Ultimate Spider-Man S02E23-24 Review: Redemption Episodes

Ultimate Spider-Man, Season 2, Episodes 23-24:

Episode 23: Second-Chance Hero

I really do feel that both of these episodes would've worked far better if they had been spaced out a bit throughout the season. Both of them deal with similar themes of a former villain getting redeemed, and how Spider-Man's the only one giving the villain a chance while the other members of SHIELD are going "grr grr can't trust the villain", but neither episode 23 or 24 really feel like they're telling the story well. Part of it is something that's endemic throughout Ultimate Spider-Man's writing, where the episode tends to have the setup of the conflict down pat, and the solution of the conflict also relatively well done, but drops the ball in explaining how the characters' minds are changed within the episode. "Second Chance Hero" is one that... sort of struggles on all three accounts.

Which is a bit of a shame, since the concept behind "Second-Chance Hero" is a relatively decent one. It's also the stronger one of the two, but that's probably because Spider-Man's conflict with Harry and Norman Osborn has far, far more of a history throughout the series than his one-time altercation with Sandman. Basically, while spying on the Osborns for SHIELD (Norman's apparently been cleared for rejoining society offscreen), Spider-Man discovers that Norman has built the Iron Patriot suit (great gag from Spider-Man noting that the Iron Patriot is basically a combination of multiple Avengers to make the most PR-friendly superhero) and is going around beating up the Frightful Four.

And... and the episode trying to sell us (or Spider-Man) that Norman Osborn is doing this for the good of the people or for atonement and not his own selfish reasons isn't particularly good, especially since he spends a good part of the second act just shooting Spider-Man with missiles and refusing to even entertain the idea of talking to SHIELD. I get that the show is trying to go for a conflicted character in Norman trying to do good, but giving in to his rage and vices, but it's just not portrayed as well as it could.

Of course, they end up teaming up against the actually villainous Doctor Octopus and his army of... Venom soldiers? [googles] Spider-Soldiers, apparently. Okay. After a team-up between Iron Patriot and Spider-Man, and a rescue mission where the two of them team up to save Harry from a falling elevator, we get our cast finally talking things out, and smoothing relations between SHIELD and Norman, as well as Spider-Man and Harry.

Overall, though, the episode seems a bit too clean for my liking, and the pacing's just off throughout it all. It's like the episode is trying to showcase that, yes, Norman is good (at least for this episode) but also wants to make it ambiguous, which is why we have scenes of him acting like a gigantic dick various times. The episode feels more of an outline of how things should go, without really putting in the emotional effort or storytelling that would've made Norman and Peter's story work in a believable way.

Episode 24: Sandman Returns

Meanwhile, "Sandman Returns" is... just kinda messy, I think. Part of it is because I never really bought into Sandman's redemption or how he is as a character. For all the inconsistent writing surrounding Norman Osborn, you at least buy that he's actually trying to redeem himself, or at least hatching a plan to rebuild his reputation. Sandman's whole deal in his sole appearance is that he's a raging sand-monster with possible multiple personalities, so having him of all characters to be redeemed instead of... oh, I dunno, Rhino (who is a school kid doped-up on drugs) or whoever just seems a bit bizarre.

During a lab breakout (featuring the return of Luke Cage's parents, as well as the Awesome Android), the Sandman is released and ends up... being nice and saving SHIELD. This leads Spider-Man to want to rehabilitate Sandman, but instead of, y'know, making sure that Flint has his more impulsive angry tendencies under control, they go straight into throwing Sandman against supervillains like the Swarm and bringing him into NYC's Times Square where Jameson is spouting hateful words. It's... it's just asking for Sandman to flip out, honestly.

And the episode is clear that poor Sandman isn't quite right in the head, suffering from either dissociative identity disorder or some really bad temper problems, but the episode ends up focusing on the fact that Sandman refuses help moreso than Spider-Man throwing Sandman into the deep end of the pool instead of taking things easy... and treats it as Spider-Man's win. He doesn't even feel that bad about it all! I dunno. The Iron Patriot episode might just feel underwhelming, but I can at least follow the story progression, whereas "Sandman Returns" just doesn't have that much narrative cohesion, I feel. It's got decent action scenes, at least, as befitting an episode starring Sandman.