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

Spider-Island, Part Three

First Aired: February 11th, 2018

Synopsis: Peter gets a call from Gwen which gets cut off midway through, so he heads to her house. There, he finds a giant spider which he fights. The fight leads outside, and the spider is stopped by Anya, who points out that it must be a mutated Gwen given that it's wearing Gwen's costume. The two chase the mutated Gwen into the city and are able to stop her, but Kraven the Hunter unexpectedly shows up, wanting to hunt her. Anya agrees to go after the escaped Gwen while Peter fights Kraven, unexpectedly getting assistance from Harry Osborn who drives a van into Kraven. Peter heads off with Harry, who reveals that he's been trying to track the giant spider monster that the thief of the stealth suit turned into. He thinks that the thief is his father, who could have gotten spider powers while at the Jackal's lab, allowing him to survive it collapsing. Harry's tracking technology lets him find Gwen, who has once again been defeated by Anya.

 

Anya joins Harry and Peter in the van and they make plans to develop a cure for Gwen at Horizon, but Kraven appears once more and attacks them. As the team are reeling a second spider monster, presumably the mutated Norman Osborn, appears and attacks Kraven. Gwen escapes, leading to Peter and Anya once again having to capture her. Harry retrieves a glider which he uses to help them before going after Kraven, who damages the glider. Anya is then able to emotionally connect with the mutated Gwen and calm her down as Kraven prepares to kill Norman. Peter intercepts an electrical shock meant for him, and Gwen is then able to defeat Kraven. Hearing how Anya connected with Gwen, Harry tries doing the same with his father, but it doesn't work and the mutated Norman flees. The group prepare to track him, only to see more signals show up and realise that more people are mutating into spiders.

 

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Yeah, Harry driving a van into Kraven the Hunter is pretty badass, but it's no life-threatening helicopter stunt.
• While Kraven the Hunter is fighting the mutated Norman Osborn, he taunts that the look suits him. There's no explanation given for how Kraven knows that this giant spider is Norman.
• There's a weird bit in the episode where Peter is pinned down by the mutated Gwen, and his web shooters just kind of...spark out of nowhere, which apparently breaks them. Who needs logic in your plot developments, right?

Review: The biggest highlight of this episode to me would have to be that Peter gets to fight crime (or, well, giant spider monsters and Kraven, but you know what I mean) as himself, with no need to hide behind his mask. It lets him have a dynamic with his allies and friends that he rarely gets to have, being able to fight alongside them and work together to save the day without a need to repeatedly switch between his identities, or lie about anything. It's also fun to have characters comment on how well he's adapted to having spider powers in a bit of irony.

It's a good thing that this dynamic mostly holds up the episode, because you know what doesn't? Kraven the Hunter. He's still kind of boring and doesn't really have anything that makes the fight feel like a real threat, or anything that brings a dynamic quality to the fighting. The concept of him hunting down the giant spiders works well in the setting, but it doesn't really feel like he changes anything or brings anything to the table - he's here to provide an extra antagonist to the episode and draw out the arc further. If you removed him here, we'd end up with Peter and Anya going to cure Gwen, and Harry trying to find his mutated father, i.e. the end of the episode as we already have it.

Overall I'd probably call this the weakest episode of the Spider-Island arc so far then, given that the only real advances in the overall plot are that the characters discover that Norman's alive and that people are mutating into spiders, and the rest is mostly filler. It doesn't have the well-done setup of the first episode, or the fun of last episode. It's trying to organically add in these developments amongst other plot beats, which I can respect, but it definitely falls flat a bit. It's not a horrible episode or anything, though - just kind of mediocre.