Mighty Med Retrospective

We know that superheroes save people, but who saves the people who save people? Well, if you’re unlucky enough to be injured in the Lab Rats Universe, your first port of call is Mighty Med. I’ll let you decide which bit of that’s the bad luck.

Mighty Med was the Brainchild of Jim Bernstein, a producer who’d worked on Phineas and Ferb and American Dad and Andy Schwartz, who’d been a writer and editor for Scrubs and had worked on Drake and Josh prior to that. The show ran for 44 episodes across 2 seasons, a relatively short run and not a well acclaimed one, with an average 6.5/10 on IMDb. This is not dissimilar to the score of Lab Rats either, so let’s not jump to conclusions there

The main stars of the show are Bradley Steven Perry, who has Disney Channel Experience playing Gabe Duncan on Good Luck Charlie, and having a role in Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure; Jake Short who’d played Fletcher on A.N.T. Farm, and making her television debut, Paris Berelc.

Other actors involved are Devan Leos, I briefly mentioned how he attempted to murder a homeless person in my Austin and Ally retrospective. Seriously, f*ck him. And he won’t be last controversial figure I’ll mention unfortunately. Carlos Lacamara is also a pretty significant cast member, he was in Independence Day.

Much like with the Austin and Ally and Lab Rats reviews, I’ll cover the opening episodes, and any important developments through the rest of the show’s run. I won’t cover every episode in-depth because this is a sitcom and that would just amount to explaining the jokes. I’ll also be covering the Lab Rats vs Mighty Med crossover.

Our opening episode is Saving the People Who Save People. We’re introduced to friends Kaz and Oliver (Bradley Steven Perry and Jake Short) both comic book geeks but clearly Oliver is the smart one and Kaz is the immature one. They’re reading comics and admiring merch in the local comic book store, The Domain, owned by Clyde and Wallace (The Skyde brothers.) We’re also introduced to their friend Jordan (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) who they’re working on a class project with, along with their other friend Gus, who we’ll be introduced to later.

Oliver’s attention is drawn to a cardboard cut-out of his favourite superhero, Skylar Storm. Kaz teases Oliver with it, setting off a chain events that end with them stuck so badly in a model flying saucer they end up in a hospital.

In the hospital, Kaz sees someone who looks suspiciously like one of their comic book heroes enter a room, and decides to follow, dragging Oliver along with him. It’s just a broom closet, but there’s a secret panel which reveals a puzzle which needs to be solved to enter the secret room. So, if you’ve come in with 2 broken arms, you’re fresh out of luck.

They come down a find a hospital filled the brim with superheroes. More full-to-the-brim than it will ever be in the rest of the show. Roll credits and this comic book style opening is really fun, and helped by a pretty impressive theme song. It’s a rap number, performed by… oh no, Adam Hicks.

He’s the other controversial figure I mentioned earlier, Adam Hicks was arrested on suspicion of committing a string of armed robberies, he’s underwent several mental health evaluations and eventually pled Not Guilty, his trial continues. Unfortunately, back in the early-mid era of the last decade he was exceptionally talented and I’m obliged to give him credit for it. But I doubt he’s actively profiting significantly from this show so I’m going to continue.

A rogue snot-rocket frees Kaz and Oliver, as… A new patient is rolled in, he’s having heart troubles and the defibrillator doesn’t seem to be working. Oliver suggests that since he recently spent time on a planet with very strong gravity, as depicted in a recent comic, his heart may have sunk to his feet. They use the defibrillator on his feet and that wakes him up. If your head can’t get around that logic, this show may not be for you. As a comic book fan myself, I don’t mind things like this.

When it’s revealed they’re not Doctors, they’re shifted away into the cafeteria. And it’s here we regrettably meet Alan (Devan Leos) and his father, the Chief of Staff, Horace (Carlos Lacamara) Alan has some telekinetic abilities and Horace is able to briefly stop people in their tracks. He’s impressed at how they saved a patient their doctors couldn’t save, which frankly says more about the Doctors but I digress, and offers them jobs. The only catch is that because this is a ‘top secret’ hospital, they can’t tell anyone about it.

They’re shown around, and we find out that one of Horace’s running gag is him saying “I love Bridges” out loud. This is only funny when they put some kind of spin on it, but you can’t do that without first establishing it so… It’s revealed that whilst they don’t allow humans to see their exploits in person, they create comic books about them to finance the hospital among other things.

They’re taken the physio room where they find Skylar Storm (Paris Berelc) she was recently ambushed by a villain known as the Annihilator and lost all her powers, of which she had many. She was the Jack Jack of Mighty Med, minus the nappies. There’s a slightly creepy joke where Skylar says she was left in her underwear and Oliver, after an awkward pause, say’s he’ll definitely buy that comic. Frankly, a teenage girl in her underwear is still not the most exploitative thing I’ve ever seen in a superhero comic.

They’re given communicators which are about the size of a headphone, promising that the next model will be smaller, really misjudging what the future was for phone sizes. The next day, the meet back up with Jordan and we’re introduced to Gus (Augie Isaac) he’s… relatively dense and slightly creepy, the character everyone wants to avoid, especially Jordan. Still, he has money, so there’s some benefit to being friends with him.

Kaz and Oliver get a call, and ditch Jordan and Gus. The super villain Megahertz has gone a rampage around the city, he was eventually stopped by the super hero Tecton (Jilon VanOver) but in the process Tecton got a stop sign through his body. He’s surviving and even making quips but he’s beginning to leak blue stuff because heaven forbid there be blood in a hospital.

They’re invited to look in on his surgery which apparently means being allowed alone in the operating theatre with Tecton with no viewing screen, or any scrubs. Kaz decides that since Tecton can heal himself, he can just remove the stop sign and that will happen. Gee, why didn’t the Doctors think of that? It doesn’t work, and that’s cliff-hanger part 1 ends on. Oh and there’s a running joke about a commemorative fake photo which makes no sense and doesn’t make it past the pilot.

