Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Nineteen: Growing Pains

Growing Pains

First Aired: July 20th, 2009

Synopsis: Venom stops some crooks, takes their loot, and webs up some cops, all the while looking like Spider-Man in his black-suit. At Professor Connors' lab, John Jameson starts growing larger and stronger, and Connors explains that spores from space - likely a high-gravity planet like Jupiter - have infected him and that his brain chemistry might be altered. Connors has been unable to destroy them via heat or cold, and electricity has only had a limited effect. He provides John with a suit to help restrict his strength and allow him to function normally. Shortly afterwards, J. Jonah Jameson hears about "Spider-Man"'s crime spree and tries convincing John to stop Spider-Man, dubbing him a superhero named Colonel Jupiter. John is reluctant to do so. Later that night, Spider-Man's attacked by Venom, and in the course of their fight a fire starts in an apartment building. John is nearby and decides to help, arriving just as Venom leaves the scene. John and Spider-Man are able to save people in the building, but when Spider-Man refuses to talk to the police, John grows suspicious. Later, at school, Flash Thompson can't understand why Sha Shan doesn't want to go out with him, and on Peter's advice decides to audition for the school play to get closer to her. Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy start going out after Gwen is reminded that Peter's still seeing Liz.

Venom ambushes John in his apartment, still looking like Spider-Man, then runs off before a fight can properly begin. Jonah tries convincing George Stacy to go after Spider-Man, but Stacy points out that Spider-Man and the criminal have different body types and fighting styles. At that moment, John calls up Jonah and tells him that he's going after Spider-Man, in spite of Jonah's reluctant protests. John soon finds Spider-Man and they start fighting. Spider-Man realises that John's brain chemistry has been altered by the spores, and when John is briefly electrocuted Spider-Man guesses from Connors' earlier comments that a strong jolt of electricity will stop John. He manages to deliver it via a generator, but although John loses his mass and strength, he has to be taken with an asylum since he's obsessed with getting power back. Later, it turns out that Harry Osborn has gotten the lead in the school play, and he's dismissive towards Gwen in favour of telling his father. Flash didn't get in, keeping him from Sha Shan. Later, at the Daily Bugle, Venom bursts in and tells Jonah that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The opening for this episode focuses on Peter, Jonah, Flash Thompson, and Liz Allan. This means that some other episodes have probably been rotating through whoever's relevant to that episode and I've completely missed it, but eh, you think I can be bothered going through and double-checking?
• When debating whether to go and stop the fire, John wonders whether he'd be able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound. It's a cute reference.
• John getting infected with spores and gaining super-strength is something that also happened in the comics, back in Amazing Spider-Man #42. Nothing else of significance happened in that issue, and no new characters were introduced.
  

Review: John Jameson getting super-strength from space spores is rarely remembered, and let's face it, with good reason. It's a throwaway moment for a minor character, especially when you compare it to his stint as Man-Wolf. Here, though, the episode justifies its inclusion - it's great to see Spidey finally have some help when he's dealing with a crisis, and John slowly getting more and more deranged is something that just wouldn't work with Man-Wolf. It's overall a good way to have Venom as an antagonist, but not as the main threat of the episode. The ending of the episode also puts John in an interesting place - it's hard to see where they'd go with him from there, but it has potential.

That being said, John's inclusion is kind of wonky. The episode just starts out with the space spores infecting him, and is all, "Oh, yeah, this has been happening off-screen for a while." If John's been infected by the space spores for long enough that Connors has had time to do tests on them, then why is he only growing now? I'm also pretty sure that this is the first proper appearance of Jonah all season, which feels kind of weird.

The ending of the episode, however, is great. Venom's said that he wants to destroy Spider-Man, and here he is, doing so in the most obvious manner. Obviously Peter's going to get out of the situation somehow, but it's always fun to see how he will. I didn't find the school drama this episode to be as engaging as in past episodes - a few things could probably do with a bit more space to breathe - but it is fun that the school play subplot has properly started. While there are some flaws in this episode, I do think that it's pretty good overall, and is worth it if only for getting to see Spidey team up with someone, brief as it is.