Pretty lame

DarthBill

An alternate future had the Avengers settling down & starting families, and then getting killed by Ultron, all except Tony Stark/Iron Man, who goes on to be the protector/guardian/foster parent of the kids, Thor, who takes over as King of Asgard, though why Thor would let his daughter get raised by someone else, even a long time friend/ally like Iron Man, isn't really clear (as if Superman being a slacker deadbeat dad in "Superman Returns" wasn't bad enough). The Hulk/Bruce Banner also survives into this future. Years later, the tween versions of the Avenger offspring: James Rogers (son of Captain America & Black Widow), Torunn (daughter of Thor & Sif), Henry Pym Jr. (son of Giant Man & Wasp), Azari (son of Black Panther & Storm) and Francis Barton (son of Hawkeye/Clint Barton, who actually did not grow up with the other kids), are forced to fight Ultron & save humanity from him, even if it means recruiting the Hulk to get the job done.

The recent market of direct to DVD animated superhero features has been pretty hit & miss so far, both for Marvel & DC. "Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow" is doomed to be remembered as one of the misses, largely because the kids themselves just aren't compelling enough to capture the imagination of the audience the way their parents did, with the possible exceptions of Azari and Torunn. Most of the films best moments don't even come from the young heroes, but from the old guard, specifically Iron Man/Tony Stark, who was forced to give up his playboy ways for surrogate parenthood.

Overall, stick with Ultimate Avengers 1 (the less said about Ultimate Avengers 2, the better).

score 4/10

DarthBill 4 February 2009

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2018205/