Hulk Hate Greedy Marketing Ploy...and so do I

I'm really enjoying the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon on a cable channel called Disney XD. It's a fun, animated version of Marvel Comics' Avengers with strong plotlines based on comic canon, fairly decent animation and convincing voice acting. I planned to purchase the DVD box set of Season One as soon as it became available.

So it was a bit of a disappointment to stumble onto Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Volumes 1 & 2 the other night at Target. Priced at fifteen smackers apiece(!!!), the two separate volumes contain a total of only 13 episodes (seven on Volume 1, six on Volume 2) which is, by my count, only half of the entire first season. Extrapolating from that, you'd have to assume that for just the first season of this cartoon, purchasing it piecemeal like this, you can expect to pay somewhere around $60. Keep in mind that neither disc has what you'd call a treasure trove of extra features (on both discs a producer and story editor try to explain to you what makes Marvel heroes and villains so unique. No, I'm serious). Maybe you've got money to burn, but sixty bucks for one-season's-worth of 22-minute cartoons doesn't fit into my budget.

So I'll be taking a pass on these discs in the hopes that someday Disney Home Video releases a more reasonably-priced box set, maybe with some decent extra features.

And, as I did with the fantastically rebooted but poorly marketed Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated series, I'd suggest you skip purchasing these DVDs. Maybe the studios don't realize how bad the economy is...or maybe they do, and that's why they're gouging us on these cartoons. Regardless, if you're a fan of superheroes at all, you should check out the Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon, Sunday mornings at 10, on Disney XD, There are worse ways to spend a Sunday morning. And for those so inclined, there are probably worse ways to spend the next five minutes than checking out my work-in-progress steps below. -v