New characters and more in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes season 2

The first season of the Avengers cartoon was a fun ride that firmly established the Marvel Universe in a new way that paid homage to the legacy of the comic book. The Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Giant Man, Captain America, the Wasp, Hawkeye and Black Panther have already been heavily developed as the Avengers in the previous year but there are plenty of new additions coming for their second time out. Hank Pym (Giant Man) will apparently be adopting his Yellow Jacket persona and the wasp will be getting as new costume. Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther and Captain America will all be donning new uniforms and in some case gaining new weaponry!

Several new Avengers; Ms. Marvel, the Falcon, the Vision and Mockingbird are also on their way and are sure to generate lots of excitement from fans. Additionally, the Guardians of the Galaxy will co-star for a story, so get ready for Groot! The Black Widow, Nick Fury, Agent 13 and the Fantastic Four will also be guest-starring.

In addition to new team members, several old villains will be coming back in addition to some new ones. as the concluding episode of season one confirmed, there is a Skrull menace on its way for the planet, so our heroes are sure to have their hands full.

Joshua Fine and Christopher Yost give viewers the details on what to expect in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Season 2 in this sneak peek video.

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes season 2 premieres on Disney XD next month.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Volume One

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Volume Two

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Volume Three

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Volume Four

Will Ms. Marvel feature in the Avengers film?

Star of the hit series Chuck, Yvonne Strahovski, is rumored to be in the running for the role of Carol Danvers/Ms. Marvel in the 2012 Avengers movie.

This film is a major gamble for Marvel Entertainment as it will be the culmination of several efforts in the movie arena. Gone are the days of struggling to get a comic book movie into production thanks to the success of Iron Man, Batman and more as big budget feature films. However, no one has ever attempted to knit together several movies into a single ensemble movie based on a similar effort in comics when Stan Lee decided to put all of his top ranking heroes in one book.

The Avengers 2012 movie will star Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Helmsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Sam Jackson as Nick Fury. The script is by Zak Penn and Joss Wheldon (who is also directing).

The Avengers is a massive team in the Marvel Universe. Nearly everyone who has ever worn tights has been a member at one point or another, but Ms. Marvel is a special case. One of the few female super powered heroes, she has starred not only in several versions of the Avengers, but also in two solo series that have enjoyed cult followings.
US Air Force pilot Carol Danvers is every bit tough as she is glamorous. Originally introduced as a supporting character in the Captain Marvel series, Danvers life was changed after she was caught in the explosion of a Kree device. The explosion granted her enhanced strength, endurance, flight and the ability to channel energy. Greatly admiring Mar-Vell, she took on a similar moniker.

Writer Gerry Conway may have created Ms. Marvel, but credit for her unique identity and mannerisms has to go to Chris Claremont who took over writing duties of her solo series early on. Part of a broader editorial decision to introduce strong female heroes such as She-Hulk, Spider-Woman and others, Ms. Marvel was every bit the strong-willed female with a chip on her shoulder, yet she was also a fully developed character in her own right as her series explored relatively sophisticated story lines for the time.

In recent years, Ms. Marvel has become a mixture of eye candy and power house. One of the few ‘full figured’ women in comics, I have high hopes that they will retain her physical stature as well as her persona. Like Wonder Man, the Vision and the Beast, Ms. Marvel is a key component of the Avengers that my generation grew up with and a hero that I closely associate with the comic book superhero team.

There is a very real danger of over-populating the Avengers film but if Ms. Marvel is included, I’m right behind that decision.

Recommended:

Essential Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1

Avengers Visionaries: George Perez

Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: Best of the Best

Ms. Marvel - Volume 7: Dark Reign

Marvel- Your Universe… so there

At the 2009 New York Comic Con, executive editor Tom Brevoort hosted a panel on the state of affairs at Marvel and opened up the floor to comments from the assembled readers. There were some good (and not so good) statements made but what essentially began as a ‘this is your comic book company, Marvelite’ quickly became a game of dodge ball by Brevoort.

don't like red hulk? 7 year olds love him!

While I obviously agree that DC’s Final Crisis may have been a unique effort on the part of DC Editorial, it also failed (as Brevoort stated), however I think saying that what Marvel is doing is more accessible with Secret Invasion is selling it short. Also, responding to a complaint that the new Red Hulk series is terrible by saying that a 7 year old blogger loves it isn’t exactly going to win any new fans.

Another sore point was the Spider-Man One More Day story that still has fans polarized. It’s very unfortunate that it is preceded by the excellent ‘Back in Black’ and even better stories that came after it. In one camp there are readers who feel cheated that ‘Back in Black’ was a dead end story with so much promise done away with by a magical twist, and I can’t feel enough pity for a Spidey fan who is missing out on the current stories. Marvel performed a deadly one-two punch with One More Day by insulting married couples and fans of continuity at the same time… and those fans are still hurting. Brevoort had little to offer those fans as a consolation.

I’m also surprised by the lack of response to the statement that Marvel has no strong female characters. Huh?? Storm, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman are all great examples just off the top of my head. For DC… Wonder Woman is the only one that springs to mind and she’s in a kind of creative limbo due to the fact that no one can be sure what the character is all about. This is an argument that Marvel can win easily yet Brevoort (according to the reported coverage) seemed disinterested.

Ms. Marvel, just one of Marvel's super heroines

The entire affair ended with far less attendees than it started with, leaving me to believe that readers who are not happy did not feel that they were being listened to. Either that or the incentive of a free copy of Black Panther #1 was more of a deterrent than a reason to stay.

wait! come back for your exclusive variant!

I can only hope that the CBR.com reporter missed out on a few subtler points that Brevoort was making, because at a time when the company is producing such strong comics they really should have good responses to detractors.

Read the coverage story here.