The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Episode 1. "Iron Man Is Born"
Most of the episode follows Iron Man as he battles HYDRA agents outside the UN, while the final minutes turn the focus onto Nick Fury as he fights to prevent Baron Strucker escaping The Vault (prison).
It's a solid first episode, with only two things I didn't like. Pepper Potts, the trust Woman Friday of Tony Stark, exclaims at one point that Tony is fighting villains who have stolen his technology. Huh? At that point in the story, as I understood it, our hero had only just discovered the theft of said tech. And that was miles away, while in the heat of battle. It was a real take-you-out-of-the-story moment, and I suddenly had to pause and wonder how she knew that.
Later on there's a moment where Iron Man, having defeated the bad guys, finds himself in a standoff with SHIELD, who seem (inexplicably) to want to fight with him. It seemed like a false what to amp up the tension. Instead... it bored me.
But against those two elements was a whole lot that I did like. In fact, a whole lot that I loved.
The story moves fast. Very fast. It's action packed and - incredibly - packed with story and character. Even if you'd never been privy to any version of the Marvel Universe before this half-hour of TV, you'd come away with a keen sense of how things work there, and who people like Tony Stark and Nick Fury are.
Iron Man sounds like Robert Downey, Jr. Nuff Said. Except to heap praise on Eric Loomis.
Having Jarvis appear in this universe as a computer (like in the movies) is really great for battle scenes and - on two occasions - gives rise to laugh out loud moments.
The episode is jam-packed with characters and Marvel Universe fixtures. And the recurring motif is that Tony/Iron Man is forced to take on the villains of the world alone. With noone to help him.
For now...
Grade: A- (because Pepper's comment really bugged me)
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The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Episode 1. "Iron Man Is Born"
