Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Seventeen: The Rise of Doc Ock, Part Three

The Rise of Doc Ock, Part Three

First Aired: January 28th, 2018

Synopsis: Spider-Man sneaks to Oscorp Tower and spots Norman watching footage of Spencer attacking him and admitting that he framed Harry at Norman's behest. Spider-Man wants to get the footage and give it to Harry and approaches him, but Harry just calls security who drive Spider-Man off. The next day Peter tries talking to Harry about Norman's trustworthiness, and since Horizon is being rebuilt after the Lizard's attack which gives Peter the week off, Harry invites him to spend the day at Osborn Academy to see how trustworthy Norman is. Once at school Peter meets the student Ollie Osnick before sneaking out to eavesdrop on Norman and Otto talking. Peter follows Norman to a room where equipment, including robots derived from Otto's technology, are being developed to defeat Spider-Man. Shocked by this, Peter leaves and runs into Alexei Sytsevich in the halls, who soon transforms into Rhino.

Norman sends octobots against Rhino as Peter changes to Spider-Man, but while fighting Rhino the defence grid is taken down, allowing the Jackal to enter. Jackal then activates some nano-transmitters that Alexei placed on people earlier, transforming them into rhinos too. Doctor Octavius, Vulture, Ollie Osnick, Alistair Smythe, and Spider-Man team up to fight the Rhinos while Norman confronts the Jackal, who turns out to be a robot which explodes. Spider-Man notices the nano-transmitters which his allies are then able to remove, returning the rhinos to normal. Spider-Man leaves, and when a furious Octavius confronts Norman over his technology being used, Norman explains that as part of his contract Norman gets to use it all. Later, Peter tries showing Harry the room full of technology to destroy Spider-Man, but it was destroyed by the Jackal. Harry tries listening to Peter and keeping an open mind but soon afterwards discovers Octavius' mistaken belief that Peter makes technology for Spider-Man, causing him to feel betrayed. In the aftermath Spider-Man debates telling Harry who he really is, but decides that he can't.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I said that the Jackal in this episode is a robot, which is correct, but the way it's described is beautiful - as he starts to charge up the bomb inside him, or whatever, Norman declares that "You're an artificial repli-bot!" Drop that line in casually next time you're speaking to someone and see how they react.

Review: This episode feels like it's more about setting things up for the future than telling its own story, and honestly? I don't think it's that great. For one thing, Peter has really weird ideas in this episode. After Harry chases away Spider-Man by calling security he talks to Harry as himself, and rather than telling Harry about how Norman was responsible for him getting kicked out of Horizon High, he focuses on the fact that Norman wants to destroy Spider-Man. Unethical, yes, but given Harry's obvious anti-Spider-Man bias it's hardly the best argument. After the bulk of the episode is over Peter still for some reason tries showing Harry the room full of anti-Spider-Man technology, as if that's the one thing that will make Harry realise what a villain his father is. What the hell happened to getting the footage of Spencer Smythe? 

His logic for not revealing his identity to Harry is also flawed - he says something about how Norman is really ruthless, but that doesn't mean that Harry would necessarily tell Norman, or that it would stop Harry from believing him and siding with him. It's bizarre all around. I'm also not sure why this episode is titled The Rise of Doc Ock - yes, Octavius appears in it, but this episode is more about the threat of the Jackal and Spider-Man trying to find evidence against Norman. It's very square peg, round hole.

The best thing I can probably say about this episode is that it's cool to see the Osborn Academy faculty and students working together against the rhinos - they've mostly got neat designs, and I'm keen to see a proper fight between Spider-Man and Ollie Osnick. But it's not anything that exciting, and doesn't really make up for the rest of the flaws of the episode. Between the weird logic and some pretty forgettable fights, I'd probably call this one of the worst episodes in a while. But for what it's worth, it'd probably be pretty decent by Ultimate Spider-Man standards.