Movie Review -- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse [2023]

I put this off for quite some time, didn't I? I actually wrote this review all the way back in 2023 when I watched it! Time flies!

I think one of the major reasons was the huge 'easter eggs corner', and suffice to say that the entire movie is a massive easter egg to the various Spider-Men across the multiverse. It was a delight to research them, but it was a pain to write here. And since it's been a while, I'm going to be a lot more succinct in this review than my normal fare.

But as a follow-up to the excellent Into the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse puts Miles in an interesting situation. Or rather, puts Miles and his newfound spider-verse allies in an interesting situation. Handling the multiverse with much better grace and continuity than the actual live-action movies, we start the movie off showing Spider-Gwen's Earth-65. Earth-65 is rendered beautifully with an almost watercolor-like art style, which clashes wildly when an alternate-universe Reinaissance-art-themed Vulture comes in, followed up by the louder CGI-artstyle Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O'hara. 

We don't learn it until a bit later, 2099 / Miguel is the leader of a multiversal group of spider-people... and he does feel heroic and honestly would be heroic in any other circumstance. 

Gwen, meanwhile, goes through a bit of a crisis with her own family particularly with her own dad, the police chief, who is staunchly anti-Spider-Woman. With Gwen being unmasked during the fight in front of her father, she elects to jump into the wacky world of this 'nexus' world with Miguel and a different Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew (who really doesn't do much in this movie). 

We cut back to Earth-1610, where Miles is. Miles has been trapped in a similar situation, hiding his dual life with his parents, having trouble in school, beating up supervillains in a montage... typical spider-hero stuff. This comes to a head when he royally screws up bringing a cake to his father Jeff's promotion to police captain, leading to a fair bit of conflict with his parents. Also, while doing all of this, Miles beats up and humiliates (not to badly, to his credit) a supervillain called the Spot, an ex-Alchemax scientist whose body was mutated during the big multiverse explosion in Into the Spider-Verse, giving him portal creation powers. 

The movie does a great job portraying Spot both with the voice-acting, the script and the animation of having him be an ineffective joke villain during the first fight with Miles, with many Looney Tunes style shenanigans... but while Miles is dealing with his family life, the Spot falls into a strange void at the center of different realities, and begins using his powers to its maximum potential.  

This leads to a crisis that, unknown to Miles, gets the attention of the multiversal spider-police. Gwen arrives at Miles' universe and we get a lot of nice moments where the two of them get a lot of cute, sweet moments. There is a bit of tension, however, as Miles has been separated from the rest of the multiverse and even trying to dedicate his whole career to creating a multiversal portal just for the chance to see Gwen again. Meanwhile, Gwen is evasive and hides the existence of the spider-police-gang from Miles, and of her mission to take down the Spot. 

Things go awry, the Spot teleports away to another universe, and Miles ends up following Gwen to the next universe. And despite the movie having lots of new characters, the fact that they are all variations of the 'bitten by spider, spider powers, dead uncle, great power great responsibility, there's maybe one gimmick' storyline that was parodied in Into the Spider-Verse allows us to skip through a lot of the power-establishing and backstory establishing. 

Earth-50101 is home to Spider-Man India, Pavitr Prabhakar, who is super-good and super-awesome and the source of some fun jokes. Great music and animation style here, too; and as Miles, Gwen and Pavitr chase down the Spot, they would later be joined by Spider-Punk, Hobie Brown -- who is animated in an interesting UK-style newspaper-y style. I'm not good at describing these things. Hobie is much more cynical, is cooler than Miles in different ways. 

The four of them end up saving people... but during the fight, police inspector Singh -- father of Pavitr's love interest -- nearly gets killed by debris of the collider. Miles has had weird visions when fighting the Spot, and being forewarned of that, zips in and helps rescue inspector Singh. The Spot escapes... and the world suddenly begins to collapse, until even more spider-people arrive to contain it. 

This leads Miles, Gwen and their new friends to arrive in Earth-928, Nueva York, which is the base of the multiversal spider-people, with dozens and dozens and dozens of cameos. Including the return of Miles' mentor from the first movie, Peter B. Parker and his adorable child May. Turns out that ease in understanding Spider-people 'tropes' extends to another thing... Canon Events. Which sounds cheeky, but is the exact kind of multiversal plot device that works in a story like this. A dour and angry Miguel explains that one such Canon Event is the death of a mentor-like police captain close to that universe's Spider-Man. 

One such canon event? The death of a police captain close to Spider-Man. And that cannot be disrupted. Miguel is adamant about this, and has the sense of an old warrior too grizzled, having sacrificed too much to compromise or deal with the more naive arguments of the naive Miles. Miguel then tells Miles that disrupting the Canon Events of stories will cause the stories to collapse... as almost happened to Pavitr's world, and implied to have happened and claimed the lives of Miguel's family. 

Having seen visions of the Spot becoming uber-powerful and wreaking havoc in his home dimension, including killing his dad Jeff... Miles is understandably upsent and wants to go back and do something to warn and/or rescue his father. Miguel and his loyalists imprison Miles to stop him from interfering with another Canon Event. 

And Miles... he hasn't really had a good impression of the spider-people, particularly from the people he thought he was friends with. Gwen kept the existence of the multiversal spiders away from Miles for admittedly emotional reasons, and Peter B. is sympathetic and conflicted but ultimately doesn't seem willing to rock the boat. With so many information withheld from him while every other spider-person seem to have been recruited into the Spider-Army, Miles snaps and decides to rebel. 

Thankfully for Miles, Spider-Punk, who has been making vague anarchist and anti-authoritarian comments all movie long, ends up being his surprising ally. Spider-Punk springs Miles from prison, and we get a very thrilling, very fun sequence as Miles flees and fights through dozens and dozens of various spider-people. We get an emotional confrontation with Peter B, we get some fun action scenes with random concepts like a cowboy Spider-Man, or the 60's cartoon Spider-Man and his limited animations, a Spider-Cat, a Spider-T-Rex, and more. 

All this culminates with the fight against Miguel (and the way the show animates Miguel's 'vampire-like' movements and the neon lines of his suit is probably my favourite visual effect in this movie). Miguel would reveal that Miles was never supposed to become Spider-Man, that the spider that bit him came from another universe of Earth-42... a universe that is now bereft of Spider-Man because the spider came to Miles's world. This marks Miles as an anomaly... but again, Miles says 'screw you' to that, tricks Miguel and the majority of his army on a wild goose chase before activating a brand-new stealth ability in the climax. 

The final arc of the movie is an interesting one. Miles manages to befriend one of the other minor spiders (Spider-Byte), and escape to what seems to be his own universe. After the confrontation, Gwen and Miguel get into an argument and Gwen gets ejected back to her own universe... then sends out his own hit-squad of Spiders to hunt down Miles. 

This sets up a nice little coda for Gwen's story, as Gwen reconciles with her father George. It's revealed that part of rather than struggle with duty and family, George has resigned from the force instead of arresting Gwen. With that little plotline resolved, Gwen gets a package from Spider-Punk -- a multiversal portal of her own. She recruits Peter B (who gets talked into it in a short but sweet scene with his Mary Jane) and a bunch of others to support Miles. This forms the final scene as they go and rescue miles, with Gwen, Peter B, Pavitr and Hobie from this movie joining up with the other three heroes from Into the Spider-Verse -- Noir, Peni and Ham -- to rescue Miles. 

And as Miles swings through what initially seemed to be his universe, to stop the Spot and save his family, he goes back to his house and reveals his secret identity to his mother... who is confused. Not because he's Spider-Man, no, but because she doesn't know what Miles is talking about. Uncle 'Prowler' Aaron, who should be dead, also shows up...  and ends up restraining Miles. Miles realizes -- and is confirmed when he glitches out due to the lack of the multiversal-anchor wristwatch plot device -- that he hasn't actually returned to Earth-1610, but to Earth-42. Here, Jeff is dead, Aaron is alive, and this universe's Miles is the Prowler. Cliffhanger! 

And honestly, it is surprising how coherent this movie is, even as I write down the plot. Relying on common tropes throughout spider-stories and superhero stories itself is a nice crutch, but it would be so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the easter egg alone is enough for the audience, something that Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness arguably failed to do since their incarnation of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc are just there for a wink-wink nod and there's no real stakes or gravitas when they get killed. Here, the individual Spider-variants are properly introduced even if it's quite simple, and it is clear which are just one-scene jokes and which are meant to be a bit more impactful in the future. 

More importantly, the focus on Miles and Gwen is great. Miles moreso than Gwen, but the focus on story, characterization, and Miles constantly struggling with his identity and belonging is shown very strongly in this movie. Gwen gets a bit less screentime and ergo less focus, but even her little story arc about choosing loyalty and secrecy is quite well done. Miguel is a nice antagonist that fits 'you can understand where he's coming from' better than others like Thanos. And Peter B, Hobie, Pavitr, Spot and Papa Jeff round out the main cast rather nicely. It's also a visual treat to watch. 

