Awesome / The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

From the cartoon:

Season 1

Micro-Episodes

• Iron Man overcoming a severe power drain and being held at gunpoint by the SHIELD Mandroids in order to defeat the HYDRA Dreadnoughts in the climax of his series of shorts.
• Why is Nick Fury's hair white? Old age? Actually, it's because he got into a fight with Baron Strucker who drained his life force, and he decided to walk away as if losing a decent percentage of his life force was worth it to keep this one villain from escaping.
• The Grim Reaper. In the comics, a lowly crook who has an arm that can cause a coma and a necromancer. His claim to fame: being Wonder Man's brother. How does he get introduced? Why, he's walking through a SHIELD scanner, and they realize he has an implant. He then turns into a fully fledged badass and breaks a high priority prisoner out of a jail designed by Iron Man and enforced by SHIELD. And the only reason he didn't succeed was because Nick Fury was there.
• "Thor the Mighty" has this:
  Thor: Have you no honor?
  Wrecker: *laughs* Not even a little!
  Thor: Then you should be familiar with attacking a foe from behind!
  (Cue Mjölnir flying back and clobbering Wrecker upside the head)
  • Jane Foster, an ordinary human with no superpowers, putting herself in the line of fire to help the injured. Even Thor was impressed.
• Baldur's Colossus Climb during "The Siege of Asgard," which culminates in him stabbing a Frost Giant in the eye. The same Frost Giant later appears in the background in "A Day Unlike Any Other," and now he's wearing an eyepatch.
• The entirety of "Hulk vs. The World," such as Hulk punching off the Absorbing Man's arm and Hawkeye descending from a helicopter on a zip line.
• Black Widow beating Hawkeye marks the only time Hawkeye is defeated throughout the entire first season.
  • "Beating" is a somewhat generous term for getting in a sucker punch with her stinger while he's startled by her falsely identifying him as the HYDRA double agent.
• In the "Howling Commandos" short, we get a brief clip of Percival Pinkerton owning a HYDRA mook with an umbrella.
• And of course, you knew it was coming but Bucky's Heroic Sacrifice.
• "The Man in the Anthill" has Hank Pym showing off just what an Incredible Shrinking Man is really capable of. It doubles as a Crowning Moment because it shows Hank kicking ass, instead of focusing on the things that have been bogging him down in the comics.
  • The best moment is when the guys realize that they're outmatched and run outside... only to find that Hank shrunk them too without their realizing it. Later, Hank offhandedly tells Wasp to make sure they aren't eaten by his ants.
  • Hank's cool, casual response to a hole being blasted through his door:
  Hank: You know, that door didn't have a lock. You could have just opened it.
• The Wasp blasting Whirlwind in the face at point blank range with one of her energy blasts in "Enter the Whirlwind".

Breakout

• Gravitron: I'm stronger than all of you! I'm the strongest one there is!
  (BOOM)
  Hulk: You sure about that?
  • The Avengers attack Graviton en masse, who simply increases the gravity around them, forcing them to the ground. As he flies up in the air, lifting a lot of debris and taunting them, Hulk starts to get back up. Graviton increases it further.. and Hulk starts to get back up again., this repeats for a few cycles, Graviton's reaction is priceless:
    Graviton: NOTHING is that powerful!

Some Assembly Required

• "NO ONE...CONTROLS THE HULK!!!"
• How about Hulk easily handing the rest of the Avengers their asses?
• During the fight between the Avengers and the Enchantress & Executioner, Thor calls down some lightning. Enchantress taunts him for missing her, but Thor says that the lightning wasn't meant for her. Cue a fully-recharged Iron Man getting back up.

Living Legend

• Captain America reawakening, then repeatedly putting Thor, Ant-Man, and Iron Man down. Sure, they weren't looking for a fight (though Thor learned faster than the others), but Cap still handed their asses to them soundly, including putting Thor down four times in less than that many minutes! And the last time he did it was a flying shield version of an Offhand Backhand!
• Baron Zemo curbstomping Grim Reaper in only a couple of moves.
• Cap beating up Zemo after regaining his confidence.
• Black Panther saving Cap by returning his shield at a very opprotune minute two full episodes before he's even revealed himself to the other Avengers.
• Captain America pulling a slightly unusual Diving Save to protect Wasp from a bomb; landing on his stomach in front of her, but swinging the shield down over her and imbedding it between her and the bomb, creating a neat little pocket of safety in the explosion.
• Ant-Man gets some Awesomeness by Analysis points; on learning the Doughboys are Zola's creations, he recalls from his studies that all of Zola's monsters are unstable, especially when exposed to the right kind of energy — like the bio-energy Wasp's stingers emit. He promptly uses his helmet to send out sound waves of the right frequency and tells Iron Man to attune his blasters to the same frequency; these attacks end up taking out the Doughboys for good.

