Review - The Avengers: EMH Season 2 Episode 6, "Michael Korvac"
Hmm.
I know the name, but not the person, involved here. So I'm curious.
Carol's in the 'previously on'! :D I hope that means we'll see more of her (and/or SWORD) today!
A naked man lands in a ball of some fiery stuff in the middle of...some sort of public square and says "they" are coming for him - and points to the stars! Whoa. What a hook.
I don't think I'll tire of seeing Ms. Marvel in the opening plate. :)
CAROL AND JAN TALKING! :D ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Jan: "But I was really mean to [Hank] the last time we talked...which I kinda feel bad about."
Carol: "I know...but Jan? If Hank really cared, he wouldn't have left."
~
Oh Carol. :| (And Jan, why don't you try seeking him out when you're not on duty?)
I love (in a "XD LOL" sort of way) that the Avengers are the first stop when something strange happens. Naked guy in a crater in Central Park? Yeah, take him to the Mansion.
...what. Jan looks nothing like Carina! But who knows what Michael's thinking now...
Michael: "Please, you have to protect me."
Jan (with a pause, and then): "The Avengers will take it from here." ♥
Jan: "I called a friend of mine - Jane - she's going to come make sure you're okay. ..."
~
♥ Acknowledging friendships! Making them more than passing canon! ♥
JANE!! :D Hi there.
Jan and Jane have been able to piece together Michael's story from the bits and pieces he murmurs while unconscious.
T'Challa: "Obviously Earth is of interest to several alien species." XD
Jan goes off to find Carina - possibly Michael's girlfriend or wife, she says, and anyway his only link to Earth - as Tony sends T'Challa and Clint to investigate the crater Michael made with his landing.
Jan finds Corrina - she's a waitress and she's astounded to hear that Michael's been found (well, I'm assuming she is - she dropped her tray when she heard).
Clint: "I still don't buy it. Maybe the guy did get taken by little green men..."
T'Challa: "Or blue." (XD ♥)
Clint: "Stop it. What I'm saying is, there's something...*off* about this guy."
T'Challa: "Maybe after weeks or even months of experimentation by alien creatures, anyone would be...*off*."
Clint: "Now you're just being difficult to mess with me."
T'Challa: "You're right." (XD)
~
Great conversation! :D
The Guardians of the Galaxy! :D
Hulk's able to ID the strange energy Michael's giving off as "some form of cosmic radiation"! Huh. Okay then.
Ms. Marvel is the SWORD-Avengers liaison! :D ♥
"Cap" has taken some time off to "look up World War II buddies or something". :S Oh Tony, he's looking up buddies all right...but not that kind. :S
Corrina is shocked - but also glad - to see Michael.
She recognizes him right away and runs up to hug him...It's been *two years* since he went missing...and he says he'll never let "them" take him away from her again.
The Guardians "beam in" to the Mansion!
Clint: "There's a tree and a raccoon scowling at us, man...are we firing?" (XD)
~ *Jan powers up stings* ~
Tony: "Just wait. They're intelligent, maybe we can..."
~ *Jan sees one of the aliens reach for his helmet* ~
Jan: "No!"
~ *fires* ~
~
...what? D: (ETA: oh, okay. She probably mistook the movement one of them made...)
And it looks like Tony's getting some character development - both here and in the episode with the Kree, it's another team member that starts the brawl (Jan here, "Cap" there) even as he says wait.
LOL at Rocket Raccoon pulling out the expandable guns...and at Hulk's expression there. :D
...that's Phyla-Vell Quasar, isn't it, wielding the Nega-bands? (Like Bob Grayson once had! :D)
...Rocket speaks English? Okay then. And...with an Australian accent?
Groot: "I AM GROOT!" XD
...does Clint figure out that his opponent - who later identifies himself, in English, as "Starlord" - bases his detection ability on sound? Huh. He manages to zap him with a shocker arrow, anyway.
Clint: "You look pretty human, for an evil alien. Who are you, and what do you want with Korvac?" XD
Tony (on something Phyla said): "...wait. Was that English?"
~
Yeah, Tony, my reaction too. Earlier, but yeah.
