The Vulture
First Aired: September 28th, 2014
Synopsis: Spider-Man is looking for the Vulture, a flying person who's been spotted around the city. The Vulture stops a mugging but drops the mugger from a great height, so Spider-Man naturally has to save him. From where Vulture's been seen Spider-Man's able to calculate his most likely lair, but unbeknownst to him is overheard by Taskmaster. When Spider-Man goes to the lair he realises that it's one of Doctor Octopus' old ones, and that Vulture must be a result of Ock's experiments. He briefly fights Vulture who reveals that he's amnesiac and desperate for his memories. Vulture finds a random metal plate which is apparently related to his memories and flies away, and when Spider-Man checks it he sees it's from Oscorp. Spider-Man heads off to Oscorp, but once he's gone Taskmaster sneaks into the lair and tampers with a hidden computer.
Spider-Man's able to get into a computer at Oscorp with Harry's help and discovers that the Ock did experiments on down-on-their-luck kids, but has no further information on the Vulture's past. Vulture appears and tries interrogating Harry, but Spider-Man's able to convince him that he shouldn't hurt him, and that Ock is the person he's really after. Spider-Man takes Vulture to the SHIELD Helicarrier to see Ock, but Ock uses some trigger words to control Vulture and free himself. Spider-Man finds them back at Vulture's lair and tries fighting Vulture using a jetpack he stole from SHIELD, but is eventually defeated. He manages to get through to Vulture and he turns on Doctor Octopus, but when Ock reveals that Vulture's memories are stored on a computer, it turns out to be the one Taskmaster sabotaged, leaving Vulture with nothing. In the aftermath Doctor Octopus is returned to SHIELD and while Vulture is offered a place at SHIELD, he refuses as he wants to find out about his past. Shortly after he leaves he's approached by Taskmaster, who offers Vulture information on his past if he works for him.
Review: Assorted Spider-Man cartoon writers, why are you so determined to mangle the Vulture so badly? With the exception of Spectacular Spider-Man, every single depiction so far has been pretty bad, and while I can forgive it in Spider-Man '67, given how young the Spider-Man franchise was itself at the time, there's really no excuse by this point. What the actual heck was the idea behind making the Vulture an edgy amnesiac teenager who mutates into an ugly mutant bird and inexplicably changes the colour of his clothes in the process? The amnesiac stuff I can forgive; it's a solid motivation and I do like Spider-Man repeatedly reinforcing to Vulture that it's what he does with his future that matters, but the other stuff is thoroughly unnecessary and weird.
But let's look past the Vulture and to the contents of the episode itself. So, why is Spider-Man searching for the Vulture if he can just calculate where his lair is? Why is the Vulture apparently a vigilante if he's trying to regain his memories? Why does Spider-Man find the Vulture in some weird cryogenic chamber in his lair, and why is there a random metal plate in the Vulture's lair which points him to Oscorp for his memories? Spider-Man sure as hell didn't bring it in. Taskmaster conveniently hanging out on the same building as Spider-Man is when Spidey works out where Vulture's lair is sure is one hell of a coincidence, and for all the fuss about Doctor Octopus putting trigger words in Vulture, Spider-Man is able to get through to him with one dramatic speech, like the most cliche of shonen stories. Also, how the hell are Vulture's memories stored on Ock's computer?
I sort of see the idea that they're going for - by having Taskmaster's eventual team have a traditionally villainous character on it, we're more likely to side with Spidey and his buddies when the inevitable fight comes. But if you're doing that, why are Cloak and Dagger there? And why jump through so many hoops to reinvent the Vulture, ending up with a much less interesting character, when you could stick with some of the teen heroes who have already been set up for Taskmaster's team? Surely there's more interest in fighting a team consisting of characters who we know have been manipulated, creating some dramatic irony and setting things up for them to turn on Taskmaster? Which they've already started doing with Cloak and Dagger! Yes, all of the above is applicable for Vulture, and it's possible that he'll ultimately end up a hero, but then you're still not really digging into the appeal of the character and embracing his strengths. Is there even a plan for Taskmaster and his team at this point, or are they just making it up as they go along?
So, yeah, what I'm trying to get at is that this episode kind of sucks.
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