The season 1 closing credits features comedically edited footage of the episode, it’s a bit more creative than just using stills. Kaz heads to the comic book store to see if he can research why Tecton won’t heal, leaving Oliver to keep everyone else out somehow. The comic depicting the battle has been written, drawn and released at astonishing speed, so Wallace and Clyde have a batch of them, but they’re not supposed to go on sale until the next day. Kaz manages to distract them and steal a copy but, on his way out, he bumps into a rather annoyed Jordan.

Horace and Alan tell Skylar that they have no idea how to get her powers back. She tries to force them out by a lifting a tonne of weight, and is only saved by Alan. Kaz comes back with the comic but no real answers as to why Tecton isn’t healing. Oliver is now concerned that not only will they be fired, but now they know about the hospital, worse could happen.

Alan bursts into the operating theatre, as Kaz and Oliver cover their mistake using their bodies, I see a flaw in this plan, Alan, shuffle 3 paces to the left. Alan still isn’t fooled and works out what’s happened, and is more than elated to see the back of them. Kaz and Oliver have their 2^nd act breakup, and this is only the second episode as Horace finally sees what’s happened.

Before they can have it out with the 2, and apparently compress them into cubes, Tecton’s vitals begin dropping, causing violent tremors across the entire area, but not so violent as to do any actual damage, like Earthquakes do. It at least seems to save Jordan from a lacklustre presentation. Turns out Tecton has a weakness to gold, so Kaz, with his unsanitised hands, digs right in and retrieves the gold coin from within Tecton. At any time, this would be disgusting but watching this in 2021, that’s horrifying.

Horace decides that this victory mitigates their previous rule breaking, but their problems aren’t over as Alan decided to tell the Superhero News Network about Kaz and Oliver working in Mighty Med and how Tecton is currently super-weak. This invites Megahertz right to this ‘top secret hospital’ to finish off his enemy.

He makes short work of 2 guards armed with sticks. Skylar attacks and whilst she has no powers, she’s still a prominent gymnast and martial artist and can hold her own, for a bit at least. Horace can’t freeze him because his Megahertz's electrical field neutralises his powers. Kaz and Oliver try, they definitely try, but their attack is kinda pathetic.

Fortunately, through those delays, Tecton is fully healed and able to hold his own against Megahertz. Kaz gives Tecton the stop sign which he uses to contain Megahertz. Oliver says he’ll do whatever he can to help restore Skylar's powers. Kaz and Oliver make up and they also make it up to Jordan by giving her crappy robot a device that turns it into a crappy special effect. When buying something at the Domain, Kaz lets slip that he works at Mighty Med and it’s revealed that Wallace and Clyde are in fact super villains who want to get into Mighty Med and kill everyone. You could’ve tried asking Megahertz, he apparently knows.

It’s a pretty funny opener and gets down to business pretty quickly, introducing a couple of long term elements to help keep viewers invested over the season, as well as having a pretty funny band of supporting characters.

The next episode introduces us to a long forgotten (in this universe at least) superhero known as Brain Matter. Oliver’s off doing comedy hijinks, so Kaz and Skylar are investigating, Horace eventually confessing that he’s responsible for something horrifying behind the ‘door of doom.’ Turns out the door of doom is the freezer door because someone’s not very smart. They find a Brain Matter figurine and release him and he grows into the real thing

He was conducting an experiment on himself when something went horribly wrong. And he transforms into a pulverising monster that eats brains. They need to freeze him but they’re out of dry ice. This is where the plot clashes into the hijinks, Brain Matter is restored to be in… I think one more episode. Well, apparently not for Oliver but this subplot is never brought up again, nor is his father for that matter, which is weird seeing as his mother will play a substantial role in a later story

Next episode, I Normo, introduces us to Stephanie (Brooke Sorenson) she’s the shallow popular girl that Kaz is totally into. Skylar assumes a civilian identity of Connie Valentine, and eventually decides to come to High School.

Sm’Oliver’s Travels picks up and Clyde and Wallace’s attempts to enter Mighty Med, it seems their grudge is against Horace for whatever reason. They place a tracking device in Kaz’s backpack but their plan is foiled as Kaz and Gus accidentally switch backpacks. That’s the B-plot, as the A-plot revolves around a shrink ray incident. Oliver is shrunk, but despite this has no problem entering the insides of a hero and battling a supervillain, well battling might be a strong word for it, disarming? 

Pranks for Nothing, my sentiments about this episode exactly, it’s one I would ignore except for that fact that Oliver being a better prankster than Kaz is a plot point for another episode I’ll be covering in my next Sitcom review. And also they got in Dwight Howard, even had a joke with him wearing his Houston Rockets uniform.

Oh yeah, Skylar’s powers, just to keep a running tally, at this point we know she can:
Reverse Time
Control celestial bodies
Alter Gravity
X-ray vision
Make someone explode with her mind
Lift very heavy things

Those 6 alone make her powers at near enough Superman level, and she has 19 others. I have a point to make but it won’t be obvious until I review Lab Rats Elite Force. Alan Rules introduces us to Lizard Man, he appears in a couple of episodes so I just thought I’d mention that. It also features a subplot with Wallace and Clyde, but it’s barely worth mentioning, only that Kaz has 11 others Brothers, and their names all begin with K.

So You Think You Can Be a Sidekick opens with the disturbing news that Megahertz has escaped Mighty Max Prison. And oh yeah, Dopiander from Deadpool is in this, or rather Karen Soni is, he’s not in many episodes and pretty much vanishes after season 1. He’s a doctor that can run fast, but only backwards. Still, he and Alan manage to rescue Oliver after he’s captured by Megahertz, and they even defeat Megahertz.

Episode 11 is called Lockdown… and the jokes just write themselves, don’t they? I don’t really have much to say about the episode, but they got the right idea, lockdown hard and fast and it doesn’t have to last as long. Episodes 12 introduces Neocortex, and suddenly I have an urge to play Crash 4… funny, that. I guess we can add flight to Skylar’s power-list, she suddenly gains some of them back when she gets sick… I have no idea how that works either but… Regrettably for her, it’s temporary.

