The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

I'm standing on my own, but now I'm not alone...[1]

Iron Man: One on one, we can each take down a villain or two, but 74... none of us can do it alone. Together we have a chance. What we did here, it can change things. The world needs us, but not as SHIELD agents. As a team of our own. Together, we can avenge the wrongs caused by all these villains.
Wasp: We can be Avengers.
Hulk: Huh. Good name.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes is a show on Disney XD, based on the Marvel comics series The Avengers.

The series begins with a mysterious, massive breakout at each of the world's four super-villain prisons, releasing a horde of super-powered criminals upon the world. Brought together by the massive threat posed by the escaped Graviton, the team known as the Avengers are born - they are the Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

Originally, the team consists of The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man, The Wasp, and the The Mighty Thor, with Captain America (comics), Hawkeye, the Black Panther, and a host of other heroes ready to join them. Together, they deal with such threats as the terrorist organization HYDRA, the mystical trickster god Loki, and many many more.

The series premiered on October 20th, 2010. Prior to this, Disney XD premiered a series of micro-episodes to introduce us to the series, which can be seen here. Combined with the actual series, they all add up to two seasons with twenty-six episodes each. Two series of tie-in comics also exist: a four-issue miniseries, and a set of additional comics published under the "all-ages" Marvel Universe banner.

This is the second attempt at The Avengers having an animated series, The Avengers: United They Stand being the first. This one has been much better received. 2013 will apparently see Earth's Mightiest Heroes replaced with an episodic show, with a format differing the serialized format of this series.

The series has a character sheet. For tropes related to a single character, please go there.

Not to be confused with the mid-2000s comic series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Tropes associated with both the micro-episodes and TV series:

A-D

  • Absentee Actor: With an eight-man ensemble cast, this is probably going to happen often. In a strange case, Thor was missing from the Black Panther's introduction episode; and the closest thing we got to an explanation in the episode itself is that Iron Man didn't know where he was, either. The episode, "Masters of Evil", did offer an retroactive explanation, though--Thor didn't know the ID card's beeping was a sign for the Avengers to assemble(now if only we knew why he didn't take the hint when it started saying "Avengers Assemble!" in Tony's voice).
  • Actually a Doombot: A Furybot actually
  • Adaptational Badass This show gives us several examples. The more notable ones being Wasp and Grim Reaper.
  • Adaptation Distillation: Though the series is based primarily on the original comics, the "Breakout" story-arc derives from the initial story-arc from New Avengers. Furthermore, Iron Man and The Hulk are based partly on their movie incarnations, as are a number of their villains. Combine that with shades of Ultimate Marvel, and it seems this show takes a little bit from everything.
    • In general, all of the characters are a Greatest Hits version of various portrayals of them from the comics--for instance, Hank Pym being Ant Man and Giant Man at the same time.
    • Abomination has elements of his comics self (his head and coloring), and his movie incarnation (he speaks with a British accent and according to his bio on the website and tie-in comic, he was a British soldier like in the movie).
  • Adaptive Armor: Captain Mar-Vell and the other Kree warriors have armor-suits that can morph into various weapons.
  • Adapted Out: In the Secret Invasion arc, since Spider-Woman was gone, her very important roles are split between Mockingbird and Black Widow. Elektra got replaced by Viper. This was understandable, since Marvel has Loads and Loads of Characters, even Quick Silver and Scarlet Witch were dropped. This was very notable, since Hawkeye joined the Avengers just about the same time as them, and Black Panther came much later, and were included as team members.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Ultron, to the surprise of everyone.
    • Averted with JARVIS.
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: the SHIELD helicarier is present as the SHIELD main base of operations, and it even held a prison (the big house) at the beginning of the series.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Masters of Evil and Ultron both successfully infiltrate the mansion and nearly own everyone. Funny enough, it is Ant-Man who is crucial to stopping them both times.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Hank to Wasp in the episode "459".
  • Animation Bump: The animation becomes choppy at random points, but almost never during fight scenes.
  • Animorphism: "In Gamma World", Black Panther and Wasp mutate into... well, a panther and a wasp.
  • And I Must Scream: Ultron co-ops Tony's armor, making him fight the Avengers WITH HIM STILL IN THE ARMOR. He gets only a few brief moments where his com systems work to try and warn Thor that something has control of his armor.
    • Also, the Realm of Silence Loki is exiled to in Thor's episode, but then again Loki is such a Magnificent Bastard that it doesn't really faze him
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Vibranium.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: In the episode "459", Wasp doesn't initially believe in aliens. Norse gods, people made of living sound, guys being frozen in the Arctic for forty years, no problem. But aliens? That's just crazy. Hank holds on to his skepticism even longer, even as the evidence starts to pile up.
    • Justified by the fact that Wasp was teasing Carol, and in Hank's case he points out the was no organic signature and therefore no life. He even justifies his disbelief in this exchange:

Wasp: I thought you said it wasn't aliens?
Ant Man: I never said it wasn't an alien robot.

  • Arc Words: The Skrulls frequently chant the phrase, "As it is written," as they discuss their invasion of Earth.
  • Arch Enemy: Each of the Avengers has one, actually.
    • Baron Zemo to Captain America (Red Skull has appeared in flashbacks as Cap's Evil Counterpart, but hasn't shown up in the present storyline yet). Red Skull is back and he's hanging out with some of cap's old comics buddies
    • The Leader and Abomination to the Hulk
    • Wonder Man considers himself Iron Man's Arch Enemy, though it's one-sided. Crimson Dynamo also considers himself Iron Man's Arch Enemy.
    • Man-Ape to Black Panther
    • Black Widow to Hawkeye until she revealed she was working for Nick Fury. Afterwards, they shared a kiss.
    • Whirlwind to Wasp, albeit usually Played for Laughs
    • Loki to Thor
    • Ultron to Hank Pym
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Wasp implores Vision like so as he tries to kidnap her:

What do you want with me? Who are you working for? And why would you combine green and yellow with your skintone?

Iron Man: Avengers, Assemble!
Ant Man: We're all right here.
Iron Man: ...

    • Lampshaded again in "This Hostage Earth" where after sending the Avengers off to 7 hotspots Tony is about to shout this corrects himself and instead says "Avengers Disassemble!"
    • The Captain America imposter says, "Avengers, Attack!" instead.
    • When Wasp and Hawkeye come to fight Skrulls in "Infiltration:"

Wasp: Avengers, assemble...but only the human ones!

  • Badass Adorable: Wasp.
  • Badass Biker: Hawkeye. Even cooler, his sky-cycle flies!
    • And Cap.
  • Badass Cape: Grim Reaper and Thor.
  • The Baroness: Viper always fit this role, but in this version she's picked up a whip and a tendency to pull grenade pins with her tongue. Which is appropriate, as the Trope Namer Baroness was based on Viper to begin with. The bit about being a Skrull is new, though.
  • Bash Brothers: Captain America and Bucky.
  • Batman Gambit: It turns out HYDRA's attack on the United Nations in "Iron Man is Born" were all a plot to get the Grim Reaper inside The Vault so he could break out Wolfgang von Strucker, the head of HYDRA.
    • Wasp tricks members of AIM into leading her and Thor to their base.
  • Bear Hug: Thor joyfully does this to his teammates, including the Hulk!
  • Berserk Button: MODOC is a bit touchy when someone starts making fun of his big giant head...which Thor and Wasp do continuously when they first see him.

Thor: Tis like the head of a frost giant upon the body of an infant.

