Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E07 Review: Gang Wars

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 7: Scorpion Rising

So the conflict continues on both fronts in Peter's life. Again, the civilian side of things isn't the most interesting stuff to me -- it is required for Peter's life to feel a bit more complex, but it also feels like a bit of a distraction as Nico avoids Peter at school after realizing that he's been keeping a secret superhero career. Peter does have a nice little moment with Pearl, confiding in her about secrets... Pearl herself is a bit of a satellite character to Lonnie, so it's nice to have her interact with Peter again, and having Pearl be angry about Lonnie hiding his own double-life s a nice little parallel. This leads to the B-plot of this episode, where Harry tries to apologize on Peter's behalf... and the two unlikely friends end up spending the day together. 

And it's a nice, much-needed spotlight for the side-cast. I don't mind having a wide supporting cast if they are all treated as characters and not just accessories, y'know? Nico gets to vent a bit about how she doesn't like being left behind by everyone else in her life, and Harry shows off some of his 'innocently doing asshole-rich things' routine. It's neat, and the two bond over driving Harry's super-car around. It's... it's all right filler scenes as Peter and Norman mostly do science-y stuff to track down Otto Octavius. 

Meanwhile, Lonnie's life continues to spiral out of control as he keeps making excuses not just for the people at school, but also his family, all the while the 110th is preparing for an all-out gang war with the Scorpions. But Pearl, who's been investigating Lonnie on her own, ends up in the 110th gang hideout right as hostilities break out. 

Unfortunately, it's not just a gang fight that Pearl finds herself in, but a superhero gang fight. Mac Gargan shows up in full Scorpion glory, and the Scorpions beat the crap out of the 110th. Thankfully, the gamma radiation from the Scorpion suit alerts Spider-Man to his location, allowing Spider-Man to arrive. He gets distracted a bit by Lonnie and Pearl's presence, but the two eventually escape. 

Spider-Man eventually beats up the Scorpion, just as all of the B-plots seem to wind down for the episode. Unfortunately, just as our heroes take a breather, Norman chooses this point to leave the meeting room to continue look for Octavius clues as Spider-Man takes a breather... and Gargan gets back up. He overcharges his Scorpion suit and viciously attacks Spider-Man in a genuinely well-done moment of brutality. It's a nicely harrowing moment. Sure, a Goblin Glider courtesy of Norman shows up and manages to evacuate Spider-Man before Scorpion could deliver a lethal blow, but it's a nice showcase of how bad of a partner Norman is to Spider-Man, being so distracted with everything he's doing and treating his role as a Spider-Man supporter as essentially another meeting. 

And, again, I think this episode -- despite its slower side-plots -- manages to deliver a nice contrast between how people like Pearl, Harry, Nico, Norman and even Peter himself are treating this 'superhero' thing, viewing it from a more privileged and more civil lens. It's 'just' a meeting, it's 'just' a secret, whereas for people like Lonnie and Scorpion, it's a fair bit more brutal and scrappy. And Spider-Man should get his head in the game. Again, I'm not the biggest fan of the action scenes due to the art style, but I approve of the episode's stark contrast between the more fluffy car-racing scenes and the huge punchline of the Scorpion beatdown. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The title shot is a homage to The Amazing Spider-Man #318, which features Spider-Man (in the exact same pose) dodging a tail attack from the Scorpion as it destroys a brick wall. 
• The Oscorp glider that comes to rescue Spider-Man is, of course, Green Goblin's glider.
• When theorizing about the power source that Octavius is using, Peter suggests Tritium and solar energy, both homages to the Spider-Man 2 movie. In that movie, Tritium was the substance that Otto was using to power his experiments, and one of the most iconic lines from that movie is him harnessing "the power of the sun" -- something that Norman makes fun of, noting that "Otto isn't one to harness the power of the sun".
• Ultimately, Octavius ends up revealed to be utilizing gamma radiation (of Incredible Hulk fame), a common sci-fi plot device in MCU-related material.