AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES S1x003

"THOR THE MIGHTY!"
Written by Michael Ryan | Directed by Vinton Heuck

The Plot: Thor intervenes when the Wrecking Crew attempts to steal a Stark Enterprises gamma ray emitter. As soon as the battle is done, Thor is summoned to Asgard by Heimdall, who tells him the realm is under siege. Thor arrives to defend Asgard from Loki and the frost giants. Thor drives off the giants, but Loki ambushes him. However the Thunder God refuses to give in and defeats his brother.

Thor brings Loki before Odin, who banishes the villain to the Isle of Silence. Odin announces that he is about to enter the Odinsleep to recharge his powers and orders Thor to protect Asgard, but Thor refuses and leaves for Earth instead, to defend it against the new and varied threats cropping up there.

The Enchantress watches Thor leave, then transports herself to the Isle of Silence with her ally, Skurge the Executioner. There, Loki tells them that all is going as he planned, and that no one knows what's coming next.

Continuity Notes: This episode marks the first appearances of Thor, Loki, the Enchantress, the Warriors Three, and the other Asgardians gods, as well as Jane Foster and the Wrecking Crew.

Unlike the previous two episodes, which presented the title characters with their supporting casts established (i.e., Iron Man, Pepper, and Rhodey already knew each other, as did Banner, Thunderbolt Ross, and Samson), this episode features Thor meeting Jane for the first time (though he of course already knows all his fellow Adgardians, and he is an established hero on Earth). Jane, who was originally a nurse and then a doctor in the comics, and who is an astrophysicist in the movies, is an emergency medical technician here.

The Isle of Silence is where Loki had been banished at the start of the original AVENGERS comic in the 60s, as well. While spending time there, Loki recalls the machinations he went through to prepare his plan: he riled up the frost giants against Asgard, he disguised himself as the Leader and hired the Wrecking Crew to attack the Stark shipment, he had the Enchantress, disguised as a human, warn Thor about the attack, and he disguised himself as Baldur to tell Odin that Thor was becoming arrogant as he spent so much time away from Asgard.

Do I know That Voice? I sure do in Odin's case: he's none other than the prolific Clancy Brown (who, funnily enough, also voiced Surter in THOR: RAGNAROK). Also, Nika Futterman (Ventress in STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS) is Sif, while the great Jeffrey Combs portrays the Leader.

My Thoughts: This is the first of the microseries compilations not to go off in a totally different direction with its final act. As noted last week, the Iron Man installment morphed into a Nick Fury solo adventure, while the Hulk episode became a Hawkeye/Black Widow mission. This one turns its focus to Loki for the final portion, but as he's a regular part of Thor's cast and is ruminating on things we already saw happen in this very episode, it still feels more like a direct continuation rather than a tangent.

I'm not saying this is good or bad, mind you -- just making an observation. I like that the microseries give other cheracters these mini-spotlights (while also furthering various sub-plots), but in this case it's a nice throughline of continuity to follow a Thor plot from beginning to end (or cliffhanger, as the case may be).

Otherwise, I honestly don't have a lot to say about this one. Like the Hulk, Thor has never done a whole lot for me as a solo character outside of Walt Simonson's run, and this episode is just nonstop action for a large segment, before we get to the stuff with Odin and Loki's schemes. I do like seeing the Wrecking Crew in action though, and I love that Loki's machinations are building to something much bigger. One of my favorite things about EMH, especially early on, was that it really felt like a comic book translated to the screen, with sub-plots threading through episodes. At this point we're only three episodes in and we already have a leak within SHIELD, Black Widow as a possible double-agent, and now Loki plotting something major!

Next week, it's the debut of Ant-Man and the Wasp in an episode that borrows its title from the character's first comic book appearance: "The Man in the Ant Hill" (with special guest-star Black Panther).