Episode 13 sees Oliver get a hero to turn a bracelet made of coal into one made of cheap plastic… Oh come on, you’re not fooling anyone by saying it’s now diamond. In more important news, Alan has made his own comic book… yes, this is classified as important. It’s too sh*t to be published in-house, so Alan plans to self-publish. Because comic stores have in-house printing presses apparently, Alan prepares to show this to the Domain. Rather unconcerned to the fact that it contains a lot of Mighty Med secrets.

Clyde and Wallace don’t really care, so leave reading the book up to Gus. I’ll be honest, the A-plot is about Oliver’s jealousy and he ends up vindicated in the end. F*ck that, let’s get to juice of the B-plot with 2 of my least favourite characters in the same room. What am I saying? Apparently the guy Oliver’s jealous of has turned evil and is working with the Annihilator, who is worried Skylar will get her powers back and turn them onto him. He also has a bad habit of blurting out threats aloud where everyone can hear him. I’ll give the show this, the action scene here is pretty good, most of the action is solid for what you could expect on a sitcom budget.

Gus rejects the comic pitch but don’t expect that to be the last we hear of it, because otherwise I wouldn’t have brought it up. Alan hides it on the shelves in the hopes someone will pick it up and want more. Dare to dream…

Next episode introduces the team to a wormhole transporter, a device capable of creating wormholes, through one of these comes an old-timey superhero named Captain Atomic. He has all the one-liners, literally all of them, and a dose of sexism… He also has an atomic yo-yo. Ah, simpler times, before I was born.

The Black Falcon was introduced in an earlier episode, and we get another solid action scene as Skylar and Captain Atomic attack him, he gets away but gets his feathers ruffled by an off-screen helicopter.

Growing Pains introduces us to Phillip, a guy with an abnormally small head, for his species, it looks quite large for us. Horace manages to find a cure for Brain Matter, remember him? It works and now he has powers like he wanted, just not the exact powers he was intending, he can now alter the aging process so we get a series of hijinks. In a B-plot, Alan is beginning to uncover shape-shifting abilities linked to his mental state, it’s apparently natural for people his age. 

Night of the Living Nightmare I’d say is when Jake Short’s voice has fully dropped. They also parody (read: blatantly copy) the Matrix like that’s still relevant in 2014. Oh, who am I kidding, that sh*t’s timeless. The Supervillain Dr Wrath shows up at the school in the next episode, I forget whether this is important for a later story so I thought it was worth mentioning.

OK, episode 18, should you be watching football at work, Oliver? They bring in Adrian Peterson as himself. Copy Kaz, episode 19, circles back to Clyde and Wallace’s attempts to break into Mighty Med, and about time too, this is only their second attempt. But we get a bit more clarity as to what they actually want, to get the half of the Dyad of Nebulon, and restore their powers. They use a nifty gadget to transform one of them (who cares which one, they’re twins) into a copy of Kaz, hence the title. Let the hijinks begin.

Also, let’s add blending into walls onto the list of Skylar’s powers because apparently, she can do that. He successfully infiltrates the hospital, then shouts his plan aloud for everyone to hear, and no-one does. This is something this show does a lot, and it bugs the hell out of me, at least do it somewhere private, or make a gag out of it. Anyway, after some hijinks he’s caught and gets his memory of proceedings erased.

So, Horace explains the only person who'd have use of the Dyad of Nebulon is Catastrophe, a villain he defeated years ago and split into 2 beings, Clyde and Wallace. Guitar Superhero features Debby Ryan from Suite Life on Deck and Jessie as she gains superpowers. Not important, next.

Free Wi-Fi’s B-plot sees Alan meet his father, who he thought was a superhero called Optimo, but it turns out he’s really a regular human, or ‘normo’ as they tend to say, or was he as it turns out it was part of a greater deception to protect Alan from the supervillain Razorclaw. Next episode we’re introduced to Ambrose, the guy who draws all the comic books and has superpowers so he can do that at speed. He can also see events from other superheroes lives. Comic book sales are dropping because… well, that’s what they’ve been doing for years. And they need something to bolster sales.

Have you tried a major crossover event? Rebooting your universe? And doing both yearly? Well, I have more respect for you than the big 2. OK, obligatory episode with a shark and we’re 24 episodes in and we’re reminded, oh yeah, Oliver promised to cure Skylar… his attempt doesn’t work and comedy ensues. Add invisibility to Skylar’s power set, guess I’ll just combine that with blend into walls. Oliver tries to make his move, that doesn’t work either.

And we’re onto the season finale, There’s A Storm Coming, it’s coming up to the 1 year anniversary of Skylar losing her powers and it’s soon revealed to Kaz and Oliver that after 1 year of having no powers she’ll lose them permanently and since she’d then be a normo, she’d be kicked out of the hospital.

Because sitcom hijinks need to happen, they decide not to tell Skylar about any of this, and attempt to ready a cure behind her back. Wallace and Clyde have discovered the comic book Alan left behind and found out that Alan works for Mighty Med. They approach Gus to get him to bring Alan over, claiming they love his book. And it goes from bad to worse when it comes to Skylar as Horace’s simulations predict that soon after losing her powers permanently her limbs will blow off, killing her.

With Oliver’s cure failing spectacularly, their next option is to retrieve her powers from the Annihilator’s lair. The only person who might know where that is happens to be locked in Mighty Max Prison, his name’s Experion, he was in that episode where Oliver got jealous. He once was a friend to Skylar so they figure they may have a shot.

And he seems helpful, very helpful, honestly a little too helpful, but we’ll circle back to that. He tells them exactly where the Annihilators lair is and even gives them one of his eyeballs to get past the retina scanners. Alan eventually uncovers Wallace and Clyde’s deception but is caught in a misunderstanding with his father and storms off. Kaz and Oliver find Skylar’s powers but the Annihilator approaches ending part 1

Kaz manages to create a smokescreen to facilitate their escape but it’s not over yet, when Alan stormed off, he stormed off with the other half of the Dyad of Nebulon and brought it right to Wallace and Clyde. And just to make matters worse, Experion nabbed Kaz’s phone during the visit and uses it to break himself, and his cellmate Megahertz out of prison. They all make a beeline for Mighty Med.