    • Don't even dare to hurt Janet, lest you push Hank Pym's berserk button and get curb-stomped.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Pulled by Black Panther, saving Captain America from Baron Zemo. Cap returns the favor in "Panther Quest".
    • Played with in "Masters of Evil". At first, it looks like Black Panther and Hawkeye have failed to rescue the other Avengers, until they reveal they were just buying Ant Man some time to get some stuff from his lab. Then, he gets a Big Damn Heroes moment.
    • Wasp in "Come the Conqueror" against the scarabs. She found bigger stingers
    • Hulk's entrance into the battle against Graviton, and again in the Avengers first fight against Ultron.
    • Iron Man gets a quite impressive one in "A Day Unlike Any Other". Loki has defeated the rest of the team, and Iron Man comes crashing down through the roof in new armor made of Uru metal.
  • Big Badass Wolves: Malekith has huge wolves under his command, and the same wolves later attack Hawkeye when he gets portaled into Alfheim, the Asgardian Realm of the Elves. Then there's Loki's gigantic ice wolf in "A Day Unlike Any Other".
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Several of the villains have their own agendas, notably Baron Strucker, Baron Zemo, the Leader, Kang, and Ultron. The presence of an overarching Big Bad is built up throughout the season, however, and it's ultimately revealed to be Loki, who was directly or indirectly responsible for just about everything except Kang and Ultron.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: Grim Reaper's Sinister Scythe extends from his right arm.
  • Blob Monster: Arnim Zola's Doughboys.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Has a fair amount.
  • Body Count Competition: Between Hulk and Thor during Kang's invasion.
  • Body Horror:
    • People undergoing Painful Transformations in "Gamma World", especially Iron Man's.
    • When they show a shot of Tony's heart we actually get to see the shrapnel embedded in it.
    • Zemo and Claw both have a few seconds showing their bodies being horribly distorted as they transform into monsters.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Practically everyone from Hydra and numerous other villains. The worst case probably was in Captain America's first episode, when Red Skull even failed to order Cap and Bucky restrained before going into Evil Gloating mode, even though the (quite vulnerable) device crucial to his plans was in the same room.
  • Boxing Lessons for Superman: As Steve points out (and proves...much to Hawkeye and Hulks amusement), Tony (aka Iron Man) is a very poor hand-to-hand fighter and is rather helpless without his armor. Cap ends up giving him some lessons.
  • Brainwashed: Enchantress tried to pull this on The Hulk. It ends about as well as you might expect, but she successfully creates a rift with him and the team. It backfires in the long run, since now Hulk seems to have a grudge against her.
  • Breaking the Fellowship: After the reveal that Skrulls are on Earth, the Avengers splinter, with Iron Man, Ms. Marvel and Black Panther leaving out of mistrust and fear for the others. All that's left of the official Avengers at the time are Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, and Wasp.
  • But for Me It Was Tuesday: A rare heroic example

Chemistro: How can you not remember who I am!? You punched me in the face!
Hawkeye: That doesn't really narrow it down, pal.

    • This could also be considered a Brick Joke, since Hawkeye could be seen punching Chemistro in the face way back before the Avengers were even formed yet.
  • Cain and Abel: Thor and Loki.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Thor does this to Odin at the end of "My Brother, My Enemy", having watched his brother do it first.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Ant Man and Wasp.
  • Canon Immigrant: The show uses JARVIS, Tony Stark's advanced AI program from the live-action Iron Man movies, instead of Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers' butler from the comics.
  • Cardboard Prison: The Vault, Cube, Big House, and Raft all fall victim to this trope in the first episode.
    • Justified as a Living God was behind the breakouts. Something most prison's wouldn't expect.
    • Prison 42 on the other hand is currently working well as the new super villain prison. We'll see if that lasts in season 2.
  • Casting Gag: Scott Menville plays the very Robin-like Bucky Barnes.
  • Characterization Marches On: Averted, with the Hulk. This portrayal owes more to the Hulk as he was originally depicted by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, rather than as the Psychopathic Manchild the character is most recognizable as. He uses tactics and is capable of outwitting his foes in addition to beating them senseless. Plus, he speaks in complete sentences! And sarcasm!
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Half the things Black Panther does are at the very least incredibly improbable for any normal human, if not outright impossible. Witness his stunt in Come The Conqueror: When being fired at by Kang's robots, he's seen avoiding them by running along the side of a building. When he reaches the edge, he jumps backward and bounces off a building on the other side of the street and slashes a robot, ultimately landing without taking any damage.
    • Justified by backstory; Black Panther, like Captain America, is basically a Badass Abnormal masquerading as a Badass Normal -- the training, skills, ability and intellect of a Badass Normal bolstered by a rare Super Serum herb native to Wakanda and, in some tellings, a mystical connection to a patron panther god.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow" has a scene explaining who the Fantastic Four are before getting on with the plot.
  • The Chessmaster: The Leader, Loki, and Ultron.
    • Season 2: Queen Veranke, Red Skull, and Ultron, again
  • Chew Toy: Poor, poor Tony Stark. See The Worf Effect, below, for details.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Played straight in "The Hostage Earth" when Amora stabbed Grey Gargoyle in the back, and then subverted when Zemo betrays her before she can betray him (Which he fully expected).
  • Cliff Hanger: Cap getting replaced by a Skrull at the end of Season 1.
    • There's a mid-season one with the U.S. broadcast of season 2 where Nick Fury tells Iron Man his team has been infiltrated by a skrull, Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and Black Panther leave the team, and it's revealed that Mockingbird had been replaced by Queen Veranke some time after her first appearance.
  • Co-Dragons: Abomination and Absorbing Man to the Leader.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Inverted. Black Panther wears black, while the bad guy Man-Ape wears white.
  • Comic Book Fantasy Casting: Tony Stark was designed to look like Robert Downey, Jr. and even sounds like him. People often say that it sounds like Eric Loomis is doing an impression of RDJ. Turns out that's Loomis's normal voice.
  • Compilation Episodes: The twenty micro-episodes were later compiled into the first five episodes for airing on television.
    • Fans have taken this a step further, editing all the micro-episodes into a single long movie.
  • The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Ant-Man's suggestion for the Serpent Society to nonviolently talk out their problems instead results in the battle between them and the Avengers intensifying, much to the frustration of Ant-Man's teammates.
  • Completely Missing the Point: When Steve tries explaining to Tony why he should learn how to actually fight without his suit, Tony just brushes it off as Steve being too used to the "old ways" of doing things. The fact Steve brutally kicks his ass because he seriously lacks fighting skills doesn't seem to phase him, either. Tony just assumed he doesn't need to know how to fight, because his armor will handle any problem. It doesn't seem to occur to him that adding even basic fighting skills to the power provided by the Iron Man armor would make him that much more effective.
  • Composite Character: Baron Zemo is a combination of elements of his own comics counterpart (Heinrich Zemo) and his son and successor (Helmut Zemo). Similarly, the Crimson Dynamo is a villain--but wears the suit worn by Gennady Gavrilov, a hero, from the comics and, according to his bio in issue 2 of the tie-in comic, has element of the already-Composite Character of Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2 (his real name and reasons for hating Iron Man stemming from something that happened between their fathers).
    • Inverted with Nick Fury, who's actually split into two characters: Jack Fury, Nick's identical grandfather who led the Howling Commandos in World War 2; and Nick Fury, the 21st century super-spy who serves as the director of SHIELD. [2]
      • Played straight as well. He is black like the Ultimates and Cinematic incarnations of the character but has hair identical to the modern 616 version.
    • While not a character, Kang's sword-shaped spaceship The Damocles is merged with The Peak, S.W.O.R.D.'s sword-shaped space station.
  • Conspicuous CG
  • Continuity Cameo: Wolverine appears one of Cap's micro-episodes.

Jack Fury: Howlett! We need recon!
Wolverine: I'm workin' on it, bub!

    • HERBIE passes by as Hank Pym and Reed Richards study Princess Ravonna during one of the last scenes of "The Kang Dynasty."
    • During "The Casket of Ancient Winters," Human Torch and the Thing make a brief cameo, smashing ice monsters.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Hulk surviving re-entry unscratched is all well and good, but his pants surviving is another thing.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: Cap vs Tony in the practice boxing ring. Guess who won.
    • Also Zemo taking down Grim Reaper in all of 2 seconds. Now that's skills.
  • Daddy's Little Villain: Hela to Loki, even though she doesn't affiliate herself with him.
  • Dark Messiah: Both The Leader and Ultron claim to be "saving" the world. The Leader actually has followers, though.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The Wasp, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Bucky.
    • The Hulk occasionally manages this as well.
    • As does Ant-Man.
    • Black Panther is a little more subtle about it, but a good portion of his few lines are surprisingly sarcastic.
    • Captain America had a few individual snarky moments, but not as many as the others.
  • Deal with the Devil: Captain America agrees to give his soul to Hela in order to return to the land of the living and help his fellow Avengers.
    • Actually, he promised his soul only if he died in combat against Loki. We don't know if he's still bound by that promise, seeing as how he didn't die in the battle.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Invoked by the Masters of Evil, who send Hulk to Jötunheimr to fight the Jötun (Frost Giants) so he can't cause a Curb Stomp Battle. It does keep him out the way, until Thor opens a portal to bring him back, and he stomps through covered in snow, carrying a big ice club, and pissed.
  • Die Hard on an X: The head writer, Christopher Yost, promoted "Alone Against AIM" as, "Die Hard at Stark Industries!"
    • The first season episode "Masters of Evil" also has a plot like this.
  • Diplomatic Immunity: Of a type. With Doctor Doom as lord of Latveria, he can't be directly attacked in his own country or even brought to justice by Avengers or Fantastic Four.
  • Dual-Wielding: Some of Kang's armory includes two glowing swords that he wields with surprising skill, even going toe-to-toe with Captain America.
    • Sif and Zemo also fight with a set of paired blades.
  • Dysfunction Junction: The team has some issues to work out. Noted in-series by Ant Man, who acknowledges that a group of people who are essentially strangers won't initially act like a team. Later, Hawkeye rants to Black Panther about how the other Avengers are completely unsuited for superheroics (though to be fair, a couple of his critiques are flat out wrong, and as Panther points out, he didn't say a thing about Captain America (comics)).