Everything is Wonderful

• Thor using his lightning to help himself and Wasp escape a black hole.
• Wasp defends Thor from MODOC's mental bolts by flying up to MODOC, and shooting him in the forehead. She even finds time to mock him yet again while doing so.
  MODOC: Even the mind of a so-called immortal is no match for MODOC.
  Wasp: Yeah? Well, the moon is no match for your head!

Panther's Quest

• A non serious T'Challa handles himself very well against Captain America, Iron Man, Wasp, and Giant Man. Wasp even admits he was kicking their butts.
• As the battle between Black Panther and Man-Ape reaches its climax, Man-Ape pulls out a tiny sonic disruptor which generates sound waves able to kill Panther in the same way as his father. Panther falls, but lifts himself back up and slowly walks towards his foe.
  Black Panther: I am not the same man as my father, M'Baku, for my rage is greater!
  • After this, Panther slays Man-Ape with one more swipe of his claws, then crushes the sonic disruptor beneath his foot.

Gamma World

• Hawkeye directly threatens to take down the Hulk if he doesn't produce Bruce Banner. As foolish as that is, it actually works! Hulk laughs at him, which causes him to turn back into Banner.
• Thor showing Absorbing Man why taking the properties of Mjölnir was a bad idea in "Gamma World, pt. 2".
  • More specifically, Absorbing Man spends approximately five minutes relentlessly pummeling Thor who, for some reason, is not resisting.
    Absorbing Man: Fight back!
    Thor: I cannot... for I am concentrating...
    *Absorbing Man rushes him, only to freeze in his tracks*
    Absorbing Man: I - I can't move! What's goin' on?!
    Thor: You were foolish to take on the essence of Mjölnir, mortal. The hammer's power is not yours to control. It is mine!
    *Thor proceeds to use Absorbing Man as a hammer against Leader's robot suit*
• The Hulk destroying the gamma generator, causing great pain to the Leader in the process.
• Leader asks if Hulk is really going to try and stop him. His response?
  Hulk: No. Not stop you...SMASH YOU!!!
• Hulk's taunt to the Leader after the latter is defeated, for its surprising eloquence.
  Leader: I was going to create the perfect world, all in my image...
  Hulk: That's the problem- you're ugly.

Masters of Evil

• As part of their plan to defeat the Avengers, the Enchantress poofs Hulk to Asgard to meet a couple of 50 foot tall frost giants. Later, when he gets poofed back, what happens? Does he fall out of the portal exhausted? No, he victoriously walks out of the portal covered in snow with an ice club in his hand. The Oh, Crap! look on Enchantress' face when he sees her is priceless.
• Giant-Man kickstarting the battle by punting Abomination through the roof.
  • That said, Hawkeye and Black Panther revealing the whole plan was a combination of Funny and Awesome. Special note to Hawkeye's grins and winks toward Zemo as the Panther explains.
  Hawkeye: Weird. Purple Puss here seems to think we were trying to defeat him.
  Black Panther: I heard. He is misguided.
• Wasp taking down Crimson Dynamo by flying inside his helmet and blasting him point blank.
  Wasp This is gonna hurt. And I won't lie to you-I'm kinda glad!
• Zemo effortlessly taking down the Abomination with two attacks and delivering a brief "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the brute who spent the whole episode questioning why the man with no special powers was their leader. Talk about Asskicking Leads to Leadership.

459

• Wasp weakens the sentry robot by flying inside it, then destroying its circuitry.

The Man Who Stole Tomorrow

• Ant-Man summoning millions of cockroaches to defeat Kang.
• Hulk throwing rocks to create an epic distraction.
• Iron Man finding similarities between Kang's technology and his own, and using those connections to send everyone back to the 21st century.
  Iron Man: A very smart man told me once that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.
• Kang himself, as he proceeds to own the Avengers effortlessly for most of the battle.

Come the Conqueror

• Captain America has one in the beginning of episode: Kang's robots attack the entire city and they are going to destroy innocent children, but Captain America shows up and defeats Kang's robots. He even proceeds to say, "Avengers Assemble!" for the first time in the show, complete with his shield raised in one of his classic poses.
• Hawkeye sliding along the suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge and taking out robots as he goes.
  • His epic moves when he dodges some projectiles, leaps off an exploding car, and fires arrows while flipping through the air.
• Black Panther runs along the side of a building for a short distance before leaping off and slicing a robot in half on the way down.
  • He also manages to get inside of one and tear it apart from the inside out.
• Wasp getting bigger stingers.