Oliver had hoped to give Skylar back her powers as a sweet gesture in private but no time like the present, I guess. But just to cap everything off, the Annihilator is here to ensure that doesn’t happen. It’s a full-out superhero brawl. Thanks to some technobabble, Kaz and Oliver plus a returned Alan manage to disable their powers, which leads the end for Megahertz and Experion. But Catastrophe is a little trickier, it’s Alan here who has to save the day by destroying the Dyad, which they didn’t do to the half they had in the first place, because the plot needs to happen.

Skylar doesn’t need her powers to deal with the Annihilator, she instead uses a hologram decoy to entrap him behind a force-field. All’s well that ends well, but there’s time left in the episode… I wonder… Skylar restores her powers, saving her life. She can create space-portals, add that to the list. But don’t expect a happy ending here, her hair turns from pink to white and you know what that means… SUPER VILLAIN! The Annihilator corrupted her powers during the fight. She frees the Annihilator and now the hospital is under their control, ending season 1.

Guys, for the love of everything holy, don’t end your season on a cliff-hanger, they get away with it here, but it’s a one-time deal. Literally, this show only has 2 seasons.

Season 1 focuses mostly and standalone stories, there’s some minor character development here and there but continuity is sparse and most things stick to a pretty normal status quo. You wouldn’t notice this much because the stories themselves are pretty out there and exciting. They slowly built up the elements that lead to the finale and the finale packed a hell of a punch because of it. Season 2 throws that approach out of the window, with 12 (maybe 14) of the 22 episodes focused on one of the two ongoing narrative arcs of the season.

This has both benefits and drawbacks as we’ll get to. So, let’s get straight into season 2’s opener: How the Mighty Med have fallen. And I guess we can energy orbs to Skylar’s power list. The Annihilator’s plan is turn all the superheroes evil and Kaz accidentally gives him the perfect plan to do it.

Horace wakes up and stops Skylar killing the boys but soon gets his powers taken by the Annihilator. Alan takes Mighty Med’s only escape pod, you should probably get more of those, in case there’s more than one person in the hospital. And more powers to add to Skylar’s list, she can create energy barriers and she can knock people out by touching them.

She locks them up in a cell, along with Alan. The Annihilator planned to torture Horace for his secrets, but Horace uses a linguistic scrambler so he can’t be understood. And when that wears off he takes a pill that removes his mouth entirely. Kaz, Oliver and Alan find an escape tunnel but land right in a cell with Megahertz. He’s in the chamber of certain destruction, a punishment for repeat offenders, he’s gonna be turned into an action figure. The superheroes aren’t very heroic, are they?

Oh, and they got Black Falcon offscreen, booooooo!!!!!

Alan breaks them out by transforming into a Blue Whale. Augie Isaac gets a starring credit this season, his role isn’t especially expanded but I guess he has a good agent.

And now for my version of how the next scene should have played out.

Oliver: We saved your life, that has to count for something
<Pause>
Megahertz: Nope (he blasts but they dodge) I’m a super-villain, what did you expect, a hug?
Oliver: Wait, this place is still surrounded by a force-field, we need to get a signal to someone who can deactivate it.
Megahertz: (Growls) Fine (he boosts the phone signal) but don’t tell anyone I helped you…

Sadly, we go straight from line 1 to line 4, removing the easy joke potential. Anyway, Horace has transferred the information to a quantum chip, which is disguised as a potato chip that Kaz and Oliver ate earlier. They’re captured again and they require surgery to get the chip out of their stomachs, good job this is a hospital then.

Kaz tricks the Annihilator and allows them, Horace and Alan to escape, recover the chip from the Boys stomach’s and seal it away. Thanks to the earlier phone call and some hijinks at the Domain, heroes have come to back them up and even with Skylar’s abilities do literally anything, and we can regeneration to the list, the two are backed into a corner.

Using another superhero’s time-reversal power, and not her own for some reason, Skylar rewinds the clock back to just before this episode started. She gets a moment alone with the Annihilator and the adjust the plan, to turn all the heroes evil in secret with Skylar acting as his mole and him remaining in prison so as not to arouse suspicion.

In Lair Lair, Kaz and Oliver rope in Tecton to retrieve all of the Annihilator’s stolen powers and give them back to the heroes they belong to. Skylar catches wind of it too and with the Annihilator comes up with a plan to corrupt more heroes by corrupting their power. She strands Kaz and Oliver in space for a while, but Tecton catches her. We can add super-speed, telekinesis and laser fingers to her power list as she dispatches Tecton and corrupts him too.

Skylar’s cover is soon put in jeopardy as Neocortex arrives at the hospital having been attacked by 2 superheroes now working for the Annihilator. Kaz suspects a mole, and after spending, 3 seconds thinking about it they deduce it’s Alan because he’s always acting like a prick.

The hero agent we saw in an earlier episode thinks it’s Oliver because Skylar is framing him. But it’s not all plain sailing for Skylar either, though she does manage to infect Blue Tornado and Neocortex, she’s informed that since her powers are back, she is to be discharged from Mighty Med. She feigns power fluctuations to stay in Mighty Med and turns the agent into stone, so just to summarise, at this point, these are Skylar’s powers that we know of

Super strength
Reverse Time
Control celestial bodies
Alter Gravity
X-ray vision
Make things explode with her mind
Open space portals
Flight
Turning invisible
Creating Energy Orbs
Creating Energy Barrier
Knockout touch
Regeneration
Super-speed
Telekinesis
Laser Fingers
Energy lash
Size alteration
Turning people to stone

Just 23 more to go, Kaz and Oliver spot her and realise she is indeed the mole. Glad that wasn’t secret for too long, but there’s still the matter of what they’re going to do about it.

But things get confusing for Oliver as Skylar asks him as her date to the school dance. Oliver accepts, and is convinced Skylar may not be evil after all, Kaz decides to try and spy on the Annihilator by getting into Mighty Max Prison, he does this by pretending to be a supervillain. Phillip is a guard now, cool.

