The Parent Trap
First Aired: August 4th, 2013
Synopsis: Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Nick Fury, and Agent Coulson parachute into some mountains and start fighting Zodiac grunts. They've discovered that Scorpio is planning to use the Zodiac Key to power a super-soldier serum and make an army of villains. Due to the number of foes only Spider-Man and Luke are able to get into the main Zodiac base, a volcano. Inside, Luke sees a pair of scientists on a screen who he recognises as his parents, who he thought died in a plane crash. Although he and Spider-Man have orders to get the Zodiac Key, he runs off instead to find his parents. Spider-Man thinks it may be a trick, but decides to support his friend and comes along too. Luke explains that he and his parents were flying home in a private plane when Zodiac attacked; to protect him his parents made him drink the serum they'd been working on which gave him super-strength and invulnerability. Luke and Spider-Man's path takes them by a room where the Zodiac Key is in, which Spider-Man manages to retrieve before catching up to Luke.
Luke gets into the room where his parents are, but decides not to reveal his identity to them since he doesn't want their reunion to be right now. Scorpio appears, wanting the key, and while fighting Spider-Man a stray energy blast knocks Luke into some lava, which is rising. Spider-Man's unable to free Luke, but discovers that his parents are only working for Zodiac since they think Scorpio's holding Luke hostage. Spider-Man then realises he can use the Zodiac Key to free Luke from the lava and does so, but while he's doing that Scorpio takes some of the serum Luke's parents have been working on, gaining a more muscular form. Luke's parents reveal that they intentionally made the serum defective as a precaution, and as Luke fights Scorpio the latter keeps getting more and more muscular. Eventually they're able to knock Scorpio into the lava Luke was trapped in, and he's blasted with the Zodiac Key; Luke is also hit by the energy. In the aftermath Luke reveals his identity to his parents, who are welcomed back to SHIELD. Scorpio is depowered and locked up. Spider-Man comments that Luke was hit by a large burst of energy, to which Luke replies that he feels fine, but his eyes glow ominously.
Miscellaneous Notes:
- Luke's parents here are named Walter and Amanda; in the comics their names were James and Esther. Judging by the fact that they're constantly referred to as the Cages, it appears to be their legal name; in the comics Luke Cage's name was originally Carl Lucas before he legally changed it.
Review: While there are still one or two questions remaining, we've more or less gotten origins for all of Spider-Man's teammates now. Of them I'd say that this is the best one - tying Luke and his parents into SHIELD makes it natural that he would work for and live with them, and raising the possibility that his parents might be willingly working for Zodiac is a good dilemma. In an ideal world I'd have liked it if they were and became recurring villains, but I can't deny that seeing him reunite with them is nevertheless a pretty heartwarming moment.
I'm trying to think of what the flaws of this episode are and while there definitely are some, there's nothing too egregious. The worst I can think is that Spider-Man is told by Coulson not to remove the Zodiac Key (after hanging up on his first warning; sheesh!), which causes the volcano base to start shaking wildly. Dangerous! Then...nothing really happens to warrant that warning, and the issue is quietly forgotten about. It's possible that the lava Luke falls into is supposed to be there because of Spider-Man removing the key, but it's not like we need the key being removed to justify its presence. I'm also not a fan of the muscular Scorpio created as a result of the serum he drinks - it doesn't feel like there's enough space in the episode to showcase him, and the design is uggers as heck.
Overall though, this worked a lot better than I thought it would (especially since between the title and the presence of Scorpio I initially thought it'd be about his and Nick Fury's family). Luke Cage is a good character and it's nice to get an episode focusing on him, with bonus origin story thrown in. The conflict with his parents isn't milked as much as it could have been, but I'd still call this a good one.
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