Avengers Assemble

This past weekend I woke up on Sunday and thought, man I could do some cereal and cartoons. It used to be a ritual of mine growing up. I would read the Sunday Funnies (Calvin & Hobbes for life) and turn on the ol’ boob tube and relax for hours. I watched all the classics, the Bugs and Daffy hour, X-Men, Spiderman, He-Man, Thundercats, you know the drill. I was a pretty active kid growing up, so most weekends I was away, and Saturdays always meant practice (from the age of 4 on). So Sunday was my day to really just sit around and veg.

This past weekend I had that feeling again and turned on Netflix to peruse for a good one. They have a lot of the classics including the aforementioned X-Men, but to be honest unlike some other properties, it just doesn’t hold up anymore. It’s fun in a kitschy way, but it has no real substance. As I was “channel surfing” I came across another Marvel property. The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I’ve never been a huge Avengers fan until recently with the Civil War, Skrull War and ensuing Dark Avengers line. I liked what Bendis had done with it, but never really latched on to the team. I’ll start the review by just saying this, this cartoon is fantastic. It hits all the right classic notes, it’s fun, energetic and has a decent storyline. It mixes a lot of old Avengers stories, but without miring you so deep in the ethos that you can’t claw your way out. The team that this series runs with is Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Ant Man, Wasp, Hulk, and eventually Hawkeye and Black Panther. They fight all the baddies you remember including The Leader, Kang, MODOK and more.

The storyline kicks off by introducing you to the main line of Avengers one by one. It’s a great way to bring people up to speed even if they’ve never read a single Avengers title in their life. The main villian is Hydra and the whole series is kicked off when all of the supervillians being held by SHIELD break out. There are 26 episodes in all and they span everything from the Kree/SKRULL war to Ultron and Asgard storylines. It is surprisingly deep without ever feeling too much so.

So this Sunday, do yourself a favor and stay in your PJ’s, pour a big bowl of cereal and waste sometime reliving your childhood with a fantastic animated series.