Spectacular Spider-Man Episode Twenty-Three: Gangland

Gangland

First Aired: October 21st, 2009

Synopsis: Peter Parker meets with Harry and Gwen at a fancy restaurant, as the three of them, with Liz, Mark, and Mary Jane, are having a triple date for Valentine's Day. Shortly afterwards, Flash and the gang show up, and Flash asks Peter for help in impressing Sha Shan. Elsewhere, J. Jonah Jameson is taking his wife to the opera, mostly against his will, and at the same opera, Tombstone, Doctor Octopus, and Silvermane are meeting in a private box. When negotiations start breaking down, they each accuse the other of calling the meeting. Hammerhead grabs a gun from some flowers, which a mysterious note told him to check, and tosses it to Tombstone, shouting out loudly that Tombstone's plan worked as a fight erupts. The three villains start fighting, not listening to Tombstone's claims that Hammerhead was working independently, and Hammerhead thinks to himself that he can take over as the Big Man if the three of them take each other out. Frederick Foswell, who is in his Patch disguise as a waiter, calls Robbie, who in turn calls Peter. Peter leaves the restaurant, but apologises to Gwen, not Liz, for doing so. 

 

Spider-Man shows up at the fight, and the villains find that when they try calling other people for backup there's static interference preventing them from doing so. Spider-Man is eventually grabbed by Doctor Octopus, who points out that if they kill him they can sort out their problems later, but by now the fight has gone outside, and Tombstone has to help save Spider-Man to maintain his reputation in front of witnesses. Spider-Man works out how to disable the high-powered suit Silvermane is wearing, and the fight continues underground into the sewers. Spider-Man's able to take out Doctor Octopus' power source, but Tombstone can attack Spider-Man freely now without witnesses. Nevertheless, Spider-Man's able to defeat Tombstone, and all of the criminals are arrested. He tries to return to Liz as Peter, but Mark refuses to let him see her, pointing out that Peter's been paying attention to Gwen all night. The next day, Tombstone gets out on bail, but George Stacy tells Spider-Man that they can keep an eye on him now, and that the real problem is that a power vacuum has been created. Tombstone meets with the Green Goblin, who he has worked out was manipulating Hammerhead.

Subplots:

• Mark Allan briefly meets with Blackie Gaxton, one of Tombstone's thugs, at the restaurant.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• As mentioned, J. Jonah Jameson goes with his wife Joan to the opera. In the comics, and most continuities, she's usually dead from the start of the story.
• Silvermane's tuxedo turns into a robotic suit which covers most of his body. In the comics, ailing health led to Silvermane to be turned into a cyborg, with a similar appearance to the suit.

Review: I know that I've sometimes complained about episodes where a good chunk of it consists of the same fight scene, but overall, I really enjoyed this episode. The three-way battle between the villains is good in concept and execution, and there's a lot of great choreography involved in the whole thing. It's satisfying to see Spider-Man finally take out Tombstone, even if it doesn't last for long, and the moment where Tombstone is forced to save Spider-Man is brilliant.

The drama amongst Spider-Man's supporting cast is, of course, entertaining too. Peter's been focused a bit on Gwen for a little while now, and while it's done a bit obviously here, it's still a good moment. He struggled between Liz and Gwen back at the start of the season before ultimately deciding on Liz when she asked him out, but he's starting to realise now that he might have made the wrong decision. It's also nice that the narrative, in the form of Mark, calls Peter out on the way he treats Gwen compared to how he treats Liz. Elsewhere in the supporting cast, it's also good to see Flash and Sha Shan starting to get on and accept one another, especially since if Flash had kept going the way he had been he would have quickly started to become a creep.

With the return of the Green Goblin, we're heading into the final arc, which is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, there are some thing that happen there - particularly in the final episode - which I'm looking forwards to talking about, but on the other hand, I'm not looking forwards to this show ending. I remember the general plot, if not the details, of the remaining episodes, and I hope that they can be as enjoyable as this episode was.