Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 2 discussion thread

[Guy Gardener]

Is anyone been else a little annoyed by "Thor Prince of Thunder"?

I'm blaming the pussies afraid of a conservative backlash from organized Christians.

Note.

I'm not blaming the christians.

I'm blaming the people afraid of the Christians.

Fear is stupid.

[trekkiebaggio]

Yes, I am.

However, I'm very glad that they have recaps. For some reason I've forgotten most of what happened in the first season.

[Hound of UIster]

Looks like it got the axe courtesy of Jeph Loeb.

[Praetor_Shinzon]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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Looks like it got the axe courtesy of Jeph Loeb.

yeah, i was just reading about that.

[trekkiebaggio]

What's going on?

[Christopher]

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansit.../news/?a=58063

It's being alleged -- not yet confirmed -- that Loeb (head of Marvel Animation) has decided that Avengers: EMH will end after the current season and be replaced next year by a new Avengers show produced in-house by Marvel. Not unlike how the Sony-produced The Spectacular Spider-Man was cancelled and replaced with an in-house Marvel/Disney-produced Ultimate Spider-Man -- a cancellation based not on ratings or quality, but on corporate consolidation. (And perhaps based on Loeb's storytelling preferences; the report says he's not a fan of the multi-episode-arc approach that A:EMH has taken and prefers self-contained episodes.)

[trekkiebaggio]

Thanks for the link. That's a shame .

[Christopher]

Well, it's not definitely confirmed yet.

Although the fact that A:EMH is an outside production does explain why it and Ultimate Spider-Man are in separate continuities. Maybe the new Avengers series will be in continuity with USM -- and maybe it'll feature Agent Coulson.

[Guy Gardener]

But the ongingness is what rulz so hard about this Avengers.

It's making children smarter.

[Admiral_Young]

Don't believe things "reported" on Comic Book Movie. They have a notorious reputation for reporting false things, hoaxes, and generally making crap up that turns out to be completely and utterly wrong. If that "report" surfaces elsewhere then there is some merit to it.

[Turtletrekker]

A preview of Sunday's episode, "Welcome To the Kree Empire", with Ronan the Accuser and the return of Captain Mar-Vell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kdb...layer_embedded

[USS Mariner]

Guy Gardener wrote:

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But the ongingness is what rulz so hard about this Avengers.

It's making children smarter.

Marvel's probably afraid that people will get used to good writing, so viewers will be unable to put up with the recent comics.

[USS Mariner]

Christopher wrote:

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(And perhaps based on Loeb's storytelling preferences; the report says he's not a fan of the multi-episode-arc approach that A:EMH has taken and prefers self-contained episodes.)

That's so true. Comics never have a storyline that comprises more than one issue.

[Christopher]

USS Mariner wrote:

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Marvel's probably afraid that people will get used to good writing, so viewers will be unable to put up with the recent comics.

It's a false premise that serialized storytelling is automatically smarter than short-form storytelling. Is a cheesy daytime soap more intelligently written than the self-contained short stories of Ray Bradbury or the self-contained plays of Shakespeare? Of course not. Are the Saw or Fast and Furious series of films more intelligent than Casablanca or The Seven Samurai just because they have more installments? Obviously not. There's always value in the ability to tell a complete, fulfilling story in a single work. And it's always possible for serialization to be done badly, to be a lazy excuse for just tossing in fragments of stories and never actually finishing anything.

Episodic and serial storytelling are simply different styles, neither one intrinsically superior to the other. Serialization is simply more fashionable today, so people who mistake fashion for quality assume it's better. But half a century ago, only cheesy soaps were serialized and the classiest, smartest work in television was in the anthology shows, particularly the 90-minute showcases that put on weekly plays written by top-notch playwrights like Chayefsky and Corwin and Rose and Serling. So people then had the opposite prejudice, that quality writing meant standalone stories and that serial storytelling was hack work. Our modern prejudice is no more correct than theirs; it's just equally insular. And equally fallacious to assume that quality is a matter of format rather than execution.

Not to mention that it's a false dichotomy in this case. Ultimate Spider-Man is produced by Loeb and represents his preference for episodic storytelling, but those episodes definitely have serialized elements -- ongoing plot and character threads that run through the season even though each specific half-hour tells a complete story rather than just part of one. Which really is much the same as how Stan Lee himself wrote comics back in his heyday -- just about every issue was a one-parter, but the characters and plotlines continued to grow and evolve from story to story. You don't need every single story to stretch out over six issues in order to have meaningful character and plot development. Episodic and serial storytelling aren't incompatible opposites, but ingredients in the mix. Many series use varying mixes of both styles.

[USS Mariner]

Christopher wrote:

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It's a false premise that serialized storytelling is automatically smarter than short-form storytelling. Is a cheesy daytime soap more intelligently written than the self-contained short stories of Ray Bradbury or the self-contained plays of Shakespeare? Of course not. Are the Saw or Fast and Furious series of films more intelligent than Casablanca or The Seven Samurai just because they have more installments? Obviously not. There's always value in the ability to tell a complete, fulfilling story in a single work. And it's always possible for serialization to be done badly, to be a lazy excuse for just tossing in fragments of stories and never actually finishing anything.

Episodic and serial storytelling are simply different styles, neither one intrinsically superior to the other. Serialization is simply more fashionable today, so people who mistake fashion for quality assume it's better. But half a century ago, only cheesy soaps were serialized and the classiest, smartest work in television was in the anthology shows, particularly the 90-minute showcases that put on weekly plays written by top-notch playwrights like Chayefsky and Corwin and Rose and Serling. So people then had the opposite prejudice, that quality writing meant standalone stories and that serial storytelling was hack work. Our modern prejudice is no more correct than theirs; it's just equally insular. And equally fallacious to assume that quality is a matter of format rather than execution.

Not to mention that it's a false dichotomy in this case. Ultimate Spider-Man is produced by Loeb and represents his preference for episodic storytelling, but those episodes definitely have serialized elements -- ongoing plot and character threads that run through the season even though each specific half-hour tells a complete story rather than just part of one. Which really is much the same as how Stan Lee himself wrote comics back in his heyday -- just about every issue was a one-parter, but the characters and plotlines continued to grow and evolve from story to story. You don't need every single story to stretch out over six issues in order to have meaningful character and plot development. Episodic and serial storytelling aren't incompatible opposites, but ingredients in the mix. Many series use varying mixes of both styles.

Agreed on all points. I do have to admit that actually wasn't my intent to criticize stand-alone stories vs. arcs, but your insight is always welcome.

What I meant to say was that, opposed to the comics, a TV series usually has the benefit of having the same writing staff over the course of it's run, thus allowing both one-shot and ongoing stories to benefit from shared continuity and consistency. I know too well that having a static staff does not actually ensure quality storytelling. EMH does have a great roster of talent, which would be a shame to lose just so Marvel can make slightly more money.