Western Animation / Avengers Assemble

Well, the old Battle Cry seems kind of redundant now, eh?^note Clockwise starting from the left: Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk, Sam Wilson/The Falcon, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Thor the Thunderer, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Tony Stark/Iron Man

Avengers Assemble is an American animated series that premiered on Disney XD's Marvel Universe block in 2013. Based on the long-running Avengers comic book franchise and inspired by the success of the live-action Avengers movie, the show uses a cast and designs similar to those seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's not quite an Animated Adaptation of the movies (they never reference events from it), more a series that just takes cues from it. It is set within the same universe as Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) — or least it was, until the last season suddenly switched over to being connected to Marvel's Spider-Man with no acknowledgement to the former show. Your guess is as good as ours how that works.

The series was launched as a replacement for the fan-favorite animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and doesn't reference the events of that show in order to make Assemble accessible to new viewers. Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle of Man of Action Studios were served as executive producers of the first season, and became as consultants in the second season.

In keeping with the influence of the movie, the show features an Avengers line-up consisting of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye. The Falcon appears as the team's seventh member, the only Avenger not present in the movie (though he does join the Avengers proper in Avengers: Age of Ultron as one of newest recruits).

The series began airing on July 7th, 2013, preceded by a 1-hour preview special that aired on May 26th, 2013, the same month as the release of Iron Man 3.

The second season premiered on September 28. The show’s second season picks up where the first left off and see the titular heroes going up against the mad titan himself, Thanos, as well as Ultron and the Squadron Supreme in the latter episodes. The season also sees Ant-Man join the team, as part of a promotion for his solo film.

The third season was titled Avengers: Ultron Revolution, capitalizing on the success of the Age of Ultron movie and gradually building up to a Civil War adaptation to tie in to Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Ms Marvel have guest spots in the season.

A fourth season was announced at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con and aired on the June 17th of that year, titled Avengers: Secret Wars, where the team goes missing and Black Panther must form a new team in their absence, featuring Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, The Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, and the Jane Foster version of Thor.

The fifth season was titled Avengers: Black Panther’s Quest, to cash in on the success of Black Panther. The season focuses on T’Challa being stuck between his duties as an Avenger and his duties as the king of Wakanda. This also being a rather surprising first for a Disney cartoon (Most Disney shows never really go past four seasons. Especially their animated ones.)

It was eventually confirmed by the voice actors that season 5 is the last season of the series. The series ended on February 2019 at 126 episodes.

A character sheet is currently under construction.

Not to be confused with the comic book series of the same name, the Market-Based Title for the UK release of the movie, or the trope named for the show's source material.

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Tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: There's a lot of CG used for the creation of vehicles, planes, weaponry and buildings.
• Aborted Arc: Season 2 ended with Tony and Steve deciding that the Avengers needed to expand their roster in order to face bigger threats. In the Season 3 premiere, Falcon casually Handwaves this by saying that the idea was scrapped after being deemed unnecessary.
  • Despite Captain America's promise to redeem Bucky, now the Winter Soldier, the show seems to forget about this plot point between each of Bucky's appearances. This was never resolved.
  • Aaron Reece, aka Molecule Kid from the same-titled Season 1 episode. At the end of the episode, he (and Fury) are convinced that he should join up with Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy Hero Program, the same one that Spider-Man is in. Despite him departing with Fury in the end, and despite a rather powerful and emotion-filled episode introducing the character, Aaron is nowhere to be seen or heard after the episode ends. Not even the 3rd and 4th seasons of Ultimate Spider-Man, which expand the hero count and even shift focus to the Academy's HQ, see any hide or hair of Aaron.
• Action Girl: Black Widow, of course. Come Season 4, Captain Marvel, Peggy Carter, and The Wasp also count, and downplayed with Ms. Marvel.
• Acid-Trip Dimension: The dimension that Doctor Strange creates to hold Ultron. It's in perpetual twilight with random floating structures and giant eye-balls all over the place.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Again, Troy Baker's is voicing a British-accented-villain in a Man of Action TV show.
  • Sam was told by J.A.R.V.I.S to wear the War Machine armor, but instead went with the Falcon suit. War Machine, like Falcon in this series, was voiced by Bumper Robinson in the previous series.
  • The episode "Blood Feud", is not the first time Laura Bailey has voiced a vampire
  • Corey Burton uses his Christopher Lee voice when playing Dracula. 'Nuff said.
• Adaptation Distillation/Broad Strokes:
  • The show looks to be drawing from the mainstream comics, as well as the Ultimate line and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Falcon has a background similar to his Ultimate counterpart, while the HYDRA troops wear outfits similar to those seen in Captain America: The First Avenger. Also, M.O.D.O.K. acts more as an expy of Arnim Zola from the same movie.
  • It's been confirmed that this series takes place in the same universe as Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and Guardians of the Galaxy (2015).
  • The Winter Soldier looks like his movie counterpart, but was "killed" and recreated by the Red Skull, just like in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
  • In addition to Hyperion having elements of King Hyperion, the show's version Squadron Supreme also has elements of the Squadron Sinister, including the Whizzer being called "Speed Demon".
• Adaptation Induced Plothole:
  • In The Infinity Gauntlet, one of the things that led to Thanos' downfall was his decision to purposefully hold back against the heroes so that he could impress Death. The cartoon adapts this plot point but removes Death from the equation, meaning Thanos basically holds back against the heroes either because of his own arrogance or a random case of Bond Villain Stupidity.
  • In the comic, there were several good reasons the Masters of Evil were able to go around unrecognized as the Thunderbolts; their team had gone through several line-ups over their career, the members they used for this plan all had powers that are pretty common in the comic book Marvel universe (and in Moonstone's case, she avoided using her most recognizable power-intangibility- precisely so no one would recognize her), and they arrived at a time where most superheroes were missing, making it all easier for the civilians to welcome these news mysterious heroes with open arms. In this series, the Avengers (and presumably all the other heroes) are still active and well, the Masters of Evil met them barely three episodes before and they had no other line-up than the one they use as the Thunderbolts, making you wonder how the Avengers don't recognize them right away. It doesn't help either that Zemo steals a Facial and Voice recognition fooling gadget exactly one episode before the Thunderbolt's debut, and Mimi keeps her accent as Songbird anyway.
• Adaptation Title Change: Despite taking inspiration from both the comics and the live-action film, the show was titled Avengers, Assemble! rather than The Avengers. Ironically this was technically averted in the UK, where the film's Market-Based Title was the same as the cartoon that succeeded it.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • MODOK is shown to be more powerful than he usually is in other Marvel shows. He also has technopathic powers now and took down Iron Man with relative ease.
  • Princess Python starts off as a former member of the Circus of Crime, but reforms and joins S.H.I.E.L.D. by the end of the episode.
  • In their comics debut, the U-Foes were quickly defeated by the Hulk not long after gaining their powers due to their lack of experience and inability to work together. In "The U-Foes", they get to grips with their powers far more easily, and can fight as a unit effectively enough to give the Avengers a run for their money.
  • The Leader is more competent and far less of a Smug Snake here than he is in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., managing to outsmart the Avengers in "Building the Perfect Weapon", and leading the new Cabal to trap the Avengers and scatter them across time and space in "Avengers No More".
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • Both men to have operated under the name "Radioactive Man" were super villains in the comics, but this version of Igor Stancheck is a member of the Winter Guard and helps to dissolve a destabilized facility that was falling towards a village to save said village. Similarly, despite being based on Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2, the Crimson Dynamo is a member of the heroic Winter Guard and only stole a capsule because it contained Radioactive Man.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Captain America's father is shown here to be a good parent, judging by the photo of him and a young Steve fishing together. In the comics, he was a drunk, a wife beater, and generally an unpleasant person.
• Adaptational Species Change: The supervillain Ghost, rather than being pure human like in the comics, is instead a human with latent Inhuman DNA that was awakened due to Seeker's superweapon creating a Mass Empowering Event.
• Adaptational Ugliness: In the comics, the Atlanteans looked like blue-skinned humans. Here, they (with a few exceptions, such as Attuma) are far more fish-like in appearance.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Hyperion gains the villainy of King Hyperion, his Mirror Universe counterpart from Exiles. As such, he's depicted as a sociopath who is revealed to have destroyed his own planet when they wouldn't submit to his rule. However, given the rest of the Squadron Supreme appeared and how they behaved, it may be a downplayed version as they're more in line with the Squadron Sinister, though played straight with Power Princess and Nuke as the Squadron Sinister never had versions of them.
  • This version of Killmonger is far worse then his comicbook or movie counterparts.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • As powerful as Thanos has been portrayed, this version is not "godlike" in stamina or invulnerability. On one occasion, he was apparently winded by the time Arsenal removed his Infinity Gauntlet. There's also the fact that an Earth-based satellite beam was capable of completely vaporizing him, even though it's something he can come back from.
  • Kang the Conqueror is severely rudimentary and unskilled compared to his comic and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes counterparts.
• Adapted Out:
  • There are no mutants (in the Marvel definition anyway) in this series.
  • The Soul Stone is left out of the Infinity Stone collection. Possibly because of the religious connotations and the greater plotline surrounding it. The stone is actually with Adam Warlock who was buried on Planet X as if the events of Guardians of the Galaxy Season 2. It's not heard from since but considering the Black Order is still alive, it's entirely possible Thanos got ahold of the stone to set them free. Warlock's fate is unknown.
  • Pepper Potts does not appear in this continuity at all.
  • Barring any future revelations, it would seem that like in the movies, the original Ant-Man and Wasp were not the Avengers' founding members in this continuity.
  • The series accurately recreates the original Thunderbolts line-up with the exception of Jolt, the team's youngest member and Token Good Teammate.
  • For the first time since The Marvel Superheroes, averted with Igor Drenkov, the spy who sabotaged Banner's test and turns the Hulk, as he actually appears in "Dehulked".
  • When Captain Marvel's origin is briefly recounted, all the audience is told is that she was an Air Force pilot who was kidnapped and experimented upon by the Kree. No mention is made of Mar-Vell, who was Carol's lover and the original Captain Marvel before she got her powers.
• Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times Tony learns that relying solely on technology will not work, he's right back to being a smug jerk who thinks his tech is infallible the very next episode.
  • Eventually deconstructed during the Avengers Disassembled arc where Ultron's actions exacerbates Tony's behavior to be worse than usual, causing half of the team to quit over it. Becomes a Subverted Trope at the resolution of the story as following episodes show Tony actually giving forethought to problems the team as a whole has and trying to fix them.
• Affably Evil: The Beyonder, he's pretty polite, you know, for a guy who literally took chunks out of entire worlds, dooming their inhabitants if it isn't fixed soon enough.
• All According to Plan: It happens two times in "Bring On The Bad Guys". First, the Avengers defeat and capture Red Skull, who is taken prisoner to SHIELD's tricarrier. Captain America suspects: it was too easy. The Red Skull was actually a Trojan Horse; Dracula was hidden in his armor, liberated him, and let him assault the Tricarrier. And then again in the end of the episode: the bad guys were driven away, and the tricarrier was liberated... but the bad guys achieved their true objective: liberate Hyperion, who was held prisoner there
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • The Super-Adaptoid had all of the Avengers' powers and skills.
  • The nations of the world combined their power grids in order to make a blast powerful enough to defeat Thanos.
• Alternate Universe:
  • In "Dark Avengers", the Reality Stone is used by the Squadron Supreme to create one where the Avengers are villains, though the true reality was eventually restored.
  • The final season takes place in a separate reality from the rest, officially called Earth-17628 while the previous four seasons are on Earth-12041. However it is can be assumed that the previous seasons happened in the new universe in Broad Strokes, with the only real difference being that the final season isn't canon with Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
• Amnesia Danger: In "Hulk's Day Out", Hulk has to get the other Avengers to help him and Thor fight the giant tentacle monster on the Moon but forgets what he's supposed to do since he got amnesia from Thor knocking him back to Earth.
• Appropriated Appellation:
  • Captain America is the one that gives the Space Phantoms their name.
  • Kamala makes up the name "Renegade Avengers" for the original team after they quit.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Hawkeye was reluctant to believe vampires are real and even more reluctant about Count Dracula (actually King Dracula) being real despite being part of a team that has a god among them. Thor himself brings it up that the others used to consider him a myth before meeting him.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Red Skull, and possibly Dracula, for Cap.
  • Loki, but also Doctor Doom, for Thor.
  • Justin Hammer wishes he was this for Tony, but MODOK and Red Skull are actually better fits for Iron Man.
  • Attuma for Hulk, at least in "Depth Charge".
  • Nighthawk can be considered one for both Falcon and Iron Man for matching their genius and cunning, but lacking their compassion.
• Artifact of Doom: The Infinity Stones act as this. Individually they're unstable, massively destructive Macguffins. In a near complete set they have a corrupting influence rivaling the One Ring.
• Art Evolution: Season 5 Black Panther's Quest greatly simplifies the designs of the cast, looking more smoothed out and sleeker rather than the generally detailed previous seasons, giving it a look more similar to Marvel's Spider-Man.
• Art Shift:
  • The Flashback in "Molecule Kid" is done in the style of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
  • The show also black boxes certain scenes, possibly to emulate the feel of a comic book or action movie.
• Artistic License – Physics
  • After Hyperion splits apart a meteor with heat vision, the show forgets about both the meteor chunks raining down New York and the heat that would be generated from the meteor entering the atmosphere.
  • In "Mighty Avengers", Captain Marvel, Vision and Ant-Man try to rescue astronauts from a crashing space station. While both Vision and Captain Marvel have invulnerability that protects them, it's not explained how Ant-Man is able to touch a massive, super-heated chunk of metal that is crashing towards Earth at incredible speeds without burning to death. It can be assumed his suit protected him.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Black Widow was largely absent for most of Season 1. She becomes a regular in Season 2, appearing in all episodes to date.
  • All of the Mighty Avengers (sans Red Hulk) appeared during Season 3 and received Day in the Limelight episodes, and reappeared in the finale. Come Season 4, they're the main characters when the original Avengers go missing (save for Songbird vanishing with no explanation).
  • Zig-Zagged with Ant-Man. He first appears as a guest character in Season 1, then joins the main team in Season 2, only to be Demoted to Extra in Season 3, and then becomes a main team member again along with the other Mighty Avengers
• Assimilation Plot: Ultron's ultimate goal is to copy himself onto human hosts and eventually replace humanity as the planet's sole sentient lifeform.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!

