The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The Cartoon

  • Adaptation Displacement: Google "To Steal an Ant-Man," and the first two pages of results consist of reviews, synopses, and video links for the episode with the same name. Visit the Marvel Wiki, search for the issue containing the original comic (Marvel Premiere #47), and you'd fail to find a synopsis.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Marvel confirming that the "Big Three" will become major characters seemed like enough to assure followers that the show wouldn't turn out as bad as The Avengers: United They Stand.
    • Announcement that the second season premiere would feature The Avengers teaming up with the Fantastic Four against Dr. Doom generated excitement for the show's return.
    • These teaser [dead link], images [dead link] confirm that Spider-Man and Wolverine will appear in the series.
    • Preview trailers for the second season revealed the Vision, Red Hulk, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and hinted at appearances by Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.
    • Marvel has released preview images which show the silhouettes of Beta Ray Bill, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, War Machine, Winter Soldier, Star-Lord, Groot and Rocket Raccoon.
  • Arc Fatigue: Those anxious to see Steve Rogers reunite with the Avengers in the second season will probably feel disappointed to know it takes twelve episodes for the Avengers to realize Steve's been replaced.
  • Base Breaker: "Fight as One" has people who consider it one of the best cartoon theme songs of its time, while others call it the blemish of an otherwise great TV show. However, everyone agrees that it outshines the speech used in season 2.
  • Better on DVD: Like so many animated shows these days the story works better as a single long narrative. Also, the DVDs mark the first time American fans can watch the first season episodes in chronological order.
  • Broken Base: The Internet practically ignited once it appeared that HYDRA had replaced Nazi Germany as the primary enemy of the Allies in World War II.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: The announcement that the second season will end with 12 self-contained episodes has several viewers exclaiming, "They Changed It, Now It Sucks!" despite the fact the second season didn't start yet.
  • Ear Worm: The opening song.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: "Ultron-5" seems to portray pacifism as a hopeless cause, especially when Hank gives it up about three episodes later.
  • Fan Dumb: When the rumor started that Earth's Mightiest Heroes will get replaced by a Lighter and Softer Avengers cartoon, fans expressed shock at the fact EMH will end after episode 52. Marvel apparently told fans years ago that they commissioned 52 episodes. (Though, can you blame fans for wanting more?)
  • Foe Yay: Enchantress is certainly (read:obsessively) interested in Thor.
    • A brief instance has a minor villainess Vapor sneaking a kiss to Captain America.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Tony mockingly threatens to fire Clint, after Clint taunts him for messing up Carol's "welcome toast," and later finds himself in a position where he must consider actually renouncing Hawkeye's membership for possibly being a Skrull.
  • Ho Yay: It seems everyone is gay for Captain America (comics).
  • HSQ: Episode 12 of season 2, "Secret Invasion."
  • It Gets Better / Growing the Beard: The series hits its stride after the Avengers' roster reaches eight superheroes.
  • Magic Pants: A weird case of accidental censorship backfire: when Hawkeye first tricks the Hulk into converting into Banner in "Gamma World", Bruce puts his back to the camera and fiddles with his pants. Obviously, Standards and Practices told them a grown man couldn't adjust his fly on a Disney show, but it really looks like Banner is about to have a case of Urine Trouble.
  • Nausea Fuel: Either Ant-Man covering a foe in bugs.
  • Periphery Demographic / What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Some people didn't know this was supposed to be a children's show on Disney XD while streaming episodes where the XD logo did not appear.
  • Rewatch Bonus: It's easy to miss all the Mythology Gags and Shout Outs on the first viewing.
  • Tainted by the Preview: Responses to the second season's official trailer include comments on the line of, "This show looks sweet, except for the fact it has Red Hulk." Though it's not an issue for some.
    • The first season's trailer, which includes text stating that the team is "led by Iron Man", elicited disappointment from people who wanted a show about Captain America leading the Avengers. However, other people point out that in the early episodes, Cap hasn't adjusted to modern society well enough to become head of the team.
      • There's also the fact that this show started with the original line up and Iron Man was the original leader in the comics, although here Tony isn't a very strict leader and often listens to ideas better than his without too much ego.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Fans were not pleased when they tuned in to episode 20 on Disney XD, saw the new intro, and noticed over half of the theme song got replaced by Nick Fury's voice actor glorifying the first four Avengers to receive solo live-action movies. Fortunately for them, the versions that play in other countries boast the uncut theme song. The versions that became available to legally download, stream, or own on DVD also have the full theme.
    • Episodes from the second season appear to have the movie-promoting intro no matter where you watch them.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Black Panther's episode. The entire reason the group is together in the first place is that they have somehow been isolated or rejected from their former lives. Iron Man refused to make weapons, ergo distancing himself from his former business allies; Thor got mad at his father and is now avoiding Asgard; Captain America (comics) got frozen in ice and is thus sixty years out of his time; Hank and Jan refused to work for SHIELD and are thus on cool terms with Fury, who they worked with; Hulk is naturally distanced from society; and Hawkeye got framed and has to clear his name with SHIELD, his employers. They could have had Black Panther be exiled from his society and make his comeback a hero's journey, but instead they copped out and had him re-win his throne in one episode before inexplicably giving his throne to a council.
    • A more common example involves certain viewers' discontent with the fact that after Captain America reawakens in the 21st Century, he finds his renewed sense of purpose relatively quickly, and apparently adjusts to all of society's changes offscreen.
    • Ultron defeats the Hulk by turning him back into Bruce Banner. Meanwhile, an unarmored Tony Stark is trying desperately to abort a nuclear apocalypse. Does genius nuclear physicist Bruce Banner help Tony hack the computer, giving him a rare chance to shine and making Ultron's defeat partially due to his own mistake for assuming an ordinary human couldn't be a threat? No. Bruce just lays unconscious the rest of the episode.
  • Too Good to Last: Fifty-two episodes doesn't sound so bad in comparison to other Marvel cartoons released during the same time, but fans still want more.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • Due to the aforementioned order by S&P to remove the Nazis as the WW2-era villains, the map in "Meet Captain America" has Hydra sweeping in from the east... Russia to be exact, steamrolling Poland, then Germany in their advance. Bonus points to anyone who can see both what's wrong with this picture, and which large country which lost 20,000,000 of its population fighting off a German invasion might be offended by the implications....
      • It Gets Worse because at least when Cap asks the 616 (comic) Universe "we won, right?" they can give a definitive yes since the Nazis are gone but when EMH Cap asks if Hydra is gone...

