Marvel Disk Wars The Avengers

[kitik]

This forum seems to have lots of extra room in it, so why not a thread for this show?

 

 

Disk Wars is an anime show, but get your hopes down, it's not a mature one. It's aimed squarely at young kids. It's very much in the vein of Pokemon and a billion other  "gotta catch 'em all" or "battle card" shows.

 

Long story short, the Avengers (and other heores and villains) get trapped in Disks, and only certain people (importantly including a group of kids) have been encoded with the authority/power to remove them from the Disks.

 

The show is semi-interesting for it's different takes on all the heores and villains we're familiar with. A lot of them are pretty similar to what we'd expect, but a few of them seem to be radically different from most major recent depictions of that character, either in the comics or on other Marvel shows/movies.

 

 

That said, consider yourself warned. If this isn't for you, feel free to leave the thread now. If you're a completist or just open to different interpretations of some of your favorite characters, continue on.

 

The heores are all divided into different groups, based on their attacks/abilities/attributes. For example, Thor is Energy Class. Iron Man is Tech Class. This turns out to be important, it looks like.

 

[kitik]

Okay, just watched episode 4 of Marvel Disk Wars The Avengers.

(so obviously SPOILERS follow)

 

 

 

Strangely, it was titled "Reinforcement Hawkeye". I say strange, because despite the fact that he was introduced in this episode, he did all of jack and shit to help. He just stood around while Fury was being taken away and while Iron Man and Spider-Man were fighting.

 

I can't say I'm a huge fan of this look for the Lizard. We'll have to see about Diamondback, but my initial impression is that she looks good. And I say that as a huge Diamondback fan (Hail Mark Gruenwald). But I understand what type of show this is, and I can accept Diamondback being portrayed simply as a petty villain.

 

I'm still not terribly enthralled by this Disk concept, but at least they put a bit of effort into laying down some ground rules this episode. That's appreciated, and it kind of makes some sense and answers a number of questions I've had (like healing).

 

 

That said, I'm going to say that by far my favorite part of this episode was the depiction of Tony Stark. This show has a shockingly solid grasp on his attitude and sense of humor. Considering how flat many of the other characters have been so far, his combination of charm and self-flattery really shines on this show. And it looks like he's going to continue to be heavily featured going forward, so his presence will help to keep this show watchable.

 

Also, how 'bout that Lizard? He's so tough that he was still alive, even after the Ultimate Unibeam attack. Lol.

[kitik]

Well I watched episodes 5 and 6.

 

Suffice it to say, I was right about Hawkeye. So worthless that he literally just up and left in the middle of a battle. Forget sticking around another minute or two to make sure Diamondback and King Cobra were defeated, he just decided he'd done enough and left.

 

On the plus side, the battle between Thor and King Cobra was the best of the show so far.

It lasted 1 second.

 

Also on the plus side, Iron Man's banter continues to be extremely entertaining. He definitely gets far better lines than poor old Spider-Man. In Spidey's defense though, he seems to have an endless supply of Disks. So I guess he's still pretty good at that hero thing. For a while there, I was wondering if he was going to wrap this show up all by himself.

 

 

Abomination has a very strange look on this show. Diablo, on the other hand, has a pretty good look. And speaking of good looks, Mjolnir straight to Hulk's forehead was a pretty funny one.

 

So these other three kids seem pretty reluctant to help. What a bunch of worthless gits. Uncle Ben needs to give 'em a whuppin'.

[kitik]

On to episode 7.

 

-Love Spidey being tied to an anchor. Hulk actually with a pretty smart move to run through a fire.

-I love how Wasp's first move when on offense is to attack the villain's fashion. And it wasn't even Modok, who seems to be angling for the comedy villain role he's been seen in on other Marvel cartoons.

-Spidey got a bit of a chance to shine this week.

-The Jessica character did something really heroic in this week, so she goes right up to the top of the list.

-Good cliffhanger with 3 or 4 different battles going on at once, so I guess I'll just jump right into the next episode.

 

 

Episode 8

 

...  Well holy smokes, I've got nothing to say about Episode 8. I guess Ep 7 was probably my favorite so far, but pretty much nothing happened in Ep 8.

 

7 had a bunch of different stuff going on and advanced the plot and pointed the characters all in the right direction, but 8 was full of exposition flashbacks and stock animation sequences. I guess Jessica did something cool again in this episode.

 

Now that I think about it, Pepper needs to do something cool too. She's pretty much been just standing there in the background keeping quiet the past few episodes. I hope they give her something to do soon.

 

 

 

It's a good thing I watched these two episodes together. 8's weakness was definitely balanced out by the fact that 7 was pretty much the best episode so far.

 

Oh yeah, I did appreciate Whirlwind's voice actor. He was doing some funny stuff. And I do kind of like King Cobra too.

[kitik]

Okay, time for episode 9 of the show....

 

 

-Finally, some fighting going on. King Cobra put up a good fight, and I liked the way Iron Man beat him.

If King Cobra won't let go, see how long he can hold his breath underwater.

 

-Abomination has been set up as just about the toughest villain on this show. Not only did he clobber Spidey a few episodes ago, but here he more than held his own against the Hulk (for now, as brief as that fight may have been).

 

-A classic loss for Thor. If it's happened once, it's happened a million times.

He got taken out by a child that was really Loki in disguise.

 

-Ooh, I like the way the bad guys are trying to use the apparent death of

Spider-Man (spoiler: he's alive)

as a way to try to get the other heroes to submit to their centralized control. Some definite shades of what we've seen in the comics over the past decade, and a logical and mature story progression for this show.

 

-Yay, Hawkeye finally did something useful again, and then disappears a split second later. Lol at the way this show uses him. An amusing mix between mysterious, useful, and useless.

 

-And then Storm Shadow shows up! Damnnnn!

 

-Cobraaaaaaaa!

 

-But you could fairly easily guess that the real final surprise was going to be

Silver Samurai. I liked the way they said he was a villain but hinted that he would probably wind up helping them. (I would guess he'll have his own reasons for wanting to work against Loki's gang.) He may actually turn out to be an important and major character on this show. That'd be fine with me. 

Nice job of keeping us guessing with the preview for next week's episode though. They didn't give anything away.

 

 

 

 

Overall, this was a good episode. Good action and some actual plot and storyline progression here. And even an lol for "news goddess Rosetta Riley".

 

 

 

The show is definitely improving, so I can't stop now. Let's see what happens next week.

 

 

(Also, lol at all the spoiler tags in this post, as if dozens of you folks here are just waiting to watch this show.)

[kitik]

Okay, due to the unprecedented and overwhelming demand for more reviews and updates on Disk Wars, I'm back with more thoughts.

 

 

Episode 10: Hate to say it, but this was a dreadful episode. It was pretty much 2 people just sitting there talking for the whole thing. And they really didn't even talk about anything interesting or useful towards the plot of the show. (I actually watched 10 a while ago, just didn't even feel like mentioning it until now.) Luckily I enjoyed the previous one.

 

It included a full two and a half minute sequence of consecutive D-smash stock animation sequences. Oof.

 

 

Episode 11: It had to get better from the last episode, and it did. Not the best, but this was a more enjoyable episode, even without much action. They did a nice job of giving all the characters their own focus. Akira and Pepper did a particularly good job of teaming up on Tony. And I liked the little sort-of cameo from Beta Ray Bill, probably the only glimpse we'll get of him in a show like this.

 

Funny to see those toys from the end credits show up in the show. I've seen those for sale online, as a tie-in to the show, but oddly the yellow one is Spider-Man, not the Wasp. Well, not that odd, but it's unfortunate for poor little Wasp. Though maybe she's available now too. Or perhaps available separately.

 

For a character-building episode, I don't think you can expect much more from this show. Wasp and Jessica had their fun, and the show got to poke some fun at poor old Cap.

 

 

Episode 12: Okay, finally getting the plot back on track I see. Though I wouldn't be surprised if I looked back at this show in retrospect next year and decided I liked the character-based episodes, like the previous one, better than the villain-collecting episodes.

 

That said, this was a decent episode. Even some nice little character bits at the beginning. I'm glad Pepper has finally become more useful again over the past few episodes. Though she still has a ways to go before she reaches the heights of hero Pepper. But with all the little cameos we've seen on this show, I'm actually holding out a tiny bit of hope that Rescue Pepper will show up and save the day later on this season. Not betting on it mind you, but I'm not ruling it out 100% just yet.

 

The fights at the end were somewhat interesting too.Though I wasn't terribly impressed with the animation at some points, especially towards the end.

 

I kind of liked the way they did the Absorbing Man fight. Sometimes it's better to tell than show. It was a great sounding fight, even if we didn't get to see it. Though I'm not sure why Absorbing Man got so stupidly confident.

 

A little sad we never really got the classic running/walking/storming Juggernaut. The standing still Juggernaut isn't quite the same. That definitely won't get nominated as one of the top Juggernaut fights in Marvel history. Interesting reminder that Iron Man can take a total beatdown, and still recover thanks to the Disk though.

 

 

So the heroes took down and collected 2 villains this episode. And two of the most powerful ones at that. If they keep that up, this show won't last too much longer. Either that, or Loki will have to pull another doublecross or sneak in and steal all the Disks.

 

 

Of this bunch, I think episode 11 was probably my favorite. The fights were just a bit lacking in 12, or at least one of them was.

[kitik]

Disk Wars time!

 

That's right, the #1 Marvel anime in the world right now is back with more episodes!

 

 

Episode 13

(spoilers throughout)

 

Great start to the action this week. We start right off the bat in the middle of a battle pitting Cap, Thor, and Wasp against Absorbing Man and Crimson Dynamo. Nice to see they're coming up with some strategy in this battle too (splitting the team), the more this show uses it's brains, the more watchable it becomes.