Now we're just waiting for them to finally cook and finalize the final part of this trilogy!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E10 Review: Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 10: If This Be My Destiny...

And so, the first season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man ends with an... interesting twist. After ignoring the rest of the genius squad for the majority of the season, the final episode of the show takes us off of the gang wars in the street back into Oscorp for one last episode for the season. 

The episode does feel like its own coda after the rather heavily-serialized past couple of episodes that dealt primarily with Scorpion and Tombstone, and we start off with a cold open involving Peter Parker's science project. Which is typical Parker luck, as usual... I don't have a whole ton to say about these scenes, but again I do note that these scenes are reasonably important to help build up the world around Peter. 

We then cut off to the Oscorp internship group, where Amadeus Cho and the other interns are brought in by Norman to a secret facility where all of their projects have been hooked up to 'Project Monolith', which would make an interdimensional portal. Norman gives a whole speech about how Project Monolith would bring forth the evolution that humanity needs after recent alien threats classified as 'Avengers-level'. It's honestly the kind of thing that someone like Norman Osborn would be afraid of; not too dissimilar to the conceptual background behind Snyder-DC's Lex Luthor or Bruce Wayne. 

Most of the interns object to this, and even Professor Connors isn't in the loop, but Norman gives a whole 'for the greater good' speech. Joining in is Dr. Strange, returning after the first episode. Strangely (heh), despite Peter recognizing Dr. Strange from the Midtown incident, Dr. Strange is just confused about Peter's claims. 

Norman opens up the portal anyway (and to be fair, a random magician coming out of a portal isn't exactly the most convincing argument) and out of the portal emerges the Symbiote monster from the first episode. As the other supporting characters escape, Peter Parker suits up into Spider-Man and fights the Symbiote alongside Dr. Strange. They try to hold back the Symbiote, which is... not the most interesting fight even by this season's standards. But the Symbiote monster manages to hit Dr. Strange's Time Stone, which ends up causing some timeline shenanigans as Dr. Strange and the Symbiote is transported to Midtown High School several months ago. 

Which is to say... we have a stable time loop! It is admittedly a bit annoying because -- through no fault of the show itself -- I wasn't sure if I'm supposed to go "oh, episode 1 Dr. Strange was from another universe in the multiverse" instead of the intended "why would he not remember?" reaction that the writers probably wanted us to have. In any case, it turns out that this explains the whole plot of episode one's origin story, as Dr. Strange and the Symbiote fights and wrecks Midtown High in the past. 

While this is going on, the Oscorp genetically-modified spider from the end of last episode also gets warped into the past and, in a scene reminiscent of Into the Spider-Verse, we end up with the spider biting Peter Parker in the past, closing the time loop and retroactively giving him his powers. 

After all the past scenes are done, Dr. Strange manages to wrangle the Symbiote back to the present day. Spider-Man fixes the runed machinery, opening a new wormhole. As even more Symbiotes attempt to approach the portal, Dr. Strange and Spider-Man manage to team up and push all the Symbiotes back into space, and destroy the portal for good. Alien threat averted, except, of course, a little sliver of the Symbiote that Norman would pick up later. Because of course there's a little sliver that is left behind. 

And... your mileage may vary on how much you like the time loop. It was admittedly well executed, but other than the mystery in the first episode, there really isn't much that I felt was added by it. I'm also unconvinced if the changes made to Peter's backstory -- like removing Uncle Ben's death as part of the Great Power/Great Responsibility thing would make sense. But it's at least standalone and well-done within the context of this show. 

What follows is a couple of scenes wrapping up the aftermath. Peter severs ties with Norman, but ends up finding another Osborn to help him -- Harry. Harry and Peter decides to set up their own little startup -- very Gen Z of him -- and try and recruit as many young talented geniuses as he, too, severs ties with Norman. The organization is called W.E.B. and they at the very least get Asha the Wakandan in their ranks, while Amadeus Cho doesn't give a shit and continues to work at Oscorp. Okay. 

Meanwhile, Spider-Man gets into a bit of a talk with Dr. Strange, breaking down the Symbiote time-travel things, and Spider-Man thanks Dr. Strange that after all of the destruction caused by the Symbiote (which Strange feels super guilty about) at least something good came out of it -- his powers. There's a nice little superhero speech there, before Dr. Strange leaves Peter a bit more confident as a less toxic mentor figure than Norman is.

Norman, as mentioned before, gets a little piece of the Symbiote that he recovers for his nefarious purposes. Meanwhile, Jeanne Focault is revealed to already be Finesse and is working under Daredevil and had been an undercover agent to spy on Oscorp... which would've been a cooler twist if Focault actually had a proper presence in the show. Also a scene that kind of comes out of nowhere is Nico Minoru using her amulet to perform a magical ritual to talk to her dead mother, which... yeah, I know Nico from Runaways and I know this is where the mysterious 'I'm actually keeping a secret' scenes are leading towards, but it does feel like it comes out of nowhere. 

We also check in a bit with Tombstone, who's leading the 110th although presumably in a more friendly-gang direction. Otto Octavius makes sketches of Dr. Octopus tentacles. And May Parker pays a visit to Peter's father Richard in jail, as the episode and season closes on Peter Parker, Spider-Man. 

And... overall? I feel the season is all right. I don't necessarily think it's the best Spider-Man cartoon I've ever watched, not by a long shot. I also think I've made my frustrations about the sheer amount of supporting cast and changes-without-any-real-good-reason feel a bit muted, and this episode in particular does have a problem somewhat common to the MCU where a ton of foreshadowing-that-really-makes-sense-if-you-read-the-comics-beforehand is dumped at our foot. Despite that, I do appreciate just how brave and consistent the season has been. I don't think it's going to be the definitive 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The title, "If This By My Destiny..." is a story arc written by Stan Lee, also known as the 'Master Planner Saga' -- famously remembered for showcasing a four-page scene of Spider-Man conquering his inner demons and lifting a huge chunk of heavy machinery, which has been homaged in various live-action Spider-Man adaptations. 
• Across the Spider-Verse made a huge deal about how Miles Morales received his powers from a dimension-hopping spider, and why the Spider Society needed to deal with him. The fact that the spider from the first episode of YFNSM turns out to just be time-displaced instead of multiverse-displaced answers the question as to why Miguel doesn't intervene for this timeline. 
• Norman rants about various alien incursions into the world, namely Thor (in Thor), the Chitauri Invasion (in The Avengers), and the symbiote attack on Midtown High, which happened in episode 1 of this series.
• Richard Parker is voiced by Josh Keaton, who previously voiced Spider-Man in the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon.
• Apparently, one of the Symbiote monster's attacks is patterned after "Symbiote Strike" from the PS5 Spider-Man 2 video game. Okay!
• Just like their meeting in the MCU, Spider-Man messes up Dr. Strange's name and gets confused about it. He also almost slips up tells Dr. Strange his real name, something that he does a lot in the MCU.
• The W.E.B. (Worldwide Engineering Brigade) borrows its name from a similar institution from the Disneyland Avengers C.A.M.P.U.S. tie-in fiction. 
• Among the W.E.B. candidates on Harry's board are some familiar names from the Marvel comics: Max Dillon (Electro), Ned Leeds (Peter's best friend in the MCU; Hobgoblin in the comics), Tai Miranda and Priya Aggerwal (both allies of the Nadia Van Dyne version of Wasp in the comics), Toni Sandoval (daughter of Iron Man ally Ho Yinsen; and has taken up the mantles of Rescue and Iron Patriot), Tiberius Stone (Iron Man's friend who later founded Alchemax of Spider-Man 2099 fame), Kiden Nixon (an X-23 supporting character), Ripley Ryan (a Captain Marvel supporting character, a.k.a. the superheroine Star), and Diane Jenkins (a minor character who was mistaken as Spider-Woman). 
• I can't find anything about the other three candidates -- Lee Ann Dufour, Emmy Choi and Adam Rodney. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E09 Review: Thou Shalt Not Kill

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 9: Hero or Menace

As we go to the final two episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, we get some more interesting confrontations. Norman Osborn and Otto Octavius have an interesting conversation in prison, and I do like the worldbuilding here as the two intelligent control freaks' egos are butting heads towards each other. It's not anywhere as good as the recent PS4 Spider-Man game's take on the two's relationship if I'm being honest, and particularly because Peter Parker has not even really interacted with Otto, but it's a neat bit of worldbuilding. Otto's rambling about how Norman doesn't actually build anything but just steals whatever other people builds does serve well as both a motive rant for the soon-to-be Dr. Octopus, but also an indictment of how Norman has been utilizing Peter. 

