SPIDER-MAN - Episode 23 - Spider-Island Pt.5
It's here! The exciting final chapter of the spectacular Spider-Island story. We begin with our heroes, Spider-Man and Kid Arachnid, captured by the Jackal, webbed up tight, and suspended upside down. Miles comes to and tries to warn Spidey that anyone infected with the spider virus may turn into a spider monster. Peter laughs at the "old news" and uses his web dissolver to free an arm from the webbing. Miles tries to do the same but dissolves too much and falls down amongst the spider monsters! He awesomely flips around and webs up a few of the turned citizens. He tells Spidey they need to get out of there but Spidey tells him that out there is the same as in here. The Jackal appears and instantly his spider soldiers web back up the two spider heroes. He orders the spider monsters to eliminate them both when out of nowhere Harry's glider flies in and bashes the creatures! A holographic version of Harry pilots the glider which he uses as a distraction to free his two spider friends.
It turns out Harry and Peter aren't exactly besties again but young Osborn ignites his flame sword and busts them all out of there. Miles is shocked to learn Harry knows that Peter is Spider-Man. But does that mean he knows that Miles is Kid Arachnid? I wasn't sure on that point, but isn't it obvious by then? Harry glides away with the two spider-men hanging on for the ride. Little do they know, the Jackal placed a tracer on the glider when it rammed into him. Uh oh true believers.
The trio head to an underground lab at Horizon High that the spider monsters haven't yet located where Anya and an unconscious Norman Osborn await. He's unresponsive but with Spider-Man's special radioactive bad blood Anya can synthesize a cure for the rest of Manhattan. She's tweaked it enough that everyone won't go into shock like Norman when its administered to them. To get the ball rolling Peter gives blood and he and Harry have a heart to heart. He's sorry for not telling Harry he's Spider-Man but blames the fact that his Dad is his enemy as the reason why. Harry calls him on it and Peter reveals it's really because he didn't want any of the people he cares about to become a target if any of his villains every found out his secret identity. Harry chides him that "well you did a lousy job either way" as his life is still destroyed. Peter sticks up for himself saying that it wasn't him but really Harry's father and Raymond Warren who colluded to get Harry kicked out of Horizon High. Of course Peter can't show Harry that as that footage was inconveniently destroyed. With a loud BANG! the spider monsters attack the doors!
Spider-Man is still weak from giving blood so Harry ignites ol'Flamey and goes to town on the spider monsters that have broken through. He hacks and slashes and deftly blocks a spider web shot but tragedy strikes when one of the spider monsters gets a lucky shot in and slices right through the flame sword, destroying it! Harry is attacked and gets stabbed by the monster! Spidey is attacked but manages to duck, unfortunately sending the creature crashing into the machine that Anya is using to make the cure. Anya flies in and kicks a monster off of Spidey! Spider-Man gets up and throws a monster off of Harry. Anya gets tossed!
They run from the spiders and close another set of labs doors behind them. Only to have those doors broken right through by the spider monsters who are on their tail. It looks bad for our heroes but suddenly Miles is there and saves the day! He took half of Anya's formula to work on so there's still some cure left. He blasts the monsters with some cure and they incredibly revert back to their human selves!
The group gets to work and invents cure web pellets for Miles and Spidey, cure paintballs for Anya's blaster, and Harry builds what looks like pumpkin bombs to disperse the cure even faster over a wide area. Norman is placed into a protective containment pod to help him heal. He wakes up and has a brief heart to heart with his son where he tells him he's proud of him. After that the crew heads out to cure New York. Spidey web shoots monsters, Anya blasts them, and Harry bombs whole groups, turning them all back into normal citizens. Miles gets grabbed up by one of the monsters and he blasts it up close. Boom! Liz Allen is back! They regroup and realize they're going about it too slowly. They determine that if they use the dispersal bomb the mind controlled Norman was building they could blanket cure the whole city all at once. Problem of course is that its back at spider HQ, Osborn Academy.
The group sneaks into an underground area at Oscorp. Harry shows his pals the Spider Slayers his father had built to combat the spider army and they all get inside their own giant robot. They jet blast up the elevator shaft and just as the Jackal is wondering where his defeated adversaries are BOOM! they explode in! In a nice moment of Marvel/Lucasfilm/Disney synergy Spidey busts out a Star Wars quote in "set your blasters to stun". They launch into the spider monsters with laser rifle fire! Anya gets some of the monsters with cool energy electro-webbing. Harry heads to the lab but gets attacked. The spider monsters cause Anya to lose one of her robots arms. The action is intense as Spider-Man is attacked by the Jackal! Harry works quickly and makes a modified cure dispersal unit. In a fun sequence they fight like mad to get the unit to the large dispersal device. But oh no!, they're stopped by the Jackal! He gets Harry's smaller device and stomps on it. He then hacks the Spider Slayer suits, immobilizing each of them. To make matters worse, he reveals a massive BOMB! I'm beginning to think this Jackal character is not a nice guy.
In previously revealed to be universally unwise bad guy decision making, the Jackal leaves them all there still alive, to be blown to bits in his absence. Spidey manages of course to break free and frees Harry and Anya. She can't stop the bomb so Spidey and Harry take over attempting. Harry plugs in and tries to hack it using his advanced tech armor. Spidey suggests letting it just go off and using the ensuing blast to disperse the cure. Harry is against that idea as it will destroy Oz Academy and all his fathers work. He continues his hack attempting to save the city and the school. Sensing the end is coming Spider-Man has Miles and Anya get all the people out of the building. Harry bursts through another layer of cyber security but to Spider-Man it looks like he won't be done in time. Spidey attaches the cure to the bomb, grabs Harry and barely makes it out of there before a massive explosion rocks the top of Oscorp!
The two land roughly on a roof top but are otherwise unharmed. Harry is super mad at Spider-Man for pulling him away and letting the bomb go off. Meanwhile the cure is spreading across the city as hoped, curing the citizens left and right. Spidey is happy they did it but Harry corrects him, saying "You did it!" and blames him for the destruction of his father's school and work. He yells at Spider-Man to just go away, which he does. The transformed spider monsters continue to morph back into human including Gwen Stacy. Anya finds her and the two friends hug in relief.
The next morning Harry pushes a wheelchair with his recovering father in it through emergency responders and the rubble of the Oscorp building. They make their way to a hidden basement where Norman tells his son not to worry over the loss of the academy as he no longer needs it because he's graduated. Awaiting them inside a hidden lab is a new flame sword, new glider, and some sweet looking Hobgoblin armor!!
I enjoyed this take on the Spider Island storyline from the comic books. The creative team did an excellent job in adapting as well as infusing some new characters and action into the multi-arched chapters. I liked seeing the likes of Kraven, Lizard, Black Widow, Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Aunt May. Marvel and Disney XD are having fun reinventing this turn at animated Spider-Man and I hope they keep it up. Bring on Hobgoblin!
A couple random thought/questions I hope to discuss with you...
-Did they ever say why Spider-Man, Miles, and what looks like Anya get to keep their spider powers? Did I miss that? Shouldn't they be cured too? I remember Anya stopped her own transformation but why would she retain abilities with that?
-Did all the other heroes in NY turn into spiders too? Because I would have loved to seen an Avengers, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Heroes for Hire, Punisher, Dr. Strange shot where they're all spiders and just chilling up in some webs.