E-H

  • Early-Bird Cameo: Crimson Dynamo, Technovore, and MODOK showed up in "Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD".
    • There are several in the Hulk micro-episode, "This Monster, This Hero", as well. Villains seen in The Cube include Bi-Beast, X-Ray, Vector, Vapor (three of the four members of the U-Foes), Abomination, The Leader, and Radioactive Man, among others; most of these returned in "Gamma World". In the earlier episode where the Hulk fought Absorbing Man, Mr. Hyde appeared when Banner was talking about the Cube. Also in the Hulk micro-episode was SHIELD agent Morse, who returned in "Widow's Sting" as Mockingbird.
    • In "Meet Captain America", we meet James Howlett, who most fans know as Wolverine.
    • "Come the Conqueror" briefly shows Black Knight Dane Whitman defending London from Kang's robots.
  • Elite Mooks: Kang's three elite guards on Damocles Base gave the Avengers a run for their money, thanks to help from their boss's time-controling powers.
    • Except that it was obvious almost immediately that their only advantage was their boss's time manipulation technology, allowing them to make Time Stand Still around themselves and perform a Speed Blitz on the Avengers. Once Hawkeye's flare arrow blinded the mooks and impaired their ability to react to their opponents, the Avengers defeated them easily.
  • Empathy Doll Shot: Thor finds a doll amongst the rubble in the devastated future shown in "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow"
  • Enemy Civil War: Between AIM and HYDRA in "Hail, Hydra!".
  • Enemy Mine: Subverted; Hawkeye adamantly refuses to work alongside Black Widow again no matter how desperate the situation.
    • That was later subverted again, when he actually did, although technically she wasn't a villain.
    • This is played perfectly straight in "Acts of Vengeance" when Zemo, Abomination, Wonder Man, and Crimson Dynamo join forces with the Avengers to fight off the wrath of a vengeful Enchantress and Executioner.
    • It was done again in "Prisoner of War", with Captain America, Mockingbird, Invisible Woman, and Agent Quartermain teaming up with Madame Viper, King Cobra, and an A.I.M. agent named Dr. Lyle Getz in order to escape from the Skrull ship.
    • Happens yet again in "Assault On 42", when Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave invade Prison 42, the Avengers are forced to release many of the imprisoned supervillains (and Captain Mar-Vell) to help fight them. Captain America, however, refuses to let out Zemo, knowing that he'd just stab him in the back.
  • Enhanced on DVD: When "Masters of Evil" first aired, the final scene looked so dark, the viewers couldn't see Loki's face. This scene became brightened in the version shown on Netflix. The producer confirmed here that the broadcast version obscured Loki because of post-production and video transferring errors, not because of a stylistic choice.
    • The difference becomes more visible when viewing the monitor from a certain angle.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: Or rather worse. Several villains are apes or have ape-like powers/motifs; Man-Ape, Mandrill, and Red Ghost's Super-Apes.

Thor: "Tis surprising how many monkeys we face in battle."

  • Evil Gloating: When Sue Storm and Wasp get kidnapped, Wasp tries to piss off their captor by talking crap at him. Unfortunately, her captor's Doctor Doom, so it doesn't work.

Doctor Doom: "Miss Van Dyne, I am not some common criminal that can be distracted by your prattling. You are nothing to Doom, and your pathetic attempts to play mind games with me amount to exactly less than nothing. So please, stop embarrassing yourself."

  • Evolving Credits: The team shot at the end of the opening titles varies depending on the size of the team at the episode's start. In one second-season episode that means the only character in the shot is Thor!
    • Additionally, the Earth's Mightiest Heroes logo at the intro's close originally had an empty circle underneath it. During the second half of the first season, the circle became replaced by a variant of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Avengers Assemble" emblem.
  • Exposed to the Elements: Hulk has no need for such things as spacesuits. Give him an oxygen mask and he's just fine in his stretch pants.
  • Eye Scream: When Balder the Brave rams his sword into a Frost Giant's eye. Black Panther does something similar in "A Day Unlike Any Other", except with his claws.
  • Eyedscreen: Used when we first see Tony putting on the Iron Man armor. Again in "Gamma World" when Bruce says they're going to The Leader "the direct route".
  • The Fair Folk: in "The Casket of Ancient Winters", not only the antagonist episode Malekith is a Dark Elf, but the Avengers that stayed in New York have to fight against a group of smoke-shaped malevolent elves.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: Subverted. They have used both real guns and Laser guns on the show. Also, the lasers are justified since it usually used by groups like SHIELD.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: In "Meet Captain America", a HYDRA mook is crushed by a drawbridge, albeit with them cutting to Cap's surprised expression.
    • Some AIM agents getting ripped apart by Technovore in "Alone Against AIM".
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Loki's torturous end is quite painful, and is especially horrifying if you have a fear of snakes or you freak out over any Eye Scream.
  • Fan Service:
    • Hello, Wasp in a bikini in episode 20.
    • And for the ladies there's Hawkeye in trunks.
    • Hulk, every time we see him...
    • In season 2 whenever Ms. Marvel is knocked-out, the audience is treated to her audience is treated to her barely-covered-ass as her opponent drapes her over their shoulder.
  • First-Name Basis: Most of the Avengers go by their codename or a shortened version of it, but Giant Man/Ant Man is almost always called "Hank."
  • Fish Out of Temporal Water: Captain America. But being a Human Popsicle will do that to you. He sums it up best in this exchange from "Panther's Quest":

Captain America: In my day, when something flew this high, we didn't call it an airplane.
Ant-Man: What did you call it?
Captain America: Science fiction.

Mr. Fantastic: Honestly, Tony, I think Susan's been ignoring me these past few weeks. She's been very distracted lately.

