There's no real explanation as to where the "space armors" came from. Iron Man ended the last episode saying, "Gotcha!" basically when he found Kang's time ship, Damocles. The episode opens with Nick Fury spelling out exactly how dire the war against Kang is going for Earth. His forces are essentially outnumbering the entire planet, and the situation on the ground is useless. The Avengers and the Ultron fleet have merely delayed the inevitable in that regard unless their mission succeeds. We get a cool "RIGHT STUFF" moment with the team all walking into the loading bay in slow motion. Stark is naturally in his "Silver Centurion" armor and everyone else is in their own versions of the same - except for Hulk, who only needs trunks and a breathing tube for space. Kang's not wasting any time, however, and has basically aimed his most powerful weapon at Avengers mansion, set on blasting them as well as NYC off the map. And that's just the first 30 seconds!
Thor is written out of the episode pretty quickly; probably because things might have been "easier" for the main battle if both Thor AND Hulk were still there. Fortunately, it's done in very dramatic fashion; he sacrifices himself to re-direct the doomsday beam back at Kang's ship, which disables it and essentially allows the Avengers to reach space. It's portrayed as epic a feat as it sounds like in text (imagine if Superman deflected a blast that would have destroyed Metropolis with a punch, and you're half there). We get a subtle STAR WARS nod with Hawkeye being given the controls to blast at Kang's Scarab fleet. Iron Man and Wasp break off to allow the rest of the team to breach Kang's ship and from then on the REAL fun begins. We have a battle with Kang's time-warriors (who aren't called the Anachronauts, but may as well be). We have Wasp proving what she can do with a suit that boosts her bio-stingers as well as when it's all on the line. We see that the best attack Kang has against the Hulk is a SHORYUKEN. And that creepy looking robots can be your best friend. Somehow, a heroic nurse was able to insert an IV needle into the Odinson. Finally, we learn that Cap and Iron Man can make a very good tag team when it's all on the line.
To be honest, the final battle against Kang won't be deposing that brawl with Graviton any time soon. Heck, I'd argue that the Avengers' first battle against him was probably more entertaining. That doesn't deflate the drama from this episode, though. Once Wasp finds what Kang's really fighting for, the conclusion takes a different turn than a simple brawl. Yet Kang's arrest (!) doesn't seem quite like the victory some intended.
Overall I do think Kang was handled very well. He clearly was a powerful and dangerous opponent, and giving him a real and logical motivation for going back in time and wanting to kill the Avengers/conquer 21st century earth beyond "sport" is a wise move. I am sure a lot of work went into designing all his robots, minions, locals and so on, and it showed. Plus, this allows Kang to foreshadow the next events of the show with time travel lore without beating the viewer over the face with it like "WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN" sometimes did. The only hints that Kang gave was that "Capt. America's betrayal would be just the beginning."
I do hope this show doesn't do CIVIL WAR within a second season. It's too soon for a young universe. It seems silly to split up the heroes over a useless law when things are going quite well without one. A better story to adopt would be to merge a few Kree/Skrull war stories into GALACTIC STORM and make that critical "choice" being Capt. America's decision that "destroying" the Supreme Intelligence is wrong. In the comics, the "kill SI" heroes won out, and it came back to haunt them. In the cartoon, Cap's side may prevail, which could actually lead to more alien carnage. After all, both the Kree AND the Skrulls have at least one sleeper agent each on earth, and likely have more that have not been uncovered. An ULTRON UNLIMITED type story would be a great thing to do; after all, Marvel chose to homage that scene with Thor's daughter in "NEXT AVENGERS", so never doing the genuine scene would be a tad insulting. Tom Kane's awesome as Ultron.
The strangest bit is that in the credits, James Mathis III is credited as Black Panther, despite that Black Panther isn't seen or speaks in the episode. Wakanda threw off Kang's fleet, and it's naturally assumed T'Challa led that assault, but beyond that, he sat out this episode. It's like those episodes of "JUSTICE LEAGUE" where Kevin Conroy is credited as Batman even when he barely grunted. Still, I thought this was an effective episode for all of the cast. The Hulk amazingly got stopped and smacked around more than I expected, but that doesn't make me dislike him; if anything it makes him easier to like because he's not totally unbeatable. Still, I was stunned when Kang TKO'd him so fast. Given that the Hulk knocked him across the room a few times in the first chapter, apparently he was taking no chances this time. The team was all clicking, though. Plus, we got a Mr. Fantastic cameo! It really is nice to see the Four animated in their actual costumes. Shame we haven't gotten that in one of their actual cartoons since the 90's.
There're 6-7 episodes left in the season, and I am curious just what sort of arcs are coming next to finish it off and what will be saved for season 2. It makes sense to close with whatever caused the break-out (likely Loki) and then save a lot of the Kang future stuff for season two.
