The Awakening
First Aired: May 10th, 1997
Synopsis: Debbie Whitman's on an expedition to look for Michael Morbius, which she succeeds in doing. Morbius is hibernating, but a press conference is nevertheless held and a lot of people are upset that Professor Connors and Debbie want to try and revive Morbius, since it was discovered that he was responsible for draining plasma from people. For his part, Peter feels guilty since it was his blood that helped create Morbius. Felicia Hardy's planning a trip to Europe, but she calls it off when she sees the press conference, and goes to Whistler, Blade's mentor, for help as the Black Cat. When Debbie and Connors initially try to revive Morbius, they're unsuccessful, but unbeknownst to them Kingpin and Herbert Landon secretly watch the attempt, as they want neogenics research for themselves. They send Shocker with Landon to retrieve Morbius, and when Flash Thompson tries to stop them, Morbius is freed in the struggle, and is thirsty for plasma.
Spider-Man shows up and tries stopping the villains, but nearly gets his plasma drained by Morbius before being saved by Black Cat, who's evasive about her stake in everything. She finds Morbius on her own and reveals her identity to him, and says to meet her in the clock tower later so she can help him. She gets a device from Whistler that will let her put Morbius back to sleep, but is attacked in the clock tower by Shocker and Landon, who manage to defeat her and get away with Morbius. Spider-Man and Black Cat go to Kingpin's lab, where they've managed to revert Morbius back to his more humanoid form. Black Cat gets the opportunity to take down Morbius, but hesitates which lets him get away. Spider-Man assures her that she did the right thing since there's still a chance of returning Morbius to normal.
Subplots:
- Spider-Man's feeling guilty about having feelings for Black Cat after Mary Jane disappeared into a portal. When he talks to her she wants to know his identity, but he's reluctant after seeing what happened after Norman Osborn discovered it.
Places That Spider-Man Will Chase Shocker To:
- A helicopter, which he uses with Landon to follow Morbius
Review: While the Morbius stuff two seasons ago started out pretty well, it ended up being dragged out a bit more than I would have liked, and although there was definitely an opening for Morbius to return, it also would have been fine on its own as an ending for a character. So honestly, I can't say I'm too thrilled by Morbius returning, especially in this ugly, bat-like form. (Landon is obviously trying to cash in on the popularity of Batman: The Animated Series by looking like Two-Face - is Morbius supposed to look like Man-Bat?)
The writers have identified a smart angle to look at for the whole thing, which is Felicia's perspective on everything. She genuinely fell in love with Morbius back before she had powers, and Black Cat's mixed feelings over everything is a good struggle for her throughout the episode. Outside of that though, and Peter's angst over revealing his identity to her, the episode ultimately ends up being a bit weak.
Landon and Shocker continually appear wherever the heroes are, with a cry of "We're here because of [this reason]," and so the action doesn't feel very organic. They also disappear as soon as they've done what they need to, so it's hard to feel like they're a threat. The pacing is affected pretty badly as a result, since we're going from fight to fight and the characters might as well be teleporting around to where they need to go. As stated above, I'm also not too keen on Morbius returning, and even in-universe, while I can understand why Debbie would want him back, you'd think that Connors would maybe be a bit more cautious before trying anything, both because of the plasma draining and his own experiences with the perils of neogenics.
Overall, the character stuff isn't bad, as has been the case for most of the season, but the plot could do with a bit of tightening up before I start praising it.
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