After two seasons and 56 episodes, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes concluded last weekend as the Avengers waged war on Galactus and his four Heralds. And unlike so many animated superhero series of years past (Wolverine and the X-Men, The Spectacular Spider-Man, etc), Earth's Mightiest Heroes was able to deliver a satisfying conclusion rather than an unresolved cliffhanger.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Season 2 Review

The Avengers won't be off the airwaves for long, however. Much as Disney replaced The Spectacular Spider-Man with Ultimate Spider-Man this year, the company is prepping a new Avengers series called Avengers Assemble that will be produced in-house, airing on Disney XD. The cast and tone are designed to reflect the recent Avengers movie, which we hear made a decent amount of cash this summer.

While it's good to know that the Avengers will be back, Avengers Assemble faces an uphill battle in winning over fans of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The drop in quality from Spectacular to Ultimate Spider-Man alone is cause for concern. We have some ideas on how Avengers Assemble can ease the transition while also learning fro the lessons of the last two years.

Don't Reboot

When Ultimate Spider-Man appeared on the scene, it offered up a new version of teenage Peter Parker. Fans of Spectacular's Peter were forced to accept that his saga would never be resolved. Again, While Earth's Mightiest Heroes reached a much more concrete conclusion, we see no reason why Avengers Assemble -- while obviously focusing on a lineup based on the film version -- needs to completely reboot continuity and start over from scratch.

This is the same way we feel about current superhero movies. Amazing Spider-Man faltered this year because it chose to retell an origin story the majority of moviegoers still remembered from 2002's Spider-Man or the various comics, video games, and TV series that have tackled the origin. At some point it's better to assume that the target audience knows who these characters are by now and not waste everyone's time rehashing origin stories and setting up teams. Origin stories are inherently formulaic to an extent. It's going to be that much harder for Assemble to find its own, distinctive voice if it spends the early episodes bringing the characters together again.

And while Earth's Mightiest Heroes wrapped up most of its loose threads, there were some dangling plot points we'd like to see Assemble resolve. Surtur still remained a threat to the Nine Realms, while Wonder Man was on the cusp of evolving from misguided villain to reformed hero. Season 3 almost certainly would have tackled the events of Mark Millar's Civil War and the battle over the Superhuman Registration Act. Various other villains like Michael Korvac were positioned to be future threats to the team. Why cast away all that leftover potential?

Comments from Jeph Loeb and others have been vague and conflicting as to whether Assemble will continue where Earth's Mightiest Heroes left off. We're hoping that the recent Spider-Man re-dubbing controversy is at least a sign that Earth's Mightiest Heroes is meant to exist in the same universe as Ultimate Spider-Man. If it does, a reboot becomes even more unnecessary.

More Whedonesque Humor

The Avengers movie was certainly a visual showcase, with the final 30 minutes rivaling anything else at the theater this year for raw excitement. But we'd argue that the massive success of the movie had at least as much to do with the humor and character banter. Who better than Whedon knows how to put a group of characters in a room and have the audience rolling in the aisles?

While we don't necessarily want the characters in Assemble to be written and voiced exactly like Robert Downey, Chris Evans, etc., we would like to see some of that banter and humor cross over into Assemble. One of the problems with Earth's Mightiest Heroes was that the characters could be a bit bland and flat. Rarely did viewers get the sense that they had much of a life going on beyond suiting up in costumes ad punching evil. Cap's perpetual intensity and tendency towards delivering inspirational homilies at the end of every episode made him feel more suited for an episode of the old He-Man cartoon. The characters need more humor and more personality quirks if they're going to achieve that Whedonesque effect.

Aside from Hulk (Fred Tatasciore), the main Avengers characters are switching to new voice actors for Assemble. This new blood may be just the ticket as far as refreshing the core dynamics of the team. It's not enough that Iron Man sounds vaguely like Robert Downey Jr. when his helmet is off. He needs to light up the screen and play up his billionaire playboy philanthropist routine to his fullest. The regular voice actors need to be able to hold their own against guest stars like J.K. Simmons or Steve Blum.

