Overanalyzing The Mission Marvel Crossover

So, let’s break this down.

You’ve watched Mission Marvel, right? If you haven’t, stop reading now and go watch it. It’s a great episode, and you’ll enjoy every second of it.

Anyways, brief summary of what happens from the wiki:

Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk stand powerless after being struck by Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s power-draining “inator.” Once the supervillains – Red Skull, Whiplash, Venom and M.O.D.O.K. – find out that Dr. Doofenshmirtz is responsible for robbing the superheroes of their powers, they seek him out and together create mayhem in Danville. Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb do everything they can to restore the superheroes’ powers before the evil villains take over the world.

But, obviously, you should know what happens by now since you’ve already watched it. Unless of course you’ve forgotten, in which, hooray, you’ve just remembered what happened! Vaguely.

Part I

So, we start out the episode with the kids surfing in an asteroid belt. Nothing too story-based, just setting the scene for the episode. A few character personality rebuttals, as well as slight character development, but nothing to be too concerned about peeling apart. Also, we get a couple cute, yet seemingly unintentional Phinabella moments here. Haha, I said “couple cute”, as opposed to “cute couple”.

And that’s my humor for the day.

Anyways, what are we seeing here?

Not much, obviously, as it’s just background story development, but we do get a bit of build on the Phinabella relationship a bit, which, for some Phinabella fans, could be a good rebuttal for the fact that they hold hands again, for another time in a series of many episodes.

After a couple of unimportant scenes, we’re now back at the Perry/Doofenshmirtz storyline.

So, Doofenshmirtz has this Power-Drain-inator to drain the “mayoral powers” of his brother Roger, so he can make himself the leader. Explaining further, he goes about telling Perry on what he’ll be able to do with those powers…with very, unimportant, menial, tasks. Quickly, Perry destroys the machine, and that’s it, no backstory, nothing.

So, what do we get from this event?

Obviously, we’re getting more character building on Doofenshmirtz. We know that he wants to take over the Tri-State Area; that’s been stated repeatedly every episode since day 1. However, we can clearly see that he’s starting to forget why he really wants to take over the Tri-State Area, or his real purpose for doing so, because he tells the audience that after he gets control, he’ll be able to cut a ceremonial ribbon with special scissors, and raise taxes.

And does he even have a real purpose for doing what he does, or is he just trying to get back at his childhood, a topic previously explored in this post? Right now, we can’t tell.

Or, does he have an emotional safeguard within himself, that makes him unable to do such evil acts as, for example, Red Skull? Why can’t he simply just walk into the Tri-State government, take a couple Norm robots, and take the Tri-State Area by force? Unless, of course, he has a problem with “under-complicated” schemes, which was also explored in the above post.

Now, we flip over to the Marvel side. The superheroes are fighting the villains in New York City, and eventually, the superheroes win. However, the moment before they can capture the villains, a stray beam from Doofenshmirtz’s Power-Drain-inator hits them, and…what do you know — they have no power.

I can’t give you guys any overanalyzations on this side on the Marvel characters, because I have no knowledge of the Marvel cartoon series as a whole. I apologize for any of you Marvel fans, and I wish you restraint from yelling at me in the comments.

We can clearly see that the Marvel drawings are quite different from the style of the Phineas and Ferb drawings. This has nothing to do with characters or what not, but simply with the fact that Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh wanted to keep the Marvel series true to itself and make sure it looked like how a Marvel cartoon should be. Even though we do see the clear line between the two, we can still tell that Phineas and Ferb is still the “host” here, because in later scenes the majority of the work is done in Phineas and Ferb fashion, while having the Marvel characters in their natural form. It works very well, if you ask me.

Also, from this, we get some geographical clues on the location of Danville:

• Danville has to be much farther from New York than just a short driving distance. How do we know that? Well, later on, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. tells the superheroes about where the beam originated. Hearing his tone of voice, we can discern the distance difference.
• Danville has to be close to Mount Rushmore. In the “Candace Loses Her Head” episode, the family seemed to easily be able to drive to Mount Rushmore for Candace’s birthday.
• The Tri-State area (which includes Danville) must be surrounded by the ocean on 2 sides. This is clear due to visuals we see in some episodes.