 

Great surprise to see a hero pop out of the new Disk instead of a villain. And War Machine was protrayed strongly too. Well, at least from a physical POV. As for his character, well, they pretty much immediately explain that we can't have Rhodey interacting in Jedi hologram form at the same time as Tony, and we can guess which one we'll see more of in the future. That said, great little back and forth between them as passed on through the others. And Rhodey not realizing Pepper was behind him led to some awesome looks from all the characters, not just Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper. Really. Some awesome looks.

 

Hawkeye shows up again with perfect timing to help Ed and get Hulk to the next battle on time. And as usual disappears before anybody can ask him to do anything.

 

I think the D-Smash animations were slightly altered in this episode. That'd be nice, even if it is just a minor change.

 

Definitely a good episode. The fight against Graviton at the end was a  little strange, I guess you had to make a bizarre assumption about his power, that didn't really seem to make sense. But still fun to see. Good animation throughout, good battles at the beginning and end (especially beginning), and great Tony/Pepper scenes in the middle. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

 

 

Episode 14

 

More good animation, I liked the opening video game battle and the Thor/Loki flashback to younger days. That flashback seemed quite different from the rest of the show, even if the Thor/Loki story was nothing new. Jessica is pretty awesome when she's evil looking. More of that please.

 

Not the best of episodes, you know it's never a good sign when they feel the need to give you all 5 full D-Smash sequences. Whiplash was not at all what you'd expect. He was all about the "wet and sticky". I don't even know. Thor and Iron Man should wash their hands after they finished him off.

 

Decent ending. Good old fashioned attempt at playing dirty during a video game from Jessica. But it had to fail.

 

 

 

 

 

Of the 2 episodes, episode 13, the Graviton one, was clearly superior. Possibly my favorite of the whole series. Great interaction between Pepper and Tony and Rhodey. Especially Pepper and Tony.

[Fullbuster]

Japanese really have a weird way to use a universe like this one.They could do something huge if taken seriously and with ambition.

[kitik]

2014, The Year of Marvel, of course led by Marvel Disk Wars The Avengers, continues.

 

 

Episode 15

 

Slightly surprising turn of events regarding Jessica. Turns out we've just been seeing her fake personality all along. I guess it finally gives her character some motivation to be a strong team player and a reason to care for everyone else.

 

The kids got into some Indiana Jones-like traps down in the secret passages. They had no business surviving the swords or the falling ceiling. Suffice it to say though, everyone needs to tell Akira not to touch a damn thing ever again. Stop breaking shit that ain't yours and setting off traps, ya foo.

 

Holy smokes, that is an extremely bizarre artistic variation on Doc Ock.

 

 

Episode 16

 

Ah, that's better. Lots of good amusing animations of Akira this episode. The school stuff was pretty decent. At the very least, it's greatly appreciated to see the kids in a diferent setting.

 

Nice to see some good old-fashioned heroes and villains stuff with Sabretooth and Wolverine. As Sabretooth said, there's no need for Disks to be involved 100% of the time. Sometimes a guy's just gotta go on a rampage.

 

Sabretooth and Wolverine both looked pretty good this episode. Far more normal looking than Doctor Octopus last episode. Not sure about Wolvie's flipped up collar look though.

 

Also nice to see Sabretooth protrayed as such a strong villain. He more than held his own against the Avengers.

 

A  couple of the animation shots looked strange, and one or two looked bad, but the different animation style was a nice little surprise in what can often be a very predictable show. Though there was a shot or two where a body looked more like a blob.

 

Nice little touch that Wolverine showed up and he'd already collected the disk with Cyclops.

 

Since this basically ends "to be continued" with Wolverine and Sabretooth about to fight, I'll take a day or two off and come back to see how it ends later.

[kitik]

Okay, I had to go back and rewatch episode 16, because it's been so long.

 

Funny ending, Iron Man says they have 173 seconds left out of their disks, and then Wolverine shows up and takes literally 2 minutes to walk over to them as slowly as possible.

 

 

Episode 17

 

Well that was a disappointing beginning. After looking like we were going to get a big Wolverine/Sabretoothe showdown, 3 Destroyers showed up and Sabretooth got pissed off and left. Instead the Avengers and Wolverine took down the Destroyers (after Sabretooth took down one too.). I did like the scene where Sabretooth was about to kill Rosetta before he got d-secured. But its safe to say that the Avengers stood around and fought the Destroyers for more than 53 seconds. (I understand that in some shows Goku and Frieza can have a 5-minute fight that lasts for 6 episodes, but it seems somewhat pointless here to give a remaining time limit, and then ignore it after that.)

 

And yeah, three Destroyers. Why not, right?

 

Hmm, after a flashback to a discussion between Wolverine, Cyclops, and Professor X, we see the kid's new friend at school Noriko again. A visit from Xavier in her dream can only mean that she's a mutuant.

 

Lol, an escort home from Hikaru, to keep her safe. "Villains are scary ... so please escort me home." And lets make it a date while we're at it.

 

Poor Pepper, she has to cook for those kids too.

 

Unsurprsingly, in true comic book fashion, it took less than 5 minutes for Noriko to be in a situation where her mutant power came out. Get ready for the cliched reaction to someone finding out they're a mutant.

 

 

Episode 18

 

Whoa, I suck, It took me this long to realize that Noriko was a pre-existing character. I should have known to google her name right away. Surge is somewhat recent and obscure, but I have seen her in a few X-Men comics. (But she's mostly been in X-Men comics that I'm way behind on.) Maybe the blue hair should've given it away.

 

Anyways, after the typical mutant reaction, the kids and Avengers head out to get another disk. Their opponents are no less than the Wrecking Crew, in full Ginyu Force mode. You can tell they practiced their posing!

 

Typical beatdown with the Wrecking Crew, but then they unveiled their great losing pose. Classic!

 

Nice little followup on previous scenes with Cap still struggling with losing Bucky.

 

Well, the episode ends the way it began, with Noriko trying to avoid her mutant powers, and as usual for most mutants, failing miserably to do so.

 

Decent episode with the usual mutant angst, but the Wrecking Crew getting wrecked was definitely an appreciated comedic distraction.

[kitik]

Okay, time to catch some more Poke-avengers

 

 

Episode 19

 

So the Noriko storyline continues. Surprise surprise, but this has actually turned into a regular Marvel show. Go figure. At least Hikaru and Wolverine are saying the right things to her.

 

The Chris storyline here is a little odd. He seems to not understand Cap as much as Cap doesn't understand him. I'm wondering if a little bit got lost in the translation there, or if its more a case of lost in a cultural translation. In the end, I suppose it's just the old misunderstanding/poor communication conflict.

 

Oh damn, Tony just called Pepper naggy!

 

Somewhat strange twist to the Noriko storyline. Is she betraying them for her own personal interests or what?

 

Whoa, that's a surprise, Cyclops gets a d-smash animation!

 

I love Wolverine's recap of the situation to Cyclops: "Lots of stuff happened, and we're in Japan. We need to beat these guys down." That about sums it up.

 

Oh, so that's Predator X. I was wondering who that was.

 

Whoa, great little bit there at the end, with Wolverine in trouble and Chris realizing that Baron Zemo may finish off Cyclops. So that's where this Bucky stuff was going. We'll see if Chris comes through for Cap after all.

 

Also, glad to see Zemo has a solid strategy here. Don't want to see too many of the villains be pushovers.

 

 

 

Episode 20

 

Okay, here we go with the fifth episode of the Noriko story. Pretty impressive.

 

Good beginning to the fight here. Cyclops should be able to hold his own in a fight like that. Good to see the time limit come into play again too. I guess it was convenient for this story, so there you go.

 

Well how about that. Ed actually has a brain and he used it. 'Bout damn time he put that knowledge to use.

 

After Noriko uses her powers again, Chris shows up in the nick of time so Cap can have a pretty compelling showdown with Zemo. Fighting with all these children present doesn't make a lick of superhero sense, but at least Chris was useful in helping Cap focus and win against Zemo. Logically too, not just tacked on by lazy writing to showcase the kids.

 

So I kind of like that the disks were not recovered in the end. But I was wondering how Cap and Wolverine would fare when teaming up against all the villains.

 

But then a cool ending with Storm, Iceman, and Colossus showing up in the Blackbird with Beast's disk. That'll obviously be enough to take on whatever villains the bad guys can throw at them. Looking forward to some X-Men action next time.

 

[kitik]

And I have to say, these last few episodes have been pretty good. Very nice to see a nice relatively long (for this show at least) storyarc going through the episodes.

 

The humor has been decent lately, and the storylines curently going on have actually had some buildup and some payoff. I definitely like the current direction of the show. It's been worth sticking around, even if the simplicity of some of the character arcs remains clearly aimed at a fairly young demographic.

 

And I like the fact that with the X-Men showing up en masse now, it really feels like any old hero could show up on this show. And likely will, if it lasts long enough.

[kitik]

Okay, one more pair of episodes after this one, and I'll pretty much be all caught up.

 

 

Episode 21

 

The episode starts with Loki taunting his brother and the other captured Avengers and ...

 

A-Ha! Loki finally reveals what his grand scheme has been with the disks all along. He's going to use them to take all of their powers, from all the heores and villains who've been in disks.

 

So the X-Men and the kids are on their way to rescue the Avengers and everyone else. They quickly dispatch with some more Destroyers, but then some Sentinels show up and starting pounding on them. Meanwhile, Xavier was filling in Magneto on what's been going on, and takled him into going to save Noriko (and conveniently everyone else too).

