Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Seven: Symbiotic Relationship

Symbiotic Relationship

First Aired: September 16th, 2017

Synopsis: Spider-Man stops a bunch of crimes with his new suit, finding his performance is above and beyond what he can normally do. While stopping some AIM troopers he sees Vulture flying around and tries to stop him, but discovers that Norman Osborn has pulled some strings to get Vulture out of jail so that he can be a faculty member of Osborn Academy. Vulture, AKA Adrian Toomes, soon tells Norman Osborn that Horizon High will likely be presenting the V-252 at the upcoming Stark Expo, and is asked to steal it. Toomes is reluctant, but Alistair Smythe volunteers to do so using the Vulture suit. He breaks into Horizon High but Spider-Man is able to get a tracer on him while saving Max Modell. Max notes that during the fight Spider-Man goes overboard in stopping Vulture. Spider-Man goes to Osborn Academy after the tracer, but discovers that Adrian Toomes has been there all night. When Spider-Man gets aggressive at this, Harry uses a sonic weapon on him, which causes the V-252 to lash out.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Six: Sandman

Sandman

First Aired: September 16th, 2017

Synopsis: Peter is at Coney Island with Anya, Miles, and Gwen. They run into Flash Thompson when a sandstorm starts, and eerily enough, it has a face. Peter changes to Spider-Man and stops it from knocking down a ferris wheel, but Anya drops the V-252 she has with her. When Spider-Man touches it he gets a jolt. Peter's friends make a coagulation gun which he takes as Spider-Man and uses on the sand. It forms into a human form and asks for help before an impulsive Flash destroys it. The next day, Peter goes to Horizon with a sample of the sand, hoping to discover what was going on. While he tries to coagulate the sand, calling Harry for help in doing so, a girl that was on the ferris wheel the previous day and had been chased by the sandstorm gets into a limo with a thuggish-looking man with a flat head. Peter returns home to finish sorting out the sand, but unbeknownst to him, the V-252 gets out of its container and attaches itself to his clothes.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Five: Party Animals

Party Animals

First Aired: September 2nd, 2017

Synopsis: Spider-Man's attacked by a Spider-Slayer, and while he fights it he gets a call from Harry Osborn. Harry wants to share some big news with Peter when they meet up, but Peter can't make it due to the Spider-Slayer fight, and says he'll hear it later. He's able to stop the Spider-Slayer, which unbeknownst to him was being controlled by Alistair Smythe on behalf of Norman Osborn. At school, Peter discovers that Harry's big news is that he's been cleared of all charges and is back at Horizon. A dance is organised to celebrate, and on Saturday, the day of it, Peter meets up with Harry beforehand. Harry hasn't told his father what's happening yet, and can't at the moment as he's in a meeting. The meeting is with Raymond Warren, who wants a faculty position at Osborn Academy. He tells Norman that he's done some experimentation on a Horizon student - Alexei, last episode - and when the results kick in that evening he'll record it. Norman is keen on the idea. Once Warren's left, Norman tells Harry that he's disappointed that he's returning to Horizon.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Four: A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life

First Aired: September 2nd, 2017

Synopsis: Peter invents some tracers as part of an assignment for Otto Octavius' class before starting to clean up for Max Modell, but Black Cat breaks in. She steals a canister containing black liquid, and escapes Peter when he changes to Spider-Man, but not before he gets his tracer on her. When Max finds out about the missing canister he says that it's very important, and reminds Peter that he's got interviews regarding Harry Osborn's character later that day. He's also got a study group with Miles and Anya later that day. Peter heads off as Spider-Man to stop Black Cat, but finds that his tracer isn't as effective as it should be. She escapes him again, claiming that she's causing Spider-Man bad luck, which he doesn't believe in. Back at Horizon, Peter meets Gwen's uncle Raymond Warren, who has an interview with Max. Raymond doesn't have much to say about Harry, but does ask for a job at Horizon, and is refused when it's revealed that there are rumours about him stealing a colleague's work. Peter manages to get his tracer working again and tries chasing after Black Cat at a comic book shop, but once again she gets away.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Three: Osborn Academy

Osborn Academy

First Aired: August 26th, 2017

Synopsis: The Jackal is running away with technology he stole from Tony Stark, while Spider-Man chases after him. Spidey's on the phone with Harry Osborn, who wants Peter to be there for the reception of Osborn Academy. As the chase after the Jackal continues the Jackal takes a blonde teenager hostage, whom Spider-Man saves, but once he's done so she gives him advice on how he could have utilised his resources better. Jackal gets away and Peter heads to Osborn Academy for a tour. Max Modell, Miles Morales, and Anya Corazon are also there for a tour, and shortly after Peter arrives the blonde teenager arrives, turning out to be Gwen Stacy, another Horizon student. They watch some interviewees apply for the school, and one duo - Herman Schultz, using technology he dubs Shocker, and Clayton Cole, calling his technology Clash - are told that only one of them will be accepted into the school. They soon start fighting using their technology, and Peter is knocked out of the window. He changes to Spider-Man and returns to the school.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Two: Horizon High, Part Two

Horizon High, Part Two

First Aired: August 19th, 2017

Synopsis: Spider-Man's fighting Scorpion, trying to stop him from stealing a gem from a museum, and thinks back to how he had been spending some time with Harry before school. Harry asked Peter to get some things from his lab at Horizon, before Peter saw a news report about Scorpion and went to stop him as Spider-Man. Spider-Man leads Scorpion to the subway, hoping that the confined space will give him an advantage, and Scorpion starts escaping on a train. Spider-Man manages to get on it after him and stop him. As Peter, he shows up late to school, which annoys his student counsellor, Otto Octavius. Octavius gives Peter Harry's old lab, and Peter clears it out. He's then invited to meet with another student, Gwen Stacy, but she turns out to be off getting samples for experiments. Peter then has time to himself to work out a personal project to work on, and after struggling with ideas decides to upgrade his Spider-Man suit. While he's working on it, a robot breaks into the school, going after Harry's old equipment, and Spider-Man tries stopping it, but has to let it escape to save Miles Morales.