As a whole, we can clearly see that the Tri-State area cannot exist geographically.* Which is unfortunate, because I would love to go to Danville.

And I digress. Sorry for that, but that’s overanalyzation for you.

*Source for non-Mission-Marvel-based findings: Correspondence between Topher208 and Dan Povenmire on October 5, 2008.

So, now we’re back at the Flynn-Fletcher household, just as the kids are arriving back from space. As always, when Candace brings her mom out, the invention disappears before she can see it. When Candace asks why the boys aren’t in space, Buford says they got hungry. Linda then says, “That’s my cue! Who wants some snacks?”

Nothing of too much importance to see here.

We do get, however, that Linda has resolved to simply accept Candace’s antics instead of taking her to a psychologist, and just insert all this into part of her day. In a previous episode, “Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Doom!” we see how when Linda doesn’t get the routine phone call, or the like, she questions what happens, and then, ironically, she rushes home, as opposed to when Candace is begging her to go home, and she has to drag Linda along.

A few events (that I can’t give details on because they’re primarily Marvel-related) later, we find ourselves back at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated. Doofenshmirtz sees a TV broadcast that a stray ray sapped all the powers from superheroes in New York, and he realizes it was the beam from his -inator. Quickly, he blogs about it on the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N website, but then soon realizes that he doesn’t have the powers from the superheroes. Huh. Norm asks Doofenshmirtz if he’ll take down his blog post, but Doofensmirtz replies:

Doofenshmirtz: Uh, y’know, I’m not gonna change it. Everyone exaggerates on the Internet.

Doofenshmirtz is clearly back at one of his “internet” assumptions again. And what for?

Doofenshmirtz: Norm, let’s get the powers out of the canister so I can start wielding them! I-I can’t wait to fly and run fast and carry a big hammer around for no reason!

Does he really not know what any of this superhero stuff is about? It’s like from the Doofenshmirtz post again linked above — if he just paid attention for a quick second, he probably would realize that everything he has ever said or done is more or less destined to be a failure in one way or another.

Later on, the supervillains arrive at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated. Again, we see how Doofenshmirtz has failed previously in the past with overcomplicated schemes — the Slothinator, which gives people the powers of a sloth, “which are super-slowness…and super-leaf-eating.”

It’s almost painful to watch Doofenshmirtz. For some reason, you root for him, so he can at least get one thing done, but then no matter what, he always comes up short.

Though we all have to admit, it is really is fault all the time.

Part II

Now we’re back with Phineas and Ferb. The superheroes have just walked in, asking if the boys stole their powers, which, of course, the boys deny. Skip a few seconds later, and we get the interesting part here: Candace is indeed another fangirl.

So, basically, before Candace does her “I’m in charge” spiel, she walks in, and after being oblivious for a couple seconds, she realizes that there are superheroes in their kitchen.

What are we seeing here? Well, we can affirm that when Candace gets in her natural routine, she’s in the zone. Which is why it took her 10 seconds to realize that there were 4 more people than usual in her room.

Now, why’s Candace all interested in these superheroes? We eventually find out later that she wanted to prepare for a Ducky Momo/Marvel crossover event. Which is quite interesting, because now we’re seeing that all these stories are on the same level of observation. Are the superheroes actors (which could be because they were in a TV show crossover with Ducky Momo)? Or are they superheroes who were played by actors…it gets all weird here.

We can further guess if the Phineas and Ferb gang are also actors in a TV show on their level of observation…it gets very weird. It’s all a very gray area in this place.

Now at Perry’s lair, the Marvel leader (who is named Nick Fury, by the way) is briefing Perry on a mission with Monogram supposedly helping while using some television set Carl found in the basement. Part way through the event, Monogram starts wearing an eyepatch. Carl says he thinks it makes him look cool, though Major Monogram dismisses that and says that he has a stye. Which he doesn’t.