Steve: So, we won the war.
Tony: Thanks in part to you.
Steve: So, HYDRA's gone?
Tony: Uh... it's complicated.

        • BUT!! the producers have gone on record to say they what to imply that HYDRA is a branch of the Nazis. So this means that they are the Ghostapo.
    • Should be noted that in the comics history, HYDRA originated in Japan, albeit it didn't reach the clout it did until Baron Strucker took over.
    • On the cover for the second DVD, it looks almost like Captain America and Hawkeye want to beat up Black Panther ([1]).

The Comics

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Even though the original head writer, Christopher Yost, took a smaller behind-the-scenes role during season two, he will contribute several Marvel Universe stories.
  • Anvilicious: The miniseries delivered morals of putting aside your differences and learning to work together in a more heavy-handed manner than the cartoon does.
  • Nightmare Fuel: This bit of black humor from "Courage:"

Captain America: (lying in the snow, bleeding) Guess you're going to get frozen again, soldier.

Assorted character subjectives:

The Avengers

Iron Man

  • Most Annoying Sound: Tony's voice, at least in the early episodes.
  • Squick: Tony struggled for three weeks to find a way to tell Skrulls apart from humans. JARVIS reports that during that time, Tony never changed out of his armor, or showered.

Ant Man

  • Never Live It Down: At least for now they've averted making Hank suffer from the same issues that have plagued his comics counterpart for years, and have taken him back to his earlier adventurer scientist personae.
  • The Woobie: After Ultron goes bad, not to mention that he hasn't wanted to save the world with violence at all since he started being an Avenger.

Wasp

  • Moe: Something about the combination of her voice, playful attitude, swinging-up hair, and superhero outfit, just makes Wasp absolutely adorable!
  • Smurfette Breakout: She quickly became one of the most popular Avengers, thanks to her excellent one-liners and personality. The story editor has noticed, as shown by this quote shared on his twitter feed.:

"My eight year old asks at least twice a week if there’s a new episode of 'that team with Wasp."'

    • In one of the polls listed here, Wasp ties with then-future movie stars Captain America and Hawkeye for favorite Avenger.

Hulk

  • Angst? What Angst?: Justified. Banner never shows angst even though he'd have good reasons to do so because he knows bad things will happen if he ever gets upset.
  • The Woobie: Banner is, anyway. The Hulk is more of a Jerkass Woobie than anything.

Captain America

  • The Woobie: Pretty much everyone he's ever known and loved is dead, and the people left he does know want to kill him.

Black Panther

  • Marty Stu: He knows just as much about science as Iron Man, and is good at understanding magic like Thor. He's about as wise as Captain America, and a decent throw with his own unique weapon: Vibranium. He's king of his own country, an incredible athlete, the Only Sane Man on the team, and wears a powerful suit. Thankfully, he is rarely the center of attention, and the others frequently point out all this.

Iron Man: Are you okay? This guy's putting out a lot of juice.
Black Panther: My suit is designed to withstand radiation.
Iron Man: Of course it is. What was I thinking?

    • It's worth noting that his Stuness got dialed down after his premiere. He was still highly competent and skilled, but is just as vulnerable to defeat as the other Avengers.
      • Not to mention that he was the first to desert the Avengers in "Who Do You Trust?".

Hawkeye

  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Tensions exist between him and Black Widow, and him and Mockingbird. Certain fans also like to ship him with Black Panther, Hulk, and/or Banner.

