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.

Observation!

First Aired: July 25th, 2017

 

Synopsis: While cooling down from a fever in the bathroom, Peter discovers that he's got sticky hands and that he doesn't need his glasses. He leaves the bathroom and realises that he can use the scientific method to work out what's happening to him. He then crawls up some buildings as a result of his spider-sense tingling, and tests out his super strength.

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Peter says that he was bitten by a radioactive spider, and while it makes sense that he can make the connection between Oscorp's escaped spiders and the one that bit him, there's no indication that it's radioactive in any way.
• If this episode is anything to go by, Spider-Man's spider-sense is portrayed as the camera focusing on Peter, while shimmering distortions appear all around him.
• Peter says that "In class, we learned that spiders can lift 173 times their own weight!", but this is untrue. Ants are the species that can lift so much more than themselves; spiders aren't particularly strong for their size.

Hypothesis!

First Aired: July 26th, 2017

 

Synopsis: Having observed his changes, Peter moves to the next stage of the scientific method - hypothesis. He realises that he doesn't have webs so after some experimentation makes some web shooters and practices making things with them, before trying out web swinging.

Prediction!

First Aired: July 27th, 2017

Synopsis: Peter tries thinking of a good name for himself, but is stumped. An old fortuneteller on the street says that he should be an entertainer and he agrees, discovering at the same time that his webs dissolve after an hour. He makes a costume for himself but isn't sure where to debut until he sees a poster advertising a wrestling show.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• We get a nice montage of the costumes Peter tries out, and one of them is remarkably similar to the Scarlet Spider's outfit (that is, Ben Reilly's, not Kaine's). Peter comments that it's "too much".

Experimentation!

First Aired: July 28th, 2017

 

Synopsis: As The Spider, Peter goes to the wrestling show to challenge Bonesaw McGee. Before the match starts a robber runs past him and Peter lets him go, thinking that it's not his issue. He manages to defeat Bonesaw but is disappointed that he doesn't get any money for winning, just a trophy and the promise that he'll be the new champion.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Stan Lee makes an appearance as a cameraman on the show, filming Peter before the match.
• The wrestler Peter defeats being named Bonesaw is taken directly from Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man movie - in the comics, the wrestler was named Crusher Hogan.

Conclusion!

First Aired: July 29th, 2017

 

Synopsis: Peter reminisces on his trophy but says that it doesn't matter since his Uncle Ben was killed by a burglar. He goes after the burglar in his costume but discovers that it's the robber that he didn't stop earlier. The burglar runs away and is caught by the police. Going over the scientific method and all that he's been doing, Peter comes to his conclusion: he shouldn't use his powers lightly, and that with great power there must also come great responsibility.

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The burglar's gun is this sort of stylised, sci-fi-y thing as opposed to, you know, a gun. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be setting up some sort of plot, whether it's just stylised, or whether it's some sort of censorship thing and they don't want to or can't show realistic guns. It's explicitly mentioned that it shoots bullets, for what it's worth.

Review: While I think that overall the shorts serve as a nice, non-essential introduction for Spider-Man, and have a good tone, there's one big flaw with them - namely, we don't get to see Uncle Ben, or even Aunt May for that matter, unless you count her voice as an appearance. It's a pretty critical flaw as far as I'm concerned - we need to see how important the two are to Peter, and why exactly the loss of Uncle Ben affects Peter's worldview so much and shapes how he'll use his powers. I don't even think that Uncle Ben is mentioned before he dies; it's almost taken as a given that people will know the story by now, even though the target audience genuinely might not.

There are a few other flaws here too, unfortunately - Peter talking to an old fortuneteller to work out that he should become an entertainer feels like padding, and the third short - Hypothesis! - is almost entirely him mucking around with webs. While it gets better as the shorts go on, Peter's also a bit too nerdy to start off with - when spelling his name out to a guard at Oscorp, he recites, "That's P for phosphorous, E for electron -", which nobody has ever talked like before, ever. I get that we want to emphasise that he's a nerd, and this show looks like it's going to be leaning heavily into the science angle, but that's a bit much.

Still, in spite of all that whinging from me, I did overall enjoy the shorts. The art style is absolutely lovely - I don't know how to describe the colour palette, but it really works for me. Peter going through the scientific method is smart and in character, and for the most part it's pretty light-hearted. It feels like a good, modern update, too - Peter ponders debuting with an internet video, and plenty of citizens video him when he practices his wall-crawling. I wouldn't call it the best origin I've ever seen, but there's enough here to give me some pretty good hope for the show.