Anyways, what are we getting here?

Obviously, Carl isn’t afraid to say slightly derogatory things about his superior. Key word is “slightly”. But then, that’s pretty much all we can expand on there.

On Major Monogram, is he that guy who blindly follows every single trend in the world in order to make himself look, well, “cool”? Does he have a problem with his inner self?

To those questions, yes, and maybe. It’s quite hard to decipher from this viewpoint, as we know, but either way, it’s all good here.

After a couple more events, we’re back with Phineas. The boys show everyone their plan to get the superheroes’ powers restored — the S.H.E.D. (Secret Hideout for Emergency Defects). Appearing to be small on the outside, upon entering, they realize that it’s much, much, bigger on the inside, to which Ferb replies the best line ever said:

Ferb: Just a little British sci-fi technology.

A reference to Doctor Who, if you didn’t realize.

Later on, Candace enters the S.H.E.D. and asks the superheroes to read her fanfiction.

Again, with the “level of observation” thing. Obviously, fanfiction is based on events in a story, but they’re supposed to be fictional…right? So are the superheroes, on this level of observation, actors recreating fictional events? Or are the superheroes, recreating fictional events. Or, even, are they superheroes not creating fiction events but are being televised at all times with a camera crew?

It gets very confusing. From what I can see, they seem to be real…on the Phineas and Ferb level of observation, of course. From our level, it gets all mucky, like I said above.

Meanwhile, around Danville, Doofenshmirtz and the villains do partially “evil” stuff around town, such as jaywalking, ding-dong-ditching, etc. Of course, while singing.

Again, why is Doofenshmirtz lowering himself to such a level of evil, if you know what I mean? He could easily take over the Tri-State area, and now, that he has all these supervillains appearing to be on his side, he resorts to simply doing stuff that a rowdy teenager would do.

As a side note: we do see what Stan Lee’s cameo will eventually be in this song (the hot dog vendor), though we don’t hear him say anything.

Later on, when Doofenshmirtz is done with his song, he suggests getting ice cream before dinner to ruin their appetites. Finally having had enough of Doofenshmirtz, Whiplash starts destroying the mall. Not much to build upon here.

Back at S.H.E.D., the boys are just about ready to restore the superheroes’ powers. However, right before they finish, Candace, in a moment of absolute rashness, presses the button on the machine before it was completed. The machine hits the superheroes with a beam, appearing to restore their powers. However, they soon realize that the powers were actually switched, when Thor jumps into the air and sticks to the wall.

Phineas gets angry at Candace for being so rash. Candace angrily responds, saying she should just leave, and Phineas agrees, to which she sadly obliges.

What just happened?

Remember in Summer Belongs to You! when Phineas yelled at Candace to get on the tricycle? Theoretically, you could connect it as a rebuttal for that on Phineas’s personality, but upon further peeling apart, you can’t, because the context of each of those events was such a contrast. In SBTY, Phineas seemed to simply be in a rush to get to their backyard in time. However, in this, Phineas’s outburst on Candace seemed very unprovoked, which got some mixed reviews on Twitter.

@k_narrow @AcunaAndrew I 100 percent get why it happend and the resolution was beyond sweet.

— Spongey The Editor (@Spongey445) September 7, 2013

@wacky3zaybxc @k_narrow Phineas's 1st outburst bothered me. That's what threw me off. To me it should've been toned down a bit

— Andrew (@AcunaAndrew) September 7, 2013

Normally, Phineas would usually say “it’s okay”, or something like that. Obviously, when the 2nd outburst came out later in Part 3, that made much more sense because Candace failed once already for a huge thing.

Anyways, that’s my mini-review in here.

So, let’s assume it wasn’t just the writing trying to setup the events to come further.

What does it tell us about Phineas?

Phineas isn’t exactly the type who yells at people. Throughout the entire run of the show, all he’s ever been is happy, happy, happy. Except of course in Across the 2nd Dimension, which, of course, never happened in the entire continuity of things. But, still, it does tell is that he can get upset.

