It will be curious when or if Disney's ownership of Marvel will add a boost in animation quality. Because while the animation quality of A:EMH is good overall, it naturally is not as high as a WB production like "YOUNG JUSTICE".
That said, when it comes to a fight sequence, it all comes down to the storyboards. Even with the best animation in the world, if the storyboards aren't exciting and dynamic, then the battle won't be. The final battle in "ULTIMATE AVENGERS" was cool because most of the storyboards were inspired by Millar & Hitch panels from the comic; the sequel lacked that, and thus the action was more awkwardly cut and repetitive. So saying that the action is good while a one-on-one fight can be bad isn't an oxymoron.
All of that is up to opinion, of course. I thought the battle with Graviton was easily up to par with anything on JLU. There have been some awkward one-on-one battle moments with Cap, but overall the action is good. I actually liked the first battle with the MOE, and if it wasn't perfect...well...good. It was their first battle. Save better stuff for a rematch. Besides, these are TEAM shows; it isn't always supposed to be about a series of one vs. one but how a team operates. That is why the Avengers won and the Masters lost; the Masters were hot **** with the element of surprise and numbers, but once the Avengers were assembled and in the game, they started to fold. Yes, maybe it would have been cooler to see Cap vs. Grim Reaper rather than what we got (which was Black Panther de-clawing him and then Cap landing the shield throw TKO), but it was effective.
I do think Thor has been depicted very well here. His relationship with Jane Foster is adorable to watch. While his petulance with Odin and the affairs of Asgard is a little irritating, we've seen little of that in ages. His warrior spirit has been captured very well and in terms of sheer power, he's probably the most powerful solo Avenger; the Hulk is the strongest, but strength and power are two different things. Thor has other options if muscle alone won't cut it - the Hulk often doesn't. And, as stated, Thor is often the one who gets in the final blow (or shares the final blow with Iron Man).
In "Gamma World", there were perfectly good reasons why Thor took the beatings he got. When Abomination and Absorbing Man were pounding him, he was stalling so his hammer could return to him. Then when Leader thought he was one-upping Thor by "allowing" that to happen so Creel could absorb the uru, Thor AGAIN had to take a beating so he could concentrate on controlling Creel's uru body. I saw it as Thor using his mind more than his warrior skills in that episode, and that's cool. Too often Thor is written as a guy who just screams, "FOR ASGARD!" and smashes something. Here we had Thor matching wits against the Leader. That's interesting, isn't it? Everyone expected it with Hulk or Banner, which we got a little of, but instead it was Thor.
If I had to pick my "least favorite" Avenger, it would probably be Iron Man, although that's mostly because of his nature (and the fact that he's been trying to usurp Wolverine as "most overused hero" lately). In many episodes Stark is more of an impatient jerk than a genius and sometimes that's done to help the plot along. It isn't anything too glaring, and Stark in the films is depicted as almost an "arrogant savant" than anything. At the very least, I feared he would hog the show and he hasn't, at all. Neither has the Hulk, either. I actually like this version of Hulk a lot; he can talk, he's working on a team, and he's strong without always overpowering every situation and being a hog. Now if Iron Man and Hulk could do that, why couldn't Wolverine?
Hawkeye is the character I would say is close to hogging, but he's not been as bad in some episodes, and it took him a while to join officially. He was off the small screen for the longest time and in virtually every Avengers related DTV's, we all were screaming for Hawkeye again. Well, here he is. It's almost hard to complain now. Besides, Clint sort of HAS to be that scene-stealer with the attitude for him to work. It's who he is.
While some of the storyboarding for Cap battles could be better, I naturally like everything else about him. He's got a great design, his voice is awesome and he's rising to the fore as leader organically, which is more interesting than just making him leader from day one as some fans griped about before the pilot. And need I mention again how cool Pym and Wasp are? Here everyone was worried Pym would be crippled by his sad-sack, mental breakdown plagued stereotype from Marvel over the last few years, but that's not here. Wasp, naturally, steals any lines or scenes she has.
Yeah, getting Vision eventually will be cool, but I'm content with the cast we have for now. I'm in no rush to boot someone so the robot can fill in. Handling a full team cast of 9 would be a bit crazy, so I imagine one or two members would leave for a little bit when Vision comes in. Even the much heralded 90's X-MEN show had characters just drop out of episodes for stretches of time (usually Gambit, Jean, or Jubilee) because you can't have them all in every episode.
