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The Avengers: United They Stand

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The Avengers (also known as The Avengers: United They Stand), was an animated series based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. The series consisted of 13 episodes. It originally aired from October 30, 1999 to February 26, 2000, and was produced by Avi Arad and distributed by 20th Century Fox Television. This series featuring a somewhat peculiar team comprising of the Wasp, Wonder Man, Tigra, Hawkeye, and Scarlet Witch, led by Ant-Man (Henry Pym). The Falcon and the Vision were added to the roster in the opening episodes. Quite strangely, the characters best-known as Avengers hardly appeared at all: Captain America made only one appearance in episode #6; Iron Man only briefly in episode #8. Thor did not appear in the series outside of the opening titles.

The Avengers: United They Stand logo

The series saw the Avengers battle such comic book enemies as Ultron, Kang the Conqueror, and Egghead. The team itself had undergone some very drastic changes from their comic representation. These Avengers were consideribly more militaristic and their efforts were more formally coordinated, with a plethora of 'maneuvres' and offensive and defensive formations, as well as various gadgets and vehicles.

Visually, The Avengers was very similar to the last episodes of the X-Men animated series, and these similarities continued in its sound. Tigra sounded incredibly Rogue-esque (which makes sense considering that Lenore Zann provided the voices for both characters), and Hawkeye's own voice was not far removed from Wolverine's. It is remembered for its anime-inspired artistic style as well as its equally Japanese "Avengers Assemble" montages, which showed the various characters donning their "battle armor" to theme music.

The Avengers: United They Stand comic book series by Ty Templeton and Derec Aucoin was published to accompany the series and is considered vastly superior to the animated series by fans. Due to low sales it lasted only seven issues.

Episode Guide

1.- Avengers Assemble (1): Ultron creates the Vision and sends him to destroy Ant-Man.

2.- Avengers Assemble (2): Wonder Man is put on life support and the Avengers must take over where he fell. Falcon joins the team.

3.- Kang: Kang the Conqueror appears creating havoc while looking for a special crystal obelisk from ancient egypt. This object would allow him to go back into the future and oppress millions of people. The Avengers must protect the world past, present and future, at all costs.

4.- Comes a Swordman: While the Avengers face the thieves of a biological weapons study lab, Hawkeye must face his past and his old mentor, the Swordsman.

5.- Remnants: Strange remnants of Ultron's previous experiments create terror on an island where France's main nuclear testing facility exists. The Avengers race to control or destroy these machines before they start a nuclear war. Only they haven't planned on Ultron paying a visit as well.

6.- Command Decision: The Avengers must stop the Masters of Evil, who are trying to steal a shipment of highly dangerous government weapons. To make matters more difficult, Captain America comes on the scene, leaving Ant-Man to work out his leadership issues while still focusing on the job at hand.

7.- To Rule Atlantis: Mysterious earthquakes are caused artificially. The Avengers suspect prince Namor of Atlantis so they go under the sea to investigate. They discover Namor is not causing the earthquakes, but if he isn't who is?

8.- Shooting Stars: When satellites are blasted out of their orbits, the whole world is threatened. Learning that the criminal organization Zodiac is behind the chaos, the Avengers rocket into space to stop the blackmail of Earth's cities. Guest star: Iron Man.

9.- What a Vision Has to Do: Vision volunteers to be "bait" to allow himself to be captured by Ultron as a way for the Avengers to track him to the villain's lair. It works, but Ultron is ready for them. This is the last appearance of Ultron in the series.

10.- Egg-streme Vengeance: Egghead initiates a plot to destroy his archrival Ant-Man by making his "Pym particles" go crazy. The Avengers must prevent Ant-Man from shrinking to subatomic oblivion.

11.- The Sorceress Apprentice: Scarlet Witch visits Agatha Harkness accompanyed by Vision to see what she can do for Wonder Man, but she is kidnapped by the Salem's Seven. Scarlet Witch calls the rest of the Avengers to help her, but they are busy fighting the Grim Reaper.

12.- Earth and Fire (1): Something is dangerously affecting the magnetic fields of the Earth. Wasp realizes that her father's old business partner, Cornelius Van Lundt, is behind the disruptions. Wasp must face her past in order to save the Earth.

13.- Earth and Fire (2): Someone wants an ancient meteorite buried beneath an island, which is the reason for the disruptions in the Earth's magnetic fields. The Avengers have a final showdown with the Zodiac gang.

Trivia

  • The Avengers roster for the cartoon is loosely based upon the roster for the 1984 Avengers spin-off series The West Coast Avengers. In this series, Hawkeye, Tigra, Wonder Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Vision, and Ant-Man (operating under his real name Hank Pym) made up the core of the West Coast Avengers team. Due to licensing issues, Iron Man and Thor were prohibited from appearing in the series though Captain America did appear appear in the Command Decision episode, where he aided the Avengers in battle against one of his foes, Baron Zemo.
  • Though Henry Pym uses his Ant-Man identity in the series, sometimes he uses his Giant-Man/Goliath powers. When he enlarges, his helmet changes from one that covers his entire head to one with a visor that leaves his mouth and jaw exposed.
  • In the promotional images of the series, and the action figure photos, Hawkeye didn't use a mask. However, in the series and the final version of the figure, he used a mask similar to that he wore during the Avengers: The Crossing storyline.
  • The decision to pair Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man up as a couple was based upon the storyline then running in the Avengers comic in which Scarlet Witch (who in the comic had a long-standing relationship with Vision and who hated Wonder Man because of his stalker-esque obsession with her and his refusal to help restore Vision's mind after Vision had his mind erased, a decision that ultimately led to Vision dissolving his relationship with Wanda) resurrects Wonder Man to serve as her protector after an evil sorceress transforms the planet into a medival world under her control. During their time together, the two fall in love and become a couple.
  • The first two issues of the comic adaptation takes place before Avengers Assembled, Part 1.
    • The Black Panther appears three times in the comic.
    • He appears as a member in #1, where he and The Avengers get attacked by an early version of Ultron.
    • He guest stars later in #6-7 along with Captain America, and is bitter at Hank Pym for injuries at the hand of Ultron, refusing to rejoin under Ant-Man's time as leader.
  • Scripts were written for a second season that would have included guest appearances by founding Avenger Thor, and the X-Men, with the Toronto based cast from the 1990s series reuniting.

Cast

File:Avengersunitedtheystand.gif
Avengers cast

See also

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