AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES S1x006

"BREAKOUT PART 1"
Written by Christopher Yost | Directed by Sebastian Montes

The Plot: Iron Man intercepts a shipment of stolen Stark technology being sold by AIM to Lucia von Bardas of Latveria. Later, at the Cube, Leonard Samson checks on Bruce Banner. Meanwhile, Balder comes to Earth to warn Thor that Odin has entered the Odinsleep. Thor again refuses to return and defend Asgard. He leaves the conversation to save Jane Foster's life when a car nearly hits her on the srteet below. At the Vault, Iron Man drops off the AIM agents he captured with SHIELD's Jimmy Woo.

At the Big House, Ant-Man questions the Mad Thinker about the conversation he had with Whirlwind, while Maria Hill talks to Wasp about Nick Fury's offer for her and Ant-Man to join SHIELD. Back at the Vault, a power outage frees several super-criminals, as well as Hawkeye. The outage then strikes the Cube and the Big House as well, and villains escape from every facility. The Big House enlarge while aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, crippling the ship. At the Cube, Samson is irradiated with gamma energy. Aboard the helicarrier, Wasp and Hill search for Ant-Man, while elsewhere, Iron Man receives word of the breakouts from Pepper Potts and JARVIS, and returns to the Vault.

Thor is pulled away from chatting with Jane to investigate a plume of smoke, while Samson approaches Banner but is zapped by Zzzax. In the Vault, several villains go after their equipment, but Hawkeye stops them. In the Big House, Ant-Man fights Mandrill, King Cobra, and the Griffon while the Helicarrier crashes in the East River. Iron Man arrives at the Vault and attacks Whiplash and Hawkeye, bit is felled by Blizzard and Living Laser. Crimson Dynamo moves in for the kill, while at the helicarrier, Fury reveals the existence of the fourth prison, the Raft, to Hill. There, Baron Zemo, the Purple Man, and Graviton, among others, escape imprisonment.

At the Cube, Zzzax attacks Banner, and he changes into Hulk. The Leader dispatches Absorbing Man and Abomination to tackle the Hulk. In the Vault, Hawkeye saves Iron Man from Crimson Dynamo and the others. Iron Man activates the Vault's self-destruct system, escaping as it explodes. In the Big House, Ant-Man escapes from Whirlwind and Griffon and reunites with Wasp. At the Cube, Hulk battles Abomination and Absorbing Man. Hulk grabs Samson and escapes, leaving the villains behind. In New York, Fury leaves Hill in charge and heads for the Raft, a prison hidden beneath a garbage scow on the river. There, Graviton emerges and confronts Fury.

Continuity Notes: Unlike the five microseries compilation episodes, this one begins with a cold open prior to the credits, something I believe is the norm for the series going forward.

The opening credits for EMH (at least in season 1) always did something I liked: they would end on a freeze frame showing the Avengers' active roster for that particular episode, and as that roster was in flux for the first several installments, it changed a lot early on. There were exceptions to this practice, however: the microseries episodes just showed the "default" season one lineup of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Panther -- and this episode simply shows the Avengers logo rather than any lineup.

This two-parter is loosely based on both AVENGERS #1 from 1963 and "Breakout", the inaugural story arc of NEW AVENGERS in 2005.

It's stated that a week has passed since Baron Strucker's attemtpt to escape the Vault in "Iron Man is Born"

This episode features the first appearances of dozens of villains; some of whom are mentioned in the summary above, but there are honestly too many to name here.

Lucia von Bardas was a character created by Brian Michael Bendis in the mid-00s as Latveria's prime minister. She perhaps fills the same role here, as Iron Man recognizes her and tells her to warn her "boss" against stealing his technology again. That would of course be Doctor Doom, who will make his EMH debut in the second series premiere, some time from now.

I didn't mention it above, but Hill and Wasp see Black Widow in a helicarrier corridor, though Hill refuses to tell Wasp who the mysterious agent is, and the Widow says nothing as she passes them.

Do I Know That Voice? The Leader is played by career STAR TREK guest star Jeffrey Combs (also known for brilliantly voicing the Question in JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED). Combs also voiced Leader when Loki impersonated him in "Thor the Mighty", but I forgot to mention it then.

My Thoughts: This is a great series premiere. For viewers who had watched the microseries, it opens with everyone positioned exactly where they were when those episodes ended. But for those who had seen the micro-episodes (which was entirely possible at the time, since if you didn't watch them online ahead of the series premiere, they were aired in their compilation formats after "Breakout" parts 1 and 2), we're simply opening things up en media res, still with proper introductions to all our heroes, albeit without a lot of the backstory elements from the microseries.

The episode itself jumps around relentlessly from prison to prison, which really helps to sell this sends of building dread -- then, when the power goes out as Pym is talking with the Mad Thinker, and we see the inmates at the Vault confusedly emerging from their de-energized cells, that's when everything takes off, and never lets up, in this chaotic sequence of events that come at you nonstop. The moment where Nick Fury mentions the Raft for the first time is great, too -- even if a viewer doesn't know who any of its inmates are (which would've been likely in 2010, since we see B-listers like Purple Man, Zemo, and Graviton -- who isn't even in costume -- leaving their cells there), you would know that they must be the baddest of the bad, simply from the way Fury speaks of the place.

The end-of-episode break is an odd one, though. Rather than showing one of our main Avengers in danger, we simply get Graviton pulling Fury into the air, and when they come face-to-face, Fury growls, "Graviton". That's it; to be continued! I suspect this episode was always written with the intention that it would be broadcast as a one-hour premiere, and that was the best point writer Christopher Yost could find to split it in half... but still, I feel like a little rejiggering could've left us on a more momentous cliffhanger.

Also, where does Thor go? Halfway through the episode leaves Jane to go investigate a smoke plume (presumably the downed helicarroer), and then we never see him again. Given that he can fly pretty fast and appeared to not be too far from the smoke, it seems odd that he just drops off the grid like that, when we're shown that Fury is able to board a launch from the helicarrier and fly over to the Raft in that same amount of time. I get that Yost is probably saving him for a sudden grand entrance at some point, but if that was the case, he should've been a bit further away from the river to sell the amount of time it's taking him to arrive.

Anyway -- aside from those two (very minor) nits, this is a wonderful, tightly-scripted, frenetically paced and action-packed debut for EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES. And next week we'll check out the conclusion in "Breakout Part 2"!