Avengers Assemble (TV series)

Avengers Assemble is an American animated television series based on the fictional Marvel Comics superhero team, the Avengers, which has been designed to capitalize on the success of the 2012 film, The Avengers. The series premiered on May 26, 2013,^[2] on Disney XD ^[3] as a replacement for The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

It airs alongside Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. (until its own conclusion on June 28, 2015), and Guardians of the Galaxy as part of the Marvel Universe block, featuring a near-identical cast and crew with both shows and a shared continuity with them. Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle (a group known as Man of Action) have been confirmed to be the executive producers of the series.^[4]

Plot

Premise

Falcon (the newest member of the Avengers) is the main eyes and ears of the viewer as he fights evil and saves the world with his teammates (consisting of Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Thor).^[5]

Season One

When Red Skull is dying due to his imperfect Super Soldier Serum, he teams up with MODOK (who upgrades HYDRA's tech) to kidnap Captain America so that Red Skull can transfer his mind to a fitter body. After his defeat by a reassembled team of Avengers, Red Skull takes Iron Man's armor for its life support system leaving Tony for dead.^[6] The Avengers get Stark to a new armor, but Red Skull attacks them at their mansion and is again defeated with the Avengers Mansion destroyed during the fight. Red Skull plans to take away everything the Avengers hold dear from their lives to their country by trying to have them hated by the people for failing to save the day.

To even the playing field, Red Skull brings together his team of power giants called the Cabal where his invitational transmissions are shown to have been received by Attuma, Doctor Doom, and Dracula (though only Attuma and Dracula accept the invitation). The Cabal later on adds Super-Adaptoid (a robot creation of Justin Hammer) and Hyperion (a rogue alien super-powered hero who enslaved his people and blew up his planet when they rebelled) to their ranks. The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. intercept a transmission and the Avengers remain together to battle the Cabal. To stay close after Avengers Mansion blew up, they set up their base in Avengers Tower.

With the threat of the Cabal, the Avengers fight them at every end as well as other threats that come to Earth.

Season Two

In Season Two, the Avengers face off against Red Skull's master Thanos (who Red Skull gave the Tesseract to at the end of Season One) who is on the hunt for the Infinity Gems to power his Infinity Gauntlet.^[7] While the Avengers are able to defeat Thanos after much hard work, the gems are drained of their power by Ultron who threatens to exterminate the human race after possessing Arsenal's body. After the Avengers ultimately defeated Ultron, Ant-Man becomes a new member of the team. Around the end of the season, Thanos manages to escape from a galactic prison that was meant to contain him with help from the Black Order (consisting of Black Dwarf, Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, and Supergiant). Now Thanos makes one final attempt to defeat the Avengers. With help from the people of Earth, the Avengers are able to defeat Thanos and the Black Order. In the aftermath, Captain America and Iron Man plan to make Earth an "Avengers World" by recruiting other heroes.

There is also a subplot detailing the arrival of the Squadron Supreme (Hyperion's old team which also consists of Nighthawk, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, and Speed Demon). While Hyperion served as the "Hammer" for the Squadron Supreme, Nighthawk served as the "Architect" of the team. Thought to have perished when their old planet blew up, they survived and came to Earth in an attempt to conquer it with Hyperion re-joining their ranks when he hears of their survival. The Squadron Supreme has plans to become the superheroes of Earth and save the world their way. Their plan is put into motion where they do different plots in their battle with the Avengers which leads up to the restoration of the Squadron Supreme's sixth member Nuke. After going into hiding, the Avengers manage to defeat the Squadron Supreme by waiting until the Squadron's members divide rule of the planet's continents, then pull a surprise attack and trap each member one by one. Desperate, Nighthawk tries blowing up the planet by having Hyperion absorb Nuke's powers and destroy the planet's core while he flees to find another planet. Thankfully, Iron Man defeats him while the rest of the Avengers stop Hyperion from blowing up Earth, and the Squadron Supreme is imprisoned in a special section of the Vault.

Season Three: Ultron Revolution

In Season Three, Ultron returns after his apparent demise and seeks revenge on the Avengers. The Avengers must defeat him as well as new threats like Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil and Kang the Conqueror. Vision, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and the Inhumans will also be appearing this season. The storyline is expected to set up an adaptation of Civil War.^[8] The series is slated to premiere on March 13, 2016.

Episodes

On July 26, 2014, Disney XD announced that it ordered a second season;^[7] it premiered on September 28, 2014. A third season, titled Avengers: Ultron Revolution, was announced on June 1, 2015, and will start broadcasting on March 13, 2016.^[8][10]

Cast

Main cast

• Laura Bailey – Black Widow,^[11] Gamora (2nd Time),^[12] Darkstar^[13]
• Troy Baker – Hawkeye, Loki,^[11] Doombot,^[14] Red Guardian,^[13] Nightmare Loki^[15]
• Grant George – Ant-Man^[16]
• Adrian Pasdar – Iron Man,^[11] Bruto the Strongman^[17]
• Bumper Robinson – Falcon,^[11] Human Cannonball^[17]
• Roger Craig Smith – Captain America,^[11] Torgo,^[18] Great Gambonnos,^[17] Grim Reaper,^[19] J.O.E.Y.^[20] Radioactive Man^[13] Nightmare Winter Soldier^[15]
• Fred Tatasciore – Hulk/Bruce Banner,^[11] Thunderball,^[21] Volstagg,^[14] Ringmaster,^[17] Crimson Dynamo,^[13] Nightmare Ultron^[15]
• Travis Willingham – Thor,^[11] Bulldozer,^[21] Brok,^[22] Trick Shot^[17]

