[7.5/10] Not a bad finale by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll admit that I totally bought the “Harry is sleepwalking as the Hobgoblin” routine. The idea that the Goblin persona had taken him over as a manifestation of his subconscious is an interesting idea, and one that would at least start to explain the way that Harry has been a little schizophrenic in his feelings about his best friend Peter and/or Spider-Man.
So hey, Marvel’s Spider-Man gets points for suckering me in until the Norman Osborn reveal. Of course, we get a big grand villain monologue from Norman, explaining his motivations. He admits to scheming to get Harry suspended from Horizon High, so that Norman could more closely mold his son. He also specifically envisioned Harry as New York’s new young champion, which explains (I guess?) Norman’s resentment for Spidey, whom he views as having usurped Harry’s destined place in the city’s pantheon. It’s not great, but it at least adds a little psychological depth to Norman’s semi-aimless scheming.
I do like that it leads to Harry having to choose between his dad and his best friend. That’s a theme that this show has been exploring all season, with both Peter and Norman trying to convince someone they care about that their view of the world is correct. While, if anything, the show’s attempted headfake telegraphed things too strongly, I had legitimate questions of whether Harry would give into the role his father wanted for him or live up to the heroism that his best friend saw in him. That uncertainty on my part ’s a good sign, especially when I’ve seen this particular sort of Spider-Man story told several times already.
And good character growth is founded on choices, so Harry ultimately choosing to be a hero and to believe and side with Spider-Man is meaningful here, even if it dovetails too conveniently with Norman’s supposed demise.
I also really like Spidey’s “Carrying a Bus Like Atlas” moment. It’s a nice translation of the famous Spider-Man panel where Peter finds the strength to persevere when crushed under concrete. The flashback to Uncle Ben is done well, and the moment where Peter chooses to go on and keep fighting even after worrying he’s beat is a great way to show an indomitable spirit in our favorite Web-Head that makes him worthy of this power and this responsibility.
My only beef is that even for a two-part episode, a lot of this material is rushed. We go from that serious confrontation between Spidey, Harry, and Norman, to an epilogue of sorts with no time to breathe. There’s a tease for where Harry might go in the future, and a bookend scene with Peter at Horizon meant to show how far both Peter and Spider-Man have come in the last year. It’s all pretty cheesy, but nice enough.
Overall, the finale is more in the vein of “pretty good!” than “really good” but it does what it needs to. As for the first season of Marvel’s Spider-Man as a whole, I enjoyed it. Like many of its animated predecessors, it got bogged down in villain overloads and too many convoluted plots and too many people with spider powers at times.
But it also did something no other series has really done in the same way -- put the relationship between Peter and Harry at the forefront. Despite some sparks with Gwen, this season basically omitted any love interest in Peter’s life, instead focusing on his friendship with Harry as his core, complicating concern here. It’s nice to see that shift in focus, and while the show could be a little back-and-forth about it at times, it was nice to see the ebb and flow of that friendship provide the emotional undercurrent of the show right through to its finale.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-06-04T23:43:05Z
[7.5/10] Not a bad finale by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll admit that I totally bought the “Harry is sleepwalking as the Hobgoblin” routine. The idea that the Goblin persona had taken him over as a manifestation of his subconscious is an interesting idea, and one that would at least start to explain the way that Harry has been a little schizophrenic in his feelings about his best friend Peter and/or Spider-Man.
So hey, Marvel’s Spider-Man gets points for suckering me in until the Norman Osborn reveal. Of course, we get a big grand villain monologue from Norman, explaining his motivations. He admits to scheming to get Harry suspended from Horizon High, so that Norman could more closely mold his son. He also specifically envisioned Harry as New York’s new young champion, which explains (I guess?) Norman’s resentment for Spidey, whom he views as having usurped Harry’s destined place in the city’s pantheon. It’s not great, but it at least adds a little psychological depth to Norman’s semi-aimless scheming.
I do like that it leads to Harry having to choose between his dad and his best friend. That’s a theme that this show has been exploring all season, with both Peter and Norman trying to convince someone they care about that their view of the world is correct. While, if anything, the show’s attempted headfake telegraphed things too strongly, I had legitimate questions of whether Harry would give into the role his father wanted for him or live up to the heroism that his best friend saw in him. That uncertainty on my part ’s a good sign, especially when I’ve seen this particular sort of Spider-Man story told several times already.
And good character growth is founded on choices, so Harry ultimately choosing to be a hero and to believe and side with Spider-Man is meaningful here, even if it dovetails too conveniently with Norman’s supposed demise.
I also really like Spidey’s “Carrying a Bus Like Atlas” moment. It’s a nice translation of the famous Spider-Man panel where Peter finds the strength to persevere when crushed under concrete. The flashback to Uncle Ben is done well, and the moment where Peter chooses to go on and keep fighting even after worrying he’s beat is a great way to show an indomitable spirit in our favorite Web-Head that makes him worthy of this power and this responsibility.
My only beef is that even for a two-part episode, a lot of this material is rushed. We go from that serious confrontation between Spidey, Harry, and Norman, to an epilogue of sorts with no time to breathe. There’s a tease for where Harry might go in the future, and a bookend scene with Peter at Horizon meant to show how far both Peter and Spider-Man have come in the last year. It’s all pretty cheesy, but nice enough.
Overall, the finale is more in the vein of “pretty good!” than “really good” but it does what it needs to. As for the first season of Marvel’s Spider-Man as a whole, I enjoyed it. Like many of its animated predecessors, it got bogged down in villain overloads and too many convoluted plots and too many people with spider powers at times.
But it also did something no other series has really done in the same way -- put the relationship between Peter and Harry at the forefront. Despite some sparks with Gwen, this season basically omitted any love interest in Peter’s life, instead focusing on his friendship with Harry as his core, complicating concern here. It’s nice to see that shift in focus, and while the show could be a little back-and-forth about it at times, it was nice to see the ebb and flow of that friendship provide the emotional undercurrent of the show right through to its finale.