  Thor: What is our plan to fight with this Skull?

  Iron Man: Hit everything! Hard!

  Hawkeye: So... the plan is that there is no plan. I thought he was the smart one.

  Hulk: I like the plan!

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Midgard Serpent.
• Audience Surrogate: Falcon fills this role as the newest Avenger, acting as a stand-in for the audience as he's introduced to the team.
• Avengers Assemble: Naturally, belonging to the franchise that this trope is named after^note and sharing the name with that trope,, this occurs in the first episode when Captain America goes missing in a fight with the Red Skull.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Justin Hammer mining vibranium in the Savage land, ignited the wrath of the rock people. They still did not fight, but they helped Tony Stark to manufacture a basic armor.
• Badass Boast: Cap gets an excellent one on behalf of the team in "Thanos Triumphant".
  When Avengers stand, tyrants fall!
• Bad Future: By the 30th Century, Kang the Conqueror will rule the Earth. They trap Kang millions of years in the past, freeing the 30th century Earth from his tyranny. However, that future might have been negated due to Avengers Tower being destroyed. Of course, another bad future is created as a result of Kang's time travel, and there, it's more dystopian, most of New York went into hiding, and a black hole that threatens to consume the Earth has to be contained.
• The Bad Guy Wins: For a largely up-beat show, this happens a lot.
  • The first episode ends with the Red Skull and MODOK seizing control over Tony's armor along with severely injuring him by ripping out the surgically implanted arc-reactor that protects his heart.
  • The Cabal manages to successfully hijack the Tri-Carrier and bust Hyperion out of prison in "Bring On The Bad Guys".
  • In "By The Numbers", The Cabal seizes control of the Tessarct.
  • After the Season 1 finale, Red Skull manages to give his master Thanos the Tesseract.
  • In Episode 12 of Season 2, Thanos gains the Infinity Gauntlet. In the next episode, its powers are absorbed by Arsenal, who is promptly possessed by Ultron.
  • In "Crack In The System" and "Avengers Disassembled", Ultron manipulates first Steve into leaving, then the Avengers into splitting into two camps, with Spider-Man, who'd been called up by Tony after Cap's departure, swinging off in disgust.
  • In "Terminal Velocity", Nighthawk and Speed Demon successfully steal the Avenger's data and in Avengers Last Stand Squadron Supreme ends up taking over the world.
  • In the Season 4 premier, the Cabal succeeds in scattering the Avengers throughout space and time, and in cutting off the connection to Iron Man.
• "Bang!" Flag Gun: In Episode 7 of Season 1, Hawkeye's distraction arrow emits a flag that says, "BANG!"
• Batman Gambit:
  • When Steve Rogers and Tony Stark were trapped in the submarine of Red Skull and his minions, with no armor, shield or technology (not even to call the other Avengers), they had to rely on this. They staged being captured, and staged a fight between themselves, with Stark telling Cap that "leaders" exploit the knowledge of the intelligent guys and then leave with nothing... which reinforced MODOK's suspicions about the intentions of Red Skull, and turned against him.
  • "The Ambassador" has Doom pull one of these to gain access to Tony's database. He got outgambitted.
  • Fittingly considering he's an Expy of the guy this trope is named after, Nighthawk performs several.
  • In "Crack in the System" and "Avengers Disassembled", on the other hand, Ultron forces Tony to destroy everything he's ever built and plays on the divisions between Steve and Tony to split the Avengers in two.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Black Widow.
• Beware the Superman: Like Superman if he ever decided to abuse his powers, Hyperion is a super powered alien who inflicts terror all in the name of what he perceives as right.
• Big Bad:
  • Red Skull in Season 1.
  • Thanos in Season 2, with Ultron and the Squadron Supreme serve as Arc Villains in between.
  • Ultron mostly stays behind the scenes but orchestrates many attacks on the Avengers in Season 3.
  • Loki is technically the main antagonist of the whole Season 4 but gets the biggest role in the first half and leaving the second to his accomplice, the Beyonder.
  • Erik Killmonger for Season 5, who attempts to overrule T'Challa's power in Wakanda and completely destroys his reputation as an Avenger with the rest of the world.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Red Skull and MODOK in the first episode.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Thanos, Ultron, and the Squadron Supreme all act as the Big Bad of Season 2 at different points.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Justin Hammer in both episodes he has appeared in to-date.
  • The Leader as usual.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Falcon rescues Iron Man from the Red Skull-possessed Captain America.
• Big "NO!":
  • Iron Man does one when Captain America's seemingly vaporized by Red Skull.
  • Doom shouts this in "The Serpent of Doom" as he's being sent flying into the underworld.
• Bigger on the Inside: Thor's room.
• Blessed with Suck: Tony's Arc Reactor keeps him alive, powers his suit, and is the power source for one of his most powerful attacks. Great! It's also been used by villains to further their own goals at least once a season. So far:
  • In Season 1, the Red Skull steals the Arc Reactor and suit to keep himself alive. He later accesses J.A.R.V.I.S. and Tony's computers through the suit.
  • In Season 2:
    • Nighthawk disables Tony by turning the Arc Reactor into a giant electromagnet, which draws various metal objects to him to the point where he can't move.
    • The Time Stone attaches itself to the Arc Reactor, causing temporal rifts to open up, bringing dinosaurs, killer robots, and WWII pilots to attack New York. The chaos allows the Red Skull to escape and use the Time Stone to make himself younger, so that he's back to peak Super Soldier condition and able to go toe-to-toe with Cap without any weapons.
  • In Season 3:
    • Tony destroys the power of the device that Ultron was planning to use to kill all life on Earth, so Ultron just hooks the Arc Reactor up to it and uses that as a power source.
    • Ultron gains control of Tony's body by inhabiting the Arc Reactor, and as long as Ultron is still there, Tony can't leave Strange's Prison Dimension without Ultron coming back again, at least until he gets a new arc reactor.
• Book Ends: The series started with the Avengers fighting the Red Skull. The series ends with them fighting him again, this time with Hydra by his side before taking on Madame Masque.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Every Avenger besides Iron Man in episode 2.
  • All the Inhumans in the Season 3 finale.
• Breaking Out the Boss:
  • The Cabal break the Red Skull out of prison in "Bring On the Bad Guys".
  • The Black Order break out Thanos in "New Frontiers".
• Breaking the Fellowship:
  • Apparently happened before the series even began, with Captain America's apparent death prompting Iron Man to bring the team back together again.
  • Unfortunately, the team is shattered again in "Crack in the System" and "Avengers Disassembled", the team breaks up with Captain America and Tony Stark not on the best terms. Widow, Hulk, and Falcon join Captain America, but Hawkeye and Thor remain on Iron Man's side, with Ant-Man joining him afterwards. Spider-Man is the only one who doesn't pick a side. By "Small-Time Heroes", there are now two factions that refer to themselves as "The Avengers". The team ultimately reassembles in "The Ultron Outbreak" and Ant-Man becomes a full member.
  • Season 3 has a less severe version of this. It's revealed that the Avengers gradually stopped meeting up after the fight with Thanos, since there were no more threats that warranted the full might of the team. They end up coming back together in the premier in order to fight the Masters of Evil.
  • Averted in the Season 3 finale. Despite Steve declaring the Avengers "disassembled" the team still stays together, but they could no longer call themselves Avengers.
• Broke Episode: "Small-Time Heroes" sees Iron Man's half of the Avengers operating without electricity, the Avenjet, and advanced technology. They may not be impoverished, but their severe lack of resources hampers their ability to deal with even low-level supervillains. Their only option was to recruit Ant-Man, and camping with him gave them almost everything they needed.
• The Bus Came Back: Season 4 marks the reappearances of many characters and foes from the first two seasons as well as previous shows. Quite notable is the appearance of Rocket and Groot in "Westland", marking their first appearance in this show after their series aired.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Even while pretending to be Grim Reaper, Tony wastes no time in calling Iron Man's technology awesome, complimenting him on his genius.
• The Cameo:
  • The Red Hulk makes a cameo in "Avengers Underground".
  • Images of Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Moon Knight can be seen on a computer screen in the Season 2 finale.
  • The captive Inhuman girl seen in "Captain Marvel" is Iso, a character from Inhumans (Charles Soule).
  • Iso has a larger role in the Civil War episodes at the end of Season 3. Flint, Inferno, and Haechi also appear. The first two are from Soule's Inhumans comics. Haechi is from New Warriors.
• Canon Discontinuity: Despite the fact it started the universe and its version of Spider-Man previously guest-starred, Black Panther's Quest, like Guardians of the Galaxy (2015), disregards Ultimate Spider-Man in favor of Marvel's Spider-Man, complete with Robbie Daymond as Spidey, Alastair Duncan as the Vulture, and Troy Baker as Kraven instead of Drake Bell, Tom Kenny, and Diedrich Bader. It's confirmed that Season 5 of AA, GOTG and MSM all exist in a seperate continuity from the first four seasons.
• Canon Foreigner: Aaron, aka Molecule Kid.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Can be safely assumed of any group that calls itself The Masters of Evil.
• Casting Gag:
  • Brian Bloom voices Hyperion, a corrupt Captain Ersatz of Superman, just like in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.^note He also voiced Captain America in the previous series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and also voiced the character of Matt Horner in Starcraft II, captain of the battle-cruiser Hyperion.
  • Daryl Sabara voices Molecule Kid, who looks a lot like Rex Salazar.
  • Anthony Ruivivar, who voiced Batman in Beware the Batman, as Batman-expy Nighthawk.
  • The rest of the Squadron Supreme get in on this as well, as Phil LaMarr, who voiced Green Lantern in Justice League as Green Lantern-expy Doctor Spectrum and Jason Spisak, who voiced Kid Flash in Young Justice (2010) and The Flash in JLA Adventures: Trapped In Time, voices Flash-expy Speed Demon.
  • Corey Burton uses his Christopher Lee impersonation (albeit with less of a British dialect) when voicing Dracula; fitting, since the latter is famous for his portrayal of Dracula.
  • Tara Strong, known for voicing Harley Quinn in various cartoons and video games, voices Typhoid Mary, another insane and flamboyant female villain with a painted up face.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Things get considerably darker and more serious when Ultron turns up. It takes him approximately two episodes to do what the Cabal and Thanos both tried and failed to do: break up the Avengers and he does it without even getting out of third gear.
• The Chase: Black Widow is chased by a bunch of different groups after the Infinity Stones in "Widow's Run".
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Spider-Man doesn't appear at all during Season 3, despite being a reserve Avenger. This is especially notable during the Civil War four-parter, which brought back almost every other superhero that had guest-starred on the show at that point. This is possibly due to Ultimate Spider-Man having ended, as well as Disney XD's intention to replace it with a new, unrelated Spider-Man show.
  • Around half the team disappears for Season 5 Black Panther's Quest, including Ant-Man, Wasp, Thunderstrike, Vision and even Hulk.
