Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Nine: Ultimate Spider-Man

Ultimate Spider-Man

First Aired: September 23rd, 2017

Synopsis: On the way to school Peter sees Miles being bullied, and Miles is annoyed that his father says that he can't fight back and stand up for himself. Shortly afterwards a Spider-Slayer attacks Osborn Academy, and Peter runs off to fight it as Spider-Man. When it explodes he's knocked from the building. Miles, meanwhile, runs into Spencer Smythe and is bitten by a spider he has, then instinctively uses the enhanced reflexes and agility it gives him to save Spider-Man. Elsewhere, Spencer meets with Raymond Warren, who he's working with to take down Norman Osborn, and they realise that a spider they require is missing. Peter briefly meets with Harry at Osborn Academy, then goes to Horizon where he's contacted by Miles. Miles reveals his spider powers and a costume he made, and contrary to Peter's advice, proceeds to show them to Gwen and Anya. Back at Osborn Academy, Norman and Adrian Toomes realise that a spider of theirs is missing, and would have been stolen by Spencer, working for Warren. They make plans to stop him using Alistair.

In his costume, Miles tries doing heroing and is caught on the news. Both Peter and Warren see this, and Warren deduces that Miles was bitten by the spider which he had Spencer steal. Miles starts attacking his bullies but Spider-Man shows up and tries giving him better advice about being a hero, which Miles doesn't really listen to. Two gigantic Spider-Slayers appear, piloted by Spencer and Alistair, with both of them being there for Miles. They end up fighting each other, and in the process Miles' father is put in jeopardy. Miles saves him but realises that Spider-Man was right about being a hero coming with responsibility. He discovers his venom blast ability and uses it to defeat one of the Slayers, and the arm that falls off is used to defeat the other. Spencer and Alistair both flee, and Spencer is caught by the heroes. In the aftermath Spider-Man talks to Miles about working together, and gives him web shooters of his own.

Subplots:

• Spencer asks Warren how he escaped from jail and isn't given an answer. Later, when he's taken to jail himself, he sees Warren there and asks how he got in - Warren says he never left, and doesn't recognise Spencer.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The title is, of course, a reference to the fact that Miles Morales debuted in the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610).
• When Miles reveals his powers to Anya and Gwen, they wonder whether with two spider-powered heroes showing up in such a short time, something could be spreading throughout the city. They also get excited about the idea of getting spider powers themselves, referencing that in the comics they're Spider-Girl and Spider-Gwen/Spider-Woman respectively. 
• There's an absolutely amazing moment where we see Peter typing out some code, by which I mean he's typing in random numbers and equations to a text editor. Technology!
  
• It's revealed that Spencer's frame-up of Harry's sabotage, from the first few episodes, was done at Norman Osborn's request.
• The Spider-Slayers are revealed to have been built by Norman Osborn after Warren approached him about creating an army of spider-soldiers - while Norman wasn't keen on the idea, he did decide to build a contingency plan in case they ended up being more viable than he anticipated.

Review: Miles Morales is cool, and I'm glad that him getting powers hasn't been dragged out too much, but it feels like something's missing from this episode. I think it's something to do with the pacing of the whole thing - Miles is so flippant about getting powers for so much of it that it feels a little like we're wasting time, knowing that of course he'll end up learning a lesson about responsibility and whatnot before the end.

Something that's not really addressed by the episode, too, which annoys me is that Peter's got something of a position of power over Miles. He knows Miles' secret identity, but in spite of the fact that he should know that Miles is trustworthy and a good dude by now, he doesn't want to share his own identity with his friend. I'm hoping that this will be dropped sooner rather than later, and Peter will reveal his identity to Miles so that they can have a really healthy friendship while crime-fighting together.

Looking at the episode as a whole, I'd say that it's serviceable but nothing amazing (or ultimate, ha ha). We're here to give Miles superpowers, and while it does an adequate job of it, I'm more keen for what we'll get out the character now than what he's doing here. The stuff with Spencer and Warren working together is fine, I guess, as is the backstory of all the spiders, but it's nothing that is that appealing. Still, more Miles is always appreciated, so it's got that going for it.