The Kang Dynasty

• Thor deflecting a beam Kang tried to shoot at the Avengers.
  • The beam wouldn't have just killed the Avengers. Its power would have wiped out the entire city of New York, and according to Kang, nothing on the planet should have been able to stop the beam. Thor knocked it right back at Kang's ship. That is what having a god on your team means.
• Black Panther gets an Offscreen Moment of Awesome. Later, when one of Kang's men is giving a status report, he tells Kang that the Wakandans have forced the invaders out.
• Iron Man's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Kang.

Widow's Sting

• Hawkeye evading capture from laser-wielding HYDRA and AIM agents armed with nothing but his trick arrows.
• Mockingbird's many usages of her bo-staff, including splitting it in two to bash Reaper's head, extending it like a pole vault to get herself and Hawkeye away from danger, and extending it to spin around and take out the wave of HYDRA soldiers surrounding her.
• Cap and Panther's Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Black Panther and Captain America defeat Grim Reaper.
  • Specifically, Panther uses his claws to shred Reaper's scythe to pieces before Cap's shield smacks him in the face.

The Casket of Ancient Winters

• Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm get one for entering the fight. It's just a cameo, sure, but the one liner makes it worth it.
  • It's Clobberin' time!
• The entire battle against Malekith.

Hail HYDRA!

• Hawkeye and Ant-Man get a joint one as Hawkeye fires an arrow at long distance through several buildings' worth of windows next to Baron Strucker- so Ant-Man can size back to normal and punch Strucker in the face.
• Cap then gets one when, despite being aged ahead a few years by Strucker's artificial arm, he still owns him in one to one combat.
• And finally Black Widow's line to him "By the authority of SHIELD, you're under arrest" makes her Heel–Face Turn awesome.

Ultron-5

• After getting trapped in a Quinjet flying into space, the Hulk busts out and starts diving right back down to Earth looking very, very angry.
  Hulk: Give me something to smash!
• When Ultron is about to blast Hank, he ends up getting blown straight through a wall. Cue Iron Man marching in in his Mk.1 Armour.
• Wasp pulling an I Am Not Left-Handed on Ultron by showing that shrinking isn't the only size-shifting she's capable of in a pinch.

The Ultron Imperative

• Considering how the two of them act towards each other, this line from Hulk also counts as a CMOH.
  Hulk: I'm going to enjoy this, robot. THIS IS FOR THOR!
• Ultron forcing the Hulk to transform into Bruce Banner. And still managing to hold his own against the Avengers later when Thor rejoins the battle. Badass indeed.
• When Thor returns from being "killed" by Ultron.

  (Thor appears, surrounded by lightning)

  Hawkeye: No way...!

  Thor: Where. Is. Ultron?!

• And later...

  Thor: ULTRON! We would have words with thee!

• Ant-Man planting a Logic Bomb to destroy Ultron.
  Ant-Man: During the fighting in the mansion, I realized there was a flaw in Ultron's logic. Because his programming is based on the human mind, he himself is as flawed as us, and therefore part of the problem. Ultron couldn't exist in his own imperative.
  Wasp: Hank, you did it! You saved the world! With science, even!

This Hostage Earth

• Despite her stingers having little effect on Abomination, Wasp triggers a mini rock slide to try to fight. (It doesn't work, but still counts.)
• Hank as Giant Man literally pounding Abomination into the ground. Note to supervillains everywhere: try to hurt his girl, and his pacifism is out the window.
• Zemo being cunning enough to betray Enchantress and nearly take over Loki's operations on Earth was pretty damn cool.
• Captain America showing his fearlessness and willpower when the skeletal Niffleheim ghosts arrive. Despite having the upper-hand before, Crimson Dynamo loses it and freaks out, but Cap just completely ignores the moaning spirits and continues to fight.
  Cap: Always stay focused on the matter at hand, comrade.
• The battle between Hulk and Executioner was pretty awesome, especially when Hulk wins by punching/tossing Skurge all the way across the lake and into the forest, taking his battle-axe as a prize.
  Hulk: Hmph. Lightweight.
• An Offscreen Moment of Awesome, but when we cut to Thor at the end of the episode, Loki reveals how he has taken over most of Asgard.

The Fall of Asgard

• Hulk with a battle-ax smashing trolls and ogres. 'Nuff said.
  • No, two things must be said. The trolls have Hulk pinned and one says, "The beast is strong, but not strong enough." Hulk's Response?
    • HULK IS STRONGEST THERE IS!!! (Cue him smashing all the trolls away)
• It's an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, but Giant Man eschewing any peaceful negotiations to kick some icy cold frost giant ass in order to protect an unconscious Wasp. Also with a battle-axe.
  Ant-Man: Jötunheim huh. Well guys, (grows to giant size).
  Giant-Man: I'm pretty sure you're not too interested in talking this out. And frankly, (grabs the giant ice axe) neither am I!
• We have a quick montage thing of the Avengers losing their individual fights. Cap has a Heroic BSoD, Tony is forced to fight without his armor etc. Except for Black Panther, who not only never receives a solid hit from his ghost enemies, but manages to find a way out in time to bail Hawkeye and his new elf friend out by clubbing some wolves with another wolf.
  • To be fair, if you remember The Casket of Ancient Winters, he had no room for error or else he would have been frozen solid, which only shows him to be just as awesome with that in mind.
  • Tony didn't fight too badly without his armor, at least at first. When he threatened Ulik, the rock troll laughed in his face and asked, "Who are you?" Tony answered by knocking back the beast with one blast from his remaining glove, stating simply, "I'm Iron Man."
    • Speaking of Tony, stabbing the arc reactor in his chest with a sword to defeat Ulik, knowing he needs that to survive was ridiculously awesome.