And when he does get upset, it isn’t nice to see.

In a nutshell, whenever Phineas gets flustered, which isn’t often, he gets angry in a way we don’t normally see. Buford puts his two cents in later on:

Buford: I’ve always told her: Don’t ever make Phineas angry. You wouldn’t like it when he’s angry.

Which is probably the smartest and most philosophical thing he’s ever said in the entire show.

Part III

After a few action scenes in the Perry storyline, we’re back at the S.H.E.D. again. Candace does another headfirst dive again, falling short, when she plugs in an unfinished machine that would have fixed the superheroes powers. The machine sends a beam straight for Baljeet, turning him into a Hulk-like creature, also known as Hulkjeet. He smashes the machine, and runs out of the S.H.E.D., tearing a hole in the wall.

(Can I just take this time to point out that the hole Hulkjeet made in the wall of the S.H.E.D. was probably as wide as the outside wall? Thank you.)

Phineas becomes extremely angry at Candace, lashing at her again and tearing up her S.H.E.D. card, and makes her leave. Buford then goes and looks for Hulkjeet.

Couple of things here: one, we see a little development in the Buford/Isabella relationship. Technically, Isabella volunteered to go look for Hulkjeet first, however, Buford stopped her, saying that things would get ugly. Isabella responds with the best comeback ever:

Isabella: Oh no! Baljeet! We’ve gotta go after him!
Thor: Sadly, there is no time! Our mission lies elsewhere!
Isabella: Well, I’ll go after him then!
Buford: Nah, nah. I’ll go! You stay here, little girl, it might get ugly.
Isabella: What? You don’t think I can handle ugly? I’ve been hangin’ out with you all summer!
Buford: Sticks and stones!

There is some caring involved on Buford’s part on Isabella’s safety, but we do also see that Buford doesn’t see Isabella as much of a threat, or at least someone who can take care of themselves. Probably could have been a lovely moment, but Buford had to cancel that out because, well. He has to maintain his tough-guy image.

Also, we get a rebuttal on Phineas’s personality; when he gets angry, he gets angry. Which, somehow, Buford knew about previously, as mentioned above.

Doofenshmirtz is back building a second Power-Drain-inator, as requested by the supervillians. Unbeknownst to him, the supervillians plan to use it for their own scheme, and so, when Doofenshmirtz finally finishes the -inator, Red Skull traps him in a cage.

Did Doofenshmirtz really not realize that after Whiplash destroyed the mall, that they were still on his side?

If Phineas is oblivious to Isabella, then Doofenshmirtz is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, oblivious to everything. Anyways, again with Doofenshmirtz’s problems.

Now we have a small moment that occurs. While Linda is on her walking tour, nearby, Hulkjeet is rampaging throughout the city. Linda, of course, is oblivious to this.

Oh my god, is everyone in this show oblivious to something? Doofenshmirtz more than others, but still. She must be rocking out to her walking tour voiceover for her not to hear the group of cars getting smashed together like they were cymbals.

(Also, I’d like to point out that the walking tour was exactly timed to Linda’s pace of walking. Anything weird about that? No? Is it just me?)

And that’s basically it for that.

Now, another funky part.

So, Candace is moping on how she feels left out of everything. For some reason, Isabella also has a reason to feel this way…but it’s not really that clear. Apparently, Isabella was upset that none of the female superheroes showed up, so “it was all about testosterone, and men”.

She does realize for over 100 episodes she’s been the only girl in a group of boys, right?

Anyways, they end up singing a song about how they were Only Trying To Help.

I guess Isabella had a sliver of a reason to sing the song also — when Buford stopped Isabella from looking for Baljeet. But that event wasn’t accented enough to be made as a clear “must-remember” event, like when Phineas yelled at Candace. Still, it didn’t seem like enough.

Past all that, we can tell that Isabella is older than she seems. “Testosterone” coming from a 10 – 12 year old? Maybe, maybe not.

