Avengers: L'équipe des super héros

Being a comic book fanboy since I was six, I always hoped for an animated series featuring Marvel Comics's illustrious super-hero team, "The Avengers", since I thought they were cool (well…maybe not "X-Men cool).

When fall 1999 came around, I wanted to vomit when I saw "Avengers: United They Stand", a fourth-rate production that mishandled second-class heroes, sentenced first-rate heroes to guest-star status, used poor character designs and had a soul that was part-Power Rangers (ugh!) and part-toy commercial without decent plots(double ugh!).

Eleven years is a long wait, but "The Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes" is worth it.

Corralled as a unit in 1963 by co-creators Stan Lee and the late Jack Kirby (both men co-created each individual with some assist from Stan's brother, Larry Lieber and the late Don Heck), the original five members are given good exposure here: armored crusader Iron Man (voiced by Eric Loomis); Asgardian thunder god Thor (Rick Wasserman); micro-sized troubleshooters Ant-Man (Wally Wingert) and the Wasp (Colleen O'Shaughnessy) and gamma-radiated behemoth Hulk (Fred Tatasciore of "Ben 10").

Earth needs them since many super-powered miscreants (name them all and win a prize!) have escaped from four maximum security prisons, this plot adapted from the "Breakout" arc from the recent "New Avengers" comic book. Guess having one of the lockups shrunken and stationed in the helicarrier headquarters of the counter-terrorist group SHIELD was a BAD idea. In future episodes, other heroes will enter the fray like World War II superhuman patriot Captain America; unconventional archer Hawkeye and African monarch/combatant Black Panther. Bring on the good and bad guys!

Though it won't surpass the monolithic "Justice League: The Animated Series" from long-time competitor DC/Warner Bros Animation, "Avengers" joins recent Marvel Comics animated shows "X-Men: Evolution" and "The Spectacular Spider Man" as good quality productions. You better assemble, true believers!

So I just finished watching all the 1st season's 26 episodes of The Avengers: Earths mightiest Heroes (thank you netflix) and I've got to say, it is really good. I'm not going to go on about how I've read every comic ever made blah-blah-blah, because I haven't. I'm one of those pesky bandwagon fans that never heard of Iron Man until the movie came out, but I've loved it and every other Avenger movie ever since. And yes the main reason why I watched this series is because I'm excited about the upcoming Avengers movie. I also wanted to get caught up on the rest of the story. It wasn't long until the theme song was stuck in my head all day and I had to go back and keep watching. I've read a lot of the previous reviews and it looks like the writers have stayed pretty true to the original comics and that's not hard to believe because the story is really good, one of the best I've seen on an animated series. I can only hope that that the movie will do the same. I have faith in Joss Whedon but I try not to get too excited because I've been let down by lots super hero movies before. (cough- cough* green lantern) So I cant say whether or not a well versed Marvel fan will be satisfied with this rendition of the Avengers or not, I can defiantly say that a average popcorn eating summer movie fan like myself should enjoy it as much as I have- as long as expensive CGI and explosions aren't required.

p.s. has anybody else wondered how cool the theme song would sound performed by Metallica or something? Just throwin that out there...

Cancelled way too soon in lieu of Avengers ASSemble, which is unquestionably two steps back from this, great story lines, great music, great voice acting, it never gets too "Kiddy" despite it being animation. This show is always a welcome wave of nostalgia for me, and for it not even tying into the MCU, like Assemble, which is why they cancelled it, you can tell the MCU lifted a lot of ideas from this.

Finally Marvel comics has some quality work to compete with all the awesome DC animated movies/shows that have been coming out lately. The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes takes everything that was great about the old comics and filters it through the modern Universe that Marvel is building through their big budget movies.

The artwork, animation and character design is spot on. The attention to detail paid in these shows to the story and characters is proof that the folks making this series truly love and respect the old comics and these beloved heroes and villains. And let's not forget the most important part...the action - which is fast paced and epic as almost any Marvel comic.

Story arcs and sub-plots abound just like the comics and the cast of characters is huge. I would like to see the Vision though, and Ultron would be nice as well...hopefully the show gets many more seasons to explore those options.

If Marvel could apply this sort of treatment to perhaps an animated Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four or even Spider-Man I'm sure millions of fans would rejoice! Avengers Earths Mightiest heroes is this fan's delight.

Both Marvel and DC have to an astonishing degree started to pick up these last few years, with several well-appreciated shows that I really enjoy: Young Justice, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Green Lantern TAS, and now this; The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I'm pretty sure many of you reading this remember when back in 2001, Bruce Timm brought the Justice league into the DC animated universe. And I'm also pretty sure that everyone who does remember, can agree with me that it was an absolutely fantastic show.

Now Marvel's counterpart to the Justice League, The Avengers, have finally gotten a cartoon that really is something to behold.

Let me just make it very clear that I'm not much of a comics reader, pretty much everything I know about pretty much any character from Marvel/DC stem from their incarnations in television.

I'm a 17-year old guy with too much free time on my hands, some of that free time is mostly spent watching cartoons on the internet: more specifically, superhero cartoons.

I have seen superheroes of both Marvel and DC portrayed in wildly different ways on television: from the monumental Timmiverse incarnations of the Justice League and other DC characters, to Teen Titans and The Batman. From The 90s Spider-Man show to X-Men: Evolution

I was only vaguely familiar with most of the characters presented in "TA:EMH", so I didn't know what to expect. In fact, the only one I was at least somewhat familiar with was Iron Man, through the 2008 movie and the TV series "Iron Man: Armored Adventures".

I knew their names, their powers, and their origins, but I had literally nothing to say about their characters.

However, many people say that this show depicts the characters perfectly and 100% faithfully to the source material.

This is a good thing, because that gives me the opportunity to get to know these characters, to learn to understand them and interpret them.

This, coupled with outstanding story lines and great animation, makes "TA:EMH" an absolutely fantastic show that any fan should be able to enjoy.

My personal favorite characters among those I only vaguely knew are probably Ant-Man/Giant Man, and Thor.

I admire Ant-Man's's constant struggle to find "a better way" and his belief in the inherent good in every human being. It's really a great show of character to see him believe that even in such a violent world as the Marvel Universe, it's never too late to start again and try to put your life in line. And he's a good example for the kids watching this show. The kids need good role models too you know.

Thor strikes me as kind of similar to Superman in a lot of ways: noble, kind, powerful. But he's still a very different character. If I may point this out, I'm Norwegian, and it's something infinitely cool about watching one of the deities my ancestors (the vikings) worshipped portrayed as a noble and powerful hero of the modern day. A shame he doesn't offer Norway a thought though, oh well, you can't have everything.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a monumental cartoon and a great achievement in animation. Absolutely worth watching.