A follow-up on the whole 'gang wars' storyline has The 110th stake out the transport of the Octavius equipment... and frankly, I do feel that with how much of a control-freak Norman Osborn is, I felt it was weird that he wasn't at least watching this shipment. I guess he assumed with Otto behind bars, no one can touch the technology he's stealing? The 110th try to hijack the truck, and the truck almost hits Nico Minoru (who happen to be walking nearby, thanks to the plot-mandated 'all side characters hang out' trope). Spider-Man, of course, swoops in to save Nico, and drops her safely off in an alley.  

We then have a bit of a scuffle as Spider-Man finally confronts the 110th. Lonnie's story has admittedly been shoehorned in our faces all season long, but it was executed relatively well. Him finally realizing that his actions have consequences when he sees the truck almost kill Nico, and the subsequent verbal confrontation with Spider-Man finally punches some cracks in his reliance towards Big Donovan and the 110th. 

Of course, since this is the climax of a superhero season, you can't talk things down. The Scorpion and his gang shows up, and Spider-Man understandably goes into a bit of a panic attack over his recent near-death experience at the hands of the supervillain. He does manage to pull himself together to at least put up a fight, but this freaks out Big Donovan... who runs away once he realizes that his gang is at a disadvantage. Big Donovan's escape really shatters whatever trust Lonnie has in his leader, which... again, I kind of wished that they had played up some realization to the slow gaslighting and build-up of dependance instead of a simple 'he ran away, the coward'. But oh well.

This leads Lonnie to go into the truck of Octavius goodies to try and get something to even the scales, and in typical superhero/supervillain origin story fashion he gest dosed with an experimental gas. While initially seemingly wounded, turns out that the gas gave him superhuman strength and he manages to save Spider-Man by grabbing Scorpion's tail. We get a typical superhero team-up, but in the process Scorpion seemingly kills Lonnie by dropping some construction i-beams on top of him. 

And the superhero team-up stuff and boss fight is cute and nicely executed, but it's honestly quite by-the-books. What's far more interesting is Spider-Man's subsequent rage as he sees red. Shocked that his friend might just have been killed in front of his eyes,  and remembering Norman's words about 'pulling his punches', Spider-Man just goes berserk and beats the shit out of Scorpion, in stark contrast to the panic he displayed earlier in the episode, and the fun irreverence he showed during the Lonnie team-up. In a scene somewhat reminiscent of No Way Home's Green Goblin confrontation, Spider-Man beats the everloving crap out of Scorpion, and almost impales him with his own mechanized tail.

Lonnie, of course, has Luke Cage powers now and isn't actually dead (he basically is less of an adaptation of Tombstone, and more of a teenage Luke Cage, isn't he?), and he stops Spider-Man in time before he kills the Scorpion. We get a basic -- but very well voice-acted -- argument about how Scorpion will always try and kill them and will always try to kill more people, but Lonnie convinces Spider-Man not to sink to the level of scum like Scorpion. 

Again, it's nothing really new to the superhero genre, but I did enjoy it -- it was pretty well executed. As the police come to arrest the unconscious Scorpion, Lonnie leaves with his gang while Spider-Man goes to see Nico. He finally gives a big speech about being sorry for keeping a secret, while Nico gets some perspective at the sheer amount of danger and responsibility that Peter has on his scrawny back all this time. The two reconcile, although the show shows Nico's uncomfortable expression that implies she's hiding something from Peter... something that anyone that's a bit more familiar with Runaways would probably already be clued in towards. 

Despite multiple huge storyline elements being wrapped up, however, this is just episode 9 out of 10. In the last scenes of this episode, Norman calls Peter and congratulates him. I do like that Peter does still view Norman as a mentor in some way, and confides in him about his near loss of control, but Norman kind of brushes it off with some speech about the hero's path being difficult. After the call, Norman reconvenes with his little scientist minions... and his plans are slowly coming together. Wittman tells Norman, in particular, that Oscorp has succeeded in researching Spider-Man's blood and have a way to duplicate the power within... dun dunn dunnn!

So yeah. This is the finale to the Lonnie Lincoln origin story, while also wrapping up a bunch of other story threads too -- the Scorpion storyline, Otto (for now) and Peter's drama with Nico. Scorpion himself is a pretty simple but effective antagonist, and as I mentioned above I did like the Peter-rage moment. Lonnie is perhaps the break-it-or-make-it part of this season to most viewers, because... well, he might be using the name and powers of comic-book Tombstone, but most of this characterization is original to the show and it's undoubtable that he does take up a significant portion of the show's attention. I do lament the albino representation of comics Tombstone and I still find it odd that they chose not to do it, but the execution is... it's all right. I will admit that I like the buildup a lot more than the rather basic payoff. All in all, though, not too much to complain about. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The title screen with Scorpion holding a shredded Spider-Man mask is a reference to Spectacular Spider-Man #215.
• In the comics, Tombstone also gained his super-strength and indestructible skin via exposure to an experimental gas. 
• The 'menace' in the title is a nod to J. Jonah Jameson's catchphrase of calling Spider-Man a menace. 
• The idea of Spider-Man brutally beating up a villain and almost killing the villain with his own weapon, before being stopped by an ally, is notably the climax of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• Otto swears revenge on Norman, growling "the die is cast". This is Otto's catchphrase in the comics as the Superior Spider-Man. 
• This isn't the first time that Spider-Man swings upside-down in front of a girl, since that is the most famous shot from the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie. Unlike Mary Jane, a surprised Nico punches Peter in the face. 
• This isn't the first time that Oscorp has experimented with Spider-Man's blood or genetically enhanced spiders, being particularly relevant in the Amazing Spider-Man duology. 
• The broken vial that gives Tombstone his super-strength is identified as Diox-3, the same chemical that gave comics Tombstone his own powers. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E08 Review: Much Ado About Drama

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 8: Tangled Web

This is a nice little 'pre-finale' episode, where after his disastrous defeat at the hands of the Scorpion last episode, Peter ends up being quite rightfully traumatized after what seems to be this incarnation's first real brush with death. And again, both the main MCU and this cartoon has been quite insistent on showing that this is a teenaged version of Peter Parker, in what's essentially his first year. Having had such a sound defeat, his fancy Future Foundation costume broken beyond repair, and being woken up to Norman Osborn in the hospital... it's somewhat humbling for poor Peter, especially when Norman tells Peter to stay down and recover, and let the law enforcement hunt down Scorpion. Norman also quite unsubtly notes that he doesn't really care about catching the Scorpion, but his target is Otto Octavius. And showing that he cares much more about what he can or cannot use, Norman shows barely any concern to Peter's well-being (both physical and mental) and tells him that their cooperation is over if he can't deliver. 

And it's a pretty well-delivered 'impostor syndrome' episode mixed with a bit of Peter's own swirling doubts about Norman. And the thing is, he's kind of also pushing away people around him. His little Osborn internship clique (which the show has more or less treated as background noise after the original introduction) is celebrating over his successful experiment, and even jerks like Dr. Wittman and Amadeus Cho are grudgingly congratulating Peter, but he's not interested. When he goes home, he is unsuccessful in hiding his injuries from Aunt May, leading to a bit of a breakdown about how he's letting people like Norman and Nico down. I did really like these scenes -- ultimately it's not something that we haven't seen in a lot of the other Spider-Man material, but it's a good one nonetheless. 

Peter, meanwhile, tries his best to get along with his life, working on a science project with Pearl Pangan... and stumbles into a conversation with Lonnie. Again, the Lonnie storyline was something I wasn't sure about at first, but the story of how he ends up being 'in too deep' with the 110th is delivered surprisingly well. Even when presented with the need and the route to escape, like someone dependent, Lonnie ends up insisting and trying to convince Pearl (and maybe himself as well) that the gang needs him and he owes it to them to stand by them. It's a very stark contrast to his attitude a handful of episodes ago, where he's all but strongarmed to be working for them. I also like that the show adds a bit of a scene of Peter talking to Lonnie, making sure that the inter-character dynamics are established... it's a nice way of showing even out of costume he's still trying to help. 

And this conversation with Lonnie brings back a thought about Uncle Ben. I really do think not having that classic origin story with Uncle Ben's death right after Peter gains spider powers is a huge mistake in any retelling of Peter's origin story, but this is at least an all right compromise. 

Peter ends up confronting Norman (who, again, in another telling way on how he views people around him, shoos Harry from the discussion) and asks to be given another chance to be a good hero. Unfortunately, Norman's advice to Peter is meant to build him up to essentially be an unquestioning tool, leading to an actually well-done corrupted catchphrase: "with great power, comes great respect". Without respect, Peter doesn't have anything. And he needs to stop being afraid of his own strength and stop holding back. 

Which, done properly, is actually honestly a not-bad advice! And that's what makes this incarnation of Norman so deliciously dangerous. Like, being afraid of your own strength is a good motivational tool for people with imposter syndrome, or for people without confidence when they are performing in like, sports or a speech or something. Not when you're encouraging a teenager with super-strength to essentially shrug away the possibility of killing the gangsters he's fighting!

