Avengers Reassembled

While Marvel’s superhero properties in various media are not new, ever since their acquisition by Disney and their continuously growing success on the big screen, it should come as no surprise that they will capitalize more an more on this success on the small screen as well. This can be seen already via Ultimate Spider-man and the upcoming in-continuity Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And now it can also be seen in the form of a new Avengers cartoon: Marvel’s Avengers Assemble on Disney XD.

Here is the thing, though – Disney XD already had an Avengers cartoon (a very successful and well-received one at that): Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

My kids and I were big fans of this prior series, and I know we weren’t alone in that regard. While this cartoon didn’t necessarily fit with the movie continuity, it did an excellent job making a continuous universe of its own – including not only the breadth of the Avenger’s team, but S.H.I.E.L.D, Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, and a wide array of villains and other heroes. This show also made efforts to make all of the introduced characters have depth, back-story, motivations and facets. And like my kids and many other fans, I felt a bit jilted when it was cut after 3 seasons in favor of a new edition.

Maybe it was because they left a healthy gap of time between the end of the old and the start of the new, maybe it was because in lieu of the continuity they had established they instead loosely tethered this show to both the movie continuity and the continuing Ultimate Spider-man cartoon that it runs alongside, but I have to say that this show so far has left me pleasantly surprised and dissolved any resentment I may have been harboring.

The new show seems to pick up shortly after the events of The Avengers & Iron Man 3 with the various heroes still unsure they can act as a team, but events once again draw them together for a common fight. And this time they end the fight with plans to stay together more permanently, and even invite a new member in the form of Falcon. So far the show has only aired four episodes, but it has already shown promise both in the characterizations of the heroes and the talent behind them.

So while it is a bit early to judge if this swap will successfully satiate all of the fans, it has already proved satisfying to my kids, and I’m not likely to stop watching it with them. It certainly has promise and I look forward to how Marvel manages to keep this tied to their Spider-man cartoon and potentially the upcoming new Hulk vehicle, Agents of S.M.A.S.H. I’m assume the continuity will not stick to the live action properties beyond the back-story tie-in, but every comic fan knows better than to expect so much (and it would be quite a continuity to keep in line anyway).