Whoa, suddenly everyone's into talk-not-punch? Clint comes running in with Starlord, saying "you've got to listen to what this guy has to say".
Starlord: "Korvac - he's a wanted fugitive. He's insane - he's wiped out thousands of sentient lives."
But Hulk's got Rocket in one of his hands...and Groot's head in the other. Huh.
Carol's coming in from space to talk to the Avengers! :D ♥
Carol (on seeing the debris around her): "Oh, that's not good."
~
You got that right, Carol.
Jan can't - won't - believe that Michael is a fugitive or insane...
...but then Michael startles Corrina - and us! - by transforming into some sort of...energy being/creature?
Michael: "I'm never going to let them hurt me again."
He's managed to knock out all the Avengers and the Guardians...but Corrina sees him in his new, powerful, form.
Carol's first concern when she sees the fallen heroes? Jan! :D
Okaaaay so Michael's an energy absorber too! Huh.
...and he makes off with Carol and Corrina! D:
Phyla, identified only as "Quasar", says "they're speaking English" because they're actually communicating mind-to-mind through the power of a Soul Gem that Adam Warlock (that another of her team members) is wearing.
Starlord identifies himself as Peter Quill and his team as the Guardians.
Peter: "We're an intergalactic peacekeeping force. We work together to keep the known galaxy stable."
Tony: "Guardians of the Galaxy...sort of like Space Avengers." (XD)
Peter introduces his team - Quasar, Rocket Raccoon ("Mr. Personality over here"), Groot ("I AM...Groot." XD ♥), and Warlock.
Michael was a Kree test subject! Whoa. No wonder he took Carol with him! D:
Whatever they did to him gave him - or unlocked within him - the powers he currently has. But with it, he destroyed the ship he was on.
Later, he did the same to a space station he was on...and managed to take out a chunk of the planet below it. :S
And was spotted on camera laughing about it while floating in the debris. :|
Peter: "Our plan *was* to keep him occupied long enough to let Warlock could pull him here, into the Soul Gem. You may have noticed, but it didn't work out so well."
~
Okay, Peter Quill, I like you. :D
...Michael's gone back to Central Park! He's engaging Carol in battle, having recognized her powers as Kree.
The Guardians and the Avengers get there and surround Michael.
Jan (desperately): "Michael, we can help you...but you have to stop this."
Michael: "No no no no no. What they did to me, I won't let that happen again...not to anyone! I can stop them...I can feel the power inside of me..."
And when he powers up, the combined Guardians-Avengers team engage him...but it doesn't work. He's got a shield that defeats them all.
Well except Hulk, but Michael just blasts at him - and Groot! - with one of the energy beams he can emit.
Tony: "Korvac, we can protect you from the Kree if you stop fighting us!"
Michael: "You...lie!"
Michael somehow manages to defeat even Warlock's attempt to get him into the Soul Gem. He knocks all the heroes out again.
Corrina (horrified): "Please, Michael...stop. You're scaring me!"
Michael (startled): "Scared? Of me? No...no no...Corrina, I'm going to protect you. I'm doing all of this for you, to make the monsters go away!"
Corrina (sadly): "You're the only monster here, Michael."
~
...what? D:
Michael disappears in a flash of light before the heroes, now conscious again, can get to him.
Corrina falls to her knees on the bridge she was gently placed on earlier, sobbing.
Jan goes straight to her, to comfort her, and Carol comes to her side later as well.
Jan: "Warlock, what happened?"
Warlock: "He sensed the woman's fear of him. Her doubt in him. And despite all his power, all he truly wanted was to be with her."
Tony: "Where is Korvac?"
Warlock: "I cannot sense him on this plane of existence."
Tony: "If this is the kind of thing the Guardians deal with, then we should talk."
Peter: "Yeah...I don't think so. There are things out there in the universe that you're better off not knowing about."
~
...and we see Michael floating, aimlessly?, in a place that looks like a remote corner of space. D:
Also, I'm glad Peter's got the same sort of attitude in a way (especially with his usage of "yeah...I don't think so" here) as Tony's had for a long time. How do you like it used on you, Tony?
