The plot goes that Phineas, Ferb and their friends are literally space surfing along a meteor shower and head back to their customized space station. At the same time Perry is battling Doofenshmirtz as per usual and breaks up his latest -inator which coincidentally happens to take away superpowers. In the midst of their battle, a stray shot manages to fire off before the machine is destroyed. And yet again at the same time in New York, Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor are battling against Red Skull, Venom, Whiplash and M.O.D.O.K.. Just as they're about to beat them, the ray bounces off the space station and onto the heroes, taking away their powers and allowing the villains to escape.
After the heroes regroup on the S.H.I.E.L.D carrier, Nick Fury manages to track the ray back to Danville and Phineas and Ferb's house. So the four heroes head to the pair in hopes they can restore their powers. At the same time, the villains likewise manage to track the source of the ray to Doofenshmirtz (thanks to Doofenshmirtz bragging about it on the internet) in the hopes of gaining the heroes' powers for themselves.
Can Phineas and Ferb save the day? Or will the villains actually take advantage of this opportunity and manage to take over the world?
"Mission Marvel" provides example of:
- Animal Superheroes: Perry, even moreso than usual. He dresses up in a rocket-powered superhero suit as a disguise and joins the Marvel superheroes in the final battle against the villains.
- Animation Bump: The fight scenes, especially when compared to Avengers Assemble.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The final error message the space station gives when it drops out of orbit is "Social network friends defriending!"Candace: Okay, that's just mean.
- As You Know: Doof once again brings up that is brother's the mayor before Lampshading that he's brought it up once or twice.
- Autobots, Rock Out!: The song "Feeling Froggy" plays during the final battle.
- Big Bad: Red Skull is the main antagonist of this special.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Perry in a superhero garb saves the heroes in their second fight against the villains.
- Hulkjeet, Phineas and Ferb, Perry, and Doofenshmirtz arrive to help the captured superheroes before the penultimate battle. Candace and Isabella likewise do this at the end by unwittingly stopping Red Skull before he can activate his device and restoring the heroes' powers.
- Bigger on the Inside: The S.H.E.D. headquarters.Ferb: Just a little [[Doctor Who British sci-fi technology].
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Candace, excited about working with her favorite superheroes, says, "Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!"
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the beginning, after Perry escapes his trap and destroys the Power-Drain-inator without fighting Doof, Doof complains and outright says, "I thought this was going to be a special extended episode!"
- Brick Joke:
- The hot dog vendor's cart getting knocked over.Hot Dog Vendor: I moved to Danville cause I thought it was safer!
- Doofenshmirtz brings up the fact that he once tried MODOK's look once but found it difficult to maneuver through doors. Later, MODOK has trouble fitting through one of Doof's doors.
- The hot dog vendor's cart getting knocked over.
- Brought Down to Badass: Once the superheroes get some help from Phineas and Ferb and their friends and a chance to exercise their ingenuity, they put up a pretty good fight against the villains even without their powers.
- Brought Down to Normal: What kicks off the whole plot with the Marvel heroes losing their powers.
- Buffy SpeakRed Skull: What was that beaver... duck... thing?!
- The Cameo: Stan Lee as usual, this time as a hot dog vendor as well as the narrator of the story.
- Captain Oblivious: Linda is unable to notice all the doings of the superheroes because she is busy taking an audio walking tour of the Tri-State Area.
- Car Fu: The superpowered version, of course.
- During the climactic fight, Hulk is battering Venom between two cars. And then he uses a huge radar dish, for good measure.
- Then MODOK makes use of telekinesis to try pushing a street sweeper into Iron Man, who just catch it and throws it back at MODOK's face.
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Phineas is about to say "I know what we're gonna do today", but then Candace interrupts by making the usual announcement that she is in charge.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The Space Station.
- The waffle-inator and disintegrator-inator.
- Candace's knowledge of the Marvel universe.
- Chromosome Casting: The only Marvel characters who show up are male. This ends up making Isabella feel unwanted due to the lack of women superheroes.
- Clown Car: Mocked when a hulked-out Baljeet lifts a car during his rampage, and about fifteen clowns exits from it and flee.
- Coincidental Broadcast: Lampshaded when Gordon Gutsofanemu announces a "Relevant News Broadcast".
- Colony Drop: The Phineas and Ferb Space Station drops onto the enemies, but they survive via MODOK's force field.
