Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Eight: Stark Expo

Stark Expo

First Aired: September 16th, 2017

Synopsis: Spider-Man shows up at the Stark Expo, hoping that Max Modell will listen to his warnings about the V-252 where he didn't listen to Peter, only to run into Ghost on the roof of the expo. Ghost disappears right before Iron Man shows up, who subsequently thinks that Spider-Man's an intruder. Spidey gives him the slip and changes to Peter, and inside the expo runs into Flash Thompson, his Horizon schoolmates, and Harry. After he's gone Norman talks to Harry and says that he doesn't want him to show off his glider. Peter finds Max and once again tries to convince him not to use the symbiote, but Max doesn't listen. Tony Stark shows up and meets Peter, then goes off to present the show. As he's doing so Ghost appears and phases into an Iron Man suit, taking control of it. Peter changes to Spider-Man and fights Ghost alongside Iron Man, and they're able to get him out of it. However, Ghost reveals that he took some control discs from within it, and that he can control all technology now.

With his powers expanded Ghost easily takes care of everyone that comes after him, and breaks apart Tony's suit then starts affecting his arc reactor. Spider-Man realises that since the symbiote isn't technology-based Ghost can't affect it, and reluctantly puts it on. With it on he easily defeats Ghost and removes the discs from him, but doesn't listen when he's told to take it off. Tony gives him a speech which convinces him, though, and he and Flash Thompson are able to rip the symbiote off Spider-Man. In the aftermath, Max admits to Peter that he was wrong about the symbiote, and as such, Peter's punishment for stealing the symbiote will be undone. Tony takes the symbiote back to the Avengers Compound, and later autographs Peter's Stark Expo book...but addresses Peter as Paul in the process.

Subplots:

• While telling Harry that he doesn't want him to present his glider, Norman also notes that since Spider-Man's chosen to associate himself with Horizon, Osborn Academy might need someone of their own in a similar position. Later, when Harry realises that not presenting his glider saved it from being destroyed by Ghost, he agrees with his father.
  
• While removing the symbiote, Flash Thompson notes that it "gives [him] the evil eye", and it tries leaping at him once it's fully removed from Spider-Man.
• Otto Octavius wears a set of tentacles during the expo which are taken over by Ghost. He later says that if he uses a cerebral cortex for them rather than a battery, they won't be able to be hacked, but Max tells him to take a break from the tentacles. Otto is dejected, but approached by Norman Osborn, who is impressed with the technology.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Before finding out Ghost's actual name, Spider-Man speculates that he turns invisible using technology shown at the previous year's Stark Expo and refers to him as the "Ghost of Expos Past", which is pretty neat.
• Iron Man says that Ghost can "manipulate all forms of tech or shut it down by passing through it". Phasing through technology to shut it down is something that Kitty Pryde of the X-Men has done for years, but I'm not sure whether Ghost's phasing has ever shown the same ability. The ability to control technology also isn't usually one of his powers, although the way the show presents it, it might just be that being in the Iron Man suit/having the control discs is what lets him do so. It's ambiguous.
• The end of the episode implies that Tony's worked out that Peter is Spider-Man - he tells Peter that just as Peter has Max for a mentor, he hopes that Spider-Man feels comfortable coming to him for help, and he previously scanned Spider-Man and worked out from his biological data that he's young.
  

Review: With one or two small exceptions, I think that this episode works really well. Ghost is a great villain, Iron Man is cool to have around, and there are subplots a'plenty being seeded, but most importantly, it has a really funny gag towards the end of the episode when it turns out that with all of the technology on display being destroyed by Ghost, the winner of the expo is the one presentation that survived - a baking soda volcano created by Flash Thompson. He showed up with it earlier in the episode, and his smugness at having it was fairly amusing, but it turning out to be the winning exhibition is hilarious.

One of the complaints I do have about this episode is its pacing - most of it works pretty well, but it feels like it falls apart once Ghost is defeated. All of a sudden the climax is about Tony and Flash physically pulling the symbiote away from Spider-Man, which feels like a bit of a step down from "how do we stop this villain who can turn our tools against us?" Afterwards we've got some subplots to seed and set up, and while I'd be lying if I said it wasn't interesting, it's a pity that they couldn't have been spread out around the episode a bit more - I could live without Harry realising that not displaying his glider proved beneficial, and Max could have told Otto not to use his tentacles earlier in the episode.

Overall this was a pretty good episode though; probably one of the best so far. I think that I'd rather Ghost be a more stealthy villain than one standing out in the open, loudly declaring that he's going to destroy Tony Stark, but for all of the other things that we get out of him doing so I'd say the trade-off's worth it. Something I'm also big on is the conflict between Iron Man and Spider-Man here - Iron Man's a little suspicious of Spider-Man, but Spidey consistently insists that they're on the same side and tries to explain things, which is refreshing given the number of superhero fights where nobody ever tries telling their side of the story. Good job there, writers!