• Civvie Spandex: Falcon wears his Ultimate Marvel look "Planet Doom", which is basically mechanical wings worn over a T-shirt and some cargo pants.
• Class Reunion: Thor takes Hulk and Hawkeye to his in "Back to the Learning Hall".
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting:
  • Justin Hammer looks just like Sam Rockwell, who played the character in Iron Man 2.
  • Roger Craig Smith and Laura Bailey channel Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson as Captain America and Black Widow, respectively.
  • As he's basically a Decomposite Character of Ivan Vanko from Iron Man 2 without Whiplash's elements, Crimson Dynamo is modeled on Mickey Rourke.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: The Space Phantoms don't actually go by that name; it's just a term Captain America uses to describe them. Even Hawkeye comments on how incredibly cheesy it sounds.
• Composite Character:
  • The Falcon started off as close friends with Iron Man, much like War Machine and was even meant to pilot the War Machine armor. Also, his "Planet Doom" look was inspired by his Ultimate version. Additionally, by season 4, the Falcon has a Plot-Relevant Age-Up and his time in a Bad Future traded his classic inspired costumes in favor of one inspired by his MCU and Ultimate ones.
  • The Red Skull, like his movie counterpart, is a combination of his comic depiction and the first Baron Zemo, with elements of the Dark Reign version of Norman Osborn thrown into to the mix.
  • As mentioned above, MODOK plays a similar role to the movie version of Arnim Zola.
  • The Midgard Serpent is combined with Cul, Odin's brother (and Thor's prophesied killer) from the comics.
  • Justin Hammer looks just his MCU version but has elements of Justine Hammer, her daughter in the comics, due to antagonizing the Thunderbolts.
  • Hyperion is given elements of The Sentry (one of the Avengers' other Superman analogues), such as his alien fortress. He also has a bit of King Hyperion from the Exiles comic.
  • Dracula has much more in common with Baron Blood, particularly his World War II background and connection to Captain America.
  • Hawkeye's alternate version is known as Bullseye, in reference the Daredevil foe of the same name. Also, Hawkeye's Evil Counterpart in the Dark Avengers is... guess who.
  • Ant-Man is the Scott Lang version, but has the science background and high-tech lab of the original Silver Age Hank Pym iteration. Word of God was that this was intentional, as the creators wanted to mix together elements of the various Ant-Men from the comics.
  • Arsenal is eventually revealed to be a vessel for Ultron.
  • The Radioactive Man is the short-lived Igor Stancheck version from Russia, but he sports the costume and design of the original Chen Lu iteration from China.
  • Doctor Spectrum is the Billy Roberts version, but is black like the original Kenji Obatu version.
  • A literal in-universe example is the Supreme Adaptoid, a Fusion Dance of the Scientist Supreme and the three A.I.M. Adaptoids. Ultron then makes his return by merging with the Supreme Adaptoid.
  • The Beetle is presumably the original Abe Jenkins version since he's also MACH-IV and later reforms with the Thunderbolts, but he sports the unnamed Latverian iteration's armor from the Ultimate Marvel continuity.
  • The Detroit Steelcorps' leader is Igor Drenkov.
  • Crimson Widow's enmity with Black Widow comes from her comic counterpart but her association with Crossbones comes from Sinthea "Sin" Schmidt, the Red Skull's daughter.
  • Truman Marsh is an interesting case. His primary characterization as a government liaison is taken directly from James Murch but is also a prison warden with the Guardsmen as enforcers like his (albeit extremely obscure) comic counterpart. He's also Ultron in disguise in this version.
  • Baron Mordo is a Card-Carrying Villain like his comic counterpart and sports his classic comic outfit, but is a black man like his MCU counterpart.
  • Jane Foster briefly gains Thor's powers like in Thor (2014) after briefly getting ahold of Mjölnir (which Thor can still use) and the "Thunderstrike" namesake and hammer is given to her by Odin.
• The Consigliere: If Captain America tells Tony that something might be a bad idea, you can just bet your eyeteeth it'll end up blowing up in Tony's face.
• Continuity Cavalcade: "U-Foes" is one for Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., having Hulk in his hometown of Vista Verde and the return of Red Hulk.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "Ghost of a Chance", Falcon is fighting Captain America's Space Phantom double and he at first wonders if the Red Skull and MODOK are pulling the Mind Swap trick again.
  • The same episode has a cameo from Nick Fury and a mention of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s teenage superhero program from Ultimate Spider-Man.
  • Hawkeye's dislike of Spider-Man in "Avengers Disassembled" apparently carries on from when they first met in Ultimate Spider-Man.
  • Beetle's armor no longer has shoulder missiles, as they were torn off and assimilated by Agent Venom in Season 3 of Ultimate Spider-Man.
  • One episode ends with Loki being locked away inside an Asgardian prison. That's where he is during his first appearance in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "For Asgard".
  • Likewise, the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. met Heimdall in "For Asgard", In "The Most Dangerous Hunt", Hulk tells Black Panther that he already knows Heimdall.
  • It's never explained in the season three premiere how AIM had custody of a spare Ultron body, despite Ultron being sent flying into the Sun in season two. However, it is possibly linked to a tie-in comic printed in the "Marvel Super Hero Spectacular" trade. Said comic features a lone drone, with hints of Ultron's mind, already active in the absence of the main consciousness itself. However, the body's damage is significantly different than the one in the comic.
  • The Hulk mentions having encountered the Inhumans previously, something which occurred in the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "Inhuman Nature".
  • Vista Verde, the town that celebrates the Hulks in Agents of S.M.A.S.H., appears in "U-Foes".
    • In the same episode, Captain America mentions that all of the previous Helicarriers were destroyed. This is likely a reference to the first Helicarrier's destruction in the Season 1 finale of Ultimate Spider-Man and the Tri-Carrier in the Season 4 premiere of the same show.
    • It is also mentioned that Hydra's numbers have been significantly reduced. This accounts for the fact that Spider-Man and the Web Warriors defeated most of Hydra by the time of the Season 4 "Spider Slayers" arc.
  • The Cabal's ship in the Season 4 premiere appears to be the Leader's space vessel from Season 2 of Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H..
  • In a short featuring Captain Marvel, a Nova Corps ship from Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) is shown docked in the hangar, and gets trashed during her fight.
  • In the Season 3 finale, a red car can be seen in Howard Stark's old lab. The Season 4 episode "New Year's Resolution", which chronologically takes place before the Season 3 finale, reveals Howard gives Tony a red car before the former returns to the past.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • How exactly Bruce got his powers as the Hulk is contradicted on two separate occasions. The incident was first shown in "Planet Doom" as a small gamma bomb that went off in a lab near Bruce, ultimately giving him his powers. In "Dehulked", his origin is closer to the The Incredible Hulk (2008) film's take on it, with Bruce willingly getting the gamma blasted into him by a laser under the supervision of General Ross. On top of all that, if what A-Bomb said in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. is supposed to believed, Rick himself was supposed to be there to be saved by Bruce before he got hit by the gamma radiation, although Rick Jones wasn't in "Dehulked".
  • Klaw's appearance in "Thunderbolts Revealed" is radically different than how was previously-established in Ultimate Spider-Man, which takes place in the same universe: He is human again (albeit briefly), despite the fact that he was a living embodiment of sound prior to this episode; he now resembles his Marvel Cinematic Universe counterpart, as opposed to having his red full-body containment suit, including a different sound generation located on the opposite arm; and, no longer voiced by Matt Lanter, "Klaue" now sports a ambiguously foreign accent that is completely distinct from Lanter's gruff bad guy voice.
  • Emil Blonsky, who had his Abomination persona forcibly removed in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "Spirit of Vengeance", is a gamma monster again in "Dehulked" with no explanation, though it's possible that this took place before Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
  • Egghead begins his villainous career midway through Season 3, despite the fact that he was already a villain Scott Lang sold tech to, according to a line of a dialogue in "Spectrums", a Season 2 episode.
  • In Season 3, it was stated that prior to becoming Ant-Man, Scott Lang was a scientist who sold tech to supervillains, and it's implied that this is what landed him in jail. In Season 4, he's now stated to have been a former thief, much like his movie counterpart. It's possible he's done both, but the intent in Season 3 is clearly that he's only guilty of naivety in never checking what his clients wanted the tech for, rather than being a deliberate lawbreaker.
  • Season 4's Halloween Episode is a continuity nightmare. For starters, it stars the original six Avengers and features none of the new recruits, even though by this point in the season, the original Avengers had already been scattered across time and space, and wouldn't return for another five episodes. Next, Iron Man is still with the team, even though he'd been trapped in another dimension at the end of the last season, and wasn't rescued alongside the other Avengers in Season 4. Crimson Widow is also still working for HYDRA, even though she betrayed them in Season 3 and was already shown working alone earlier in Season 4. Finally, the episode ends in the training room of Avengers Tower, even though Season 3 ended with the Avengers moving into the Avengers Compound after the Tower was destroyed, and the replacement Avengers were operating out of the Wakandan Embassy at that point before the compound was repaired. Timeline-wise, the episode really only makes sense if it's meant to be taking place some time prior to the Season 3 finale. While that is assumed to be the case, it creates yet another issue; Season 3 already had a Halloween episode, and if the timeline of Ultron Revolution happened spanned over an entire year, Yelena being with HYDRA still wouldn't make sense since her debut episode was after Season 3's Halloween Episode and during the winter season.
  • "New Year's Resolution" raises all sorts of issues about time travel in this series. First of all, time travel can now erase the memories of travelers. Then, Kang explains that if someone is brought to the future, they can only stay there for a short period of time before everything after the point when they left starts to be erased from history. In this episode, Peggy and Howard are in the future for a few hours at most before things start falling apart, while Falcon was trapped in the future for YEARS, and this never seems to happen. Even Baron Heinrich Zemo was in the future for about a few hours and didn't suffer the same problem either. If anything, the Timey-Wimey Ball is in effect in this universe, so the rules of time travel are bound to vary. It also has the same continuity problems as the aforementioned Halloween special, since Iron Man is back on the team without explanation, and the Avengers are still operating out of Avengers Tower. However, that this episode is A Day in the Limelight for Peggy Carter and Howard Stark taking place in the past while involving Time Travel, so the "future" they travel to doesn't necessarily have to be the "present" this episode airs in (which in this case is Season 4).
  • Much like Klaw, Baron Mordo shows up in Season 4, where he is a black man like his movie counterpart, though retaining his powers, and alignment with Hydra from Ultimate Spider-Man. This is despite the fact that Mordo previously shown up in Ultimate Spider-Man as a white guy.