- The Comically Serious: Nick Fury from the heroes' side. Inevitable when they find themselves in a story operates much further towards silly end of things.
- The Marvel villains. Venom for example asks if Perry was "bitten by a radioactive platypus." While hanging around with Doofenshmirtz they part in his laughably excuses for villainy and they aren't happy with it. Red Skull clearly hates every second of it.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Beak suit returns, as does Buford's bear suit.
- Doofenshmirtz mentions Pizzazium Infinionite. Its scarcity forces him to use Mundanium Finionite as a substitute.
- A rather obscure one, but this is not the first appearance of the Disintegrator-inator. It was first introduced in "Where's Perry?"
- Crack Fic: Basically the entire movie.
- Crossover: The whole movie. Also, it's mentioned that Candace became a Marvel fangirl due to an in-universe crossover between them and Ducky Momo.
- Crossover Power Acquisition: Baljeet is blasted with gamma rays that give him the powers of the Hulk.
- Crossover Villain-in-Chief: Dr. Doofenshmirtz tries to team up with the other many villains of Marvel Comics to take over the Tri-State Area, but Red Skull takes one look at Doof's utter lack of threat and, after stealing Doof's latest "-Inator" gadget, and putting him out of the game (non-lethally, of course) leads the rest of the Marvel villains to raise some hell.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Baljeet, once he gets Hulk powers.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The depowered heroes suffer this when they try to face the villains at the mall, only surviving thanks Perry coming to the rescuse. They are initially on the receiving end of another at the end of the crossover but return the favor once their powers are restored.
- During the first fight with the villains, Phineas and Ferb try to intervene with the Beak suit. The suit is sliced in half by Whiplash before he shorts it out with water. When brought into the final showdown with the villains its destroyed by Venom.
- Delayed Reaction: When the gang and the superheroes are conversing in Phineas' kitchen, Candace walks in and starts laying down ground rules now that she's in charge.Candace: That means no shenanigans — hey, Spider-Man — so I'll be over at Stacy's all d-duh-duh-duh-daaaaay?
- Deus ex Machina: When the villains were about to activate Red Skull’s device, the Space Station (piloted by Candace and Isabella) crashes on top of them, destroying the device.Phineas: Hey, Ferb. Isn’t that our space station?
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Buford (a completely normal preteen boy) whacks Red Skull (one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe) in the face with a fish. And he gets away with it!
- Ding-Dong-Ditch Distraction: Done by Doof and the villains during "My Evil Buddies and Me".
- Dramatic Unmask: At the end when the kids try to unmask Perry in his superhero outfit. He has another one underneath it shaped like Ducky Momo.Useless triviaFerb: That's strange, I was convinced he was an anthropomorphic platypus. Huh. What with the beaver-tail and all.
- Edible Ammunition: When Doofenshmirtz joins the fight in the end, he chooses to use, of all things, an inator that fires waffles as projectiles.
- Enemy Mine: Though there is no official teamup, Doofenshmirtz is essentially fighting on the same side as Perry by the end of the episode.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The Marvel characters make a number of wrong assumptions since they don't understand where on the Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness the world they have walked into is.
- Red Skull initially assumes Doofenshmirtz's current plan to build a Slothinator to gain the powers of sloth means he is toying with him. As the villains start to see how dumb Doofenshmirtz's inventions are, Whiplash guesses that Doofenshmirtz is a misunderstood genius. Red Skull has the more accurate assessment that "he is a perfectly understood idiot."
- Nick Fury at first assumes that Major Monogram's agent is sitting beyond Perry, before Monogram explains that Perry is the agent. Nick Fury first guess is that Perry is a platypus with superpowers, to which Monogram says he is not.
- When Doofenshmirtz brings up Perry to the Marvel villains, Red Skull inquires if Perry is "a Super-Soldier platypus," and Venom asks if Perry was "bitten by a radioactive platypus."
- Evil Is Petty: Doof's idea of wreaking havoc with the villains include things such as jaywalking, ding-dong-ditch, TPing houses, and eating desert before dinner.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: According to Doofenshmirtz, his Multiheliotacticalbaboonglominator is this.
- Extra-Long Episode: The second hour-long episode after “Summer Belongs To You”.
