Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Twenty-Eight: Between an Ock and a Hard Place

Between an Ock and a Hard Place

First Aired: June 25th, 2018

Synopsis: Spider-Man is trying to get better footage for the Daily Bugle after J. Jonah Jameson used his to claim that Spidey's a menace, and sees someone who looks like Doctor Octopus robbing a bank. It turns out to be a woman who claims to be a big fan of Ock's, who gets into the bank's vault and is disappointed that it doesn't have any crystals. She manages to get away from Spider-Man, and the guards tell him that some of the vault's contents were shipped to the docks. At Horizon Otto is questioned and recognises his fan: Carolyn Trainer, from the cell next to his. Anya, Gwen, and Miles are picked by Otto to be leaders who will work on the neuro-cortex project. Later, Peter sees Jonah and tells him that he won't give him any more Spider-Man footage since he's portraying Spider-Man in a negative light, then heads to the docks to stop Trainer. She's now got octo-bots to distract Spider-Man with, and is able to escape from the docks with the crystals she's been seeking.

Peter discusses things with Miles, who missed teaming up with Spidey since he was working on the neuro-cortex, and Miles identifies the shop where Trainer got the parts for her octo-bots. Spider-Man heads there and finds Trainer's base next to the shop; when he defeats her she claims that she was working for Otto and that he hasn't reformed. Spider-Man then goes to the neuro-cortex group research where he finds the team leaders strapped into machines, their minds powering the neuro-cortex. Doctor Octopus is of course behind it, and he fights Spider-Man, revealing that the neuro-cortex has unlocked telekinesis in him. He confesses that he never reformed and simply played everyone, even using Trainer so that Spider-Man would be distracted. She somehow arrives and overhears this and, incensed at being used, teams up with Spider-Man to defeat Otto. The research leaders also fight back and attack Ock psychically through their link, and he's defeated, landing in a coma. Spider-Man lets Trainer go since she was used and was never that villainous. In the aftermath Peter does give his Spider-Man footage to Jonah since otherwise his lack of money means that he'll be kicked out of Horizon. Later, as Peter helps his friends clean up the mess the battle caused, nobody notices an octopus tentacle starting to move...

Subplots:

• When Peter relents and delivers his footage to Jonah, Jonah rubs it in the face of Eddie Brock, another photographer, who's clearly annoyed by Peter getting favoured.

Review: God, this episode is such a mixed bag. Carolyn Trainer is a fun character - she's got a great design and is comically incompetent, mixing up the day the crystals are getting shipped from the vault and referring to her octo-bots as her only friends. Admittedly, she's probably not the best example of feminism, being easily manipulated by Octavius through her obsession with him, but overall the fights with her are pretty enjoyable. The twist that the crystals she was going after were all just to distract Spider-Man makes for a good reveal, too.

The weakest part of the episode is definitely the climax - while the reveal that the neuro-cortex group are all being used to help power the device is a good one, everything from there is kind of a mess. Ock has telekinesis now, due to the neuro-cortex doing quantum calculations or something? His plan is to...have telekinesis? Carolyn Trainer shows up...somehow? She also somehow hacked the system to falsify her records as part of Ock's plan, but when Peter looked her up he found she didn't have a criminal record? It's all kind of awkward, and doesn't really make a lot of sense. Oh, and Ock confirms that he hired the Wild Pack, so my prediction about the previous episode was absolutely correct.

Stronger than the Trainer fights is the subplot about Peter working at the Daily Bugle - he's trying to get good footage that portrays Spider-Man in a positive light, but Jonah repeatedly finds a way to twist it and find an angle that furthers his viewpoint (just like the real media!) In the end, Peter's forced to swallow his pride and just accept that he needs the money - it's surprisingly realistic, and I wish that more emphasis was put on it. As it is, this episode definitely has some high points, but some pretty low ones too, averaging out to around middling quality.