He gets placed in a cell, with Wallace and Clyde. Skylar invites Oliver to dinner asking him what he would eat as his last meal…

Even Oliver notices but it gets worse when Kaz uses his phone privileges to tell him that Skylar plans to kill him at the dance. Then destroy the entire city within the week. According to Wallace and Clyde, true love’s kiss can end the threat. Kaz hangs up, but then they remember that was Sleeping Beauty, and Skylar can kill with a kiss. Oliver, have you tried rubber lips? Not gonna add that to the power list as that was gifted to her by the annihilator.

Neither particularly want to kiss and kill the other. Skylar asks the Annihilator about sparing him and he threatens to kill her then him. Skylar, you’re about a billion times more powerful than him and he’s locked in a cell. A cell you can get into at any time. Kaz gets Phillip to let him out by saying he has a giant head.

Skylar and Oliver’s kiss gets interrupted by the B-plot of the episode. Skylar tells the Annihilator the deed is done.

Next episode: Do You Want to Build a Lava-man gives us a cool comic origin for the Annihilator. He was born on Earth, and began displaying the mutant ability of glowing hands. He was mocked endlessly for this and ran away. He is found and trained by Hapax the Elder, who had similar abilities, but turned evil and against his former master. Hapax went into self-imposed exile on Caldera after this failing. I’m getting a sense of déjà vu, can’t imagine what from…

They plan to use the wormhole transporter to get and Caldera and despite Horace forbidding it, they get there successfully. Meanwhile, Optimo is heading to the hospital so Horace needs to find a way to keep him and Alan apart so as not arouse his suspicion… Complicating matters is the fact that Optimo has a virus and the only cure would be some of Alan’s blood. Thankfully this B-plot is short, but I suspect the lawsuits that arise from everything that happens to the patients won’t be.

Because all Calderans are created in nutrient pods, all the girls look like Skylar, and presumably all the boys look like Experion. They find Hapax who’s suffering from Benjamin Button syndrome, aka he ages backwards and now looks suspiciously like Alan, hmmm…

They pass his test and he agrees to come with them but as the episode ends, Skylar and the Annihilator have come to them.

This arc concludes with Storm’s End, Skylar can freeze people now. Of course, the Annihilator’s confused as to why Oliver is still alive, but she convinces him that she did in fact kill him and the legendary superhero Caduseo brought him back to life. Hapax and the Annihilator fight and it looks like the Annihilator is winning.

Oliver steals the Annihilator’s power cannon but trying to use it to get Skylar to surrender doesn’t work when she kills the Annihilator. She remembers that she’s more powerful than God and doesn’t need to listen to him, the Annihilator, I mean. Kaz and Oliver escape with Hapax and soon there’s a moral debate about whether the right next move is to call in the League to stop her permanently or to try and save her.

In the B-plot on Earth, Tecton and Blue Tornado are still evil so I feel like the League is a non-starter at this point anyway. Oliver decides to surrender, and gives up Kaz and Hapax as well. It’s a pretty clever gambit but relies on Oliver having decided to bring coal along, coal is Skylar’s one weakness. She lives on a volcanic planet but is weakened by coal, makes about as much sense as Battlefield Earth.

Hapax drains her powers but it turns out the Annihilator isn’t as dead as we thought as he fires a fatal shot to her. Hapax drains the life-force, releasing everyone who was under his command, or it will in 25 to 34 minutes, but Skylar’s powers are still tainted somehow, so he can’t give her her powers back.

They make it back to Mighty Med so they can cure Skylar but it’s too late. But you remember Caduseo, well it turns out he’s also known as Horace, yup, Horace uses his power to bring Skylar back to life. He can only use this power 5 times and he only has 1 time left, so expect to be seeing this again at some point… Also, Jordan’s suspicious about the existence of Superheroes now, no big deal.

The show did a good job a decent story arc that didn’t sacrifice the comedy, the downside is it began to drag in places, it’s probably for the best it only lasted 7 episodes.

The next few episodes serve as a cooldown, more standalone stuff. Skylar tries to fix her damaged reputation with the staff, Oliver’s control-freak nature is amped up a lot so they can do an episode about that, I don’t like it when shows do this. Less than Hero introduces us to Mighty Med’s invisible ambulance that can travel across the galaxy if the need arises.

In the next episode, Doctor Britches, who owns the hospital is talking about moving everything to New York, a decision that she may regret not ultimately doing as well… Having a superhero hospital all the supervillains seem to know about is a bad idea… again, as we’ll see. Oh, apparently it was a mix-up, oh well. I kinda love this episode, it’s called Oliver hatches the eggs and now you know why.

The B-plot of the next episode features Skylar trying to increase security at the hospital, a good idea but badly executed. In the next episode, Wallace and Clyde are about to be turned into action figures but Oliver vouches for them. I mean, their source of power is destroyed, they’re basically harmless at this point. Horace gives them 1 day of freedom to prove they’re not evil.

You know what, I love a good redemption story, let’s give this one a longer rundown. Oliver uses his sports coach persona that he has now to help prepare them for the final test, facing up against Horace, mostly for idle chit-chat. It works pretty well but then Oliver turns his back on them and finds a pile of ash where Horace once was. They claim it wasn’t them and find a to-do list that confirms that they’ve been framed. They deduce it was the Exterminator, he was a guy an B-plot regarding a failed intervention in season 1.

They find and confront him but Oliver gets stuck on a glue trap with Horace and The Exterminator offers them the chance to kill them both, they decide against it, completing their arc. The B-plot has a laser camel, it’s hilarious. Also, Kaz is looking at ways to get powers for himself and Skylar is interested in his efforts, hoping to gain her own.

Episode 14 begins the setup for the next major story arc. The Keykeeper has come with an injured leg and it looking to pass the key, which holds superpowers onto another. Meanwhile, Oliver is setting up a dating profile for his mother. Naturally the dating profile will end up being more important.

We get an introduction to Oliver’s mother, Bridget (Jamie Denbo) and she’s… wow… I hate her already. Also, doesn’t Oliver’s father have custody? I thought that was established in the second episode. She’s already found a match on the dating profile and gone out on 3 dates with him in the span of less than a day. They’re meeting again tonight, and she wants Oliver to come along and meet him.

