Iron Vulture
First Aired: March 6th, 2016
Synopsis: Spider-Man and his allies are swinging through the city, trying to come up with a codename for Miles, when they find Batroc at the docks trying to escape after a robbery. Miles jumps in, gung-ho, Batroc reveals that his suit has received upgrades from HYDRA, causing Spider-Man to jump into the fight, but Miles wins anyway. Miles is annoyed at Spider-Man, who suggests that they cool off by hanging out with a friend of his - Harry Osborn. They do so in their civilian identities, but shortly after Norman joins in and beats Miles at a snowboarding video game, the Vulture bursts into the penthouse in some new armour. He attacks them all but Norman gets into the Iron Patriot armour and fights him. Peter tries leaving Miles and Harry in Norman's safe room but Miles calls Peter out on trying to ditch him again, so they leave Harry in the safe room and change into their Spider-Man costumes. In the safe room, however, Harry finds some other Iron Patriot armours.
Iron Patriot and the two Spider-Men defeat the Vulture, but he summons Doctor Octopus. It turns out that Vulture is working for Ock since he's been promised his memories back, which Ock claims are held on Norman's database. Ock also quips that Miles is a kid arachnid, giving Miles his new codename. Harry shows up in one of Norman's other armours, calling himself the Patrioteer, and Ock summons an octobot which Spider-Man and Miles have to fight. Vulture manages to rip open the Iron Patriot armour but when he puts on the helmet and tries to find the files about his memories, finds nothing and realises that Ock's lied to him. Vulture turns on Doctor Octopus but Ock uses nanobots to transform Vulture's armour, letting him control him. Miles defeats Vulture and Harry defeats Ock. Vulture struggles against the armour controlling him, warning Spider-Man that Ock has a spy within SHIELD, before the armour flies him away. In the aftermath Doctor Octopus is locked up. Spider-Man apologises to Miles for being so overprotective, and Miles reveals that he's been so eager to help since his Peter Parker died and he doesn't want the same thing happening to this one. They agree to dial back both their issues, respectively.
Review: Finally, a decent episode of this season! There are, as always, enough issues that I wouldn't call it perfect, but the writing on display here is far stronger than that of the previous three episodes. Peter and Miles have a clear arc throughout the episode, learning to work alongside each other and how their relationship has subtly changed since Miles got stuck in Peter's dimension. Harry Osborn becomes the Patrioteer (which I don't think will get much screentime, but I'll take it while it lasts). Norman Osborn is still a good guy, and the episode doesn't tease or hint at him becoming the Green Goblin once more. All stuff that I approve of.
The biggest complaint that I have, I think, is the logic in sending Vulture after Norman Osborn. Don't get me wrong, I love the justification that Vulture's being manipulated and lied to by Ock the entire time, but I'm not sure of the necessity of sending him. If Ock's going to show up at the end anyway, why not just initiate the attack himself? It's not as if Norman's location is unknown and needs to be discovered, nor is Vulture intended to be a sacrificial pawn, there only to soften up the heroes. Doctor Octopus could have easily attacked alongside Vulture from the start, thus giving them an advantage against the unprepared Norman. I'll also point out that him telling Vulture that he can access Norman's database via the Iron Patriot helmet does nothing but sabotage himself - if he'd told Vulture that the files can't be accessed via the helmet, Vulture wouldn't have turned on him and Ock could have potentially won.
So overall, I'm pretty pleased with this one. Setting up that villains are getting upgrades from HYDRA will allow old villains to return with new tricks, and the hint of a spy within SHIELD is genuinely intriguing (although I bet they'll end up being brainwashed or coerced into it, rather than being a full-blown villain). As mentioned above, there are a few plot issues, and I also felt that the big fight scene had maybe a few too many characters involved, but overall this was a pretty enjoyable episode.
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