    • Hank's moment of rage in "To Steal an Ant-Man" includes a brief cut to a yellowjacket wasp.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Some Assembly Required", we get this little gem.
    • In "Infiltration" there are pictures of several Marvel characters who have not yet appeared in the show pinned to Nick Fury's board of determining who was actually a Skrull. These characters include Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast, Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Cloak and Dagger, and Armadillo.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • In the premiere, Thor and Jane Foster are conversing at the site of a car crash. As they make doe-eyes at one another, the driver of one of the cars tries in futility to escape from her seat-belt... right before her air bag explodes in her face.
    • In Acts of Vengeance, when Zemo brings the Masters of Evil to propose a team-up with the Avengers, Hulk doesn't wait to listen, tackling and punching the Abomination before Zemo can explain things. And then he keeps punching in the background, for a solid minute or so, while the others calmly talk.
    • The same thing happened earlier in the season in Secret War of Dr. Doom when he does this to the Thing while Hawkeye and the Human Torch remain talking at the door as if nothing was happening.
  • Gambit Pileup: HYDRA, AIM, SHIELD, Loki, and Zemo all have plans in action - and the Avengers seem to be right in the middle of all of it. And that's not even counting the looming Kree-Skrull War/Secret Invasion, Kang (who has his own interest of sorts in said war), Ultron, Dr. Doom, and later on, Surtur.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: In "Widow's Sting", Viper pulls a pin on a grenade with her tongue in a way almost certainly trying to remind you of something.
    • In "Breakout, part I", when Thor admits he's been following Jane Foster, he's touching his hammer in a slightly creepy way.
    • When Hawkeye is trying to access a remote computer with Black Widow's SHIELD files, he tries a variety of passwords. Most are spider-related, but one is "hourglass" - and given the character design, it is quite appropriate.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Played straight with Graviton, Kang, Ultron, Wonder Man, and a few other villains. Averted with Iron Man, Thor, and Black Panther.
  • A God Am I: Played straight and subverted. Graviton and especially the Leader show some of this. Subverted with Thor, in that he's the real thing but Hawkeye ("Thor is crazy") and possibly Iron Man ("Thor's probably off in Fantasyland." and "You should try more physics and less fantasy.") believe that he's delusional.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Henry Pym will often try to reason with enemies first, especially if they used to be his villainy-rehab patients. In his defense, it almost works on Wonder Man before Iron Man brings creates an Interrupted Cooldown Hug.
  • Going to Give It More Energy: Iron Man defeats Technovore by ordering JARVIS to run the Stark Industries tower's main arc reactor at 200%, then feeding the resulting energy to Technovore.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: When Iron Man vaporizes the head of an empty suit of armor, of all things.
    • Happens to one Hydra Mook in "Meet Captain America" when Bucky literally drops a (draw)bridge on him.
    • When Technovore attacks several AIM agents it's obvious that he rips them apart, but only Technovore's claws and some long red slashes across the screen are shown.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: There are 74 escaped supervillains on the loose. Guess what the Avengers have to do?
  • Green Rocks: Vibranium is even more ludicrously powerful than its comics counterpart.
  • Gun and Sword: Baron Zemo is proficient with both, and often uses them simultaneously. When he's not using two swords instead.
  • Harmless Freezing: Hulk spends a good chunk of "Casket of Ancient Winters" frozen in the swimming pool. He shows up later just fine. But very annoyed that Wasp and Hawkeye forgot about him.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Bucky. Also, attempted by Captain Marvel in "459", but he survived due to Iron Man's intervention.
    • As for the first example, savvy comic book fans are betting that he returns as Winter Soldier.
    • Done by Wonder Man in "Acts of Vengeance".
  • Home Base: Avengers Mansion, which gets its own guided tour for both the audience and the newly-formed Avengers in episode two. And it is awesome.
  • Hot Amazon: The Wakandan royal guards.
    • Sif and the Valkyrie as well.
  • How We Got Here: The Cold Open of "Everything is Wonderful" shows Simon Williams' transformation into Wonder Man, then goes back a few hours to show the circumstances that made him become the subject of the experiment.
  • Huge Holographic Head: Used by Mar-vell's superior Yon-Rogg and Kang the Conqueror.
  • Hulk Speak: Guess who! However, Hulk's considerably smarter in this series, so he switches in and out of it. See "Characterization Marches On" above.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Hawkeye once mocked Baron Zemo for wearing purple.


I-L

  • In Medias Res: The show begins by skipping over the origin stories of Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man, and The Wasp, as well as the story of how Hawkeye became a crimefighter. Word Of God says the writers assumed viewers would already know Iron Man's and the Hulk's origins from their respective movies, and detailing how Ant-Man and Wasp got their powers so early on in the series would leave the two of them with less time to impress viewers who never read their comics.
    • Captain America's introductory episode begins after he became an American icon. However, it does open with a newsreel recounting his origin story, for the convenience of viewers who did not know it.
    • This trope is averted for Black Panther and Ms. Marvel, whose origin stories occur during the first season instead of before it.
  • In Memoriam: "Michael Korvac" is dedicated to its director, Boyd Kirkland, (also the producer of X-Men Evolution), "Friend, Father, Director, Avenger." Downloadable versions of this episode follow up the dedication by playing the end credits in silence.
  • Interrupted Cooldown Hug: In "Everything Is Wonderful" Hank almost has Simon calmed down and ready to talk...when Tony breaks out the repulsors.
  • Ironic Echo:
    • The newsreel detailing Captain America's entry into the Allied forces ends with the reporter exclaiming, "Good luck, Captain America, wherever you are!" The same sentence ends the newsreel detailing Captain America's disappearance, except "farewell" replaces "good luck".
    • When Wasp first saw the army of Ultron robots, her response was: "That's... a lot of Ultrons." Later, when Ultron takes over Iron Man's entire collection of suits, she says the same thing: "That's... a lot of Iron Mans."
    • The first full appearance of the Masters of Evil when confronting Wasp is ironically similar to the first full appearance of the original Avengers when confronting Mandrill.
    • Loki: "Welcome home... brother."
  • Idiot Ball: Not called out in the show, but Morse definitely falls victim to an Idiot moment in Widow's Sting. While she and Hawkeye are prisoners in the Hydra transport, it's clearly shown that Reaper can hear them from the front, but after everyone leaves she casually drops the fact that they're being tailed by some other Avengers. Needless to say, the transport immediately goes cloaked and does a u-turn, and the tail is shaken. Given that the Hydra transport was already flying away from Hydra Island before the u-turn, it might just be a coincidence and Reaper is simply Genre Savvy enough (unlike the AIM mooks in an earlier episode) to know that flying straight to your base always leads the heroes there.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Subverted. Thor tries doing this when the other Avengers are mutated into Gamma monsters, but it doesn't work.
  • I Love Nuclear Power: Hulk and all the other inmates in the Cube.
  • Impossibly Cool Weapon: Cap's shield, of course. And Kang has a ton of insanely powerful futuristic weapons ranging from glowing swords, to a one-man cannon that fires ricocheting vibration blasts.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Combined with No Arc in Archery. Hawkeye, unsurprisingly, can fire an arrow at a target several blocks away, through multiple buildings. With Ant Man riding the arrow.
    • Not to mention that he can not even see the target. Several of the buildings he is shooting through have closed windows that show as solid black as we pan through them.
    • Lampshaded by the Skrull Hawkeye in Infiltration after Hawkeye grabs his arrow out of the air and nonchalantly tosses it at the Skrull Wasp who happened to be passing by.

Skrull Hawkeye: No one is that GOOD.

  • In the Hood: The Grim Reaper's hooded cape just shadows his eyes most of the time.
  • It Only Works Once: Tony Stark only got to use the Thorbuster army once, as he mentions he left it with king Itri after the battle.
  • Just Between You and Me: The Red Skull dishes on his plans entirely the second he's got Cap cornered.
  • Killer Robot: Ultron. Surprise again.
  • Kirby Dots: Seen a lot, but notably when Pym shrinks or grows.
  • Karma Houdini: The Serpent Society, Enchantress, Baron Zemo, and most of the Masters of Evil, at least at the end of the first season .
  • Knight Templar: General Ross--nothing will stop him from taking down the Hulk, not even the lives of two or three SHIELD agents. Nick Fury has shades of this as well, as seen in his use of Iron Man's tech and his attempts to create super soldiers.
  • Lampshade Hanging: From Masters of Evil

Hawkeye: You know, I don't think I want to be part of a team that I have to end up saving every week.

    • He repeated this in "Hail, Hydra".

"Don't worry, I'm here to save the world.... again."

  • Large Ham: Numerous characters, including Man-Ape, Graviton, Vector, and Thor, natch.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: The bonus interviews on the DVDs containing the first half of season one consist of interviews revealing events from the second season. In the process, the interviewees also spoil events from season one episodes not included on those DVDs, such as Carol Danvers getting superpowers.
    • That event also becomes spoiled in the trailer included on the Thor Blu-Ray, which contains several scenes of Ms. Marvel fighting alongside the Avengers.
    • A group shot in the trailer for the second season reveals that Hank Pym leaves the team at the end of season one.
  • Leitmotif: Black Panther has one, for when he's seen skulking about.
    • Captain America has a heroic and patriotic sounding one whenever he does something awesome.
  • Legion of Doom: The Masters of Evil.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Iron Fist and Luke Cage refuse to let anyone know about the time Scott Lang beat both of them in a fight.
  • Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Or in this case, trapping Tony Stark on a world inhabited by dwarves. They're your typical Norse-derived dwarves with all kinds of equipment for forging weapons and armor.
  • Lower Deck Episode: "To Steal an Ant-Man" doesn't feature any of the Avengers except for Wasp, who only gets about three minutes of screentime, and Hank Pym, who had quit the team by this point anyway. While Hank does get some more Character Development, the episode sometimes seems to skew the focus more on Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and/or Ant-Man II (who made their first appearances here).
  • Luxury Prison Suite: While it appears every inmate at the Big House is afforded at least one small item to keep them occupied, the Grey Gargoyle's cell has a vanity mirror, a tea set, and wallpaper!