 

Just when things are looking pretty dire for the X-Men (even Noriko couldn't hurt the Sentinels), Magneto shows up and easily destroys the Sentinels. Suffice it to say, these Sentinels were made out of metal. It wasn't a fight so much as a demolition. After Magneto tries (and fails) to talk Noriko into joining him, you kind of get the impression that that may be the last we see of Magneto in this episode. Go figure. He sends the X-Men and kids on against Loki on their own.

 

The X-Men (Storm, Colossus, Iceman, and Wolverine) encounter 5 villains as soon as they enter Loki's ice-castle base, and as the battle is about to start, surprisingly the first attack is thrown by Noriko, who gets tired of hearing Modok talk.

 

Storm, Noriko, and the other X-Men send Wolverine ahead with the kids while they stay to fight the villains. Sabretooth shows up and soon it's just the 5 kids left to head to Loki's disk machine.

 

Without much explanation, we're told that Chris can now d-smash Captain America with less recharge time (despite the fact that we hadn't heard or deduced at all that he was anywhere within the time limit earlier this episode). But there you go. Cap comes out, Akira and Hikaru are quickly reunited with their dad, who then tells Cap how to beat Loki's disk machine with one blow.

 

That was easy. All the Avengers disks immediately go back to their kids, and now Loki has to face all 5 Avengers.

Avengers Assemble!

 

 

(Sidenote: at the end of every episode they have a hero or villain spotlight. This week was The Wrecker. They missed a perfect opportunity to mention that one of his powers on this show is striking poses!)

 

 

Episode 22

 

After the speechifying was over and the fighting began, it didn't look like Loki would last long against the combined Avengers. His 5 human minions were about to run away, when the main one pointed out that something had changed. Loki then used some new attacks and revealed that the machine had in fact transfered other people's powers into him after all. Right away, we see Loki use Iron Man's, Diamondback's, and Juggernaut's abilities and powers.

 

And then to top things off, he uses Diablo's power to take over the Hulk again.

 

But just as Hulk is about to go against the Avengers, Ed is able to get through to him and remind him who he is. Which led to a classic scene of Loki bragging about his control over the Hulk right before being on the receiving end of the Hulk's fist.

 

Realizing he was in trouble, Loki used Whirlwind's power to create a tornado to hide it. But instead of attacking to get him out before their time limit was up, Iron Man told the Avengers he had a plan. So he revealed to Loki that he was streaming the whole fight live to the world, and everyone was watching Olki and calling him a coward for hiding instead of fighting. Tony was lying about the streaming part, but went on to ramble up a dozen different fake internet comments that only served to infuriate Loki and goad him out of hiding.

 

Which led to the classic line from Akira:

"There's not a person alive who can endure Tony's trash talking!"

 

Once again with no previous hints about it, we're told that Loki is about to try something dangerous and experimental called All Disk Power Mode. A quick flash to the rest of the castle shows the X-Men defeated the guard villains while Wolverine and Sabretooth were still locked in battle. 

 

Okay, the Avengers are fighting 5 individual iterations of Loki, but Iron Man seems to be fighting the main one, who is also using Dr Strange's magic against Tony. Just as their time limits are up, Akira and the other kids decide that this is the perfect time to evolve their Disk biocodes further, by allowing some of their own power to be fused with the Avengers, so they can stay out longer and use extra power to beat the Loki's.

 

The final showdown between IM and Loki (using Strange's magic coupled with his own) creates a huge dimensional rift in the sky. Everything is being sucked in. Akira tries to hold onto his dad, but his dad, not wanting Akira to be sucked in with him, willingly lets go and gets sucked into the rift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that was a surprising ending. I can't imagine this is the last we've seen of Loki and Dr Akatsuki (Akira's and Hikaru's father), so perhaps future episodes will reveal what's on the other side of that dimensional rift. 

 

I have to say, this show finally went somewhere. The title of this episode was "Final Battle! Loki vs The Heroes!", and it was well named. The last half dozen or so epsiodes, starting with Noriko showing up, have been a great lead-up to this point.  And this was a fitting battle between Loki and the Avengers. Nice that the X-Men were included to take care of all the other villains, leaving Loki and the Avengers to face-off all by themselves. It definitely made Loki look like a master villain, and frankly, these episodes have made the whole series worth it.

 

So where to now? When Dr Nozomu Akatsuki was being sucked into the rift, he thought to himself that he was leaving his sons in Tony's hands. It seemed like he was expecting it to be permanent or long-term. Not that he would know, but the writers of the show would know, and I'm going to assume that we may not see him (and Loki) for quite a while now.

 

We'll see if the next episode sets up some new storylines.

[kitik]

Okay, I'm actually looking forward to seeing where this show goes now that they've wrapped up a lot of storylines.

 

 

Episode 23

 

Okay, starting right off the bat with some new characters. Crossbones and another mysterious villain hidden in shadow.

 

And now Sunfire is helping Pepper. Okay, so Noriko just left with the X-Men. And that's that.

 

Hmm, a quick reminder about the Superhero Registration Act, and of course that means we cut to Spidey in New York. It's been a while since we've seen him, after he was so prominent at the start of this series.

 

(And speaking of the Superhero Registration Act, now that Loki has been swept off to some other dimension, perhaps it will be safe for the heroes to return to the US.)

 

Back to Spidey. He's hungry. Who shows up, but good old Hawkeye, bringing just what Spidey needed, in this case, a sandwich. Because Hawkeye always brings sandwiches to his superhero pals.

 

And hey, right on cue, Hawkeye tells Spidey that Shield is back up and running, and there's a movement to overturn the Superhero Registration Act, now that the senator who sponsored it (Loki in disguise) is missing.

 

Cut to Loki's 5 human biocode stooges, all in orange jumpsuits riding to prison. They wonder whether Loki is still alive (anybody who has read any comic book ever knows the answer to that one), but instead of Loki rescuing them, Crossbones shows up and recruits them for his mysterious master.

 

Back to the 5 kids in Japan, and we see that they have the disks for Modok, Graviton, Baron Zemo, Tiger Shark, and Abomination. I guess we have the X-Men to thank for those. All the other disks are gone, those are the only 5 they recovered other than the Avengers. Pepper goes to put them in the safe, and Sunfire talks the kids into a relaxing hot springs vacation.

 

But then what's this? Pepper wakes up from a nap on a couch while still in the room with Sunfire and the kids! They quickly suspect that the other Pepper was Mystique, stealing the villain disks. Sunfire goes in pursuit.

 

We catch up to Mystique as she's meeting with Crossbones (with his boss waiting in a car nearby), but after giving Crossbones the disks, he betrays her, and is about to shoot her when Sunfire arrives. Much mention is made again (following on from his introduction earlier) about how Sunfire is Japan's greatest superhero. Crossbones' master steps from the car and reveals himself to be Red Skull.

 

The kids and Avengers show up right after Red Skull easily defeats Sunfire, and they hype up the Red Skull to be a major threat. (I wonder if he's going to be around for a good long batch of episodes.) The kids unleash the Avengers, and Red Skull unleashes the 5 villains he stole, revealing that he can also D-smash.  He says he "appropriated" the biocodes from Loki's stooges, using some crazy thing called the Dimension Sphere, something that can make miracles a reality. (Sounds like a cosmic cube to me, except it's round instead of square.)

 

Oh cool. Abomination takes down Hulk with just one punch, and they reveal that Red Skull gave them all the power of the Dimension Sphere, making them far more powerful than they used to be. And henceforth they'll be known as the Masters Of Evil. The 4 remaining Avengers throw everything they've got at the Masters Of Evil, and it doesn't even scratch them. Just as the Avengers are getting really worried, Red Skull d-secures the 5 villains, and says he doesn't want to beat the Avengers today, because he knows more heroes would just follow and annoy him. His intention is to destroy the entire idea of justice and heroes at some point in the near future.

 

The Avengers don't like the sound of that, and try to attack the Red Skull, but he easily brushes them off with the power of the Dimension Sphere.

 

We're left with the Avengers wondering how to fight him, and Tony reveals that he'll have to invent a way to power them up.

 

So there you go kids. Coming soon: Avengers super-charged disks. Or something like that.

 

 

 

Overall, a pretty decent episode. Introduced a number of new characters, and most importantly, they pretty much immediately made Red Skull a super serious threat.

 

I think that's about as good as I could ask for. An iconic villain being made to be an epic threat. Heck, even Crossbones is being shown as a dangerous second in command for Red Skull. I like how Red SKull is playing his cards close to his vest too. He wants them to know he has the power, but he doesn't want to crush them just yet. That's very Red Skull-like.

 

I wonder if we'll ever see those 5 stooges again. Red Skull may have disposed of them permanently. If we never see them again, that's going to be the assumption. Time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 24

 

Okay, It's Guardians Of The Galaxy time! Time for that giant-headed raccoon.

 

Shield orders the Avengers to stop a UFO heading out of control towards Tokyo. Tony gets upset that Fury is already bossing him around again, and after detecting signs of life inside, tries to help it crash land with Hulk.

 

Groot emerges and IS IMMEDIATELY KILLED BY SHIELD GOONS WITH FLAMETHOWERS! Let's file that one under "omg".

 

Hawkeye decides to take the kids inside to investigate, and they discover an unconscious Rocket and an exotic energy source. Tony is looking forward to studying both, but then Hawkeye pipes up and declares it all Shield property. Iron Man argues that's he's best-suited to study the energy supply, since it bears a passing resemblance to Red Skull's sphere. It seems that iron man and Hawkeye aren't huge fans of each other. After a brief debate between Fury and the Avengers and a prideful Stark, he agrees to study it on the Helicarrier under Shield observation.

 

Later, Star-Lord, Drax, and Gamora show up and beat up the Shield guards surrounding the spacecraft, revealing that they're tracking the energy source, some sort of Kree object.

