[7.6/10] I like the introduction of Colonel Jupiter here. There’s a vaguely Civil War-esque bit of Spidey and John Jameson being on the same page, but having different ideas about what helping in the fight against crime means. Col. Jupiter wants to do things by the book, and Spidey doesn't want to have to answer a lot of questions from the police.
The show also uses the confusion that stems from Venom’s return well. I like the various offshoots of this. Spidey is annoyed that someone is impersonating him again. Capt. Stacy is wise enough to realize there’s two different guys and even rebuffs Jonah Jameson with the risk of getting this dual Spider-Man thing wrong again. (I also like Jonah’s distinction for supers who wear masks vs. those who don’t.) And Venom himself does a good job of smearing Spidey’s good name while creating friction between Spider-Man and Col. Jupiter.
Speaking of which, the big fight between Spider-Man and Col. Jupiter was nice as well. Jupiter’s increasing insanity, and the set pieces inside a planetarium were superb. The whole Van Graaf machine solution to neutralizing John Jameson was a little convenient, but still cool.
As for the non-superhero stuff, it continues to be hit or miss. I again like that we’re getting brief little character interstitials in this pod of episodes -- this time it’s play auditions -- but they all tend to be pretty on the nose. The whole love quadrangle with Harry/Gwen/Peter/Liz has yet to pay dividends and is starting to feel really strained. At least you can sense the show setting up another turn for Harry when Gwen inevitably leaves him for Peter.
Oddly enough, the one non-cape storyline I find interesting is Flash having a crush on the brainy girl, Sha Sha, who wants nothing to do with it. There’s some danger of the “girl as reward” trope here, but I like the notion that this is something Flash wants but he can’t have, and he might even be willing to try to grow and move outside of his comfort zone to try to win her heart.
Overall, a solid and entertaining episode that makes me hope we get more Col. Jupiter down the road.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-09-23T01:12:41Z
[7.6/10] I like the introduction of Colonel Jupiter here. There’s a vaguely Civil War-esque bit of Spidey and John Jameson being on the same page, but having different ideas about what helping in the fight against crime means. Col. Jupiter wants to do things by the book, and Spidey doesn't want to have to answer a lot of questions from the police.
The show also uses the confusion that stems from Venom’s return well. I like the various offshoots of this. Spidey is annoyed that someone is impersonating him again. Capt. Stacy is wise enough to realize there’s two different guys and even rebuffs Jonah Jameson with the risk of getting this dual Spider-Man thing wrong again. (I also like Jonah’s distinction for supers who wear masks vs. those who don’t.) And Venom himself does a good job of smearing Spidey’s good name while creating friction between Spider-Man and Col. Jupiter.
Speaking of which, the big fight between Spider-Man and Col. Jupiter was nice as well. Jupiter’s increasing insanity, and the set pieces inside a planetarium were superb. The whole Van Graaf machine solution to neutralizing John Jameson was a little convenient, but still cool.
As for the non-superhero stuff, it continues to be hit or miss. I again like that we’re getting brief little character interstitials in this pod of episodes -- this time it’s play auditions -- but they all tend to be pretty on the nose. The whole love quadrangle with Harry/Gwen/Peter/Liz has yet to pay dividends and is starting to feel really strained. At least you can sense the show setting up another turn for Harry when Gwen inevitably leaves him for Peter.
Oddly enough, the one non-cape storyline I find interesting is Flash having a crush on the brainy girl, Sha Sha, who wants nothing to do with it. There’s some danger of the “girl as reward” trope here, but I like the notion that this is something Flash wants but he can’t have, and he might even be willing to try to grow and move outside of his comfort zone to try to win her heart.
Overall, a solid and entertaining episode that makes me hope we get more Col. Jupiter down the road.