Norman, of course, treats pep talk and mentoring as essentially another meeting. Deliver the sales pitch, and move out. He's certainly not handling it the way a father figure or a mentor should. But Harry steps up to bat, and starts punching holes in the huge cloud of insecurity around Peter's head. Harry tells Peter that "Norman stopping working with Peter" isn't the end-all-be-all, and all but says that it's a manipulation tactic from his dad. After all, Peter Parker is Spider-Man before all of this Oscorp business, and what Spider-Man decides to do should be up to Spider-Man. And the episode's final shot is the two new best friends deciding to respond to a small-time threat (something Norman would've ignored, with his tunnel vision at catching Otto). Harry reveals that he's used Peter's sketches to create the iconic red-and-blue suit. That's cool, and a nice way for Peter to grab back his identity and destiny after the emotional wringer this episode put him through. 

(It's also kind of nice that while Harry wasn't being actively doing it to show up his dad, the fact that Norman thinks so little of Harry to constantly wave him off has done a lot of harm to Norman's attempts at manipulating Peter.)

While all of this is going on, by the way, I actually do like that the world actually does still move on while our hero is on a mental break. In the first half of the episode, we get a scene where Otto is attacked by a group of policemen, leading to a bit of a fun action scene as he activates his machinery to stall the policeman... only to get stomped to the ground and arrested by Iron Man. It's a nice little reminder that this is still a bigger world, and while Tony and Ross didn't do much, I do like that we're getting some outside involvement here and there; especially since narratively Otto isn't that important to Peter yet. 

In a bit of tying in together the various cast members, Lonnie and the 110th investigate where Scorpion got his super-mech suit, and gets a tip from Dmitri Smerdyakov -- now dressed up in full Chameleon regalia. Chameleon doesn't get another appearance after this, but it's a nice setup for a future antagonist. He reveals to the 110th the location of Otto's now Otto-less hideout, which is a nice escalation in the fight. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• As with many other Spider-Man material, the title page homages The Amazing Spider-Man #50, a.k.a. "Spider-Man No More!"
• Before he was arrested, Otto was attempting to purchase vibranium -- vibranium being sold a lot on the black market is a recurring plot thread in the MCU. The SWAT team also cite the Sokovia Accords from Civil War at him. 
• Iron Man's armour is based on his Silver Age look, notably with the mouth-slits on his mask. Tony Stark also has a mustache like his comic-book counterpart, as opposed to mimicking Robert Downey Jr's facial hair. 
• Chameleon dons a somewhat 'pragmatic' version of his comic-book's white-skinned mask. 
• Harry yells Mary-Jane's traditional comic-book catchphrase, "go get 'em, tiger!"

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. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E06 Review: MAN WITHOUT FEAR!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 6: Duel With The Devil

I really, really like Netflix's Daredevil, as you guys can probably tell by my excitement throughout my coverage of the excellent Daredevil: Born Again. So I don't think it's a surprise that I really, really like this episode, which brings in Charlie Cox back as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen in a rather substantial voice-over guest star. 

Which is a really unexpected blip of joy in this otherwise rather slow episode. No fault to the voice actors, which give their lines and explore the emotions of their characters quite perfectly, but maybe I'm just not in the right target demographic to really care to suffer through the awkwardness of Peter trying to bring spoiled-rich innocently-insensitive Harry Osborn and prickly, jealous-that-her-BFF-is-being-stolen Nico Minoru together for a movie night. These scenes are, admittedly, quite important for the narrative to get us to really care for Nico and Harry beyond their abstract concepts as Peter's friends. It's just that... well, I just don't find it particularly interesting, and we've already had several sequences of the episode hinging around the anxiety of Peter mismanaging his time. Oh, this episode ends with Harry accidentally blurting out Peter's identity to Nico, thinking that she already knows. That's an honestly understandable fuck-up for these inexperienced superheroes. 

I do like, however, that this incident nicely fits into the Norman/Peter relationship. Norman keeps framing Peter's work with him as an equal partnership, but in this episode he puts his foot down and straight-up orders Spider-Man to investigate Oscorp because it's being burgled by someone mysterious. Well, he doesn't order so much as emotionally gaslight Peter into investigating like an asshole parent, but something that the episode doesn't actually point out is that this isn't too different from the tactics that Big Ben and the 110th did to Lonnie Lincoln last episode.

Unbeknownst to Peter, Norman is going around making deals about Spider-Man behind his back, meeting with Secretary Ross. As a reminder that this takes place during the Civil War storyline, Norman essentially promises a superhero that's under the control of people who are aligned with the U.S. government, treating Spider-Man as essentially an asset or an employee. 

Of course, instead of another villain of the week, Spider-Man instead finds... Daredevil, in all his glory with a black version of his Netflix costume. A much more experienced superhero, with the skills to dodge and parry everything Spider-Man can throw at him. Very cool sequence, and a nicely 'real' confrontation as in this universe, both Daredevil and Spider-Man are still relative unknowns. In typical superhero fashion, both Daredevil and Spider-Man realize that the other isn't exactly a villain, so Spider-Man lets Daredevil go... but not before Daredevil warns him that Norman Osborn isn't as nice as he makes himself out to be. 

In the gang wars storyline, Lonnie's old life is slowly getting destroyed. His popularity among the gangsters is increasing with his whole 'Tombstone' moniker, but the coach pulls him out of his team, and this has also torpedoed his grades and his relationship with Pearl. The Otto Octavius storyline also gets a nice little tie-in here, because his role as a supervillain tech broker has a brand-new customer... Mac Gargan of the Scorpions, who gets a Scorpion-themed powered armour as the cliffhanger. 

Looking back at this episode after having finished the season, this sequence is admittedly a huge bit of cameo-for-the-sake-of-a-cameo. Daredevil doesn't really show up in a relevant way for the rest of the season; and this meeting doesn't really feel like it's particularly pivotal in shaking up Peter's faith towards Norman -- it's just one among many. (And the Ross stuff also doesn't really come up, which is a bit of a disappointment. So in that regards this episode does feel a bit self-indulgent. But it's Daredevil, so I can't honestly say I'm particularly upset. A bit of a shame, because I really did like the storylines brought up by the events in this episode, but the season simply doesn't follow up on them properly. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Daredevil returns with a black version of his MCU/Netflix suit (a few months before Daredevil: Born Again released). Charlie Cox returns to reprise his role, making him the only live-action actor to do so. Some musical cues from the Netflix show also are used here.
• Eleanor Bishop, Kate Bishop's mother and a rich businesswoman, is mentioned as one of the guests of the charity ball. 
• In the comics, the Scorpion's traditional origin story involves a combination of genetic experimentation and a scorpion-themed armour. This version of the Scorpion seems to fully utilize just a power-suit, appropriately enough provided by Dr. Octopus who himself is known for his technological tentacles. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E05 Review: Future Foundation

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 5: The Unicorn, Unleashed!

This episode slows down a bit with the rapid-fire character introductions, but I think it's around this point that the show has basically introduced everyone it wants to. I would still argue that some of them could've benefited from being more drip-fed to us over a couple of episodes, but eh. 

Anyway, realizing that Norman is also part of the "having to juggle many things in his daily routine" club, Harry ends up being drafted into the little Spider-Team, taking over the role as the "dude at the chair desk". Harry is characterized as being bubbly and overly-excitable, but often forgets just how privileged he is and ends up accidentally coming off as being a bit of an ass. But he's actually nice! That's a nice portrayal, and with various newer adaptations writing out Harry (TASM made him a villain almost from the get-go; the PS4 game had him offscreen; and he's the only major Peter Parker supporting cast to not have shown up in the MCU) it's nicely refreshing to see him as 'Peter's best friend' again. 

Our villain of the week is Mila Masaryk from the previous episode's Russian gang, who, despite seemingly abandoning her crew last episode, actually made good on her promise to come back. She gets some supervillain technology from Otto Octavius, who delivers a perfect 180 when he switches from "vendor trying to sell his stuff" to "indignant intellectual being pissed at the plebians". It's a very classic Otto thing to do, and it's a nice set-up for the villain to keep being a major player in the series. And honestly, as much as I adore Alfred Molina's more noble portrayal, this return to the egocentric dipshit of the oldest comics is a nice take on the character. 

Mila goes off to free her teammates from the prison, and her allies christen her the name 'Unicorn' after her helmet's ability to shoot laser beams from her forehead. Unicorn gets to be probably the first minor villain to take up a significant amount of the episode's actual screentime, and she ends up being the villain for the final act of the episode. The fight itself is fine, with the nice little twist at the end that the Unicorn is fully willing to open fire on her teammate Mikhail (the future Rhino) with the justification that Spider-Man is 'too soft' and will jump in the way. Rather predictably, this teammate-endangerment disgusts Mikhail so much that he teams up with Spider-Man, at least to the point that Mila is taken out. A nice little villain-of-the-week, while also building up the Rhino for actually being a character we care about in the future as someone with a much more noble streak of honour within. 