Additional voices

• Jonathan Adams - Absorbing Man^[20]
• Charlie Adler – MODOK^[23]
• René Auberjonois - Ebony Maw^[24]
• Drake Bell – Spider-Man^[25]
• Bob Bergen – Winter Soldier^[26]
• J.B. Blanc – Mangog^[27]
• Brian Bloom – Hyperion^[28]
• Dave Boat – Thing^[25]
• Clancy Brown – Uatu the Watcher^[19]
• Corey Burton – Dracula^[29]
• Cam Clarke – Piledriver^[21]
• Jack Coleman - Doctor Strange^[30]
• Stephen Collins – Howard Stark^[19]
• Will Collyer – Tony Stark (age 14 & 17)
• Chris Cox – Star-Lord (1st Time)^[31]
• Trevor Devall – Rocket Raccoon (2nd Time)^[12]
• John DiMaggio – Wrecker,^[28] Galactus^[32]
• Robin Atkin Downes – Glorian^[25]
• Will Friedle – Star-Lord (2nd Time),^[12] Jeter Kan Too^[24]
• Nika Futterman – Gamora (1st Time)^[31]
• Ralph Garman – Mojo^[33]
• Clare Grant - Titania^[20]
• Seth Green – Rocket Raccoon (1st Time)^[34]
• Jennifer Hale – Freya^[35]
• Brandon Hender – Tony Stark (age 8 & 11)
• David Kaye – J.A.R.V.I.S.,^[23] Space Phantoms,^[36] Blood Brother #1,^[37] Corvus Glaive^[24]
• Tom Kenny – Impossible Man,^[21] Whirlwind^[15]
• Maurice LaMarche – Doctor Doom^[38]
• Phil LaMarr – Doctor Spectrum,^[39] Nuke^[40]
• Vanessa Marshall – Hela^[41]
• James C. Mathis III – Heimdall^[14]
• Chi McBride – Nick Fury^[23]
• Jim Meskimen – Arsenal,^[42] Ultron^[43]
• Liam O'Brien – Red Skull,^[23] Blood Brother #2^[37]
• Kevin Michael Richardson – Ulik,^[38] Groot^[34]
• Anthony Ruivivar^[44] – Nighthawk^[45]
• Daryl Sabara – Aaron Reece^[46]
• Dwight Schultz – Attuma^[47]
• J.K. Simmons – J. Jonah Jameson^[48]
• Isaac C. Singleton, Jr. – Thanos^[19]
• David Sobolov – Drax the Destroyer^[31]
• Jason Spisak – Justin Hammer,^[49] Speed Demon^[39]
• April Stewart – Lady Zartra,^[50] Power Princess^[39]
• Cree Summer – Darlene Wilson^[51]
• Kari Wahlgren - Proxima Midnight^[24]
• Hynden Walch – Princess Python,^[17] Supergiant^[24]
• Frank Welker – Odin^[14]

Crew

• Jeff Allen - Supervising Director^[52]
• Brian Michael Bendis - Special Thanks
• Amanda Goodbread - Casting and Recording Manager
• Cort Lane - Co-Executive Producer^[52]
• Stan Lee - Co-Executive Producer^[52]
• Joe Moeller – Casting Director
• Eric Radomski - Co-Executive Producer^[52]
• Eugene Son - Co-Story Editor^[52]
• Collette Sunderman – Casting and Voice Director
• Stephen Wacker - Co-Executive Producer^[52]
• Joss Whedon - Special Thanks
• Dani Wolff - Co-Story Editor^[52]

Development

Jeph Loeb, Head of Marvel Television and a producer on the series, stated that the series is intended to closely echo the tone and feel of the 2012 The Avengers film.^[3] The series will feature a combination of 2D and CGI animation.^[3] Avengers Assemble was originally reported as a "continuation" of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but later reports confirmed it as a completely separate series (though a flashback in episode 8 does have the Avengers featured in their respective models).^[53] Episode 8 did make references to Nick Fury's teenage superhero program from Ultimate Spider-Man (where Adrian Pasdar, Roger Craig Smith, Travis Willingham, Fred Tatasciore, Troy Baker, Chi McBride, and J.K. Simmons have also voiced their respective characters on that show) indicating that both shows are in the same continuity.

Broadcast

Avengers Assemble debuted on May 26, 2013 as an hour-long preview, followed by the official premiere on July 7.^[54] The first episode was made available free on iTunes on May 21, 2013.^[55] The series premiered on Teletoon in Canada on September 6^[56] and on Disney XD in Australia on October 12, 2014.^[57] In Africa, it premiered on Disney XD on October 15, 2013,^[58] with the second season premiering on March 9, 2015.^[59] In India, it premiered on Disney XD on December 15, 2013.

References

External links

• Official website
• Avengers Assemble at the Internet Movie Database