SPIDER-MAN - Episode 15 - "The Rise of Doc Ock pt.1"
Well it's time true believers! Peter Parker the spectacular Spider-Man has returned from his mid-season break and is ready to jump back into animated action on Disney XD. The episode begins serenely enough in Dr. Otto Octavius' classroom at Horizon High amidst a pop quiz. Students Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy ,and Peter Parker discuss their peculiar teacher's history and reputation in great detail. Now this animated version of Spidey has been different in many ways from previous versions and how they've set up Doc Ock is a prime example. Here Otto is a 19 year old genius and is a respected scientist and teacher. Soon another difference shows up launching missiles into the classroom! It's classic comic book villain Crimson Dynamo and She! is quite a handful.
Spidey battles the new Dynamo in some nice animated comic book action and only just manages to get a Spidertracker on the armor as she slips away. Peter later tracks the Dynamo and they battle again, this time though they accidentally set off one of Dr. Octavius' old experiments. Seems Dynamo is after some power rods that could fuel her suit forever. Otto dons his laboratory mechanical arms and moves Spidey out of the way to take care of the melting down apparatus only to promptly have it explode in his face! And POOF! the birth of Doc Ock.
Peter goes to visit Otto in the hospital and uses some Uncle Ben knowledge to try and make the understandably upset teenager feel a little better. Maybe Doc could use whats happened to him, maybe become a hero. Spidey later searches for the Crimson Dynamo and finds more than he bargained for when she gets the drop on him and locates Otto's previous high powered experiments. She absorbs one of the power rods into her armor and as a result releases deadly drones into the air to zap and chase after Spider-Man! After some more excellent comic book animation action and some nice witty banter including digs at Stark tech, the Dynamo seems to get the drop on Spidey! Only the timely arrival of the hero known as "The Octopus!" saves our friendly neighborhood wall crawler. Otto saves Spider-Man but in doing so allows the Dynamo to get away yet again.
It was great to see a fantastic moment/nod to the old school paper comic book stories when Spidey suggested a "Team-Up". As well as his joyous reaction to it, as it mirrored my own sitting on my couch at home. Any comic geek could tell you Marvel Team-Up was a comic book series from the 70's-80's that had different stories and different characters joining up to solve a crime or defeat a villain. Spider-Man teamed up with the Human Torch, Hulk, Ghost Rider, etc...and it was awesome.
The duo do indeed team up with Doc Ock fixing Spidey's Spidertracker tracker while Spidey works the computer chasing down Dynamo leads. They eventually do find her and have a nice battle where the two, plus Miles in his Ultimate Spider-Man costume, fight Crimson Dynamo and stuff excitingly explodes. Dynamo gets a good whooping on the gang and Doc has to hustle to save some innocent people with his robotic arms. Spidey eventually figures out how to ZAP the Crimson Dynamo with his Spidertracker and knocks her out cold. Doc Ock is a hero!
So in a new series where they are reimagining almost every previous story and angle thats come before, they turn a classic Spidey villain into a new Spider friend. And hero. But something tells me thats not going to last too long...