Marvel's Spider-Man Episode One: Horizon High, Part One

Horizon High, Part One

First Aired: August 19th, 2017

Synopsis: Some bank robbers are trying to steal vibranium, and Spider-Man prepares to stop them. He starts to doubt himself before remembering what Uncle Ben said about great responsibility coming with great responsibility, and goes after the robbers. He's able to stop their getaway car but is attacked by the Vulture, the leader of the group. Vulture manages to get away when Spider-Man has to save some cops from raining glass shards. Shortly afterwards, Peter Parker and Harry Osborn meet up before school, and Harry says that Peter should apply for Horizon High, which he attends. There's an opening coming up and Max Modell, its head, is showing up at Midtown High to do a speech and scout students. Peter then heads to school for the speech, and Max introduces his students Anya Corazon and Miles Morales as examples of what Horizon High is looking for. Behind the stage, Spencer Smythe tricks Harry into investigating a reactor which Anya's about to show and takes a photo of him, before sabotaging it himself. When the reactor, which can create vibranium, is wheeled out, Spencer's meddling causes it to go haywire and threaten the students.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Origin Shorts

Origin Shorts

For this series, Marvel embraced the digital age and released a series of six shorts on Youtube as a lead up to Marvel's Spider-Man, telling Spider-Man's origin. While it screws with my usual episode format, I'll go over them all here, in one post. The six shorts were condensed into one episode, but having just watched them, I think that it's more fair to view them each as an individual piece - short of some serious modifications, I think that the pacing of them would hurt an individual episode thanks to the constant stop-start nature of the storytelling.

Introduction!

First Aired: July 24th, 2017

Synopsis: Spider-Man thinks back to an Oscorp trip several weeks ago, where he got his powers. There, he runs into his friend Harry Osborn, who is going to a separate school from him, Horizon High. There's an alert that some spiders have escaped, and the tour guide emphasises the scientific method to the students. As Peter goes to test a robot with his partner Liz Allen, a spider bites him. He runs off to the bathroom, but knocks down a locked door in the process and begins to wonder what's happening to him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• While Peter is in line to enter Oscorp, the student ahead of him looks to be Miles Morales.
• Spencer Smythe is apparently a teacher at Peter's school, and his son, Alistair, is a student.

Marvel's Spider-Man: Before Watching

What can I say about Marvel's Spider-Man that hasn't been said already? Quite a lot, actually; I don't think that people have really talked about this show that much. At least, that's the general feel I get - people seem aware that it exists, but don't really seem to have any opinions on it. Or am I just looking in the wrong places?

I'm mostly going into this one blind, although I've picked up some stuff about the show here and there. I believe that Dan Slott is a writer, or a consultant, or involved in the show in some way, which I'm fine with. I've seen a lot of hatred for his run online and while I don't think that it's the best run of Spider-Man, for the most part it's pretty good and he had some really neat ideas. I sure as hell enjoyed it far, far more than Nick Spencer's run. I also met Slott in person once and he was pretty chill, so there's that, too.

I know that Max Modell and Horizon Labs show up, presumably because of the aforementioned Dan Slott. Again, I'm fine with this - if we're moving Peter away from photography, having him work at an actual science company is a good idea (although I prefer him being a science teacher, personally). Max Modell was a pretty enjoyable character in the comics, and while I doubt that they'll do or say anything about him being gay in the show, I'm going to assume that he is unless we get anything contradicting it.

Other than that, I'm fairly sure that Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales are regularly appearing characters in the show, and that's something I'm looking forwards to. I'm big on the idea of Spider-Man as a bit of a loner, and don't really need the whole extended spider-family around, with Araña and Spider-Woman and Madame Web and so on all suddenly appearing in Peter's life, but I do really like the mentor relationship Peter has with Miles, and Spider-Gwen's cool. (Actually, I lie; Araña is pretty cool too). Presumably this version of Spider-Gwen will just be this universe's version of Gwen Stacy getting spider powers somehow, without the whole "Whoah, you're the alternate version of my ex-girlfriend who I couldn't save!" thing going on, and that should work well, I think.

Finally, I'm also fairly sure that the Jackal is one of the main villains here. Jackal's a bit hit and miss for me - he's pretty good in the original Clone Saga, by Gerry Conway; these days he's got a few too many clones and magic genetic abilities - but he hasn't really appeared in any Spider-Man shows before, so at least we're not rehashing the same old story we've seen before.

Overall, I think I'm fairly positive about the show - it's going to be hard to be worse than Ultimate Spider-Man, and from what I've seen of the art style it looks quite nice. Let's hope that this is a good one.