review: Avengers disassemble? The season finale concludes.

March 1, 2000

Series Avengers

Episode Earth and Fire Part 2

Airing Date 2000-02-26

Sci-fi Bits Taurus continues ripping Earth's magnetic core apart.

Juicy Bits The Avengers kick bull hide, the Avengers' jet bites the dust.

Featuring Rod Wilson as Ant Man/Henry Pym Lynda Ballentine as Wasp/Janet Van Dyne Leonore Ann as Tigra/Greer Nelson Stavroula Logothettis as Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff Tony Daniels as Hawkeye/Clint Barton

The Avengers recaptures its former glory by ending its first season with an intense, no-holds-barred finale pitting the team against Taurus with Earth literally hanging in the balance.

Learning that Taurus and his Zodiac cronies are trying to excavate an iron meteorite from a Japanese island, the Avengers mount an aggressive, full-force offensive. In a series of awesome, airborne maneuvers, the Avengers and Zodiac give each other a run for their money. Falcon and Tigra, Scarlet Witch, Vision and Wonder Man, and Ant Man and Wasp try to disable three strategically placed super-guns while members of the opposing team stand in their way.

Tigra does some amazing anti-gravity calisthenics when she evades the attacks of her villainous female counterpart with forward somersaults. Falcon shows off some fancy aerial footwork as well when he does a semi back flip and launches some serious firepower from his boots. When Falcon is hit at one point and falls rapidly, Red Wing instantly flies to his master's aide and activates Falcon's crash armor. Let's see, so far we've seen jungle armor, underwater armor, space armor, and now crash armor, not to mention the Avengers' standard battle armor. If anything, the second season should be interesting just to see what kind of armor the Avengers have up their gauntlets.

The assault by Scarlet Witch, Vision and Wonder Man is temporarily disabled when Wonder Man's molecular structure starts to rapidly destabilize. Wonder Man becomes so unstable that he unleashes a fury of power that decimates an opponent, but Wonder Man expends himself to the point of unconsciousness. Vision whisks Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch to safety, and it's worth noting that Wonder Man's predicament and Scarlet Witch's pain at Wonder Man's condition gives Vision sadness.

Ant Man and Wasp evacuate the Avengers' jet when it gets hit, but not before Ant Man inhales some lethal gas emissions. The couple escapes, but the ship isn't so lucky and is literally swallowed up by the earth. Ant Man is temporarily unconscious, so Wasp attempts to settle the score herself with her "uncle," Dr. Cornelius Van Lundt, a.k.a. Taurus, whose airship is attacked by the other Avengers in their respective aerial combat vehicles.

The Avengers have survived their first season on the air.

In the end, neither side wins. The Avengers escape intact but with Wonder Man still going to pieces, and Taurus manages to retain only part of the iron meteorite, but it's apparently enough to give him the power to turn the giant Zodiac key at Stonehenge that will bend the universe to his will. The battle may have ended in a deadlock, but the war is far from over, and if we're lucky, we'll get to see how it all turns out in a potential second season.

Like a good season finale, this episode featured fantastic fights, narrow escapes, daring risks, and a thrilling cliffhanger. The show also reflected what was in the first two episodes but missing from much of this past season: a perfect blend of action and drama, which we'll hopefully see more of next year.

-- Raj Manoharan's can't wait to see the X-Men movie.

The Mighty Avengers Mighty Review Archive

• Earth and Fire, Part I
• The Sorceress's Apprentice
• Egg-Streme Vengeance
• What a Vision has to Do...
• Shooting Stars
• To Rule Atlantis
• Command Decision
• Remnants
• Comes a Swordsman
• Kang
• Avengers Assemble! Part 2/2
• Avengers Assemble! Part 1/2

Movie Files

• Wonder Man goes crazy -- small
• Wonder Man goes crazy -- large
• Wanda Cries over Simon -- small -- 2.6 MB
• Wanda Cries over Simon -- Large -- 5.2 MB
• Hawkeye gets ambushed -- small -- 2.5 MB
• Hawkeye gets ambushed -- large -- 4.7 MB
• Avengers Introduction Small -- 3.8 MB
• Avengers Introduction Large -- 7.0 MB
• Wonderman and Hawkeye bond Small -- 2.3 MB
• Wonderman and Hawkeye bond Large -- 4.2 MB
• Hawkeye and Tigra train Small -- 2.8 MB
• Hawkeye and Tigra train Large -- 5.1 MB

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