Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Twenty: Run Pig Run

Run Pig Run

First Aired: September 16th, 2012

Synopsis: As Spider-Man heads to school for photo day, he complains to himself about how he never gets any respect. A hot dog vendor on the street calls to him and offers him a free hot dog as thanks for all the good he does, but once Spider-Man's eaten it the vendor reveals himself to be Loki. The hot dog is enchanted and turns Spider-Man into a pig, and to make matters worse, a fog rolls in and some hunters, led by Skurge the Executioner, appear. Loki reveals that today is the day of the Wild Hunt, and that they'll be hunting down Spider-Man for a feast in Valhalla that night. Spider-Man isn't able to get away from them, but Thor appears to help. He reveals that he can't call off the Wild Hunt, since doing so would go against his father's rules, but he can fight the hunters to help Spider-Man. He throws Spider-Man away with his hammer, bringing Spidey to his high school, where Thor figures Coulson and his teammates can help him. The hunters, predictably, show up at the school.

Spider-Man meets up with his team and they manage to throw Spider-Man between them until Coulson, loaded with SHIELD gear, and Thor show up. The team escape to the SHIELD Helicarrier, where they plan to protect Spider-Man until the day's over. The hunters predictably make it to the helicarrier, and Spider-Man's team insists that he stay inside while they fight the hunters. Loki appears and points out that he made Spider-Man the most desired creature in the nine realms, and that he's just letting his friends fight for him. Spider-Man heads to the outside of the helicarrier and joins in the fight, but loses to the Executioner. Executioner is in a position to kill Spider-Man, but at that moment the sun sets, which means that the Wild Hunt is over. Loki is furious at the hunters for not continuing to go after Spider-Man, who returns to his normal form for some reason and punches the god. Loki escapes and the hunters go after him. After everything Spider-Man is grateful that he at least didn't have to be at school for photo day, before Nova reveals that he got photos of Spider-Man in his pig form.

Sam Alexander is Actually the Worst:

• I'm not going to go through every individual instance, but from his first moment on-screen, Nova spends basically the entire thing making jokes at Spider-Man's expense and treating the whole situation lightly. Granted, Spidey's other teammates also laugh when they find out what's happened, but they seem to get over it pretty quickly.
  

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The Wild Hunt is indeed a thing from assorted European mythologies, including Norse. Traditionally it's led by Odin, and consists of more than three hunters.
• Spider-Man in his pig form is, of course, based on Spider-Ham. A few characters call him such in the episode, and he's also referred to as Porker at one point.
  

Review: I actually don't mind this episode on paper. Spider-Man getting cursed by Loki is a clever way to get Spider-Ham into the show without doing some reality jumping, and hey, just look at that continuity from the last time Loki appeared! There could be a good moral about Spider-Man needing to trust his friends, and it's nice to see Coulson in action, but...yeah, so the execution here is really not that great. The hunters are surprised to discover that Spidey's not really a pig, and Thor handwaves earlier that they wouldn't believe him if he insisted he's not, but there's still no attempt at actual communication with the hunters. If they wouldn't believe Spidey, does that mean that they also wouldn't believe Thor? Why are they so much more willing to follow Loki's advice but not listen to Thor?

Speaking of Spider-Man not really being a pig, what's with him suddenly returning to his regular form? It's probably meant to be that the curse only works for a limited time, sure, but then why hasn't that been mentioned? How do the hunters track Spidey to school after Thor explicitly covers Spider-Man in sewage to block his scent? Why do Coulson and Thor just let the hunters leave the school once the team escape to the helicarrier? The plot is just fight scene after fight scene with a thin plot in-between, and as such it raises far too many questions.

Beyond all of this, there's the usual complaints about the show. Spidey's team are a tad dickish, with Nova being completely detestable as per usual. There are a lot of dumb jokes, and none of the fight scenes are that clever or enjoyable. In another universe this would be a fun episode, but it's far from it in this one.