Avengers is heading into the conclusion of their Kang The Conqeror storyline, and this week’s episode is wall-to-wall action. Arguably the best episode all season, Come The Conqeror starts off with a bang as it continues from last week’s cliff hanger. In the previous episode, the mis-guided time-traveler Kang came from 2,000 years in the future to destroy the Avengers, and take over the Earth. He’s doing this because his time period in the future is in danger because of events that happen in ours. By re-writing (His) history he hopes to prevent Earth from being conquered by a greater alien threat. It all makes sense from Kang’s point of view, but the Avengers obviously aren’t going to let some 41st Century meddler take over their planet without a fight.
And a fight they get. Right from the opening, Kang’s army of giant robots and flying saucers are blowing stuff up all over New York City, and the rest of the world. Once Nick Fury dramatically demands “Someone get me The Avengers”, the show launches into s a lengthy sequence in which every one of the Avengers reminds the audience just why they are, indeed, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Most of the episode’s dialog is delivered during these action sequences, with the heroes providing the exposition and character development while they rip robots to pieces. One of the themes we’ve seen over recent episodes is Captain America vying with Iron Man for the position of team leader. It’s a friendly rivalry at this point, but it also seems like the writers might be inching towards a Civil War storyline in the coming episodes.
But right now, they’re still trying to stop Kang, whose army has invaded every major city in the world, and there are shots of foreign super-heroes fighting Kang’s minions. It’s yet another nod to the wider Marvel universe, and opens the possibility that next week will have a giant-sized super team-up in which all of the Marvel side characters seen so far will help out.
As is typical with The Avengers, there’s a nice dose of comedy. Thor and Hulk are always rivals, and here they have a Gimli/Legolas competition to see who can smash the most robots. Wasp and Hank also have some gags about Wasp casually destroying Tony Stark’s multi-million dollar equipment.
As Marvel fans might have suspected from last week’s episode, Ultron takes a more prominent role in the story. At this point, the Ultron robots are guards at the super-prison where the Avengers hold the vaillains they capture. This week, the Avengers decide that they need their own army of robots to fight Kang’s army, so they reprogram the Ulrons to act as soldiers. Anyone who is familiar with the Avengers comic books knows where this will lead. There’s an especially ominous moment where Hank states that he’s “Teaching Ultron the concept of violence”. You don’t need to be an expert in Marvel comics to see how that’s gonna turn out.
Kang is a mighty foe, and is not to be thwarted in 22 minutes, so the episode ends with yet another cliff-hanger. Even once the would-be conqueror is sent packing, the Avengers still have plenty of running plot threads to keep them busy for many more episodes, including the Kree/Skrull War, and the mysterious mega-villain who has been secretly pulling the strings of the lesser villains all season long.
Despite all the fighting, Avengers still remains firmly appropriate for children. Kang’s lackey’s are mostly robots, and the directors make sure that no humans are shown being killed (Although sometimes it’s sorta implied that there’s offscreen death to keep us grown-ups engaged). The stories and character development are also compelling enough to keep parents and adult superhero fans entertained. This episode in particular embodies what is great about this series. See how the storyline ends with our review of the next episode The Kang Dynasty.
