The End

The End

When I first started this blog, I gave a list of Spider-Man shows that I was planning to watch, and said that I wanted to work my way through all of them. Well, I've now done that, and you know what? I'm done. This has been a fun project, but it's also gradually become something of a time sink. I've achieved what I've set out to do, and I feel satisfied that I've now caught up on every current Spider-Man cartoon. While it's true that there's the upcoming Spider-Man: Freshman Year for Disney+, it's not coming out for ages. Maybe I'll change my mind by then and end up covering each episode here as they come out, but I doubt it - it's much more likely that I'll just wait for the entire season to come out then watch it all over the course of a few days.

There are a few other series I could have covered, but I ultimately didn't consider them to be within the scope of this series, and with one exception, I'm not really curious about seeing any of them, as I was with the numerous cartoon episodes I've watched over the years. Going through them:

• Spidey and His Amazing Friends: This show has a younger demographic than any show I've covered here. While I've covered plenty of stuff here out of my demographic, the implication was that it always aspired to appeal to all ages, at least. I can't judge a show like Spidey and His Amazing Friends fairly because what denotes a good episode is so far out of my wheelhouse, it wouldn't be fair.
• The Amazing Spider-Man (1977): The scope of this blog has always been aimed at cartoons, and I don't have high hopes for the execution of this show. While I think it's probably got some fun stuff and would tap into the zeitgeist of the late 70s well, I don't care about it enough to write up a post for each episode.
• Spider-Man Japan: Everyone loves Spider-Man Japan and Leopardon, that's true, but the general vibe I get from it is that it's nothing like Spider-Man at all. See also my comments above about this blog always aiming at covering cartoons, too.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Well, it's animated, but it's also a movie. I'm not sure how I would cover it, unless I split it up into multiple posts covering around twenty minutes each? Nah, I'm good. Anyway, what do you need to hear my opinion on Into the Spider-Verse for? You should already know how damn good it is.

I've had fun doing this blog, and I hope you've had fun reading it, too. If you've enjoyed reading my rambling, incoherent thoughts, then I'd encourage you to check me out at Too Many Teeth, my game development site where I occasionally post blogs musing on video games. I'm also working on a visual novel at the moment, so if horror's your jam, please come and check that out!

Of course, even with this being my final post, I can't just leave it like this - I will, naturally, finish things off with one, final top ten list. Thank you for reading.

Marvel's Spider-Man: After Watching

If I had to sum up Marvel's Spider-Man with three words, it'd be "Dan Slott's Spider-Man". Much of the series' DNA very much feels like his writing, even ignoring the arcs that are directly based on his own comics like Spider-Island or Superior Spider-Man. It's the little details, like the occasional references to wheatcakes, or Harry Osborn's Hobgoblin using a flaming sword, that really stick out as his fingerprint. Unfortunately, while I mostly like Dan Slott's run on Amazing Spider-Man, there wasn't as much here that I felt really worked brilliantly. Most of it was adequate, but when Dan Slott's at his best he's coming up with clever concepts, like Sandman merging with the Sahara Desert, or Cloak and Dagger working with Mr. Negative, or a prison where they shrink down the prisoners using Pym Particles.

This show, by comparison, frequently feels underwhelming. It doesn't quite hit the level of Ultimate Spider-Man's logic, where the characters would shout out that doing something inane would randomly defeat the villain, but at the same time it's hard to feel that there were many clever solutions to problems in the show. Some of the arcs drag on quite a bit, and it felt like we didn't really get to see many of Spider-Man's most iconic villains in the show - we never even get a decent Green Goblin! Instead we get underwhelming antagonists like the Wake Riders and Regent, who never show any potential to be interesting villains.