A Day Unlike Any Other

• Captain America escaping from Nifflheim to rally the Avengers together, and using some epic teamwork to take down the giant ice wolf.
• On the villains' side, the fact that Loki actually shattered Captain America's shield! When Thor had the Odinforce, all he did was dent it.
• Iron Man gets armor made of the same metal as Thor's hammer: Uru Armor.
  • And then uses it in an awesome Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Ant-Man overcoming the sonic shrieks of the ravens guarding Iggdrisil to get under the tree, grow to Giant Man, and rip it out, thus robbing Loki of his power.
• The Avengers being praised as heroes by Asgard. Considering that mortals have been long dismissed by Asgardians the Avengers earning respect from the Asgardians shows how much they have accomplished.

Season 2

The Private War of Dr. Doom

• Dr. Doom successfully defends himself from the entire Avengers team and the Fantastic Four. An impressive showing for Marvel's premiere super-villain.
  • Bonus points to Hulk for being the only one to land a good hit on Doom
    • ...Which Doom subverts by shaking off and blasts the Hulk though a wall.
    • It's subtle, but except for a brief animation goof, the Hulk doesn't do anything for the rest of the episode. Yep, Doom KO'd the Incredible Hulk.
  • Another one for Doom: it's another 6 episodes until any of the Avengers find out about the Skrulls invading, and the Fantastic 4 don't find out until it's already began. Doom, meanwhile, is already well aware and trying to find the Skrulls among them (which, unlike Iron Man, he was successfully capable of doing). It's more YMMV, but after all these years Doom may have finally proven that he really is smarter than Reed Richards.
• Dr Doom's Doom Bots gave the Avengers and Fantastic Four more trouble than the vast majority of mechanical mooks seen in the show. They also showed a great deal of imagination when fighting, with effective weaponry and effective CQC tactics even managing to use body locks to trip up the hulk. Plus Doom used them to great effectiveness. They achieved exactly what they were meant to do and he then shut them off mid battle to lie around. They are just disposable tools to Dr. Doom and gave the heroes a run for their money.
  • Not to mention they can at any time, take formations to turn into bombs that can wipe out half the city. Doom does this as a distraction, but it shows that he can casually cause the sort of mass devastation that most villains dream of (as a distraction!) but doesn't purely because most of the time he has no reason to do so. He is no common villain after all.
• Earlier, when the Avengers and FF are fighting the Doom-Bots, Iron Man does some pretty cool up-close finishing moves using his replusors and jetboots.
• More of an accidental CMOA, but when the heroes begin their assault on Castle Doom, Hulk and Thing are standing in the open Quinjet and Hulk pushes Thing off, sending him falling through the roof of the castle and crashing right on top of a Doom-Bot that was in the process of fighting the others.
• A minor one, but Mr. Fantastic's Badass Boast that he can think of 10 different ways to seal Tony in his armor permanently.
• Wasp tries to give her usual sass to Doctor Doom when he has her captured. When he finally responds, he doesn't raise his voice, but its nonetheless menacing.
  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 attempt to play mind games with me amount to less than nothing. So please, stop embarrassing yourself.

Alone Against A.I.M.

• Tony defeating Technovore, by overloading the Arc Reactor in Stark Industries. Made doubly awesome by the quote afterwards.
  Rhodey: How did you know that wouldn't set off the explosives?
  Tony: Because they stole that design from me.
• The first appearance of the War Machine armor.
  A.I.M. Scientist: Proceeding with armor extraction.
  War Machine steps out of the smoke
  War Machine: Good luck with that.
• Pepper Potts beating up Scientist Supreme.

Acts Of Vengeance

• This episode essentially amounts to Amora and Skurge vs The Avengers and The Masters of Evil, and the scariest part is that Amora fights most of them off one by one. Scary awesome.
  • Executioner doesn't do too badly either, managing to hold off both the Hulk and Abomination at once with his new guns. It takes a surprise attack by Zemo to finally take him down.
• Hulk's Badass Boast to The Executioner during their battle:
  Hulk: Last time we fought all you lost was your ax. You're gonna lose a lot more this time!
• The Enemy Mine is pretty epic.
• Hulk delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle to Abomination, punching him one last time for good measure after Cap calls him off.
• Wonder Man's Heroic Sacrifice.

