“Marvel’s Spider-Man” is back on Disney XD! Season two is winding down, but we’re here to give our thoughts on the adventures of Peter Parker and his growing team of Spider-friends as they defend New York from crooks and supervillains alike. Let’s get into it with season 2 episode 14 “The Day Without Spider-Man!”
1. Your friendly neighborhood Spider… team?
If the title wasn’t a giveaway, ‘The Day Without Spider-Man’ is missing everyone’s favorite web-slinging crusader. But fear not true believers! The fact that Spidey is missing gives the secondary characters a chance to flex their muscles. The real fun of this episode is watching how the dynamics of these characters play out. Miles Morales is trying to live up to Peter’s example, quipping (to moderate success) and reciting Peter’s hero lessons as if they are a personal mantra.
Anya, on the other hand, is no-nonsense and incredibly professional. She carries around pre-written notes to web to baddies, laments their lack of preparedness with Spider tech, and all but rolls her masked eyes at Miles’ attempt to quip like Peter. (The best joke of the episode was Anya casually saying “He thinks he’s good at banter” after a particularly lame quip.) Rounding out the team is Gwen spending about half the episode as a normal human and the other half as a web-slinger. Gwen’s joy (and natural leadership) at being a superhero adds a sense of cohesion to the group. After the three of them start working together, the episode becomes a lot of fun!
2. Mediocre rogues are better together
Spider-Man boasts one of the best rogues galleries in the game, but even then there are some notable exceptions. The rogues in this episode are Scorpion and the Tinkerer, two villains who probably would not rank high on a “best of” list. But in this episode, they just… work. They are the best kind of team-up, Tinkerer is incredibly smart, but not impressive when it comes to combat. Scorpion, on the other hand, is big and strong, but not clever. Working together, they form a formidable team.
They also have solid banter. Part of a good villain team-up is the knowledge that their alliance is tenuous at best. At multiple times in the episode, they fight over who will get credit for defeating Spider-Man. It’s this kind of petty arguments that show us they’ll lose in the end. Their master plan is also the right kind of supervillain silliness. Tinkerer has built a gun to harness the power of the Bloodgem, but uses it to essentially make Scorpion very big. The episode suggests that the gem has some formidable properties, but using it to just make Scorpion big was fun and weird. Solo these two don’t leave much of an impression, but together they are quite fun
3. Ghost Spider has her cake and eats it too
At the beginning of the episode, Gwen is a normal human. After Scorpion attacks the school to steal the artifact Gwen is researching, she hides her cell phone in the case to use as a tracker. That’s a good use of a non-powered hero.
It was exciting seeing Gwen using her wit, but BAM! She is hit with Tinkerer’s ray gun and suddenly regains the powers that she lost. Then, at the climax of the episode, she realizes that the Bloodgem is the source of both her and Scorpion’s powers. To defeat him, she’ll have to destroy the stone and sacrifice her powers. It’s a pretty moving sequence, considering that the whole episode Gwen is talking about how much she missed having her powers and the pain of having to watch her friends be heroes while she’s on the sideline. But that’s all moot, apparently, she was close enough to the blast that she retained her powers. It felt like the episode was setting up Gwen to be a member of the Spider-team, but in more of a support role. While she was fun as a hero, it felt unearned for her to keep her powers.
4. Horizon Academy creates fun dynamics (but some problems)
Marvel’s Spider-Man puts Peter back in high school, which is fine. Spider-Man is the prime example of the teenage superhero it’s fun to watch him try to find that life superhero balance. Putting Spider-Man in high school makes him more relatable to a Disney demographic, it’s more fun watching Spidey deal with finishing a paper than watching him struggle to pay his rent. The high school setting also adds to the team dynamic, it’s now a cool group of friends fighting crime during lunch than say Peter being a team dad to the group. It’s just that there is one problem, Spider-Man world has grown over the years.
Continued belowThis issue feels most pronounced with Max Modell and Horizon Academy. In the comics, Max is a well-liked and respected scientist who owns Horizon Labs, a leading name in scientific research. He gives Peter a kind father figure. It makes sense that the show wants to include Max and Horizon, he’s a fun character. But it led to a plot point that just felt… bizarre. Horizon Academy is apparently respected enough to leave a powerful and mysterious artifact with a high schooler and no adult supervision. In the comics, this wouldn’t have felt weird, but in the show is just felt out of place. While this is a bit of a silly criticism, it suggests that there were some decisions made to tell modern Spidey stories without thinking through his younger age.
5. No, but seriously, where’s Spider-man?
It’s always fun to see episodes where the titular character doesn’t appear or take a back burner to the story being told. It allows other characters to shine. But it also can shine a light on the importance of the character to the story at large. Miles suggests the reason Peter is missing is that he has Avengers level stuff to deal with, probably not uncommon.
But as the episode progresses Spidey’s absence starts to become a mystery. He didn’t show up when Scorpion called him out on television to save his friends, which is weird. Weirder still, Peter is not showing up to stop bank robberies, which is only making him more unpopular with J. Jonah Jameson and those who listen to him. Spidey’s absence shows how important he’s become to protecting his community, even though there are some new kids filling in his shoes.
This episode certainly had its flaws but was still entertaining. It’ll be exciting to see how they handle the Superior Spider-Man stuff, considering how they’re still in high school (and how it was a slightly darker comic for a Disney XD crowd). What did you think? What other Spider characters would you like to see in the future? Leave a comment below and see you next time!