M-P

  • Magic Pants: Done obviously with the Hulk, however in the Gamma World episode when Wasp turns into a literal wasp, her outfit is torn and shredded, but the fabric covering her lady parts are still intact.
    • After Hulk changes back into Bruce Banner he has to adjust his pants because they no longer fit him.
    • Recently Hulk re-enters the atmosphere and his pants are still fine.
    • Word of God says that this will be subverted in season 2 when Iron Man gives him some new stretchy pants.
  • MacGuffin Melee:The episode Hail Hydra had this between The Avengers, Hydra, and Advanced Idea Mechanics aka AIM for the Cosmic Cube.
  • Magic Versus Science: Tony and Thor butt heads a lot with neither being able to completely understand the side the other has.
  • Male Gaze: From Maria Hill to Black Widow, there is no shortage of shots of the female characters walking from behind.
  • Megaton Punch: Hulk gives one to Abomination and sends him flying.
    • Giant-Man also does this several times to various villains.
  • Mind Probe: Both MODOC and Ultron utilize this.
  • Mind Rape: Malekith does this to Black Panther, and Ultron's aforementioned Mind Probe certainly has shades of this.
  • Mind Screw: When the Avengers get pulled into Adam Warlock's Soul Gem, and wind up in recreations of different places. The background changes nearly every time the camera angle switches.
  • Mood Whiplash: When Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm visit Avengers Mansion:

Johnny: Time to settle this once and for all.
Clint: Is it 7:00 already?
Ben: I brought the chips! Let's play some cards, Avengers!

  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Black Panther pulls off a fairly impressive one on Man Ape. As you might expect, it crosses over with You Killed My Father.
  • Mythology Gag: The series is filled with these, from allusions to Wasp: Agent of SHIELD, Armor Wars, and Siege, to bigger ones, like basing the plot on New Avengers.
    • Tony uses the Mark VII armor in the show. The last armor to appear in the film series is the Mark VI.
    • When Tony's armor is out of power and Wasp offers to help, he asks if she has an electrical socket handy. When Iron Man first appeared in comics this is exactly how he kept his chestplate charged. He also mentions batteries, which were another way to recharge his energy reserves at the time.
    • The Big House itself is based on a memorable She Hulk arc; Whirlwind even has a cell next to the Mad Thinker just like Southpaw. The guards are based on Hank Pym's infamous creation Ultron, though. Since Pym designed the facility, complete with use of his shrinking technology, this is unsurprising.
    • Fury hands Whirlwind over to the Mutant Response Division. As in the villains from Wolverine and the X-Men.
    • Black Widow has Champion-class SHIELD security clearance. In the comics, she was a member of the short lived team known as the Champions.
      • Considering Cap has "Champion license"--i.e. license to gather whatever team he sees fit for whatever team he sees fit--in New Avengers, this might be a reference to that as well.
    • Cop shorthand for a supervillain attack is "Code Blue." Code Blue was the name of a special unit of the NYPD geared specifically to deal with supervillains in the comics.
    • A newspaper seen in Enter the Whirlwind has headlines referring to the Punisher and Man-Thing.
      • A similar paper in "Masters of Evil" references Xavier's School ("SECRET SCHOOL FOR MUTANTS?") and a resident of the Baxter Building claiming he had been replaced by aliens.
    • In the first part of "Gamma World", a female SHIELD agent mutates into a a harpy-like monster after being exposed to gamma radiation. Something very similar happened to Betty Banner in the Hulk comics.
      • One of her male cohorts mutates into a Hulk-like creature with grayish skin and long hair, thus looking exactly like Skaar, Hulk's son in the comics.
    • One of the background monsters in "Gamma World" is a blue version of the Abomination similar to Rick Jones' recent transformation into A-Bomb.
    • The reveal that Viper is a Skrull is reminiscent of Skrull!Elektra in Secret Invasion.
    • Hawkeye and Black Widow working as part of a SHIELD black-ops team ( as well as Black Widow's subsequent betrayal) seems to be an homage to Mark Millar's The Ultimates series. This also syncs up nicely with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Hawkeye and Widow are both introduced as SHIELD operatives (rather than the original comics, where they were reformed supervillains).
    • In "Everything Is Wonderful", Wonder Man is somewhat redesigned from his comic book counterpart so that he is now always living mass of ionic energy, whereas in the comics he can change back and forth at will. However, his original comic book costume briefly appears as a safety suit that Simon Williams wears during the procedure that turns him into Wonder Man.
    • At the start of "The Kang Dynasty" one of Kang's mooks is watching a screen that shows a building that is almost certainly Xavier's school.
    • Gamma World resembles the plot of a What If comic where the accident that created the Hulk didn't occur and Gamma bombs were used on Nagasaki and Hiroshima creating a veritable army of gamma critters ranging from the beastial types up to the highly intelligent ones.
      • The Gamma Dome was also used in the comics by the Leader in the Warbound mini. The heroes becoming Gamma mutants is a reference to Fall of the Hulks.
    • In "Widow's Sting", Madam Hydra mentions an arrangement with a man called Gorgon in Japan. The Gorgon is one of Wolverine's deadliest enemies in the comics, and has strong ties to HYDRA through the Hand. In the same episode, the Grim Reaper reports to Strucker that he's made a deal with "the fat man" - The Kingpin.
    • A reference to the Red Room Academy, where the Black Widow was trained to be a KGB Agent by the Winter Soldier.
    • Played straight by Hawkeye. His password is "Trick Shot", which in the comics is the nickname of the guy who trained him.
    • In Casket of Ancient Winters Hawkeye muses "We should move [the Avengers] to the west coast." In the comics, Hawkeye founded the West Coast Avengers.
    • During the intro, as the words "Our world's about to break..." go by, Bruce Banner/The Hulk is seen. In the comics, one of the Hulks many names is the World Breaker.
    • While Hawkeye is fighting Chemistro in "This Hostage Earth", he tries to guess which villain he is, mentioning Paste Pot Pete and the Hypno-Hustler, two notoriously goofy Marvel villains.
    • In "A Day Unlike Any Other", Wasp wears an armored costume that is very similar to her original costume in the comics.
    • Another one for "A Day Unlike Any Other". Valkyrie is knocked off her Horse during the battle on the Rainbow bridge, and is caught by the Hulk. Both were part of the Un-Team The Defenders.
    • In "Meet Captain America", Cap storms the castle using Charging Star and Stars And Stripes.
    • When Thor, Hawkeye and Black Panther rejoin the battle against Ultron, Thor declares, "Ultron, we would have words with thee."
    • Tony Stark wordlessly plonks down the newly-created, still-steaming Thorbuster Armor faceplate in front of the dwarves, much like he did with the Mk I in the first movie. The image of Tony Stark building his armor with hammer and anvil goes back quite a bit further than that, of course.
    • One type of Dr. Doom's Doombots closely resembles the Ultimate Comics version of Doom, with more angular features and goat-like legs.
    • In "Alone Against A.I.M.," the energy shield generator gauntlet Tony was making for Cap is similar to the one James (the son of Captain America and Black Widow in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow) uses which is also based on the energy shield from the main stream continuity.
    • In "Who Do You Trust?", the Avengers are reduced to four members due to Skrull-induced paranoia. This is a reference to the second line-up of Avengers, which fans have nicknamed Cap's Kooky Quartet. It came about when the founders left the team. It even has Cap and Hawkeye, with Wasp and the Hulk replacing Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in the lineup.
    • The short speech Abomination gives to Hulk in Gamma World is taken almost word for word from a confrontation they have in The Ultimates. Hulk even interrupts both speeches.
    • The code for overriding the security system of Beta Ray Bill's spaceship, "337," matches the comic that introduced Bill, issue #337 of The Mighty Thor.
    • After Wasp says that Red Hulk can't be the Hulk, since he has different-colored skin, Maria reminds her that the Hulk originally had gray skin.
    • In "Prisoner of War," the Skrull Queen says she's going to get humanity to "embrace change," which was the tagline of the Secret Invasion event in the comics.
    • Various pieces of Jackson Pollock artwork are hanging in Stark Tower, as well as Avengers Mansion. This is a nod to the Iron Man movie, where Tony decides to buy a Pollock painting Pepper mentioned to him.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Abomination, Kang the Conqueror, Grim Reaper, Death Adder, The Executioner, Madame Viper, Doctor Doom.
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: Since the power goes out during Hawkeye's practice session in the beginning of "Hail HYDRA!", his firing an arrow at an apple through some electric discs is either this, or an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
  • Never Say "Die": Mostly averted, as death is referenced a LOT. Mooks and Shield troops can and do die, there may occasionally be the odd cut if someone uses firearms though. Played a little straighter with MODOK (MODOC in this continuity) but it makes sense because his operating method is different. There have been some pretty brutal deaths all the same, one of the most recent examples being MODOC forcing some AIM pilots to fly in front of a HYDRA missile to save his own hide. That same episode also included quite a few mook bodies on the streets of New York as well, so...
    • It's also pretty blatantly implied that Skrull!Madame Viper is dead. Although some characters simply reference as being "locked up"(Fury probably didn't tell them she was a Skrull), the last we see of her she's lying motionless on a slab having reverted back to her natural Skrull form (as they so often do when shuffling off this mortal coil).
  • Never Trust Disney XD's Website: The auditory quotes for the bios come from the episode "Some Assembly Required". Captain America didn't appear in that episode, so one of Ant-Man's snarkier quotes (the one where he asks Tony if he considers the Avengers a "pet project" he started out of boredom) gets attributed to him instead. As a result, Cap might come off as a bigger jerk than he actually is.
  • No Endor Holocaust: Thor is show vaporizing a very large part of urban New York in Breakout Part 2 in order to give his power a sense of scale, however the size and location the crater change in the immediately following scene so that he doesn't kill tens of thousands of people.
  • No Gravity for You: Gravitron's gimmick.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Baron Strucker's life-sucking is instantly and completely undone if either you knock him out, or break his demonic hand right afterward.
  • No Swastikas: In "Meet Captain America", we learn that World War Two, in this continuity, took place between the Allies and... HYDRA.
    • Red Skull does have an Iron Cross on his uniform, however. And for that matter, he clearly wears an SS uniform.
    • Word of God says S&P gave them a stark choice: keep the guns and remove the Nazis, or keep the Nazis and have everyone firing lasers. The staff chose to keep the guns (this was for the portion set in WW 2, were they did used guns).
    • This interview with Christopher Yost says he intended for HYDRA to serve as merely a branch of the Nazis.
    • The episode was never shown in Germany (pay and free-tv) regardless.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Some episodes have the same names as comics, but not exactly the same plots. This seems most obvious for "Iron Man is Born!" (which does not retell the origin of Iron Man) and "The Man in the Ant Hill" (in which Hank Pym never goes inside an ant hill).
  • Not So Different: Hulk gives the rest of the Avengers this when he quits, comparing them to Ross and SHIELD, with the difference being that the latter are honest about their fear of him.
  • Odd Friendship: The Hulk and the Wasp. Also, Hulk and Hawkeye. And Hawkeye and Black Panther.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
    • Hulk getting hurled into the realm of the frost giants only serves to piss him off.
    • Ant-Man and Wasp appear near the beginning of "The Man Who Stole Tomorrow" while dragging Blizzard to Prison 42. Wasp boasts that it was "really easy" to capture him.
    • The Hulk's and Black Panther's capture of the Red Ghost occurs offscreen during "Ultron-5".
    • Susan Storm getting the Baxter Building and its inhabitants back from an alternate dimension in "Secret Invasion."
  • Oh Crap:
    • Absorbing Man's reaction when Hulk shatters his arm.
    • Grim Reaper's reaction when he sees the "present" Fury left on his scythe.
      • He does it again at a later date when Black Panther cuts through his scythe.
    • Mandrill wasn't very impressed when Wasp threatened him, probably because his power is mesmerizing women... cue Iron Man, and he still thinks he can come out on top with his simian strength and ingenuity. But with Thor, Ant-Man and Hulk appearing one after another, Mandrill had a whole rainbow of Oh Crap expressions appear on his face.
    • Wasp has a similar one to Mandrill when the Masters of Evil confront her one by one. Enchantress gets an Oh Crap herself when Hulk comes back from fighting Frost Giants.
    • Not to mention the look on Abomination's face right before Giant Man punts him like a football.
    • Madame Viper's a Skrull
    • Loki's face when Odin wakes up in "A Day Unlike Any Other"
    • Tony Stark after discovering Technovore wants his arc reactor.
  • One-Scene Wonder: The heroic version of the Black Knight makes a brief appearance in Come the Conqueror, shown defending London from Kang's forces.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Which makes sense, since the dwarves of Nidavellir are based on the same myths that inspired the dwarves that inspired all other dwarves in modern fantasy, and there's some carry-over as well.
  • Out of Order: "Widow's Sting" takes place after the Avengers thwart Kang's first attempt to conquer 21st century Earth, but Disney XD aired it before the Avengers met Kang.
  • Parental Bonus: In episode 2, a Las Vegas cop runs into a man giving out cards which sends the cards flying. Adults will recognize this as a common feature of Vegas, where men handout cards with the numbers of call girls. This is further driven home by one of the cards flying past the camera and showing a girl who seems to be topless but the naughty bits are tastefully covered by playing cards.
  • The Password Is Always Swordfish: Subverted when Hawkeye tries to connect to Black Widow's remote computer to access her files. When prompted for a password, he tries everything even tangentially connected to spiders (and in a moment of wishful thinking, his own first name) but nothing works. He does guess the password eventually: "red room".
  • Perma-Stubble: Bruce Banner.
  • Physical God: The Asgardians.
  • Pin-Pulling Teeth: Madame Viper pulls the pin out with her tongue, then the rest of her teeth. Because shut up.
  • Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Nick Fury, after getting a face full of Strucker's life-draining hand.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The episode "Everything Is Wonderful" fits this trope to a T. All Tony Stark had to do was inform Simon that the latter's company was going under and Stark himself was only purchasing it to save it. Instead of doing this flat-out, he remained aloof, inattentive, unfeeling, and cold as Simon was practically weeping at his feet. Pym called him out on it, and even though Stark knew what he was doing, it still didn't drive him to run after Simon as he stormed out in a huff. And then Simon gets transformed into a being of pure energy, driven only to destroy Stark for his perceived callousness.
    • Also, from Welcome to the Kree Empire. if only Sword was more up to date on the Kree work, and if only Ms. Marvel wasn't so aggressive. If only they had more time to talk, then all these problems might have been less difficult. The bit with Cap as a Skrull though can't be compensated for though. Once he attacked Ronan, there was really no hope of a peaceful solution.
  • Post-Modern Magik: While battling the Enchantress and the Executioner, Iron Man's suit is damaged, Giant Man is out, and Wasp is caught by the Enchantress. When Hulk arrives and breaks the Enchantress' concentration. Thor powers up Mjolnir's thunder magic.