That's not to say that this was a bad show, though. I always love a good, conflicted Harry Osborn, and this show had that - and a good character arc for Harry - in spades. Peter's friends were all really likeable, and I'm pleased that they all ended up getting powers, even if it did take Gwen and Anya far too long to learn that Peter was Spider-Man. Peter's mind getting trapped inside the neuro-cortex when Doctor Octopus took over his body worked a lot better than what ended up happening in the original comics, and speaking of Doctor Octopus, he worked well as a redeemed villain and new ally of Peter's after the Superior Spider-Man arc was done.

The takeaway that I'd say that other Spider-Man shows should get from this series is that Peter having a solid supporting cast is always a recipe for success, whether or not they're super-powered. Some of the other show's ideas, like its heavy focus on science, don't exactly hurt it, but I didn't feel like they were all that necessary, even if they did help to give the show an identity of its own. Beyond that, maybe don't reinvent the wheel when it comes to villains - of the classic Spider-Man villains, the only one that I felt really had a good reinterpretation was the Lizard, and that was moreso owing to his Curt Connors side being a jerk.

A few final notes on the series:

• This show really doesn't like to decisively deal with villains, does it? Swarm and the Lizard are brought up in the final episode but nothing ever really comes of them, so I guess they're both just out there roaming somewhere. Alistair and Spencer Smythe both sort of quietly fade out of the show, with nothing ever being done with Alistair attending Horizon (although I guess he could be in jail?). And I guess Eddie Brock is just floating in a tank at the space research place for the rest of his life?
• So...why the hell was Norman Osborn trying to unleash a chemical attack on Manhattan at the start of Spider-Island, anyway?
  
• I didn't mention it in any of my episode synopses, but there's a recurring gag about Miles doing the robot that starts out mildly amusing, but continues to get better whenever it's brought up.
• While I'm glad that the show didn't rush into Peter taking photos for J. Jonah Jameson as a job, it never really went anywhere before Jonah just sort of disappeared from the show. I don't need Peter to be working at the Daily Bugle, but it's such a solid set-up that if you're not doing it, you'd sure as hell better be replacing it with something interesting.
• Between this show and Ultimate Spider-Man, I'm sort of getting sick of big symbiote invasions (which never really work that well for Spider-Man stories, anyway). I had my gripes with Spectacular Spider-Man's Venom stuff, but at least that show knew what works for Venom and what's silly monster stuff.
• I never thought that I needed sporty Mary Jane in my life, but she worked really well here and was consistently fantastic in the final season. I'd hesitate to call her the best animated Mary Jane without rewatching some other Spider-Man shows to refresh my memory, but she's definitely up there.
  

Anyway, those are some of my overall thoughts on Marvel's Spider-Man. I'm going to finish off my thoughts on this series with a list of the top ten and the worst ten episodes, so that you, the intelligent reader, know what to look forwards to and what to avoid if you decide to check out this series.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Seven: Maximum Venom

Maximum Venom

First Aired: October 25th, 2020

Synopsis: Spider-Man and the Avengers are in a Quinjet which falls from the sky. When they crash MODOK emerges, but they stop him with Spider-Man's help. Iron Man is impressed and says that he might have a place on the Avengers for Spider-Man. Later, a school dance is getting organised to welcome Max back at Horizon, and to Peter's surprise he's asked to it by Mary Jane. Back at school, Peter, Anya, and Gwen find out that while Grady was setting things up for the dance he saw a shadowy figure that he thinks was the Lizard, so they investigate as their alter egos. They encounter not the Lizard, but Venom, who manages to escape. When the school dance happens the next day, Max shows everyone a teleporter that he created thanks to Peter fixing an equation for him. He then opens a portal to a planet of symbiotes and reveals that he's Venom. The portal is shut down by Anya and Miles as students flee, but Venom soon goes to the generator and turns it back on, revealing as he does so that some of the symbiote survived and hid inside the symbiote's seed, which then got inside Max and slowly started influencing him. Venom successfully opens the portal and symbiotes come through, revealing that they're going to destroy Earth.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Six: Generations

Generations

  

