Marvel's Spider-Man Episode Thirty-Five: Bring on the Bad Guys, Part Three

Bring on the Bad Guys, Part Three

First Aired: August 6th, 2018

Synopsis: Spider-Man is in the middle of saving a bus from falling off a bridge with his webbing as a result of the supervillain Jack O' Lantern. He manages to save the people in the bus but Jack continues attacking, and Spider-Man follows him to his lair, a warehouse full of Halloween decorations. As they continue to fight Spider-Man eventually defeats him by knocking him into a vat of toffee. Shortly afterwards Spider-Man is attacked by a villain calling himself the Prowler, who primarily uses gadgets to fight. Prowler's able to fire an electrified cage at Spider-Man, but before it activates Spider-Man pulls Prowler into it. A nearby weakened water tank spills water, threatening to electrocute both Spider-Man and Prowler, but Spider-Man saves Prowler, who's grateful enough to stop attacking Spider-Man. He tells Spider-Man that he has no idea who put the bounty on Spider-Man's head but that he needs the money to free his brother, who develops his tech and is being held captive as a result of a botched job. Prowler leaves, but Spider-Man follows him.

Prowler's plan is to free his brother from the person who's holding him captive, the crime boss Silvermane. Spider-Man joins in and they're able to free Prowler's brother, but Silvermane finds them and says that if Prowler kills Spider-Man, he'll forgive his debt. Prowler turns on Silvermane instead, who turns out to be a cyborg. Prowler and Spider-Man are unable to defeat Silvermane, but Spider-Man remembers the water in the electric cage and tricks Silvermane into activating the sprinklers in his mansion. Prowler then fires an electric dart into Silvermane, electrocuting him and taking him out as they escape. In the aftermath Prowler thanks Spider-Man, and Spider-Man encourages him to be a hero. As thanks for freeing his brother, Prowler gives Spider-Man a battery that he needs for his science project, which Prowler overheard Spider-Man saying he needs.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• In spite of the fact that Aaron Davis was fairly well-established as the Prowler by the time this episode came out, this version of the Prowler is explicitly confirmed to be Hobie Brown, the original.
• As this version of the Prowler is Hobie, that means that his brother is Abe Brown. The show makes no comment of it, but in the comics he was a martial artist and one of the Sons of the Tiger.

Review: So, Jack O' Lantern's design in this series is pretty damn good. Other than that, let's not talk about the first part of this episode, because it's pretty weak - Jack is too much of a giggling villain obsessed with Halloween, and he wears out his welcome around the time Spider-Man brings the bus commuters up to the bridge. The first part of the episode draws things out far too much and drags, and it doesn't really affect anything else, so it's not really that important.

The second part, though? That's fucking fantastic. I've said before that I like Hobie Brown as the Prowler, and this story gives him a good character arc that's very realistic. His suit also has gotten a redesign for this series, and I think it might honestly be the best Prowler costume I've seen across any form of Spider-Man media. Adding in the quirk that his brother makes his equipment and that he doesn't know too much about it - or science in general - also helps make him feel more grounded and realistic, and he definitely feels like a low-level villain who's out of his depth both with Silvermane and Spider-Man.

Silvermane's defeat is very satisfying in that it draws on a previously established tactic, and one that's pretty grounded and understandable. I'll also comment that while Prowler turning on Silvermane in favour of working with Spider-Man is pretty predictable, it's nevertheless very satisfying to see. The subsequent fight does go for maybe a little too long before Spider-Man and Prowler work out how to defeat Silvermane, but it's definitely far from the worst fight I've seen. So, yeah, if you ignore the Jack O' Lantern stuff that the episode starts with? Fantastic episode.