Speaking of building up characters, Nico has been a constant presence over the last couple of episodes, being Peter's perky little friend who just wants her geek best friend to actually show up for geeky stuff. Nico is also extremely distrustful of Oscorp and Harry Osborn, not liking big corporations and whatnot... which throws a huge wrench into Peter's life-juggling. The episode ends with Peter rushing to a movie night with Nico... but brings Harry along. Friend group hijinks ahoy, I suppose. 

Lonnie, meanwhile, gets alienated further and further from the people in his life. Being the star player of the school football team, and being a good boyfriend isn't exactly things that the 110th Gang cares about, especially when they expect Lonnie to be able to answer calls immediately and rush to the gang hideout whenever the boss demands. Again, it's a lot of gaslighting (with one of the 110th, Bulldozer, actually showing up with a car near the school as a none-too-subtle threat) to force Lonnie to participate in the upcoming gang fight against the Scorpions and their leader, Mac Gargan. Who is as much of a lunatic as his comic-book counterpart is! 

And I guess Stockholm Syndrome is starting to set in, because in the chaos of the fight, an overwhelmed Lonnie sees Mac Gargan about to stab Big Ben... and charges in and rescues his boss. This earns him a place within the gang and a new nickname, "Tombstone". Again, I wasn't particularly enthused about this focus on Lonnie initially, but I do really like the honestly quite sinister storytelling as Lonnie finds himself more and more comfortable by what's essentially his abusers. 

Pretty interesting buildup episode, again, while also introducing some nice relationships and dynamics among our characters (Lonnie/Big Ben; Peter/Harry; the Rhino; Doc Ock). Again, I might still have some reservations about the animation style, but this is a pretty solid episode in this season as we reach the halfway point. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Vincent Patilio, Otto's assistant, is the frog-themed supervillain Leapfrog in the comics. He previously appeared in the MCU in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. 
• Dr. Octopus uses his traditional comic book green-and-orange jumpsuit costume, as opposed to the 'modernized' trenchcoat popularized by Spider-Man 2. 
• Harry using the term "dude at the desk" is a riff on MCU Ned constantly using the terminology of "dude in the chair" from Spider-Man: Homecoming. 
• Mikhail briefly notes that Mila looks like a 'rhino' with the horn in her helmet, a nod to his comic-book counterpart's iconic Rhino alter-ego. 
• Nico snarks that Harry would become a politician who can win the election with his father's money, which is depicted in some alternate univreses in the comics. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E04 Review: Unlocking New Suits

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 4: Hitting the Big Time

Another episode, another set of 3-5 new characters to keep track about. At least this time around the new players are organized to villainous factions? The first two episodes were honestly quite rough in its attempt to introduce so many supporting characters, but "Hitting the Big time" does it a bit better. 

And one major thing that it does is to have its three primary players -- Peter, Norman and Lonnie -- be focused on their own thing. Make no mistake, the focus of the episode is more about Lonnie's time in the 110th and the introduction of the Scorpion gang, but Peter and Norman have their own storyline going on. We've been beating filler villains like Butane and Speed Demon every episode, and it's nice that the show recognizes the repetitiveness of one-off villains. This episode is also a nice tie-in to Captain America: Civil War, where Norman gets some pressure from General Ross to get a superhero that would be a bit more amenable to listen to orders. That is totally something that a non-Goblin Norman Osborn would get up to, and trying to make Spider-Man "marketable" in all the wrong ways. For fans of the comics, it's a cute nod to the 'Secret Identity Crisis' storyline with Spider-Man's various alter egos, but it also makes for a nice (if not the best) parallel to Spider-Man: Homecoming and the revelation that Peter's super-duper-high-tech suit that he got from Iron Man actually has 'training wheels' on. Norman just gives Spider-Man a whole lot of fancy high-tech suits and expects him to be able to function, which ends up just about as well as jumping into a video game without a tutorial. 

That's cool, and we just keep cutting back and forth between Spider-Man's very poor attempts to utilize the variant suits until the episode ends with Spider-Man donning the 'Future Foundation' white-and-black suit from the comics to rescue a group of civilians trapped around vehicles on fire after a breakout from next episode's villains -- the future Rhino, Chameleon and Unicorn. And one extra. The little 'Russian gang' don't get to do much other than bicker and get arrested, but it's a nice setup for villains that will be recurring in a bit.

Three of the gangsters are captured, but Mila escapes... and at the end of the episode, she goes into a random garage where a bunch of supervillain tech lie around, and she meets Dr. Otto Octavius, another one of Spider-Man's biggest foes! 

Meanwhile, while the second and third episode focuses a lot on Peter Parker trying to juggle his various commitments and responsibilities, Lonnie finds his life crumbling around him. He's essentially 'held hostage' by the 110th and has no way to really explain this to the people in his life, like his coach or his girlfriend. We get to see some manipulation tactics from the 110th's boss, Big Ben Donovan, who sends Lonnie on an errand to 'pick up some food', very knowingly setting Lonnie up to walk into the Scorpions' gang territory and nearly get shanked by them. Again, further holding Lonnie hostage -- there is some attempt on Big Ben's part of trying to play the 'noble mafia' and 'people's guardians' angle telling Lonnie that it's better to be friends with the devils that he knows will protect him, but the entire episode does deliver Big Ben and the 110th essentially trying to pull off a Stockholm Syndrome deal on Lonnie. They celebrate Lonnie's induction into the group, but really, at this point, Lonnie doesn't have much of a choice, does he? 

Again, I was a bit pessimistic about the Lonnie storyline, and while I'm not the biggest fan of how we were introduced to it in the first couple of episodes, this one is probably the first episode that sells me on it. Ditto for the Spider-Man/Norman relationship, with a nice balance of Norman's control-freak tendencies showing through while also being believable enough that Peter would stick around with him as an ally. Speaking of Peter's allies, this episode also ends in a bit of a cliffhanger as Peter accidentally reveals his identity to Harry Osborn. Okay!

Where I wasn't the most pleased with the rapid-fire introduction of side-characters, I feel like the Scorpion, Dr. Octopus, and the Rhino/Chameleon/Unicorn gang were done quite well here. The way they are integrated into the story and our primary established characters feels a lot more natural, and I also like the fact that they're being built up for the longer haul as opposed to the throwaway one-shot enemies like Tarantula or Butane. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Dr. Otto Octavius is, of course, the future Dr. Octopus. Like most incarnations of the character, but particularly the one from the PS4-PS5 Spider-Man video games, Dr. Octopus has a huge rivalry and is estranged with Norman Osborn. Other villains:
• Mikhail Systevich is better known as the supervillain Rhino, although the name has been swapped around a little. Rhino's traditional name is Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich.
• Dmitri Smerdyakov is better known as the supervillain Chameleon, the shapeshifting spy.
• Way more obscure than the other two is Mila Masaryk, a gender-flipped version of Milos Masaryk, a.k.a. the Unicorn. We'll see her in action next episode.
• Mac Gargan is another well-known Spider-Man villain, the Scorpion. In live action, a version of Mac Gargan as a criminal with a scorpion tattoo appeared in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• Mac's lieutenant Carmilla Black is better known in the comics as Scorpion II, or sometimes Scorpia. 
• One of the 110th is identified as Bulldozer, a member of the Wrecking Crew. The entire crew has previously appeared in the MCU in She-Hulk.
• The various suits that Norman created for Peter are nods to the Identity Crisis storyline, which involves Peter having to go superheroing with different costumes to clear the name of Spider-Man. Notably, his 'Hornet', 'Prodigy' and 'Dusk' costumes make an appearance here.  
• Spider-Man's white-and-black suit is based on the "Future Foundation" suit provided to him by the Fantastic Four in the comics. 
• The events of Captain America: Civil War, sans Spider-Man's involvement, happens around the time of this episode. The Sokovia Accords, the U.S. government's response to it and snippets of the airport battle are mentioned throughout the episode.
• Other MCU nods include mentions of the Chitauri invasion from The Avengers, Hulk's rampage in Johannesburg in Age of Ultron, and an Avenger-created AI going rogue and decimating a country, also from Age of Ultron.
• Roxanna name-drops the Tracksuits, the villainous gang from Hawkeye, as a rival that might hit the stash house they are robbing first/
• The episode's title card with a silhouetted Spider-Man surrounded by 'floating heads' is a homage to the cover of issue #100 of the original Amazing Spider-Man run. 
• At one point, Spider-Man rescues a kid's balloon that floats off, a reference to the old PlayStation 2 Spider-Man 2 game where a similar mission is a recurring side-quest that became a bit of a meme.
• The guy that Spider-Man saves from a burning car calls him 'Amazing', one of the associated with the hero.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E03 Review: Deal with the Devil

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 3: Secret Identity Crisis

So yeah, we finally start this episode off with Norman Osborn actually being a proper character instead of relying on audience knowledge that he's normally a maniac that flies around in a goblin costume. I have criticized the amount of characters we are supposedly 'building up', but I enjoy the fact that at least one of the future main antagonists, Green Goblin, the Spider-Man antagonist, gets to be built up quite a bit as Spider-Man's mentor. This is a relationship that would never have worked anywhere as well in a movie series, so I'm happy to see some focus given to this more sinister mentorship in this series. If nothing else, I do feel like the idea of a version of the Spider-Man mythos where Norman starts off as Peter's mentor and confidant to be quite cool.

