Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes S01E23 Review: One Path To Peace

Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 1, Episode 23: The Ultron Imperative

This is the second part of the Ultron storyline, a two-parter that's got a fair bit of emotional weight due to the pretty excellent writing involving Hank Pym and Ultron himself. Well, more Hank than Ultron -- Ultron himself does sort of devolve into repeating the same motivational rants about how humanity is flawed and must be purged... and it's not quite the same when it's not James Spader quoting Pinocchio. But what Ultron lacks in variety, he more than makes up in sheer damn style, because, shit, last episode he was pretty creepy in taking control of all of the Avengers' technology. Here, Ultron ends up taking control of every single nuclear missile and military network across the globe, and then announces how humanity's about to be extinct.

Meanwhile, unaware of this, we get some really neat moments for Hank and Tony as they talk and discuss about, well, everything regarding Ultron while Hank chunks his research into the handy-dandy dis-integrator pillar-ray he has in his lab. There's a very nice moment on Tony's part when after all the dust settles he tries to try and tell Hank how, oh, this isn't technically his fault, these things happen. Good on you, Stark, for being nice! Hank's morose destruction of all his research while lamenting that he was the one who gave Ultron free rein -- and the whole "Ultron was modeled after my thought patterns, so any madness he comes up with is my fault" deal. Voice actor Wally Wingert really sells Hank Pym's self-conflict throughout this episode and the previous one. Of course, the worldwide crisis quickly jolts the Avengers back into action. Except the Avengers aren't quite at full power. Thor's off being conveniently teleported away and also amnesiac thanks to the Enchantress, while Captain America is straight-up hospitalized by his mano-a-mano with Ultron at the climax of the previous episode. Meanwhile, Iron Man's many, many, many Iron Man armours are basically toys for Ultron to play with, and to be used as his minions.

Ultron, having uploaded himself to a brand-new body, attacks the SHIELD helicarrier and in one of the more brutal moments in this show, begins straight-up hacking poor Maria Hill's brain. I mean, she's a bit of a bitch but that scene and the voice acting really sells the horror of having your mind be violated. Oh, and also add to the whole horror bit as Ultron slowly and methodically just beats back everything SHIELD has to throw at him, while we know the Avengers still have their own problem to deal with.

The Avengers battle the taken-over Iron Men, and it's definitely a very cool action scene. We've got Hulk battling the headless bigger Iron Man armour we've seen in the past, we've got a stealth Iron Man suit, a red-and-silver one... and, as with the previous episode, Tony shows up in his computer-less Mark I clunky suit to help beat back the Iron Men armour. Black Panther and Hawkeye end up being left behind to deal with the Iron Men armour, while the rest of the team head off to rescue SHIELD. Not that it really matters, though, because Ultron proves to be far more dangerous. He has found a way to revert Hulk to Bruce Banner with a single beam from his hand, has circumvented the 'can't harm Wasp' deal, has Kang-style personal bubble force-fields, and basically throws everything back at our heroes while he sends nuclear missiles all over the world to re-enact the climax of Terminator 3.

Of course, while all  of this is going on, Thor has regained consciousness and sanity, realizing that the Enchantress is tricking him, having teleported him out of harm's way back in the previous episode. The Enchantress just wants to spare Thor from the horrors that will be wrought upon Midgard, which is just plenty of foreshadowing for the season finale. It's definitely clunky and just a way to amp up the stakes to remove Thor temporarily. Thor ends up returning, of course, but not even the god of thunder can break Ultron, who can instantly recover from any injury now. All but having his arm ripped off, it seems, as Ultron ends up facing off against Thor while the missiles are shot all over the world. It's Ant-Man, of course, that ends up saving the day, sending some 'logic' knowledge into Ultron's brain, about how Ultron can't exist in his own imperative since he, too, is the product of the flawed human mind. The apocalypse is averted, and while Maria Hill did work alongside Iron Man and the Avengers... she does rightly point out that it was Ant-Man's fault that Ultron came online in the first place. It's a bit of a shame that Hank's angst isn't actually explored a bit further, though I suspect it's going to be explored in subsequent episodes.

Ultimately, while the Thor bit was definitely not ideal and a bit of a poor writing choice in my opinion, the Ultron storyline is definitely done pretty well. The menace of a technological maniac taking over every computer system in the world coldly and methodically is delivered well, and the buildup Ultron has throughout the Kang saga and these two-parters definitely help to elevate him beyond just a run-of-the-mill villain. It's a pretty entertaining pair of episodes, as we move into the season finale for the first season of Earth's Mightiest Heroes...