Nature vs. Nurture
First Aired: June 14th, 2008
Synopsis: Back in his red and blue costume, Spider-Man stops a group of robbers from escaping in a helicopter, then tells Tombstone that he rejects his offer. After he leaves Eddie Brock, powered by the symbiote, shows up and asks for a job - in turn, Tombstone tells him that he can have one if he kills Spider-Man. Later, Peter checks in on Aunt May at hospital, lets Flash know that he appreciates being called out, and apologises to his friends for being a jerk. Mary Jane warns Peter that she went on a date with Eddie, and that she thinks he asked her out to hurt Peter. Peter calls up Eddie and Eddie pretends that everything's fine. At home, Peter rediscovers the genetic cleanser he took after defeating the Lizard, then is suddenly ambushed by Eddie, who declares that as he's poison to Spider-Man, his name is Venom. Venom webs ups Spider-Man and has him at his mercy, but declares that he hasn't suffered enough and leaves. When Spider-Man gets free, he heads to the hospital to check on Aunt May, and is ambushed by Venom outside it. After a brief fight Venom reveals that he's Eddie to Spider-Man, then heads off, saying that he knows who Peter loves the most. Spider-Man heads after him to the Thanksgiving Day parade that's on and looks for Mary Jane, but discovers that Venom has actually gone after Gwen.
Gwen gets webbed to one of the Thanksgiving balloons by Venom, who fights Spider-Man again. During the fight he reveals that until he met the symbiote, he's always been alone - at least Peter had May and Ben. Spider-Man manages to trick Venom into slashing the balloon, causing it to slowly deflate, and when Gwen inevitably falls she's saved by the jocks, who Mary Jane rallied on seeing what was happening. Venom plans on finishing Spider-Man off for real, but Spidey asks the symbiote to return to him, saying that he's ready to reciprocate its love. It finds that there are no negative emotions in his head and can't bond with him, letting Spider-Man trap it in a bag and throw it in a slab of wet cement. Returning home, Peter discovers that Aunt May was taken home by Doctor Bromwell, and although Peter's attempts at making a Thanksgiving meal were unsuccessful, George and Gwen Stacy come by with food of their own and they all have dinner together. Aunt May also reveals that their money problems won't be so bad since she has a deal with a publisher to write a cookbook. In the aftermath, Peter decides that he's done good as Spider-Man, and so pours the genetic cleanser down the sink. In the aftermath, as Gwen goes home she doubles back to kiss Peter.
Miscellaneous Notes:
- At one point, Venom's stomach opens up and turns into a mouth, which soon speaks in sync with his face-mouth. I see the logic behind it - "Hey, if he can create a mouth on his face with big teeth, why not elsewhere on his body?" - but it's more weird than anything.
Review: Man, I remember this episode being a lot better than I found it this time around. Eddie becoming Venom should be terrifying - he certainly was last time this happened - but here he just feels inconsistent. Why does he want to work for Tombstone? Why is he content to write Aunt May a mysterious card saying "Guess Who?" but not actually attack her until Spider-Man's nearby? Why is his design stacked so top-heavy that it actually ends up looking kind of bad? Spider-Man's actions aren't great either - there's no sign of him doing anything about Eddie once the symbiote is gone, and him pouring the genetic cleanser down the sink would be a lot more dramatic if there'd actually been some serious thought put into it in the episode.
There is a nice twist in that Peter thinks that Venom will go after Mary Jane (does the fact that Peter think that mean that he does love her more than Gwen?) but that Eddie goes after Gwen. After a season with a handful of teases, the show's suddenly nudging Gwen and Peter together, and I can't say I disagree - Peter and Mary Jane are one of my favourite couples, but they work better when they've gone through some trials and tribulations with some other love interests first. And this version of Gwen is interesting and cute, something which makes her a lot more interesting than the comics version of her.
As a cap to the first season of Spectacular Spider-Man, it's not bad - I can definitely see why Venom was considered to be more dramatic for the finale than the Green Goblin was; the former knows Spidey's identity while the latter doesn't - but after some of the other moments we've gotten this season, it does feel like there's some missed potential. It is, as always, enjoyable at worst, and it's not like it couldn't have been worse - they could have always ended the first season by having the planet get overrun by symbiotes.
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