Friday, November 26, 2010

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Episode Guide 09 Living Legend

This Episode charts how the newly formed Avengers first encounter the living legend Steve Rodgers Captain America. But they get little chance to celebrate when Arnim Zola unleashes an attack on New York.

For an index of all episodes go here
Original Air Date: 03/11/2010 Production Code:008

Writer: Kevin Burke & Chris Wyatt
Director: Vinton Heuck


Titles Assembled: Giant Man, Iron Man, Wasp and Thor.

The title of this episode is references to Captain America who is often called a Living Legend.

We start out where we left off last episode, with the Avengers searching for a wayward Hulk, some convenient Eskimo locals were very helpful with directions. They arrive at a crater created by a Hulk tantrum, Iron Man scans for life signs, Thor scoffs at mortal technology, and advocated using eyes and ears to find stuff.

"Cap-sicle"

We see can flashing back to the Zemo's rocket1, we see Cap sink to the icy depths and freeze over only to awaken inside the Quinjet with Thor, Ant Man and Iron Man staring down at him. Not the most welcoming thing to see. He jumps up and starts punching Avengers while saying delightful forties things like calling Iron Man a Hydra Automaton, Thor even calls Iron Man as robot before Cap puts him down quite fast and skill fully. The damage caused allows Cap to leap out of the Quinjet into New York bay.

Meanwhile back at the mansion Black Panther is seen breaking in and is able to override the super advanced computer system, that previously was able to see through the magic of a God to detect their presence2 cause he is just that good . . . My feelings on the Panther are pretty clear and I will try to remain unbiased. He wanders into the Assemble Hall and starts accessing the Avengers personal files.

"Cap: So Awesome he Backhands Gods"

Cap emerges from the water at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Iron Man once more asks Cap to stand down and comes with them, Cap replies by giving him a shield to the chest. Janet tries to reason with him, Cap thinks she might be one of Zemo's experiments, and for a second it seems like he might listen. So naturally Thor decides to try and hit him with his hammer, Oh that Zany Thor. Caps shield easily takes a Mjolnir strike and Cap sweeps Thor's legs from under him, and Giant Man who was just chilling under water it seems (probably saw some interesting underwater bug or something) emerges. Its then we see the flocks of tourist taking pictures of the battle. Hank resists the urge to pick up the cruise ship and throw it at something.

Thor says he is a warrior and he will not yield and Cap continues to lay a beat down on the team, even taking out Giant Man with Iron Man repulsors. Jan once more tries to reason with him, Cap still thinks everyone is a Hydra agent and refuses, until Jan leads him to his own memorial statue. Which naturally does give him pause. Stark explains he has been gone along time, and bids him welcome back.

"Seeing that will sober you up"

Meanwhile in the top secret Hydra HQ, Von Strucker and Grim Reaper are just shooting the breeze, when Baron Zemo storms in and ruins it all. Glorious evil German accents abound. Apparently Von Strucker left Zemo to rot on the Raft, even though until recently Von Strucker was in the Vault and couldn't really do much about it. He swiftly dispatches Reaper. Von Strucker charges his gauntlet and stands to fight. With that Hydra Goon No. 385 shows up with the news that Captain America has been spotted and worse yet, he is very much alive.

After hearing this Zemo starts to walk away telling Von Strucker that he can have Hydra, he only wants Arnim Zola and he is going to destroy Captain America. Now we flash back to Italy 1943, to a lab with some grotesque creatures in glass tubes and Hydra troops trying to fend off an attack from Cap and Bucky, like I said before I hope we got more of these flashbacks with Bucky, and I hope they don't somehow bring kid Bucky to the present. Like any good sidekick Bucky picks up an automatic weapon and start mowing down enemy troops while Cap fights one on one with Baron Zemo. Its a pretty good fight of sword versus shield.

"Behold, all the details of my nefarious plan"

Zemo is backed into a corner, so like all good super villains starts breaking down all his plans and motivations for us. He plans to realise Virus X that will end the war. Then he tells us what Erskine's Super Soldier Formula did to Steve Rodgers is nothing compares to the changes he has done to himself. He is faster, stronger and punches Cap in the face. Cap of course had let his guard down cause Zemo was talking to damn long Cap fell asleep for a bit. Cap of course shrugs it off, and schools Zemo before dousing him with his own Virus X. The screens fades to black as we hear Zemo screaming.