And it is interesting to see how my initial knowledge of who Norman Osborn is in the comics does make what he does a bit more sinister. It wouldn't be out of character for Tony Stark to also hire out a whole expensive restaurant in a none-too-subtle way to 'wow' Peter Parker, after all. But Norman reveals that the whole Oscorp internship thing has been a way to locate Spider-Man, with the relatively reasonable deduction that Spider-Man must be getting his fancy equipment from somewhere. And if not from Oscorp, one of the biggest technological firms out there, then from someone off-grid and very smart. Hence, hiring the four smartest youth to work for him. It's, allegedly, 'pure luck' that he hired Spider-Man himself instead of his supplier. Norman then spins this into a recruitment pitch, wanting Spider-Man to work for him. Peter turns this down, initially, which Norman takes surprisingly well. 

Lonnie Lincoln, the future Tombstone, who we've gotten to know a bit in the previous couple of episodes as a charming, super-popular school superstar athlete, gets a different 'deal with the devil' himself. His little brother has joined the 110th Street gang, and Lonnie charges in to confront the gangsters to get his brother out. His little brother feels utterly upstaged and inferior to Lonnie, but the 110th confrontation ends just about as well as you expect it for Lonnie. He ends up joining the gang in the place of his brother, and one can't help but think that the gang recruited Lonnie's little brother exactly for this response. It's an interesting start to the build-up of the gang wars storyline that's going to take over a significant chunk of this season, if nothing else, and a nice bit of social commentary. Lonnie is essentially 'held hostage' by this gang, despite having such a great future in front of him, and it's interesting to see what choices he makes in the season. Knowing that he's otherwise known as the supervillain Tombstone in the comics does take a bit of the wind out of the sails for me, but the setup is good, if nothing else. 

The episode then has its big fight scene against a supervillain Bonnie-and-Clyde duo -- the minor supervillain Speed Demon, and an even more minor one called Tarantula. They've gotten their hands on some supervillain tech, with Speed Demon having, well, super-speed; while Tarantula has some slashing blades. Spider-Man zips in to fight them, and gets into a bit more trouble... until Norman chimes in from an earpiece and ends up helping Spider-Man in a 'guy in a chair' manner. Just like Lonnie, Peter ends up taking Norman's offer by the end of the episode, though he insists that it be done 'his way'. 

This is another slower episode, but a bit of a nice set-up. I do acknowledge that a lot of the scenes could stand to be a bit more interesting, and I'm not sure if it's the voice-acting or animation that doesn't quite 'grab' me as well as it should. But we get some neat buildup for the Peter/Norman relationship and the genesis of Lonnie's relationship with the 110th. It's just rather slow, is all, but being a bit slower to focus on relationship growth isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• New characters:
• Speed Demon, a.k.a. James Sanders, is a supervillain that was part of the Squadron Sinister -- a group of supervillains who challenged the Avengers with powers "suspiciously" similar to that of Marvel's biggest competitors, DC comics' Justice League. 
• Tarantula, a.k.a. Maria Vasquez, is the fifth character to utilize the mantle of minor Spider-Man villain "Tarantula". Maria was a heroic character in the comics, being a member of the Heroes for Hire team. 
• Big Donovan, better known as "Big Ben" Donovan in the comics, is a lawyer and a supporting character and sometimes-antagonist for Luke Cage and Daredevil. He has previously already appeared in the MCU in Luke Cage, as an antagonistic lawyer fully aligned with the mob. 
• Norman shows a video of Spider-Man stopping a bus with his bare hands, alluding to how Tony Stark showed a similar video when confronting Peter with his superhero identity in Captain America: Civil War.
• When rattling off upgrades for the Spider-Man suit, Norman name-drops night vision lenses (seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming) and a drone (seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming). Hilariously, Norman dismisses the drone as being 'too much', which was one of the main complaints that a lot of the detractors of the 'Iron Man's protege' angle that the MCU takes.
• The other upgrades are a bit more non-specific, but 'a mild electric shock to ward off attackers' seems to recall the Batman movie The Dark Knight; while 'a police scanner wired into the mask' seems to be a general enough superhero gimmick. 
• Norman snarks that Peter would've had an easier alibi pretending to be Spider-Man's friend. This is a common handwave-excuse for a lot of older superhero comics, and Spider-Man himself has utilized this excuse many times. In particular, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy had him use this excuse to justify him getting pictures of the superhero.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E02 Review: Oscorp Rising

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 2: Parker Luck

Another aspect of this show that doesn't come off particularly well how much it vomits out multiple characters at once. After the first episode introduces us to Peter's school friends, this episode has Norman Osborn offer Peter an internship, at which point we are introduced to a smattering of new, quirky characters -- fellow interns Amadeus Cho (a Hulk), Jeanne Foucault (Finesse), Asha (a Wakandan superheroine), as well as Peter's handlers in Oscorp, Dr. Bentley Wittman (The Wizard) and Dr. Carla Connors (a gender and race-flipped Lizard). Hindsight being 20-20, I now know that the entire Oscorp interns gang are just almost entirely fluff and foreshadowing for the next season, since none of them really ended up mattering in this season, but it still feels like an unnecessary overloading of characters... which honestly feels like it's just banking on some audience familiarity with 'oh, these guys are going to be superheores/supervillains'. It is admittedly a bit unnecessarily exhausting.  

One thing this episode does well is, at least, to explore the initial dynamics between Peter and Norman, which is perhaps the biggest draw for this alternate universe quasi-reboot. The point of comparison is the main MCU having the more benevolent Iron Man as Peter's mentor, and we all know what a villainous control freak Norman can be. YFNSM's Norman Osborn is shown to be friendly and stern, a more professional version of Tony, and I do feel like this dynamic is one thing that goes all the way to the end of the season well.

The majority of the episode is... it's something that is almost obligatory in a show formatted like this, but I just don't find it particularly interesting. Peter is juggling his internship work with his school social life (He's got a project with Lonnie! He's got a party with Nico!) and, oh, his superheroing as Spider-Man. I'm not going to be mean and say it's badly done, because I feel like the show does a great job at portraying the panicking teenage anxiety, but it's also the focus of the entire episode and I just felt like it could've been done better. At the very least, Peter should've been able to use his Oscorp internship as a way to dodge Nico, surely? But this time management thing is pretty baked into Spider-Man's DNA, so whether it's school/internship/superhero or Mary Jane/Daily Bugle/superhero, I feel I shouldn't be too harsh on it. 

The episode also gives us a villain of the week, Scorcher Butane, a dumbass arsonist who was tasked to burn down an empty building for insurance purposes, but ends up attacking the wrong building. It's mostly just a fluffy fight, given some extra flair because Peter needs to rescue some animals in the midst of fighting Butane, but it does give us some nice superheroing action. It's all ultimately a catalyst to the fact that Peter's amateurishness causes Norman Osborn to catch him in action as Spider-Man, which happens quite early into the show and is quite an interesting development. 

It's still a bit of a slower episode, which I think is going to be a common criticism for this show. Overall, though, I do find this show quite enjoyable and I feel like the series is interesting at least in terms of the Peter/Norman dynamic. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• New characters:
• Amadeus Cho, also known as the 'Totally Awesome' Hulk, is a child prodigy and one of the smartest people in the world, who found his Hulk powers to be a gift and is able to retain his regular persona even in Hulk form. He has been a Hulk supporting character since his debut. 
• Jeanne Foucault in the comics is the daughter of the supervillain Taskmaster, inheriting her father's ability to copy any physical skills he has observed. Jeanne would become a superhero under the codename Finesse. 
• Asha in the comics is a superpowered Wakandan with the ability to absorb and reflect light energy. 
• Dr. Bentley Wittman is better known as the supervillain Wizard, a genius who uses superpowered tools like anti-gravity discs to lead the team called the Frightful Four. 
• Butane in the comics is a minor Excalibur supporting character with the power to control fire. The appearance of the show's version of Butane, a mechanically-augmented pyromaniac with twin flamethrowers, recalls traditional Spider-Man villain Scorcher much more closely. 
• Dr. Carla Connors is a gender-flipped and race-flipped version of Dr. Curt Connors, better known as the Lizard. She still is missing an arm, though!
• The security guard in Oscorps has the name "J. Gallo", seemingly identifying him as John Gallo/Ricochet, a mutant with heightened senses and an ability to sense danger.
• Coach Phil Grayfield is a very unexpected Marvel comics character, the indestructible football player called "NFL SuperPro", who headlined a series of comics as a tie-in with the sports association NFL.
• Nico name-drops Roxxon Oil as an even worse corporation than Oscorp. Roxxon is a notoriously corrupt and unethical megacorp in the Marvel universe, having had appearances in the MCU in all three Iron Man movies, Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Daredevil, and most notably as antagonists in Cloak and Dagger. 
• Peter Parker's phone is cracked and broken, matching its appearance with his sacred timeline counterpart in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
• While Amadeus was flipping through the channels, it briefly shows a wrestling competition with "Crusher" Hogan. In the original comics, Peter Parker initially utilizes his Spider-Man powers to get money from a wrestling competition, fighting against Crusher Hogan. 
• A picture in Norman's corridors show him posing with Captain America. 

