Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E06 Review: Hey Bub

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 6: Meet Captain America

Ah, the Captain America episode! And as some who basically expected a rehash of Captain America: The First Avenger, I was certainly surprised. Sure, I expected Bucky to be reverted back to his comic-book kid-sidekick version as opposed to being handsome and rugged like Sebastian Stan, and I expected more villains than just Red Skull to show up (a young General von Strucker shows up as the Skull's lieutenant). And while the broad strokes of the episode happens similarly to how I expected -- Captain America's origin story is the same, told in montage form; there's some Hydra-fighting; there's a sacrifice that involves Bucky dying and Captain America falling into an icy ocean. Notably, Captain America's the only big-name Avenger who didn't actually show up in any way or form in the "Breakout" two-parter, because even Hawkeye and Black Widow had a cameo. 

There's a lot of neat bits thrown in this episode that elevates it beyond a retelling of a story we already know, though. And while Captain America's Howling Commandos features some familiar faces like Dum Dum Dugan, we also get a couple of very unexpected characters, like Jack Fury (obviously the father of Nick Fury) and, extremely unexpectedly, one "Howlett", who calls people 'bub' with a drawl and a very, very familiar hairstyle. Sure, he doesn't get to pop his claws or anything, but his feral fighting style makes this unmistakably a low-key cameo by Wolverine, and I definitely appreciate that. I've been so used to the live-action discussion about how many of Marvel comics' characters are actually out of bounds for the MCU team, it's definitely interesting to see Wolverine show up.

Of course, the main story is still Cap and Bucky's, so the episode ditches a majority of the Howling Commandos as they charge into the Red Skull's castle, only to discover that the Red Skull's game plan this time around isn't just creating super-soldiers, but to straight up open a portal to another realm -- specifically that of the Norse gods, tying into the Thor mythology neatly -- and summoning creatures of legend into the mortal realm. We get some fun bits with a cyclops, a wolf, a bunch of pixies and a frost giant, and of course Captain America and Bucky stop the machine... but not before Red Skull tricks them into coming on board his rocket, set to blow. Bucky sacrifices himself and blows up with the rocket, while Captain America plunges into the arctic ocean and gets frozen until the present day.

And then, most unexpectedly, is that this whole sequence is being observed by a future-man called Kang, a character I'm wholly unfamiliar with but apparently one of the bigger names in Marvel villainy. Kang is observing this all from the 41st century, trying to pinpoint the part of history that caused a temporal anomaly that turned the 41st-century-Earth he's conquered into a wasteland. He's also got a badass looking ship, and also funky loose sleeves and a television-esque helmet. I like him. And this future dictator intent on going back into the past and removing Captain America from the 21st century, where he should not have existed. Oh, and he also has to save his wife (?) Ravonna's life, who's threatened by the temporal anomaly. It's a very interesting way to frame this extended flashback/origin story in a way that ties it into other facets of the show, namely the Nordic mythology and a future villain. So kudos on the show on doing that.