Storytelling Variety

Earth's Mightiest Heroes was known for weaving a fairly complex narrative that built over time. Season 1 focused on Loki's scheme to take over Asgard, while the first half of Season 2 chronicled the Skrull invasion of Earth. However, Season 2 shifted direction once the Skrull story arc was wrapped up. The latter half featured episodes that generally stood alone and didn't build towards a greater conflict. There were certainly elements that carried over form one episode to the ext, but these final episodes were far more standalone in nature.

There are merits to both approaches. Superhero comics are not unlike soap opera in a lot of ways, with plenty of character drama and plot threads that pay off weeks, months, or years down the road. It's always good to have a TV series that can follow suit and keep viewers invested over the long term. But it's always nice to break up long story arcs with shorter, more focused tales as well. It's also important to make sure that longer story arcs don't drive off younger viewers with shorter attention spans or those who simply don't tune in every week.  Earth's Mightiest heroes Season 2 faltered in trying to deliver too much of one type in the beginning and too much of the other in the end. The Skrull invasion arc wore out its welcome by the end, while several episodes could have benefited from a longer format.

We'd like to see Assemble tackle both longer story arcs and shorter, standalone conflicts in equal measure. Give each storyline the room it needs - no more, no less. But also give viewers reason to keep tuning in each week and big payoffs at the end of every season.

More Outside Characters

Generally, the strongest episodes in Earth's Mightiest Heroes Season 2 were the ones that focused on less traditional Avengers heroes and villains. "Michael Korvac" introduced the Guardians of the Galaxy to great effect. "New Avengers" shifted focus to a more street-level and eclectic gathering of heroes. The Avengers comics themselves have really branched out in recent years and worked to include more central characters outside of the Cap/Thor/Iron Man camp. We'd like to see Assemble continue that trend even if the core roster remains largely movie-inspired.

In particular, we'd love to see more X-Men characters aside from just Wolverine take part in the new show. Several X-Men have joined the Avengers at one point or another. There was a time when Beast fans associated that character more with the Avengers franchise than the X-Men. Villains like Apocalypse or Juggernaut could just as easily do battle with the Avengers instead. With Wolverine and the X-Men long gone and no replacement series in sight, Avengers Assemble may be the best chance to see these characters on the small screen.

In particular, Assemble would do well to touch on Magneto and his family. Though Earth's Mightiest Heroes featured most of the characters fans would deem "classic" Avengers, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were notable by their absence. Unlike the movies, Marvel's animated TV projects don't face the same licensing restrictions when it comes to certain characters and franchises. There's no reason Magneto and his children can't appear either as antagonists or allies to the Avengers this time around.

When Assemble debuts next year, there will still be a two year wait until The Avengers 2 hits theaters. Much as Earth's Mightiest Heroes has been doing, the series has the chance to introduce viewers to the more obscure and colorful characters that inhabit the Marvel Universe. Plenty of Marvel fans happily watch the TV shows and movies and play the video games without ever picking up a comic. If Marvel wants characters like Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy to have their own successful movie franchises, it can't hurt raise casual awareness of the characters beforehand.

More Originality

Earth's Mightiest Heroes did a great job of adapting iconic Avengers storylines for the small screen. The series drew inspiration from everything from the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues to the classic Roy Thomas years to more recent stories like Geoff Johns "Red Zone" and Brian Michael Bendis' "Secret Invasion." However, one could argue that the series was too faithful to the source material. Earth's Mightiest Heroes was so busy adapting pre-existing material that it rarely had anything truly new to bring to the table. Well-read comic readers could usually predict exactly how an episode would end because the show rarely strayed from the beaten path.

Compare that to the approach taken by Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice. Those series are also respectful of the comic book source material, yet they're unafraid to strike new ground and sometimes make significant changes to familiar conflicts and character relationships. Some of the most interesting and important characters in Young Justice either didn't exist in the comics or are so changed they might as well be original creations. The series is always instantly recognizable as a DC cartoon, but it has a wholly fresh and original approach to the characters.

It's no coincidence that both Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice are creations of Greg Weisman. Weisman has a particular knack for digging into a franchise, mining the best elements, and combining them to create something new and compelling. Weisman won't actually be working on Assemble (we're crossing our fingers Young Justice will still be around after this season), but his work serves as an example of what Marvel should be striving for with the new series. We've seen an Avengers cartoon that can be lovingly faithful to the comics that inspired it. Now comes the time for a show that can break new ground and defy expectations.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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