[7.3/10] This one’s a little disappointing after all of the coolness of the last episode. We do all this building to Doc Ock as a final baddie, have a short skirmish with him, and then we’re back to Spidey and company duking it out with lower level villains for most of the episode. Sure, there’s a minor bit of spark (no pun intended) to them being trapped in supervillain lock-up with the antagonists, but it’s anticlimactic coming from where we just left off.
Still, I like where the episode ends up. I’m vaguely familiar with the “Otto takes over Peter’s body” storyline from the comics, so that wasn’t as much of a shock, but it’s still done well. Doc Ock wore down Peter with those lower level baddies not just to soften him up, but to weaken his mind and body so that Otto could use his brain beam to take over. The villain boasting involved doesn't do much for me, but that’s actually a pretty neat plan and helps add some connection to an overall arc and mode of storytelling over the course of the season.
The final notes are the most effective, with Doc Ock-qua-Spidey saving the day (via a cheesy bomb countdown avoided), and Peter being lost in a near-destroyed living brain. I’m not crazy about the path to get there, or Chief Watanabe’s generic “I thought Spider-Man never gave up?” routine, but it snaps things into place on a dark and vaguely scary note, which is pretty damn bold for a Spider-Man show directed at a younger audience.
I also really enjoyed Miles and Anya’s efforts to open the door to the supervillain lockup together. Miles has a real comic vibe to him in these situations, which I like, and Anya treating the door like it has a personality and is intentionally not opening just to spite her was a good laugh to. Once the both of them managed to slip in, the Spider showdown against Beetle was well-animated (if not super novel), and even included an amusing callback to Jack O Lantern!
Overall, this isn’t quite the epic finale that I was hoping for, but it does put a nice capstone on a much-improved season 2 of the show, that takes some bold swings (no pun intended again) with the neurocortex and bounty storyline, without losing humor and character.
And on a personal note, as of this episode, I have officially watched every episode of the animated Spider-Man shows that have aired since the 1990s! It ended up being a bigger undertaking (if you can call watching a lot of T.V. an undertaking) than I imagined, lasting more than a year, but it’s been fun to see the different takes on Spidey and his milieu through six different shows and myriad different interpretations of the character.
There’s been ups and downs in each of the shows, but I still appreciate the serialization and surprising maturity of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the full-fledged ecosystem created by Spectacular Spider-Man, the sheer scope of Ultimate Spider-Man, the uniquely teen-focused tone of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, and even the chutzpah of presenting an almost unrecognizable setting and challenge for the Web Head in Spider-Man Unilimited. And I honestly think Marvel’s Spider-Man has the tools and the potential to be the best Spidey series yet!
Either way, it’s been a fun journey to get to know Spider-Man and his world a little better. Let’s hope Far From Home (which was an unofficial deadline for me to finish this), can live up to all the other spider stories that have come before!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-06-19T19:27:54Z
[7.3/10] This one’s a little disappointing after all of the coolness of the last episode. We do all this building to Doc Ock as a final baddie, have a short skirmish with him, and then we’re back to Spidey and company duking it out with lower level villains for most of the episode. Sure, there’s a minor bit of spark (no pun intended) to them being trapped in supervillain lock-up with the antagonists, but it’s anticlimactic coming from where we just left off.
Still, I like where the episode ends up. I’m vaguely familiar with the “Otto takes over Peter’s body” storyline from the comics, so that wasn’t as much of a shock, but it’s still done well. Doc Ock wore down Peter with those lower level baddies not just to soften him up, but to weaken his mind and body so that Otto could use his brain beam to take over. The villain boasting involved doesn't do much for me, but that’s actually a pretty neat plan and helps add some connection to an overall arc and mode of storytelling over the course of the season.
The final notes are the most effective, with Doc Ock-qua-Spidey saving the day (via a cheesy bomb countdown avoided), and Peter being lost in a near-destroyed living brain. I’m not crazy about the path to get there, or Chief Watanabe’s generic “I thought Spider-Man never gave up?” routine, but it snaps things into place on a dark and vaguely scary note, which is pretty damn bold for a Spider-Man show directed at a younger audience.
I also really enjoyed Miles and Anya’s efforts to open the door to the supervillain lockup together. Miles has a real comic vibe to him in these situations, which I like, and Anya treating the door like it has a personality and is intentionally not opening just to spite her was a good laugh to. Once the both of them managed to slip in, the Spider showdown against Beetle was well-animated (if not super novel), and even included an amusing callback to Jack O Lantern!
Overall, this isn’t quite the epic finale that I was hoping for, but it does put a nice capstone on a much-improved season 2 of the show, that takes some bold swings (no pun intended again) with the neurocortex and bounty storyline, without losing humor and character.
And on a personal note, as of this episode, I have officially watched every episode of the animated Spider-Man shows that have aired since the 1990s! It ended up being a bigger undertaking (if you can call watching a lot of T.V. an undertaking) than I imagined, lasting more than a year, but it’s been fun to see the different takes on Spidey and his milieu through six different shows and myriad different interpretations of the character.
There’s been ups and downs in each of the shows, but I still appreciate the serialization and surprising maturity of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the full-fledged ecosystem created by Spectacular Spider-Man, the sheer scope of Ultimate Spider-Man, the uniquely teen-focused tone of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, and even the chutzpah of presenting an almost unrecognizable setting and challenge for the Web Head in Spider-Man Unilimited. And I honestly think Marvel’s Spider-Man has the tools and the potential to be the best Spidey series yet!
Either way, it’s been a fun journey to get to know Spider-Man and his world a little better. Let’s hope Far From Home (which was an unofficial deadline for me to finish this), can live up to all the other spider stories that have come before!