Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Two: Interactions

Interactions

First Aired: March 8th, 2008

Synopsis: Professor Connors is doing experimentation with electric eels, and as part of the experiments some equipment needs to be upgraded by Max Dillon. While Max is working on the equipment he gets electrocuted by it before being shocked by the tank full of eels, which breaks. He's taken to hospital as a result. The next day, Peter's at school where he finds out that the Daily Bugle wants photos of Spider-Man, and is annoyed that Jonah stole his idea. Liz Allan gets a terrible score on a test, while Peter gets a good one, so the teacher recommends that Peter tutor her. In hospital later, Max Dillon's body is continuously generating electricity, so he gets placed in a suit to help contain it and protect himself. As a result electrical devices around him start acting strangely, and he gets angry enough to leave hospital and head to the Silver Spoon cafe, where Peter is trying to tutor Liz, who isn't listening. Max finds that his powers stop him from drinking coffee and he angrily leaves the cafe, leading to Peter ditching Liz and going after him as Spider-Man. He takes photos of himself and rips off Max's mask, causing electricity to start shooting out everywhere.

 

Spider-Man keeps fighting Max, jokingly calling him Electro, but has to stop at one point to call Aunt May and tell her that he'll be home late. When he's done he finds that Electro has left. The next day, he discovers that his photos are terrible, and tells Liz that if she wants to learn, she can meet him at the lab that night. To his surprise, she shows up when he, Gwen, Eddie, and the Connors are discussing what to do about Electro. Electro himself is confronted by a doctor and the police when he tries returning home, and returns to the lab since he figures that Connors can cure him. Electro demands that Connors cure him, so Eddie distracts him, giving Peter a chance to get Gwen and Liz out and then change into Spider-Man. He tries approaching Electro more calmly now that he knows what's going on, but Electro doesn't listen and they fight. Their fight eventually leads them outside, and Peter is having difficulty with what to do before spotting a nearby pool. Knocking Electro into it takes him out. The next day, Liz is impressed that Peter tried to do something about Electro, but pretends to not be when Flash shows up.

Subplots:

• Curt Connors is mucking around with an experimental serum derived from lizard DNA. One vial of it is hit by Electro's electricity, and he takes it with him at the end of the episode, not knowing what's happened to it.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The doctor who looks after Electro is named Bromwell. You guessed it, he's a character from the comics, and traditionally the person who looks after Aunt May whenever she's sick.
• The Silver Spoon cafe is also from the comics, and was where Peter and his friends went when he was in university, but at some point it morphed into the Coffee Bean. Fun fact! I forget which one of them it was, but Harry Osborn ended up owning one of them during Brand New Day.
• At one point when Peter's at school, a student walks past wearing a shirt with some claw marks that says SNIKT. It's a neat reference.

Review: I'm not going to deny that after the fast pace of last episode, this one is a little bit of a step down in quality, although it's by no means bad. While last episode managed to (fairly) seamlessly introduce the show's premise and supporting cast while still providing antagonists and setting up one of the big villains, this episode's a bit more low-key. Electro's fine as a villain - and goodness knows that I'd rather he get his own episode to debut in nice and early in the series - but most of the episode really is just focusing on him freaking out and Spider-Man ineffectually fighting him. There's nothing egregiously bad about it, but coming in after last episode managed to pull off some great fight scenes, a great motivation for the primary villain, and a great ending to the fight, it's hard not to feel a bit let down.

The more interesting stuff here is definitely what's going on in Peter's life. Aside from the stuff with him trying to take photos, we also have Liz Allan involved now, and it's great. She goes from disrespecting him completely, to gaining some measure of respect for him after he says he won't help her (actually because he needs to go stop Electro, but it kills two birds with one stone, I guess) if she doesn't want it. It's simple on paper, but it works quite well in its execution, and her actually starting to get on with Peter but pretending not to because of Flash adds in a nice dash of realism (or should that be cynicism?) to the whole thing.

The biggest flaw here is definitely the fight with Electro - it drags on for a while, and while it makes sense that a pool could take him out, there's a dash of "Well, fight's killed enough time; let's wrap this up" in the writing. Spidey also gets hit by a big burst of electricity at least twice and while he cries out in pain, a few seconds later he's back to normal, like he's a character in a JRPG. Overall I wouldn't call this an incredibly strong episode, but it does its job of introducing Electro, setting up Lizard, and continuing some plots in Peter's daily life, so I can't really complain.