The Road to Goblin War
First Aired: November 3rd, 2019
Synopsis: Peter tries talking to Max Modell about re-enrolling at Horizon High but is rejected, and then fights the villain Slyde. Slyde gets away, but shortly afterwards Spider-Man notices the reclusive scientist Allan Beemont, who runs a chemicals company. Peter soon ends up going to Uncle Ben's grave for guidance, as he feels lost, and to his surprise finds Doctor Octopus there too. Peter's annoyed at Ock saying that Uncle Ben is like an uncle to him too, before Ock says that Slyde is still out there doing crimes. Spider-Man fails to defeat him again, but afterwards goes to Doctor Octopus and gets him to identify some of the chemicals that Slyde uses. Ock identifies that they're made by Beemont Chemicals, but when Spider-Man goes to confront Allan Beemont he gets told there's no connection between him and Slyde. On the way out Spider-Man is confronted by a scientist there, Doctor Joseph Rockwell, who explains that Slyde is Jelome Beecher, a scientist who worked for the company. Beemont wanted to take credit for Beecher's work and fired him when he objected, so Beecher is now trying to ruin Beemont's reputation.
Spider-Man is given chemicals by Rockwell that should counteract Slyde's, but when he confronts Slyde next the villain still gets away. Doctor Octopus provides some unexpected assistance through his spider-bots, then tells Spider-Man that Slyde is at Beemont Chemicals. Spider-Man goes there and is almost defeated by Slyde before Ock helps him again, using Rockwell's chemicals to disable Slyde. Beemont and Rockwell arrive, but Spider-Man reveals that with Ock's help he discovered that Rockwell was secretly supplying Slyde with chemicals in the hope that Beemont would be fired and he could take over the company. Beemont questions why and Rockwell reveals that he's working for the mysterious Goblin Nation, a group whose symbol has been appearing over the city. In the aftermath Peter and Ock agree to work together to find and stop the Goblin Nation, and Peter feels that his life is getting back on track.
Miscellaneous Notes:
- To my surprise, during the opening credits I noticed that this episode is written by J.M. DeMatteis, a prolific Spider-Man writer whose work tends to be pretty good.
Review: This series hasn't been as bad as, say, Ultimate Spider-Man, but I've definitely had a sense, especially over the last ten-to-twenty episodes, that it could be better. We've had the odd hit here and there, but for the most part the episodes have felt like they're lacking something, or aren't really that great. This episode, by comparison, has a lot going on in spite of a fairly simple plot, and it feels like a breath of fresh air as a result.
The biggest positive is how well everything with Slyde works - him wanting revenge on Beemont is a simple motivation, but it's complicated by Beemont wanting to take credit for his work and how unhelpful Beemont is. Rockwell is initially a helpful ally, before turning out to have hidden motivations that involve taking over a company for himself in a genuinely good twist. Compare it to Regent's ridiculous motivations from last episode and it's easy to see which is more realistic and interesting. None of this is explained too early, either, so there's a good underlying mystery to start off the episode.
Aside from the frankly fantastic superhero stuff, there's also good character work with both Peter and Otto feeling out of place after the whole Superior Spider-Man stuff. Ock has felt what it is to be a superhero and can't go back to his old life, while Peter feels that everything's spinning out of control. Peter's wrong, of course, and Ock finds new meaning in helping Spider-Man, but both the initial emotions and the character development they go through feels very natural. It helps to elevate the episode and make it about more than just the fights, and as such I'd easily say that this is one of the best episodes of the show yet.
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