  • In "Beyond", Black Widow states that the Avengers had assumed that Iron Man died after the connection to his dimension was cut off. This is despite the fact that in Season 4's first episode, when the cut off happened, the Avengers are very clearly determined to bring him back.
  • Iron Man shows up in "Beyond" after being trapped in an alternate dimension when Ultron possessed him in the Season 3 finale. He doesn't have his armor with him, so the implication is he left it, and Ultron, behind in the section of Battleworld made up of No Tech Land, and that's why he's not possessed anymore. The only problem is that Ultron possessed him via the Arc Reactor, not the armor, which is why he had to stay behind in the first place. He needs the Arc Reactor to live, and leaving would mean Ultron would take over again when it reactivated. Tony shouldn't have been able to leave No Tech Land at all.
  • Season 5 Black Panther's Quest is a continuity nightmare. It's still officially listed as taking place after Season 4 Secret Wars, but several characters are missing without explanation. The crossover with Spider-Man features the Spidey of Marvel's Spider-Man and not Ultimate Spider-Man (a change that also carried on into Guardians of the Galaxy)! The changed character designs are also the same as in Marvel's Spider-Man. When T'Challa meets with Attuma in Atlantis, he's a completely different character from the tyrant in the Red Skull's Cabal in the early seasons. It's like the show just hopped universes between seasons. (This was eventually confirmed by Word of God; the first four seasons, along with Ultimate Spidey and Agents of S.M.A.S.H., are set on Earth-12041; Panther's Quest is set on Earth-17628 with Marvel's Spider-Man and Guardians.)
  • "...Assemble", originally a series of shorts to introduce the All-New, All-Different Avengers, doesn't fit anywhere. It's Ms. Marvel's first day as an Avenger, and all the other All-New, All-Different characters are having a training session in Avengers Compound, while she discusses them with Captain America. In the actual series, all the All-New characters joined simultaneously, after the Compound was destroyed and Cap was sent to Dimension Z, and immediately had to fight the Cabal. On Disney+, the compilation version is placed just after the original Avengers are brought back, and presumably after the Compound was rebuilt, but that makes it ever weirder that Kamala is calling it her first day, and talking about her teammates as if she still hasn't met them properly. And you can't even say "Well, maybe the shorts aren't in continuity", because in the last scene of the Season 4 finale, Kamala specifically refers to her conversation with Cap.
• Cool Shades: Hawkeye has a nice pair of purple shades, and even carries spares in his belt pouches.
• The Corruption: When the Infinity Stones gather together they begin to mentally whisper in the person ears and promise ultimate power.
• Crazy-Prepared: Nighthawk. Fitting, since he's a Captain Ersatz of Batman.
  Nighthawk: I'm always one step ahead.
• Crapsack World: The world under Doom's control in "Planet Doom".
• Creative Closing Credits: The end of "Avengers: Impossible":
  • Director: Impossible Man
  • Producer: Impossible Man
  • Script: Impossible Man
  • Camera: Impossible Man
  • Make up: Impossible Man
  • Special effects: Impossible Man
  • Best boy: Sr. Impossible
  • Clapper loader: Impossible Man
  • 1st assist. clapper loader: Impossible Man
  • Assistant to Mr. Man: Avengers
  • All the best ideas: Impossible Man
  • Is there a bonus scene at the end of this? Impossible!
• Deadpan Snarker: The Hulk, like before.
• Debate and Switch: The Avengers have split. Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Falcon are on one team, working for SHIELD. Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye and Ant-Man are on the other. Nick Fury order his Avengers to detain the others, as Stark had become a Destructive Saviour. They show up, face each other, but there was no Avengers vs. Avengers fight, not even a pre-fight debate, as the bad guy shows up immediately and forces them to join forces.
• Decomposite Character:
  • The Red Skull sports a monocle like Baron Strucker. Both characters are shown as separate leaders of their own fraction of HYDRA.
  • MODOK (via Super-Adaptoid) is similar to Arnim Zola. Both characters have taken the Avengers on different occasions.
  • The Black Bride is Black Widow's alternate timeline counterpart sporting Madame Masque's iconic golden mask. Whitney Frost herself later appears and eventually takes on the Madame Masque alias.
  • Trick Shot is this: Clint Barton was the original Trick Shot before being reformed while the second Trick Shot is a villain.
  • Maria Hill is sporadically seen as a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., however, her primary characterization in wanting the Avengers to fall in line with the government is instead used by Truman Marsh.
  • The Iron Patriot armor is occasionally used by Tony and Steve as well as hijacked by Ultron and Kang. Toni Ho herself appears briefly in the future timeline where Kang originated from.
  • Arsenal and Vision are two (similar) Foils to Ultron.
  • Crimson Dynamo is Ivan Vanko without Whiplash's elements. This gets bizarre as Whiplash (Anton Vanko) also appears briefly in Kang's debut episode.
  • Songbird is with the Thunderbolts while being like Jolt as a good teammate.
  • The Detroit Steelcorps are tech pirates while Sasha Hammer is mentioned to be unaffiliated.
  • The Thunderstrike namesake and hammer is given to be used by Jane Foster after briefly getting ahold of Mjölnir. Erik Masterson himself previously appears briefly in Kang's future timeline.
• Defiant Stone Throw: After one man threw a stone at Thanos, the rest of new York joined in, hitting him with whatever they could find.
• Delayed Ripple Effect: In the climax of "New Year's Resolution", the future starts erasing itself because Peggy and Howard are displaced in time.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Ant-Man in Season 3 is removed as a full member of the team, and only shows up in a Day in the Limelight episode and as a member of the Mighty Avengers in the finale. He then joins the team again in Season 4, only to be busted back down to guest star status (appearing in only a single episode) in Season 5.
  • Crystal, a part of the Inhuman royal family who appears in Guardians of the Galaxy (2015), is only seen in a brief, non-speaking cameo in "The Inhuman Condition". She has a larger role in the Black Panther's Quest episode "Mists of Attilan" but it's eventually revealed that the real Crystal had been kidnapped and impersonated by Princess Zanda.
• Depending on the Writer: Like Superman in Justice League, Thor's power level depends on the writer and situation going on in the show. Thor has taken on Thanos alone only to be beaten by Attuma and Hyperion in only a few seconds.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Happens right at the end of "Thanos Triumphant"; Tony has successfully rebuilt Arsenal to take the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and allows the Avengers to defeat him. Yay! Except that Ultron somehow hacks into Arsenal, takes him over, rebuilds him in his image, drains the power from the Infinity Gauntlet, and takes off with plans of his own.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In the Season 2 finale "Avengers World", the citizens of New York do this to Thanos. Thanos defeats the Avengers in front of everyone and demands the citizens of Earth bow to him. Instead, the New Yorkers throw trash at him and declare themselves to be Avengers too, giving the Avengers time to get back in the fight. Later in the same episode, Black Widow convinces the world leaders to unite their power girds to power a machine that can defeat Thanos, essentially accomplishing world peace, if only temporary, to stop Thanos.
• Divide and Conquer:
  • Cap and Tony figure out that Red Skull's Cabal isn't the unified, well-oiled machine he makes it out to be in In Deep and play on MODOK's resentment at being number two in AIM and HYDRA's hierarchy and Attuma's hunger for power to have them start a little brawl with Red Skull.
  • The Squadron Supreme has the same problem, and Falcon saw it coming.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The scene where Captain America and Captain Marvel argue while both asking a sheepish Falcon to take their side looks an awful lot like a nervous child being being caught in the middle of an argument between their parents.
• The Door Slams You: Falcon used this against the Impossible Man. His fault, for using his powers to turn a fight against villains into a sitcom parody.
• The Dragon: MODOK, to Red Skull.
  • Dragon Ascendant: Once Cosmic Skull has been defeated, and he becomes a threat on his own, even without the Cabal.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: In "Saving Captain Rogers", an aged Baron Zemo hypnotized Captain America into believing that he was still fighting WWII, alongside Bucky, and against the first Baron Zemo (father of the modern one). The important part of that fantasy is when WWII Zemo captures Bucky and takes him to his lab, forcing Captain America to find the way to Zemo's secret lab. Outside the fantasy, the old Zemo had retrieved his father's castle but ignored how to access into the hidden lab, so the Captain did so for him. Once it is done, Zemo got the super soldier serum of his father that renewed his youth and gave him strength to stand to Iron Man and Black Widow, while leaving Captain America perpetually in that dream. As they fight, Captain America is worried that something is happening that is destroying the castle, and Bucky got trapped under one of the rocks. Bucky then told him: everything is a dream, he has to let it go, and return to the real world.
• Drill Tank: One is used in Hammer's mining operation in Savage.
• Dull Surprise: Adrian Pasdar often lapses into it as Iron Man.
• Early-Bird Cameo
  • Ant-Man shows up wearing the same costume Scott Lang sported the following year in the live-action movie.
  • Kamala Khan made a non-speaking cameo as a normal human before actually appearing later in the series as Ms. Marvel.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Skull summons Dracula, Attuma, and Doctor Doom to join him against the Avengers. The first two join up while Doom remains on his own. However, none of the Cabal members particularly like each other, but by the end of "Bring On The Bad Guys", they seem to trust each other to some degree after a major victory came from truly working as a team. Dracula even voices newfound respect for Skull.
  • In "The Dark Avengers", the villainous Avengers all work alone, but decide to work together to take on the Squadron Supreme.
  • The Squadron themselves seem to be doing this, as they start fighting and all go their separate ways soon after the Avengers are defeated.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Red Skull to Captain America, as per usual. Later he's this for both Cap and Iron Man.
  • The Squadron Supreme (Supervillains here, like the Squadron Sinister in the comics) serve as Evil Counterparts to the Avengers, but they're even more directly counterparts to DC rivals the Justice League (Nighthawk = Batman, Hyperion = Superman, Speed Demon = The Flash, Zarda = Wonder Woman, Doctor Spectrum = Green Lantern)
• Evil Costume Switch:
  • Played with, after Red Skull jacks Iron Man's armor, he repaints it black and adds the HYDRA logo. The Costume is the same, but the person in it is now evil.
  • Happens again in The Dark Avengers, when the Avengers are brainwashed into thinking they're villains. They trade in their normal outfits for black colored or color-reversed costumes.
• Evil Versus Evil: Doom and Red Skull's forces fight over an Asgardian weapon in "Serpent of Doom".
• Exposed to the Elements: Hulk and Thor have no problems with low temperatures, Iron Man wears his suit, but Hawkeye and the Black Widow are out there in Antarctica wearing the same clothing they always do, and have no problem at all. Hawkeye's suit does not even have sleeves!
• Expy:
  • The Squadron Supreme is made up of expies of the Justice League of America. Most notably the Justice Lords from the Justice League series.
