Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Six: The Sting of the Scorpion

The Sting of the Scorpion

First Aired: March 11th, 1995

Synopsis: Peter is walking Felicia Hardy to her home as she tells him that she doesn't want to date him since he's just her tutor. While she's talking to him Peter spots a suspicious man following them. He ducks off and changes to Spider-Man, but the man gets away when Spidey has to stop some jewellery robbers. The next day, when Peter's selling photos of the robbery, J. Jonah Jameson acts very suspicious of Peter's photography skills, right before meeting with the suspicious man, named Gargan. It turns out that Jonah thinks that Spider-Man and Peter know one another and wants Gargan to prove the connection. When an eavesdropping Spider-Man comes in and humiliates the two of them, Jonah tells Gargan that he can help him get powerful enough to stop Spider-Man. At Empire State University, a scientist named Stillwell turns Gargan into the Scorpion, and then he's sent after Spider-Man. After an intense battle, Spider-Man ends up crushed beneath a water tower, with Gargan in position to unmask him.

Before he can, however, he notices that his nails are getting longer and that he's mutating to become more inhuman, and he snaps, claiming that Jonah did this to him intentionally. He goes on a rampage, and Jonah reveals to Robbie Robertson that he helped create Scorpion to stop Spider-Man, and that he hates masked men because his wife was killed by one. Shortly afterwards Scorpion captures Jonah and takes him to Oscorp, irrationally thinking that since radiation made him this way, it can turn him back to normal. Spider-Man shows up right as the reactor starts breaking apart due to the damage Scorpion does to it. Jonah ends up helping Spider-Man, saying that Scorpion's the bigger threat. Spider-Man ends up weakening Scorpion by electrocuting him with some exposed cables, giving Jonah the opportunity to hit the shutdown button for the nuclear reactor which Spider-Man pointed out. Spider-Man assumes that Jonah will drop his grudge now, but Jonah says that it's only gotten worse. In the aftermath, Felicia drives to Peter and says that she's open to doing lunch with him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• There's a few references to the Fantastic Four scattered throughout the episode, which is uncommon but not unusual. More out of the blue, however, is Spider-Man telling Jonah in response to the latter's surprise at his knowledge about nuclear reactors, "Who do I look like? The Tick?"
• In a nice bit of continuity, Professor Stillwell mentions having worked with Professor Connors when talking about the device used to transform Gargan.
• Was this episode written before Mary Jane's first appearance? Aside from Peter being interested in Felicia, we also get a scene where he calls Aunt May as Spider-Man to tell her that he can't make lunch, and she expresses disappointment that he won't be there to meet Mary Jane.

Review: I've mentioned before that I have a big soft spot for the Scorpion as a villain, and this episode is probably his strongest showing yet. He's vicious and uncontrollable, defeats Spider-Man without too much difficulty, and we also get something of a connection to Peter Parker with him initially being hired for an investigation. This episode is therefore pretty great...until about the last third of it - noticeably the part when it goes in a different direction from Scorpion's first appearance.

I guess that having Scorpion mutate physically is a decent enough side effect of his treatment, and it's not like the comics version has a history of being mentally stable. But still, there's very much a sense that this isn't my Scorpion. I can't say that having his nails become sharper, growing in size, and having his skin start turning green sells me on the idea of this guy being more monstrous - it's kind of goofy, if anything.

What does work here, however, is the spotlight on Jonah. Since this is the first episode to prominently focus on his hatred of Spider-Man, giving us his motivation for it is a good idea, and while we know that the status quo isn't going to change so that he supports Spider-Man, there's still a genuine sense of hope when he realises that Spider-Man's smarter than he thinks, and when he ends up deciding to help Spider-Man against Scorpion. It's not quite a tragedy, but it does do a good job of adding some more depth to a character who can often be reduced to a caricature.