Ultimate Spider-Man S01E12 Review: Breach of Human Rights

Ultimate Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 12: Me Time

Okay, this is another episode I really do want to rant about. 

The crux of the episode is simple. Spider-Man argues with Nick Fury about putting camera surveillance in his house without his consent. Spider-Man quits, gets captured by Dr. Octopus in his actual debut as a villain, and gets trapped in an underwater mad scientist lair with no way to call for help. After a narrow victory, Spider-Man realizes that Nick Fury's surveillance is "all for his own good". 

And we could go on and on about the morals of a government agency putting surveillance on people -- on a minor, no less. But the thing is, the episode doesn't really portray Nick Fury in any real positive light. If anything, I walked out of this episode absolutely loathing this incarnation of Nick Fury as this manipulative, petty control-freak that basically refuses to allow Peter any sort of privacy in his life. And the episode makes it look like Nick is actually in the right... but it's not like Dr. Octopus actually attacked Peter in his own house, or attacked Aunt May, or anything. No, Dr. Octopus attacked Spider-Man while he was dicking around in an amusement park, and the only reason Spider-Man was unable to call for SHIELD was because during the whole argument with Nick, he threw the wrist communicator at him in a grand "I quit" gesture. 

Sam L. Jackson, you ain't.

Throw in some absolutely unfortunate scenes in the episode -- Nick Fury having the gall to be mad at Peter for looking at one of the hidden cameras and talking shit to him; Nick Fury later on showing off pictures of Peter's personal life to his "friends" which includes a scene of Peter nude in the bath. Again, Peter is a minor. Even if you can argue that Nick Fury technically has permission to do so  because Peter slept through the debriefing... why the fuck did SHIELD not just install a camera outside the Parker residence in the first place?

I mean, let's take a look at the things Nick Fury's done to Spider-Man in the past eleven episodes:

• Basically sweet-talked Spider-Man to enlist in his little personal army for "training" into becoming the Ultimate Spider-Man.
• Forces Spider-Man to lead four other heroes, when Spider-Man rightfully notes that it wasn't part of their deal.
• Forces the four other young heroes to basically enlist as students in Peter Parker's school, both compromising Peter's identity to them without consent and cutting off another part of Peter's life.
• Installed Coulson as principal of the school, for the sole purpose of keeping him in check.
• Getting angry when Spider-Man tries to get a 'second opinion' and hung out with Iron Man as another possible mentor.
• Installed multiple cameras inside Peter's house without any real consent.

And honestly, the episode really didn't have to make Nick Fury so much of an ass -- they really could've did a very simple rewrite of having Dr. Octopus attack Peter near his house, proving that Fury's paranoia actually does have its uses. The thing is, the episode makes it clear that Fury's a gigantic creep, but rewards him by having Peter, for some reason, "realizing" that Fury is right. 

Which is a shame, because, like the previous episode, the non-SHIELD parts of this episode is pretty damn phenomenal. I've waxed lyrical about Dr. Octopus's brilliant portrayal in here as this disheveled, stringy-haired pale man with the most sinister voice that Tom Kenny can pull off, and when we actually see Norman to threaten to fire him, he ends up taking matters into his own hands.

And the animation of how he moves is pretty damn... impressive. Instead of just being a dude with four tentacle-arms, Dr. Octopus in this incarnation seems to be unable to really move his flesh-and-blood limbs particularly well, scuttling around with his tentacles  and letting most of his body hang loosely from where the tentacles are supporting his body. Sort of like a spider, ironically. It throws in an additional degree of "tragic but psychotic villain" when we learn that Dr. Octopus is pretty damn ill and has some Darth-Vader-esque respirator thing that even helps him breathe at all. 

And the transformation of Dr. Octopus in this episode from being merely a mad scientist that's content to live in Norman's shadow and maybe keep a secret or two from him, into a desperate and maniacal supervillain. It's genuinely and unironically some pretty great writing which is what makes it even more tragic that it got lumped together with such a piss-poor and unfortunate Nick Fury subplot. 

Again, throw in some genuinely impressive animation and action scenes between Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus, and some genuinely hilarious banter when Dr. Octopus is faced off against the wisecracking wall-crawler, and basically the entire episode's Dr. Octopus subplot really ends up feeling damn superior. Shame that the rest of the episode ends up making me really hate Nick Fury, something that I really don't want to find myself in a position of saying.