Meanwhile Kaz asks Skylar for help in being more heroic so as to obtain the Keykeeper’s key. Turns out the date is with Horace. First a Doctor Britches and now a Bridget. You know, something tells me he might love bridges. And he’s brought Alan along… oh joy…

Apparently, it’s because women are suckers for single fathers and this helped him reel her right in. Hook, line and sucker. And I’m not talking about Bridget. But we can appreciate the irony of that line later. The Keykeeper gives the key to Skylar, but Kaz steals it from her, first act of heroism right there. Making matters worse, a villain known as Slaughter Master now wants the key and is attacking Skylar, who is defenceless without it.

Kaz returns and uses his cunning to defeat Slaughter Master. But the OG Keymaster decides he wants his key back. In other news, Bridget and Horace are engaged, after 1 day, even by Disney Standards that’s fast. Apparently, Oliver’s father lives in England now, when did that happen?

I wasn’t actually gonna cover this one, but there is an important development in ‘New Kids are the Docs’ you remember Dr Wrath, he’s the guy who was in the school. I mentioned him in a sentence, well he was turned to ash in that episode but before he did he told everyone that Horace was Caduceo. Not sure how he knew, or how the Annihilator missed that memo but moving on.

Episode 16, it’s a matter or Principal picks up on Jordan being suspicious about the existence of Superheroes, not helped when the alter-ego of Captain Atomic becomes their new history teacher. He’s here because of a lot of recent villain activity gravitating toward the school. Kaz and Oliver, worried he’d arouse too much attention, get him fired, but it turns out the head teacher is in fact a robot villain. They disable the robot, detaching its head, but its body gets away and it made clear it’s working for someone. Jordan loses her memory of the day, so that problem gets swept away.

But the final arc begins in earnest in the next episode, Living the Dream. There’s some construction going on at the school, and a big hole in the courtyard that Oliver falls into. He lands on a rock, which seems to be mysteriously glowing. We’re reintroduced to Ambrose with some really awkward dialogue, Tecton comic sales are down… Have you tried relaunching with a new #1 issue? Or #0 if you’re feeling brave?

Oliver comes in an explains a weird dream he had that night. In a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, he was aboard a spaceship carrying a plot mcguffin known as the Acturian, which will make anyone who has it invincible. Kaz recommends Ambrose adapt the dream into the next Tecton issue and Ambrose agrees, even promising to give Oliver a writing credit. Of course, Oliver can’t be credited as himself as that gives too much away so they come up with a pseudonym, Quimby Fletcher. If you’re familiar with A.N.T. Farm, you’ll know the name Fletcher Quimby as the character Jake Short played on that show so it’s a cute little reference. I haven’t seen Good Luck Charlie, so I couldn’t tell you if there are any cute references to that show scattered about.

We cut ahead 10 days, which really does the B-plot no favours, and the new Tecton issue is out and selling pretty well, or it is as far as we can tell from the 1 comic book store we ever see. Kaz wants some of the credit here and says he’s as much Quimby Fletcher as Oliver is. Right outside, 2 lackeys are on their way to torture Quimby Fletcher. For some reason they think they’ll find him in the comic book store, I mean they’re right but it’s a hell of a coincidence.

Kaz is identified as Quimby Fletcher and kidnapped by the lackeys. Turns out the Acturian is real and their boss wants it badly. And yeah, I call them lackeys, that’s apparently 2 grades below henchmen. So, where does Enforcer rank because you also said you were the new Enforcer? They both have powers, which normally bumps you up a rank by default and Kaz confesses everything was based on a dream.

Luckily, for the Lackeys, they were told this was possible and have brought along a dream imager to take the information they need from Kaz’s brain. Then since he knows too much they’re going to kill him. Oliver has gotten word of Kaz taking credit and trying to sell it off to movie producers and asks Ambrose to draw what’s going on, and he and Tecton see that Kaz is in danger and head off to rescue him.

Tecton and Oliver and arrive and the lackeys are actually able to hold off Tecton for a while, how are they still lackeys. Still, Tecton is still Tecton, and eventually they retreat. They report their boss, Mr Terror.

I’ve written less words in a story retrospective for an episode of a narrative show, it’s probably the most story content they’ve had in a single episode, no wonder it’s one of my favourites.

But we will have to come back to it as next up as the Lab Rats Mighty Med Crossover I promised I’d get into. Labs Rats vs Mighty Med comes about half way through Lab Rats: Bionic Island. At the Bionic Academy Chase wakes everyone up at 5:30am, he’s very excited.

Turns out he and Donald Davenport have, over the last 5 years, created an energy transponder, it’s the size of a battery, a large battery admittedly, but can power an entire skyscraper. Being Donald, he tries to minimise Chase’s input and take most of the credit, much to Chase’s annoyance.

It’s at this point that Kaz and Oliver show up at the Academy, Kaz having tricked Oliver into using the wormhole transporter, he wants to see bionic heroes up close as he feels it may be key to him getting powers. Now you see, this is how you do a crossover, this is 5 minutes into the episode, allowing plenty of time for interactions. They don’t just have a cameo and show up as a dues ex-machina.

The disguise themselves using dirty laundry, lovely. Donald continues to belittle Chase’s efforts, having gone behind his back to find a company to mass-produce it. I mean, it is Donald’s company so he can do it, but like most things about the Davenport siblings, just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.

A guy claiming to be a new buyer arrives on the hydro-loop, and uses his charm to coax Chase, which isn’t that hard because for the “smartest man in the world” he’s also a gullible moron. We get a clearer picture when a he makes a weird face when he says “nature first” yeah, he’s a super-villain. Chases shows him the device but he knocks chase out and steals it. This is the Incapacitator, which is honestly a pretty lame super-villain name.

Chase is quickly found and the base is put on high Alert. The device is protected by an optical scanner and its case is apparently indestructible so it’s not like the Incapacitator can leave just yet. Kaz and Oliver are found out but just as they’re in for a world of hurt, Tecton, Gamma Girl and Grey Granite appear quite literally out of nowhere. They see Leo’s energy transference and confuse him for the Incapacitator; evidently, they have no idea what he looks like.

