Avengers Assemble: Super Adaptoid, Review
Earth's Mightiest Heroes take on Justin Hammer and the Super-Adaptoid, and learn to be a better team in the process.
Team shows are difficult, even when it’s just a Saturday (well, in this case, Sunday) morning cartoon that essentially features a bunch of archetypes. If you explain too much of the team dynamic, you run the risk of not letting the characters develop organically. If you explain too little, you may leave new viewers wondering just who these characters are and why the heck they’re even a team. The latest episode of Avengers Assemble does its best to walk that line, and while it doesn’t always succeed, it still made for an entertaining installment.First off, in case there was any shred of doubt left about whether this show primarily draws its inspiration from the comics or the movies, we’re introduced to Justin Hammer in “Super Adaptoid.” Hammer isn’t the elderly, gentleman industrialist of the comics, but has much more in common with Sam Rockwell’s hyperactive weasel portrayal from Iron Man 2. If there are any Justin Hammer purists out there who are actually upset about this, I ummmm…I’ve really got nothing for you. Do you even exist?Hammer has created the Super-Adaptoid primarily as a means to annoy Tony Stark and show the world that the Avengers can’t handle everything. But behind the scenes, he’s auditioning for the Red Skull’s growing cabal of evildoers. The team takes on the Super-Adaptoid which, as you might expect, can mimic each of their powers and skills, but it’s the least technologically capable member of the team, Captain America, who ends up left to save the day.There are actually a bunch of great Cap moments in this episode, and the show in general has done its best work when focusing on the relationships between the “big three” of Cap, Thor, and Iron Man. It’s good fun, but the stakes never really felt high enough. It’s a big punch-up, but Hammer’s desire to saddle up with a freakin’ Nazi is never adequately explained. The Skull is building his team of super-villains, but these little skirmishes each week just don’t feel big enough for the Avengers yet. Ater last week’s extraordinarily cool Avengers vs. Dracula episode, “Super Adaptoid” just felt a little bit too by-the-numbers.
Den of Geek Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars.
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Mike Cecchini is a man with a deep and abiding love of comics published before he was born, low-budget sci-fi, lo-fi garage rock, giant monster movies,…