Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Thirteen: Venom

Venom

First Aired: October 21st, 2017

Synopsis: While Peter's cleaning up Max Modell tells him not to remove the V-252 container away, even though it's no longer in use since the symbiote has been locked up at the Avengers Compound. He lets Peter go home early, but while Peter's swinging away as Spider-Man he's attacked by Venom, and he recognises the symbiote. Spider-Man manages to make Venom flee by triggering a group of car alarms, but wonders whether Tony Stark could be the host of Venom since he was last seen with it. The next day, Peter tutors Flash Thompson, who has to pass a science class or he can't play in a big football game. Flash runs into a rival who he clashes with, but Peter keeps things from escalating. Later, Peter looks into how to track the symbiote, but when Max finds out what's going on he tells Peter to drop it, and also that Tony can't be the host since he's off-world with the Avengers. He does, however, give Peter some more information about the symbiote, and Peter's able to use it to create a tracker for the symbiote.

Spider-Man uses his tracker to find Venom, but he disappears in the middle of the fight and the tracker is damaged. Shortly afterwards Peter finds out that Flash passed his test, and while at Midtown Peter discovers that Flash's teacher was injured by Venom. As the teacher had clashed with Max over recruiting students from Midtown, it deepens Peter's suspicions that Max is Venom. At Flash's football game that night, Peter discovers that Flash's rival was injured by Venom when they fought earlier, and Peter realises that Flash is Venom. Flash transforms into Venom in the middle of the game and Peter switches to Spider-Man, then directs the audience to use their air horns on Flash. The symbiote leaves Flash and attaches itself to several other players, but Flash is able to use the science knowledge that Peter has taught him to deduce that fire extinguisher foam can remove the symbiotes. He retrieves fire extinguishers from the school while Spider-Man distracts the players, and his theory is successful. In the aftermath, Max and Flash's teacher come to an agreement around Max's recruiting methods, and Flash defends Peter from bullies who try and pick on him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Spider-Man first fights Venom he notes that his spider-sense isn't working, which is accurate to the comics (I believe the explanation is that since the symbiote used to be an extension of his body, his spider-sense treats it as his own body and thus doesn't trigger).
• I'm unsure whether it's foreshadowing or just a cute reference, but when Spider-Man fights Venom for the second time, there's a sign seen that looks to be the Daily Bugle logo.
• At Flash's big football game, Mary Jane Watson appears - in a full-body mascot suit, so we don't see or hear her. For bonus points, Midtown High's mascot is apparently a tiger, leading to Peter to yell you "Go get 'em, tiger!" to her. It's very cute.

Review: I think the structure of this episode works very well - Venom is introduced early on, and while Spider-Man of course wants to defeat him, the real hook is the mystery of who he is. While we all know that it's not going to be Iron Man, the idea makes sense in-universe, and the episode in general does a great job of not making it too obvious that it's Flash, while also making sense in retrospect. Probably the only flaw here is Peter being too certain that Max must be the new Venom, which from a meta perspective clues the audience in that he's wrong.

The other big flaw I noticed is the pacing of the episode - most of the fights with Venom are snappy and not drawn out too much, which for the most part is great, but really hurts the show during the climax. The symbiote is removed from Flash too easily, and then the episode has to awkwardly have Spider-Man dance around with the footballers to kill time. It does a good job of showing that Flash really has learned from Peter, but it needs to be snappier. Flash turning into Venom mid-game is also a bit weird, as is him telling Spider-Man that he's trying to fight the symbiote - if that's the case, then how did he injure the science teacher and his rival?

Still, the mystery is solid, the fights are enjoyable, and the science makes sense in a comic book-y way. Flash Thompson's been my favourite Venom in the comics since he debuted, and while this isn't the ideal portrayal of him, it's still fun to see him as the villain. I hope the V-252 isn't completely gone after this episode, and the Flash can become a heroic Venom in time, because that's all stuff that I'd look forwards to seeing.