Ultimate Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 7: Exclusive; Episode 8: Back in Black
Episode 7, "Exclusive", is an interesting episode. It breaks the normal format of the series by actually not being told from Spider-Man's perspective, meaning that this is one of the few episodes in the season to not have any sort of ADHD cutaways to Spider-Man's wacky internal monologue and imagine spots. Instead, it's told almost entirely via a "found footage" format of Mary Jane's attempts at making a reporter news deal.
I'm not the biggest fan of making MJ a reporter, making her kind of a cheap copy of Lois Lane, but this episode does end up giving us a pretty interesting take on her. It's a bit of a shame, though, that MJ's personality can basically be described in three sentences: "wants to get the scoop", "needs to be rescued" and "really wants to get the scoop". She's got a fair amount of screentime, but a good chunk of it is pretty one-dimensional. Tara Strong at least is a competent enough voice actress to bring this character to life, though.
The main highlight of this episode, of course, is the Hulk guest-star. Hulk is portrayed as this rampaging monster that everyone wants to murder, but turns out Hulk's fighting an invisible energy monster named Zzzazxxxx. Zzzzaxxx? Zxzaxzxzx. Something like that, anyway. And MJ manages to help Spider-Man figure this out by way of using the night-vision option on her surprisingly high-tech camcorder.
The episode itself is honestly simple, revolving around Mary Jane's point of view as she witnesses the fight between Spider-Man and the Hulk, and later their team-up to fight both Zzzaxx while also trying to convince the police that neither heroes are actually menaces. And then SHIELD shows up and complicates things a little, although after Zzaxzzxz becomes visible, we fall into the sci-fi shorthand to defeating an energy monster, which is to just overload it. It's a fun little comparison between Spider-Man, who has a pretty bad public reception thanks to JJJ (a constant presence in these episodes), while also playing into the themes of Mary Jane trying to deliver news that aren't biased towards Jameson's clear hatred of Spider-Man.
It's a pretty simple episode, but both Hulk and Mary Jane are pretty fun (if admittedly simple) guest stars. It definitely really shows just how much the random cutaway gags really detract from the pacing of these episodes, though. I'm good for a laugh as anyone out there is, and I do readily admit into liking and tolerating a good chunk of Ultimate Spider-Man's cutaway gags, but at the same time, they really should've gone for quality over quantity.
Episode 8, "Back in Black", is definitely a pretty strong episode as well. I think we're sort of alternating between guest-star episodes (Dr. Doom, Iron Man, Hulk) and Oscorp-conspiracy episodes? Interesting, that. This time around, it's a follow-up to the fourth episode with Venom, because apparently sometime in-between those episodes, Harry Osborn has been tinkering and has developed a Ben-10-esque watch that allows Harry to use the little gloop of Venom symbiote to expand around his body and turn him into a black-suited Spider-Man.
It's definitely an interesting and novel concept, how Harry ends up being this black-suited Spider-Man that ends up competing with Spider-Man himself as the new resident hero in town. It's a combination of two superhero tropes done in a refreshing way -- a new superhero that's more brutal but more popular shows up in town; as well as the superhero's civilian best friend doing something that relates to superheroism, while the whole "protect your secret identity" thing gets in the way. Throw that into a blender with the genuinely interesting retool surrounding Venom's backstory, and I honestly find myself actually liking this subplot particularly well.
My real problem is my confusion as to why everyone is so unwilling to accept that the Black-Suit Spider-Man (no, that's how the show actually calls this dude) is evil. I'm not sure why Jameson is so happy with Black-Suit, because as far as we can see, Black-Suit is doing what Spider-Man did, but slightly more brutal. Jameson has been condemning Spider-Man's mask and vigilantism, and Black-Suit isn't doing anything particularly different. Hell, with the first few scenes establishing that Spider-Man is sick and not patrolling as often, why does everyone assume that Black-Suit Spider-Man isn't, y'know, Spider-Man? Also, for a group of super-heroes that had fought Venom and saw him take over other people's bodies, I'm genuinely puzzled why the Junior Avengers brush off the near-identical Black-Suit Spider-Man as totally not being Venom with the dumb reasoning of "he's shorter".
That said, though, I really do love the writing surrounding Harry in this episode. Or in this series as a whole. The series really ends up showing off just how much Harry and Norman's relationship is broken (as it traditionally is), with Norman being a distant father to Harry, and Norman himself seemingly far, far more impressed and obsessed with Spider-Man to the near exclusion of everything. And being able to finally obtain some superpoweres and reveling in the power trip in an attempt to impress Norman and Peter, only to be met with indifference by both (although in Peter's case, he's trying to protect Harry from Venom), it's no wonder Harry ends up going angry. The whole Venom-feeding-on-negative-emotions bit probably helped out, too.
Also loved the little irony of Norman Osborn being dismissive of his son and refusing to even see whatever Harry was going to show off to him, while at the same time practically orgasming over the potential of controlling Venom. Meanwhile, Dr. Octavius is showing a whole lot more independency. The general creepy atmosphere that Octavius exudes in this incarnation (instead of being a fat chubby scientist with a bowl-cut) is just impressive, with him hiding the information that Venom is actually Harry Osborn from Norman.
There are definitely a fair amount of weak points in this episode (Peter's pointless sniffles, which leads nowhere, is another weak part), but the rivalry between Spider-Man and Harry, and later on with Venom, is definitely well-told. I also love the little recurring threat of the Dragon-Man (who is neither a dragon nor a man, but a robot) that continue to menace the city and being kind of a surveillance device for Octavius. It's a shame that I do feel that "Back in Black" really ended up throwing in way too many gags. Coming off "Exclusive", it really is unfortunate to realize just how much better the pacing would've be without sacrificing any of the comedy. Especially in what would've otherwise been a pretty thematically intense episode, the constant cutaways do hurt this episode a fair bit. Still, it's definitely a fun episode nonetheless.
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