 

On the Helicarrier, Hawkeye compliments Hikaru for improving, while Jessica keeps watch over the cute little sleeping space raccoon. But he soon wakes up and starts blasting things and threatening folks, and Jessica decides he isn't so cute anymore.

 

The other 3 Guardians show up and attack the Helicarrier. They land looking for their friends and the Kree Mact, and announce that while they're there, they'll get some vengeance for the way Rocket and Groot (who's re-growing  in a Shield lab) were treated earlier. Drax and Gamora easily beat a bunch of guards, while Star Lord goes head to head with Hawkeye.

 

Rocket runs into the room with Akira and Iron Man, and Iron Man is d-smashed, ready to stop Rockets from taking the Kree Mact. Rocket ends up saving Akira from falling out a hole he blasted, and Iron Man decides not to fight him. At least not physically. Verbally, Stark and Rocket go at each other non-stop. And then they have some fun fighting too.

 

Groot shows up re-grown, but still weak, and BOOM, Akira can understand what he's saying when he says "I am Groot"! So of course they have a conversation that no one else in the room can understand. Of course. Too bad Akira didn't speak up earlier before Groot got the business ends of the flamethrowers.

 

Hulk, Wasp, and Cap show up to take on Star-Lord, Drax, and Gamora, and just as Star-Lord gets the upper hand on Cap (he is an outlaw after all), Groot shows up and stops the fight.

 

Turns out the GOTG stole the Kree Mact (which coincidentally has the power to destroy a galaxy) from Ronan, and Groot and Rocket didn't quite make it and had to head off on the escape pod, which explains why it was on a crash-course. Rocket, after being belligerent towards everyone, eventually realizes the Avengers and kids helped him recover. Jessica agrees to forgive him if he'll cuddle with her later.

 

Star-Lord tells everyone that Ronan is a threat to destroy the entire cosmos, and just then, some sort of warp or wormhole opens right above the helicarrier, and out comes ....

 

see if you can guess ....

wait for it ....

no, not Ronan.

 

Here comes Fin Fang Foom!!!

 

Good cliffhanger ending.

 

That was actually pretty cool, and I'm glad I didn't know it was coming.

 

So we've got the Dimension Sphere and the Kree Mact. I wonder if those are the first two precursors to a possible Infinity Gauntlet sighting on this show.

[kitik]

Don't want to fall too far behind again, so here we go.

 

 

Episode 25

 

Plus of course I want to find out what happens with Fin Fang Foom and the Guardians.

 

So Fin Fang Foom comes out of the time/space distortion and blasts the Helicarrier with fire breath. Which is conveniently explained by Star-Lord, so the Guardians must have a previous history with him.

 

By the way, pretty good animation in this episode so far. While it varies from episode to episode, they've still aimed to keep it at a decent level. And this episode looks like it's going to raise the average.

 

After FFF roasts the Helicarrier for a bit and easily fends off any weaponry, Ronan makes contact and demands that the Kree Mact and the Guardians be handed over.

 

The Guardians decide to go back into space to lead Ronan away from the earth, and the kids quickly convince the GOTG to let them help too (and thus the Avengers too of course). Ronan appears again and uses his hammer (Universal Weapon) to cause the Helicarriers engines to fail and it crashes into a harbor. It seems he can take and control energy with that hammer.

 

Tony and Rocket use the Kree Mact to power a super gun (with slight comedy from Rocket), and when FFF returns, they use the super-powered gun on FFF and defeat him. Ronan shows up enraged, and easily dodges the blast from the Kree Mact-powered gun.

 

He easily breaches the Helicarrier and takes care of the pair of Hulk and Drax without breaking a sweat. Groot, Wasp, and Gamora follow in quick defeat.

 

Iron Man, Thor, Cap, Rocket, and Star Lord all team up and combine their fire on Ronan, but he absorbs all of their attacks. He then uses all that energy to blast a hole through just about half of the entire Helicarrier, leaving all 5 heroes dazed and worried.

 

But as things look grim, and Ronan boasts that his power is far beyond theirs (a boast which appears true), Akira steps up and declares that if the Avengers and Guardians teamed up, they would be more powerful than Ronan.

 

Which strikes me as an odd thing to say, since Ronan just easily beat a combined group of 5 Avengers and Guardians.

 

And then to my great surprise, right on cue, who shows up but Hawkeye, and he actually hits Ronan with an arrow! (It's about time you manned up Hawkeye!) And he's got Groot, Gamor, and Wasp, while Hulk and Drax have reappeared as well, after getting blasted off the ship earlier by Ronan.

 

StarLord seems to have bought into Akira's crap, and he now agrees that Ronan couldn't stand against their combined might. Everyone joins in, and while Thor tries to keep Ronan busy with lightning attacks from multile angles, Wasp and Gamora sneak in and hit Ronan with a short range strike to disorient him. They're quickly followed by a combined smash from Hulk and Drax. Everyone pitches in (even Hawkeye) and then Star Lord, Rocket, and Iron Man blast him into submission. Ronan is defeated, but vows to come back for the Kree Mact before teleporting away.

 

Just in the nick of time too, as Hulk's Disk time limit was up 2 seconds after Ronan left.

 

We get a nice wrapup with the Avengers and Guardians hanging out together. Rocket and Tony pick on each other some more, and despite being asked to stay on earth, Star Lord claims to get a new transmission with a new assignment. Not really sure if he was making that bit up, but if it was real, I'm wondering who's giving the GOTG assignments. (I don't quite remember for sure, but I don't think they mentioned anyone specific telling them to steal the Kree Mact in the first place last episode.) Star Lord didn't act like he was just making an excuse, so there may in fact be someone giving them orders. Hopefully they come back in a month or three and we find out.

 

They leave the Kree Mact on earth, and Tony says he'll use it to try to super-charge the Avengers.

 

I have to say, I mentioned it at the start of this episode, but now having watched the whole thing, I can confirm that this episode had some really good animation. Ronan looked fantastic, and all the heroes teaming up against him turned out to be a pretty good sequence. This was probably in the top 2 or 3 episodes in the entire series for animation, if not the very best even. It definitely added to the entertainment and enjoyment level.

 

 

 

Episode 26

 

Looks like this is going to be a clip episode, as Tony tells Akira and Pepper they need to review past data to figure out how to best proceed with Tony's power-up plans.

 

But just as Pepper loads the data, Modok shows up on the computer screen and tries to steal and download all the data.

 

Modok's brain loves to devour knowledge, he says its "intellectable".

 

Hmm, Pepper is in the lab, and can't seem to communicate with Akira and Tony. They're just sitting on the couch watching tv like they're on MST3K, while she's all alone down in the lab trying to figure out how to thwart Modok.

 

Since Modok has temporary control of the computers, Pepper is sealed in the lab. Meanwhile, Akira and Tony continue their viewing and commentary, and arguing about which one of them is more heroic. Eventually they wonder where Pepper is, but decide that she may just be mad at Tony for something he said as usual, so they continue being couch potatoes.

 

This is pretty decent recap episode. They hit all of the pertinent information from the first few epsiodes, so any kids that started watching late should be all caught up on what's going on now. Tony and Akira got a few good jibes in there while they were watching, so it wasn't a total waste.

 

In the end Modok got all the data, but it appeared to stop just short of the GOTG episodes, so Tony said they'd just create new power using the Kree Mact to be able to surprise Modok.

 

One thing this recap episode did do is drive home the fact that the last episode with Ronan and the Guardians really was some good animation (at least relative to the rest of this series). We saw some clips with some good animation and some that was less than stellar. The final showdown with Loki had some good animation. But that Ronan episode was right up there.

 

 

And, holy smokes, the preview for next episode was a big surprise. Coming next time: Deadpool! And it looks like we'll be in for some fun. I'll have to watch that one soon.

[kitik]

Okay, let's see if this show can continue it's gradula and steady improvement.

 

 

Episode 27

 

And we start off at some corny looking bar in the middle of the desert. It's got some some fake volcano on the top of it and some scary looking monster design on the facade. Perhaps a villain hideout, perhaps just a bar.

 

A loud commotion is heard from inside, and as we pan inside, we see King Cobra lying there, having just been defeated. Deadpool is standing there, counting out a large collection of money, and other patrons are streaming for the exit. Deadpool orders a chimichanga to go, and then promptly blasts a new hole in the side of the building to jump out of.

 

The title card comes up, and this show has now been renamed to Marvel Disk Wars Deadpool!

 

The episode gets underway after the title sequence (with no sign of Deadpool) with Stark working on what he's calling his Build Up Armor, using the extra power from the Kree Mact.

 

Deadpool shows up at the front door, and introduces himself to the kids. And then promptly introduces himself to all the kids watching at home on tv, which leaves everyone else confused as to what he's talking about. But he's got the stats to back up his popularity! He also reveals that if he became a main character on this show, he's certain he'd be the most popular.

 

He breaks out a disk and it's revealed to be Iron Fist! But as soon as Ed starts explaining to everyone who Iron Fist is and what he can do, Deadpool interrupts with a line directly for all the fans out there: "Gaaah! Don't give these kids more screen time! We should focus on the heroes! I swear...this show!"

 

Deadpool explains that he had a hankering for chimichangas and went to the villain bar and found the Iron Fist disk while there (whilst also picking up money and chimichangas). He'll give it up, but instead of receiving money in return, he wants to be made leader of the Avengers.

 

After which we cut to break with our very own Deadpool bumper (eyecatch) card. Followed by a more normal bumper pairing of Akira followed by Iron Man. Followed by another Deadpool bumper/eyecatch, disappointed that his wasn't the real one. Lol, this is good stuff.