Enchantress: Your magic is nothing against mine.
Thor: You are not my target, witch!
Previously crippled Iron Man stands up surrounded by electricity.
Jarvis: Armor energy reserves at 214%.

    • They continue to do this in later episodes to the extent that Tony yelling to Thor, "hit me with everything ya got!" is becoming their mutual catchphrase.
  • Power Floats: When Carol Danvers wakes up from her coma, she's floating as well as glowing.
  • Power-Up Letdown: Going into the final battle for Season One, almost half the team (Hawkeye, Wasp, Antman, and Ironman) get cool new costumes, with inferred power. Of these, only Wasp's seems to change her performance at all (she goes from useless attacks to one-shotting giants, everyone else... gets this trope).
  • Power Walk: The team does this in "The Kang Dynasty" as they board the Quinjet to attack Kang's mothership to show they have The Right Stuff to save the world.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: Present and accounted for along with Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics. Captain America (comics)'s shield can make all kinds of different scientists cry.
  • "Previously On...": Each episode from the second season begins with a recap. Disney XD also shows episodes 20-26 with recaps attached, since they aired several months after episode #18[3]. Strangely, some recaps show clips out of order.
  • Prolonged Prologue: The Avengers don't officially form until the end of the seventh episode. Furthermore, Captain America doesn't join until the ninth episode, Black Panther doesn't join until the eleventh, and Hawkeye doesn't join until two episodes after that, meaning that the core team of eight Avengers that make up the first (26 episode) season doesn't assemble until the end of the thirteenth episode. However, the first seven episodes feature plenty of action by the heroes working solo and do set up the season nicely, so this is a case where Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh: A Giant Mook picks a fight with Luke Cage in "To Steal an Ant-Man". Bad idea.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Baron Zemo: "DESTROY! THEM! ALL!!!"