Ms. Marvel

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: Scenes of Ms. Marvel fighting alongside The Avengers in a trailer included with the Thor Blu-Ray caused rejoicing.


Other Superheroes

War Machine

  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: During the first season, he only appeared during Iron Man's Micro-Episodes, and didn't fight anyone in his appearances. Though when he finally donned his armor in episode 28, he gave an explanation beforehand about why he doesn't do so more frequently.

Luke Cage

Iron Fist

Ant-Man II

  • The Woobie: He only became a bank robber to help Cassie's doctor find a cure for Cassie's terminal disease, and his criminal record prevented him from finding any better jobs for years.

Rocket Raccoon

Beta Ray Bill

  • Ugly Cute: By Asgardian standards, anyway.
  • The Woobie: Seriously, having a demon lord awaken and commit genocide to your beloved homeworld should push you into this immediately.
    • Iron Woobie: He's doing a good job at keeping it together, all things considered.

Spider-Man

...don’t jump all over Drake for this, it had nothing to with him. He’s an actor doing a job and collecting a paycheck just like me. As someone who faced my own share of disapproval early on from [Comic Book Database] fans I know that it can be tough to be the new guy. He’s out there doing his thing and I respect that. And no I won’t punch him.

  • Internet Backdraft: The aforementioned dubbing, which the higher-ups of Marvel Animation might have commissioned without the writers' or voice director's permission.


SHIELD

Maria Hill

  • Base Breaker: Like her comics counterpart in Civil War, her actions after becoming acting director of S.H.I.E.L.D. prove... highly divisive. Let's leave it at that.
  • What an Idiot!: After the Red Hulk attacks the Helicarrier, she decides Red Hulk and The Hulk are the same person and orders Banner arrested, even though the Hulk that attacked was bright red, had glowing eyes, and had different powers, and had been with the Avengers the entire time. Yes, that's much more likely than Red Hulk simply being a different person. In her defence, the Hulk had already changed colour once already.

Black Widow

SHIELD itself

  • Badass Decay: Implied, as SHIELD previously was able to put away 74 super villains with little to no assistance from Superheroes. Come the series proper, they have a little more trouble in dealing with the villain horde, calling on the avengers several times for assistance.


Villains

Loki

MODOC

  • Uncanny Valley: So much that Thor and Wasp immediately begin to lampshade it, with Wasp wondering if he even freaks out his own underlings.

Ultron

  • Ensemble Darkhorse: He only acted evil for two episodes during the first season, yet an unofficial poll deemed him the most popular villain. Probably some of the popularity of the comic version is spilling over into the show, for years he was the closest thing to a Big Bad The Avengers had.

Doctor Doom

Surtur

  • Complete Monster: Given that he has basically committed genocide in his debut episode (against the dwarves, to be precise), he has hit this almost immediately. Solidified when he is revealed to have done the same to Beta Ray Bill's home, for the simple reason that they were the closest thing nearby (thankfully, Bill and the other survivors were eventually able to get away).
  • Generic Doomsday Villain
  • Nightmare Fuel

Whiplash

Blizzard

HYDRA

Red Skull

Grim Reaper

Madame Viper

  • Evil Is Sexy
  • Foe Yay: Hinted at with Captain America in "Prisoner of War".
  • Jerkass Woobie: It is hinted that something horrible happened to her which scarred her face and inspired her to hate people like Captain America.


The Masters of Evil

Baron Zemo

  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The recap at the beginning of "Assault on 42" includes a clip of Thor calling Zemo Captain America's arch-nemesis, building up audience expectations for him to do something awesome in the episode. While everyone gathers for the Enemy Mine, Cap orders Zemo to stay in his cell, lest Zemo seize the opportunity to kill him. Zemo complies.

Amora

  • Evil Is Sexy
  • Jerkass Woobie: It's hard not to feel sorry for her when she ends up in Surtur's domain and is forced into slavery by him. Not helped by her utterly TERRIFIED reaction when it happens.
    • And again when she begs to be killed in order to not be in his servitude.


Skrulls (Unmarked Spoilers Within!)

Skrulls in General

  • Jerkass Woobies: Why did the Skrulls decide to take over Earth? Galactus destroyed their home planet, so they must find a new one.

Queen Veranke

Captain America

  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Some of the commenters of this clip from "Welcome to the Kree Empire" joked that Cap's changing the phrase, "Avengers, assemble!" to, "Avengers, attack!" should expose him. Cap's impulsively violent behavior in that scene eventually helps Nick Fury realize that he got replaced by a Skrull.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It feels hard to get invested in the second season's mystery of finding a Skrull among the Avengers, because of the fact the writers and animators already revealed the Skrull in the first season finale.
    • Although the characters in-universe don't know it, so the suspense is still there, it's just on whether or not the other Avengers will figure it out.
  • What an Idiot!: Hints of a traitor amongst the Avengers show up nearly Once an Episode, but none of the Avengers find them without Nick Fury's help. Tony actually once considers the chance of Cap being a Skrull, but quickly dismisses it in favor of feeling equally wary about everyone.
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