Hey everyone! Thanks for swinging by for another installment of Marvel’s Spider-Man on Disney XD. Peter Parker is still being controlled by Otto Octavius, and this week he has to face his biggest challenge yet, The Avengers! Being part of a team can be tough, especially if you’re a semi-reformed villain who sees everyone as his inferiors. Pull up a web and enjoy as we talk about Season 2, Episode 17, “A Troubled Mind.”
1. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are on the case!
After investigating his friend in “Critical Update,” Miles turns to the only person who can help, Ms. Marvel. Kamala decides to help figure out what has happened and gathers “the team.”
Honestly, I was initially a little disappointed with the line-up given, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, and Black Widow. Instead, I was hoping that we might have gotten a closer lineup to a “Champions” team of teen heroes. It would have been fun just to see a ragtag team of teen heroes fighting one of the most iconic teen heroes. I understand why the show didn’t introduce too many more new characters, it just felt like the Avengers team we were given was a little bare bone.
Although it is always fun to see Tony Stark get knocked down a peg or two. Ock is able to use his webbing to force Iron Man to fly into buildings and then is able to convince them that there are bigger threats out there. It was some of the better animation seen on the show, which also made that initial confrontation dynamic.
2. A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.C. gives Superior Spidey a chance to show his stuff
The Advanced Idea Mechanics are usually a fun group of antagonists to throw at superheroes. Who are they? A group of evil scientists who just want to make evil tech to sell. Why? Because they’re evil and want to make money! Their tech is usually just powerful enough (as showcased in the first confrontation Ock has with an A.I.M. scientists whos gun he uses stops working on every fifth shot) and they have enough expendable soldiers and tech that they can effectively swarm heroes. They also happen to be responsible for one of my favorite silly villains.
The Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing (or in this case Chaos because it’s a Disney show after all) is a hyper-intelligent man-machine hybrid that also has psionics. The only problem is that he looks ridiculous, a giant head floating in a chair with tiny arms and tiny legs. He is the right level of comics book silliness. In any case, in the episode, Ock is able to use his tactical prowess to successfully lead the Avengers into defeating A.I.M. and M.O.D.O.C. by using the very devices used to give M.O.D.O.C. life, a mental projection device. Once again, it reinforces Ock’s ability to be an effective force against evil but reinforces his arrogance, using his allies as bait rather than members of a cohesive team.
3. Know your enemy (and sympathize with him)
At the end of “Critical Update,” Peter was successfully able to escape the collapsing reality of the neural mainframe and is now trapped in Horizon Academy’s network. Peter is able to access Doc Ock’s memories. We see three, and all of them shed light on who Otto is the way he is. The first is Peter sees a kid getting bullied and automatically assumes that Ock has always been a bully, but no, he’s the one getting bullied.
Next, we see Ock being humiliated both physically and mentally by his father. “Strength is the only thing this world understands,” his father tells him after pushing him to the ground and destroying his science experiment. At this moment, little Otto decides to be powerful.
The last memory is Otto executing his power by intentionally failing a test to get his bully kicked off of the baseball team, effectively ruining his life. He has learned the power of his mind, and how he can use that power to destroy others.
Through these memories, Peter realizes that their situations were actually pretty similar. Both were smart kids, both bullied, but the difference comes in how they were raised. Peter realizes the importance of the loving home he was provided. It’s an effective employment of the “nature vs nurture” question that superhero stories love to tell, and allows Peter to see one his worst foes in a new light.
Continued below4. A clean bill of health
One of the best aspects of Superior Spider-Man as a comic is that Ock’s plan basically works. While people question Peter’s decisions out of the suit and heroes grow more concerned with Spider-Man’s newfound brutality, every time they attempt to prove that something is wrong with Peter Parker, they fail. Initially, Kamala is convinced that Peter has been brainwashed, or is perhaps a (TOP SECRET) shapeshifting alien, but after they do medical scans and tests they realize that no, this is just Peter Parker.
The fact that it is Doc Ock controlling Peter Parker’s body is not revealed in this episode, means that now Spider-Ock is able to continue to do what he’s been doing without any special oversight from the Avengers. It’s actually this aspect of the episode that makes the Avengers on the episodes team work well in the story. Tony is actually quite impressed with Spider-Man’s newfound leadership and abilities. Natasha thinks he shouldn’t be trusted (and this is coming from a spy, she points out.) Kamala is just concerned, this wasn’t the nice person who helped her out earlier. It’s clear that to some the mystery is not over, and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here considering that Ock now has some important heroes backing him up.
5. What does it mean to be Superior?
There are two moments in this episode that really sell the idea that superior doesn’t necessarily mean better. The first is when young Ock uses his superior intellect to ruin his bully’s life. Peter is concerned that this is how he uses his superior mind, not to help, but to hurt.
This is echoed in the scene where Kamala realizes that Spidey was using them as puppets or minions, rather than team members. It’s easy to criticize someone’s misuse of their gifts when they’re using them to hurt others, but in this case, his plan works well and he’s doing good. It’s just that his believed superiority is once again making him see the world the way his father wanted him to see it. Strength is the only thing that matters, even if it means using friends as stepping stones. It’s a tough lesson, but an important one, being the best doesn’t necessarily mean you’re being better.
So there we have it. Ock is still doing his thing, and now with less oversight than before. “A Troubled Mind” was a solid episode, that once again featured good voice acting and an important lesson of the nature of what might be one of the reasons a person becomes evil, and how lessons learned as a child stick with you. What did you think? Were the flashbacks effective for you? Sound off below!