 

As we come back, Deadpool is losing a fighting video game to Ed. He rails against the video game designers, and then really flies off the handle when its suggested that maybe he should play as a different character other than Spider-Man.

 

The shenanigans eventually end, when Cap and Tony call Deadpool over and he reveals that he just wants to be leader of the Avengers so he can be popular in Japan and get all sorts of special figurines made of himself.

 

Just as they're about to give Deadpool their answer, King Cobra shows up and attacks and demands the return of the Iron Fist disk. Deadpool, assuming the role of leader, doesn't want his "followers" to get hurt, so he jumps out to battle King Cobra on his own.

 

Interestingly, Chris and one of the others remarks that King Cobra was sucked to the other side of the vortex with Loki, so he shouldn't even be here.

 

But just as Iron Man is telling Deadpool he's not the leader, his jump out the window ends with a flattened fail, as he can't burst through the tempered glass window.

 

After Deadpool eventually just walks out the front door to fight King Cobra, King Cobra reveals that he has brought some help in the form of Cottonmouth and Diamondback. "Serpent Society, Assemble!" The kids go outside too, and D-smash all 5 Avengers. As Deadpool shoults "Avengers Assemble", we cut to a nervous Diamondback and Cottonmouth, as the Serpent Society had no idea this was the Avengers HQ. Before the battle can even begin, we see the 3 criminals give up and locked in their disks again, and they gladly reveal that Red Skull got them out and ordered them to be his servants, but they have no idea how.

 

Deadpool walks back in the room again, after the quick debrief of the Serpent Society, apparently after taking a nice long bath. He looks forward to signing whatever contracts are needed to make him an Avenger, while Cap and Tony gently try to tell him that won't be happening. He eventually gets the message, acts with great grace and dignity while wishing the Avengers well. He even gives the Iron Fist disk to Akira.

 

Right after he turns the corner to leave the room, Akira notices it's a fake disk. They qucikly check, and the Serpent Society disks are fakes do. Everyone laughs that Deapool pulled one over on them, and we cut to anoither fake Deadpool eyecatch/bumper.

 

We come back to Deadpool at a rooftop penthouse pool, reading messages online about this week's episode:

"Deadpool teh best!"

"They fired Deadpool, I'm gonna stop watching this week's Disk Wars, like now."

"The writing sucks, I could do better!"

 

Tiger Shark shows up, and reveals that his master, the Red Skull, isn't as much interested in the Serpent Society disks as he is in the Iron Fist disk. After insulting Deadpool a bit too much for his liking, they fight, and after Deadpool thinks he's easily defeated Tiger Shark, Tiger Shark reveals "the power of the sphere". He creates a demon out of the pool water, and after Deadpool slices the demon's head off, two more grow in it's place. The water demon throws him around a bit.

"What kind of cheat code is this? Marvel doesn't do scenarios like this. Don't do things all willy-nilly. Writing staff!"

 

Deadpool gives up and offers to join Red Skull's team, but Tiger Shark knows better than to trust him. Fortunately for Deadpool, the Avengers show up (and Cap gives a real "Avengers Assemble!) to save him.

 

But Tiger Shark still stands strong, his enhanced power allowing him to conjure more and more water demons. The Avengers dont look afraid though, and Stark reveals that his Build Up Armor is complete. Unfortunately, it hasn't been tested yet, so it's power may level the whole area.

 

Not falling for this trick either though, Tiger Shark assumes it's a bluff. Stark prattles on, but we eventually see that it is indeed a bluff. As Tiger Shark is about to strike (against all the Avengers and Deadpool), Red Skull calls him back, because he ordered him to leave the Avengers alone.

 

Skull comminicates with them from his base (ominous looking place full of Hydra banners), revealing that he understands that in this world good always triumphs over evil. But now that he understands the nature of this world, he thinks he can use the Sphere to change it.

 

After Skull's creepy voice leaves and things go back to normal, Akira and Deadpool stop clinging to each other and let out a sigh of relief. Tony congratulates Akira on good acting and trying to bluff Tiger Shark, and as they turn back to Deadpool, he's gone, along with the Iron Fist Disk. Looks like Tiger Shark swiped the Serpent Society disks too.

 

Deadpool drives off into the sunset, teasing us that we can't have the Iron Fist disk either.

 

My verdict: great humor + great animation = great episode.

 

And the animation really was top notch this week too. Deadpool needed a lot of unique and unusual poses, and they all looked great. His humorous looks all worked too.

 

Easily the best episode of Disk Wars Deadpool ever!

 

 

 

 

Episode 28

 

Ooh, great teaser at the beginning, Falcon is outside a super tall skyscraper, saying "he blew it", and we cut inside to see that Hawkeye has attempted to infiltrate a Hydra base. He's trying to rescue a Professor Chan, kidnapped by Hydra, but its gone bad and a ton of Hydra goons are on his tail while Crossbones runs the show from a control center. He launches an explosive arrow at them, and we cut to the opening animation.

 

Hawkeye holds off the Hydra goons, and sends the Professor up to the roof to escape with Falcon. Things are looking grim as Crossbones shows up, so Hawkeye tells Falcon that he's entrusting the care of the 5 kids with their biocodes to him. Falcon wants to go rescue him, but Hawkeye insists that he get out of there with Professor Chan instead.

 

We cut to a meeting on the helicarrier, with Fury introducing the Avengers to Professor Bridget Chan. Turns out she is behind something called the Gaia Line Theory, which speculates that the earth is a single organism, with lines of chi engery flowing throughout.

 

As they're about to debate, Red Skull appears on screen and reveals that he knew they were coming to rescue Chan (perhaps a mole within Shield), that's how they got Hawkeye. He said he understands the earth's rule that good always triumphs, so he plans to use the Dimension Sphere to poison the earth and destroy it. He hopes that a new world will arise from the ashes, a new world with a new rule "justice never triumphs".

 

Fury reveals that the Skull has constructed 5 bases all around the planet to use for his Earth Destruction Strategem. He intends to strike at midnight tonight, when the Gaia Lines are at the right points, and has one of his superpowered Master of Evil team guarding each base.

 

The Avengers have to split up, but not before Tony reveals that he has completed the Build Up Armors for each of them, so they'll have a chance against the Master Of Evil one-on-one.

 

Falcon accompanies Akira and Tony on their mission, since the base they're after is accessible only from air. He helps them evade all the anti-aircraft fire, without having to d-smash Tony and use up his time limit. We see that he regrets what happened to Hawkeye, and we then get a flashback to the two of them training together. Turns out Hawkeye was a total badass, and Falcon really looked up to him.

 

Falcon and Akira encounter a bunch of Hydra goons and Whiplash and Crimson Dynamo on their way to the Gaia Gate, and as Iron Man is about to d-smash, Falcon speaks up and insists that he'll take care of all of them on his own. After a bit of arguing and bravado, Akira and Tony eventually agree, and leave to go find Modok on their own.

 

Modok quickly shows his Dimonsion Sphere-boosted power, and Tony calls for the Build Up Armor. Oops, turns out Akira dropped it earlier while dodging the Crimson Dynamo's attack.

 

As things look dire for Iron Man, Falcon shows up just in time, and deflects some of Modok's attack. He gives Akira the Build Up Plate Iron Man uses the new armor to easily blast Modok. Akira d-secures Modok, but Falcon has been severely injured. The three of them decide that the only option left is for Akira to d-secure Falcon too, so he can be healed in the disk. So now Falcon seems to be Akira's second hero, behind Iron Man.

 

We end with Red Skull musing about whether he'll be able to destroy earth before the rules catch up with his plans. And then a final shot lingering on Crossbones. Hmm, I wonder if that was a hint. Could Hawkeye have secretly replaced the real Crossbones with Folger's Crystals? Or maybe they just lingered on that shot because that's what some anime shows do. I've been wrong before.

 

Decent episode. The story was fair, though the Build Up Armor felt like nothing more than a toy commercial. The animation was noticably below the Deadpool episode, but that's okay, nothing really bad, just not outstanding.

 

Overall not as good as the Deadpool episode, but that may be an unfair comparison. Still a solid installment of the series, and a significant mover of the storyline.

 

I wonder if it will take 4 episodes for the other Avengers to take down the other Masters of Evil, or if they'll finish it off in only 2 or 3.

[kitik]

Okay, time to continue the story of the super-charged Avengers taking on Red Skull's own super-charged minions...

 

 

Episode 29

 

We start in Wakanda, as Tiger Shark arrives and tries to take over, as the ofishal representative of the Red Skull. (Yes, ofishal.)

 

Black Panther shows up to protect his people, and seems to make quick work of Tiger Shark, but we soon see Tiger Shark bring out some more of those Sphere-powered water demons he made a few episodes ago. Tiger Shark suggests his new powers are seariously surprising. After which he quickly dispatches with Panther thanks to his new water-controlling powers.

 

Cut to Wasp, Jessica, and a SHIELD squad flying over Wakanda, getting briefed on the situation. The Wakandans are now hostages, and after Tiger Shark was down playing with him, Black Panther apparently floated downstream, still unaccounted for.

 

Hydra shoots down their plane, and the heavily outgunned Shield agents are trapped in the plane's bay while Hydra goons blast away at them from the jungle. Right on cue, Black Panther shows up and saves them all.

 

Hydra has constructed their Gaia Anchor in the middle of a large lake (which will obviously give Tiger Shark a big advantage), so Jessica volunteers to be captured so she and Wasp can get in and try to get the hostages out. Black Panther and the Shield agents prepare for an assault as they wait in hiding outside the base.

