'm "too harsh" in the past, lol.

My review:

Short version: It's an okay show, not something I'd ever seek out to watch at any time, but I wouldn't be immediately turned off by it either. If I weren't a Marvel fan with significant insight on The Avengers, the movie, or the last show, I'd probably be a lot more accepting of it because it seems to be made for casual fans.

Long Read Warning

Finally gave Avengers Assemble a watch after putting it off for, I guess, a week? Upon first hearing about it just before Earth's Mightiest Heroes was canceled, I was very unsure about this new cartoon that was pitched to audiences as being similar to Ultimate Spider-man. I was not silent about not really caring for USM based on the few episodes I watched. I also thought EMH was a nice mix of storytelling, character/world building, and humor. Well, now it's truth time. Did I like the new show?

Spoiler

I will say that the first two episodes were okay, if not a bit clunky. The show repeatedly tries to sell the audience on the idea that Tony Stark is a bad leader compared to Captain America. That's fine, but the show also suggests that it has some light continuity with the previous show... or at least some unexplored, as of now, back story that happened before the situation we are dumped into. Either way, I'm not buying that Tony Stark was a poor leader when he essentially was the leader for a good chunk of EMH and was the leader of the original Avengers team and most of the Bendis era. At least they padded that particular decision out with showing us that Avengers Assembled Tony is more solo oriented, which I guess works as a starting point or something close to it.

I don't know how I feel about taking a character like the Red Skull and making him focus his main attention on Iron Man and not Cap. The first episode made that change very abrupt, and I didn't particularly care for it. I also didn't like Modok's design. And to keep up with the things I didn't like, I had issues with a few of the voice acting this time around, specifically with Tony and Cap. The previous voices were superior.

Moving on to the plot, the event that brought the Avengers back together was simple and a bit "been there, done that," but it worked. It was more of a device to create a cabal of villains more so than reconnecting the heroes, imo, but even then, I believe EMH did a better job of that. I did like some of the interaction between characters such as Thor and Hulk, Falcon (who apparently took on some Rhodey elements?) and Ironman/Cap, and Hulk/Hawkeye, which were mostly played for comedy, but again, it was clunky and sometimes out of place. It was also really repetitive after the first 20 times said gags were used.

And to tie it all up, if you had a problem with talkative Hulk, you'll continue to have the problem here. If you had a problem with The Wasp being the only female on the team for 1.5 seasons, you'll have the problem here with Black Widow. If you enjoyed characters like Black Panther (like I did) or Hank Pym, you won't find them here (thus far). And if you don't want a Falcon wearing Tony armor who apparently has more of a relationship with Tony than Steve, then you may have a problem here as well.

Overall, it was an okay show and not really of the same tone as USM goes for. There's no cutaways, childish humor, or an over-reliance on shticks that USM went for every episode I watched. For that, I am thankful.[/s]

[MJB]

Thought I had posted this before but the boards may have eaten it...

I watched the first episode thanks to the early release on IOS.

There was nothing redeeming about said cartoon. The voice acting was terrible. The animation was lacking. The storyline was sub-par.

I could keep going but the bottom line is that Earths Mightiest was a superior cartoon that my youngest loved to watch on Sunday mornings. This show does not interest either of us. *sigh*

[Tomato]

You guys are so much harsher on this show than I was (probably because I watched it late night before bed or completely disconnected it from the movie/the previous show). I just find that amusing because there are people on this site who have said I'm "too harsh" in the past, lol.

My review:

Short version: It's an okay show, not something I'd ever seek out to watch at any time, but I wouldn't be immediately turned off by it either. If I weren't a Marvel fan with significant insight on The Avengers, the movie, or the last show, I'd probably be a lot more accepting of it because it seems to be made for casual fans.

To be fair, I think a lot of it is that there's this feeling among fans that "they cancelled EMH for THIS!?!" so we're seeing a lot of hyperbole when it comes to the early reviews... I remember USM was and is absolutely hated just because fans were upset about Spectacular being a far better show, and it's not actually as horrible as people make it out to be.