First Aired: September 27th, 2020

 

Synopsis: Under Curt Connors' iron fist Horizon students are being made to do science experiments without being told why. Drones are coming in and out of the school to deliver mysterious packages, and Peter and his friends find that they're delivering Jackal serum. While Anya and Miles try to investigate the faculty lounge, Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man go to the warehouse it originated from. They find a secret lab in it which responds to Gwen's DNA, and then are attacked by shark monsters and the Jackal. They manage to stop them, but the Jackal floods his base, leading to the heroes having to make a hasty retreat. They return to Horizon where Miles and Anya have been captured for trying to break into the faculty lounge by Connors and Anya's sister Maria, a faculty member. Connors reveals that they've been trying to combine the Jackal serum with the symbiote, all to cure his boss - a weakened and near-dead Norman Osborn. Norman receives the hybrid and becomes the Dark Goblin.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Five: Spider-Man Unmasked

Spider-Man Unmasked

First Aired: August 15th, 2020

 

Synopsis: Max Modell is on trial at Horizon to determine whether or not he should still be allowed to be principal, and Spider-Man brings a recording of Doctor Octopus talking about what a good person Max is as evidence. Curt Connors dismisses it, but Peter finds out that if he can get his classmate Alexei to testify about how Max helped cure him from being the Rhino, he'll probably win the case. Alexei is missing so Spider-Man tracks him to the East Side docks, where he finds he's Rhino once more. Spider-Man follows Rhino into the sewers where he's attacked by Swarm, a man made of bees. He manages to get away from Swarm with Rhino and the serum that transformed him, but when he and his friends cure him at Horizon they find out that it isn't Alexei. Spider-Man gives testimony in Max's defence but Connors says that his testimony doesn't count since he's Peter Parker, Max's lab assistant. Spider-Man is urged to unmask and he does, and as such Max is removed as principal. The Rhino then appears again and runs off, and Grady Scraps explains that he was stung by something that mutated him.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Four: Vengeance of Venom

Vengeance of Venom

First Aired: June 21st, 2020

Synopsis: Peter warns Aunt May that aliens might be invading soon and gives her a device to protect herself, then heads to Avengers Tower as Spider-Man. The Avengers arrive from space but they've been infected with symbiotes, and to make matters worse, a larger ship is coming. More and more heroes get infected by the symbiotes but when a possessed Dagger mentions a seed Spider-Man realises that the seed Venom used is calling the symbiotes to Earth. Spider-Man heads to Horizon and manages to pump the seed full of electricity, destroying it, but moments later a symbiote-infected Doctor Strange arrives. He forces Spider-Man to flee then reassembles the seed. The larger ship of symbiotes arrives and infects civilians and heroes. Spider-Man returns home to find Aunt May but is attacked by symbiotes, only to be saved by a stranger. The stranger gets Spider-Man into the sewers then reveals his name: Marc Spector.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Three: Amazing Friends

Amazing Friends

First Aired: May 17th, 2020

Synopsis: Miles and Spider-Man stop some bank robbers before Spider-Man realises that he's late for something with Aunt May. He heads home and finds baby Groot in his bag and a recording from Star-Lord, but when he tries to play the recording it breaks. Peter then meets Mary Jane, whom Aunt May wanted him to meet, but quickly makes his excuses and leaves with Groot. After he and Miles fail to translate Groot's language in the hopes of finding out what the message from Star-Lord was they go to Avengers Tower, where they meet Ironheart. AIM show up shortly afterwards, and during the fight Groot escapes. The AI of Tony Stark in Ironheart's armour says that they'll need Doctor Strange to translate Groot, so Miles goes off to find him while Ironheart and Spider-Man look for Groot. They find him getting captured by AIM but as they fight the villains Baron Mordo, who is working with them, appears. He fights an arriving Doctor Strange but manages to send Strange and Miles to another dimension before teleporting away with Groot.