 

Tiger Shark makes a speech: Attention bouys and gils. (I'm reminded of how much I enjoyed the quality translation of Squid Girl. More good fish puns please.) Then he called Jessica a guppy, after she comments on the ludicrous and gigantic Tiger Shark statue he's having the prisoners build of himself. He told one of the Wakandan prisoners to stop acting koi. (Okay, those two weren't quite as good.) The Wakandans are all in shock/electro cuffs, which allows Sharkface and Hydra to shock them when they get out of hand.

 

Red Skull contacts him and reprimands Tiger Shark for wasting his time building that statue, but Tiger Shark continues anyway.

 

Later, a Hydra soldier reports that the statue is finally complete. Tiger Shark: "Fintastic work. Lets unveil it reely quickly. Let's goby."

 

As the tarp is pulled off, Black Panther stands atop the statue. He destroys part of it, which prompts the response: "That's defieeling public property! Reel him in!"

 

As Shield agents attack Hydra along with Panther, the Wakandans try to escape. Sharky orders them to be shocked, but Jessica (!) single-handedly takes out the Hydra goon manning the shock station in the control tower. How do you like that?

 

The Hydra goons are quickly defeated, and Black Panther is about to face off with Sharky again, and just as Jessica is about to d-smash Wasp so she can help Panther, King Cobra reveals himself and captures Jessica.

 

Tiger Shark reveals that he now has the power to d-smash animal class villains, and sends more of the Serpent Society out to fight. Just as Panther is about to be defeated (and d-secured), he sends out one last attack to free Jessica. She jumps off the very top of the control tower (that was actually a really cool looking dive sequence) and d-smashes Wasp on the way down, who catches her.

 

Wasp beats up the Serpent Society fairly quickly, so Tiger Shark decides its time to unleash his full power, and conjures more water-monsters and together with the Serpent Society, they all converge on Wasp.

 

Of course that's the cue to use the Build Up Plate, and in an instant, her super multi sting takes out all the Serpents, Tiger Shark, AND his statue. She d-secures them all, and as you might expect, to match up with the ending of the previous episode, she takes on Black Panther as her second hero.

 

Amusing ending as they fly out of Wakanda, and Jessica raves about having a king as one of her heroes. She's so proud and excited, and declares that having a king is a good fit for her celebrity. Wasp doesn't exactly approve (and also looks slightly sad and rejected).

 

 

Not a fantastic episode, but not horrible. Was saved by that really cool suicide dive d-smash from Jessica. But the episode was made much more watchable throughout thanks to Tiger Shark and his goofy speech patterns. (Fun to listen to, but doubly fun to see the oceanic puns.)

 

I'll miss old sharkface if that's the last we see of him for a while.

 

 

 

Hmmm, looks like episode 30 isn't available yet. Bummer. From the preview, it looks like our old buddy Deadpool is coming back to help Cap take on Zemo.

[kitik]

Okay, time to continue the battle against the Red Skull. Three episodes today to make up for only one last time. First up, Cap!

 

 

Episode 30

 

We start off with a pretty nice shot of a city and Black Widow pulling up to a building on a motorcycle. Seems that she's looking for someone, and we see that upstairs, in a nicely animated rundown flophouse apartment, Deadpool in on the phone with Taskmaster, trying to get him to buy the Iron Fist disk. 

 

Deadpool is upset that he can't find a buyer, and blames the Red Skull's plan that's sure to fail. "Because if the Avengers lost,  this would be the show's final episode!" Luckily for him, his phone rings again, and Black Widow is right outside his door, with a huge suitcase of money (presumably to hire him to help Shield). Deadpool is so stunned by her looks (and perhaps her money) that he immediately proposes marriage.

 

Leaving us on that cliffhanger of a proposal, with no clue of how Widow will possibly respond to that proposal, we cut to Chris, Cap, and a small team of Shield Agents sneaking into Zemo's base through a sewer, because Whirlwind (and landmines) is guarding everything above ground. Chris laments the rough job, but the Shield agents all exclaim their love for the job, and mention that they volunteered for this difficult mission just to have a chance to work with Cap. And in fact, in a distinctly unstealthy manner, they all start loudly shouting their respect and adoration for Cap. Go figure.

 

They actually try to make this small team of Shield agents out to be worthwhile and individual characters. So of course right then,a scary voice threatens them from the shadows, followed a short time later by a pumpkin bomb being thrown at them. The Shield agents have a tough time with the Green Goblin, but they insist that Chris and Cap go on ahead alone, while they try to hold off the Goblin.

 

Chris (with Cap's disk) runs around the underground tunnels a bit, but eventually some Hydra goons show up and he has to run from them too. Green Goblin then shows up, and mocks the Sheild agents that tried to buy some time for Chris and Cap. With no other choice, just as Chris is about to d-smash Cap, Deadpool shows up to take on the Hydra soldiers and Green Goblin. Proclaiming himself mightier than Thor, more amazing than Spidey, and sexier than Iron Man (lol), he's going all out while his honey waits for him at the altar.

 

Speaking of her, we cut to the Helicarrier, where Widow asks Fury why he didn't let her go on the mission too. He says that she's become "less calm" since Hawkeye was lost. Plus he's saving her for a bigger battle still to come. Plus, if she was lost here, Fury would have to make amends with Hawkeye (after which we cut to Red Skull, and then Crossbones lingering in the deep shadows, likely indicating that my earlier guess about Hawkeye being in disguise from episode 28 was correct).

 

Back to Deadpool and Chris, with it now being Deadpool's turn to complain about the stench of the sewers. Noticing that Chris is acting much more serious now, he simply gives him the disks for both Iron Fist and Green Goblin. (So it looks like Iron Fist will be Chris's second hero. That's a surprise, I was expecting Black Widow, with perhaps a tiny chance of Deadpool.) Chris gives a curt "thanks", but Deadpool notices that he still isn't happy, and realizes that it's because of the Shield soldiers. Deadpool says "but they're just cannon fodder, right? I usually don't even notice what happens to them." Fair to say that infuriates Chris, and then Deadpool reminds him that he wasn't the one who left them there, it was Chris (and Cap). Cap gives a little speech about true soldiers making tough choices, and Deadpool is ready to move on.

 

Deadpool and Chris find the Gaia Anchor, with Zemo guarding it. As Deadpool is about to attack, Zemo reveals that he has Hawkeye on ice/in stasis (okay, that actually surprised me, but I'm still expecting another switcheroo). Zemo threatens to destroy the Hawkicicle, and Cap orders Chris to d-smash him anyways. Chris refuses twice, at which point, Deadpool speaks up "Did you forget I was here? I've got my money, and my honey's waiting for me." Deadpool and Zemo swordfight, and after Deadpool laughts off a slice from Zemo, Zemo reveals that the Dimension Spehere power can interfere with his healing factor. Oops. Deadpool is in trouble. He asks for help, but Chris still refuses, not wanting to see Hawkeye perish today too. Zemo gets Deadpool again, this time with a possibly fatal strike. As Deadpool falls to the ground, his last act is to end Chris's indecision, by pulling out a gun and shooting Hawkeye, which blows him to pieces. But the pieces quickly evaporate, and Zemo reveals that it was an illusion created with his Sphere powers.

 

Zemo berates Chris for his weakness, and Chris feels terrible for being tricked into inaction while Deadpool was beaten, but Cap commends him for not acting until he was certain what he was doing was right. Worrying about the right thing to do is something Cap strongly approves of.

 

Cap is D-smashed and he and Zemo engage in another epic battle, with Zemo gaining the upper hand thanks to his Sphere power, while Cap waits for just the right time to use the Build-Up armor. Just as Zemo has a serious advantage and is about to deal Cap a serious blow, Deadpool (while lying on the ground) shoots the sword out of Zemo's hands.

 

Sensing the time is right, Cap tells Chris to use the Build Up armor, and apparently his special power is that his sheild is super-charged when he throws it. Zemo tries to block, but of course he has no chance, and is thrown backwards into Gaia Anchor at full force, destroying it. Yay, the day is won.

 

Cap goes back into the disk, having used all his energy with the Build Up attack. But Zemo stumbles out of the rubble, claiming that they'll all die together. Just as he's about to press a self destruct button, Chris pulls a last-second d-secure on him, capturing Zemo just as he pushes the button. Too slow! And the war-torn island/base that they're on starts to explode.

 

Deadpool says this is why brats shouldn't be heroes, just like Jubilee, Bucky, and Amadeus Cho. They all strike out on their own. Deadpool is still hurt, and Chris and Cap suggest that he enters a disk to be revived. He refuses, because he can't play video games in there. Plus if all he gets is five minutes, that isn't enough time to do anything with his honey.

 

Deadpool continues to refuse, saying he'd rather die than give up his freedom. Plus no one would grieve for him, and this is just the way of life, just like those Shield soldiers from earlier. The base continues to explode (with Whirldwind's tornado still swirling in the background, we never got any story on him this time), and eventually we see Chris slowly carrying Deadpool through the underground tunnels. Deadpool says its a foolish choice, but Chris insists that he'll do things his way. Just then, the tunnel collapses in front of them, and they're trapped, with no hope of escape. But Chris refuses to give up, and even though he has no charge left to d-smash anybody, he still somehow summons up enough energy to d-smash Iron Fist. Iron Fist smashes through the concrete and they escape just in the nick of time. As they get to the landing boat, they find the other Shield agents waiting there. Chris: "You guys were okay? Thank goodness!". Shield agent: "that's our line!"

 

Cut to the Helicarrier, and Widow taking care of the recovering Deadpool. Who asks to be hand-fed. And for massages. And who gets way too touchy. After which we quickly cut to Deadpool being thrown out of the Helicarrier, and falling way down to the ocean far below. (Who says goodbye to the viewers, because it's his last scheduled appearance. But he asks viewers to send in letters demanding to see more of him.)

