Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Seventy-Nine: HYDRA Attacks, Part One

HYDRA Attacks, Part One

First Aired: February 21st, 2016

Synopsis: Peter is thinking to himself about how great his life is going since Aunt May revealed to him that she knows that he's Spider-Man. While he's in the city as Spider-Man Doctor Octopus appears, but Spider-Man defeats him with the aid of Iron Spider and Agent Venom. They take him to the SHIELD Helicarrier, where Amadeus wants to study Flash's brain to understand how spider-sense works. As Ock is taken away a tiny robot crawls out of him and infects Swarm, whose nanobots soon start infecting the helicarrier. Spider-Man and Nick Fury go after Doctor Octopus but he's joined by soldiers with both goblin and spider powers. At the same time, the helicarrier is constantly transforming thanks to Swarm, so Spider-Man gets Fury and himself away from the villains. They're joined by Iron Spider and Agent Venom, and Amadeus reveals that he's added a digital spider-sense to the Iron Spider armour.

The heroes try contacting the Triskelion, but they can't get through since it's under attack. Meanwhile, the helicarrier's nanobots infect Doctor Octopus and his appearance is changed. He reveals that he's teamed up with HYDRA as their logo appears on the walls, and Arnim Zola appears. Amadeus and Flash leave for the Triskelion since Amadeus should be able to create a way to stop the nanobots there, while Spider-Man and Nick Fury work together to knock Doctor Octopus off the helicarrier. Fury's injured and Spider-Man takes him outside, but they discover that the transformation of the helicarrier is complete, and it now sports a giant version of HYDRA's logo. Zola brags that they're defeated but Nova appears from the Triskelion and gives Spider-Man Amadeus' fix for the nanobots. He then flies away with Fury, who's still injured, and Spider-Man goes to the top of the helicarrier to apply the fix. Doctor Octopus appears and smashes it, and Spider-Man falls from the helicarrier with one of Ock's tentacles wrapped around him. He crashes into the water but is saved by a mysterious character who refers to himself as the first spider. In New York, Arnim Zola declares that HYDRA have defeated SHIELD and are the civilians' new masters.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Flash Thompson, as Venom, having spider-sense is something that I'm pretty sure has literally never come up on the show before, in a pretty blatant case of doing whatever it takes to make the plot work.
• Similarly, it's mentioned that Amadeus has been working on a way to stop Swarm "after the last time we fought him," but I'm fairly sure he's never been seen fighting Swarm once. I mean, why work with existing continuity and established facts when you can just gaslight the audience?
  
• As mentioned, Doctor Octopus gets infected by nanobots and changes his appearance. Bafflingly, this somehow makes him bald in the process.
• The mysterious character at the end calling himself the first spider is wearing the costume of Kaine, my personal favourite Scarlet Spider. I'm genuinely curious as to whether it'll turn out to be Kaine or someone else - establishing Kaine at this point would mean you have to bring in a whole lot of clone baggage, which doesn't feel like something the show would want to do.

Review: As you can probably tell from the miscellaneous notes section, I'm not too pleased at the way this episode just sort of makes things up to fit the plot. Suddenly, Flash has a spider-sense! Suddenly, Amadeus has always been working on a way to stop Swarm! The point about Flash having a spider-sense is just there to justify Amadeus getting one and incorporating it into his cure for Swarm, but...surely you could just have him work out a different way to stop Swarm? I don't think Amadeus having a digital spider-sense really adds that much to the character, either; while it could theoretically be used as a clever solution for problems in the future this show rarely chooses the route of logic to wrap up its plots.

I'll give the episode this: while I think that I prefer the original concept of Swarm (bees) over this show's own (nanobots), this episode does make the most of the concept. The helicarrier slowly transforming during the fight is a nice way to create a sense of a time limit, and there's a fun bit where Fury and Spider-Man are nearly crushed between two transforming walls. Doctor Octopus appearing out of nowhere to smash the fix for the nanobots is also a genuine surprise (admittedly, because it's a tad deus ex machina), and I'm intrigued by the mystery of the first spider.

Still...HYDRA aren't very exciting, and it's a bit baffling to see Arnim Zola appear as the villain for, what, the third time in the last nine episodes? I guess he's the face of HYDRA for this show, and I guess I'll take him over villains with a more tenuous connection to the organisation, but it's still a weird choice. The spider-soldiers, while a part of Norman Osborn's motivations from the start of the show, didn't really work for me last time they appeared, and adding in goblin nonsense to them just makes them even more ridiculous. I guess that this episode is harmless enough, but it's also not what I'd call recommended watching material.