Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Sixteen: Reinforcement

Reinforcement

First Aired: June 29th, 2009

Synopsis: Spider-Man meets with Blackie Gaxton, a criminal who has information on the tech that Mysterio stole. Blackie tells Spider-Man that Mysterio's working for someone big who's been hiring a lot recently, and a low-level thug who tries running off, Patch, tells Spider-Man that said person is the Master Planner. Elsewhere, on the Master Planner's orders the Tinkerer gathers Mysterio, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino, Electro, and Kraven the Hunter. When getting Electro from the asylum he's in, Doctor Octopus, also taking part in therapy there, is shaky and nervous, and refuses to come. The villains are all introduced to the Master Planner, who contacts them via a screen and is only seen as a silhouette. He tells them all that he has a plan to stop Spider-Man. Later, Peter and his friends are ice skating at Rockefeller Center and he tries talking to Gwen when Liz Allan focuses her attention on Flash yet again. Gwen is offended that she's Peter's second choice and that he hasn't talked to her since they kissed, and so Mary Jane offers Peter some help. He goes off to get her some cocoa, but Vulture and Electro arrive on the scene, as Kraven's senses let him smell that Spider-Man is nearby. Switching to Spider-Man, Peter's unable to lure the villains away from civilians.

Spider-Man manages to web Vulture to the giant Christmas tree present, and his fight with Electro leads him to a tyre yard, where Electro melts tyres which lead to his getting trapped. Spider-Man's next attacked by Sandman and Rhino, who easily toss him between them, but he manages to lure Rhino onto some thin ice which breaks beneath the villain's weight. Sandman's still active, but Spider-Man discovers that spraying Sandman with water slows the villain down due to his cold it is, and he's able to freeze him by dropping snow on him. The final pair, Kraven and Mysterio, fight Spider-Man inside a department store, but a robot duplicate of Mysterio explodes and takes out Kraven. Spider-Man manages to catch Mysterio by spraying webs everywhere to find the invisible villain, but Mysterio refuses to give up anything on the Master Planner's plan. Returning to his friends, Peter's finally about to talk to Gwen about their kiss, when it turns out that all of the villains except for Mysterio have been retrieved before they could be captured. In the asylum, a set of Doctor Octopus' arms come and capture Otto Octavius, ignoring his protests. On Christmas Day, Peter gives Aunt May a photo of himself, her, and Uncle Ben together.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Blackie Gaxton is a character from the comics (where else?), who was responsible for Betty Brant's brother's death.
• The thug, Patch, that Spider-Man gets some information from, was a disguise of Daily Bugle reporter Frederick Foswell's in the comics. Will it be the same here? Oooohhhh.
• In the asylum - presumably Ravencroft - where Electro and Doctor Octopus are, one man with red hair is addressed as Cletus, implicitly Cletus Kassady.

Review: We've had a Sinister Six fight where all the villains fought Spider-Man at once; now it's time for a Sinister Six fight where the villains fight Spidey individually (or in pairs, close enough). I think that it ultimately makes the fights flow a bit better than doing everything in one big group; it showcases the individual villains more and gives more room for us to see what they can all do. It also gives us more room to show how Spider-Man has to defeat them all, and with the exception of Kraven, they're all beaten quite creatively and logically.

The one big problem with the fight - and by extension, the episode as a whole - is that while the villains feel like a threat, there's a point where I really have to actively suspend my disbelief. That point is when Rhino and Sandman show up in the fight and immediately start smashing Spider-Man to pieces. I know, I know, it's an unspoken rule of action-oriented works that the hero can survive whatever the plot demands, but from the damage they're doing to Spider-Man every bone in his body should be broken. I wouldn't normally comment on this - it's probably not even the most egregious thing that's happened to Spidey in all the episodes I've watched - but it really did take me out of the episode when it happened.

Other than that ultimately minor quibble, this is good stuff. The stuff with Liz is seemingly driving Peter back to Gwen, who's understandably pissed at him. (Peter's realistically kind of a bit shitty about the whole thing, really; he also starts thinking about Mary Jane pretty romantically and she has to snap him out of it). Mary Jane is being a great friend to Peter, which is always enjoyable to see. The Master Planner's plan is still pretty unknown, but in a good way, and what exactly is going on with Otto Octavius? It's all pretty great stuff.