Hello lords and ladies.
Welcome back to Cartoon Hangout, your place for all things cartoon.
So this is it.
The last episode of the Return to the Spider-Verse arc.
Does it stand up?
Well...no, not really.
It's actually a really lame episode and incredibly disappointing on a few different fronts.
First, let's talk about Spider-Gwen.
She's a pretty cool character, even though in the comics themselves I think she's been
written terribly.
But then what Marvel character has escaped the team of writers and editors' ineptitude
these days?
Spider-Gwen is from an alternate reality where she, not Peter, was bitten by a radioactive
spider and Peter himself became the Lizard and died.
This caused the police to mistrust her and she ended up on the run from not only them,
but other heroes.
In the Spider-Verse event within Amazing Spider-Man last year, she got to meet the mainstream
version of Peter and this was a significant and somewhat emotional encounter for the both
of them, seeing as they both lost their respective friends.
So they keep trying to protect each other when really neither of them needs it.
It was a fun little moment within Dan Slott's okay storyline.
When I realized that she was going to appear in this arc, I already knew the encounter
and her very character was going to be diminished.
What's the point of using Spider-Gwen?
While we do get something like that encounter with Gwen talking about losing Peter, it's
an incredibly small one and isn't reciprocated by Peter as he hasn't even met a Gwen on his
Earth or lost her.
The entire concept gets watered down, much like every character or storyline in this
show.
Instead we get a Gwen who resides on Miles' Earth, technically making her...Ultimate Gwen.
This definitely infuriated me, as you all know I've been wanting Ultimate Gwen Stacey
to appear and now there's probably no hope of that.
Unless the writers are going to do it backwards and introduce that version in the next few
episodes or next season, but it doesn't really make up for it.
Plus this Spider-Gwen doesn't even have powers; she gets it all from technology, including
a...digital Spider-Sense?
What even is that?
Oh, and that world's Aunt May is basically her Oracle.
All of this would have been cool on any other newer Spider, but the writers sat down and
literally said, "Hey, instead of doing a faithful adaptation of Spider-Gwen with only a slight
tweak given we haven't introduced Gwen in the main universe, let's just do the opposite!"
Ugh, just ugh.
The one good thing about Spider-Gwen was, besides the writers' screw-up, Dove Cameron
did a pretty good job voicing her and made her come alive.
If I were to ignore all the lame things this episode did, I could almost say it was a good
episode.
But I can't, because this episode didn't stop at just messing with Spider-Gwen's origins
unnecessarily.
This episode also had the dumbest explanation for having part of Spider-Gwen's concept around.
Since Miles disappeared, apparently villains have acted like heroes in order to fool cops
so now cops distrust anyone wearing masks?
Okay, cool, let's see more of that.
Oh wait, that's just a lame excuse to have that element from Gwen's comic?
What even was the point?
And while the idea of Gwen hiding her identity from her cop dad is interesting, if just ripped
straight from Batgirl (Spider-Gwen is just Batgirl, right down to her hipster shoes),
it gets resolved so badly.
Her dad goes from hating vigilantes to having a talk with Miles' mom off-screen and becoming
more understanding.
Oh, so we don't even get this poignant scene from the actual Spider-Gwen comics?
More fun.
And now we come to the second to last lame thing about this episode: Wolf Spider.
Or should I say EVIL Peter Parker.
As if that was a shock.
I told you already that Marvel spoiled that in the previews leading up to this arc.
Not even just previews for this episode, they literally showed this character's face in
the previews for the entire story arc.
I'll admit I was wrong about it ending up being Doc Ock inhabiting Peter's body, but
the concept is actually really close.
Down to him using 'spider arms' on his back like Ock did in Superior Spider-Man.
You know what would have been more interesting than Evil Peter?
Doc Ock as Peter having destroyed the heroes of his reality.
That sounds like a cool idea worth exploring, yes?
Well that's apparently not as interesting as the whole 'evil doppelganger' idea that's
been done to death.
Which could have had a modicum of potential had it been more explored, but it's just another
let down.
I had such high hopes for Wolf Spider, but he really could have used more screen-time.
Honestly this entire story arc could have used more space to breathe.
What happens next?
Everyone goes home, Nick Fury pranks Peter, and the whole thing ends.
What a terrible episode and a disappointing end to what started off so great.
In the original Spider-Verse arc we got to meet a bunch of Spider-Men.
In this one, we still did, but then they show us only hints of Spider-Punk, Leopardon, and
a few other cool characters from the Spider-Verse.
Only for none of them to get any real screen-time.
I was so excited at the prospects of seeing some of those characters from the comic come
to life on the screen, but nope.
Here's a watered down Spider-Gwen and a dumb villain.
I'm going to end things off here before I just launch into a huge rant about this show.
I do have a topic video in the works comparing this show to past Spider-Man cartoons, but
that's going to wait until the final season 4 episode ends, so I have more material to
work with.
I will try to end off on something positive, so some highlights in this abysmal excuse
of an episode were, again, the lovely Dove Cameron voicing Spider-Gwen; the incredibly
too brief appearance of Spider-Punk and other Spiders; and the one scene where Wolf Spider
is strong enough to almost bring the police building down.
If we'd gotten more scenes with that unbridled power and evilness, maybe I'd like this episode
more.
Sadly the writers of this show do what they do best: start off strong and end on a low
note.
If you have some thoughts on this episode, leave them in the comments.
I always read every comment, but then that's still fairly easy at this point.
Anyway, thanks for watching and take care.