Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Sixty-Six: SHIELD Academy

SHIELD Academy

First Aired: July 7th, 2015

Synopsis: As Peter leaves Midtown High for the day, he thinks bout how it's his last day there because he'll now be at the Triskelion undertaking SHIELD training. With his teammates, both old and new, he fights robots and attends classes taught by the retired hero Whizzer, who cracks down on texting in class. Amadeus Cho reveals that someone's trying to hack his Iron Spider suit, but when he and Spider-Man track down the signal they just find an old robot in the Triskelion's archives. After another day of classes Amadeus goes to view the robot again, which activates this time and reveals that it's Arnim Zola. Zola manages to power himself up with some parts Amadeus examines, and magnetises Amadeus' suit so that he and Spidey are trapped. Spider-Man's able to manually manipulate the Iron Spider suit, but Zola has escaped in the meantime.

 

While they look for Zola Spider-Man finds the Whizzer, who reveals that his ring can react to the students texting. He also fought Zola in World War II alongside Captain America. Spider-Man regroups with Amadeus, who has modified his armour to produce a field that will stop Zola from magnetising it again. While they're discussing what to do Luke Cage and Flash Thompson come over and join in, before Amadeus tracks down Zola's signal to an unused area of the Triskelion. They confront Zola there, but he attacks them with synthezoids. As they're getting overwhelmed Spider-Man tells Amadeus to send a text, which summons the Whizzer. He helps them out for the moment, but they're soon overwhelmed again. Spider-Man then realises that if Amadeus expands his suit's field it'll cut off Zola's signal, and is proven correct when Amadeus does so. Zola's synthezoids collapse and he's defeated, but not before ominously implying that he'll come back. In the aftermath Nick Fury is annoyed at Spider-Man for the whole mess since he's supposed to be a role model, and Spider-Man loses some of his privileges.

 

Clint Barton is Actually the Best:

• Hawkeye briefly makes an appearance in the episode as one of the teachers, and he does the whole William Tell thing of shooting an arrow off Spider-Man's head - but also while blindfolded, because Hawkeye is that damn good.
  

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Remember how Squirrel Girl briefly appeared at the start of The Next Iron Spider? Remember how she didn't really talk to Spider-Man that much, and how she didn't end up getting recruited for the New Warriors? This episode sure as hell doesn't, because she's randomly at the Triskelion and is apparently a New Warrior now.
• Near the start of the episode, Nick Fury welcomes everyone to the Triskelion and gives them the old, "Hope you survive the experience," line, which Spider-Man's exasperated at...even though back in New Warriors he used the line himself. What a hypocrite.

Review: There's a lot here that's kind of fiddly, starting with the fact that Peter has apparently graduated from Midtown High (or maybe he's just ditching it to be at the Triskelion?), and that he and his teammates apparently live at the Triskelion (what does Aunt May think the situation is?). There's also Arnim Zola somehow able to try and hack the Iron Spider even though he's been dismantled, and what the hell is with his other parts being right there with him? What's with Spider-Man and Amadeus splitting up to look for Zola if they can just track his signal when they regroup, and why does only the Whizzer reply to Amadeus' text as opposed to, say, literally anyone using their phone at that moment?

But in spite of these flaws and unanswered questions, this episode ended up being kind of okay. The thing with Whizzer's ring is set up really well when he's in class and admonishing students for texting, as is Amadeus sorting out the field around his armour. There's something in how simple this episode's plot is that managed to make it all sort of work for me, even though it really shouldn't. I don't know, I guess it's something about Amadeus? His debut episode also somehow didn't frustrate me as much as it should have.

While I would like to have a few things clarified (see: my issues with Peter's status at Midtown and what exactly Aunt May thinks is up) I'm overall fairly interested in the new premise going forwards. If this is anything to go by we'll get a handful of heroes joining in the adventure each episode, and the Whizzer is a surprising guest-star - I hope we get more obscure and less-popular characters showing up in the Triskelion from here. The show hasn't done a great job of following through on its set-ups, but hey, I can dream.