AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES S1x026

"A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER"
Written by Christopher Yost | Directed by Sebastian Montes

The Plot: Around the Nine Realms, the Avengers prepare for battle agaisnt Loki's forces with their various new allies -- while in Asgard, Loki is crowned king. Hulk and the Warriors Three battle the frost giants at the entrance to the Rainbow Bridge, and are joined by Giant-Man, Wasp, and Sif and the valkyries. Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Faradei arrive to assist, and the giants (as well as Loki's loyal Asgardian warriors) are defeated.

Meanwhile, in Niffelheim, Hela continues her attempt on Captain America's soul. But Cap refuses, so Hela begins to bargain with him. Elsewhere, Loki sees the Avengers advancing on his palace and summons Hoarfen, a gigantic ice wolf, to attack them. When it appears Hoarfen has the upper hand, Captain America appears and barks out orders that let the Avengers turn the tide. The Avengers and their allies march into Loki's throne room, but Loki, empowered by the Odinforce, proves more than they can handle. He destroys Captain America's shield and is about to finish the group, when Iron Man bursts in, wearing a new suit crafted in the Dwarven forge.

The Avengers free Thor, who reclaims his hammer and joins his teammates in battle against Loki. Meanwhile, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Hawkeye go to Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, to attempt to cut off Loki's power -- while Loki himself begins to lose control of the Odinforce. Giant-Man uproots the tree and its energy surges out, awakening Odin. Odin reclaims his power from Loki and confronts the villain. He banishes Loki and then honors Thor and the Avengers as heroes of Asgard.

Continuity Notes: The episode's title comes from the classic logline that appeared on the first page of most AVENGERS comics in the seventies (and then I think again in the nineties): And there came a day unlike any other, when earth's mightiest heroes were united against a common threat! On that day the Avengers were born! -- To fight the foes no single hero could withstand!" This will become narration over the opening credits for EMH's second season.

Hela offers to send Captain America to join the battle if he will promise to let her have his soul should he die in battle. We don't see his answer to, but the next time he appears, it's via a dramatic arrival to save his friends. And in the episode's final scene, he sees Hela's reflection in a fragment of his broken shield.

Iron Man's Asgardian armor, composed of Uru metal, appears to be based on two comic book designs -- the Asgardian Destroyer and Iron Man's "Thorbuster" armor from a mid-00s crossover event.

Cap picks up a random Asgardian shiled at one point to continue the fight after his shield is destroyed, brinigng to mind his fighting with a random Wakandan shield some years later in INFINITY WAR.

Loki's banishment is shown in the episode's final moments, as he is depicted as a prisoner of what I believe to be Jörmungandr the World Serpent.

In the very last scene of the episode, as the Avengers return to their mansion on Earth, Cap heads into his bedroom and looks at his shattered shield -- but is interrupted when a lookalike appears and blasts him with a stun gun, then reveals himself as a Skrull, declaring that "...the infiltration has begun." Talk about a season-ending cliffhanger!

My Thoughts: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES finishes out its first season with a doozy of an episode, showing the Avengers' triumph over their greatest threat ever (and after Kang and Ultron, that's saying somthing). The entire episode is baiscally an action spectacle, so there's not a lot of character developmen to be found -- but that's fine. When it comes to the Avengers, sometimes all you need is a huge spectacle. And of course, seeing our heroes get their due, from Odin no less, after the battle ends, is fantastic. One of my favorite things in superhero stories is when the heroes are shown to inspire appropriate awe in those they help.

All that said, there's really not much more I can say about this one. It hits all the right notes, the Avengers are suitably awesome throughout, and it uses its final scene to set up a plotline which will run through the early part of the second season (which will also tie in with Kang's prophesy that Cap is destined to betray the Avengers). It's a great episode from top to bottom, but it's all action and there's not much to discuss.

So, let's leave it at that. EMH's first season started off strong, had a few duds somewhere in the middle, but finished off at a level of quality equal to where it began. I'm pleased that it holds up quite nicely for me today, and I can still see everything that got me really excited about the series a decade ago. The fact that it was, for the most part, not beholden to the Marvel movies allowed it to draw heavily on the comics of the Silver Age for inspiration -- and going to the original source material, rather than adapting something that itself is adapted (heavily, in some ways) from that material makes it sort of a "last hurrah" for this kind of purely comic book inspired Marvel animation. Indeed, as we will eventually see, even the second season was not immune to being forced into adapting the movies more than the comics. Though it didn't start until somewhere around the season's halfway point, so we have a ways to go until we get there.

And with that, our look at the first season of EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES comes to an end. My original plan was to continue directly into the second season when I finished this one, but instead I've decaided to take a break from the series to look at something else. So this coming Friday, you'll see the regularly scheduled RIC HOCHET book 3, but then the following Monday (one week from today), I'm going to continue with the European comics I've been reading by starting MISS OCTOBER. After I finish the Euro-stuff, we'll jump back to the Marvel Universe of the printed page, with something I've wanted to read for many, many years.