AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES S1x012

"GAMMA WORLD PART 1"
Story by Joshua Fine & Christopher Yost | Written by Michael Ryan
Directed by Vinton Heuck

The Plot: Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America, and Wasp chase Hawkeye through Manhattan, but he disappears when SHIELD interrupts. Agent Clay Quartermain tells the group that he needs their help and leads the quarter, plus Thor, to the Cube, which is encased in a green force field. There, they meet Doc Samson. He and Quartermain show the Avengers footage of SHIELD attempting to enter the Cube, but being mutated instead. They explain that the field is expanding, and the Leader is behind it -- with several gamma-powered villains at his command.

The Avengers, Samson, Quartermain, and some SHIELD operatives enter the Cube, and are attacked by the mutated agents. The Avengers take them out, then proceed on their way, but Black Panther splits off from the group. Deeper inside the Cube, they're attacked by the U-Foes, who prove no match for the team. A moment later Zzzax attacks, piercing Wasp's containment suit, which causes her to mutate into an insect monster. As more SHIELD agents mutate, Iron Man, Cap, Thor, and Samson retreat further into the Cube to shut down the gamma generator causing the mutations.

Iron Man and Cap fall, and Samson and Thor continue into the heart of the Cube, where they find the Wrecking Crew guarding the gamma generator. The Crew is supercharged with gamma energy and attacks, putting the heroes on the defensive. But Black Panther arrives unexpectedly and destroys the gamma generator, which changes all the mutated creatures back to their normal selves. The gamma villains are arrested, but the Leader is unaccounted for. Elsewhere, the Leader, Absorbing Man, and Abomination arrive outside Las Vegas to begin the next phase of the Leader's plan.

Continuity Notes: The group shot at the end of the opening credits consists of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Giant-Man, the Wasp, and Black Panther.

Ant-Man is absent this episode, with Wasp stating that he remained in Wakanda following the Avengers' time there to study vibranium.

In a couple of sub-plot scenes, Black Widow visits Hydra safehouse to deliver Hulk's blood to Madame Hydra -- but Hawkeye follows attacking the Hydra agents inside and then coming into conflict with the Widow herself. Following their duel, Hawkeye captures the Widow and tells her that he's taking her to the Avengers. When we last see them, Hawkeye is flying the Widow someplace aboard a skycycle.

Samson provides the Avengers with special radiation suits for their foray into the Cube, but Iron Man forgoes his due to his armor's built-in gamma defenses (symbolized by the suit's normally blue lights turning green), while Thor declares that he needs no such protection. Later in the episode, Samson's suit is destroyed and he learns that he is also immune to gamma energy.

As in the prior episode, Iron Man is recognized as the Avengers' leader, though Cap begins to assert himself by telling the Avengers to "stay sharp," which briefly flummoxed Iron Man since he apparently didn't think to say it himself.

Shortly thereafter, Captain America compliments Samson's fighting skills, and Wasp suggests he join the Avengers.

One of the mutated SHIELD agents looks like a harpy, apparently a nod to Betty Ross becoming just such a creature once or twice in the HULK comics. Wasp turning into an insect monster could be a reference to her "humanoid wasp" form from the mid-nineties AVENGERS comics, but who knows for sure?

Do I Know That Voice? Cam Clarke does double duty in this one as both Doc Samson and Vector of the U-Foes, while Vanessa Marshall portrays Black Widow and Madame Hydra -- meaning both actors have scenes where they're talking to themselves for a few lines.

My Thoughts: This is billed as part one of a two-part episode, but it's really a self-contained story in its own right, not ending on a perilous cliffhanger for our heroes, but with an ominous comment by the Leader that his plot isn't yet finished. Really, if the producers had wanted, these two episodes could have been spaced further apart and nothing would've been lost in the bargain (and, being the kind of person who likes to see major story beats spaced apart with room between them to "breathe", I might have preferred that).

But judged on its own merits, this is a really good episode. It's nice to see the Avengers and SHIELD truly working together for the first time in the series (even if it is to clean up a mess SHIELD partially caused). I like the inclusion of Clay Quartermain as the SHIELD group leader here, since he spent a large chunk of his comic book history tied to the Hulk. Plus we get appearances from some of the more obscure members of Hulk's rogues gallery in the U-Foes and Zzzax. One thing EMH did really well was to throw those B- and C-tier villains at the Avengers on a fairly regular basis, at least in the first season, and it's always a pleasure to see those characters recognized.

And then there's the sub-plot, focused on Hawkeye and Black Widow, which has been mostly untouched for several episodes. Way back in "Hulk vs. the World" (episode 2), Hawkeye learned that the Widow was a double-agent, but she framed him and had him arrested by SHIELD. In "Breakout Part 1" (episode 6) we got a glimpse of the Widow aboard the SHIELD helicarrier and saw Hawkeye escape from the Vault. Since then, while we've seen Hydra up to something big behind the scenes, we've not checked in at all with the Widow, Hawkeye, or Hulk's blood.

But now, in episode 12, we see these elements return to the fore -- though they're still not part of the main plot yet. I really like when TV shows do this sort of thing, with an "A" plot focused on the "adventure of the week" and a "B" plot that advances an ongoing storyline. And I need to stress that this was really unusual in these sorts of shows for a very long time. Aside from Japanese imports like ROBOTECH, you never saw serialization in kids' animation when I was a child. And, like I mentioned a few weeks ago, while the 1990s X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN cartoons did feature serialization, it wasn't exactly done in this style. EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES, at least at this point, truly does feel like a comic book brought to life. It's brilliant.

And next week, the brilliance continues in "Gamma World Part 2", featuring the return of the Hulk!