[7.8/10] A lot packed into this episode, between the introduction of the alien costume, Black Cat, Chameleon, Chameleon’s two henchman who are poised to become supervillains in their own right, a duplicate Spider-Man, and Captain Stacey, but there’s lots of good stuff to go around.
For one thing, I like Black Cat and Spider-Man here. There’s some over-sexualization going on (holy crap the “don’t your goop in my hair” line!), but the two of them have a very nice Batman/Catwoman thing going, and you get the sense that Black Cat uses her flirtatiousness to disarm (literally and figuratively) people who will underestimate her or look past her because of it. It serves her purposes, and the dialogue is well-written, so I’m a little more tolerant of it than I might otherwise be. Plus, the aerial combat between her and Spidey was pretty damn cool.
I also like that Black Cat is a tweener. She’s not a supervillain, but not a hero either, just doing what suits her cat burglar-y ends. Specific motivations that don’t fall clearly into good or bad are what good characters are made of.
Chameleon doesn't’ have much in the way of motivation here, but gets by on the coolness of his impersonation abilities and the mirror madness of a Spidey-on-Spidey fight. Seeing Chameleon use his gadgets to imitate the real wall-crawler’s abilities, and him using slightly different catch phrase was both neat and funny. And the actual confrontation between them on the boat was well-done, with plenty of twists and turns in the fight (though the boat chase lasted a little too long).
There’s also some neat stuff on the sidelines of the episode. Jonah thinking that fake Spider-Man’s thievery is proof that the real web-head is no good (only to belatedly call in a retraction) is a good look for J.J. Captain Stacey using his police skills to recognize that Chameleon’s is an imposter, and warning Spider-Man that some people will never trust him so long as he wears a mask is a good one as well. Flash defending Spider-Man as a good guy is always an interesting note to play for someone who’s otherwise a jerk.
And we get another brick in the wall of Eddie Brock losing faith in his former “bro” Peter for taking pictures of the heroes and villains at the lab without calling the cops. Some of this is a little convenient, but I at least like that they’re laying the groundwork for an inevitable turn. Speaking of which, the alien costume bit happens very suddenly, but I like how Peter is seduced by the added strength and potential it gives him, convincing himself that he can use it to help people which makes lying about it and hiding it from people okay. The episode does a nice job setting up why Peter would be interested in using the suit and how he can justify it to himself.
Overall, a lot going on in this one, but most of it is fun and/or does a good job of setting things up for later.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-09-13T02:09:44Z
[7.8/10] A lot packed into this episode, between the introduction of the alien costume, Black Cat, Chameleon, Chameleon’s two henchman who are poised to become supervillains in their own right, a duplicate Spider-Man, and Captain Stacey, but there’s lots of good stuff to go around.
For one thing, I like Black Cat and Spider-Man here. There’s some over-sexualization going on (holy crap the “don’t your goop in my hair” line!), but the two of them have a very nice Batman/Catwoman thing going, and you get the sense that Black Cat uses her flirtatiousness to disarm (literally and figuratively) people who will underestimate her or look past her because of it. It serves her purposes, and the dialogue is well-written, so I’m a little more tolerant of it than I might otherwise be. Plus, the aerial combat between her and Spidey was pretty damn cool.
I also like that Black Cat is a tweener. She’s not a supervillain, but not a hero either, just doing what suits her cat burglar-y ends. Specific motivations that don’t fall clearly into good or bad are what good characters are made of.
Chameleon doesn't’ have much in the way of motivation here, but gets by on the coolness of his impersonation abilities and the mirror madness of a Spidey-on-Spidey fight. Seeing Chameleon use his gadgets to imitate the real wall-crawler’s abilities, and him using slightly different catch phrase was both neat and funny. And the actual confrontation between them on the boat was well-done, with plenty of twists and turns in the fight (though the boat chase lasted a little too long).
There’s also some neat stuff on the sidelines of the episode. Jonah thinking that fake Spider-Man’s thievery is proof that the real web-head is no good (only to belatedly call in a retraction) is a good look for J.J. Captain Stacey using his police skills to recognize that Chameleon’s is an imposter, and warning Spider-Man that some people will never trust him so long as he wears a mask is a good one as well. Flash defending Spider-Man as a good guy is always an interesting note to play for someone who’s otherwise a jerk.
And we get another brick in the wall of Eddie Brock losing faith in his former “bro” Peter for taking pictures of the heroes and villains at the lab without calling the cops. Some of this is a little convenient, but I at least like that they’re laying the groundwork for an inevitable turn. Speaking of which, the alien costume bit happens very suddenly, but I like how Peter is seduced by the added strength and potential it gives him, convincing himself that he can use it to help people which makes lying about it and hiding it from people okay. The episode does a nice job setting up why Peter would be interested in using the suit and how he can justify it to himself.
Overall, a lot going on in this one, but most of it is fun and/or does a good job of setting things up for later.