And so ends one of the best interpretations of Marvel that I, personally, have ever seen. And it ends with a whole lot of fan service!
Basically, everything that's been established up to this point is completely thrown out the window, as Galactus and his Heralds have invaded the planet. To contend with this threat, the Avengers put out a call to EVERYONE (though, curiously, S.H.I.E.L.D. is never seen in this episode) to fight off the Heralds, before they can set up four towers to siphon off Earth's energy.
The cameos are numerous! Spider-Man! Wolverine! Luke Cage! Iron Fist! Black Widow! Quake! Falcon! Doc Samson! The Winter Soldier! The Fantastic Four (curiously unfamiliar with Galactus)! War Machine! I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but that's the who's who of the Marvel U!
Everyone basically splits off into four teams and take out the Heralds until Galactus decides he's had enough of this nonsense and sets up the towers himself. It takes Marvel U's brightest (Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Hank Pym) to realize that they can send Galactus off to the Negative Zone, where he can feed on its anti-matter for eternity. After they open the portal, a full-on blast from Iron Man and Thor wins the day.
And the show ends with one last shot of the title screen.
As a fan service ending, I liked it! Brought aboard all the cameos, gave almost everyone from the main cast a good moment.
But of course, there are going to be nitpicks. It's sad that there are several plot threads that are never going to get resolved. Should I just assume that Surtur took over Asgard and made The Enchantress his sex slave? Oh, and who the heck were all those Kangs and why were they so concerned with the Avengers getting stronger on this world? And who DID cause the breakout from the very first episode, anyway?
I still maintain that I'll probably like the new Avengers series. But it's still hard to swallow, because it feels like a waste to hit the Reset button so soon.
I'll take this ending, though. Good enough, I suppose.
I thought this episode was a little bit of a weak ending. Mostly because they went so big with it, it felt like it was spread too thin for a half hour. I think they really needed a two-parter to tell this story the right way. It was also very similar to "Destroyer," the final episode of JLU, and it kind of suffered for that comparison in my head.
As far as the unresolved plot threads, I also am very disappointed that we're never going to see the rest of the Surtur/Asgard story, which it seemed like fairly early in the season they realized they didn't have time for. We haven't checked in on it in a long time. But we know it was Loki who engineered the breakout, and the Cross-Time Council of Kangs are just Kangs from various timelines. It's kind of a confusing story device, but I don't think there's anything more to them.
Ultimately, I'm really going to miss Earth's Mightiest Heroes. It was honestly the best interpretation of some of Marvel's heroes that I've ever seen. Wasp, Giant Man, and Hawkeye have never gotten better treatment in any medium. We'll see what Avengers Assemble has to offer.
Kinda wish this had been a 2 parter. Galactus is just too big for one 30 minute episode.
Gotta say though, they did a great job of distilling the entire history of the Marvel Universe into 2 seasons. Classic and modern storylines were incorporated. Still you gotta wonder what a season 3 woulda been like. Secret Wars? The Infinity Gauntlet?
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