That’s pretty much it for there.

So, now, we get a great Buford and Baljeet moment. Buford tells Baljeet that he is his best friend, causing him to calm down, making him back to normal again. However, Buford then states that Baljeet was terrible at being a monster, and shows him how to “properly” be one, causing Baljeet to turn back into Hulkjeet.

With this moment, we can clearly see that Buford does have a heart of sorts, much like the Buford we saw in Buford Confidential. However, for whatever reason, whatever Buford does, he ends up having to counteract in the end, whether it be his personality, or his natural instinct to maintain his “tough-guy image” (“Buford Confidential”).

Baljeet, on the other hand, we can see that he truly does appreciate Buford, however, he still feels entitled to his own actions no matter what, which is why he got angry when Buford criticized his act, and by extension, causing him to turn back into Hulkjeet.

The Buford/Baljeet relationship is interesting, because even though they both seemingly don’t like each other, that would be farther from the truth — they sort of need each other. Buford would be nothing without his nerd to bully, and Baljeet, somehow, feels empty when he isn’t getting wedgies all the time.

It’s quite interesting to watch, if I do say so myself.

Part IV

A few Marvel-sided events later, we arrive back at the S.H.E.D., where Phineas and Ferb are repairing the Beak suit. Candace walks in, wanting to apologize for everything. However, Phineas doesn’t give Candace time to speak, as he feels that Ferb and himself are needed immediately to help the other superheroes. Isabella tries to stop them from leaving, but they take off for downtown anyways.

So, what happened here?

Candace obviously felt sorry for what she had done, and it was quite visible to everyone viewing. Why didn’t Phineas let Candace speak? There was clearly time for some discussion on the matter, yet Phineas still brushed her off.

Ferb obviously agreed with Phineas on some extent, because from previous episodes, we’ve seen Ferb speak his mind when he potentially disagrees with Phineas or another past a point. This was clearly a matter that could have easily went “past a point”, but either way, Ferb didn’t say anything in Candace’s defense, so his silence was a rebuttal on Phineas’s comments.

Phineas was being rash here also. Without considering any traps or setbacks of any kind, he and Ferb ran off into the downtown to help, not thinking what could possibly have awaited them there.

And Isabella? She was clearly showing some concern for Phineas, like she always does (see “One Good Scare Ought To Do It!”), but, as always, Phineas failed to pick up any hint. However, in all fairness, it would be really out of place to have a romantic event like that happen right then, but, in the whole scheme of things, we still have to consider it.

A couple action scenes later, we cut back to the S.H.E.D. again, where Candace recalls that, from other comics she’s read, that the superpowers are a form of energy and cannot be lost or destroyed, only turned into a different form. Isabella quickly realizes that their powers must be stored in their data collection plant in their space station, and they both take off for outer space.

At the space station, Isabella spots the powers in a data collection tank, and Candace asks her how to beam the powers back to the superheroes. However, Isabella doesn’t know, for she was distracted by Phineas dressed as an astronaut.

Small Phinabella moment here, but mostly just on the -bella side — Isabella goes into Phineas-land more times than we see.

Also, Candace is a lot smarter than she seems. At least, a lot smarter than a person running around screaming at people half the time.

Back at Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, Doofenshmirtz is trying to plug in his Disintegrator-inator to defeat the villains. However, he’s stopped by a power cord that doesn’t quite reach his power source. He goes to find an extension cord, but for whatever reason, all of his extension cords are too short, or too long.

He did realize that his cords that are “too long” could fit, right?

Again, with the idiocy.

Though, to be fair, he does have perfect sense of measurement; I mean, when was the last time you were able to eyeball something that was exactly x long?

Back at the space station, Candace spots a red button on the control panel and immediately decides it must be the button to release the superpowers. Isabella tries to stop her from pushing the button, but Candace reasons that “third time’s the charm” and pushes it, causing the space station to deactivate and hurdle to Earth.

Again, with Candace’s headfirst approach in this episode. Eh.