...but I also think that Tony got some new character beats here, so it's...interesting.
But also, Peter, shouldn't you perhaps tell Earth's space-based monitoring organization, i.e. SWORD, about it?
General Thoughts:
Not...too bad.
The titular Michael Korvac is an interesting character too. His story here is...well, sad. Or more like tragic - I'm not sure I like the last line his girlfriend Corrina says to him; it's a horrible thing to say to someone in what should clearly look like an unstable (ETA...oh wait. She didn't know his story, the one that Peter Quill (more on him in a bit!) told the Avengers, did she? D: Oh crap. And she was clearly devastated at the end...).
The other big guest-stars this episode - are the Guardians of the Galaxy (as Tony dubs them) - Peter Quill/Star-Lord (as the end credits have it), a woman only named as Quasar (whom I know from the comics-verse as Phyla-Vell), Rocket Raccoon (who fires twin laser guns and has an Aussie accent! :D), Groot (a creature that looks like a tree!), and Warlock. They are an interesting bunch! I like them in what we saw of them.
And speaking of expressive helmets/masks like I tend to do - the voice actor behind one of them, who has only one line to say throughout the episode, does a *marvellous* job. He conveys at least three different moods/emotions just through his tone, something I think is great.
There was also one tiny non-speaking cameo that I LOVED. It was good to see the person back and I hope we get more of them, this time with dialogue!
The Avengers present in this episode - all minus Cap, Thor, and Hank - are great too.
I loved seeing Ms. Marvel with the team (thank you, show!), I loved seeing her and Jan talking again, and think it's interesting that they have something in common now apart from being superheroes. Not very Bechdel-test passing, really, but it's there. We also get to see the more empathetic and caring side of Jan here, which is a nice contrast to the way she was in the last episode.
There's great banter between Clint and T'Challa, Tony gets some valuable character moments that shows he's developing as a person (and I think Hank would have been interested in the events of the day in this ep, not just for Tony's actions but because of his previously-expressed interest in Wonder Man), and Hulk has a moment of Bruce Banner smartness...which is something that, if followed up on, could be very interesting indeed.
I know the name, but not the person, involved here. So I'm curious.
Carol's in the 'previously on'! :D I hope that means we'll see more of her (and/or SWORD) today!
A naked man lands in a ball of some fiery stuff in the middle of...some sort of public square and says "they" are coming for him - and points to the stars! Whoa. What a hook.
I don't think I'll tire of seeing Ms. Marvel in the opening plate. :)
CAROL AND JAN TALKING! :D ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Jan: "But I was really mean to [Hank] the last time we talked...which I kinda feel bad about."
Carol: "I know...but Jan? If Hank really cared, he wouldn't have left."
~
Oh Carol. :| (And Jan, why don't you try seeking him out when you're not on duty?)
I love (in a "XD LOL" sort of way) that the Avengers are the first stop when something strange happens. Naked guy in a crater in Central Park? Yeah, take him to the Mansion.
...what. Jan looks nothing like Carina! But who knows what Michael's thinking now...
Michael: "Please, you have to protect me."
Jan (with a pause, and then): "The Avengers will take it from here." ♥
Jan: "I called a friend of mine - Jane - she's going to come make sure you're okay. ..."
~
♥ Acknowledging friendships! Making them more than passing canon! ♥
JANE!! :D Hi there.
Jan and Jane have been able to piece together Michael's story from the bits and pieces he murmurs while unconscious.
T'Challa: "Obviously Earth is of interest to several alien species." XD
Jan goes off to find Carina - possibly Michael's girlfriend or wife, she says, and anyway his only link to Earth - as Tony sends T'Challa and Clint to investigate the crater Michael made with his landing.
Jan finds Corrina - she's a waitress and she's astounded to hear that Michael's been found (well, I'm assuming she is - she dropped her tray when she heard).
Clint: "I still don't buy it. Maybe the guy did get taken by little green men..."
T'Challa: "Or blue." (XD ♥)
Clint: "Stop it. What I'm saying is, there's something...*off* about this guy."
T'Challa: "Maybe after weeks or even months of experimentation by alien creatures, anyone would be...*off*."