Q-T

  • Race Lift: Princess Ravonna is portrayed as a white redhead in the comics, but in the TV series she has black hair and very dark skin. Her exact race is difficult to pin down based on her features, but she definitely isn't white.
  • Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: Captain America apparently drinks raw eggs for breakfast.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Wonder Man, and Ultron after he goes rogue. He even makes it his trademark by making every computer screen in the world that he hacks, glow red.
  • Rock Beats Laser: Subverted by Wakanda. While they cling to archaic values and government, those spears they chase people around with are made from tech more advanced than the Iron Man armor!
    • Kang's forcefields casually shrug off Iron Man's strongest blasts, but Hulk just as casually breaks right through them with brute strength.
      • Only the first time. After that, the Hulk never gets another hit in, though he makes up for it by subverting it with Rock Distracts Laser:

The Hulk throws a couple of boulders at Kang, who effortlessly destroys them
Kang: You seek to defeat me by throwing rocks at me, you mindless monster?
Hulk: It's called a distraction, smart guy.
The Black Panther hits Kang from behind with his vibranium daggers, causing the first real damage to Kang in the fight.

  • Rogues Gallery: And not just the Avengers villains. We also get villains for each individual member.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Just keep in mind that they're going for comic book accuracy with Thor, not mythological accuracy.
  • Sanity Slippage: General Ross shows signs of this is his first appearances. He's not fully gone, but his obsession with the Hulk is clearly starting to get the better of him. Meanwhile, Graviton takes a flying leap off of the slippery slope and never looks back.
  • Say My Name: Averted

Iron Man: Pepper, guess who I ticked off this morning? I'll give you a hint: his name rhymes with "Boom"

    • Captain America plays this straight with Bucky's name when Bucky sacrifices himself to save Cap from perishing in an explosion. It also becomes the very first thing Cap says after awakening in the 21st century.
  • Science Is Bad: Thor holds this view (and he can be forgiven considering some scientific monstrosities such as the massively deformed head known as MODOC), though the show as a whole avoids it as it has a scientist and a Techno Wizard as some of the heroes (Pym and Stark, and you can add Banner on the rare occasions he's not the Hulk). When facing one set of monsters, Giant-Man refutes Thor's view and states that science didn't make the monsters, people did using science very irresponsibly. Iron Man is also quick to gloat to Thor when magic turns out to be Not So Different and is abused just as easily; after which Thor opens up a little to the idea of technology being helpful.
  • Sexy Walk: Black Widow and Maria Hill both get on this.
  • Shoot the Hostage: Hank resolves a hostage situation in "To Steal An Ant-Man" by shooting the hostage with a "Pym particle gun", harmlessly shrinking her.
  • Shooting Superman: Wasp's stingers rarely do much. Lampshaded in "Come the Conqueror": "Man, I gotta find bigger stingers!" - before trading up for the Quinjet.
  • Silent Antagonist: So far, Skurge the Executioner has no voice actor. He never even makes grunts or battle noises.
  • Something Person: Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wonder Man, Absorbing Man.
  • Split Personality Takeover: A unique variation of this, Hulk makes a deal with Banner to be a hero as long as he gets to be the Hulk all the time. Banner agrees, but acts as a Spirit Advisor at times.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In a total inversion of both the trope and sister series Wolverine and the X-Men, top movie seller Iron Man is not the center of the action, and instead seems to exist purely to make mistakes that leave every other team member looking better. Huh.
  • Squash Match: Each series of shorts first pits the hero against a weak, easily dispatched villain--Iron Man against HYDRA grunts, Hulk against Absorbing Man, Thor against the Wrecking Crew--to show off his powers before moving on to a larger, more challenging threat.
  • Snake People: The Serpent Society is a group of snake-themed supervillains; although most of their snake-like appearance and abilities come from cybernetic limbs and such.
  • Sssssnaketalk: King Cobra, field leader of the afore mentioned Serpent Society.
  • Space X: Iron Man summarized the Guardians of the Galaxy as "Space Avengers."
  • Stating the Simple Solution: Abomination mentions to Zemo that they should just kill the captured Avengers. He should have listened.
    • Subverted with Loki. When Thor tells him, that keeping alive will be a mistake, Loki reveals that he wasn't planning to.
  • Stealth Hi Bye: Hawkeye pulls this on Iron Man, The Wasp, Captain America and Black Panther at the start of Gamma World.
  • Stripperiffic : Whiplash's costume is basically a bondage costume. She even fights with a whip. Wasp too in "Gamma World", thanks to Clothing Damage.
  • Superhero Paradox: Briefly addressed in the Ultron imparative, but mostly subverted so far. While Ultron's mayhem was eventually caused by their activity, and Wonderman wasn't created until the Avengers were formed, most of the villains were already established criminals during the breakout and Loki's plot to release them all was already in motion when the heroes began showing up.
  • Take That: Black Panther's origin is a Take That to Reginald Hudlin run on the character's comic book. According to Wakanda's traditions, all someone had to do to become the ruler of Wakanda was win a wrestling fight, exactly as it was in Hudlin's Retcon. As Man-Ape took advantage of this (cheating when he fought T'Challa's father) and became a cruel ruler and sold vibranium to villains, T'Challa points out how stupid this "tradition" was. After he defeats Man-Ape and becomes the new and benevolent Wakandan king, he abolished this tradition.
    • Continued and partially subverted in Behold the Vision when it's revealed that even though he finds this law stupid, he never actually abolished it, so Hawkeye attempts several time throughout the episode to use this oversight to take over Wakanda to get back at T'Challa for leaving the team. it doesn't go in Hawkeye's favor.
    • Possibly one to its sister show Ultimate Spider-Man: "I told you never to call me Power Man, Danny."
  • Tap on the Head: Hilariously defied. In a flashback to World War II, a mook clubs a distracted Captain America (comics) on the head with the butt of his rifle, clearly meaning to knock him out... but Cap just looks annoyed, and the mook takes a nosedive off the bridge seconds later.
  • Team Spirit: If episodes like "Breakout," "Widow's Sting," and "The Casket of Ancient Winters" don't give you a stronger understanding of the power of teamwork, you must not have paid much attention.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Thor and Hulk have a bit of trouble getting along at first. May be because they're more than a bit similar.
  • Technical Pacifist: Ant Man will try ever other option available before resorting to violence, but when he pushes that button on his belt, you better hope you aren't in his way.
  • Tempting Fate: When Strucker and Grim Reaper are about to escape, Grim Reaper temps fate by saying "That was easy". Cue Nick Fury landing on the hood of their flying car.
    • When Agent Woo wants to talk to Tony about The Vault's security:

Iron Man: Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait a day.

    • Graviton, while fighting the Avengers sans the Hulk, actually thinks it's a good idea to steal Hulk's catchphrase.

Graviton: I am the strongest one there is!
Hulk: (lands next to him) You sure about that?

    • Also done by the Leader.

Leader: "With the Avengers defeated, who can stop me?" (Cue Hulk and Hawkeye crashing in)

  • Ten-Minute Retirement: Subverted in "Some Assembly Required". Even after coming back to save the team after shaking off Enchantress's manipulations, it appears that Hulk still has some issues to work out with the main team.
    • Double Subverted. Hulk eventually did return, on the condition that Hawkeye stays too.
    • Subverted Again Post season 1 when Hank Pym leaves the team and remains off the team long after he finally makes an appearance in season 2. He even goes so far as to completely give up his Ant-Man equipment to Scott Lang.
  • The Quiet One: Black Panther. Lampshaded.

Wasp: I forgot you talked!

  • The Reveal: it wasn't Hawkeye that got replaced as a skrull, it was Mockingbird.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Iron Man's reaction to getting overwhelmed at the Vault breakout. He hacks the security system and blows the entire place sky high.
  • There Was a Door: Given the choice, Hulk busts through the ceiling in lieu of taking the stairs.
    • Lampshaded by Iron Man when his conversation with Thor is interrupted by Hulk kicking down the door to deliver the villains that he and Black Panther had captured.

Iron Man: You know you didn't have to do that, the doors open automatically.