  • The Thunderbolts' publicist is a redheaded woman with glasses named Gabby. Visually, she's a dead ringer for Dallas Riordan, the team's police liaison from the comics.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: An alien guard quite literally dies screaming as he's being vaporized at the beginning of "New Frontiers".
• Fastball Special: Hulk and Hawkeye perform the move in "Ghost of a Chance".
• Fight Dracula: Occurs multiple times in the first season after he's introduced in "Blood Feud."
• Flying Car: Black Widow owns one. It gets trashed almost every time its shown.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Black Widow with Dracula, Doctor Doom, and Impossible Man (though he's not really evil).
• Foreshadowing:
  • During an action scene in "The Age of Tony Stark", Hulk was referred to as "Maestro" by one of the machines from the future. The Maestro eventually showed up in Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
  • There's a lot for the storyline that is the basis for the Season 3 finale:
    • In "The Ultimates," Natasha gets into a very tense argument with Tony over his leadership style, and the other Avengers have to intervene and break it up. Near the end, Cap remarks that fighting villains is so much better than the Avengers fighting one another. And to top things off, it ends with Tony mentioning how proud he is to be an Avenger and how he's honored to call these heroes his friends. Now remember
    • Similarly, when Kang the Conqueror arrives from the future, he says that these are the Avengers from "before the schism".
    • In the very next episode, one of the exhibits in the 30th century museum is a holographic image of Falcon and Iron Man fighting each other. Later, Kang chastises Cap for his naivety, telling him "You'll learn when..." before being cut off.
    • All this is averted though, as the Season 3 Civil War doesn't actually feature any of the main Avengers fighting each other, just the original Avengers vs. the Mighty Avengers. That and the fact that Avengers Tower is destroyed.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend:
  • Arsenal performs a Heroic Sacrifice near the end of Season 2 to make sure Ultron is destroyed once and for all. Tony is clearly devastated at the time (and indeed, had shown he was quite fond of Arsenal throughout the season), but when Ultron returns in Season 3, nary a mention is made to Arsenal, or the fact that the poor guy essentially sacrificed himself FOR NOTHING.
  • In "The Return," the Avengers spend a lot of time talking about how great it is that they're all together again, completely ignoring the fact that Iron Man is still stuck in a Prison Dimension.
• Fountain of Youth: The Time Stone makes Tony increasingly younger when it gets stuck in his chest in "The Age of Tony Stark".
• "Freaky Friday" Flip:
  • Between Red Skull and Captain America.
  • Happens again in Head to Head, this time to the entire team.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The HYDRA soldiers wear gas masks.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The new Avengers lineup has an equal number of 3 female and 3 male heroes.
• Genre Savvy: Hawkeyes spends "Why I Hate Halloween" citing all the rules about vampires and putting them to good use. The only part he messes up is trying to stake Dracula with normal wood; that's good enough for the underlings, but not the vampire lord.
• Gladiator Games: Mojo organized those games IN SPACE!!
• Go Mad from the Revelation: When Loki uses the Eye of Agamotto to see what happens after the Tree of Life is consumed by the Casket of Alldark, he realizes that he too will be destroyed by it in a pretty gruesome fashion, after which he promptly denies it and calls the eye and everyone else but himself a liar in a constant maddening mantra.
• Gosh Dangit To Heck: Iron Man mocks Captain America for doing this in "The Citadel".
• Gory Discretion Shot: One of the alien guards in the opening of "New Frontiers" is strongly hinted at being impaled by Corvous Glaive, thanks to the "below-the-torso" angle.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Season 2 has the Infinity Stones being scattered across Earth, with the Avengers, Thanos and the Squadron Supreme wanting to find them. Unlike most examples the Avengers are not very proactive about finding them, having so far gathered them by stumbling onto them during missions.
• Grand Theft Me:
  • Red Skull attempts to do this to Captain America.
  • Ultron does this to Tony via his Arc Reactor in the Season 3 finale.
• G-Rated Drug: The concoction Nighthawk uses to neutralize the Hulk has the effect of causing the Hulk to act as though he's drunk or stoned. It's actually Played for Laughs just how blatantly his behavior resembles that of a drunk person.
• Grand Theft Prototype: The Red Skull takes control of Tony's armor at the end of the first pilot.
• Hate Plague: MODOK uses nanobots to cause this effect on the Avengers.
• Hate Sink:
  • Truman Marsh fills this role after the government decided to take control of the Avengers in "U-Foes". Marsh is shown as a complete Jerkass who constantly bashes on the Avengers when they don't get intel even if they saved many lives from the U-Foes and Hydra. Out of all the Avengers, he makes Hulk more miserable by blaming him for the messes the U-Foes make, and for the failure of the missions. After saving an old Helicarrier from crashing into a nuclear power plant, he tells Hulk he can no longer be part of the team, causing Hulk to leave in sadness. Unsurprisingly, this has earned the scorn of all the Avengers. To add insult to the injury, Marsh brings in Hulk's old friend Red Hulk to replace him. He gets worse during the "Civil War" finale, where he starts the Inhuman Registration Act, which deprives Inhumans of their freedom by placing them under the watch of the U.S. government by forcing them to wear registration disks. Additionally, Marsh also endorses raids on various Inhumans and the Avengers are also forced to detain and imprison them without trial if they refuse to comply. This new development caused the Avengers to go rogue. It turns out this was an exploited: Ultron was masquerading as Marsh in order to sow discord between humans, Inhumans, and superheroes.
  • Season 5 has Princess Zanda. Her most loathsome moment in the season is when she impersonates Black Widow and successfully turns the other Avengers against Black Panther for allegedly killing Captain America. Then she tries to blow up Atlantis by rigging Iron Man's armor into a bomb. Both of these make her the most despicable character in the series.
• Heel Realization: Sort of. In "Hulked Out Heroes" when the others are...well, Hulked Out and acting just like Hulk does when he's particularly angry, Hulk realizes he's not the easiest guy to live with. The other heroes also realize they weren't very understanding of the level of anger and frustration that Hulk has to live with and constantly keep under control.
• Heroic Bystander: After Thanos defeats all the Avengers, the people of New York start to fight him as best they can, as well as helping the Avengers up.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Arsenal destroys himself in order to stop Thanos from blowing up the Earth. He's later rebuilt, but ends up having to sacrifice himself again to destroy Ultron who stole his body.
• Hidden Depths: The Hulk collects glass animal figurines.
• Hollywood History: "Blood Feud" had a back story of Dracula being a reluctant ally with the Allies in World War II for the sake of defending Transylvania. Since Transylvania is literally in the middle of Romania, an ally of the Axis, this is only plausible if the events depicted took place after August 1944, when Romania defected to the Allies following King Michael's coup.
• Human Aliens: The Squadron Supreme are all human enough to pass for SHIELD agents.
• Human Shield: Ultron uses Iron Man as one by hijacking his body in the Season 3 finale
• Hypocrite:
  • Red Skull criticizes Iron Man for hiding behind his armor. Then he decides to steal that armor to sustain himself throughout Season 1.
  • Ultron insits that humans are inferior to machines, but, in the Season 3 finale, he inhabits Tony's human body to defeat the Avengers. he even Lampshades it.
  • Clint initially dislikes Ant-Man because back when Clint was with the Circus of Crime, Ant-Man betrayed the team via disabling the tech he'd built for them, stole their money and ran off. This was money that the Clint had helped steal from innocent people (to which Scott returned said money), and the same Circus of Crime Clint would later betray to the authorities and quit in order to become a hero. So basically, Clint hates Ant-Man for doing far lesser versions of things he'd done.
• In Name Only:
  • In the comics, the Cabal is a meeting of villains with huge political power and influence. Here, it is just a regular super villain group.
  • In the comics, The Ultimates are an alternate version of the Avengers, who work as a military force under SHIELD command. Here, they are just robot copycats of the Avengers controlled by Ultron.
• Innocently Insensitive: In "Dehulked", a child is openly saying he admires Hulk, not realizing he is standing in front of a de-powered Bruce Banner who, at the time, despises Hulk thoroughly.
• Inventional Wisdom: In "Mojo World," Hawkeye disables Mojo's hoverchair by hitting an unprotected circuit board on its underside (He even lampshades the design flaw).
• Ironic Echo: Episode 1 has Iron Man sending holographic images to get the Avengers back together. The Red Skull does the same thing near the end of episode 2 when recruiting villains for his Cabal.
• Irrational Hatred: Hawkeye's initial dislike of Ant-Man in "The New Guy" straddles the line between this and Insane Troll Logic. The reasons Clint gives for not liking Ant-Man are that he's not a team player (technically true as Scott is new to working with a team but trying), that he's a showboater (not really true and something Clint is far more guilty of) and that Clint doesn't trust him because Scott allegedly betrayed him once (see below). To make matters worse, Clint flat out stated that he would leave the Avengers if Scott was on the team, being willing to abandon his teammates if he didn't get his way, showcasing that he's a much worse team player than Scott. Hawkeye basically comes off as an unlikable hypocrite the entire episode.
  • As for Scott's betrayal, back when Clint was a supervillain, Scott had been hired by the Circus of Crime to beef up their technology. However, a few weeks after doing so, Scott abruptly destroys their gear, took the money the Circus (including Clint) had stolen from innocent people and ran off. The same Circus Clint eventually betrayed by turning them over to the authorities and left as well. So Clint is mad that Scott basically did the same thing that he did, and was just mad because it had happened to him.
  • And the reason for Scott's betrayal? The Circus Ringmaster had lied to Scott about the Circus being legit performers, and on learning that they were criminals, disabled their tech and returned the money to its rightful owners. It takes Clint learning this and Scott performing a heroic sacrifice to finally get Clint to accept him as an Avenger, when Clint probably should have realized holding a grudge against someone for betraying a supervillain in the same way he betrayed the same supervillains.
• It Only Works Once: Remember how MODOK took apart Tony's armor with his mind in the first episode? He tries again in In Deep only to find out Tony put something in his armor to avoid a repeat of the experience.
• Kid from the Future: Inverted, Howard Stark is Tony's parent from the past.
• Killed Off for Real: Loki finally meets his end, in a rather dark fashion, in the season four finale.
• Killed Offscreen: Doctor Doom used time travel in "Planet Doom" to interfere with the origin stories of the Avengers and make sure that they never develop super powers. He says that he did the same with the Fantastic Four, who do not exist in that timeline either. We do not get to see a flashback of that, it's just a passing by mention (note that the timeline was fixed at the end of the episode, so this was temporary anyway).
• Kneel Before Zod: Thanos does this to New York in "Avengers World," where he orders the citizens to bow to him after he defeats the Avengers. Instead, they throw trash at him, declaring to all be Avengers, and help the heroes get back in the fight.
