Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Three: The Avenging Spider-Man, Part One

The Avenging Spider-Man, Part One

First Aired: August 31st, 2014

Synopsis: Spider-Man and his team fight Doctor Octopus, and after defeating him the Avengers approach them, wanting Spider-Man to join them. He's reluctant to leave his team but does so with their blessing. At Avengers Tower he passes a quick test and is given an upgrade to his web shooters from Iron Man, but Black Widow points out that he's not unmasking and showing them the same trust that they're showing him. Captain America says it's fine, though, and the team soon go out to fight threats such as Fin Fang Foom and Attuma. Spider-Man manages to defeat Batroc on his own when his old team are fighting him and gets praise from civilians, who ignore what his old team contributed. Meanwhile, Loki frees Doctor Octopus from his imprisonment and restores his old underwater laboratory, and the two make plans to create more symbiotes from Spider-Man's blood so that Loki can power up some Asgardian monsters for an invasion.

Spider-Man's attacked by Loki as he leaves Avengers Tower, and Loki swap the minds of the two of them. While he goes to Doctor Octopus' lair, Spider-Man awakens and is attacked by the Avengers, who naturally think that he's Loki. Soon afterwards Loki attacks New York with symbiote-powered trolls, all the while still pretending to be Spider-Man. While Spider-Man goes after Loki the Avengers realise that the two have swapped minds and fight symbiotes. Spider-Man eventually reaches Loki, but after a brief fight Loki switches their minds back. The Avengers choose that moment to arrive and Loki, back in his original body, claims that he's Spider-Man and that he's captured Loki, leading to the Avengers attacking Spider-Man.

 

Sam Alexander is Actually the Worst

• When Spider-Man and his team are approached by the Avengers at the start of the episode, who want Spider-Man, he's reluctant to leave his team. All of his team members encourage him and congratulate him...except for Nova, who stays completely silent and has nothing to say.
• Spider-Man stops Batroc while his old team are after the villain, and the first words out of Nova's mouth are, "Oh wow, guys! It's an Avenger!", very sarcastically and snidely. Remind me why we're supposed to like this guy?

Clint Barton is Actually the Best

• The Avengers discuss whether or not they want Spider-Man on the team, and Hawkeye says that he doesn't want Spider-Man on the team. It seems like a dick move, but let's be real: this version of Spider-Man is frequently immature and irresponsible. Hawkeye's got a point, too: when the Avengers fight Fin Fang Foom, Spider-Man just acts out on his own and while the villain's defeated, Cap points out to Spider-Man that he needs to follow orders.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Hawkeye's costume has changed since his last appearance; it's now purple rather than red as the primary colour scheme and he's no longer wearing the weird jacket over the top of it. It's a much better visual, and as much as I love the classic Hawkeye costume, I can't deny that this looks great.
• Avenging Spider-Man was the name of a Spider-Man team-up book that had finished a bit before this episode aired. I read a trade or two of it and it wasn't bad, although it has that issue where the stories feel a bit irrelevant and unnecessary for the characters.
• The Avengers here are all characters we've seen in past episodes, except for two new ones: Black Widow and Falcon. I think they might have been introduced in whatever the Avengers cartoon running at the same times as this was, but as I haven't seen it I can't say for sure.
• When Loki arrives at Doctor Octopus' base in Spider-Man's body, Ock is impressed by Loki swapping minds and says that he'll write it down. Shortly before this episode aired, Superior Spider-Man had been running, a series where Doctor Octopus became the new Spider-Man after swapping minds with Peter Parker. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't call it the highlight of Dan Slott's Spider-Man run.

Review: Well, I wouldn't call it the worst episode this show has done, but it's not really great either. The episode starts out alright, bringing up small conflicts Spider-Man has with his team - Hawkeye doesn't want him there, Black Widow wants him to unmask, Captain America wants him to be more disciplined - and there's even a bit of conflict with his old team when the public ignore them in favour of his contributions. This is all laying the groundwork for some interesting character interactions, but then it all gets thrown to the side when Loki shows up. Being generous, it's probably seeding stuff for why Spider-Man will inevitably leave the Avengers next episode, but it still feels like the pacing needs some touching up, and that some of this stuff could probably be brought in next episode.

Speaking of pacing, you know what another problem with this episode is? Padding. Spider-Man deals with some automatic gunfire in Avengers Tower, ostensibly as part of a test. Spider-Man and Loki fight for a minute or so before it turns out that Loki could just use magic to put Spider-Man to sleep all along. We get something like two or three minutes of the Avengers fighting symbiote monsters which, aside from establishing that they've worked out that Loki and Spidey swapped minds, doesn't really contribute much. With a cast as big as the one this episode has you could easily give a few characters a task or two to do to help add to the story and cut down on the padding, but here we are.

I will give the episode credit for some good humour when both Spider-Man and Loki have difficulties with their new powers, and Loki swapping bodies back at the end of the episode is a neat trick by him. Hell, I even like some of the conflict between the Avengers and Spider-Man - it's organic, reasonable, and nobody's being stupid and irrational about it. But there's also a lot here that's kind of boring, most notably the symbiote-powered Asgardian monsters, which just don't feel like the threat they should be. I'm keen to see how Spider-Man deals with the Avengers next episode, and I want to see him interact with them more in general, but I've got a feeling it's more likely to be fighting and fighting and fighting some more.