The real Incapacitator finds Donald, who confesses he needs his retina to open the case. The Incapacator can already absorb energy but with the battery he can do it on a massive scale, as the battery can absorb and store energy, which feels like a recipe for things going wrong but what do I know?

The heroes think that the bionic siblings work for the Incapacitator, and the groups get into a scrap, good job this isn’t an Academy full of bionic individuals or the superheroes would be screwed. Kaz and Oliver don’t intervene because Kaz left the wormhole transporter in his original pants. Also, because they didn’t want to. It’s interrupted as Donald calls for help.

The Incapacitator obtains a retina scan and obtains the device, and with it he easily defeats the assembled superheroes and injures Chase. Donald doesn’t think he has equipment to save him (convenient) so Kaz and Oliver recommend sending him to Mighty Med for help and I know they need to transition to that set for part 2 but I do see a couple of flaws in that plan.

Horace has no idea what Bionic heroes are or how to cure them, yeah that was the main flaw I was anticipating. Thankfully Kaz has an idea, he can use a brain switching machine to get Chase’s smarts temporarily. It works but in addition to knocking him out, the Incapacitator uploaded a virus into Chase’s chip, if his heart rate gets too high, he’ll explode. Now would be a good time be literally anywhere else.

Thanks to Ambrose, Oliver, Skylar, Bree and Adam track the Incapacitator to Paris, unfortunately he’s in Las Vegas and Adam destroys the wormhole transporter, why did anyone give Adam the wormhole transporter. Thankfully Bree is fast enough to get them there quickly. Chase gets wind of this and rushes off to help as Kaz prepares the invisible ambulance, and he can pronounce ambulance now, go figure.

Unfortunately, they’re too late as the Incapacitator uses the battery to absorb the world’s energy, aside from whatever’s keeping this sound-stage that’s supposed to be the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower replica. Kaz tricks the Incapacitator into absorbing Chase’s virus and explodes.

Oh, and a background subplot I’ve neglected to mention. Bree has fallen smitten for Oliver, and Skylar fights back out of a sense of jealousy. She says he reminds her of someone familiar and Skylar says he’s like Chase… oh my god, why!?

This crossover feels like a labour of love, creators that truly respect each other’s work working together to create a, not perfect, but special event. If only that level of love would’ve continued in Elite Force.

We continue with the Acturian plotline in the next episode, Thanks for the Memory Drives, the robot head-teacher had the same gang tattoo as the lackeys so they assume they work for the same person. But it’s up to Kaz and Skylar to investigate, they get the head of the guy out of Mighty Max and he reveals they all work for a guy named Mr Terror, and they’ve never seen his face.

Oh, and apparently everything that happened between his head being blown off and now happened within 72 hours, which is odd seeing as there was a 10-day time jump. Anyway, they have 2 hours to find the memory drive they removed from him in that episode before it explodes. Kaz and Skylar hit a bit of a snag as Gus has converted the memory drive into an earing and everyone is wearing one, meaning they have no idea who has the original.

Kaz has an idea, he pretends that the earring has side effects, using Skylar and the enlarging ray at Mighty Med. It works and they attain the earrings but before they can take them back to mighty med, the lackeys return, well, one from that episode was killed so has been replaced. Another solid action scene and Skylar and Kaz prevail.

Just in time they re-install the drive and find out that the Acturian is in a space-ship buried beneath the school, it draws in villains like moths, hence why there’s so much villain activity in the area. And in the episode’s final twist it’s revealed that Mr Terror is in fact Bridget.

The League of Heroes won’t protect Oliver because they believe the whole thing is just made up, and I guess Tecton is busy recovering from the whooping The Incapacitator gave him so that’s out. Or at least that’s my theory since he isn’t in this episode. In other news, it seems in this alternate timeline, Megahertz wasn’t about to be turned into an action figure and now has cleaning duties as part of his sentence.

He offers to help Oliver deal with Mr Terror for a reduced prison sentence. Oliver agrees, believing he’s wearing a monitor to stop him being evil. Kaz and Skylar find the ship but they tell Gus they’re filling a hole and he arrives to finish the job. Trapping them inside. Megahertz does his job, luring one of the lackeys into a trap and scaring him off and stealing his phone. They meet up with Kaz and Skylar, who have dug back to the surface using the ship, and it turns out that Megahertz lied about not being able to be evil and is now enthralled by the Acturian. They’re only saved when Gus returns and buries him.

Kaz sticks the Acturian in his backpack, but places it right next to Gus’ and if you remember way back, you’ll remember they have the same backpack, guess they’re switching them again.

And with that, we’re at the season finale, the Mother of Evil. Oliver has to leave Kaz and Skylar to deal with the Acturian as he has wedding stuff going on, which is now tomorrow. Boy do people move fast around here, and I’m not just talking about Whatshisface, who ran backwards so fast he hasn’t been seen this series.

Horace is having wedding day jitters, and Oliver just realises that Gus can unlock the Lackey’s phone. It turns out that Phillip was the one who took the Acturian to Earth, his people had planned to launch the Acturian into the sun by he accidentally launched the ship early and crash landed it on Earth. I guess he never read the Tecton issue.

So Kaz changes the plan, the objective now is to the fix the ship and complete the original mission, to send the Acturian into the sun. How Mr Terror found out about it is unknown. The wedding is now only 2 hours away, so god knows where the last 12 hours went.  It’s revealed that any human who touches the Acturian will die. But it’s at this point they realise about the backpack switch, so did Kaz put his whole backpack in the safe, seems like the kind of daft thing he’d do, moving on.

Gus unlocks the phone and Kaz switches the backpacks back but they’re soon surrounded by supervillains. Kaz gets them to fight each other and knock themselves out. They bring it back to Phillip but the B-plot intersects as Alan decides to take it as his wedding present. They head over to the hotel for the wedding and they use the phone to uncover the truth, Bridget is Mr Terror.