• Knight of Cerebus: When Hyperion showed up that's when the series started getting darker in tone.
• Last-Second Word Swap: When stuck on a Zola-controlled world with no Wireless connections, Ant-Man drops this little gem:
  'Ant-Man: "This whole old-timey thing is a real pain in my.. buuut]] if Zola is not using wireless, then things have to be wired!"
• Laugh Track: Invoked by the Impossible Man, who turns a battle against Attuma into a sitcom scene. Of course, Hulk and Thor can hear and complain about the strange laughing in the air.
• The Leader:
  • Tony is the leader rather than Cap again. However, they both split the role.
  • Similarly, Carol and T'Challa split the role in the Mighty Avengers.
  • T'Challa becomes the leader in Season 4 after the original team disappears.
• Legion of Doom:
  • In the first season, the Red Skull leads a group of villains called the Cabal, which consists of Attuma, Dracula, Hyperion, and the Super-Adaptoid (controlled by M.O.D.O.K. this time).
  • In Season 3, the Masters of Evil appear as recurring foes. Their ranks include Beetle, Goliath, and Screaming Mimi.
• Lighter and Softer: Despite the dark colors and overuse of shading, it still possesses a relatively light-hearted tone compared to its predecessor.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Just about standard when it comes to the Avengers meeting new heroes.
  • Tony's reaction to the Thunderbolts stealing the Avengers' arrests is to sneak into their base and spy on them. They then have an all-out brawl before it's revealed that the Thunderbolts are actually the Masters of Evil, but then they have a Heel–Face Turn later.
  • The Inhumans are even worse, with both sides attacking the other. They get into a fight over the Inhumans keeping secrets (though given that the Inhumans inadvertently caused the whole episode's conflict, it may be justified). Black Bolt punches people just for touching him – even when in the middle of a battle with a huge monster.
• Limited Animation: In some places.
• Loophole Abuse: Hawkeye knows in "Why I Hate Halloween" that vampires can't enter a building unless invited and denies them entry, so Dracula orders his minions to tear the cabin to pieces.
• MacGuffin:
  • The Tesseract, like in the movie.
  • The Infinity Stones in Season 2.
• MacGuffin Escort Mission: Thor and Black Widow spend "Widow's Run" looking for someone to deliver the Infinity Stones to.
• Machiavelli Was Wrong: This is the main theme with every episode involving the Squadron Supreme; they fail to accept that instilling fear will not earn them any loyalty from others. This is why people rebel against them, and why Nighthawk can't keep the rest of the Squadron in line.
• Male Gaze: Black Widow's Spy Catsuit receives highly detailed animation, which makes it perfect for the shots of her shapely buns, well-toned yet shapely long legs and pelvic center; Zarda is another example.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": How most of the Avengers react when the Hulk bodychecks Odin!
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Infinity Stones
• Mirror Universe: The Reality gem creates a Mirror Universe, wherein the Squadron Supreme are earth's heroes, while the Avengers are not only criminals, they're not even a team. The villainous Avengers all dress in shades of black (or just straight up reversals of their costume colors), though they acted more like delinquents than megalomaniac super villains.
• Missing Reflection: A hilarious moment where Black Widow, having been bitten by a vampire, attempts to escape from Captain America and Iron Man... and promptly knocks herself out running into a mirror because she didn't see her reflection.
• Ms. Fanservice: Black Widow, Zarda, and Hela.
• Mugged for Disguise:
  • In the episode "In Deep", Cap and Iron Man do this to Crossbones and the Grim Reaper, with the real villains kept tied up at Avengers Tower.
  • Hulk does this to Crimson Dynamo in "Secret Avengers", stealing the outer layer of his armor to use as a disguise.
  • The entire team does this to a group of A.I.M. workers in "Adapting to Change".
• Multi-Part Episode:
  • The premiere, "Avengers Protocol," is a two-parter.
  • The Season 3 finale "Civil War" is divided into four parts.
  • The Season 4 premiere "Avengers No More" is also two-parts.
• Mundane Utility: In "Savages", Thor and Hulk use Thor's Lightning powers to make popcorn.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Hulk in "Mojo World", and... his friend. That guy with sharpened rods. What's that sound, are there crickets in space?
• My God, What Have I Done?: In "Doomstroyer", after Doom takes control of the Destroyer armor and starts wrecking Latveria because the armor is messing with his head. Once he's freed from the armor, he looks upon the damage with utter horror.
• Mythology Gag: There are so many of them that they have their own page.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: The Red Hulk introduces himself in this manner when he joins the team.
• Natural Disaster Cascade: Using the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos begins using this trope to destroy the Earth: causing multiple hurricanes to rapidly form (visible from Thanos' new base in space), earthquakes to spew lava in cities, rocks to rain on Egypt (don't ask how that one works), and tropical islands and the surrounding waters to literally freeze solid. He has the power to instantaneously wipe out stars with a hand-wave, but chooses to destroy Earth this way to make its death slow and painful.
• Never Found the Body: Red Skull is aware of this trope and refuses to believe Iron Man had been killed when Justin Hammer couldn't find his body in "Savages".
• Never My Fault: In "Inhumans Among Us" when the Avengers and Inhumans get into a fight the Inhumans blame the Avengers for starting it and claim that they're racists despite the fact the Inhumans spent the better part of the episode disdainfully referring to the Avengers as "humans" and attacking Iron Man for claiming they were withholding important information (which they were).
• Never Say "Die":
  • In "Thanos Rising", the Falcon finds footage of Thanos destroying Titan, and expresses shock at what he's seeing. The only onscreen acknowledgement of the genocide Thanos committed is a computerized caption stating "Population decreasing."
  • In Season 4. Thor says Iron Man is "lost to the void" when they "die". This is Justified in the sense that that is more accurate to what happened to them, and Black Widow does use the word "dead" when they turn out to be alive.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The Avengers membership cards in "Depth Charge" rather inexplicably have built in scanners that can instantly identify Atlantaean technology despite never having seen it before.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Space Phantoms escaping their dimension was pretty much Iron Man's fault.
• The Nicknamer: Ironclad of the U-foes. He is the one who comes up with the group's name, and even dubs the Helicarrier they stole as "The U-Boat".
• No Antagonist: "The Last Avenger" has no villains in it nor any appearance of the Shadow Council, just Black Panther on the run from the other Avengers on account of him being blamed for murdering Captain America. Subverted when there is actually one member of the Shadow Council in this episode, and it's Princess Zanda impersonating Black Widow.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Whether this is a continuation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes or not, the team has long since disbanded...for yet undisclosed reasons.
  • In "The Ambassador", J. Jonah Jameson reports that the "controversial speaker" at the UN is "not Spider-Man... this time."
  • It's unclear why Ant-Man and Hawkeye hate each other so much, but it apparently stems from an incident that occurred between them in the past.
    • It's been revealed: Scott developed tech for the Circus of Crime during the period Hawkeye served as Trick Shot, not knowing of their ulterior motives, and thus betrayed them, which apparently included blowing up an arrow in Trick Shot!Hawkeye's face.
  • During the battle with the Supreme Adaptoid:
  Black Widow: Hey, remember Tokyo?
  Hawkeye: Why would you bring that up?
  Black Widow: The other thing thing that happened in Tokyo!
  Hawkeye: Oh. Why didn't you just say so?
• Non-Answer: In "New Year's Resolution," Howard asks Tony if he was a good dad, and Tony says that Howard taught him everything he knew, but doesn't actually answer the question (of course, considering how much Tony values knowledge, he may believe that he did).
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Justin Hammer could be seen as this. He did build the Super-Adaptoid after all, and he almost killed the Avengers with it. That's gotta count for something.
  • Doom seems to slowly be realizing how much of a threat the Cabal really are.
• Offhand Backhand: Black Widow, upon calling Tony out to actually lead the team he declared himself leader of, casually backhands a mook trying to get the drop on her.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The Avengers' reaction to seeing Dracula Hulking Out after drinking the Hulk's blood. They quickly get another Oh, Crap! when Hulk turns into a vampire under Dracula's control.
  • Cap and Tony get another one when they finally take a look at one of the cargo holds aboard Red Skull's command sub and realize that he is building an army in conjunction with Dracula and Attuma the likes of which the world has never seen before; surpassing even their worst fears about what the Cabal was capable of. Amusingly, Skull gets a genuinely huge one when Cap punches Tony.
  • Cap has this reaction in Bring on the Bad Guys when he realizes the Cabal just busted Hyperion out of prison.
  • They have this reaction when the Hulk body-checks Odin.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: When the mind stone causes a mix-up between the Avengers' minds and their bodies, Hawkeye, who is in Thor's body tries to lift Mjölnir but can't since he's not worthy and a "Freaky Friday" Flip doesn't trick the hammer.
• "Open!" Says Me: Iron Man asks Black Widow if she get past a Russian security panel; she proceeds to do so by kicking the door open.
• Orcus on His Throne: After the fight in the first episode, Red Skull spends several episodes as the Big Bad in the shadows who doesn't actually do anything.
• Order Versus Chaos:
  • In Season 2, Steve and Tony are interestingly inverted from their Civil War alignments, this time we have Tony as the anti-authority chaos while Steve is the militant Order, as opposed to the Logical Order Tony and Freedom-based Chaos Steve of Civil War.
    • This is the stance that Cap and Iron Man's Ultimate counterparts took in Hulk Vs. Wolverine.
  • The Mighty Avengers are Order and the Renegade Avengers are Chaos in the Season 3 Civil War.
• Out of Focus:
  • Since the Avengers split in two teams, there are two episodes dedicated to each half. Small Time Heroes solely centers on the main Avengers Team, led by Iron Man. Captain America's half is sidelined and hardly appears until the end, when the unusual amount of destruction Iron Man's team left behind gets Nick Fury's attention. Secret Avengers focuses mostly on Cap's SHIELD Team, likewise with Iron Man's Avengers completely sidelined.
  • The original Avengers for a portion of Season 4, but they will come back.
• Person as Verb: In "Guardians and Space Knights", Cap tells the others their roles in the "just in case Galactus comes back" plan, and Tony tells them good luck with that, but he has his own and runs off. We find that going off on your own is called "Pulling a Stark."
• Phantom Zone: Limbo, the Space Phantoms home dimension.
• Plot Hole: In "Blood Feud" vampire!Black Widow TKOed herself by running into a mirror, which Cap says is because she didn't have a reflection. He immediately holds a piece of the mirror up to her to reveal that she does have a reflection. Sure it's fading a little, but it's still visible to anyone who cares to look.
• Plot Tailored to the Party: Every Avenger gets a moment to shine in their plan to trick Thanos into running through the use of the stones one by one.
  • Thor's Asgardian longevity protects him from the Time Stone.
  • Hulk's practice with directing his anger lets him lead the rest in the Hate Plague induced by the Mind Stone.