- Eyepatch of Power: Spoofed with Major Monogram when Fury is briefing Perry on what's happening. Fury notices he suddenly has a eyepatch but Monogram claims it's a medical issue. Though Carl quickly points out he's trying to look cool. One cutaway later and Monogram has two of them on. In the second part, Monogram also sports Fury's goatee.Major Monogram: You're not the only one who can rock an awesome face mullet, Fury.
- Face Palm: Nick Fury does one after dealing with Major Monogram, and Red Skull later does the same in response to Doofenshmirtz.
- Fangirl: Candace turns out to be a major one of superheroes. Who knew.
- The Friends Who Never Hang: Candace spends most of the episode paired with Isabella, who were barely in the same scene in past episodes.
- Fun with Acronyms: In addition to SHIELD and OWCA, Phineas and Ferb hastily set up SHED
- Gratuitous French: When presenting the rebuilt Inator, Doof spoofs this. He literally says, "Viola! Yeah, I know, it's a large violin. I don't know why people say that."
- Grey Rain of Depression: During the "Only Trying to Help" song, provided by Lawrence watering the lawn with a sprinkler.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: During the ending battle, Thor and The Hulk play a short game of badminton....with Venom in place as the shuttlecock.
- Handshake Substitute: Baljeet shares a fist-bump with The Incredible Hulk. Pretty awesome.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Doofenshmirtz's disintegrator-inator could have easily saved the day, but Doofenshmirtz doesn't even remember that it exists until halfway through the climax, and the conflict is resolved by the time he plugs it in.
- Hulking Out: The Hulk himself is perpetually seen in his Hulked-out state, even after he loses his powers. Played straighter though by Baljeet after he is accidentally hit by gamma rays.
- I Have No Son!: Redskull mentions having a cousin who married a Drusselsteinian. She is dead to him now.
- Improvised Weapon: During the penultimate battle, Spider-Man uses golf equipment, Doofenshmirtz uses waffles, and Buford uses a dead fish as weapons.
- Indian Burial Ground: According to Linda's audio tour guide, Danville's day care center is built over one. (Which may or may not explain the origin of the inexplicable Giant Floating Baby Head.)
- Insane Troll Logic: Candace uses this to determine the proper way to release the superheroes' trapped powers.
- Jerkass Ball: Phineas has never been shown to be as short-tempered and harsh as he is in this special. A little justified though as he's under pressure with the world at stake and all. He goes back to normal at the end of everything.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As harsh as Phineas was towards Candace, he wasn’t wrong in revoking her membership since Candace was (unintentionally) the reason why the heroes had to deal with setbacks regarding getting their powers back.
- Keep Away: The penultimate battle consists of the good guys using everything they have to keep the villains from obtaining the reactor core that powers their destructive machine. The villains do retrieve the reactor core eventually, but it goes on long enough for Candace and Isabella to bring back the superheroes' lost powers.
- Knight of Cerebus: Even though he is Lighter and Softer compared to most depictions, Red Skull is by far, the most dangerous villain to enter Phineas and Ferb's setting since he is actually competent. Once he double crosses Doofenshmirtz he announces his intent isn't to take over the Tri-State Area as a stepping stone to Take Over the World. He wasn't exaggerating as he does attempt to use a rebuilt Power-Drain-inator to destroy the Tri-State Area.
- Lampshade Hanging: Isabella comments to Candace how detached they are to helping the heroes because "the female heroes didn't show up."
- Legion of Doom: Red Skull leads a new Cabal not unlike in Avengers Assemble, but this one consists of himself, M.O.D.O.K., Whiplash and Venom.
- Lethally Stupid: Poor Candace keeps on causing so much destruction on accident.
- Lighter and Softer: Well, not compared to the base show, but this may be the least threatening Red Skull ever. This is a man who helped implement the Holocaust.
- The Load: Candace unintentionally becomes this, as her innocent attempts to help out causes more harm than good throughout the special. She does accidentally become helpful later.
- Medium Awareness:Doofenshmirtz: I thought this was going to be a special extended episode!
- Mood Whiplash: Candace has just made up with her brothers. She even tells her brothers outright that she loves them, but once she sees Mom, she goes back into busting mode.
- Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: This episode reveals that Candace writes Marvel fanfiction.Candace: Would you guys read my fanfiction? It's a story where Hulk and Thor decide to learn ice skating and—
Spider-Man: I'm sorry, but we're not allowed to accept unsolicited material. - Multi Layer Facade: When Buford tries unmasking the mysterious platypus superhero, his secret identity turns out to be...Ducky Momo. Then Perry shows up, and we see a Ducky Momo mask discarded in a nearby trash can.
