Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Fifty-Eight: Six Forgotten Warriors, Chapter Five: The Price of Heroism

 The Price of Heroism

First Aired: October 17th, 1997

Synopsis: Spider-Man and Silver Sable are captured by a trap of the Red Skull's as they pursue him. The Red Skull reveals that the robots in the base aren't the doomsday device; they were there to safeguard a device which powers up his son, the real doomsday weapon. His son gains electricity powers and is dubbed Electro by the Red Skull. Electro takes out the Insidious Six and the Six American Warriors, but his powers start to tax him so he flees with the Red Skull and Chameleon. While Insidious Six get away, the Six American Warriors tell Silver Sable that they don't need her, and start planning how to turn the situation away. At the Red Skull's secret base Electro is annoyed at Red Skull since his life was at risk when he got his powers, so he leaves. Drunk on power, he shuts down electricity in New York and broadcasts himself across the planet, demanding that he be made ruler of the world. The Six American Warriors and Spider-Man show up and try fighting him, but are defeated again. Electro returns to where he got his powers and powers up the robots, then heads to the UN with them to continue his demands.

 

Spider-Man works out that the stasis vortex that Captain America and the Red Skull were trapped in must have been the Red Skull's backup for if Electro turned on him, and he and Captain America return to fix it up from the damage it's suffered while the remaining Six American Warriors go to the UN to stop Electro's robots. SHIELD join in the fight, but are taken out by Electro. While Spider-Man and Captain America manage to find and fix the stasis vortex, Red Skull and Chameleon show up. Red Skull and Captain America get trapped in the vortex again, right before Electro shows up, having anticipated that the vortex would be used against him. Spider-Man taunts him into damaging it, which makes him part of the vortex's power loop, causing him to disappear. The remaining heroes, having successfully stopped the robots, lament Captain America before destroying the doomsday device for good. Spider-Man takes a photo of the heroes which he thinks will put him back in Jonah's good graces, then returns home to Mary Jane.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• At the start of the episode, Spider-Man and Silver Sable are following Red Skull and the future Electro by going after their footprints. Unless there's wet concrete around and nobody's mentioned it, how the hell does that work?
• Electro's plan to take over the world by going to the UN might seem kind of silly, but hey, it worked for the greatest villain ever, so...

Review: Oh man, this episode. I mentioned in my review of the previous episode that it felt like a Marvel Comics story, and here, the comparison is close, but this episode feels more like the final act of a Marvel Cinematic Universe film. We've got an all-powerful villain and things look bleak, but the heroes manage to defeat them using a tactic which was set up well and which suits their character. Also, SHIELD are absolute red shirts. Hell, we've even got a new interpretation of a comics character - Mandarin as a western terrorist? Electro as Red Skull's son? It's all here!

Unfortunately, it really feels like for every step forwards, there's one step back here, and we never really get beyond "It's fine." The robots from last episode not being the doomsday weapon is a fantastic idea, but if Red Skull had a device made for granting electricity powers, why doesn't he show any sign of wanting to use it after his son proved it was safe? Was his plan to give powers to his son when the device was built, when his son must have been a toddler at best? The reveal that the stasis vortex being the Red Skull's contingency plan is also a fantastic idea, as is Spider-Man doing what he does best and taunting Electro to defeat him, but why is so much of the episode focused on Electro's nonsensical goal of ruling the world, and fighting SHIELD?

I can't deny that this episode manages to get the stakes right, and with Spider-Man defeating Electro in a way that few other heroes would be able to it does feel like the show hasn't forgotten about him. I'd be a lot more pleased with the end result if there was a bit more focus on Spider-Man overall, and less on Electro shouting loudly about taking over the world, but at the end of the day, this does manage to live up to the stakes that have been set up throughout this arc, and is enjoyable enough.