  • Widow and Hawkeye share a moment when she deduces the timing of Thanos' teleporting from the Space Stone allowing Hawkeye to shoot him.
  • Captain America is grounded enough to realize when the illusion of the Reality Stone is too good to be true.
  • Falcon comes in at the end successfully evading fire from the Power Stone due to his greater maneuverability.
  • All this so Tony can finish rebuilding Arsenal so he may drain power from the stones and seize the gauntlet.
• Powered Armor: Naturally, Iron Man. Which Red Skull takes for himself at the end of the first episode. Also, Falcon.
• Power Glows:
  • When the Hulk gets really angry and really strong he starts glowing green.
  • Tony has a constant golden aura when he serves as Galactus' herald.
  • Captain Marvel glows when she fires energy attacks or flies.
• Prison Dimension: Doctor Strange creates one to hold Ultron that keeps technology from working.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Ant-Man quits the team off-screen between Seasons 2 and 3, though he does show up as a guest-star later and returns during the Civil War four-parter, then becomes a regular again in Season 4.
  • The Main Avengers get scattered across space and time at the premiere of Season 4, and it will take five episodes to bring them back. Due to Iron Man's unique circumstance, he will still remain absent from the cast for a while longer.
• Putting on the Reich: The Red Skull wears an SS uniform. Not surprising considering his origin.
• Putting the Band Back Together:
  • Iron Man puts the team back together in the first episode.
  • As a Call-Back, Season 3 starts with the Avengers having to reassemble again after having gone their separate ways.
• Race Lift:
  • Like his MCU counterpart, the show's version of the Norse god Heimdall is black.
  • By this point Nick Fury resembling Samuel L. Jackson instead of his mainstream Marvel Universe self hardly counts as a Race Lift anymore; the last time we saw his old design outside the comics was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.
  • Doctor Spectrum is black as a result of being a Composite Character with the original Doctor Spectrum (who was Ugandan).
  • Baron Mordo is black.
• Recognition Failure:
  A Kid: Thank's Hawkeye!
  Falcon: What?
• Red Eyes, Take Warning:
  • The first sign that something was not right with Captain America.
  • When MODOK infects the Avengers with his nanobots, they all naturally sport red eyes.
  • In the Season 3 finale, the Inhumans have these while under Ultron's control, and Tony, when Ultron hacks his body
• Red Is Heroic:
  • Practically all of the main cast with two exceptions.
    • Interestingly, Hawkeye's proto-design was red, though it was changed to purple at some point. The old red version can still be seen in some merchandise, as well as Ultimate Spider-Man prior to the actual crossover with this series (Hawkeye, like everyone else, has had his turn to be the guest star of the week in that show a time or two, but his design wasn't a 100% match for this show's until the actual crossover with it.)
  • Inverted with the Red Skull.
• Remake Cameo:
  • Brian Bloom, who voiced Captain America in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voices Hyperion.
  • Elizabeth Daily is Moonstone of the Masters of Evil/Meteorite of the Thunderbolts, whereas in the previous series she was Hawkeye's old partner Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird
• Remember the New Guy?:
  • During their debut, the Guardians of The Galaxy are known by Thor. After their own series came, we actually get to see how Thor and later Captain America met them for the first time.
  • The Avengers meet the Inhumans in "Inhumans Among Us", but Hulk already knows who they are. This is in part due to Hulk's first encounter with them in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. episode "Inhuman Nature".
  • Vision shows up with no origin given, and the Avengers apparently already know who he is.
  • This is repeated with Captain Marvel. The Avengers all know her when she first shows up, and it's mentioned that she's teamed up with them in the past, even though she never became an official part of the team.
• Replaced the Theme Tune: Season 5 has a new opening stinger and end credit theme, reflecting the fact that Black Panther is now the primary focus.
• Replicant Snatching: Done by the Space Phantoms in "Ghost of a Chance".
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Midgard Serpent, which is destined to kill Thor.
• Running Gag:
  • Hawkeye's cool purple shades are constantly getting knocked askew on his face.
  • Hulk doesn't like anyone touching his glass animal collection.
  • The cookies made by Falcon's mom gets a lot of love.
  • Hawkeye does not like it when people blink an eye to him. It eventually becomes a Berserk Button. Don't worry, Clint, we understand you ;)
• Sadistic Choice:
  • Red Skull fires two missiles, heavily implied to be nuclear tipped, at Las Vegas and Los Angeles knowing full well the Avengers would be lucky to stop one. And even if they stopped both missiles, he would still get away with the MacGuffin so they served their purpose as a decoy.
  • In "Inhuman Condition", the Avengers cannot stop Ultron's Death Ray, so they could either let it fire, or convert it back to its original purpose, which is to awaken latent inhuman DNA in normal humans. They choose the latter, and which means there will be more Inhumans popping up in subsequent episodes.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Valhalla being portrayed as the underworld ruled by Hela where people go when they die in "Valhalla Can Wait". In the actual mythology, the realm of the dead she rules is Helheim, and is the place where most people go when they die, while Valhalla is a Hall on Asgard where only the greatest warriors can go after their death. This is particularly jarring because it's one of the few points that the original comic and actual Norse Mythology agree on.
• Screw Destiny: When the Midgard Serpent shows up, Thor is sure that he must die in order to stop it, because legends say so. The legend of the Ragnarok, to be precise: Thor will kill the serpent, go nine steps back, and die. All the Avengers rejected the old myths, and took a third option: reopen the portal, and send the serpent back to it.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Arsenal sacrifices himself near the end of Season 2 to destroy Ultron once and for all. Unfortunately, Ultron returns in the Season 3 premier, and continues to menace the Avengers throughout the remainder of the series.
• Sequel Hook: The Season 4 premiere ends with Mjolnir flying off somewhere... It ended up back with Thor.
• Shared Universe:
  • The first four seasons are canon with Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. As the jolly green giant is a member of both the latter and this show's main cast, it's implied one takes place after the other or concurrently.
  • The final season takes place in the same universe as Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) and Marvel's Spider-Man.
• Shout-Out:
  • Falcon refers to Thor's interdimensional bedroom as "Bigger on the inside".
  • Loki's first appearance in "Doomstroyer" is in a similar pose to his first appearance in The Avengers (2012). There's also a scene of a depowered Iron Man falling to the ground, rescued by Hulk.
  • Hawkeye calls Cap "Van Helsing" in "Blood Feud".
  • Combined with a Take That!, when Hyperion steals Thor's red cape in episode 7, he looks even more like the DC Comics hero he was patterned after.
  • Jurassic Park gets referenced during the encounter with the T-Rex in Savage.
  • The aura surrounding the Cosmic Skull looks very much like the aura of another incredibly powerful cosmic character, particularly during its days bonded with Rachel Grey.
  • Falcon gets new armor from Tony for the season finale. It looks like Tony was trading designs with the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.
  • The sequence from "The Age of Tony Stark" where the kid version of Tony is forced to use gadgets and trickery to outwit the Red Skull seems like a high-tech homage to Home Alone.
  • In "Avengers' Last Stand", Ant-Man calls Sam "Captain Falcon".
  • Season 3, episode 3 is called "Saving Captain Rogers."
  • "Under Siege" is an episode about bad guys taking over the tower, and a shoeless Hawkeye being the only one who can stop them.
  • Thor destroys the Super Adaptoid crying that "School is out for summer!"
  • "Dehulked" shows the schematic of a Portal Gun near the end.
  • In the episode "Inhumans Among Us," Cap and Gorgon crash into a local jail staffed by a gawky small town cop who looks and sounds like Don Knotts.
  • This exchange from "The Conqueror":
  Kang What did you ancient people used to say? "Make my morning?"
  Iron Man: Close enough.
  • The rogue A.I. the Red Skull originally created to run his base is called "SkullNet."
  • Several of Zarda's Catch Phrases in "Prison Break" are deliberate nods to things Wonder Woman says, such as "Great Hera!" and "Suffering savage!" (a play on "Suffering Sappho!").
  • "Under the Spell of the Enchantress" is essentially one big Frozen (2013) reference. The Enchantress takes over a frozen asteroid, has snowmen act as her servants, including one big one that "loves big hugs", and Thor says "Ice never bothered me".
• Shown Their Work:
  • When Black Widow is flung out into the void of space in "Thanos Triumphant," she closes her eyes and mouth and places her hands over her ears in order to avoid having all the air sucked out of her body.
  • When Black Panther and Captain Marvel are squabbling over leadership in "The Incredible Herc," Hercules claims his people (the ancient Greeks) invented democracy.
  • In "Show Your Work," Ms. Marvel holds her breath after Vision tells her they'll be flying through space. Vision quickly tells her that holding her breath would simply kill her, since it would cause her lungs to inflate and explode in the vacuum of space.
• Simultaneous Arcs: Season 4's 5-episode arc dealing with the Avengers' rescue is set up as such, where the heroes are split up and sent to different locations across space and time. Vision and Wasp retrieve Falcon, Ant-Man retrieves Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, Black Panther retrieves Hulk, and the two Marvels retrieve Thor. Each episode happens simultaneously, and the 5th serves as the meeting point.
• Slouch of Villainy: The Red Skull at the end of episode 2.
• The Smurfette Principle:
  • As with the live-action movie, Black Widow will apparently be the only female Avenger, at least at the start. For the longest time she was the only female in the entire show, until Sam's mother was introduced. And even then, Widow was absent from a lot of the Season 1 episodes, though she did get a much bigger role in the subsequent seasons.
  • Finally averted in Season 4, where Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, the Wasp, and the new Thor join the Avengers.
• Social Media Before Reason: Oh, no! Hulk and Thor are having a destructive fight in the middle of the city! What should common citizens do? Oh course! Take selfies!
• Spanner in the Works: The Space Phantoms' plan ultimately failed because they didn't count on Falcon's involvement.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Sam's mother appears, and bakes cookies for the team in a few episodes. In the comics, both of Sam's parents were killed while he was still a child.
• Spiked Blood: In "Blood Feud", Dracula manages to suck blood from the Hulk, which causes him to hulk out and make him stronger. However, it also severely harms Dracula due to Hulk's blood containing gamma energy, which is also what cures Black Widow of her vampirism.
• Spoiler Title: "Inhumans Among Us" pretty much gives away its own reveal: that there are secretly Inhumans living among humans.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: At the end of the second episode, Black Widow pulls this off when the team's assembled at Stark Tower.
• Story Arc: Season 2 can neatly be cut up as follows:
  • The Infinity Stone arc which focuses on Thanos coming to earth and the Avengers locating the Infinity Stones.
  • The Avengers Disassembled arc which focuses on Ultron separating the team for his own ends.
