Episode #30 Welcome to the Kree Empire
Review:
Once again, only a handful of Avengers are present in this episode, but with all the stuff going on this time it probably would have been too much having all the Avengers. I liked that they mentioned the reason the other team members were absent, something about the Serpent Society. I'd like to see if anything will come out of this or if it will lead to another appearance or confrontation with the Serpent Society, in the same style the seemingly random attack of Radioactive Man back in the first season was explained a couple of episodes later as being part of Ultron's plan of keeping the Avengers busy while he prepares to strike. Even if this won't lead to anything like that, I thought it was a nice touch. Plus a short and funny scene with Hulk eating a turkey and trying to pass a message along to Iron Man and Captain America about aliens invading Earth, but not looking concerned at all about this. I was wondering how the Skrull Cap would act in front of the Kree, and if he'll either blow his cover or the Kree would actually recognize an undercover Skrull when they see one. Nothing like that happened though, but I find it strange the others didn't notice anything odd when Cap started shouting "Avengers attack!" and starts fighting the Kree.
Captain Marvel returns alongside a Kree envoy, which also includes Ronan the Accuser. I liked the way Captain Marvel was presented here. He's part of the Kree, but has grown attached to some earthlings (especially Carol, following the time he has spent on Earth as Philip Lawson). Believing the only chance Earth has to survive is surrendering to the Kree, he tries to talk the Avengers to stop fighting Ronan and just stand down. Of course, the Avengers refuse and a pretty awesome fight scene follows. I was not expecting Ronan to be strong enough to fight the Hulk; while I am not really that familiar with the character, the only other time I saw him was a couple of years ago on the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes animated series, where he appeared in a couple of episodes. There, he wasn't stronger than the Thing, so seeing him defeat the Hulk on this episode was a surprise. I know the two shows are not meant to be in the same continuity, but it was still interesting to see the varying levels of strength Ronan is capable of.
And I didn't expect to see the Avengers sending both Ronan and Mar-Vell to the Negative Zone Prison, 42. This will obviously have some interesting consequences since I don't think the rest of the Kree Empire will agree with their decision. Plus, the Skrulls are informed by the fake Cap about all this and are asked to speed up their plans. And if that wasn't enough, we also get a small cameo from Kang, looking from his cell at what has just happened... most likely still foreshadowing the Kree-Skrull war and the "end of the world" he mentioned back in season one, and which Captain America is apparently responsible for. I'd say it's obvious by now that this Skrull impersonating Cap is the one who will be responsible for everything Kang witnessed, but then again this show has pulled some twists that surprised me before, so who knows what the following episodes will bring. Not surprising, Ms. Marvel is asked to join the Avengers at the end of this episode and she accepts. I like the idea of finally having another super heroine on the team, and how her attitude will come into play in contrast with the others. Also I think Wasp will be happy to see Carol again; they seemed to know each other pretty well back in "459" and their conversations were one of the highlights from that episode.
The voice-acting in this episode was perfect. From veteran voice-actress Jennifer Hale (Ms. Marvel) who has voiced a number of other Marvel characters over the years, all of which I thought turned out great, to other names I am sadly not that familiar with, like Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Abigail Brand) and Keith Szarabajka (Ronan the Accuser). Although I never heard of them before, they were great as the voices of these characters. Overall, this was another great episode. We got some great fight scenes, we meet some new cool characters, the Avengers get a new team member and the on-going plot about the upcoming Kree-Skrull war which will destroy Earth continues. This show hasn't disappointed me yet, and I'm sure the next episodes won't either.
Original Airdate - April 22nd, 2012
An envoy from the alien warrior race, the Kree, visits Earth to determine if humanity is fit to join the ever-expanding galactic empire or be crushed in its path.
Written by Paul Giacoppo
Directed by Boyd Kirkland
Review by RoyalRubble
Media by Marvel Animation
This episode introduces us to Ms. Marvel, the super-powered alter ego of Carol Danvers, and she is awesome. I liked that they didn't exactly show us everything that happened to her since her last appearance ("459"), and that she has already been Ms. Marvel for a while now. She seems to have gotten used to her powers and she's great at what she does. It does seem a little odd that she hasn't at least been mentioned on the show in such a long time and she's brought back only now, but personally I thought it was about time she showed up, considering the cosmic threats the Avengers are up against this season. Besides being Ms. Marvel, Carol is now a member of SWORD, an organization similar to SHIELD, but focusing on studying alien lifeforms. I don't know much about SWORD, but I enjoyed what I saw this episode. Agent Abigail Brand was pretty cool. I was not familiar with the character from the comics, though I thought her name sounded familiar for some reason. I figured from the start there's something odd about her (and not only because of her green hair), but I thought she was just another undercover Skrull agent. Turns out she is alien (or at least half-alien), but at least she's on our side. Plus, it only made sense having Kang the Conqueror's former Damocles Base as the SWORD base.
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