The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (comics)
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You can fight it all you want, but we are going to be friends, all of us! It's inevitable! We've saved the world like a hundred times now, we've been through horrible things, we've saved each other's lives! We are in this together, and it's time you all started acting like it! |
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After The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes premiered on Disney XD, Marvel Comics released a four-issue collection of comics set in the show's universe. The first three each contained two comics, plus some character biographies. The first comic in each of these books is basically a standard story of The Avengers[1] fighting a threat that one hero cannot fend alone. The second comic in each of these books features a short story in which two select heroes team up against an evacuee of the breakout. The fourth issue deviated from this format, presenting one relatively long comic.
Additional comics will come in 2012, under the "all-ages" Marvel Universe banner. Each issue in this series contains two comics.
Tropes associated with the limited series:
- All There in the Manual: How Crimson Dynamo joined the Masters of Evil is explained in the story "Obsession", and his bio in the same issue revealed his real name (It's Ivan Vanko). It also confirmed in "Team" that the robot Iron Man fought in "Iron Man is Born" is the show's version of Ultimo.
- Anachronic Order: The graphic novel compiling the first seven comics seems to jump around from one month after "Living Legend"[2], to some time before "Gamma World"[3], to the day after "The Kang Dynasty".[4] Also, it seems like anyone's guess when the even-numbered chapters take place.
- Art Shift: The miniseries' even-numbered stories have more realistic artwork. The same person who drew those stories also drew some splash panels in the last one, whenever Wasp takes photographs of the fight against Ultimo.
- Batman Gambit: The Hulk of all people pulls one when dealing with a Brainwashed and Crazy Thor in "Savage". Knowing that Thor would never want to harm a defenseless mortal, he transforms into Bruce Banner during battle. Thor's hypnosis successfully lifts, although Hulk admits he wouldn't have minded if his gambit failed.
- Caption Humor: Accompanies Wasp's photographs in "Team".
- Continuity Cameo:
- War Machine helps Iron Man defeat Crimson Dynamo in a flashback from "Obsession".
- Wasp has Peter Parker take a group shot of the Avengers at the end of "Team", the final comic.
- Continuity Nod: "Team" begins with the same news report seen at the beginning of the Micro-Episode "Iron Man is Born!"
- Also, after the second defeat of Ultimo, Iron Man catches the robot's head while striking the same pose from his first scene in that short. ("And...Deja vu.")
- Media Research Failure: Whoever wrote Ultron's bio seems to think he would rather control humanity than kill it.
- Energy Absorption: Ultimo's power, demonstrated in "Team". Eventually, the Avengers have to resort to teaming up with the Masters of Evil in order to overload it.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each comic is named after a quality or ability that someone develops or explores.
- In Medias Res: "Trust", "Mutual Respect", and "Courage" each begin in the middle of a fight between two Avengers and a villain rarely seen in the cartoon.
- Magic Pants: It's probably just an inconsistency error, but when Hulk changes into Bruce Banner during "Savage", Banner wears only the infamous purple pants. The next time they show him, he's wearing a sweatshirt as well.
- Oh Crap: After Ultimo returns at the beginning of "Team":
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Wasp: Okay, what is that? |
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- Power Copying: Adaptoid's power, demonstrated in "Adaptation".
- Team Shot: "Team" begins with Jan trying in vain to get the other Avengers to pose for a photograph. They eventually have a picture taken together at the end of the comic.
- Title Drop: The Avengers' group photo seen on the last page of "Team" has a caption reading, "Whether they [the guys] admit it or not, we're a team. We're family. We're Earth's mightiest heroes!"
Tropes associated with the Marvel Universe series:
- Canon Immigrant: Agent Coluson appears in the first issue, as does Mandarin. Future comics will also add characters who haven't appeared in the cartoon yet.
- Spiritual Successor: To Marvel Adventures.
- ↑ Iron Man, Captain America (comics), The Mighty Thor, Incredible Hulk, The Wasp, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and Black Panther
- ↑ Janet explicitly states in "Adaption" that Captain America/Steve's already spent a month in the 21st century.
- ↑ "Obsession" ends with Crimson Dynamo joining the Masters of Evil, and "Savage" begins with the Avengers setting off to try and convince the Hulk to return.
- ↑ Steve's first appearance in "Team" involves him telling Jan that the Avengers need to train harder after the challenges Kang brought forth.