Welcome to the Kree Empire

• Ms. Marvel going up a level as a Determinator and pushing through an extremely powerful blast from Ronan the Accuser, absorbing the energy along the way.
• Abigail Brand comes at a very close second, taking out the Kree invading Damocles base.
• During the Avengers' battle with Ronan, Iron Man leads Ronan on a chase through the air, sharing banter, then suddenly dodges out of the way as the Hulk leaps up and slams into the Accuser, knocking him to the ground.
• Ronan issuing a Curb Stomp Cushion to the S.W.O.R.D. agents who fight him, then easily holding his own against Iron Man, Skrull Captain America and Hulk and still giving Ms. Marvel a run for her money. That's why he's the Grand Accuser.
  • He remains Defiant to the End. Ms. Marvel is momentarily impressed.
  Ms. Marvel: See? We have something in common after all.

To Steal an Ant-Man

• Luke Cage gets attacked by a thug, but simply stands with a smile on his face as the thug's punches do absolutely nothing to hurt him.
  Luke: It's called unbreakable skin, fool! (cracks opponent's wrist, than hurls him into a dumpster)
• Luke Cage and Iron Fist vs Crossfire's thugs. The thugs didn't even get a single good hit in.
• Scott Lang siccing ants on Crossfire.
  Scott: You will never threaten my daughter again!

Michael Korvac

• The fight between the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy in general, but especially the fights between Black Panther and Adam Warlock, which was essentially a stalemate, and the fight between Hulk and Rocket Raccoon, where the 2 foot raccoon was actually holding his own against the 9 foot rage monster with his laser blasters.
• Hulk using his sonic-clap move to disintegrate Groot twice.
• Hawkeye, trapped using a kitchen counter as cover, using the reflection in a dangling pot to bounce an arrow off of the ceiling and hit Star-Lord.

Who Do You Trust?

• Nick Fury sneaking onboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, just to give a warning message to Maria Hill, then doing a Stealth Hi/Bye.
• Ms. Marvel utterly curbstomping Griffin.
  • Quake also gets one for being the one to actually provoke Griffin into a rampage. Especially since she was able to punk him so easily, given that he was a pretty tough customer during the Breakout.
• Cap's inspirational speech to Hawkeye, Hulk, and Wasp for keeping that part of the team together would be this, if he wasn't a Skrull.
• When it looks like nobody is about to stand up for Hawkeye and it looks like he's going to get stomped to the ground, Hulk steps in and declares that he'll happily wipe the floor with anybody who tries to harm him. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
• Black Panther instantly seeing a cloaked Iron Man.
• Ms. Marvel actually holding her own against Hulk in a Brawler Lock even if she had to use an energy blast to break it.

The Ballad of Beta Ray Bill

• The first fight between Beta Ray Bill and Thor. Then after that Bill hands most of the Asgardian elite their backsides...
  • ... Then Odin reminds us why he's king of Asgard, disarming him and threatening that if he's harmed Thor in any way, he will end Bill there and then.
• Thor and Bill going Back-to-Back Badasses against Surtur's demon forces.
• Sif gets one for managing to hold her own and defend the Korbinites long enough for Thor and Bill to win the day.
  • Her Cool Sword becomes even cooler when it splits apart into two prongs and fires energy beams.
• Scuttlebutt also gets a mention for backing Sif up as well, with a hearty supply of Dakka nonetheless.

Nightmare in Red

• When Red Hulk is fighting the original Hulk:
  Red Hulk: Hahaha! You've lost! You're nothing!
  Hulk: You're wrong. I'm an Avenger!
  (An arrow hits the ground in front of Red Hulk and explodes in a flash of light, blinding Red Hulk)
  (Hulk punches Red Hulk away)
  Hulk: Avengers Assemble!
  • Especially awesome since the Hulk is the last person you'd ever expect to say Avengers Assemble.
• Hawkeye and Falcon's fight.

