Note: Full spoilers for this episode follow.
This week's installment of Earth's Mightiest Heroes tended to wear its influences on its sleeve, drawing material from a number of comics involved in Marvel's Secret Invasion storyline. As in the Black Panther story "See Wakanda and Die," Panther was charged with repelling an invasion of his homeland. As in several issues of Mighty Avengers, Nick Fury struggled to uncover which of Earth's heroes had been replaced. And as in Secret Invasion itself, a crashed Skrull ship revealed an entire crew of what appeared to be escaped Avengers. It was a packed episode, but luckily the end result was less choppy than might be expected.
Ms. Marvel of all characters proved to be the star of the show this time. She served as the voice of moderation between the crashed "Avengers" and Black Panther's forces. Her ongoing struggle to reconcile her duties to S.W.O.R.D. with her status as an Avenger is serving the show well. And seeing Carol unleash her powers later in the episode is a treat. As much as the character has suffered a rocky history in the comics, Earth's Mightiest Heroes continues to do right by Ms. Marvel.
The battle for Wakanda was also enjoyable, albeit not quite at the scale I was hoping for. What should have been a siege of a massive and highly advanced city instead played out as a brawl between a handful of Skrull impostors and Wakandan footmen, with a few tanks and cannons thrown in for good measure. One area DC shows like Young Justice continue to dominate Marvel's efforts is in animation quality. It's hard not to wonder what this battle might have looked like with Young Justice-caliber animation. Still, the individual character match-ups were fun. The only thing cooler than one Black Panther kicking ass is two Panthers battling each other. There was also something strangely satisfying about seeing Wasp revert to full size in order to deck the Skrull Giant-Man. Call it payback for the infamous spousal abuse storyline in the comics.
Iron Man also returned to the spotlight briefly for an unexpected team-up with Doctor Doom. This episode expertly captured the uneasy relationship the two have always shared in the comics. Doom may have disdain for all humans, but even he has to begrudgingly respect Tony's scientific acumen. It's also nice to be reminded that this show isn't limited by the same character rights issues as the Avengers movies are. That fact was further emphasized with the glimpse of Nick Fury's Skrull candidate charts. These charts offered a who's who of Marvel cameos, including everyone from Wolverine to Magneto to Luke Cage. Aside from fan service, the Fury scenes worked nicely as a means of tying some loose threads together. Fury revealed the myriad ways in which Skrull agents like Captain America and Mockingbird have been manipulating recent events towards the Skrulls' end. Unfortunately, Fury was taken down before he and his remaining allies could go on the offensive. Hopefully we'll get a chance to see his abbreviated Secret Warriors squad in action before this storyline wraps up.
Much in the same way Secret Invasion itself did, I felt this episode missed some potential with the impostor Avengers. It would have been exciting to see at least one of the characters revealed as the real deal. But with the invasion plotline still unfolding over the next couple episodes, there's plenty of time yet for more Skrull-related shocks and surprises. I only hope these next chapters do a better job of capturing the full scale and scope of this conflict.
Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and various other IGN channels. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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