  • The Squadron Supreme arc which focuses on the Squadron Supreme enacting a plan to deal with the Avengers and giving each Squadron member A Day in the Limelight, save for Nighthawk and Hyperion, each of whom had their own early on.
• Superhero Paradox: Tony's reassembling of the Avengers gets the Red Skull to form The Cabal in response.
• Swallowed Whole: In 'Beneath The Surface', Hawkeye is swallowed alive by the whale Atlantean Giganto. After spending the fight inside his stomach, a Hulk punch to the gut causes him to regurgitate Hawkeye back out.
• Take a Third Option: In the Season 3 finale, Ultron has taken over Tony's body. The Avengers can either defeat Ultron by killing Tony, or let him kill all of humanity. Instead, they trap Ultron in a pocket dimension that Doctor Strange created where technology won't work, but until he gets a new arc reactor, Tony has to stay there too.
• Taking the Bullet: Iron Man stepped in and saved the Wrecker from Hyperion.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Doctor Strange creates a Pocket Dimension specifically for Ultron where technology doesn't work. It's also one for Tony, since he can't leave as long as Ultron is in the Arc Reactor.
• Technopath: This show's version of MODOK has this ability, making him much more effective.
• Teleportation Rescue:
  • MODOK teleports the Cabal and the Avengers out of the collapsing quarry in "The Final Showdown"
  • Iron Man tries to make a Heroic Sacrifice by using the last of the power in his armor to manually push Ultron into the Sun. Luckily for him, Thor suddenly teleports in to take him back to Earth.
• Temporal Paradox: One starts to erase history in "New Year's Resolution."
• This Cannot Be!: Ulik helped to unleash the Midgard Serpent in Asgard, and legend says that Thor would die fighting her. The mere sight of Thor still alive causes this reaction in him.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: In this series, time travel doesn't have any consistent rules, so the rules tend to vary. For Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, their memories would get erased each time they they change eras, the timeline would collapse, and they were on San Dimas Time. For Falcon, he at most was subject to Year Inside, Hour Outside.
• Title Drop: The show's title is said by Iron Man in both opening episodes, and pretty much every other episode, it being the team's rallying cry.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Supreme Adaptoid in Season 3 vs. the Super-Adaptoid from the first two seasons. Hawkeye even Lampshades this when he expresses disbelief that the Avengers are actually getting their butts handed to them by an Adaptoid.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In "New Frontier", Supergiant tries to control/feed on Hulk's mind, but is overwhelmed by all the rage within him.
• Totally Radical: Tony calling MODOK "Modork".
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: Iron Man convinces the peaceful natives of the Savage Land to help him deal with Justin Hammer.
• Trash the Set: Avengers Tower was destroyed in the Season 3 finale, leading them to relocate to a compound, which also gets blown up. Black Panther chooses the Wakandan Embassy as the All-New All-Different Avengers HQ to feel more at home.
• Two-Keyed Lock: One episode of the Black Panther's Quest arc features a door that cannot be opened unless an Inhuman and a member of Wakanda's Royal Family open it together.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • Klaw returns in "Panther's Rage" with nothing more than a Hand Wave for how he survived complete disintegration. Since he got put back together, so did Zemo.
    • However, an Film Comic adaptation of "Thunderbolts Revealed" explained that Baron Zemo "ran off" during the giant Klaue fight; presumably 'detaching' himself from the monstrosity somehow.
  • Ultron comes back in Season 3 despite the fact that the last time he was seen, he was thrown into the sun.
  • Arnim Zola comes back in Season 4 even though he was thrown in the ocean in Season 4 of Ultimate Spider-Man.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
  • In "Adapting to Change", the team dresses as AIM members for an infiltration. While this is not an unusual action, you can't help but notice that all the AIM guys are men, but not one thought the very obviously female person (Black Widow) wearing one of their outfits was a bit suspicious?
  • Falcoln ages several years while trapped in the future, and none of the other Avegers feel the need to ask about this when they reunite in "The Return."
  • Peggy Carter and Howard Stark are shocked by the future and comment on several things that they see, such as the holograms, cars, and clothing, but never comment on the fact that Tony has a giant, glowing, piece of metal in his chest.
• Vehicular Turnabout: Red Skull and the Cabal actually manage to hijack the Tri-Carrier and use its weapons against the Avengers.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Red Skull and MODOK at the end of the first and second episode.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Hulk's relationship with Thor and Hawkeye is this. He also has a competitive edge with his bowling buddy, The Thing.
• Vocal Dissonance: In "The Ultimates", Black Widow's Ultron-created double uses Ultron's voice.
• Voices Are Mental:
  • Used when Skull and Cap switch bodies.
  • This happens when the Avengers switch bodies in "Head to Head."
  • Tony speaks with Ultron's voice while being controlled by him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Hyperion is a genocidal tyrant, but seems to honestly believe that mankind would be much safer under his rule.
• Wham Episode: At the end of "Crack in the System", Cap's frustration with Tony's way of doing things results in him quitting the team.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Producer Steve Wacker openly said that they have no plans for Molecule Kid to appear again on Avengers Assemble.
  • No mention is made as to why JARVIS has been replaced in Season 3 with FRIDAY. When The Vision appears he has Jarvis's voice actor, but it's not stated that the situation is the same as in Age of Ultron. It is stated FRIDAY's existence is due to being the most advanced AI Tony has, effectively outclassing JARVIS.
  • Thanos gets the Tesseract... and it's never seen again.
  • Songbird and Red Hulk become reserve Avengers at the end of Season 3, but do not appear as part of the team in the subsequent season. Red Hulk does show up eventually, but only in a Bad Future. On his blog, Stephen Wacker confirmed there are currently no plans for Songbird.
  • FRIDAY has also disappeared after Season 3.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • The Avengers don't seem to have any qualms with using lethal force against the Space Phantoms. Though it's never stated if what they did actually kill them.
  • They also had no problem using lethal force against vampires either. But being mystical creatures, they probably don't stay dead anyway (or aren't really alive in the first place).
  • During the fight with Doctor Spectrum, it's established that Ant-Man once killed one of his own ants by accident, and that he harbors intense guilt over the incident. Then, during the final battle with Hyperion, he sends a whole army of insects against the villain, many of which are then killed by Hyperion's heat vision. Ant-Man has no visible reaction to this, despite clearly being upset by the accidental death of a single ant just a few episodes earlier.
• What If?: "Planet Doom" takes place in an alternate timeline where Doom prevented Tony Stark from being wounded in the Middle East, Bruce Banner from being exposed to Gamma Radiation, and Captain America from being unfrozen. The resulting world has no Avengers or any other heroes, allowing Doom to easily conquer the planet.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • As mentioned, the character cast and their designs are based on the successful movie The Avengers. The episode "Avengers: Impossible" features an alien invasion of the Chitauri, coming through a portal in the sky, which is stopped when Iron Man manages to send a missile though the portal. Sounds familiar? And what is shawarma, anyway?
  • The entire first season appears to have been this for the movie, seeing as Skull is revealed to have been only The Heavy, trying to get the Tesseract for his master, Thanos. Thanos likewise makes a brief, silent cameo at the end.
  • "Hulk's Day Out" is this to The Hangover.
  • The second season plays out somewhat similarly to the Skrull arc of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, with Captain America being the catalyst for a broken fellowship as planned by the Villains.
  • As mentioned in the Shout-Out section, "Under Siege" is an homage to Die Hard, with Hawkeye in the John McClane role.
  • "Nighthawk" is about a villain using contingency plans that one of the heroes created to take down their teammates should they ever turn evil. So basically, the Marvel version of the famous "Tower of Babel" storyline from JLA (which was previously adapted as Justice League: Doom).
• Window Love: Captain America and Iron Man do this against a force field in the Season 3 finale, since Tony has to stay behind in Doctor Strange's pocket dimension to keep Ultron from escaping.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • The cast consists solely of characters who have appeared in the movies, while other, non-MCU heroes like Black Panther, Ms. Marvel, The Vision, Ant-Man, and The Wasp were removed from the team. The major guest stars from the first season were mostly more heroes who have appeared in the movies (such as the Guardians of the Galaxy), or heroes who are about to be joining the MCU (Ant-Man).
    • If you want a good example of how this trope works, Black Panther, Ant-Man, Captain Marvel (the former Ms. Marvel), and Vision all started appearing once they either had movie appearances or were confirmed to appear in future movies.
  • Ironically, the man the trope is named after did not appear in the first season, despite having movie appearances, appearing in Ultimate Spider-Man, and an action figure in the official toy line.
• Worf Effect:
  • Despite being around the Hulk's strength and with weather powers Thor gets his butt kicked and needs saving a disturbing number of times compared to other characters. Attuma dismissed him with nary a thought in the latter's debate episode and he had to be saved by Iron Man from Ulik, a foe from his own rogue's gallery. His lightning attacks are often treated as prime examples of The Worf Barrage.
  • The U-Foes managed to hold their own very well against the Avengers...at first. By the end of their debut episode, the U-Foes suddenly become severely under-powered and are swiftly taken out. They're ultimately defeated by knockout gas. Bear in mind, one of their members is literally made of gas.
• World of Snark
• Xanatos Gambit:
  • Red Skull in Blood Feud. He tricks Black Widow into becoming a vampire so the Avengers will fight Dracula, which could end in 2 scenarios beneficial to the Skull: 1) Dracula kills them and gets the super soldier serum, thus ridding Skull of his enemies, or 2) which actually happened, the Avengers beat Dracula, thus convincing him he needs to join the Cabal to defeat Captain America.
  • Nighthawk, as a Batman Expy loves to use these.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Red Skull's plans in the first episode.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: In season 4, when all the original Avengers disappeared, Falcon got sent to a Bad Future, and he spent years with Kang trapped there. By the time Dr. Foster finds the Avengers, it's been weeks, and when Falcon returns he remains aged up into an adult with no Reset Button.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Crossbones and Crimson Widow were ordered by HYDRA to save Whitney Frost from the Avengers. However, Frost had been experimenting on vampires and became a target of Dracula. With vampires attacking at every turn, Crimson Widow notes Frost has gone from an asset to a liability, so she and Crossbones flee.
• You Need a Breath Mint: Hawkeye makes this point to Hulk with a multiple bank shot landing the tin in Hulk's mouth.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!
  • Inverted as Thor states that he likes Hulk when he's angry.
  • Falcon also told this to the Impossible Man. Hulk interrupts them with a Big "WHAT?!".

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