Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 2, Episode 6: Michael Korvac
Well, this was a bit of a fun fluff episode! We have a self-contained villain of the week and a different bunch of guest stars, this time the Guardians of the Galaxy! Keep in mind that this was released two whole years before the MCU movie premiered, so the lineup (and I know the Guardians is an ever-changing group) is a bit different from the one popularized by the live-action movies. This time around we've got Star-Lord, Adam Warlock, Quasar, Groot and Rocket Raccoon. And I guess it's actually neat to bring in these characters into a season all about dealing against alien threats, although for whatever reason, the team doesn't actually have any sort of subsequent appearance after this episode.
It's a fun little episode, regardless, though, playing up to the Avengers' jumpiness about aliens in general. First up, a mysterious man, Michael Korvac, crash-lands in the middle of New York City, and he was apparently the victim of Kree abduction and experimentation, which gives him powers. And thanks to what the Avengers have fought, you really can't fault Wasp (who probably gets the most focus this episode) from being quite protective of Korvac, thinking that he's a scared survivor. We get a fun bit where Hulk points out the cosmic radiation surrounding Korvac to a very surprised Stark, a rare Jane Foster cameo, and a neat scene of Wasp and Ms. Marvel talking about Wasp's love life.
The Guardians of the Galaxy arrive, though, and thanks to some language problems (but Star-Lord's a human, though) they fight each other and it's definitely fun to see the different powers as a showcase. Star-Lord ends up being able to explain to the Avengers that Michael Korvac isn't just an abductee, but rather a wanted intergalactic criminal who's murdered thousands of people. Sure, he's got a sob story and the love for his girlfriend Korina is real, but he's also, y'know, kind of a monster. We do get some really neat bits, though, with the spotlight of the fight definitely being Hulk facing off against the unlikely pair of Rocket Raccoon and his big guns, as well as Groot's regenerative abilities. Quasar's Green-Lantern-esque powers against Iron Man is also pretty neat.
Korvac, of course, turns out to be dangerous and takes out Avengers and Guardians alike, and then Adam Warlock shows off his power, by putting everyone inside his Mind Stone so that they can talk. I know Adam Warlock from reading the Infinity Gauntlet comics! They work their differences out, give some introdump, and then end up teaming up and trying to bring down Korvac. We also have poor Ms. Marvel, who spends a good chunk of the episode just being a distraction and being the subject of Korvac's ire due to her powers having Kree energy.
And then it's Korina being horrified of Korvac's in-humanity that causes him to basically have a bit of an existential crisis and then teleport himself into... space? Turning himself into a galaxy? Or something? It's a bit ambiguous, and it's a bit silly that apparently the Kree can give powers to uber-tier characters like Ms. Marvel and Michael Korvac when their individual fighters aren't super-duper tough, but eh.
Overall, I think the episode suffers a bit too much from trying to stuff too many things into a single episode. Korvac's story and duplicity, introducing the Guardians (even with Groot and Quasar being simple combatants without much personality) and having them fight the Avengers, Wasp's whole story... it doesn't quite juggle the many characters with as much elegance as I wished they did, although the episode is certainly serviceable on its own. It's just not one that honestly makes itself particularly memorable for me.
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