[6.3/10] This was something of a disappointment. I vaguely remembered this episode from when I was a kid, and was looking forward to seeing all the representatives of Marvel’s Animated Universe joined for one big battle. But this was the definition of a table-setting episode. (There’s even a literal game board for it!)
Nothing of real consequence happens in this one. It’s all just a twenty-minute introduction. You meet the Beyonder (who is admittedly reasonably cool with his presence here), you get his Star Trek-esque desire to measure good vs. evil, and you get the idea that he wants to draft major bad guys and good guys into “teams.” But once that happens, and the novelty of having everyone together wears off, the remaining parts of the episode are perfunctory.
There’s some bland fighting of giant alien worms. There’s the group needing to figure out how to power up their base to protect against those worms. And there’s the standard “we initially bristle at one another’s presence but shortly learn to work as a team” routine that every superhero team-up, including others on this show, have.
Plus the whole idea about Spider-Man needing to learn how to be a leader is pretty tacked on. Maybe it’s just coming at this backwards, where Spidey is a solid but still pretty young and green hero, while others are more mature and seem better suited to lead, but it’s hard to take the arc that he’s the only one who can unite these people seriously.
Anyway, my hope is now that all the throat clearing is out of the way, the rest of Secret Wars will be more enjoyable, but this was a lot introduction with only the faintest of pretend obstacles for our heroes to overcome before the real clashes begin.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2018-07-02T01:12:28Z
[6.3/10] This was something of a disappointment. I vaguely remembered this episode from when I was a kid, and was looking forward to seeing all the representatives of Marvel’s Animated Universe joined for one big battle. But this was the definition of a table-setting episode. (There’s even a literal game board for it!)
Nothing of real consequence happens in this one. It’s all just a twenty-minute introduction. You meet the Beyonder (who is admittedly reasonably cool with his presence here), you get his Star Trek-esque desire to measure good vs. evil, and you get the idea that he wants to draft major bad guys and good guys into “teams.” But once that happens, and the novelty of having everyone together wears off, the remaining parts of the episode are perfunctory.
There’s some bland fighting of giant alien worms. There’s the group needing to figure out how to power up their base to protect against those worms. And there’s the standard “we initially bristle at one another’s presence but shortly learn to work as a team” routine that every superhero team-up, including others on this show, have.
Plus the whole idea about Spider-Man needing to learn how to be a leader is pretty tacked on. Maybe it’s just coming at this backwards, where Spidey is a solid but still pretty young and green hero, while others are more mature and seem better suited to lead, but it’s hard to take the arc that he’s the only one who can unite these people seriously.
Anyway, my hope is now that all the throat clearing is out of the way, the rest of Secret Wars will be more enjoyable, but this was a lot introduction with only the faintest of pretend obstacles for our heroes to overcome before the real clashes begin.