[7.3/10] This is an episode where I love the character work and thematic exploration, but find the superheroics dull as dishwater.
Marvel’s Spider-Man does well to spend some time on Peter feeling lost when trying to rebuild his life after Otto’s body switch. His inability to rejoin Horizon High, his estrangement from his friends, and his general struggles to clean up the mess that Otto made of Peter Parker’s life, not just Spider-Man’s, makes Peter situation particularly sympathetic.
But the great trick of “The Road to Goblin War” is that it makes Otto’s sympathetic too. Sure, the dramatization is a bit overly simple, but Otto having more or less reformed and recanted, only to find that now he has no purpose, gives him pathos as well. And naturally, Peter and Otto find a way forward together, with Otto becoming Peter’s new “guy in the chair” (as an equal not a sidekick, damn you!), and Peter realizing that they’re experiencing the same sort of challenges. That’s some damn good character-focused storytelling.
On the other hand, I couldn’t care less about the backstabbing plot going on with three never before seen players at some big chemical company. There is something lightly novel about Slide (the supervillain of the week) and his frictionless superpowers, but even those feel somewhat contrived in execution. More than that, the feint with his revenge scheme and schism with his former boss turning out to be something orchestrated by the company’s no. 2 is a mild twist at best. There’s something neat about Otto helping to solve the problem because he can “think like a villain”, but otherwise, this is a slice of meh.
(That said, I did notice the Goblin graffiti once or twice, and I’m intrigued by that part of the tease.)
Overall, this good character work here is counterbalanced by some weak superhero theatrics, but it’s still a solid enough episode thanks to the former.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-12-11T04:22:00Z
[7.3/10] This is an episode where I love the character work and thematic exploration, but find the superheroics dull as dishwater.
Marvel’s Spider-Man does well to spend some time on Peter feeling lost when trying to rebuild his life after Otto’s body switch. His inability to rejoin Horizon High, his estrangement from his friends, and his general struggles to clean up the mess that Otto made of Peter Parker’s life, not just Spider-Man’s, makes Peter situation particularly sympathetic.
But the great trick of “The Road to Goblin War” is that it makes Otto’s sympathetic too. Sure, the dramatization is a bit overly simple, but Otto having more or less reformed and recanted, only to find that now he has no purpose, gives him pathos as well. And naturally, Peter and Otto find a way forward together, with Otto becoming Peter’s new “guy in the chair” (as an equal not a sidekick, damn you!), and Peter realizing that they’re experiencing the same sort of challenges. That’s some damn good character-focused storytelling.
On the other hand, I couldn’t care less about the backstabbing plot going on with three never before seen players at some big chemical company. There is something lightly novel about Slide (the supervillain of the week) and his frictionless superpowers, but even those feel somewhat contrived in execution. More than that, the feint with his revenge scheme and schism with his former boss turning out to be something orchestrated by the company’s no. 2 is a mild twist at best. There’s something neat about Otto helping to solve the problem because he can “think like a villain”, but otherwise, this is a slice of meh.
(That said, I did notice the Goblin graffiti once or twice, and I’m intrigued by that part of the tease.)
Overall, this good character work here is counterbalanced by some weak superhero theatrics, but it’s still a solid enough episode thanks to the former.