Clint: "Now you're just being difficult to mess with me."
T'Challa: "You're right." (XD)
~
Great conversation! :D
The Guardians of the Galaxy! :D
Hulk's able to ID the strange energy Michael's giving off as "some form of cosmic radiation"! Huh. Okay then.
Ms. Marvel is the SWORD-Avengers liaison! :D ♥
"Cap" has taken some time off to "look up World War II buddies or something". :S Oh Tony, he's looking up buddies all right...but not that kind. :S
Corrina is shocked - but also glad - to see Michael.
She recognizes him right away and runs up to hug him...It's been *two years* since he went missing...and he says he'll never let "them" take him away from her again.
The Guardians "beam in" to the Mansion!
Clint: "There's a tree and a raccoon scowling at us, man...are we firing?" (XD)
~ *Jan powers up stings* ~
Tony: "Just wait. They're intelligent, maybe we can..."
~ *Jan sees one of the aliens reach for his helmet* ~
Jan: "No!"
~ *fires* ~
~
...what? D: (ETA: oh, okay. She probably mistook the movement one of them made...)
And it looks like Tony's getting some character development - both here and in the episode with the Kree, it's another team member that starts the brawl (Jan here, "Cap" there) even as he says wait.
LOL at Rocket Raccoon pulling out the expandable guns...and at Hulk's expression there. :D
...that's Phyla-Vell Quasar, isn't it, wielding the Nega-bands? (Like Bob Grayson once had! :D)
...Rocket speaks English? Okay then. And...with an Australian accent?
Groot: "I AM GROOT!" XD
...does Clint figure out that his opponent - who later identifies himself, in English, as "Starlord" - bases his detection ability on sound? Huh. He manages to zap him with a shocker arrow, anyway.
Clint: "You look pretty human, for an evil alien. Who are you, and what do you want with Korvac?" XD
Tony (on something Phyla said): "...wait. Was that English?"
~
Yeah, Tony, my reaction too. Earlier, but yeah.
Whoa, suddenly everyone's into talk-not-punch? Clint comes running in with Starlord, saying "you've got to listen to what this guy has to say".
Starlord: "Korvac - he's a wanted fugitive. He's insane - he's wiped out thousands of sentient lives."
But Hulk's got Rocket in one of his hands...and Groot's head in the other. Huh.
Carol's coming in from space to talk to the Avengers! :D ♥
Carol (on seeing the debris around her): "Oh, that's not good."
~
You got that right, Carol.
Jan can't - won't - believe that Michael is a fugitive or insane...
...but then Michael startles Corrina - and us! - by transforming into some sort of...energy being/creature?
Michael: "I'm never going to let them hurt me again."
He's managed to knock out all the Avengers and the Guardians...but Corrina sees him in his new, powerful, form.
Carol's first concern when she sees the fallen heroes? Jan! :D
Okaaaay so Michael's an energy absorber too! Huh.
...and he makes off with Carol and Corrina! D:
Phyla, identified only as "Quasar", says "they're speaking English" because they're actually communicating mind-to-mind through the power of a Soul Gem that Adam Warlock (that another of her team members) is wearing.
Starlord identifies himself as Peter Quill and his team as the Guardians.
Peter: "We're an intergalactic peacekeeping force. We work together to keep the known galaxy stable."
Tony: "Guardians of the Galaxy...sort of like Space Avengers." (XD)
Peter introduces his team - Quasar, Rocket Raccoon ("Mr. Personality over here"), Groot ("I AM...Groot." XD ♥), and Warlock.
Michael was a Kree test subject! Whoa. No wonder he took Carol with him! D:
Whatever they did to him gave him - or unlocked within him - the powers he currently has. But with it, he destroyed the ship he was on.
Later, he did the same to a space station he was on...and managed to take out a chunk of the planet below it. :S
And was spotted on camera laughing about it while floating in the debris. :|
Peter: "Our plan *was* to keep him occupied long enough to let Warlock could pull him here, into the Soul Gem. You may have noticed, but it didn't work out so well."
