Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Sixty-Nine: Burrito Run

Burrito Run

First Aired: July 28th, 2015

Synopsis: After an intense training session with Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Squirrel Girl are all hungry but are forbidden from going out by Nick Fury. The three of them sneak into the city but as they're heading to get burritos they run into Shocker. They defeat him but afterwards he's amnesiac and can't remember what he was doing, namely altering the city's mobile phone coverage using an access box. As the team continue heading to the burrito place Spidey knows they find Batroc the Leaper stealing mobile phones, and after defeating him he, too, is amnesiac. They head off in the direction of an alarm and find Mesmero altering an access box as Shocker was, but when he's attacked he sends civilians after them. Spider-Man, Luke, and Squirrel Girl escape them and see waves of civilians heading for a skyscraper, so they make their way there.

In the lobby of the skyscraper the heroes are attacked by Boomerang, Shocker, and Grizzly, all of whom they manage to defeat. However, during the fight Squirrel Girl gets a call on her phone and when she answers it she's hypnotised. She heads to the roof, with Spidey and Luke following, where they find Mesmero and the three villains they just defeated. Mesmero's plan is to amplify the network so that he can control anyone in New York using a phone. Spider-Man's able to use his tasers to free Squirrel Girl from Mesmero's control, and the heroes defeat all of the villains, just as controlled civilians make it to the roof to join in the attack. Spider-Man intimidates Mesmero into removing his control from everyone, but by the time everything's wrapped up the sun is rising, and the heroes will be expelled if they're found missing. Spider-Man tells Luke and Squirrel Girl to head back without him, and they do, only just arriving as Hawkeye comes in to check on everyone. Spider-Man's somehow made it back in time too, and he reveals that he brought burritos for everyone. Nick Fury takes one and reveals that he knows that they snuck out, but doesn't mind since he was also craving a burrito.

Clint Barton is Actually the Best:

• At the start of the episode, when Hawkeye is training with everyone, he effortlessly defeats all of the heroes, needing only two arrows to do so. Because Hawkeye's the best, natch.
• Throughout the entirety of the episode, whenever the heroes fight the villains they consistently fall back on Hawkeye's advice he gave them during the training session, because it's pretty applicable.
• At the end of the episode, when it looks like Spider-Man is sleeping in, Luke volunteers to wake him up since he thinks that Spider-Man hasn't made it back yet. Hawkeye instead simply fires an arrow at Spider-Man's seemingly sleeping form which on the one hand is kind of reckless, but on the other is amazing in how confidently he does it.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The burrito joint Spider-Man wants to go to is called Joey Q's, which is presumably a reference to Joe Quesada. 
• Nice.
  

Review: The plot of this episode ("Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Squirrel Girl head out for burritos") sounds kind of inane, but in practice it's actually pretty fun. Seeing heroes acting like normal people is quite fun (even if the equivalent of a burrito run where I am would be a kebab run), and after they defeat Shocker, there's a nice mystery as to what's going on. It feels like the sort of story you could see appearing in an annual or oversized issue, a fun little side thing where the heroes keep getting distracted on their way to get food.

Once Mesmero enters, however, we lose a lot of the levity. Partially because he's Mesmero (at one point he says, "Daddy has to enlarge our family!", which is a line no grown man should ever say), partially because the mystery is suddenly answered in a fairly boring manner, and also from there there's it's mostly fighting and fighting and fighting some more. Why Spider-Man decides they have to go to the skyscraper is a mystery, given that he knows Mesmero is right there and responsible for everything, and it's also not explained how Mesmero gets to the top of it before the heroes, nor how the villains they defeated beat them there.

It does sort of pay off in the end though - once Mesmero's defeated we get some of the levity back. It's obvious that Spider-Man's telling the others to leave without him so that he can pick up burritos, but him providing enough for all of his teammates is a nice surprise, and Hawkeye giving everyone the morning off from training is nice. Fury shows a bit of compassion in a moment that shouldn't be as rare as it is, and everyone's happy. So while the middle of the episode is a bit of a slog to get through, the start and end are both quite fun and enjoyable, something I swear I'm saying for reasons other than Hawkeye appearing in them. (But his presence definitely isn't a bad thing).