In the end though, I think the problem Assembled has over USM is that it just has nothing going for it. The story isn't interesting, the animation isn't cool, the fight sequences aren't particularly well animated, and the voice acting is easily some of the most lackluster work I've ever heard. USM occasionally jumps around like it's written by someone experiencing a bizarrely Manic form of ADD, but you can at least say the show has a definitive character (love it or hate it). Assembled really doesn't... about the only thing of any note is the change with Red Skull, and let's be honest... that's the sort of thing you'd expect in a bad silver age comic, not a 2013 tv show.

[detourne_me]

Maybe it focus tested well with 4 year olds? Maybe they thought that children don't care about continuing stories and continuity.  Maybe they thought, "why are we putting so much effort into this? It's just a toy commercial".  Long ago are the days of Bruce Timm winning Emmys

[Tomato]

Maybe it focus tested well with 4 year olds? Maybe they thought that children don't care about continuing stories and continuity.  Maybe they thought, "why are we putting so much effort into this? It's just a toy commercial".  Long ago are the days of Bruce Timm winning Emmys

Except that it really, really doesn't. My two year old brother (currently foster brother but the parents are in the process of adopting him) prefers Spectacular Spiderman and EMH to their counterparts because the animation style is more fluid and colorful, a fact he makes painfully clear to my mom any time she tries to run another version of Spiderman. This kind of thing doesn't appeal to him at two, so I fail to see how he'd find it more appealing as he gets older.

To be fair, he also enjoys Teen Titans Go for the same reason, but since he's the target audience for that, I can't really complain.

[BentonGrey]

Urg...well, I'm glad I'm not the only one to have a negative reaction to this crime against animation.

[Cyber Burn]

Has this aired on TV yet? I haven't seen any advertisements for it yet. If so what channel was it on? I still would like to catch an episode so that I can make my own opinion about it.

[Previsionary]

Has this aired on TV yet? I haven't seen any advertisements for it yet. If so what channel was it on? I still would like to catch an episode so that I can make my own opinion about it.

No. It's on itunes and such for free as of a few weeks ago. It'll air on Disney XD like the old show did.

[Tomato]

Er... my dad recorded it and I watched it, so it HAS aired on tv.

[crimsonquill]

There was a special "Sneak Preview" airing of the pilot shows (part 1 & part 2) on Disney XD during the weekend that Iron Man 3 was released in U.S. theaters. May have been different elsewhere but I TiVoed both parts because I happened to be away from home during that weekend.

- CQ

[lugaru]

Have not watched it yet since I avoid iTunes and dont do TV, honestly I mostly just watch stuff on Hulu and Netflix.

[Cyber Burn]

Er... my dad recorded it and I watched it, so it HAS aired on tv.

Which means I missed it,  . I did a search to try and find it so I could record it, but had no luck there either.

[Cyber Burn]

Tivoed it, watched it, and was dissappointed by it.

[Glitch Girl]

I try to give a series about a property I enjoy a  fair shake, which meant watching two more episodes (3 is usually a good judge for show direction)...

The second ep, "Ghost of a Chance" was the team vs Space Phantoms.  I had about the same reaction as I had to the pilot - lots of Avengers did stupid things, there was a lot of "because the plot says this happens", etc. 

The third  ep "The Serpent of Doom" was marginally better.  Doom gets a hold of an axe to summon the Midgard Serpent and Thor's got some prophecy where he has to sacrifice himself to stop it.  Maurice LaMarche channels David Warner in his voicing of Doctor Doom which is an interesting choice, but posed a better take on Doom than I expected so far from this series.  Dialogue was a lot less cringe-worthy than previous which also helped, and there were a few nice action sequences.   The episode was a total sausage fest though: not only was Black Widow completely absent, but there wasn't a single female speaking part in the whole thing which brings me back to the whole "Boy's Club" vibe I got in since the first episode. 

So, while Ep 3 is an improvement, it's not enough to keep me watching.  Unless I hear that things have changed drastically, I'm gonna give this a pass.