  • Throw It In: The storyboard artist of "The Private War of Doctor Doom" drew the Thing holding potato chips instead of poker chips, so the writers added a line where Johnny tells him, "I think they meant poker chips."
  • Time Travel: Kang the Conqueror, the Master of Time, is from the 41st century. He tries to Set Right What Once Was Wrong (in his own eyes) by traveling back in time to destroy Captain America. His story arc includes a Temporal Paradox with the Avengers trying to prevent the Kree-Skrull war from laying waste to the entire planet, but to do so, (according to Kang), Captain America must die.
  • Title Sequence Replacement: When episodes 20-26 aired overseas, they contained the same opening seen in preceding episodes. When Disney XD aired these episodes, they began with recaps of previous events, and also contained a new, shorter intro. Later, these episodes became available for legal download at iTunes, streaming at Netflix and Marvel's website, and DVD, boasting no recaps, and the same opening from preceding episodes.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ms. Marvel and Wasp, respectively.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Really, Absorbing Man? He puts a dent in your metal body, and you decide that turning to rock will be the best way to fight The Hulk? But then again was dumb enough to pick a fight with The Hulk to begin with, so honestly it isn't surprising that Absorbing Man made such a glaring tactical error.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Pym is a Technical Pacifist for awhile, but after the incident with Ultron, he became more and more violence-prone, mostly when Jan was in trouble. For example, in "The Fall of Asgard", when Hank and the unconscious Jan are attacked by Frost Giant's in another realm, he goes ballistic to protect her, grabbing a Giant's ax and annihilating three of them (off screen).
  • Tron Lines: Tony's bodysuit he wears under the Iron Man armor looks like some of the suits worn in Tron: Legacy.
    • Likewise the design on Hank's suit will glow when he activates his powers.
  • Tuck and Cover: Two episodes in a row ("Living Legend" and "Everything is Wonderful") Jan has been shielded by another Avenger from an explosive blast. Which works because she's tiny.
    • Captain Marvel does this to shield Carol and somehow ends up transferring part of his powers to her.


U-Z

  • Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Ultron. Constantly pointed out by Jan.
  • Unobtanium: Vibranium.
  • Unusual Euphemism: Thor with "Odin's Beard!" as usual.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When Nick Fury is attacked by Strucker, he has a few years drained from him which turns some of his hair grey. No one seems to comment on this change but since SHIELD faces a multitude of odd threats daily, it could double as Fridge Brilliance, considering it's probably the least odd thing that has happened to one of their operatives. That and that he got off easy compared to the other SHIELD agent that had the same thing happen.
  • The Vamp: More of less implied to be the case with Vapor, who invades Captain America's Gamma protection suit to kiss him.
    • The Enchantress, at least for Thor. Not that it does her any good.
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: Just in case you come into the second season without remembering which Avenger got replaced by a Skrull in the first season finale, that clip plays again in the recap accompanying the season 2 premiere. Then in another recap two episodes later. Then said Avenger casts a Skrull-shaped shadow later that same episode.
  • Villain Episode: None of the full episodes are like this, but two of the micro-episodes, "The Isle of Silence" and "Lo, There Shall Come a Conqueror", focus on Loki and Kang, respectively.
  • Villain Exit Stage Left: Much like in the comics, Red Skull is a pro at this trope.
    • Double Subverted, as when he first tries to escape, Cap and Bucky follow him. It turns out he was planning, or at least ready, for this, as he escapes his escape pod in a ejector seat, leaving Cap and Bucky to die.
    • Enchantress and The Executioner pull it off too. They used a portal to get out though.
    • Also pulled off by MODOC by revealing that the AIM base also works as an escape ship.
  • Villainous Rescue: The Grim Reaper saved Iron Man from a HYDRA grunt, but only because that would advance the Batman Gambit.
  • Violence Discretion Shot: Apparent in some of the fight scenes, especially whenever anyone is shooting someone.
  • Watch Where You're Going: Black Panther employs Deadly Dodging on two of Malegrim's Huge wolf servants in The Casket of Ancient Winters.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Kang is legitimately trying to save the world, he just feels that killing Captain America is the best way to deal with the anomaly of his existence, and that ruthless conquest of Earth is the most efficient way to bolster their defenses for the coming crisis. The fact that he prefers surrender to cooperation is the main reason he and the Avengers come into conflict.
    • Too bad he arrived to early and ended up going after the wrong Cap.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Thor calls Tony for planning to dump Radioactive Man into the ground "poisoning Midgard itself" and being more concerned about his machines than the things he's supposed to be trying to protect. Thor meanwhile gets his complaining about science creating monsters turned around on him in "the Casket of Ancient Winters" when the eponymous casket creates a blizzard over the entire planet.
    • It can be seen that the audience having this reaction to No one realizing that Cap is the one who was replaced by a Skrull, even though Krang flat out told that Cap was the one who brought the Kree-Skrull War to Earth. Our Heroes...
  • Why Isn't It Attacking?: In "Gamma World," Thor is fighting Absorbing Man, who has taken on the substance of Mjolnir. Absorbing Man seems to be beating Thor to a pulp, all the while shouting at the god to get up and fight. Moments later, Thor raises his hand and stops Absorbing Man in mid-swing. Thor then shows him why taking on Mjolnir's properties was a bad idea, by controlling him just like he controls his hammer.
  • Wolverine Claws: Black Panther's gloves have retractable finger-claws on them that are very sharp. Serpent Society member Death Adder has these as well.
  • Wolverine Publicity:
    • The cover of the first two DVDs feature Thor looming over his teammates, as a tie-in to his movie. Never mind that he never comes close to becoming the leader.
      • Don't forget that the entire season's arc does revolve around him, even though many of the individual episodes do not.
    • The second opening used places emphasis on the first four Avengers to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nick Fury also gets a ton of spotlight, even though his ties to the Avengers aren't nearly as strong here as in the Cinematic Universe.
    • The DVD containing episodes 14-19 goes under the name "Iron Man Unleashed," even though Iron Man's spotlight gets stolen quite frequently during those episodes. In episodes 16 and 17, for example, he gets demoted to The Smart Guy while Captain America leads the other Avengers against Kang's forces.
    • The cover to Australia's Blu-Ray of the first season shows Nick Fury and Black Widow standing alongside the Avengers, without any indication that Widow only appears in six episodes.
    • Also guess who got added to the Howling Commandos in Cap's minisode.
  • World of Ham: Asgard has a lot and then some of the villains add to the list.
  • World of Snark: When even the Hulk starts snarking, you know you've got this.
  • The Worf Effect: Depends heavily on the episode and character. Averted with Hulk in the first season, who only really struggles with Kang's elite mooks, Abomination and the Executioner (even they don't really hold him up for too long). With Thor this is generally averted but has several examples throughout the first season jarring example was when Ultron seemingly disintegrated him but not the Hulk and the very first episode Thor suffers this to showcase Graviton's power, but the Hulk awes Graviton with his power.
    • In the second season with Thor removed from the early episodes the Hulk starts to have moments of this.
    • Iron Man, on the other hand, gets trounced or has his suit disabled roughly every other episode, only ever takes out serious threats using Combination Attacks, is frequently mocked by his teammates, and even tends to use his famous tech skills only so he can fail and set up either Hank Pym or Black Panther to succeed and look good doing so. In fact, only his comic and movie apperances allow him to fulfill this trope more than Chew Toy.
      • This reaches its logical extreme in the Season Finale: despite attempting to pull a Big Damn Heroes in a suit of armor forged by the maker of Mjolnir himself, Iron Man fails to land even a single hit on Loki. Ouch.
      • Of course, when he is in his element using technology, it makes him a real Badass, such as his effortlessly fighting Kang in a Curb Stomp Battle (the second time).
  • The World Is Always Doomed: As soon as the Avengers avert one crisis, another one has already started. So far they have saved the earth about nine times, and New York about twice as often.
  • World War 2: Red Skull, Bucky, Captain America's time. Though the historical circumstances are a bit watered down. (See "No Swastikas" above.)
  • You Fight Like a Cow: The whole "Wasp vs Whirlwind" fight. She almost rivaled Spider-Man in banter.
    • Bucky gets in on this too.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Enchantress and Executioner do this to Grey Gargoyle in "This Hostage Earth".
  • Your Size May Vary: Applies mostly to Wasp and Giant-Man. They are already size shifters so it's forgivable, but things can get really confusing between shots when they have both size shifted, making it look as though either Wasp is too large or Giant-Man is too short.
  • You Killed My Father: T'Challa's father was killed by the Man-Ape, with assistance from Klaw.
  1. ↑ clockwise from upper left: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk (top), The Mighty Thor, Black Panther, Captain America (comics), The Wasp (lower left corner), Ant-Man, and Hawkeye (center)
  2. ↑ In the comics, Nick Fury was both--he actually did serve in World War 2, but Comic Book Time eventually forced the writers to establish that he took anti-aging drugs to explain how he was still alive six decades after the war ended.
  3. ↑
    1. 19 aired before #17
This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.