Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Season 2, Episode 13: Along Came A Spider
Oh hey, Spider-Man! This is definitely a fun episode, but what else would you expect from an episode featuring Spider-Man? It also interestingly deals with the fallout of Skrull Captain America using his face to spread a fuckton of ill will towards the Captain. Spider-Man, being a superhero whose part of the mythos is being hated by the public due to the actions of the media (or one Jonah J. Jameson, anyway) spreading word that he's a menace, it actually gives Captain America and Spider-Man something to bond about. And we actually have JJJ arguing against Tony Stark about how superheroes and vigilantes aren't real heroes like firemen and policemen. A ridiculous argument considering the world they live in, but JJJ is sort of a ridiculous character.
This leads to Captain America and Spider-Man being trapped with a group of civilians underground when the Serpent Society returns to attack and attempt to free two of their member that were arrested after the whole Skrull debacle, Madame Viper and King Cobra. Apparently Viper held dual memberships in Hydra and the Serpent Society, who knew? Just what qualifies you to be a member of the Serpent Society, anyway? Viper certainly doesn't actually have snake-themed superpowers like the others. Do you get an invite if you have a snake-themed supervillain code-name.
But the actual fight against them as Spider-Man and Captain America have to make do in cramped space (Cap uses his WWII era shield) is pretty damn great, with the powerset of the Serpent Society, especially the literal snake-cyborg-man Bushmaster, make for some really fun sequences. The entire episode is just that -- Spider-Man and Captain America trying to keep the civilians safe in cramped quarters, and earning each other's respect. In particular, Captain America ends up teaching Spider-Man that it's not really important to prove himself to people like JJJ, but rather simply prove who they are to the little people they save. It's a simple episode with a simple moral, and the episode ends with the civilians saved and Captain America exonerated by the media... but not Spider-Man, who JJJ characterizes as one of the attackers. Whoops!
Still, a pretty charming little episode, and honestly really sells just why the insecure, timid and fanboyish Spider-Man is so popular. We don't want to admit it, but compared to the larger-than-life characters like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, most of us relate way, way more to good ol' Peter Parker. And while all the great grandstanding is entertaining to watch for sure, sometimes after an alien invasion you just want to chill out with Peter's very relatable conflict of whether he should care about what people say about him.
No comments:
Post a Comment