Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E04 Review: Gods of Asgard

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 4: Thor the Mighty

This is definitely a bit of an interesting episode. Sure, it's still part of the "introductory" sequence of episodes, but it actually feels a lot more cohesive than the previous episode. Part of it is perhaps the fact that the full runtime of 23 minutes is devoted to Thor and his mythology, of course, but also the fact that we jump from one point of Thor's mythology to the next and not really stick around for too long and make the pacing feel off. There's also the fact that the ending of the episode reveals that the events of the entire episode -- the arming of the Wrecking Crew, directing Thor towards the harbour, planting doubts in Odin's mind about Thor's true nature and the Frost Giant attack -- are all orchestrated by Loki and Enchantress, building up Loki to be a far more far-reaching villain than what he seems here. And I guess it's pretty much something that's going to happen since this series is created fresh off of The Avengers, so ramping Loki up as a big player as opposed to a mere pawn is definitely something that would be agreeable to the audience at that point. 

Overall, the episode is fun. The episode starts off with Thor facing off against the threats on Earth, namely the quartet of metahumans known as the Wrecking Crew (who I actually know about, and also among the villains seen in "Breakout"). No real confirmation as to whether they got their power through supernatural means like their comic counterparts, but they do present a pretty fun, albeit simple, set of quirky enemies for Thor to face off against. We also explore a bit of Thor's (first?) meeting with Jane Foster, before he's summoned back to Asgard to aid Asgard in battle against the Frost Giants, led by Loki. The fight with Loki is done with so much more flourish compared to the robots blasting each other with energy blasts from the previous episode, with Loki's magical tricks and transforming to a bunch of shadow birds is pretty cool. 

The battle against the Frost Giants is simple but fun, with a lot of fun little cameos and minor roles by the characters that the movie-watching audience (like me!) would recognize more readily than others, like Heimdall, Sif and the Warriors Three. We also get to explore Baldur as the voice of reason among Asgard. We also get to see Thor arguing with Odin about the merits of Thor staying on Midgard as opposed to defending Odin while he goes on his Odinsleep, and it's not really made clear if Thor's reasons are truly because he's smitten with a human, or if it's for genuinely fully altruistic reasons. And we're not exactly sure if Odin is truly being a dick, or if he's just irate. 

Whatever the case, the episode ends with Thor leaving Asgard to return to Earth for good, while the Enchantress and her silent bodyguard Skurge walks away to meet Loki from his supposed exile in the forest of silence or whatever it's called. Sure, the episode might've indulged a wee bit too much time ensuring that the audience realizes that, yes, it's been the Enchantress influencing events from the background, but it's ultimately still a pretty solid episode.