Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Twenty-Eight: The Sins of the Fathers, Chapter 1 - Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange

First Aired: April 27th, 1996

Synopsis: After Mary Jane disappeared last episode, Peter went to Anna Watson, who was a massive jerk to him. As Spider-Man, he sees a group of flying ninjas infiltrate a strange building, and goes after them. He unmasks one of them and discovers that it's Mary Jane. The occupant of the building, Doctor Strange, saves Spider-Man from the ninjas. Spider-Man follows the ninjas and finds them at the Church of Reunification, a cult lead by Baron Mordo. Since the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak keep him out, he infiltrates it as Peter Parker. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange gives his origin to Wong, and explains about how Baron Mordo tried to kill the Ancient One, which ended up being a test to see whether he was worthy of becoming the Ancient One's successor. At the church, Peter's attempts to get Mary Jane to leave are futile, as she thinks her father's there, and Peter's hypnotised by Mordo. When the group return to Strange's for the Wand of Watoomb, Doctor Strange frees Peter - as Spider-Man - of Mordo's magic.

Doctor Strange explains that Mordo wants the Wand so that he can free Dormammu from his dimension and bring him to theirs, where he'll feed on it. The two heroes and Wong head to the church and fight the cult members, before Mordo and Strange fight. Spider-Man manages to get the wand back but ends up in Dormammu's dimension. After Strange chases off Mordo he goes in and saves Spider-Man. He then uses magic to make Mary Jane remember her father, who left their family. Dormammu attempts to use Mary Jane to come over to their universe, but she rejects him and Doctor Strange seals the portal. Everything ends well as Spider-Man takes Mary Jane home, but Doctor Strange realises that a powerful presence - Madam Web - is watching him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I mean, I'm not the most avid Doctor Strange reader, so I could be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure that the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak are usually used as a binding spell, not a forcefield.
• Once Spider-Man and Doctor Strange's adventure is over, Doctor Strange wishes to Spider-Man that the Vishanti watch over him, to which Spider-Man comments "And may your amulet never tickle!" This is a line right out of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2. 

Review: As much as I've been mostly enjoying this series, I do enjoy a good insane Spider-Man episode now and then, and this has it in spades. Ninjas! Ninjas that shoot lasers! Mary Jane shooting lasers! Peter joining a cult! Doctor Strange needing to give his origin to Wong! Dormammu's giant hand reaching out of the portal to grab Mary Jane! It's not the level of insanity that makes it absolutely hilarious, nor is it subdued enough to be a great episode of the series, but it does manage to do a serviceable job of both. There's a lot of craziness here, but we also answer the question of what happened to Mary Jane while setting up at least one future plot with Madam Web.

In amongst all of the wacky happenings of the episode, we do get a neat little tidbit about Peter - Baron Mordo controls him by drawing on his desire for his dead parents to come back. Peter's parents are rarely referenced, and while there's definitely the argument that Aunt May is his real mum (and no, not in a Trouble way), this was a very neat angle to take. Given that the sub-heading of this season appears to be The Sins of the Fathers, could we be seeing Peter's parents - or at the very least, their robot duplicates - appearing? Either way, it's pretty neat.

Other than all of that, Doctor Strange is, as expected, absolutely delightful. He's frequently the most dramatic man in the room, but he's so sincere and so competent that you can't help but like him. So overall, I'd call this a pretty good way to open the season. My curiosity is piqued about Madam Web and I think that Mordo and Dormammu might have been in the Carnage episode I saw years and years ago, so I'm keen to see where we go next.