There is a lot to like in this episode and as with the first two it is a lot of fun to watch.

What’s more apparent though, and perhaps would be obvious to people who’ve read the comics, is that this series is as much presenting new stories as it is taking you through a series of ‘and then this would happen’ moments.

At its best, such as in episode 2, you don’t notice the seams because what emerges is a coherent and thrilling story in its own right.

For me, what happens in this episode falls a little short of that – leaving me with the feeling I was listening to someone sitting down and saying ‘and then this…’ repeatedly – hand on my knee, earnest look in their eyes, hoping I’m still listening.

I’m perhaps being a little harsher than I need to be. There’s a thread of a great story here that weaves its way between set pieces and the banter between Black Widow and Nick Fury is lovely to see (and Lake Bell does a good job channelling Scarlet Johansson).

Indeed the voice talent on display is pretty impressive for a half hour animated show featuring only on streaming.

In addition to that we see a Loki having fun beyond what he might have expected to experience in Midgard. Yet it doesn’t quite hang together. As each of the prospective Avengers are taken down I was left wondering not ‘who did it’ but ‘how did it’. Thor is effectively immortal (even if stripped of Mjolnir) and yet is taken down like a sack of spuds falling off the back of a truck. Hulk, well Hulk has a gruesome end but again it’s not clear to me how it happens. Just that it does for the sake of the story. Better in some ways to have had him lose control and rampage and end up in a facility unable to come back to being Banner.

Then we come to the problem of the antagonist who just so happens to be at the right place at the right time repeatedly and whose superpower appears not to be their actual power but in knowing more about both the story and the world than they could ever possibly know.

Which brings me to another problem – the motivating incident for the antagonist is one which viewers know nothing about. Even after it’s revealed we’re none the wiser – because it’s an event not present in the MCU (i.e. another multiversal difference/change). In fact this may well be THE change that precipitates the entire story but at no point is this explained or discussed. The impact of this change if felt nowhere except in words and as such it feels weightless.

Essentially we have an episode suffering from a number of problems that only get bigger the more you think about them. This only highlights just how good the previous episode is.

Fortunately it’s well executed and fun to watch. Fury gets a number of good speeches, not least the ones about hope and why he was committed to the Avengers initiative in the first place.

Verdict: As the weakest and least substantial of the three episodes so far I’m not quite feeling you should give it a miss but perhaps the best thing is not to think too hard about it afterwards. Which is a shame, because good fiction should stay with us long after we’ve experienced it first hand.

Rating? 5 dead heroes out of 10.

Stewart Hotston