Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Twenty-One: Accomplices

Accomplices

First Aired: October 7th, 2009

Synopsis: Black Cat breaks into a secure vault owned by Oscorp executive Donald Menken, but as she finds her item, a group - including Hammerhead, Silver Sable, businessman Roderick Kingsley, Doctor Octopus, and Patch - enter the room and tell her that she's in over her head. She gracefully leaves, and Donald Menken starts the bidding for an unknown item. Kingsley bids more money than is in the bidding account, and everyone agrees to resume the bidding the next day, after more money can be put in. The next day Peter realises that he'll be late for a date with Liz since he has to go to the Daily Bugle, and while there hears about a story Frederick Foswell wants to run about the possible return of Silvermane, and old-school gangster getting out of prison soon. Since it could be connected to the Big Man, Peter wants in on it, and agrees to take photos for Foswell. That night, Patch is unable to get into the auction since his backer's withdrawn bidding money. He comes out of the building and reveals to Peter that he's a disguise of Frederick Foswell's, and they eavesdrop on the bidding with a bug Patch planted. Peter asks what's being bidded on, and Foswell reveals that it's the schematics for Rhino's armour.

Roderick Kingsley soon wins the bid, and is told where to pick up his prize. Peter heads there as Spider-Man, but Silver Sable and Hammerhead, wanting to steal the schematics for Silvermane and Tombstone respectively. Spider-Man manages to steal them which leads to Silver Sable and Hammerhead teaming up, but when Spider-Man opens up the case supposedly containing them he finds it empty, since Kingsley got away with them. Spider-Man, Hammerhead, and Silver Sable go after Kingsley, where they find him being attacked by Rhino, tipped off by Doctor Octopus, who doesn't want any copies of him. Spider-Man realises that he and Rhino both want the schematics destroyed and they work together against Hammerhead and Silver Sable...but the moment Rhino destroys them, he turns on Spider-Man and brings down the building they're in. Almost immediately afterwards, though, he's taken down by some gas the police have brought with them. In the aftermath, Donald Menken calls Norman Osborn and it's revealed that the plans were fake all along, allowing Osborn to sell the real ones later or use them for himself, and that he now has half a billion dollars in an unmarked account. Peter goes to Liz to apologise for missing their date, but she's understanding. After seeing Peter's photos of everything that happened, Jonah agrees to run Foswell's story.

Subplots:

• A few things that George Stacy says in this episode hint that he's worked out that Peter is Spider-Man, but there's nothing concrete yet.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Donald Menken is a character from the comics, of course. He's Norman Osborn's personal assistant there, too.
  
• In spite of being over ten years old at the time I'm writing this, this show feels pretty modern and still up-to-date most of the time. That being said, it shows the zeitgeist from time to time - when Peter opens up his locker in one scene, Harry exclaims that he's got the latest Oscorp Osberry. Remember when Blackberries were all the rage?
• On that note, Peter says he has the Osberry due to his mentorship with Norman. In spite of what a big deal was made about it back in Blueprints, it hasn't really come up in the show, and if it hadn't been for this scene I'd have thought that that subplot had been quietly dropped.
• Frederick Foswell shows Peter an article about Silvermane...the text of which is entirely about Spider-Man, no doubt due to some production reason I'm unaware of.
• I didn't really get a chance to mention it in the synopsis, but Silver Sable is Silvermane's daughter in this continuity, which is kind of cute but also changes her character a bit. Something that's genuinely quite funny, though, is that she and Hammerhead used to date.
• As mentioned in the synopsis, Patch is able to attend the first night of the auction because he has a mysterious backer. I don't actually think we get a reveal of who this is before the show ends, and I'm genuinely wondering whether there was a subplot building here or whether it was just a quick handwave without much thought put into it.
  

Review: It's not something I really thought about until this episode, but Spider-Man stories in which he has to deal with the criminal underworld tend to be, on the whole, pretty damn good. There's plenty of mooks for him to demonstrate his skills against, you can throw in a few villains to even the odds, and there's a good variety of plots that you can use. After the disappointment of last episode, this feels like a breath of fresh air, bringing back Hammerhead (and showing that he can fight, too!), introducing Silver Sable, and even throwing in Rhino for the final act. There's lots of great brief alliances and betrayals all around, and the whole thing feels like it's setting some future plots up very elegantly.

If I had to pick a flaw, I'd reluctantly point to Silver Sable. She's not the amoral psychopath that she was in Spider-Man Dis-Sabled, but I still ultimately prefer my Silver Sable to be an ally of Spider-Man's who clashes with him from time to time, because she's a great character. That being said though, I can see why they've made the changes they have here, and her banter with Hammerhead is quite fun, so she's still fairly enjoyable. (Supposedly if we'd gotten another season, she was going to become a good guy...just one of many reasons why I'll forever be jealous of the alternate universe where the show never got cancelled).

Aside from all of the good content in the episode's plot, there's plenty of setup for future ones. Norman Osborn's actions go without saying, but introducing Roderick Kingsley and giving him ties to the criminal underworld is a great start for the character. We all know who he turns out to be in the comics, don't we? (Hint: it's not Jason Phillips, the World's Most Wooden Man in the World). There's hints of Silvermane returning and possibly challenging the Big Man, and George Stacy may or may not have worked out who Spider-Man is. It's all very compelling and fun, and I'm really glad that we got this absolute banger of an episode after the last one.