 

 

Okay, that was actually a really good episode. Perhaps my new favorite of the series. It actually got a little dark and serious and grim (something Deadpool pointed out a few times), which is different for this show, so it really stood out. I loved the discussions between Chris, Deadpool, and Cap. They all offered valid viewpoints too. And I really felt the ending was fantastic. After the way the characters in this episode had been built up, and after hearing Deadpool's arguments in favor of being left there to die, that whole ending sequence really turned out to be quite impressive writing. Good character growth for Chris, and a just plain good story. If anybody is out there slowly working their way through this series, I think you'll be very pleased with episode 30. I sure was.

 

For an episode with Deadpool, it wasn't all laughs and games. This was probably the most serious and emotional episode of the whole series. Nice job Disk Wars showrunners and staff!

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 31

 

Ed and Hulk infiltrate the Raft (a nice callback to the beginning of the show) which is now a Hydra base. Pepper calls him to let him know that Chris was able to d-smash a second hero very soon after doing the first, but the second hero's time was very short. Ed and Hulk acknowledge, but he only has the Hulk disk anyways, so for now it's of no use as he sneaks around the base all by himself.

 

A Hydra guard spots him, but it turns out to be Rosetta Riley in disguise, likely indicating that Loki's other celebrity stooges are likely nearby as well.

 

After sneaking and crawling around for quite a bit more, just as Ed is found out by a Hydra guard, he's saved by another one of Loki's henchmen. The rest eventually show up, and explain how they've been forced to work for Red Skull after he took their biocodes. They're sad and upset that they no longer have the ability to d-smash, and want to see the Red Skull defeated too. They swear they'll follow the straight and narrow from now on, and to help, they give Ed a hero disk that they still had.

 

With time running out, they decide that the only way to get Ed close enough is to dress him up as a Hydra soldier. Yes, the shortest Hydra soldier ever. After they send Ed in the right direction, they mention how they played him like a fiddle, so it looks like their reform was a fakeout.

 

Ed's second hero turns out to be Power Man, so Luke Cage quickly smashes through a bunch of doors and Hydra goons. They get to the Gaia Anchor, but Abomination is guarding it. Power Man actually knocks Abomination down after a fistfight, but then Abomination unleashes his Sphere power, which allows him to punch without connecting, and still the force is enough to knock Power Man backwards. After doing that a few times, Ed has to dodge one of Abominations force blasts too after he causes a chasm in the ground.

 

Ed realizes that Cage is in trouble, and decides to d-smash Hulk instead, so he can destroy the Anchor, but before he can, he notices that the Build Up Plate is missing! It had fallen out when he was dodging Abominations attack, and now Abomination has it. Luke vows to get it back with one last gasp, but as he lunges, his time limit was up, and he went back into the disk. As Abomination advances on Ed, it looks pretty hopeless.

 

Ed runs around the large room, as Abomination is just toying with him. But eventually Ed tricks Abomination into stepping into a live power conduit that must have been exposed by the fight with Power Man. That is of course the cue for Abomination to drop the Build Up Plate (that he was holding so carefully in his gigantic hands, so as not to crush it) and for Ed to D-smash Hulk. With no time to waste (other than a quick speech from Hulk, lol), they use the Build Up Armor to smash Abomination with a gamma punch, which looks like an energy fist flying through the air. That also conveniently slams Abomination into the Gaia Anchor, destroying it, and allowing Ed to d-secure Abomination, after Hulk almost immediately reverts to his disk too.

 

Hulk compliments Ed by saying he got stronger.

 

 

Well, that's that. Suffice it to say it didn't hold a candle to Episode 30. Very simple and straightforward stuff. We never saw what Loki's ex-henchmen are really up to, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Not a bad episode, but just nothing special. It was just Ed sneaking around trying not to get caught, and Power Man punching stuff.

 

 

 

 

Episode 32

 

Hikaru and Thor enter a cave to find the last Gaia Anchor and presumably Graviton.

 

Hikaru is worried about Akira, but Pepper calls to tell tem that Akira, Jessica, and Chris have all successfully completed their missions, while Ed is currently still engaged on his mission. As she's about to tell Hikaru about Chris consecutively d-smashing 2 different heroes, the connection worsens and Hikaru can't get the message.

 

Hikaru and his team of Shield agents quickly find the Gaia Anchor deep within the cave, and of course Graviton is there guarding it. Hikaru immediately d-smashes Thor, and the fight starts. Graviton lifts everyone off the ground, and changes the arc of Thor's hammer throw, but Thor tries again and drops a portion of the cave on top of Graviton.

 

Graviton uses the Sphere power to blind Thor, but Hikaru tells Thor where to dodge and where to strike. He then uses the Build Up Plate and Thor sends a lightning star to defeat Graviton and destroy the anchor.

 

Well with the Anchor destroyed and the villain d-secured, this was an easy and quick battle.

 

A fragment of the Dimension Sphere is left behind. Thor (in his disk) warns Hikaru not to touch it, but just then Red Skull steps from the shadows.

 

Back on the Helicarrier, readings show that all 5 Gaia Anchors have been destroyed, so Akira, Jessica, Chris, their heroes, and assembled Shield Agents all celebrate.

 

In the cave, Red Skull (after blasting the Shield agents and sealing the cave) says he knows the Anchors have all been destroyed, but he can still give the heroes a loss. If someone were to die who was under the protection of a hero, it would be regarded as a great failure by the heroes. But after threatening Hikaru, he says he'll go after his brother, Akira, instead. He teleports out, leaving Hikaru trapped and frantic over Akira.

 

The fragmants of the Sphere call out to Hikaru, and as he answers, he turns off Thor's conversation mode from within the disk. And sticks a shard of the Sphere directly into his chest.

 

Back on the Helicarrier, after Ed has returned too, everyone is starting to get worried about Hikaru. Red Skull appears on screen, and reveals that Hikaru is now under his control. 

 

They all fly to the Skull's base, and the four kids simply walk in the front door. They note that there are no gaurds, almost as if they are being welcomed there. They march right into the heart of the base and confront Skull and Crossbones, but Hikaru comes out and attacks them under the influence of the Dimension Sphere.

 

Red Skull then orders him to d-smash Thor, and tells Thor that if he attacks the other Avengers he'll free Hikaru from the influence of the Sphere. Otherwise, he'll be lost forever to the Sphere.

 

The episode ends on a cliffhanger of Thor walking menacingly towards the 4 kids.

 

So it seems like the Red Skull's plan here is to split up the Avengers, or at least sow dissension among them.

 

Interesting that Hikaru didn't get a second hero, unlike the other 4 kids. Either he's getting one next episode (maybe they brought a disk from the helicarrier for him to use? maybe Sunfire?) or maybe there's going to be an actual change to the status quo for this show regarding Hikaru and Thor.

 

 

 

 

Yay, I'm all caught up on Disk Wars. Episode 33 airs in Japan later this week.

 

Of the three episodes I watched today, the first (episode 30) was unquestionably the best. Chris, Deadpool, and Cap brought out some feelings, and really laid a lot of serious ideas (and ideals) on the table. It was the right call to include Deadpool in what was basically the heaviest episode of the series, just to brighten things up every now and then.

[kitik]

Rejoice, it's Disk Wars time!

 

 

Episode 33

 

 

The episode picks up right where we left off, with Skull ordering Thor to attack the Avengers. He hesitates, of course, but Skull says if Thor won't do it, he'll order Hikaru to attack his friends.

 

So they fight, as heroes often do. Hulk actually tries to break things up by smashing a hole on the floor, sending them all down to a lower level, but Thor says he can see no way to save Hikaru without fighting, so they all continue.

 

Thor gives them all a good beating, and then Red SKull orders Hikaru to use the Build Up Plate so Thor can finish off the other 4 Avengers. At that point Crossbones decides to reveal his true colors by shooting Red Skull in the back, after which, he takes off his mask and is of course Hawkeye. (And he has the real Crossbones locked in a disk.)

 

Hawkeye takes the advantage and insists that Red Skull release Hikaru from the grip of the Dimension Sphere, but Red Skull says it's already too late, he's been taken over by the Sphere. Hikaru then reveals his new power by flying down towards Hawkeye and launching a big energy blast right at him. Thor steps in the way and takes the full brunt of the blast, but keeps marching towards Hikaru to try to save him. He eventually reaches him, embraces him, and Hikaru is magically returned to normal.

 

The other Avengers prepare to beat down Red Skull (apparently without regard to any sort of time limit or anything like that) but Red Skull then reveals that he has a super giant robot (that sort of reminds me of one of the many iterations of Brainiac) as a back-up plan. Following which everyone runs out of the Hydra base as if they were in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

 

A few minutes later, outside in the hills and mountains, Red Skull's super-bot attacks, and just then everybody realizes their time limit is just about up. The six Avengers are worried they don't have the combined strength to take down Red Skull's bot in the seconds they have left, so in a last ditch effort, the kids D-smash Falcon, Panther, Iron Fist, and Power Man.

 

All 10 Avengers take on the giant robot together, with Falcon mentioning to Hawkeye how glad he is that Clint is still alive, so Hawkeye responds by telling him to keep his mouth shut when flying so he doesn't swallow any bugs.

 

They eventually have Red Skull on the run, and Akira uses the Build Up Plate so Iron Man can finish the giant Skull-mecha off, but Red Skull manages to survive the balst and flies off in escape.

 

Only to run straight into Thor. Who blasts the whole thing to pieces with one hammer smash. Red Skull is d-secured, Hydra gets shut down (and soldiers all cuptured by Shield), and Loki's celebrity henchmen escape. (Who knew they were even there, right?)

 

Everybody flies home happy, and Tony even has the Dimension Sphere captured, so he can study it.

 

The end.

