And Here Comes Purple Man to Mess Stuff Up… [Review]
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! must fight against a powerful mind controller to free the world from Tony Stark?!? Click “More” to read our review!
S2, Episode 18: Emperor Stark
After the extensive damage suffered in the battle against Ultron, Tony Stark is completing repairs on Vision. In order for these repairs to finish, the Vision must be placed in a 30 day hibernation period. When he reawakens, he finds the the world is suddenly, and completely, under the rule of Tony Stark. Soon, he is confronted by Captain America, and when he snaps Cap out of the fog he’s in, they realize the Purple Man is behind everything and has a satellite, created by Stark, to control the whole world. As Vision and Cap snap each Avenger out of the Purple Man’s mind control, they must figure out how to bring down Stark’s satellite, while still dealing with a controlled thunder god out to stop them.
Right off the top, let me just say that I cannot stand the Purple Man. The character is fairly contradictary in nature. By all intents and purposes, he should be completely undefeatable. Take, for example, this episode as a prime example of why he isn’t a character that’s actually worth a damn. I can buy that he’s able to control people like Tony Stark, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye. They aren’t exactly well known characters for their strength of will. I’ll let Thor slide because he’s not exactly one that can resist all manner of outside control, but when he’s able to control Captain America and Black Panther, well, I have major problems with that. Both Cap and Panther have incredible wills. You might be able to get them for a short period of time, but the three weeks or so that Purple Man had control over the world, or at least the Avengers, it seems unlikely they didn’t make a major push to fight back. (Yes, I know Purple Man makes reference to Cap always resisting him, but frankly, if you don’t see it, you can’t really quantify how often he truly resists.)
Now, the next big problem I have is that if the Purple Man has control over the world by having his power amplified by the satellite, then how is it possible for Cap to free himself, and others, without immediately coming under mental attack again? If Cap and Hawkeye are able to fight the control when at the epicenter of Purple Man’s power at Stark Tower, then how is it they were controlled for three weeks without major incident? If Cap can be in the same room as Purple Man in order to fight Iron Man, how is it he can both concentrate enough to stay free while still having a knockdown, drag out with Iron Man?
This is exactly why I don’t like Purple Man at all. Either he’s going to be one of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe and a super duper major problem to deal with, or he’s not. He seems to show up a lot lately in the comics and his control ranges from the people in the same room with him to an extended period of control over someone after they’ve come into contact with him. It seems that his powers and his schemes are only as good and as smart as the story needs them to be, and that, well.. That kinda sucks. Purple Man sucks, and nearly everything he’s associated with (with one or two exceptions) has been brought down by him. Including this episode of a near flawless series.
And you don’t have to remind me that this is essentially a kid’s show and that I question things that aren’t fair to the intended audience, but I remind you that I’m incredibly biased against the Purple Man and it’s truly unfortunate that the series had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to pull this turd of a character out.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Decent premise and set up. Great Vision action as he immediately shows his worth to his new friends in the Avengers. | I cannot stand the Purple Man. His powers are too questionable and leaves me constantly trying to figure out exactly how much of a threat he is all the time. |
| Rating |
2 Comments
Where was daredevil in all of this? He can’t be controlled by purple man, so he should have been in a resistance group that rescued vision.
True Dan Mirsky. Also when Thor was under Purple Man’s control he shouldn’t have been able to lift Mjlonir, his hammer, as technically he wasn’t worthy to do so anymore!