Thursday, March 27, 2014

Review: Avengers Assemble "Hulked Out Heroes"

My opinion toward this episode is going to be tough for me to explain, so please bear with me.
This is not a bad episode. …I think.

It’s weird, when I look at the individual aspects of the episode, it should work quite well. This episode is a very loose adaptation (pretty much just the concept and title) of the Hulked Out Heroes tie-in to World War Hulks.

The Hulk is forced to be the most calm and rational Avenger, and that’s an interesting idea which seems to be explored fairly well.

The dynamic between Black Widow and Hulk works quite well. If you take the Avengers film as a prequel to this series, then Black Widow has gone from being nearly killed by a wild Hulk to being besties. It’s an interesting one-episode arc that proceeds organically, and I applaud the writers for it.

And yet, I found myself slogging through this episode. The whole time, watching it felt like a chore and I don’t know why. Could it have been the five-minute fight scene at the end? No, it was a slog before that. Could it be the fact that Hulk cartoons seem to be my bread-and-butter, and I just feel overdosed? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. Could it be that all these individual aspects of the show simply don’t mesh? Could be. I think if the show had a bit more time to do this plot, like a two-parter, then all the parts of the show could have been a bit more thought out, given greater focus, given more depth, etc.

On paper, this is not a bad episode. But onscreen… I think I’m unconsciously comparing it to Avengers: EMH. Namely, the "Gamma World" two-parter. That was more than a classic set of episodes, that was an amazing couple episodes. And I think my mind is seeing this episode as an inferior rehash.

At the very least, this is more visually interesting...
...than this.
So, although I don’t seem very positive about this episode, I still have to say that it’s not a bad episode. But I will still say that if you want to see the plot done better, go check out the "Gamma World" two-parter from Avengers: EMH.

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, I was very disappointed by the Gamma Avengers' designs. And why is it that writers can never seem to decide whether Gamma Energy turns other characters into Hulks specifically or just crazy monsters?

    - That One Anon

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  2. Don't look for continuity in the Loebverse (Agents of smash, ultimate spider-man, Avengers assemble) you will find little and what you do will be confusing and contradictory. The time line between the three shows is messed up with events taking place before other events which already happened. It does not take place in the same Universe as Earths mightiest heroes, wolverine and the x-men and spectacular spider-man (when Spidy appeared in Earth Mightiest his voice was originally Spectacular spider-mans voice. but was changed to ultimate's to make the show less confusing and promote ultimate). They did show the Avenger in their Earths Mightiest outfits in a flashback in a sorry attempt to appease fans of the previous show in one episode, though that just makes continuity worse.

    With the diminishing villain threat on display whenever the cabal shows up and the episodes being forced to be mostly standalone so new viewers can more easily digest it I don't think we will see many more Hyperion quality episodes.

    So far the only good thing about this series is that they gave Hawkeye an actual personality by making him a closeted gay dude who keeps flirting with the more muscular avengers and being embarrassed by it.

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    Replies
    1. Well, my issue is as follows:
      HatAoS is a spinoff of USM. USM is in continuity with AA, but AA contradicts HatAoS, despite both shows referencing each other.

      Perhaps all of AA is a prequel to HatAoS?

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