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S01E01 Review: School's In

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Season 1, Episode 1: Amazing Fantasy

Released earlier this year, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an... interesting show. Part of the push towards having more animated material in the vein of What If, this show was originally promised to the fandom as a 'high school' semi-prequel of MCU's Tom Holland Spider-Man. Which would be a nice, if throwaway, little show that fills in a gap about an MCU character most people care about. 

At some point, it got changed and revised to still be an MCU show, but one that's... in another part of the multiverse, and depicts an 'almost-MCU' Spider-Man. But with almost none of the cast members that makes MCU Spider-Man who he is. A lot of the cast is shuffled around (with only young Aunt May remaining), with a version of Harry Osborn and Norman Osborn being brought in from the parts of the Spider-Man mythos the MCU is unable to tackle; and a grab-bag of more obscure characters like Nico Minoru and Pearl Pangan to fill out Peter's side cast... which, I actually am big enough of a geek to know who these characters are, also feels like there a forced diversity checklist being done by replacing Peter's regular cast with characters that he's never interacted with. 

And, to add into the pile, it really is quite strange just what they could do here, other than the novelty of having another Spider-Man cartoon on the air right now. And... we get to see the origin story of Peter Parker, Spider-Man, in this new continuity, because as he's about to go to orientation on Midtown High, a portal opens and Dr. Strange (MCU cameos, wow!) and a monstrous Symbiote (Venom, wow!) show up and fight and tear the school apart. While all of this is going on, Peter shows off his innate sense of responsibility pre-powers and saves Nico.

Oh, and the entire backstory is revised as well, with the spider that bites Peter Parker coming from the portal (hi, Into The Spider-Verse) and biting Peter during the big fight. Oh, and Uncle Ben has already died off-screen, robbing this Peter of what should've been a major moment of learning the price of not using great power for great responsibility. 

And then we cut to a few months later, where Peter Parker is Spider-Man, swinging around with a rather unflattering homemade suit. This episode sets up Peter's brand-new side-cast. He saves Harry Osborn from a bunch of muggers, and we get to see the rest of the cast in a very infodump-y segment of the school. Fellow geek Nico Minoru is now his best friend; ex-babysitter Pearl Pangan is the girl Peter likes; and Lonnie Lincoln is the jock that gets the girl. Except Lonnie turns out to be a swell guy -- breaking the 'jock bully' stereotype in a slightly better way than MCU's geeky-Flash-Thompson. 

There is... a lot to be said about them changing the traditionally albino African-American Lonnie Lincoln into not being an albino. There are many race and gender swapping done in this cartoon that I'm ambivalent towards, but in this case in particular, I felt like it robs Lonnie of one of his defining character traits. People more qualified than me have commented about this, so I'll move on. 

The episode ends with Peter being scouted for greatness in an almost shot-to-shot copy of the scene where Peter meets Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War, only the rich tech guy mentor in this continuity is, instead... Norman Osborn. 

And that's the end of the first episode. To be honest, part of the bigger criticism about Spider-Man is that his origin story has been told over and over again, and seeing it swapped around so much is definitely an odd choice to make. The giant dump of more obscure characters who are promoted to main characters isn't done in the best manner (and this will continue across at least the show's first two or three episodes) and I'm not the biggest fan of the quasi-3D art style. Some of them work well, and a nice nod to older comics. And some of the action scenes are certainly smooth. But just like What If before it, I'm not the biggest fan of this art style. 

But this episode was... all right. Again, the concept of the show is a bit strange to most of the fandom, and it does admittedly feel like a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' dilemma. Having an overly faithful adaptation of Peter Parker's origin story is something that most superhero fans have seen a dozen times, but changing too much would also lead to a lot of complaints. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man's attempts are... respectable. I'm not the biggest fan of this episode, though, mostly because of its structure. It meanders around a fair bit, introduces a lot of characters at once, and takes quite a while to find its footing. Nice cliffhanger as we're introduced to Norman Osborn, though. 

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Notes: I know Ironheart is out right now, but I really don't have the time to watch it right now! YFNSM reviews, meanwhile, have been sitting on my drafts list for quite a while since it initially was released. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 'New' characters that aren't part of the traditional Spider-Man supporting cast. 
• Nico Minoru is better known as Sister Grimm, a member of the Runaways, a group of teenaged superheroes with powers from different corners of the Marvel universe, battling against their parents after discovering their evil plans. Nico's powers stem from the Staff of One, allowing her to utilize magical powers. The Runaways TV show and its incarnation of Nico is technically part of the MCU, but hasn't been really referenced elsewhere.
• Pearl Pangan, better known as the Filipino superheroine Wave, is a swimmer who was exposed to chemical substances during a supervillain attack, granting her the power to control water, and she is primarily associated with the Agents of Atlas team.
• Lonnie Lincoln, better known as the Spider-Man villain Tombstone, is typically an old-school mob boss in New York City well-known for his albino complexion and the teeth he filed down to look like a vampire. He has menaced both Spider-Man and Daredevil over the years.
• The monster that Doctor Strange and Peter Parker are fighting is a Symbiote monster with Venom's colours, though the physical silhouette does not match Venom's. Notably, after the messy dividing of the sub-aspects of Spider-Man's villains among Marvel and Sony; this is the first time that a Symbiote character has a major role in an MCU project. (Tom Hardy's Venom had a cameo in No Way Home's post-credits scene). 
• The title of the episode, 'Amazing Fantasy', is the the title of the comic run where Spider-Man debuted all the way back in 1962, Amazing Fantasy #15. The comic itself makes a visual cameo in Peter's room. 
• The Daily Bugle's photograph of Spider-Man is a homage to the cover of that comic as well.
• As I mentioned in the body of the review itself, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is set in a universe in the MCU Multiverse. At the very least, MCU staples like a younger Aunt May, Midtown High and Iron Man's presence is present here; and Doctor Strange from another universe (who wields the Time Stone, an MCU signifier; though his outfit is coloured like his comic-book counterpart) appears through a portal.
• No one recognizes Dr. Strange, which is keeping in line with the MCU where Dr. Strange's activities have been secret from the public prior to Infinity War. 
• While not named in the movie it debuted in, 'Shield of the Seraphim' takes its visual animation cues from the shield spell that Dr. Strange and Wong both use in Infinity War.
• This isn't the first Spider-Man who's been bitten by a spider that appeared from another universe -- it was a major plot point for Miles Morales in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. 
• Spider-Man being associated with pizza (and the 'Pizza Time' sign in general) is a running gag in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and became a bit of a meme due to the tie-in PlayStation 2 games. 
• The opening shot of Queens homages the establishing shot from Captain America: Civil War. One of the earliest Spider-Man exploits in that universe (which is shown via a video Tony Stark is watching) is stopping a van that's about to run into a bus. Peter's later return to his and May's apartment is also recreated almost shot-for-shot from Civil War, albeit with Norman in place of Tony. 
• Klev, the 'do a flip' guy from Spider-Man: Homecoming (and the 'bus guy' in Shang-Chi), makes a cameo when Spider-Man goes to try and catch the van. 
• One of the muggers is called 'Stevie Sherman', named after Jack Kirby's assistant. 
• One of the guys on the stream mocks the muggers for being beaten up by 'a guy in hockey pads', a surprising reference to the DC Batman movie The Dark Knight, where Batman makes fun of a fake Batman for doing the same thing. 

DC's Creature Commandos, Season 1 Review

DC’s Creature Commandos, Season 1

So this is a bit of a weird one! With the huge news that the DCEU (or the ‘Snyderverse’) being rebooted, and the creative head of the brand-new DC Cinematic Universe (or whatever they are calling it) being James Gunn, there is a very… strange bit where they are keeping some aspects of the old continuity and junking most of it. Which leads to a bizarre sense of “oh, this is a brand-new thing, but we’re keeping some things the same”. It’s always one of the worst parts of DC comic adaptations, where there are so many independent continuities that aren’t supposed to be set in the same universe but there’s also sometimes a lot of callbacks to each other? Say what you want about the MCU, but at least they are relatively consistent in terms of not contradicting each other’s projects too much. 