~
Okay, Peter Quill, I like you. :D
...Michael's gone back to Central Park! He's engaging Carol in battle, having recognized her powers as Kree.
The Guardians and the Avengers get there and surround Michael.
Jan (desperately): "Michael, we can help you...but you have to stop this."
Michael: "No no no no no. What they did to me, I won't let that happen again...not to anyone! I can stop them...I can feel the power inside of me..."
And when he powers up, the combined Guardians-Avengers team engage him...but it doesn't work. He's got a shield that defeats them all.
Well except Hulk, but Michael just blasts at him - and Groot! - with one of the energy beams he can emit.
Tony: "Korvac, we can protect you from the Kree if you stop fighting us!"
Michael: "You...lie!"
Michael somehow manages to defeat even Warlock's attempt to get him into the Soul Gem. He knocks all the heroes out again.
Corrina (horrified): "Please, Michael...stop. You're scaring me!"
Michael (startled): "Scared? Of me? No...no no...Corrina, I'm going to protect you. I'm doing all of this for you, to make the monsters go away!"
Corrina (sadly): "You're the only monster here, Michael."
~
...what? D:
Michael disappears in a flash of light before the heroes, now conscious again, can get to him.
Corrina falls to her knees on the bridge she was gently placed on earlier, sobbing.
Jan goes straight to her, to comfort her, and Carol comes to her side later as well.
Jan: "Warlock, what happened?"
Warlock: "He sensed the woman's fear of him. Her doubt in him. And despite all his power, all he truly wanted was to be with her."
Tony: "Where is Korvac?"
Warlock: "I cannot sense him on this plane of existence."
Tony: "If this is the kind of thing the Guardians deal with, then we should talk."
Peter: "Yeah...I don't think so. There are things out there in the universe that you're better off not knowing about."
~
...and we see Michael floating, aimlessly?, in a place that looks like a remote corner of space. D:
Also, I'm glad Peter's got the same sort of attitude in a way (especially with his usage of "yeah...I don't think so" here) as Tony's had for a long time. How do you like it used on you, Tony?
...but I also think that Tony got some new character beats here, so it's...interesting.
But also, Peter, shouldn't you perhaps tell Earth's space-based monitoring organization, i.e. SWORD, about it?
General Thoughts:
Not...too bad.
The titular Michael Korvac is an interesting character too. His story here is...well, sad. Or more like tragic - I'm not sure I like the last line his girlfriend Corrina says to him; it's a horrible thing to say to someone in what should clearly look like an unstable (ETA...oh wait. She didn't know his story, the one that Peter Quill (more on him in a bit!) told the Avengers, did she? D: Oh crap. And she was clearly devastated at the end...).
The other big guest-stars this episode - are the Guardians of the Galaxy (as Tony dubs them) - Peter Quill/Star-Lord (as the end credits have it), a woman only named as Quasar (whom I know from the comics-verse as Phyla-Vell), Rocket Raccoon (who fires twin laser guns and has an Aussie accent! :D), Groot (a creature that looks like a tree!), and Warlock. They are an interesting bunch! I like them in what we saw of them.
And speaking of expressive helmets/masks like I tend to do - the voice actor behind one of them, who has only one line to say throughout the episode, does a *marvellous* job. He conveys at least three different moods/emotions just through his tone, something I think is great.
There was also one tiny non-speaking cameo that I LOVED. It was good to see the person back and I hope we get more of them, this time with dialogue!
The Avengers present in this episode - all minus Cap, Thor, and Hank - are great too.
I loved seeing Ms. Marvel with the team (thank you, show!), I loved seeing her and Jan talking again, and think it's interesting that they have something in common now apart from being superheroes. Not very Bechdel-test passing, really, but it's there. We also get to see the more empathetic and caring side of Jan here, which is a nice contrast to the way she was in the last episode.
There's great banter between Clint and T'Challa, Tony gets some valuable character moments that shows he's developing as a person (and I think Hank would have been interested in the events of the day in this ep, not just for Tony's actions but because of his previously-expressed interest in Wonder Man), and Hulk has a moment of Bruce Banner smartness...which is something that, if followed up on, could be very interesting indeed.