Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Eight: Back in Black

Back in Black

First Aired: May 13th, 2012

Synopsis: Peter is sick and staying at home, and is surprised when he sees a mysterious, black-suited Spider-Man stop the android Dragon Man on television. The black-suited Spider-Man becomes insanely popular, and Peter starts getting jealous. His team debate recruiting the new Spider-Man and wonder where he's from, to which Peter says that it's obvious - the new Spider-Man is a new version of Venom. His team are sceptical, and Spider-Man investigates on his own. He manages to meet the new Spider-Man in the city later, but the new Spider-Man is dismissive of Spider-Man and leaves. The next day Peter notices that Harry has a fancy watch, and Harry reveals a secret to Peter - his watch contains a fragment of the symbiote he found at his house, and he's the new Spider-Man. Peter tries convincing Harry that he won't be able to control Venom, but Harry is annoyed that Peter won't support him and briefly acts unnaturally angry. Later that night, Harry tries revealing to Norman that he's the new Spider-Man, hoping to impress him, but Norman is dismissive and doesn't give him the chance.

Nick Fury is suspicious that Peter knows something about the new Spider-Man, but Peter acts innocent, not wanting to rat out Harry. He's attacked, as Spider-Man, by Dragon Man, who's defeated by Harry using the symbiote. Harry gets aggressive and starts attacking civilians, and when Peter starts saving them the two fight, Harry growing more monstrous and aggressive as they continue. He manages to knock out Spider-Man and bring him to Oscorp for Norman, but Spider-Man keeps fighting and gets the fight out of there. He eventually manages to knock Venom into a billboard, destroying the symbiote and leaving just Harry, who admits that he couldn't control Venom. Peter debates revealing his identity to Harry, but decides not to. Later, Doctor Octopus sees footage showing that Harry is Venom but hides it from Norman. Nick Fury is still suspicious of Spider-Man's knowledge regarding the black-suited Spider-Man. Unbeknownst to Harry, a tiny bit of the symbiote still lives on within him. After Spider-Man finally recovers from his cold, he discovers that the rest of his teammates got sick.

Sam Alexander is Actually the Worst:

•  When Spider-Man brings up the possibility that the new Spider-Man is Venom, he opens with, "You guys can't see it?", to which Sam comments, "See what? A guy with a cooler costume than yours?!"
• After Spider-Man tries meeting with the new Spider-Man in the city and is dismissed, Sam, of course, mocks him for what happened for no reason other than that he's a dick.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• During a brief montage in which Spider-Man pictures the new Spider-Man's hypothetical origin, he imagines the latter having Doop as a sidekick.
• During a news report, one of the new items scrolling along the bottom is "Squirrel Girl launches new perfume line."

Review: I do have a handful of issues with this episode, but it's nothing major. Firstly: why exactly is the new Spider-Man so popular? There's nothing to indicate that he's any more effective at fighting crime, or less destructive, than Spider-Man is, so it's either entirely because of his look or lazy writing. Secondly: if Harry's so dismissive of Spider-Man, then why did he base his entire superhero look on him? You could argue that he can't change the appearance of the symbiote too much, but it's weird that there's no explicit indication as to why he looks like Spider-Man. Thirdly: I know the writing reason for why Peter's teammates don't show up in any of the fights with Harry, but what's the plot reason?

Onto the good - while there were hints in the symbiote's previous appearance that Harry would have something to do with it in the future, it's still a bit of a surprise that he's the new Spider-Man. As weak as the writing in this show can be at times, it's genuinely trying to push Harry in a new direction that hasn't been explored before, and I think that it manages to succeed. His motivation is to impress his father (there's a brilliant moment where we see that Norman's told him that "with great power there can come great rewards") and it's only when he's unable to do that that he starts losing control of the symbiote. I'm really liking this version of Harry; his relationships with Peter and with Norman are hitting a lot of good beats that other adaptations often seem to want to use, but never really show.

On that note, it's great to see that once the symbiote is (mostly) gone, Harry isn't portrayed as a villain, or as a snarling lunatic - he's a guy who made a mistake, and appreciates Spider-Man's help. Even earlier in the show, he was mostly shown to be someone underestimating what he was doing rather than someone out to cause trouble. I wouldn't call him the most realistic villain ever, but his motivations and actions are thought out to a great extent. I'm keen to see where he goes next, because there's no way his story ends here.