Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Ninety-Five: Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Two

Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Two

First Aired: September 3rd, 2016

Synopsis: Spider-Man and Miles arrive on a tropical island in a cartoony world. They're attacked by a pirate Spider-Man, Web-Beard, who misunderstands when they talk about the shard of the Siege Perilous and thinks they want his treasure. He explains that his crew mutinied against him when he tried to keep their treasure to himself. Looking in the treasure they find that the shard is in it, and while he fights them his ship and former crew show up. The new captain turns out to be Howard the Duck, and Spider-Man surrenders to him in the hopes that he'll be more reasonable, but he simply has them all prepare to walk the plank and be fed to a kraken. They manage to escape and get into a big fight, but the kraken starts attacking the ship while Howard and Web-Beard squabble. Spider-Man and Miles help them to reach a compromise, and everyone teams up to stop the kraken. Spider-Man and Miles are given the shard of the Siege Perilous as thanks, and they leave for the next universe.

The next universe turns out to be a wild west world, and Miles and Spider-Man soon run into a cowboy Spider-Man and the sheriff of the town, Doctor Octopus. They run away but are chased by Ock's deputy, the Phantom Rider. When Miles is near the Phantom Rider he notes that his Siege Perilous shard is glowing. Phantom Rider eventually takes out Miles and Spider-Man while cowboy Spider-Man escapes, only to return and free them from jail. He tries getting them to flee, and explains that his Uncle Ben was the previous sheriff who was killed by Ock, but Spider-Man and Miles refuse. They fight Ock, who has a shard of the Siege Perilous and reveals that Wolf Spider appeared recently looking for it. Cowboy Spider-Man runs away but returns when Spider-Man asks him if that's what Uncle Ben would want, and he challenges Ock to a shoot off. Spider-Man does it instead since cowboy Spider-Man's hand is injured, and he's able to get the shard from Ock. It's then revealed that Phantom Rider was Uncle Ben all along, controlled by Doctor Octopus using the shard. While Ock is locked up in jail, Spider-Man and Miles prepare to leave - but not before Spider-Man takes a moment to enjoy the sight of a Spider-Man who hasn't lost his uncle.

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Web-Beard's ship is this universe's version of Groot, which is a really cool idea. Other than Howard, his other crew members are Rocket Raccoon and Cosmo.
• Doctor Octopus consistently refers to himself as "Doctor Octopus Holliday" (Holiday? Halliday?), which is probably a reference to some western character and/or person that I've never heard of.

Review: After the great start to the arc last episode we've got a bit of a dip in quality, but I'd still say that this isn't too bad. The Web-Beard portion of the episode is fairly light-hearted and comedic, and while I'd say that for the most part the humour is harmless if not my thing (there's a recurring bit about how Web-Beard talks to a coconut named Coco, which never really becomes funny), there are some good gags in there that did have me chuckling - there's a one-off line about how Web-Beard made a ship out of solid gold, which is decent on its own, but it gets even funnier when Web-Beard sees what Spider-Man and Miles can do with the shard of the Siege Perilous and laments that he should have given them that ship instead.

I'd probably call the second half of the episode stronger, if only because it's more serious, but it also disappoints more, if that makes sense. After last episode set up Wolf Spider as a recurring antagonist throughout the arc, with a lot of mystery to the character, this episode just off-handedly mentions that he ran away from Ock, when it feels like it should be the other way around. Phantom Rider is set up to be this ominous, possibly supernatural figure - cowboy Spider-Man says that they can't stop Ock while he has Phantom Rider on his side, and he's incredibly competent when fighting the heroes - only for it to turn out that he's really brainwashed Uncle Ben. Ah, another case of the Siege Perilous shards doing whatever the plot requires, as predicted.

Overall then, I'd say that this hits the story beats required and is adequate, but it feels like it's not tapping into its potential. The one-two punch last episode of Blood Spider betraying Spider-Man and Miles along with Wolf Spider being revealed to also be from another universe really kept me invested and engaged. This episode doesn't really do anything egregiously wrong, but it's also much more by the numbers, and can't help but feel disappointing in comparison.