Isabella, on the other hand, now has these sense of reasoning with Candace. Isabella seems more mature than Candace, at least, in this episode. And maybe others.

Part V

Linda is still on her walking tour, which still appears to be perfectly timed to everywhere she walks.

Can I just point out how absurd yet amazing it all is? Maybe there is a “force” that prevents Linda from seeing what the heck is going on.

Anyways, after a few action sequences in which the space station crashes directly into the villans, in which Candace does something actually good and worthwhile, and in which the Marvel superheroes get their powers back, a huge battle starts between the superheroes and the villains. During the battle, Phineas and Candace apologize to each other, with Phineas giving back Candace her S.H.E.D. card, which he repaired.

It’s definitely a cute resolution to the whole Phineas/Candace conflict that arose in this episode.

We don’t normally see any Phineas/Candace relationship development too much. Actually, let me rephrase that — we don’t see any positive relationship development between the two. Which is kinda sad, to be fair.

But when there is positive relationship development, it sure makes up for all the other times. Like Buford trying to make up for all his bad stuff during Christmas.

It’s still unclear if Phineas has resolved to stop outbursting like that, but we’ll find out soon enough in future, non-parallel universe specials. Candace, on the other hand, is probably going to stay rash as ever.

Side note: After this, Iron Man and Hulk sign autographs for Perry, addressed to Major Monogram and Carl, respectively. I just find it hilarious how Iron Man is signing specifically for Major Monogram and the Hulk is signing specifically for Carl.

The superheroes soon leave after. Doofenshmirtz finally finds the proper-sized extension cord, and activates the Disintegrator-inator, making the space station disappear.

You know, with the way physics works and all, there should have been an indent in the ground where Doofenshmirtz vaporized the space station, because the way the space station hit the ground, it clearly made a hole in the ground where the triangle point on the bottom struck the ground. (And that was a weirdly phrased sentence, I know.)

Oh well, I guess we have to move the plot on either way.

Finally, the classic ending to all the episodes; Linda doesn’t see what Candace is talking about, etc.

Doofenshmirtz, on the other hand, feels happy that he “saved” Danville, but then realizes that no one was watching him when he did that, so he realizes that no one would ever know it was him.

With that, we can safely assume another thing to put on Doofenshmirtz’s needs — he wants to he recognized for something. Remember when he was crowned “King Pretty Pretty Princess” during “What’d I Miss”? He was elated to have won, yet still entirely humiliated at the same time. Oh well.

 

Overall conclusion?

The episode, maybe for the fact it was a crossover, didn’t really expand upon much character development here, with the exception of the Phineas and Candace relationship and maybe a few additions to Phineas’s personality. In fact, we got a few developments on every character except Isabella here, who, in my opinion, seemed like she was thrown in the episode for no apparent reason for a sub-plot center. I think a Candace solo with Only Trying To Help would have made much more sense, and Isabella as a secondary character without feeling “left out” would have been a nice addition.

There were certain paradoxical improbabilities here, such as the fact that the space station left no mark in the ground when it should have (if it didn’t, the metal on the sides of the space station should have creased up a bit to show that the base got compressed into itself). But I guess you have to do stuff like that to keep the story flowing, and, in retrospect, what nine-year olds are going to care about paradoxes? Except those who play Portal, of course.

I fully appreciated the references to outside sources, which were well placed and made great emotional impact. Some great lines were said here, such as the Isabella/Buford comeback conversation, and Ferb’s reference to Doctor Who (@alikigreeky, eat your heart out).

I do wish that, even though the episode was meant to concentrate on the Marvel characters, that there was some more emotional character developments here, rather than focusing on action scenes and whatnot. I think the long action scenes detract from the normal flow of pace with the Phineas and Ferb series. But I’m that type of person who doesn’t watch action movies, so you can blame me on that.

Finally, that Ducky Momo thing at the end really threw me for a loop. That was amazing.

Now, that I’m done here, what is there to do? I guess I could overanalyze other stuff…