Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Nineteen: Spider-Island, Part One

Spider-Island, Part One

First Aired: February 4th, 2018

Synopsis: Peter's testing out a new stealth suit with Miles but runs into some issues with it malfunctioning. Afterwards he meets with Harry, who's annoyed at him and leaves. Once Harry's gone Miles and Gwen show up at the café, and Gwen asks whether Peter feels different since investigating the Jackal's lab, without explanation. She leaves shortly afterwards, and Peter realises that his bag, which contains the stealth suit, is missing. Peter heads to Horizon to try and activate the tracking for it, and is attacked by a person in the suit. While he's looking for them he sees some spider experiments in Gwen's lab and realises that she might have somehow acquired spider powers of her own. Tracking for the stealth suit shows that it's at Osborn Academy, and Spider-Man and Miles head there, assuming that Harry took the backpack while he was at the café and that he's got the stealth suit. While Spider-Man and Miles confront the stealth suit thief, Harry shows up, proving that it's not him. As they fight the two of them, Harry assuming that they're part of the Jackal's spider army, Gwen shows up with powers of her own.

Harry gets thrown out the window by the thief and is saved by Gwen, Peter, and Miles. They then discuss what's happened, and make the assumption that Gwen got powers when she was caught in the explosion at the Jackal's lab. Harry reluctantly agrees to help them find the stealth suit, and is able to work out that it's at the Statue of Liberty. As Gwen, Peter, and Miles head there they discover that the thief also stole some chemicals from Oscorp, and that he's set them up to be dispersed over the city. Peter and Miles fight the thief while Gwen tries disabling the bombs that will release the gas, succeeding in the last few moments. The heroes stop the stealth suit thief, but as they're about to unmask them the suit breaks and a giant spider emerges. It gets away when the heroes have to save a news helicopter that it damages. In the aftermath Gwen's identity is public, with people calling her Spider-Gwen. While she's giving out autographs Peter shoots out webbing to help people when a grate breaks, and Harry assumes that Peter's Spider-Man. As Peter stammers out an explanation, they realise that people all around them are shooting out organic webbing, and that a virus that gives people spider-powers has somehow gotten airborne.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• I speculated in A Day in the Life that the café Peter and Harry constantly meet at, called Q's Cup o' Joe, was a reference to Joe Quesada. The man himself appears in the episode and talks to Harry, and yep, he's definitely modelled on Quesada. I was too lazy to check the credits for whether he's voiced by the man himself, but if not then it's a decent impression.
• Harry manages to get into his father's video files, and watches one that Norman refers to as "Personal Log, number 417". I checked, and the corresponding issue of Amazing Spider-Man is...a dud of an issue involving those jerks Scrier and Judas Traveller. I guess not every random number sequence has to be a reference.

Review: I think that we can all agree that Spider-Island was a fantastic arc in the comics; I'd certainly call it the highlight of Dan Slott's Spider-Man run. The show choosing to adapt it is a bit of a surprise, but I can't say that I'm complaining; if nothing else, it gives a good reason for Gwen, and presumably Anya down the line, to have spider powers (assuming that Gwen didn't get them from the explosion, as everyone guesses). The arc starts out nice and slowly which is appreciated - this episode is a complete story in and of itself, and if it weren't for the last few seconds of it, it would be fairly standalone. It's well-paced overall, and manages to stand on its own merits.

The biggest flaw that I can find with the episode is the mystery of who stole the stealth suit - I legitimately don't know who did, but given that we see a mysterious figure watching Peter when he's done testing the stealth suit, my guess is that it's Norman Osborn. He's got the right build for it and the right science expertise to create the gas dispersal stuff, and I can't see them introducing a new character to be the thief. Why is this a flaw? Because it's frustrating that we don't find out in the episode, and if I'm right then that means that it's been drawn out for little reason. For bonus points, I'm guessing that it'll turn out that he was trying to release the gas to cure people of their spider powers, not to poison them. (If I'm wrong about who has the stealth suit, I guess I'll assess in that post how it affects this episode's rating, if I remember).

Still, I liked this one overall. Between Gwen and Harry there are some genuinely good red herrings as to who the thief might have been at first, and it's satisfying to see Gwen get powers of her own. The fights are dynamic and exciting, and the lead-in to the rest of the arc is done well. I'm genuinely keen to see what the next episode brings and how the rest of the arc turns out; I hope it keeps up this level of quality.