The Sinister Six
First Aired: February 17th, 2013
Synopsis: Spider-Man is training with his team when he gets a call from Doctor Connors, asking him to come to Doctor Octopus' underwater lab. Spider-Man heads there on his own since his team aren't interested in coming, but when he arrives finds that Connors is restrained and the whole thing is a trap. Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and the Beetle show up. Doctor Octopus forcibly transforms Connors into the Lizard, and together they form the Sinister Six. Spider-Man runs off, unable to contact his team since the signal is being scrambled. When the Sinister Six split up to find him, Spider-Man webs up the Lizard and manages to get him to transform back into Connors - but Ock transforms him once more. Spider-Man is knocked out and the Sinister Six agree that the Lizard should be the one to unmask him, since he's the one who defeated him - but the Lizard turns on the villains instead. In the fight Rhino accidentally smashes a wall which causes water to start flooding in, and Spider-Man recovers then somehow gets outside.
Spider-Man's able to make his way to a news helicopter, and with his image projected on billboards and televisions around the city, tells the team to meet him at the Statue of Liberty. He arrives there, followed shortly by the Sinister Six. Once again Spider-Man tries talking to the Lizard but Doctor Octopus controls him again. Spider-Man's defeated once again but his team show up and save him. They're not able to significantly gain ground against their opponents until Spider-Man tells them to switch opponents. When Doctor Octopus tries pushing Lizard once more, Lizard turns on Ock and Spider-Man's able to rip off Ock's tentacles. The Lizard runs into the sewers and Spider-Man chases him, but Lizard says that he wants to stay like this and escapes. In the aftermath, Nick Fury compliments Spider-Man on stopping five dangerous criminals, but Spider-Man beats himself up over not saving Lizard while vowing not to quit trying.
Sam Alexander is Actually the Worst:
- When Spider-Man asks his team whether they want to come and see Doctor Connors with him, Nova sneers, "And watch you two spew nerd all over each other?", instead of, say, "No thanks."
Review: The actual content of this episode isn't bad, and one of the strong points I'll definitely give it is that Spider-Man never really sees the Lizard as a villain - he's constantly trying to help his friend and to get through to him. Beating himself up over not managing to save him is perfectly in-character, and the Lizard saying that he wants to stay as he is manages to be a great moment of ambiguity - is he saying that because the feral, Lizard part of his brain is in control, or is Doctor Connors willing to give up his humanity if it means that he can keep his arm?
The biggest issue I have with this episode is that Doctor Octopus' team doesn't make any sense. Why is Electro in his energy form again, and why isn't he glitching out this time? Why does Kraven want to go after Spider-Man, when all he cared about last time was White Tiger, to the point of letting Spider-Man leave with his teammates if that would get him out of his hair? How is Beetle working for this team, when he was captured and locked up in jail literally last episode? It's all the more egregious because when this team has formed in the past - in both Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spectacular Spider-Man - we were explicitly shown scenes explaining how the villains got out of jail.
Overall then, I'd call the episode fine. The fights aren't anything spectacular, the banter and jokes are as bad as they generally are in this series. Spider-Man's team showing up is a good moment, but given that it's one of the few times he's able to match Ock's team with his own - the only other time I can think of was back in The Six Fight Again - it feels like more could have been done with it. The Lizard stuff is quite promising, however, and is setting up future episodes pretty well.
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