The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Episode Guide 19 The Kang Dynasty

For an index of all episodes go here.

Original Air Date: 09/01/2011 Production Code:018

Writers: Sebastion Montes

Director: Brian Reed

Titles Assembled: Hawkeye, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Giant Man, Wasp Thor and Black Panther.

The title is a reference to the 2001 storyline called the "Kang Dynasty" which this whole Kang storyline is a somewhat loose adaptation of. In the story Kang actually suceeds in taking over the Earth for a while, which is noteworthy as the first time a Marvel villain (bar Doctor Doom mind controlling everyone) actually won, for a while. Perhaps even more controversial was the fact that the story was released around the time of the September 11 attacks ( though written and produced before them ) and featured the entire population of Washington DC being killed, Marvel still decided to go ahead with the story with only minor changes.

We start off with the grim reality that Kang's invasion has taken about 75% of the Earth. Fury has located Kang's base ship The Damocles, It's also about to fire its main weapon, and its pointed right at New York. How are we going to stop this? The Avengers are going into space!

"Only Nick Fury can have a five way conference call with one man"

We see the team in their spiffy red and silver space suits, walking dramatically to the Quinjet with a unit of Ultrons in tow. Even Thor who probably doesn't need one, But didn't want to feel left out. Because its certainly not to sell cool action figure variants! Why are there no toys of this show yet?

The Quinjet launches and heads to space, but isn't fast enough, Kang fires his weapon, but Thor awesomely steps up and SAYS THEE NAY SPACE LASER! He deflects takes the beam right in the face, but with Mjolnir sends enough feedback to knock the weapon offline, but sadly Thor is also taken off the board, the Ultrons have to catch him and bring him back to Earth.

"KANG uses kirby krackle it's super effective"

Now in space, Kang can see who is coming for him and launches a squadron of Scarabs to deal  with them. After the first wave, all but two Ultrons are left. Iron Man decides to take a little EVA, and bring Jan along. She is notably shocked since she doesn't believe she can do much good in space. There is a nice look at Jan's character here, She is the most "real" member of the team, the Joe Everyman relatable character. It really shines through here when she first sees the Earth from space. She doubts herself among the heavy hitters, but still manages to be a strong confident female role model and not a damsel in distress which she could very easily have been relegated to.

From the outside, Jan and Tony clear a path for the quinjet to land. Hulk knocks on the door of the airlock and the Avengers are inside the Damocles. But a forcefield seals the breach but traps Tony and Jan outside. Hulk, Cap, Hawkeye, Giantman and a couple of Ultrons are ambushed by some speedsters. The team is pinned down by the trio, always zapping away at the last instant preventing the Avengers from landing a single blow. Then we switch perspective and everything stops, except for Kang's "speedsters" they are not in fact speedsters at all, but Time Manipulators. They are moving normal speed but the Avengers seem to be standing still, This is how they are able to avoid them so easily. Hawkeye manages to suckerpunch them with a flashbang arrow. Giving the team the opening they need to take down Kang's elite guard. Outside Jan tricks some of the Scarabs to blast a hole in the hull allowing them entry.

"Alas poor Ultron"

Meanwhile in the Damocles command centre Kang is being briefed on the situation. There ships in Wakanda are being destroyed, they have multiple hull breaches and the elite guard in the airlock aren't responding. Jan using her size to allow her to move through the ventilation tubes without being seen. She stumbles upon Kang's love, Princess Ravonna, in her stasis pod. But she is promptly taken by surprise by Kang's soldiers.

Cap's team comes upon the ships time drive, tripping the security Kang's  gunmen  robots appear. It's not long before Pym is taken down and the team is overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Just as things look like they can't get any worse, they do. Kang appears to deal with the Avengers personally. Kang swiftly takes them all down, even Hulk is no match for his advanced technology. Leaving Cap and a lone Ultron. Kang speeches it up at Cap. Telling him he has to do this to protect the future of all humanity. Cap alludes to him not being the first would be conquer he has taken down,  The Nazis  Hydra. Thankfully all this jibber jabber gives Iron Man enough time to arrive on the scene.

"These two will just keep giving speeches at each other til 31st century"

Kang prepares to give another speech and Iron Man just shoots him in the chest before he can even get a word out. Iron Man might be outdated by Kang's standard but he has managed to adapt his weapons to be more effective against Kang. Allowing him to take out the robots. Cap tell him we need to take out the Time Drive. Iron Man tells us he intends to use it instead. He uploads all the information about the future tech to Ultron.

Ultron starts hacking into Kang's systems while Cap and Tony run interference. We see a a pretty good fight, where we never actually see Cap land a punch (hurray weird US  TV broadcast standards) Utron successfully takes control of the time drive and sends Kang's fleet back to there own time. Kang unleashes his fully power Kirby Krackle beam in rage. Just as Ultron his about to send the Damocles back too, Jan appears and stops them. She tells them about Ravonna and tries to reason with Kang to find a peaceful way out of this. Kang refuses and tries to charge them, but Cap knocks him the eff out. Iron Man orders Ultron to stand down.

"How does Cap miss that punch?"

Now the aftermath, Shield starts the clean up of all the damage and takes control of the Damocles. Thor is in recovery, Reed Richard and Herbie² are attempting to care for Ravonna, all seems to be returning to normal. 'Aslo Ultron seems to be turning more evil (BUTWHODIDNTSEETHATCOMING). Iron Man gains some perspective on Caps man out time situation and Kang is placed in prison 42. Kang ominously tells us Cap will destroy everything, his betrayal is only the start and the worst is yet to come.

So concludes the Kang Trilogy.

Check Your References:

1. Silver Centurion armour
2. Fantastic Four Cameo