Back in the present we see Zemo decending into a lab, walking past all sorts of contraptions. When a great big blobby things comes up behind him. Its turns out to be Doughboy3, one of Arnim Zola's "pets". Once more Arnim Zola is glorious! Turns out Virus X did a real number on Zemo, requiring regular treatments ( or at least 6 years not too bad I guess, all things considered). Zemo tells Zola that Cap lives. Zola wants Cap's DNA to make an army of Super Soldiers (that's just how he rolls) and of course cure Zemo's condition.

"Curses! Foiled again! How did he know exactly what to do to stop my evil plans! NOOOO!"

Panther is still looking at the Avengers secret files as the Quinjet returns. The Avengers disembark and are still filling Cap in on what happened in the last sixty odd years. We won the war, No more records players that sort of thing. The realisation is starting to his Cap, Bucky is gone, everyone he knew, his whole world . . . no more record players. Cap puts down the shield and walks away. That alone is pretty powerful stuff you'd expect in a prime time drama, let alone a "kids" cartoon show.

As usual they team has no team to deal with that, because giant pastries (Doughboys) have attacked Ellis island. Stark gives the order for the Avengers to Assemble despite the fact they are all stand next to him. Hank points this out and Stark somehow manages to glare right through the armour. Panther is of course watching all this from the shadows.

"Pym, your off the team"

The Doughboys seem to be slowly oozing over everything, and nothing the Avengers throw at them seem to have any effect. One Doughboy is sent to the Mansion to deal with Cap. Cap is in his room trying to deal with everything, Janet tries to comfort4 him even though she really should be helping the team . . . Of course in true super hero fashion something attacks the mansion before they can talk anything out.

Back on Ellis Island the Doughboys are merging into a bigger Doughboy, Doughman? Iron Man banters something that I thought was truly hilarious and almost fell out of my chair laughing. Cap and Wasp are trying to get Cap's Shield when the Doughboys oozes into view, The Mansions defences don't even slow it down. Jan tries her stingers, but they just seems to anger it. This leads to it eating the Wasp5 she starts blasting from the inside which seems to detonate it. Jan then gets shot by Zemo, which was a great shot given her current size. It was at this point I recognise where I heard his voice before, turns out he has been in everything.

"Omnomnomnom"

Cap turns to face his old enemy. They go at it hand to hand it really well choreographed fight scene, during which Zemo explains he has done many strange things to his body over the years, which explains why he is still alive. Zemo gets the upper hand and is about to finish him off, when Panther blocks with Cap's shield! A Dramatic theme music kicks off, Cap picks up shield and its really on now! Its not long before Zemo is defeated, Cap gives a dramatic speech (its what he does) and Zemo throws a bomb at Janet so he can flee. Cap rather awesomely dives into its path to protect her.

Back on Ellis Island things are getting worse, Even Thor's lightening III attack isn't working, in fact its making it bigger. Thor once more is getting on science's case. Cap and Jan arrives and start pulling their team mates out of the goop. Cap tells us this is Arnim Zola's handiwork, with that knowledge and the evidence that Jan's bio-energy blasts are hurting it. He comes up with a plan. All of Zola's creature have an instability to a certain energy frequency. Hank's helmet can output on that frequency so he cranks it up to eleven. Iron Man adds his repulsor energy to the mix and its not long before Doughboy is cooked. with that the peasants rejoice.

"Bang Bang"

Back in the mansion Tony and Steve are just hanging out and Steve makes a joke, yes you heard it here first folks, Captain America has a sense of humour. Tony gives Steve an old photo of Cap, Bucky and Howard Stark, Tony's father. Tony offers a place with the Avengers and he accepts. Cap wants to meet the Avengers who saved him, the one in the black cap suit . . .

"Everyone knew everyone else in the 40's"

Back in Zola's lab, Zemo swears revenge on the Avengers, but Enchantress is there instead and has an offer to make Zemo . . .

Check Your References:
1. Episode 06 Meet Captain America
2. Episode 08 Some Assembly Required
3. Gotta give the creators cudos for this guy, talk about obscure. He was created in the late 70's made a handful of appearances up until the late 80's and hasn't been seen since barring Thunderbolts: International Incident in 2008.
4. This might be a nod to the Ultimate Universe where Cap and Jan were a couple, or maybe she is just being nice.
5. In the Ultimate Universe during the Ultimatum event, Jan is killed and eaten by the Ultimate Blob who kinda looks like Doughboy does here.

Another Good episode we got to get a good look at the quinjets. but we did learn that  Wakandan tech better than Asgardian magic . . . so yeah. I was really hoping to be caught up before the Gamma World two parter, but that is actually airing today and I'm still two episodes behind. I will double my efforts to get caught up now. Thanks for reading see you next time.

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