Comics Cornerstone TV Spotlight: Spidey Gets Caught in a Venomous Web
Image Courtesy of Marvel Animation and Disney XD
Happy Thursday, readers! I hope everyone’s having a good week and that you’re ready to hear about some awesome Spidey TV. Before I get too far, keep in mind that I’ll soon be moving over to a private blog site to continue this series. The announcement of when and where will be coming very soon. But, for now, let’s focus on today’s review. We’ll be looking at something practically brand new today as I’ll be reviewing the Season 3 pilot episode of “Marvel’s Spider-Man”. It’s surprising that I haven’t reviewed this show before considering the third season just started. Though I guess now is as good a time as any. So, without further ado, let’s see what’s going on!
When the new season was announced, we learned that it would be sub-titled “Maximum Venom” and would focus on Spidey and his team—along with other heroes in the Marvel Universe—dealing with a symbiote invasion brought on by the escape of Venom himself. Along with that came the announcement that there would be a format change. The story would run over a period of six hours with each episode being an hour in length rather than the standard 22 minutes plus commercials. This alone was enough to get me excited because it meant that the team was taking their time in telling the story instead of forcing it to fit the 30-minute block.
The season premiered this last Sunday evening and it starts off with a bang! Peter’s friends are headed off for college tours and, in typical Parker fashion, Peter realizes he forgot to sign up for the tour. If you ask me, this is a pretty good way to rid Peter of his supporting cast so that he’s basically left on his own to deal with the impending threat. The best Spider-Man stories are always the ones where he’s forced to deal with the problem on his own without being able to call for backup. Sometimes the side characters end up shining too much and the story suddenly becomes less about Spidey and more about them. After all, it’s called “Spider-Man”, not “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends”. That’s a completely different show.
We start off with Peter discovering that his professor, Max Modell, has created a non-living, synthetic symbiote based on the chemical compound of the original. Peter questions the wisdom of this, but Max assures him that this synthetic symbiote has no desire to corrupt or possess its host. All of the abilities. None of the nasty side effects. Then Max drops the bomb that he knows Peter is really Spider-Man! I guess he isn’t exactly great at keeping his secret. And Max is a certified genius. Therefore, it was fairly obvious to him.
With no need to hide his identity, Spidey and Max move on to testing the capabilities of the home-brewed symbiote. As it turns out, Max was right! It enhances all the abilities of its host without probing their mind. Unfortunately for them, another professor at Horizon High isn’t so keen on an actual living symbiote being kept there in secret. In an attempt to call Max out for his treachery, Dr. Curt Conners accidentally releases the real symbiote and is taken over by it. Thus, Venom has returned!
Naturally, Spider-Man goes out to try and stop Venom’s rampage. During the course of their fight Venom strips Spidey of the synthetic symbiote and absorbs it into himself. Now he no longer needs Conners to fulfill his plan, so he spits him out into the Hudson River and goes on with his day. After saving the good doctor and bringing him to a hospital, Spidey goes searching for the raging symbiote. As it turns out, Venom returned to the place where he first landed on Earth, about 50 miles outside NYC. Evidently, Venom is looking for something called “the seed”. By the time Spidey gets there, Venom has already found this seed and has begun using it to send a beacon out to the far reaches of space. After another brutal confrontation, our hero defeats Venom using the facility’s power supply. The seed stops generating its signal and Venom is seemingly disintegrated. Though nothing is ever that easy when it comes to any supervillain. And unfortunately, not only are we left with a tantalizing cliff hanger involving an army of symbiotes from outer space, but we find out that Conners woke up and gave away Max’s entire operation. So, I guess Peter will now have a number of different problems to deal with in the coming episodes.
Overall, I’m very happy with the kickoff of the new season. Though that’s not surprising considering this show, in my opinion, has almost always managed to deliver week after week. Sure, there have been some less than desirable episodes. But that’s with every show. Nothing can be perfect 100% of the time. But I’d give this show a 90% success rate. And I applaud the creators for teasing the introduction of Mary Jane into the show three years in. It’s amazing to me that they’ve managed to leave her out for this long without it feeling weird. No other Spider-Man show has managed to do that. Granted, this was only a name drop from Aunt May, but press releases have already confirmed that she’ll be showing up before too long. The only thing I worry about is the eventual introduction of the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn seemingly died in an accident midway through Season 1. We then thought it would be him as the Goblin King at the end of Season 2. But that turned out to be a red herring involving The Vulture. Waiting this long to introduce the man himself can either be a good thing or a bad thing. It depends on whether or not audiences have forgotten that Norman died. But this Venom arc is only six episodes and a typical season is 26 episodes. If I were a betting man, I’d say he’ll be showing up sooner rather than later. As a side note, I hope this symbiote arc leads to the introduction of Carnage as well. We’re getting an entire series of episodes devoted to a symbiote invasion, so it makes sense that Carnage would be a result of this.
Well, that’s it in a nutshell! A strong start to a new season of a strong show. I’m excited to see where it goes and I hope I’ve encouraged you to check it out for yourself. I know this show airs on a network for kids and young teens, but don’t discount it because of that. I think there’s something in it for everybody. With that said, I hope you enjoyed today’s post and that you’ll come back for the next one. Don’t worry! It’ll be coming sooner than you think! But until then, stay healthy, stay safe, and stay comical!