- Mundane Object Amazement: Thor is fascinated by a juice box. Apparently Asgard doesn't have anything like them.
- Musical World Hypotheses: “Only Trying To Help” is the only song that’s Alternate Universe; all the others are sung as offscreen All In Their Head.
- Mysterious Protector: Perry shows up at several points to aid the heroes without any of them knowing his true identity. To a lesser extent, Doofenshmirtz. The heroes have no idea who he is when he joins the fight against the villains.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Candace twice when she prematurely activates Phineas and Ferb devices to restore the heroes' powers. The first time it mixes up the power, the second time they wind up hitting the wrong person. Her second slip-up does pay off though during the penultimate battle.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The Marvel superheroes and supervillains stand out sharply when side-by-side with the Phineas and Ferb characters.
- Oh, Crap!: After the heroes get their powers back.Red Skull: It seems our window of opportunity has closed.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You know the stakes are high when Phineas snaps not once, but twice. It's especially notable in that this is probably the one time in the show's history that Phineas is actually aware of the full gravity of the situation he's in.
- The Oner: A Shout-Out scene to the The Avengers.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Even with a copy of Thor's powers, Iron Man can't use Mjölnir because he's not worthy.
- Pass the Popcorn: The kids' reaction when the Marvel heroes finally get their powers back and proceed to utterly wreck the villains.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Red Skull apparently hates people from Drusselstein. Which makes sense; the guy's a Nazi.Redskull: Doofenshmirtz? That sounds Drusselsteinian. I have a cousin who married a Drusselsteinian. She is dead to me!
- Poke the Poodle: Doofenshmirtz leads the supervillains through town doing "evil" deeds that can only be considered this at best.Doofenshmirtz: "Let's get ice cream and spoil our dinner!"
- Rage Breaking Point: After having enough of Doofenshmirtz's pathetic attempts at villainy, Whiplash starts to trash the local mall with the other villains soon joining in.
- Remembered I Could Fly:
- It takes a while for Doofenshmirtz (being Doofenshmirtz) to remember that he could simply use his disintegrator-inator to defeat the supervillains. He then gets sidetracked trying to find a long enough extension cord to power the inator and only activates it after the battle is over, in time to vanish Phineas and Ferb's crashed space station. It took time until he found a cord as long as needed or realized a longer cord would do.
- For some reason, Perry doesn't use the wire cutters he had with him all along to break him and Doofenshmirtz out of the cages they are trapped inside until Doofenshmirtz asks him whether he has any powers to help them escape. Waiting a while to escape the trap seems to be OWCA standard procedure.
- Shamu Fu: Buford's fighting style of choice in the penultimate battle.
- Shout-Out:
- The pan shot before the final battle and Hulkjeet's rescue of Iron Man (complete with "We have a Hulkjeet") to The Avengers.
- "I always told her; don't ever make Phineas angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry." Complete with the sad piano music.
- Ferb says that the S.H.E.D. headquarters being Bigger on the Inside is borrowed from British sci-fi technology.
- Some Marvel characters who don't appear still get referenced, including Ghost Rider, Aunt May and — of all characters — Howard the Duck.
- Doofenshmirtz trying to prove himself worthy of joining Red Skull, only for the latter to abandon him because of his sheer incompetence is reminiscent of Justin Hammer's attempts to impress Red Skull in Avengers Assemble. What adds to this parallel is that both Doofenshmirtz and Justin Hammer are scientists.
- Doofenshmirtz yells "Top of the world, ma!"
- Special Guest: Danny Trejo as Venom, the only actor who did not play the role in any of the Marvel Animated shows at the time.
- Starstruck Speechless: When Candace realizes that there are superheroes in her house, she is left in a state of shock and can barely get any words out, so Isabella walks her away from the situation.
- Stealth Insult: Isabella at first offers to chase down Baljeet, but Buford tells her not to because it might get ugly, to which she replies, "What? You don't think I can handle ugly? I've been hanging with you all summer."Buford: Sticks and stones.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Nick Fury acts the Straight Man to Major Monogram's Wise Guy. Since Monogram is leads an organization that doesn't a have a cool acronym and is playing off a man with an Eyepatch of Power and a beard, he tries dawning some of his own (at one point putting two eyepatches), much of Fury's annoyance.
