SPIDER-MAN - Episode 19 - "Spider-Island Pt.1 - Invisible Threat"
Spider-Man is recapping the recent events of The Rise of Doc Ock outside of Horizon High, as a mysterious hooded figure sits at a computer. It turns out Spidey is wearing his new Stealth Suit and is just trying to sneak up on Miles Morales who is at the terminal. The suit is dark, sleek, and cool but with an almost glow in the dark nitelite look to it. The stealth isn't working properly as Peter explains in some fun geek tech talk about how the mirage reflectors have a short in them. There's also a fun Meta moment here where Miles says he heard him talking to himself which of course was the Voice Over for the intro of the show. Turns out it was a not so internal monologue. The Action! picks up right away as some of Miles' security robots, who are programmed to recognize Spider-Man, don't recognize Stealth Spider-Man and attack.
In a nice move Spidey runs up a wall and flips over onto the back of one of the robots. He pulls on some wires attempting to subdue the Bot before quickly realizing he needs to take the battle out of Horizon High. Spider-Man web swings away and lands in an alley. Realizing the Bot doesn't recognize the costume, Peter takes it off. The robot shows up, scans him, recognizes him as Peter Parker, and moves along. Miles swings into the alley and the duo discuss why they think the suit malfunctioned. Turns out it was Pete's spider sweat doing the damage. Thinking his suit is broken he decides to throw it in the trash. Here we get a great moment by the producers as they reference one of Spider-Mans most important storylines, "Spider-Man No More!". An inspirational story from Amazing Spider-Man #50 from 1967.
In the comic book Spidey decides to quit being Spider-Man and leaves his costume in a dumpster in an alley. This storyline and image have been used in tv shows, movies, multiple Spider-Man comic book series as well as homaged and parodied by many other books. In the further solidifying of this show on Disney XD being a new version and storyline for Spider-Man, Peter instantly realizes his mistake and runs back to grab the garment remarking "I can't just throw out a Spider-man costume, that's incredibly irresponsible".
Harry Osborn is at the local diner working on getting into his father's laptop. Peter and Miles walk in and Peter leaves his backpack with the suit in it with Miles and heads over to talk to Harry. Harry won't have any of it and shuts him down telling him he isn't friends with people who help Spider-Man. Harsh, but he still believes Spider-Man is a part of Jackal's spider army. Gwen Stacy arrives and asks the fellas if they've felt any different since the Jackal's lab exploded. Woah spider fans, the audience's spider sense just went off. I think we can see where this is heading. After Gwen leaves Peter notices his backpack is missing! Thinking maybe Gwen or Harry might have taken it the boys head back to Horizon to try and trace the suit.
Back at the lab the boys geek out a bit about how Peter made the stealth suit. This science stuff is great and much appreciated as Peter should always be first and foremost an intellectual and inventor. They stumble upon the thief and he's wearing the Stealth Suit. Peter gets webbed up by the thief but manages to kick a cupcake at the stealthed thief, alerting the Security Bots to his presence. In the distraction Peter changes into his costume and battles the stealth thief. A nice fight sequence here where the two punch and kick each other until the thief secures what he's after and takes off. Spidey just manages to get a tracer on him as he gets away. He notices research and an experiment with spiders set up by Gwen in lab. Hmmmmmm. He eventually traces the tracker to Oscorp.
Inside Oscorp Harry finally gets into his father's laptop and watches a video journal from Norman talking about the Jackal's spider army and how he is going to destroy it. Harry vows to take down ALL the spider-men. In another part of the building Spidey and Miles race down hallways looking for Mr. Stolen Stealth Suit. They trace him to a lab where Spidey mistakenly declares "Got you Harry" thinking its his friend in the suit but uh oh Harry is actually across the lab watching all the action. Harry lights up his awesome flame sword and sets to work on taking out Spider-Man. Miles steps in and takes the sword away from him. Suddenly Stealth Suit webs Harry up against the wall. He reaches down and picks up the boys flame sword and ignites it.
Out of no where Spider-Gwen appears and, using a web, pulls the flaming sword away from the thief! Gwen Stacy in a superhero costume with spider superpowers swings onto the scene. With a cute little "Hiya boys, need some help?" Spider-Gwen appears in this universe and kicks Mr. Stealth Suit. In response the thief picks up the freed Harry Osborn and throws him out the window! Clever writing and action here as the three spider heroes immediately dive out the window after him. They daisy chain up and safely web catch Harry, gently lowering him to the ground.
Once again inside the lab at Oscorp the group discusses, with Harry basically telling Spidey he doesn't care if he saved his life he still didn't save his father's life, and he should have. Gwen admirably steps up and tells Harry to get over it. Spidey was stuck with an impossible choice, he tried to save them both but he could only save Harry and that that should be it. They deduce that it was the explosion at the Jackal's lab that gave Gwen her powers and that it was Harry's cool facemask that prevented him from being exposed and getting spider powers. Harry figures out a way to track Spidey's stealth suit so the spider trio takes off after it. The fellas grab Gwen and use their web wings to glide them all over to the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island.
On the island Gwen nicely quotes Peter's Uncle Ben and his holy Great Power, Great Responsibility line. The trio then attacks Stealth Suit in a bid to stop him from detonating a chemical bomb. Miles tries deactivating while Spidey and Gwen tackle the invisible stealth villain. Immediately Gwen gets thrown off the Statue but manages to shoot a web and save herself. Spider-man tackles Stealth Suit and they crash hard. Miles can't seem to crack the computer code. Spider-Gwen kicks the Stealth Suit off the Statue of Liberty and he fazes out and goes invisible. Spidey tracks him and webs him up. Stealth Suit villain web kick slams Spidey hard. Miles can't stop the bomb due to multiple levels of encryption. Gwen takes over and Miles goes to help Peter.
Gwen's hack saves the day at the last second as Spidey and Miles have a cool super hero fight with Mr. Stealth Suit. Gwen takes the villain down herself in the end as they all web the thief to the ground, immobilizing him. In a shockingly cool moment the person inside the Stealth Suit horribly transforms into a large man-spider monster and breaks free. The monster attacks a nearby news helicopter causing it crash and only Miles and Gwen intervening saves the lives of the pilot and reporter. The spider monster gets away in the confusion.
The next morning Miles, Gwen, Peter, and Harry walk and talk. They can't believe Gwen has spider powers but the crowd of people assembling and chanting Gwen's name sure seem to be able to. As she signs some autographs the street grate she is standing on with the people begins to collapse. Webs shoot out saving everyone but the webs came from Gwen and a street clothed Peter Parker. Uh oh! Harry can't believe it..."You're ?...." Amazingly Peter talks his way out of admitting he's Spider-Man, suggesting maybe he was exposed like Gwen was. Harry buys it until they all shockingly see regular civilians on the street exhibiting spider power abilities and figure out the spider virus has spread to the entire city.
In the comic books Spider Island was a wide reaching story with many superheroes, villains, and consequences. While we can't expect too much from this animated show, it's going to be fun seeing where Disney and Marvel are going to take their ever growing spider crew.