Prisoner of War

• Pretty much the entirety of this episode is flat-out awesome, but there are some notable moments:
• Cap laughing at his Skrull interrogators for being Little Green Men.
  • When asked for information.
  "Name; Steven Rogers. Rank; Captain. Serial Number; 54985870. And that's all you're ever going to get from me!"
• Cap easily snuffing out the Skrull "Avengers" who've come to rescue him, and beating them down with ease.
• The Enemy Mine between Cap, Mockingbird, Invisible Woman, and Agent Quartermain and Madame Viper, Cobra, and an AIM agent.
  • And all of them vs the Super-Skrull.
• Clay Quartermain gets one when he knocks out the AIM scientist aboard the escape shuttle.
  Quartermain: What are you doing? You're firing on our people!
  Dr. Lyle Getz: If Captain America and Viper have to be sacrificed for us to live, then so be it.
  (Quartermain kicks him and knocks him out)
• The Captain diving out of the ship and decking Super Skrull with a makeshift shield to save Viper's life, and then nearly sacrificing his own to get her on board the ship. Or as Mockingbird summarizes:
  Henry Gyrich: Is he insane?! What is he doing?!
  Mockingbird: He's being Captain America!
• Super-Skrull doesn't underestimate Steve Rogers at All, unlike the other Skrulls:
  "The Commander was wrong; you are dangerous! Too dangerous to leave alive!"
  — The Super-Skrull regarding Captain America
• Viper attacking Cap with a sharpened rock, thinking that he's a skrull trying to mess with her head, only to be effortlessly disarmed. That would have been awesome enough, but then Cap has the audacity to politely hand her the weapon back. It was a such a "Captain America" thing to do that it convinces Viper that she's dealing with the real deal.
• In a way, the whole episode is one for Sue Storm. All the other prisoners are simply kept in cells. Sue? She's kept floating in an isolation tank under permanent sedation, because she is that much more dangerous than anyone else.

Infiltration

• Black Panther kills his own Skrull double, and exposes it to Ms. Marvel.
• Wasp, who's gotten pretty annoyed (and not entirely without reason) by Hank's workaholism and wishy-washiness throughout the series gets to punch Skrull Ant-Man in the face.
  "That felt kinda good."
• When Ms. Marvel finds out that the Skrullvengers tricked her, she goes on a cosmic-energy powered rampage and trounces most of them.
• Hawkeye catching Skrull Hawkeye's arrow in mid-air and throwing it back at him, taking out Skrull Wasp in the process.
  Skrull!Hawkeye: Nobody is that good!
  Hawkeye: Guess what? I am. (knocks him out)
• When T'Challa wants to defend Wakanda, he really defends Wakanda.
• Nick Fury should get props for finding some of the Out of Character Alerts the Avengers' infiltrator accidentally dropped.
• Hawkeye announcing the arrival of the real Avengers with an arrow to his double's spine.

Secret Invasion

• After Maria Hill refuses to surrender to the Skrulls:
  Quartermain: How disappointing. I liked you, Maria. You could have held a position of power among the human slaves.
  Maria Hill: When all this is over, I'm gonna get a T-shirt made. You know what it's gonna say?
  Quartermain: Eliminate her.
  (The Skrulls shoot Hill, only to expose her as a Life Model Decoy.)
  Maria Hill: It'll say, "Nick Fury was right."
• Maria Hill goes on to save Nick Fury and Tony Stark personally.
• Special mention goes to what every fan was waiting to see: Captain America beating the crap out of his Skrull double while the rest of the Avengers and Madame Viper trash the Super-Skrull army in the background. Bonus points for Dramatic Thunder and Lightning via Thor.

  • A shield-less Captain America facing off against his Skrull doppelganger (who had his energy-shield that the real Cap smashes with a rock) and finally making him pay for all the crimes he committed while impersonating the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan is probably one of the most satisfying moments of the series.

  Captain America: There's more to human beings than our bodies and minds, something you'll never understand: our spirit! We never surrender! We never give up! Ever!

• Thor's entire return is this in spades. Just as the invasion is happening in earnest, storm clouds appear, lightning strikes and the Skrull ship falls out of the sky. Once he's on the ground, he single-handedly trounces the super skrulls that had previously beaten Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye and Wasp in one throw of Mjolnir.
• Don't forget the Avengers and former prisoners ganging up on Queen Veranke.
  Veranke: No...no...
  Iron Man: It's over, surrender!
  Veranke: I don't understand. It was written! The prophecies foretold it, they said Earth would be ours. How can this be?
  (Ms. Marvel shoots Veranke in the face, knocking her to the ground.)
  Ms. Marvel: Write that.

Along Came a Spider...

• Tony chewing out J. Jonah Jameson at the beginning of the episode.
• Captain America giving his trademark heroic encouragement to Spider-Man when Spidey was struggling to hold up the collapsing sewer ceiling.
• Right after this, Cap proceeds to take on all of the Serpent Society by himself and holds the upper hand for most of the battle.
  • The people that are trapped with both Cap & Spidey get one too, when they give some assistance to Cap by throwing rocks at the Serpents, allowing Cap to beat the villains.
• It's truly an impressive display of Spider-Man's strength that he's able to hold a collapsing sewer ceiling for so long until the Avengers arrive.
• The fact this episode exists is an awesome moment. After so long, Spidey finally gets to appear in someone else's show and alongside the Avengers no less.

Behold... the Vision!