- Doofenshmirtz acts as the Wise Guy to the Comically Serious Marvel villains' Straight Man.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Doofenshmirtz attempts a Villain Team-Up with the actually dangerous supervillains. They put up with him at first, but when they realize what an idiot he is, Red Skull quickly plans to betray him. Eventually he does and pulls an Eviler than Thou on Doofenshmirtz.
- Phineas and Ferb try to use their previously built Beak suit to help against the supervillains. Having never battles supervillains before, they prove ill suited for it.
- The heroes try to fight the villains when their powers are switched. Since they are stuck with powers they have no practice with, they are no match for the villains.
- Iron Man gains Thor's powers, but still can't pick up his hammer since lifting the hammer is a matter of worthiness, not power.
- Thor has Spider Man's powers and when he tries to throw MODOK, his lack of control with Spider Man's power to stick to surfaces causes him to fail because MODOK is stuck to his hands.
- Spider Man has Hulk's powers but since he's not used to being that strong he leaps right out of the building when fighting the villains.
- Hulk has Iron Man's powers, which leave him completely useless since Iron Man doesn't have any powers.
- Perry attempts to sneak into Doofenshmirtz's to take the Marvel villains by surprise. His plan doesn't got well as the Red Skull is actually smart enough to realize Perry is sneaking in, and while Perry is a competent agent he is not able to take on villains with superpowers.
- MODOK struggles to get inside Doofenshmirtz's building because he's too big to fit through the door.
- Take That!: When Major Monogram introduces Perry to Nick Fury of "S - H - I - E - L - D."Nick Fury: That's S.H.I.E.L.D. It's an acronym.
Major Monogram: Oh, like O.W.C.A.
Nick Fury: Yes, except it's cool. - Third Time's The Charm: Candace reasons that since she has failed twice already, she won't screw up a third time. This at first seems like Wrong Genre Savviness when the space station shuts down, but it turns out to be exactly what's needed to halt the villains and restore the superheroes' powers.
- Title-Only Opening: This episode doesn't play the title theme, just Phineas and Ferb rocking out on guitars as the title comes up from the ground. With Spider-Man taking over Candace's role.Spider-Man: Aunt May! Phineas and Ferb are making a crossover!
- The Team Normal: Red Skull is the only one of the villains who has no powers. But he is the smartest of the four, which is why he is the leader.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Several promotional images and clips revealed the existence of Hulkjeet as well as the Big Damn Heroes sequence in the penultimate battle.
- Took a Level in Badass: Baljeet gets to Hulk Out.
- The Unreveal: What the Multi-Helio-Tactical-Baboon-Glom-inator is or does. But all Doof says is that it is "self-explanatory".
- Villain Team-Up: Subverted, once Red Skull sees how inefficient Doofenshmitz is. He and the other villains quickly abandon him and take one of his devices for themselves.
- Villainous Rescue: Doofenshmirtz's interference frees three of the captured superheroes towards the end.
- Villains Out Shopping: Literally. Doofenshmirtz goes shopping at the mall with the supervillains.
- Vot Ocksent?: A number of jokes are made at Red Skull's expense because of his accent, including several from Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Phineas and Candace had a quick fallout when she tried to help restore the superheroes powers as she felt that she should't help her brother, which he agreed with her. Although, Candace quickly regretted for being rough on Phineas and tried to fix her mistake, much to his surprises and appreciation. However, after making the situation worse, Phineas snapped at Candace then told her to leave. Despite their friends and superheroes knowing how harsh Phineas was too Candace, they knew that saving the world was more important than hard feelings. However, when his sister discover where the lost powers were, Phineas realized how hard he was on Candace as he apologizes to her and in return she apologizes to him for messing up along with being tough on him, which they accepted.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The new (but not yet fully functional) Beak suit is not waterproof.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: When the powers are switched, Hulk gets Iron Man's, which doesn't mean a whole lot without the suit.Hulk: I am feeling entrepreneurial.
- Worf Had the Flu: The lack of (or, at one point, switched) superpowers leads to the superheroes being curbstomped several times. In addition, Phineas and Ferb's new Beak suit is only partly functional and is broken in both of the battles it is involved in.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The villains pull this on Doofenshmirtz after they rebuild his Power-Drain-inator.
