[8.2/10] Overstuffed, but with good things, so it’s hard to be upset. As an MCU fan, it was cool for me to see return appearances from Mordo and Dormamu, plus the Spider-Man: The Animated Series debut of Rhodey as War Machine and quick glimpses of Tony Stark! Seeing Spider-Man and War Machine team up to stop the symbiote invasion of Stark Industries was cool, and I appreciated Rhdoes’s no-nonsense attitude in fighting the slimy bad guys.
We’ve also officially begun the show trying to make Venom more of an anti-hero than a straight-up villain (which I am, perhaps, particularly sensitive to given the trailer for the new Venom film which dropped recently and plays up Venom as a gray area good guy). It’s all very rushed, as we get roughly one and a half scenes of Eddie Brock having therapy with a prison psychiatrist he has feelings for, which turns out to be the thing motivating him to do some good.
Again, it’s very fast, and odd for multiple reasons. For one thing, Dr. Kafka is pushing the idea that the symbiote was just a delusion from Brock, which seems strange since Venom was clearly out on the town wreaking havoc publicly in his prior appearance. (Though I guess maybe the public just assumed it was Spider-Man?). Plus, angry Eddie Brock (voiced by Hank Azaria) still sounds too much like Frank Grimes for his boasts not to seem at least a little amusing.
But I like the introduction of Carnage here. Cletus Kasady is genuinely creepy and unnerving long before he puts on the suit. There’s an unhinged quality that sells him as a particularly weird and psychotic threat. Plus his symbiote is looser and goopier than Venom, making him just kind of gross in the way he moves around. Even the notion of the symbiote reproducing is a little creepy. It’s a little obvious how they’re positioning Carnage to be even worse so that Venom doesn't look so bad and can make his face turn, but it works.
The plot is a little convoluted, with it being less than clear why Dormamu needs the symbiote brothers to swipe Tony’s dimensional portal thingy as opposed to just having Mordo do it himself, and Madame Webb continues to be cryptic and kind of useless, but Spidey at least acknowledges it.
Overall, on a structural level, this episode has some flaws, but the stuff going down is just too cool to care.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-05-11T19:27:49Z
[8.2/10] Overstuffed, but with good things, so it’s hard to be upset. As an MCU fan, it was cool for me to see return appearances from Mordo and Dormamu, plus the Spider-Man: The Animated Series debut of Rhodey as War Machine and quick glimpses of Tony Stark! Seeing Spider-Man and War Machine team up to stop the symbiote invasion of Stark Industries was cool, and I appreciated Rhdoes’s no-nonsense attitude in fighting the slimy bad guys.
We’ve also officially begun the show trying to make Venom more of an anti-hero than a straight-up villain (which I am, perhaps, particularly sensitive to given the trailer for the new Venom film which dropped recently and plays up Venom as a gray area good guy). It’s all very rushed, as we get roughly one and a half scenes of Eddie Brock having therapy with a prison psychiatrist he has feelings for, which turns out to be the thing motivating him to do some good.
Again, it’s very fast, and odd for multiple reasons. For one thing, Dr. Kafka is pushing the idea that the symbiote was just a delusion from Brock, which seems strange since Venom was clearly out on the town wreaking havoc publicly in his prior appearance. (Though I guess maybe the public just assumed it was Spider-Man?). Plus, angry Eddie Brock (voiced by Hank Azaria) still sounds too much like Frank Grimes for his boasts not to seem at least a little amusing.
But I like the introduction of Carnage here. Cletus Kasady is genuinely creepy and unnerving long before he puts on the suit. There’s an unhinged quality that sells him as a particularly weird and psychotic threat. Plus his symbiote is looser and goopier than Venom, making him just kind of gross in the way he moves around. Even the notion of the symbiote reproducing is a little creepy. It’s a little obvious how they’re positioning Carnage to be even worse so that Venom doesn't look so bad and can make his face turn, but it works.
The plot is a little convoluted, with it being less than clear why Dormamu needs the symbiote brothers to swipe Tony’s dimensional portal thingy as opposed to just having Mordo do it himself, and Madame Webb continues to be cryptic and kind of useless, but Spidey at least acknowledges it.
Overall, on a structural level, this episode has some flaws, but the stuff going down is just too cool to care.