AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES S1x025

"THE FALL OF ASGARD"
Written by Christopher Yost | Directed by Vinton Heuck

The Plot: Hawkeye awakens in Asgard, where he is attacked by a pack of wolves. In Odin's palace, Loki brags to Thor about having conquered Asgard. In snowy Jotunheim, Giant-Man and the unconscious Wasp are attacked by frost giants. In Niffelheim, the realm of the dead, Captain America comes face to face with the long-dead Howling Commandos. The same holds true for the remaining Avengers, all awakening across the Nine Realms and coming face to face with various threats.

Tony Stark, armorless ave for one gauntlet, comes to in Nidavellir, realm of the dwarves, and learns from its people that Loki is behind the Norn Stone attack on Earth. Ulik the Troll appears and attacks, but Iron Man dispatches him. Meanwhile, Hawkeye struggles against the wolves until an elf rescues him. While Hulk battles trolls, Hela tries to take Captain America's soul, and Loki continues to gloat over Thor. In Jotunheim, Giant-Man is saved from the frost giants by Sif and a group of valkyries.

Black Panther fights undead spirits, while the Hulk overcomes his trollish foes. The Warriors Three and other Asgardians appear to recruit Hulk to their team. Meanwhile, Captain America overcomes Hela's ploy and then finds himself facing her directly. Meanwhile, Black Panther appears to rescue Hawkeye and his elf ally, Faraday, from the wolves. But in Nidavellir, Ulik renews his attack and defeats the dwarves, leaving Stark to defeat him by supercharging his arc reactor. And back in Asgard, Loki prepares to execute Thor.

Continuity Notes: The dead Howling Commandos' dialogue implies that they were all killed on the mission where Cap vanished, though it's hard to say for sure.

Loki outlines his season-long plan: his assault on Asgard in "Thor the Mighty" was a ploy to get him banished by Odin, and therefore out of Thor's mind as a possible threat. From there, he manipulated Thor and Odin, setting Thor on his path to Earth just before Odin entered the Odinsleep. Loki then caused the "Breakout" as a way to keep Thor on Earth, having the Enchantress form the Masters of Evil to keep Thor and the Avengers busy while Loki escaped the Isle of Silence and conquered Asgard with the aid of his various factions from across the Nine Realms.

The Casket of Ancient Winters is now in the possession of the frost giants, who use it against Giant-Man.

Hulk voices his catchphrase, "Hulk is strongest there is!" while battling the trolls.

As mentioned above, Hela uses phantoms of the Howling Commandos in her attempt to claim Captain America's soul. The funny thing is, Cap resists because he recognizes the ploy when he realizes Bucky isn't among his fallen comrades. But, as we viewers learned a while back, Cap actually resurrected Bucky with the Cosmic Cube -- he just doesn't know it yet!

Stark's new dwarf friend, Eitri, mentions that he created Thor's hammer, leading Stark to ask whether he's ever crafted a suit of armor. This will, of course, be followed up in the next episode.

Do I Know That Voice? John "Bender Bending Rodriguez" DiMaggio voices Eitri the dwarf, while NIka Futteman -- Asajj Ventress from STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (and Cuca Loca in Disney Junior's Mickey Mouse cartoons, which my son loves), portrays Sif and Hela.

My Thoughts: Though this is an Avengers story, it seems to draw a great deal of inspiration from 1988's "Asgardian Wars" event in the year's X-MEN and NEW MUTANTS annuals. The idea of our protagonists being transported to Asgard, all appearing in various parts of the Nine Realms, befriending allies as they make their way toward reuniting against Loki, was the exact setup of that classic story as well. Which is fine by me; though it was an X-Men tale, "Asgardian Wars" is one of the definitive tales of Asgard in Marvel's long canon. So why not adapt its basic premise to a different group of characters? The story works just as well with the Avengers.

As suggested last week, we do indeed see Loki recap his machinations, explaining his role in, and reasoning for, several major events during the season. I'll confess that most of it is fairly easy to piece together if you've been paying attention, though it's nice to hear his reasoning for creating the Masters of Evil, which felt a little extraneous to his other schemes. But it seems to be as simple as the fact that he wanted a villainous team to keep the Avengers occupied so Thor wouldn't become aware of his plans until it was too late -- plus, as we saw last week, the Masters did play a role in setting up the Norn Stones around Earth.

At this point, the final threads of the season are coming together, and there's nothing more to do but sit back and watch the epic finale next week, in "A Day Unlike Any Other"!