So ahead of Superman, which would be released later this year, the first project in the ‘Gunnverse’ DC universe is… an R-rated animated project that runs for 7 episodes. DC’s Creature Commandos is a spiritual sequel to the 2021 Suicide Squad movie — even referencing events that happened in that movie (as well as its spinoff, the Peacemaker TV series). Some actors are reused, some characters make a reappearance, but otherwise this is allegedly the very first entry in the brand-new DC universe.

Which is weird, by the way. I’m a long-time DC fan, but I must confess that I’ve never even heard of many of the characters featured in this show. It does make it quite refreshing, in a way, even though the concept of the show is essentially a rebranded version of the 2021 Suicide Squad movie (not the 2016 one!). And if you’re going to introduce a bunch of brand-new characters to an audience, I suppose the ‘anyone can die’ format of a Suicide Squad story works relatively well. 

And… again, the concept of a black ops team comprised of shady military folk (Amanda Waller and Rick Flagg Senior make up this end) and repurposed supervillains trying to do black ops missions that technically benefit the United States of America… it’s always an interesting storyline that unfortunately was butchered by the terrible 2016 movie attempt. And given time, a Suicide Squad story would explore the humanity and the individual characterizations and backstories of each single member of the team. 

The plot is interesting enough, with our Creature Commandos initially being sent to the fictional country of Pokolistan to save Princess Ilana from a group of assassins led by the witch Circe. The first half of the mission deals with this relatively black-and-white mission, but later on the team gets fragmented over their differing loyalties to other characters when it is discovered that Princess Ilana might actually have the potential to wipe out all of civilisation in the future.

Our titular ‘Creature Commandos’ are comprised of a mixture of characters: Rick Flagg Senior takes over from Rick Flagg Junior, who died in 2021’s Suicide Squad, and as the only sane man that’s leading a bunch of lunatics, Rick is also torn between his loyalty to his country and his newfound romance with the Princess of Pokolistan. The Bride of Frankenstein is the closest thing that the show has to a main protagonist, who starts off with a devil-may-care attitude. She’s ill-mannered and keeps insisting that they are all ‘monsters’, but eventually learns to appreciate at least some of her teammates. Minor Batman antagonist Dr. Phosphorus is the team’s comedic sociopath, a radioactive skull-man who is probably the source of the show’s most brutal murders of random adversaries. G.I. Robot is a one-note robotic being who is preoccupied with one thing and one thing only, which is the killing of Nazis. “The Mermaid” Nina Mazursky is a modern-day Creature from the Black Lagoon, but is also the only one in the group that’s the most human, acting very much like a scared young woman thrust into a mission that she is clearly unprepared for. And Weasel returns from 2021’s Suicide Squad as an unintelligible beastly creature who’s there for a lot of comedic gags. 

One thing that makes this show works, however, is the fact that we have proper ‘flashback episodes’ for each and every one of these characters. With the exception of the first episode, each episode has a present-day plot and a flashback detailing the backstory of one of its characters (and secondary antagonist ‘Eric’, the Frankenstein’s Monster, gets another one) makes you really do feel about the backstories of these people… and it’s a bit of a coin toss whether someone receiving a spotlight in a flashback means that one of them is going to die or get more exploration in the story. This makes it a lot more fun to watch as we don’t have a ‘Slipknot’ problem from the 2016 movie, where it’s so obvious that the character that the movie itself doesn’t care to explore isn’t going to make it out of the first act.

Because of — and perhaps it’s precisely the function of — the obscureness of most of these characters and the utterly wanton brutality of the show, it really is hard to guess who’s going to make it out or not. Which I feel is a nice subversion to the two live-action Suicide Squad shows, where a lot of the marquee actors could be assumed to be safe. Not all the characters are created equal, but all of the flashback stories are crafted amazingly well. From the surprisingly dark and heartwrenching backstory for the mute Weasel, to the domino of effects that turned poor Dr. Sartorius into the sociopathic Dr. Phosphorus, to the sad series of circumstances that led Nina into mistakenly abandoning her family, to the exploration of the single-minded artificial intelligence that is the G.I. Robot… the flashbacks are easily the highlights of the show, really helping the idea that all of these ‘monsters’, all these creatures, are actual people with their own tragic backstories. 

I can’t decide which one I like the best, but Weasel’s surprisingly touching backstory (which even had a nice foreshadowing in the first episode and in the 2021 movie) and the brutality that broke a good man that Doctor Phosphorus once was… they’re all done very well. 

That is not to say that the present-day stories are bad, because they aren’t. The present-day material is where a majority of the tension lies, of course. But the present-day stuff do rely a lot on just a glorious amount of ridiculous animated gore that would make Invincible proud. There is a rather significant immaturity to the violence and gore that just somehow works with this brand of comedy, although I also recognise that it’s not for everyone. I did find it funny, for sure, but I am an easily entertained man. 

There are, however, a fair amount of plotlines that kind of peter out into nothing — and that’s particularly surrounding the Bride. The Bride is one of the first backstories we learn about, where we learn that in the DC universe, Victor Frankenstein existed and he did create Frankenstein’s Monster, Eric… who is best described as an entitled man-child. We get the requisite tragic backstory as the Bride is created and is immediately terrified shitless by “you are NOW MY BRIDE!” Eric. There is some questionable pseudo-parental-figure relationship as Victor Frankenstein ends up falling in love with the Bride instead, and this leads to Eric killing Victor and chasing the Bride throughout all of history. 

We actually do spend a significant amount of time following Eric Frankenstein as he gets alerted of the Bride’s appearance in society, and he begins to hunt her down. The show gets significant mileage from David Harbour’s performance as what I can only describe as an ‘entitled incel stalker’, but… but while we do get the journey throughout both the Bride and the Monster’s flashbacks, as well as the Monster’s own journey in the present day as he befriends Rick Flagg Senior… the story just abruptly and very suddenly brushed aside without much of a satisfying conclusion either way. The Monster doesn’t grow at all through his journey (which is a fair enough direction) but neither does he have a satisfying confrontation with the Bride (she just shoots him in the beginning of the final episode and leaves him for dead) and we don’t really get much in terms of him actually trying to do something good this time around. For the amount of time we spent with them, I had expected something more. And that could be content for the second season, but it also feels quite bland. 

The Bride’s focus in the present day, other than the brief reminiscing of her past, seems to be on her growing into a reluctant leadership role. Or, rather, her friendship with Nina. Both Phosphorus and Weasel are kind of tagalongs, after all. And… again, it’s pretty basic. It’s something we’ve seen many times in these kinds of superhero stories. But I also did feel like the friendship between Nina and the Bride as they bond throughout the seven episodes… and eventually, the big decision that the Bride makes at the end of the show was clearly influenced by that friendship with Nina. 

(I am being kind of coy with what happens because a good chunk of this show lives and dies depending on spoilers… and while maybe not in these next couple of weeks, I do see myself doing episodic reviews for Creature Commandos at some point down the line)

The cast is rounded up by a bunch of more familiar faces. Princess Ilana is perfectly believable as someone who could just be desperate or psychotic enough to be a threat, but can also manage to fool the audience to being sweet. Suicide Squad’s Amanda Waller and Peacemaker’s John Economos are serviceable beleaguered government agents that are trying their best to take control of the situation. Another Batman antagonist, Clayface shows up as a mostly non-speaking antagonist in an episode. Wonder Woman enemy Circe perhaps gets the biggest shaft, being reduced to essentially an act-one threat before the Creature Commandos get somewhat split down the middle… although I do find it rather funny that apparently arguments about Circe’s power levels for a brand-new continuity caused a lot of waves in the comic-book community. 

And the plot is… well, it’s simple enough to fit into seven episodes while devoting a significant amount of time to flashbacks and origin stories. It mostly relies on two or three big twists in the latter half of the show to really get going, and a good chunk of its tension relies more on which of these Z-lister characters will survive or die, and, of course, that’s right after the show makes you care for them. And in that regard, it’s rather successful. 

There is something to talk about the ‘dudebro’ comedy, whether it’s the wanton cursing or the gratuitous violence. Which, admittedly, is quite on par with some of the more violent superhero deconstruction projects like Invincible and The Boys, and even DC’s own animated Harley Quinn cartoon. I don’t find it as distracting, but part of it might simply be because these are a relatively fresh batch of characters to me and thus I don’t have a much of an attachment to specific characterizations that got ‘changed’ the way the Harley Quinn cartoon did. However, I am aware of the significant changes from the source material (particularly regarding the Frankenstein’s Monsters) and I also acknowledge that this is a sore spot for them.

But, well, at the end of the day… it’s not the best superhero comic-book adaptation. It obviously is mostly an in-name-only adaptation of the titular Creature Commandos, other than perhaps including characters from that title. But I do have to be honest that I actually found this seven-episode, devil-may-care, crass and violent adaptation to be extremely entertaining. It’s not your typical superhero fare, but the execution is flashy and catchy enough that I do have to be honest — I was very entertained by this show.