• Vision himself was pretty awesome as he Curb Stomps just about everybody (from Weapon X to even Thor) throughout the episode, seemingly without any exertion.
• After nearly 10+ episodes of it being missing in action (and broken), it's finally awesome to see the Mighty Shield fixed and Captain America using it once more to help the Avengers defeat Vision.

Powerless!

• Loki stumbles across the Wrecking Crew and promptly curb stomps all of them.
• The Big Three taking down Loki in the Destroyer armor with a subway rail, a carefully placed shield throw, and a bolt of lightning.
• When he runs out of arrows, Hawkeye improvises with a sharp stick in the Destroyer's eye.

Assault On 42

• Once again, an epic Enemy Mine takes place, in which all kinds of awesome happens.
• Even some of the supervillains get awesome moments, such as Absorbing Man absorbing Radioactive Man's radiation and barreling through a horde of Annihilation bugs, and Blizzard freezing a whole wave of them solid.
• The Leader of all people saves the day when he hacks into the prison's computer and releases an energy signature that takes out Annihilus's weapon.
• Whirlwind and Abomination kicking a serious amount of Annihilation bug butt.
• Cap and Thor defeating Annihilus and destroying his cosmic control rod.

Ultron Unlimited

• Thor vs the robo-vengers. He really showed just how tough an Asgardian is, until robo-Thor showed up.
• The battle between the Avengers and the robo-vengers is absolutely brutal, but awesome.
• The Vision turning on Ultron and saving the Avengers from inevitable defeat is the crowing moment of the episode.
  • More specifically, he disconnects Ultron's head from his body so that Thor can smack it off.
    • And of course what likely caused Vision to turn good in the first place: Captain America refusing to surrender against him, even with all his fellow Avengers detained.
• Ultron himself is just plain awesome in this episode, from his Took a Level in Badass design to his Curb-Stomp Battle against the Avengers.

Yellowjacket

• The titular Yellowjacket kicking all kinds of ass, putting the fear of God into the bad guys he guns for, and taking on the entire team with barely a mark to show for it. The entire episode beautifully illustrates the kind of damage Hank could really do if he wanted to.
• Wasp, likewise, goes all out in this episode, showing just what kind of power potential she can reach when properly motivated.
• Thor unleashing lightning all over the place when in pursuit of Yellowjacket. Shattering the entire side of a building just by whirling his hammer around is but a simple task for the God of Thunder.

Emperor Stark

• Vision gets one when he exits the quinjet in earth orbit and he becomes a one man Colony Drop by increasing his density, and weight to 500 tons and dropping through the atmosphere at Thor (who was being controlled by the Purple Man and ordered to kill the Vision and the freed Avengers at the time).
• Vision gets another really good one before that, when he manages to Deprogram Cap. All he had to do was show him old footage of himself refusing to give up.
  • And in a nice touch, said footage is from a previous episode ("Ultron Unlimited"), and specifically, the same moment that caused Vision's Heel–Face Turn, possibly meaning that he could be returning the favor to Cap for helping him see the best of humanity.
    • Really, the whole episode is one big MOA for Vision.

Code Red

• Even when afflicted by the Dust of Death, Ms. Marvel still manages to hold her own and defeat Doc Samson before succumbing.
  • Hawkeye does the same in his fight with Falcon.
• Thor's fight with Red Hulk, which ends with the thunder god sending his foe flying.
• Iron Man is racing to Washington just so he deliver the antidote to Cap, who is being held by Dell Rusk. He gets boxed in by USAF fighter jets, so he gets JARVIS to calculate the trajectory needed and fires the antidote in a syringe inside a little multi-stage rocket...
  "Eat your heart out, Hawkeye!"
  • ...Which gets subverted by Winter Soldier's own MOA when he catches the syringe out of the air. Red Skull is both baffled and impressed.
  • Which is quickly followed by Winter Soldier injecting Cap with the antidote himself.
• The above is then followed by the cured Cap beating the Red Skull rather decisively.

Winter Soldier

• Red Skull managing to somehow break out of his cell and flee to Washington DC.
• The reveal that Red Skull hid a Combining Mecha underneath Washington DC, then promptly unveils it and withstands everything the Avengers throw at it.
• Cap and Winter Soldier kicking Red Skull's ass.
• And since every good ass-kicking needs a reprise, we have Cap once again knocking the Skull on his ass, adding an And This Is for... spiel during it for added awesomeness.
  Captain America: This is for what you tried to do to the country! (punches Red Skull) This is for the damage that the Sleepers did! (punches the Skull once again) And this is for Bucky! (Cap tosses the Skull upwards, and then knocks him out with his shield)
  • Doubles as a CMOH for the last one, seeing as Cap defeats the Skull with the following attack.

