Review: Avengers Assemble "Hulk's Day Out"

This episode had more moon-killing than "Kill the Moon." But, then again, it would have to.

"Dammit, Hulk."

But that's enough complaining abouWhat the heck was with "Listen," Moffat? You had a chance to make people hiding under sheets actually scary and THREW IT IN THE TOILET! Just so you could play your little joke on the audience! Your little "I didn't say certain things, the audience assumed" excuse doesn't hold up when part of your solution to the mystery hinges on the Doctor writing something down and then forgetting he wrote it! You opened up numerous plotholes regarding traveling to Gallifrey just so Clara could comfort the Doctor as a little boy? If that little boy doesn't get revealed to be the Master instead, then I will lose a lot of respect for you thanks to all your self-indulgence. What happened to the guy who wrote "The Empty Child"? "A Christmas Carol"? "Blink"? Is all your talent going towards Sherlock?

Ahem. I'm sorry you all had to see that. I've had that in my system for a while. Now that's enough complaining about Doctor Who.

But in all seriousness, this episode was surprisingly good. Why is it that the Hulk gets the good episodes? After this and "Hulked Out Heroes," I'm starting to think that Hulk should get his own series.

I take it back!

Yes, yes, there's the elephant in the room. Fine, let's deal with it. I've harped on it when reviewing other episodes, and I'd be incredibly hypocritical if I didn't go over this point.

Black Widow doesn't appear in this episode. At all. Not even for a second.

This Review now has infinitely more Black Widow than the episode.

Black Widow is the highest-profile female protagonist in the Marvel Universe, thanks to the films, and this show continually does both the character and the entire female gender a disservice by the writers' shoddy treatment of her, and other things I've already said. The rest of this episode is golden, but yes, the disrespectful dismissal of the only main character with two X chromosomes is a flaw in this episode that must be addressed, despite the quality of the rest of the episode. A booger on the Mona Lisa, as my old band director would say. An apt metaphor because even with that flaw, this is still my favorite episode of the series thus far.

Seriously, absolutely golden. All the characters get their most annoying traits downplayed, and this episode acts as an interesting examination of a character usually associated with mindlessness. I can honestly say, with no hyperbole, that Hulk's friendship with Glorian was a better idea than anything they did with the character in Avengers: EMH. And if you've read any other post on my blog, you know that I don't make that claim lightly. And his bowling outings with the Thing are a nice touch, as well. The humanization of the Hulk is something that rarely happens without involving Bruce Banner, but this episode pulled it off. Seriously, for a show that has less character development than your average porno, this examination of Hulk's personal life is both surprising and absolutely welcomed.

Other than that, I have little to say about this episode. I mean, what else is there to say? It's a good episode that does a good job fleshing out its focus character, and it tells an interesting story with an intriguing mystery. This episode is a far cry from what I expected after a few of the earlier, lackluster episodes.

But alas, I believe we may have reached the peak and can only go down from here. How far down? We'll find out next time. But I guarantee it won't be worse than "Avengers: Impossible." See you then.