Alan reveals about his giving Bridget the Acturian as a wedding present, but finding it is made exponentially harder as Gus brought in a huge number of presents that are similarly wrapped. As Oliver and Alan head to the wedding, together… Guess they’re not superstitious about seeing each other on their wedding day, Kaz and Skylar are tasked with opening all the presents until they find the Acturian.

Gus is officiating the wedding, yeah… And who would among the guests but Optimo, Alan’s real father. Kaz and Skylar don’t find the Acturian among the assembled presents, meaning that he’s likely taken it to the wedding venue. Optimo reveals at the wedding that Alan is not Horace’s son.

Alan knows this but didn’t know that he did and they retreat back to the Hotel room to hash things out. Oliver decides to confess that he’s Quimby Fletcher to his mother. Time for the villain origin story. 10 years ago she was reviewing top secret files at work and discovered not only about the existence of super heroes but that her boss was one also, Argento or something. She confronted him and he made threats toward Oliver, so Bridget killed him and took over his empire herself. He’d been after the Acturian for years and she continued his work so she could gain powers, take over the world and then Oliver would be safe.

That plan is… It’s very ambitious, whole ton of holes of course but mad respect for that level of commitment. But, just for old time’s sake, here’s a meme

Just as Oliver gets his hands on the Acturian, the supervillains return and attack. Fortunately, they’re still fighting each other and there are super heroes in the mix here too. The attack is defeated and guards arrive to arrest them, including Bridget. Just as she’s about to be arrested though, the lackey returns, and secures her the Acturian. She grasps it, Kaz and Oliver try to stop her but get blasted back by a wave of energy. But as Phillip said, anyone who touches the Acturian directly dies, which is why she married Caduseo. So who reeled whom in? Not exactly the greatest fisherman if you don’t know which sign of the line you’re on.

Oliver and Kaz decide to bring in Hapax the Elder to absorb her power before Horace can resurrect her. Optimo reveals the whole truth to Alan, who’s relieved that he isn’t half normo as he thought. Unfortunately, Oliver and Horace miss each other and Horace does what Bridget had always planned for him to do, bring her back to life, with all the power.

She easily dispatches both Optimo and Hapax the Elder, she grabs the Acturian and sets off to conquer the Earth. But as a final twist, it’s revealed that touching Bridget whilst she was absorbing the energy has granted Kaz and Oliver powers.

Yup, they ended on a cliffhanger, again…

Mighty Med was a blast to rewatch, the series had a creative concept for wild ideas and went wherever they wanted to with it. It’s a huge contrast to Lab Rats that seemed to revel in the mundane for most of the show. It’s not faultless of course, there are continuity errors and plot-holes pretty much everywhere. But it makes episodes that don’t feel important in the grand scheme of things feel at least entertaining and interesting.

Kaz and Oliver start and end more or less exactly the same, there’s no grand arc for the two of them, nor is there for any character really. They’re both comic book nerds but Kaz’s immaturity and self-confidence clashes with Oliver’s more cautious and uptight personality. Neither fit the bill of being the comic relief moron, although Kaz sometimes picks up the slack there.

They have a simply huge cast of characters, so many that I’m not going to both with any of the superhero characters and focus on the core few. Horace was entertaining every moment he’s on screen, he hams up the part and it’s brilliant. He’s an eccentric doctor with a love of bridges, though his actual performance as a Doctor I would call into question.

That’s one of the problems with this show, Mighty Med is f*cking terrible hospital. No-one seems to give a sh*t about anyone, leading to several characters being repeatedly injured. If they needed to do a clip show, a lawsuit about all the injuries people have sustained whilst at the hospital could fill that time easily. Lizard Man is repeatedly abused, Phillip feels constantly overlooked, and Alan is on both ends of this conflict. Then again, they did hire 2 children with no formal medical training to be doctors so I guess the writing was always on the wall.

Obviously, I’m not expecting a sit-com aimed at children to use complicated medical terminology, nor am I expecting a high level of realism but this is supposedly a hospital for super heroes run by heroes, a bit more sympathy to the patients and staff would be called for, I think.

The logistics of the separation of superheroes and normos feels a bit forced. Supervillain attacks affect everyone and wiping memories will have its own issues. Plus, having Mighty Med under a normal hospital feels really contradictive to the message.

Alan is a frequent antagonist and as such I don’t particularly like him. He’s self-absorbed and loud about it, but it comes from a rather unfortunate upbringing. It’s fairly obvious that despite some level of respect for one-another, Alan did not have a very good upbringing. His does occasionally show some level of goodness, usually towards Skylar.

Skylar is a capable superhero who has to deal with a pretty traumatic situation, and then another in season 2. I will have to say some pieces against Skylar, but I’ll do it my Elite Force review, for now I’ll say that she embodies most of the best parts of heroism, even without her powers and is reasonably capable in spite of that setback. She can be a bit preachy and hypocritical, a problem that goes into overdrive in Elite Force. Oliver’s crush on her occasionally veered into creepy but mostly stayed within the realms of good taste.

The human characters aren’t anywhere near as interesting. I like Jordan for her amusingly sadistic outlook on life and Gus’ comedic misinterpretations and abilities to get things with his vast fortune can be funny. He started off intentionally annoying but that kind shifted away over time, maybe he did have an arc after all.

When it comes to heroes and villains, my favourite hero from the show is Captain Atomic, followed by Tecton, these two have the most to do in the show. My favourite villain is Megahertz, but Clyde and Wallace were entertaining in season 1, shame they pretty much disappeared in season 2, and the Annihilator was pretty threatening, so give him the bronze.

The show handled pretty interesting story arcs in season 2, but the issue became that the episodes between the 2 arcs felt slightly lacklustre in comparison. Still, they rarely failed at being funny.

Mighty Med never quite reaches the highs that Lab Rats did, but it is more consistently good with a large and varied cast and entertaining comedic scenarios that fit its premise. It has a bad habit of ending its series on cliff-hangers, but it’s a drop in the water compared to its strengths.

But the show would continue in Lab Rats: Elite Force, see you in the anniversary review, this one’s gonna hurt!