Deadliest Man Alive

• After episodes of him being a total asshole, seeing Red Hulk firmly beaten up by the Hulk and then having Iron Man paralyze him with a melting ID card is very satisfying.
  • And Hulk doesn't pull any punches in the fight, showing the monster who's the better Hulk and the better hero.
  • Not to mention Iron Man seemingly acting Genre Blind during the whole episode, only to reveal he actually saw Red Hulk's betrayal coming and put the melting function in his ID card should this happen.
  • This is followed by Hulk refusing to beat up the captive Red Hulk in actuality, General Ross, as he sums up quite nicely:
    Hulk: Hulk knows a real monster when he sees one.
• Hulk saving some civilians from a boat that Red Hulk tried to throw at him, proving that Hulk can be a hero when he wants to.
• Captain America staring down Red Hulk despite being hopelessly out of his league.

New Avengers

• Kang trapping the Avengers in a time loop.
• Spider-Man taking down a T-Rex with his webs.
• Wolverine actually getting to use his claws and kill some dinosaurs onscreen.
  • You didn't misread that, folks. After so long, via simple Shadow Discretion Shot, Wolverine finally gets to kill something in a kids cartoon!
• Wolverine and The Thing doing the Fastball Special.
• The other team members buying time for Spider-Man to save the day.

Operation Galactic Storm

• The Avengers manage to Screw Destiny and prevent the Bad Future they saw with Kang.
• Yellowjacket, rather than disarming a Kree Bomb, takes an alternate tactic by shrinking the bomb so it harmlessly explodes. (Then again, since Hank was proficient in microbiology and robotics rather than engineering, it's not like this was his forte anyways.)
• Black Panther's Disney Death.
• Hawkeye's Improbable Aiming Skills leads him to shooting down three targets inside a wormhole while they're passing through the hole.

Live Kree Or Die

• When Cap, Ms. Marvel, and Wasp are being held in the Kree's experimentation/torture room, Cap is attached to a machine that is slowly stretching his limbs apart via magnetism and is struggling to break free, but to no avail. When he sees the Kree scientists about to dissect a fully-conscious Wasp, it gives him the final bit of motivation and he rips out of his bonds and proceeds to pound their captors while the other Avengers arrive.
• It's an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, but Thor managed to defeat the entire Kree army on the planet in route to the Supreme Intelligence.
  Thor: *to the Supreme Intelligence* "Your armies were found wanting, foul creature."
  • Before that, Thor announces his challenge to the Kree by creating a massive storm:
    Thor: "Hear me, Kree! If you truly claim to be warriors, then prove it!"
• Vision gets one for disabling the Supreme Intelligence via his technopathy.

Avengers Assemble

• Thor's entrance.
  Spider-Man: It's the end of the world. I'm freaking out! Why aren't you freaking out?
  Cap: Because I can hear it.
  Spider-Man: Hear what?
  Cap: Thunder.
• "Hear me, Galactus! I am Thor the thunderer, son of Odin, prince of Asgard! But today, above all else, I am an Avenger. And this world is under my protection!" *cue asskicking*
• Really, the entire episode is one giant CMOA from Captain America's rallying speech to the end credits.
• Everybody fighting the heralds of Galactus, including Hulk killing Firelord with his sonic clap, Wolverine decapitating another, and Spider-Man and Quake managing to one-up Terrax.
• Wasp isn't exactly known for being the most powerful superhero around. However, in this episode she delivers the finishing blow to one of Galactus' extremely powerful heralds.
• Scott Lang seems to have learned how to become Giant-Man.
• Iron Man and Mr Fantastic managing to remove Galactus from the universe and place him in the Negative Zone.

from the comics

The Limited Series

• Captain America destroying the Adaptoid in "Adaptation" by striking its exposed power core with his shield.
• Hulk's simple, yet successful, Batman Gambit in "Savage."
• Wasp slaying the Wendigo in "Courage."
• "Team" contains the first Enemy Mine in the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes canon, as the Avengers team up with the Masters of Evil to destroy Ultimo.

Marvel Universe

• It Makes Just As Much Sense In Context, but Iron Man weakens Grey Gargoyle in "When the Grey Gargoyle Strikes!" by forcing his gauntlets onto the hands of Gargoyle, who can't use them anyway because only Tony can control them.
• When Hawkeye and Saguttarius shoot arrows at each other in "Did You Hear The One About Scorpio?", both arrows touch each other right before they can hit their targets, proving Hawkeye evenly matched with one of ancient mythology's most famous archers.
• "King Solomon's Frogs" has a reawakened Ravonna break into Black Panther's court to steal the frogs, as well as the eventual reveal of Kang as Pharaoh Rama-Tut.
• Bash Brothers Hulk and Thing win the eponymous competition of "Contest of Champions" when Thing uses the Champion as a shield against Hulk.
• Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver helping the Avengers fight Magneto in "Magneto Walks the Earth!" marks the closest thing we'll see to those two joining the EMH Avengers.

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