 

 

 

 

Episode 34

 

Time for a new arc and new villain!

 

Rosetta Riley walks in a huge palace in the middle of a desert, and kneels as she asks the new master if he'll destroy the Avengers. Unrecognizable other than his ten rings, the Mandarin responds that it's time for him to take action.

 

Interesting that the palace is in the middle of a desert. Is this Mandarin not Chinese? Of course, there are deserts in China, not just the middle east (or Sahara, or Chile, or Australia, or American southwest, etc). We'll have to see if Mandarin has a defined nationality on this show.

 

Back at the Hall of Kids, a disk-ghost Modok is explaining how the Red Skull used the Sphere to open a gateway to the Dark Dimension and take some of the disks out of there. Modok begs to be set free and even volunteers to become an Avenger. That was the cue for Akira to switch off Modok's conversation mode, and for Tony to proclaim that he too could build a device (with the help of the Sphere?) to get disks back from the Dark Dimension. Pepper says they don't know enough about the Sphere yet, and right on cue Tony says "of course, that why I've asked Dr Pym to help".

 

Right on cue yet again, an incoming message from Pym pops up onscreen, and he is immediately revealed to be a jerk, as he berates Tony for "playing with kids all day" instead of focusing more on research. Pym then says to Wasp that he's been wanting to have a big talk with her, and just as Wasp looks a little excited and interested, Pym reveals this his question is "what's it like inside the disk?" Poor Wasp.

 

Pym says he'll have to think about whether he's really going to help or not, so the kids head off to school.

 

Where it just so happens that a new student is hanging around, looking like he might have some superpowers.

 

So this new kids is showing up even super-genius and super-athlete Hikaru at school, and as Thor tells him that he sense a powerful presence, the new kid approaches and introduces himself: Sam Alexander. Lol, that quickly solved that mystery.

 

Later that night, Sam pretty much just invites himself over to the kid's homebase and reveals that not does he know about the Avengers, but he's a hero too, Nova. He then reveals his purpose: he came here because he wants to join the Avengers.

 

As the Avengers try to politely decline, Mandarin picks the perfect time to attack a warehouse elsewhere in Tokyo. Eager Nova flies off to take on Mandarin all on how own. He "rescues" a disguised Rosetta Riley, who helps give Mandarin the upper hand.

 

Just as Nova looks like he might be in trouble the Avengers show up, and mandarin quickly starts targetting Tony more than the others. Iron Man then makes a comment that may imply that he used to be freinds with Mandarin. No clue if he was being serious or just kiddibng around about his "old friend", but on the off chance that he was serious, I wonder if they're implying a similar history to that which we saw in the Iron Man Armored Adventures tv show, where they went to school together and became friends.

 

Just to impress Nova (and well maybe because Cap said so too) the Avengers use some teamwork to take down Mandarin. While everyone is distracted, Rosetta is able to d-secure Nova. Mandarin reveals he's not finished yet, and escapes, threatening to destroy them some day soon, and the kids actually team up to trip up Rosetta, and rescue Nova's disk.

 

So of course Nova will now be Hikaru's second hero.

 

The episode ends with everyone joking that Hikaru will have his hands full with such a self-centered companion, and Akira says he already knows what that's like, and we end with a laugh at Tony's expense.

 

 

Poor Nova, I thought he might join the ranks of non-Disked heroes, but he didn't last long.

[kitik]

Episode 35

 

Two criminals are running through the streets of New York, but they have no chance as Spider-Man (wearing his black costume) swings down right above them. But instead of webbing them up, he webs up 4 cars and throws them at the robbers to create a makeshift prison. The robbers beg for help as he then strings them high from a skyscraper.

 

Back at the kids and Avengers HQ in Japan, Hank Pym has arrived and is ready to help build a device to create a dimensional gate. He's still a bit of a jerk, but he at least gives a very polite greeting to Janet.

 

The kids decide to record a video to send to Spider-Man to keep him up to date, and right on cue a news story pops up on the tv about Spidey. The media is portraying him as a menace and public enemy #1, and Tony says that just typical for the Daily Bugle, since their publisher hates Spidey, but the negative articles seems to be coming from other more unbiased sources too. Then they see a video of Spidey swinging a criminal around recklessly, and even Hulk says that's going too far. After they see Spidey snatch some onlookers cellphones because he didn't like the pictures they were taking, the gang quickly makes a decision to head to NY to investigate.

 

But Tony wants to stay and work with Pym, and Janet gets recruited to stay too. Akira really wanted to go talk to Spider-Man, but reluctantly stays.

 

Cap's crew quickly runs into Spidey in NY, and Spidey immediately jumps into action to catch some bad guys, but in the process endangers some innocents that Cap has to save. Cue fight between Cap and Spidey. Spidey easily dodges all of Cap's attacks, and says he'll simply wait out Cap's disk time limit. As Spidey is about to swing up on Cap from behind, Ed shouts out a warning, which prompts Spidey to focus his attention on Ed. Hulks wants to be d-smashed so he can join the fray, but Ed drops the disk. Spidey is about to grab Ed, but slows down to slow motion, and then was able to faintly warn Ed to run, as if he were fighting his suit. Ed hesitates as usual, and Spidey can't control his urges much longer, but Black Widow shows up to snatch Ed away just in time.

 

Spidey tries to wisecrack his way to a possible distraction, but Black Widow just takes a big swing at him. Cap's time limit hits just as Hikaru shows up with Thor, trying to chase the action, but Spidey and Black Widow are engaged in pretty impressive fight swinging through the air between buildings. Holy smokes, this might be the best animated fight in the history of the show. There was some really fast action going on between Spidey and Widow. Lots of flips and dodges and jumping. But Spidey gains the upper hand thanks to his brains and his webbing, and Thor has to show up just in time to save her.

 

Spidey doesn't seem too worried about Thor either (his Spidey sense has allowed him to easily dodge Cap's shield and Thor's hammer, even on their return trips), but just as it looks like Spidey might gain the upper hand on Thor, the hammer dings a bell tower, and the sonic vibrations from the bell hurt Spidey's suit, and he runs off.

 

Later Black Widow explains to the kids (and Avengers present) that Shield figured out that it's Venom, an alien symbiote that has corrupted Spider-Man. After learning this and hearing that Spidey tried to stop himself from hurting Ed, everyone decides that they still need to help Spidey instead of just chase and beat him, but Shield calls at that exact moment and orders her to stop Spider-Man by any means possible, because he's on an even worse rampage now.

 

Cut to scenes of destruction (including a schoolbus!!!) with Spider-Man in the middle of it all, and as Black Widow walks up to confront him, the episode ends on a cliffhanger.

 

 

 

Episode 36

 

 

Akira, Tony, Jessica, Wasp, and Pepper are watching Spider-Man on tv. As he throws a car at Black Widow, everyone tells Tony that they need to go to NY to help. He says he needs to stay to work on the dimensional device, and Pym walks in and says it really won't make a difference if Tony is there or not. (lol, arrogant super smart scientists)

 

Widow and Webhead continue their fight, and the whole city is watching. Live cameras are showing it all, and the public watches as their former protector goes wild. Widow tries, but she can't hang with Spidey. Just as he's about to hit her full on, he's able to freeze for a second to allow her to escape. But that didn't last long, and his eagerness to fight quickly returns.

 

The 3 kids and 3 Avengers wonder what they can do, and Hikaru is the one who realizes that Spider-Man ran away from the earlier fight with Thor because of the sound from the bell (not because he feared Mjolnir, as Thor presumed). So Cap sends Hulk to go to the other part of the city and snatch the giant bell. Spidey webs Widow down again, and just as he's about to smash her with a car, Cap steps in and saves her.

 

Cap throws his shield and Spidey dodges as usual, but it hits the bell that Hulk just showed up with and that indeed cause pain to Spider-Man and he tries to run. The kids step into talk him into staying, and even Akira, Jessica, and Wasp call him on Hikaru's phone to implore him to not give up.

 

Spidey fights against the symbiote, and Hulk gives the bell a good strong ringing, and that does the trick to separate them. Hulk and Widow go chasing after the symbiote, while Cap and the kids try to tell Spidey that it wasn't his fault as he despairs. That conversation is eventually ended by a greater threat: the symbiote taking over Hulk! It seems the symbiote is shielding him from having his DNA read by the disks, so Ed can't d-secure him. Thor volunteers to fight him, but to save NY from the destruction that fight would surely bring, Spidey suggests a change of locale.

 

Thor tries to lead him to a construction site, but it timed out just as Iron Man and Wasp show up. Spidey has the bell webbed to the very top of a crane, and just as VenomHulk gains the upper hand on Iron Man, Spidey rings the bell via sledgehammer. The remaining heores surround him (Tony, Wasp, Spidey, and Widow) and the cameras capture it all, most importantly Spider-Man acting like a protector again.

 

Hulk takes refuge in a building under construction, but that quickly turns into his disadvantage as he slams Iron Man into a metal girder and the sound actually ends up hurting the symbiote. The kids and even Pepper slam crowbars and pipes into the steel girders and drive Venom out into the open, where Spidey drops the bell on him. They ring it enough to separate Venom from the Hulk, and Ed and Hulk use the build-up plate to smash the symbiote. After which Hikaru simply d-secures the symbiote. Go figure.

 

The episode ends in perfect Spider-Man fashion, as he's left all alone watching the video the kids made for him to cheer him up, but almost as soon as it starts, he hears a scream, and has to swing off to be a hero.

 

 

 

I have to say, the Spidey vs Widow animation in the first episode was awesome, and I loved the Spider-Man ending. The Venom storyline was a somewhat familiar one (though they didn't use fire, just sound), but hey, why fix what isn't broken, I suppose.