“Reaction”

This episode begins with Spiderman swinging around the city shouting, “Paging Green Goblin” in his quest to find the first villain, in this series, that he hasn’t been able to capture.  While searching for Goblin he sees that two young guys have stolen a truck full of cars.  The one guy runs to the back of the bed of the truck and takes out a car but in doing so takes out the brakes of the truck.  Spidey first stops the truck before it hits a blind man (so cliché) and then he goes to stop the cars that fell out the back of the truck (saving a geeky looking guy and hot looking girl but putting them in the same web along the way).  He then gets the dude who stole the car off of the back of the truck and puts him in a web until the police can take him away.

We then flash forward to a football game where Harry catches an almost impossible catch that Flash threw to win the game.  MJ is at the game and tells Peter that Flash invited her much to Pete’s chagrin.  When he asks her about it she says its not like she and Peter are going steady or anything and that they are friends.  Liz Allen then invites Peter to go to Coney Island where many of the kids are going to hang out the next day.  We then have a scene in the locker room where the football players invite Harry for hamburgers but Harry says he’ll catch up and then began to convulse as the others walk out and you see him take more of the globular green serum that was in the locker.  Gwen waits outside the locker room for Harry but Harry never shows up and the janitor comes out and locks up and tells Gwen no one is inside.

Next we have Dr. Otto Octavius talking to Mr. Osborne and is worrying about the super villains being traced back to him.  Osborne tells him that he whines more than Harry does and that he can’t have weak men in his organization.  In a day dream while Osborne is talking Octavius envisions hitting Osborne with his mechanical arm.  Osborne snaps him out of the reverie and leaves telling Otto to run his experiment and be a good “Doctor Octopus” a name which Otto says he doesn’t like.  

Otto then takes out the safety key for the experiment so it doesn’t run and goes into the experiment room.  However, as soon as he goes in you see the Green Goblin’s hand put the key in and start the experiment.  Otto flails his arms but is unable to leave the experiment room.  You see lights flashing and Otto falls to the ground as you see his skeleton flash in and out and the device that controls his arms fuses to his body and you see a reaction in his spinal cord. 

Seeing the bright lights from a distance Spidey uses a web to sling himself (first time doing that approach) to Oscorp so thinking that Harry’s dad might be in danger.  Mr. Osborne comes to see what is going on and disengages the experiment and goes in to see Otto on the ground covered by a piece of debris.  Spidey gets there and lifts off the debris and Mr. Osborne asks if he’s alright and you hear Mr. Osborne’s voice resonating the “I can’t have weak men in my organization” as Otto stands up.  As he stands up he says, “I will not be weak” and uses his arm to push Osborne against the wall as well as Spidey saying that Spidey tracked him down to destroy him.  Otto declares that he is now one with his arms and declares himself Doctor Octopus. 

From there Doc Ock and Spidey battle a bit while Mr. Osborne escapes.  We then hear a timer beep and Doc Ock takes off.  Spidey then runs to the roof and says, “Paging Dr. Octopus.  As if Goblin wasn’t bad enough.”

Gwen is then walking near the school and finds Harry asleep on the concrete by a fountain.  Harry denies anything is wrong and tells Gwen to come to Coney Island where they can hang out the next day.

Doc Ock then goes to his former apartment and destroys it all the while mumbling about how he can’t believe he worked there and worked for Osborne.  He indicates he needs a bigger power source that will last longer. 

In the next scene we are at Coney Island where Harry hits the bell on the strength test and the other football players ask where he hides the muscle.  Gwen tells Peter she’s worried about Peter but Pete basically says he doesn’t see the big deal because Harry is happy.  Liz and Peter are then seen having fun at Coney Island and then they run into MJ who is with Flash.  Then in the distance they see Doc Ock so Peter says he isn’t feeling well and runs off. 

Doc Ock is seeing going to a place where he used to work and steals an experiment he was working on when he worked there which was a long term power source.  Spidey shows up and takes the device from Ock.  They battle and the battle takes them to Coney Island.  Peter’s plan is to wear him out until his current power runs out.  At Coney Island, Spidey saves Gwen and MJ much to his happiness.  Flash tries to help Spidey but that doesn’t go well so Flash runs off.  Doc Ock then takes Liz hostage saying that people are Spidey’s weakness since he can’t stand to see anyone being hurt and says Spidey has to chose between Liz or the device.  Spidey throws the device away which Doc Ock takes after and then Spidey saves Liz.

In a related scene we see Colonel Jameison take off in the space shuttle.  The Bugle staff is watching it on TV.

After saving Liz Spidey goes after Doc Ock who now has the long lasting power supply in his hand.  They battle and Spidey lifts his shirt revealing a belt that reflects light into Doc Ock’s eyes just as he was changing batteries causing a distraction giving Spidey time to steal both batteries.  He then knocks Doc Ock down.

Flash forward to Doc Ock being taken away by police with Peter snapping photos.  We then see Flash Thompson and Liz Allen breaking up with other kids blaming Peter for the break up.  Gwen insists that Peter talk to Harry but Harry is no where to be found.  We then see Harry lying on his bed drinking another vile of Globular Green while Hammer Head and Osborne are talking about the Green Goblin.  Osborne says Goblin is a mutual enemy that they need to unmask. 

*End of Episode*

Review

I never read Spiderman comics (maybe I should start LOL) but I like how Doc Ock has been built up to since the show started.  I like how the entire series is not an “in your face” version of Spiderman but is a gradual introduction to story lines.