Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow DVD: Review By aeinhorn

The Avengers have been gone for years. After their worst villains were defeated, the heroes of the Marvel Universe found love and retired, giving birth to children who would one day become the next generation of heroes. What they never accounted for was the return of the murderous robot known as Ultron, created by one of their own.

When the Avengers fell in battle, Tony Stark took the children to a secluded location where he raised them and helped to train them. But a surprise appearance by the a battle-damaged version of the Vision warns Stark that Ultron is coming to wipe out the children.

The younger generation of heroes must now rescue their mentor and the only parental figure they ever really knew, and track down the only being who might be powerful enough to defeat Ultron – the savage Hulk.

This is easily the best of the animated DVDs to come from Marvel studios and Lionsgate. What is particularly remarkable is how spot-on the characterization of the kids is. These children are heroes, and were raised to become heroes. But they're also kids, and that shows in their voices and actions.

One amusing factor is seeing where conflicting copyright issues affect the story. While it is obvious who the parents of each child is, Azari is listed only as being the son of the Black Panther, even though he's clearly also the child of Storm of the X-Men.

It's also nice to see that this disc didn't skip out on the special features. Sneak-peeks of both “Hulk vs. Wolverine” and “Hulk vs. Thor”, are included, and that comes on top of a great featurette that peeks behind the film, and an analysis of Marvel's ongoing efforts to create teen heroes for their audiences to identify with.