Spider-Man 94: Season Three

Welp, folks, hopefully it doesn't get worse than this.

Sins of the Fathers, the name of this season, is flawed. It doesn't have the thematic coherence of Season Two, nor are its episodic elements nearly as well-used as Season One. While the season is supposedly about the failure of the previous generation (summed up in Norman Osborn's defeat by the Goblin), there's more than a few episodes that derail the delicate balance between plot and character. The finale, while gut-wrenching, is brought down by hamfisted exposition and left-field developments. While there are some standout episodes and arcs the quality has taken a noticeable dip. Thanks corporate! 

The first episode features Doctor Strange. MJ has been kidnapped by Baron Mordo to help Dormammu escape. It's a good team-up, with some fantastic development for Mary-Jane, whose abandonment issues get sketched out, while being integral to the plot. This was a really strong opener! I'll liked it a lot, and with Madame Web being set up I thought it a good intro to the season.

And then Make a Wish and Octobot. Holy shit. Just, holy shit this was insufferable. For those of you who don't know, one of the best Spider-Man stories of all time is "The Boy Who Read Spider-Man", about a boy named Tim who asks to see Spider-Man and hang out. Spidey shows up at his room and the two talk about a surprisingly detailed account of Spider-Man's abilities, tech, and ethos. At the very end of a charming story Tim asks to find out who Spider-Man is, under that mask.

And Spider-Man does it. 

Is it a plot? Is Spider-Man being controlled? Is Tim a spy?

No.

Tim is dying of cancer. 

Soon.

And he wanted to meet the hero who helped him hold on for so long. Peter, moved by Tim's kindness and courage in the face of impending death, simply can't deny his greatest fan.

God, it's such a beautiful story.

Yeah, they try to adapt it. And it's horrible. They tie in a crappy plot about Doctor Octopus wiping Spider-Man's memory, a Jamaican (???) taxi driver who's so insensitively done! I cringed watching this shlock as a child who had never met a Jamaican before, but could tell this was badly done, and changes Tim to an actual Mary Sue (Rey haters, please reference these episodes so you'll know what a Mary Sue actually is) whose character was nails on a chalkboard.

But don't worry, she's dying of cancer too! Gah!

You can smell corporate demanding a freaking Octobot. I wanted to throw out my phone from the fumes of sulphur and... We'll just say discharge. Yeah.

Y'know, Navy folk. No, not sailors.

Yes, I think I'm funny.

My wife laughs at me, not my jokes, can you tell?

Fortunately the introduction of the Green Goblin is next. And is it done right or what??? Man I love this episode. This show is at its best when its characters are human beings handed awful power, which magnifies their worst qualities. And we've taken some time developing Norman! He starts off as a sleezebag with genuine affection for his son, buried way deep down. Over the first two seasons Norman has wrestled with his inner monster. And he wasn't a saint or anything, but Norman was better than he'd ever been.  And then the accident happens and it's all for naught. This is easily one of my favorite single episodes of the show. My nostalgia is fully earned here.

Rocket Racer's episode is another great one-off. The debilitating moral effects of poverty are called out. If you need to steal to survive it makes you a criminal. If you're a criminal why not just be a bad guy, since the rest of the affair is stressful enough without having moral ambiguity making it complicated.  Merloo in "Rape of the Mind" not only calls societal pressures like what's going on in this episode brainwashing, but displays one of the most horrible things about societal pressures: man's sense of justice is so acute, his need for right and wrong so absolute, that continuous pressure on him eventually makes him become what others think of him, because he knows that justice is external. So, in an effort to recognize justice, he'll become what everyone is accusing him of. 

Happy thought, right?

The Daredevil, Smythe, and Tombstone episodes are just incredible. Plotting, characterization, voice acting, even the animation is really well done! While I think the Tombstone episode is the best of the bunch I'd definitely not say that makes the others worse; it's a real embarrassment of riches in these episodes. This is real quality stuff.

Which makes the Venom and Carnage episodes just that much worse.

Please keep in mind that a show as thematic as this one has to stick the landing. Thematic arcs are generally more difficult to pull off than a strictly plot-based show. You have to have a solid foundation and be willing to explore all sorts of situations... that are related to your theme. Oh, and you have to be willing to let go of ideas that are thematically sound, but don't execute too well. 

I really want to not do those freaking kid episodes again, can you tell????

The issues I have with the Venom and Carnage episodes isn't that it isn't thematically consistent with the rest of the show; nature vs nurture is on full display here. It's that the sins of Norman Osborn do actually need to be set up for later on! MJ ends her engagement with Harry in the Daredevil episodes and the show drops the plotline entirely after that. I get not dwelling on it overly, but we don't know much about Norman and what he's really like as an attentive father. We've seen his wrestlings with his darker nature, sure, between the Green Goblin episode and this one we really don't know what Norman and Harry are up to. That needed to be shown. This ain't the Skywalker Saga, where points you'd normally consider important don't need to be shown. The Skywalker Saga is an intergenerational soap opera. Its points are on a grand sweeping scale. But that's not what this show is. Harry has been basically sidelined up until this point, and as we're about to see that's going to do some significant damage to the finale.

Also, there's the fact that Mordo and Dormammu are central to the plot of Venom and Carnage's episodes. Where the hell is Doctor Strange?? Y'know, the dude who has dedicated his life to stopping Dormammu? They spent time setting him up... and then he's not there. So multiple threads are dropped and ignored to create these two episodes. Even the time dilation stuff could be introduced another way, see the Spot episode that literally comes right after this. These two episodes are unnecessary.

Unless you have to please a toy line. 

New Venom with a swappable head to Eddy Brock? Carnage??? Iron Man and War Machine? 

There were clearly dollar signs at work here, folks. And it's a damn shame. I love this take on Carnage! He's just the right type of sick and twisted fun this show needed! Eddy and Ashley are pathetic and sympathetic, even with the major ethical breaches going on. Granted, the show doesn't talk about that, but the actual dynamics between the two of them are well-handled. It's such a shame.

And then we're back to fantastic stuff again with The Spot! This is a fantastic one off that goes back to the simplicity of Season One, while setting up for the finale. Like Hydro Man, this is the definitive take on the character. In the comics he's a joke. I wouldn't say the Spot isn't a joke here, but he is treated with the sensitivity and sympathy I've come to expect from this show.

Goblin War is a fantastically frustrating episode. On the one hand you've got Hobgoblin, Felicia, and the continuation of the time dilation device plot. Which is great! I love this version of Hobgoblin! Felicia is handled so well here! It makes sense the underworld would go nuts about the time dilation device. The ending scenes of this episode are absolutely perfect. But then there's the sudden drop of the Green Goblin. And that Harry has been poisoned against MJ and Peter since the Daredevil episodes. I've already given you my thoughts on that. I am not happy with the sudden snap.

And then there's Turning Point. For every pro of this episode there's a glaring con. The characterization is fantastic. The plot is rushed. Madame Web is used so freaking well. There's way way way too much Spidey narration, which outright destroys what should have been the best single scene of the show. The ending is gut-wrenching tragedy.

It could have hit so much freaking harder.

And that's really my takeaway on this season: it could have been so much better. When this season is on, by God it's more than a step up from Season Two. But what seems like really blatant corporate meddling takes a season that should have been perfect, a defining season of Spider-Man, a triumph of adaptation... and averages out to a compelling story compromised by the need to sell toys.

And therein lies the real tragedy.