This week, writer Greg Weisman and director Dave Bullock stage an "Intervention" as Peter finally confronts what the symbiote has done to him. At the start of the episode, Peter has fallen thoroughly under its spell. He's sporting it as a black t-shirt, no longer hiding his muscular build beneath baggy clothes (something I'm surprised nobody else notices). His attitude has changed completely, becoming hostile and cold; Josh Keaton does a great job with the voice performance, with Peter barely sounding like the same person. And he has more confrontations with an increasingly bitter Eddie Brock, who's now lost his job because of the "theft" of the symbiote (and the resultant budget cutbacks at the lab).
Also, by this point, the black costume has fully transformed. At first, it was like the Spider-Man 3 black costume, with the same web patterning and logo as the normal costume but with only the colors changed. But apparently it's been gradually evolving its look, and now it's become the full-on original black costume design, pure black interrupted only by the eyes and the larger, more emphatic spider emblem in white. Thus, the symbiote's gradual takeover of Peter's mind is reflected visually -- a touch I didn't notice until today.
Ironically, it's Flash Thompson who finally gets through to Peter and forces him to see what he's become -- a nice bit of nuance to add to the character. Then Spidey swings around town wondering how to get rid of the suit, and conveniently winds up in a church tower while the bell rings. At first, I was afraid they were simply copying the standard bell-tower scene from other versions of the tale; they even emulated the third film by having the costume mask briefly turn into a Venom-like head as the bell rang.
But then the scene took an interesting twist, as the symbiote cocooned Peter within it and the battle moved inside Peter's mind. And in the process, we got what I've been hoping the show would give us at some point: the origin story. Allowing for a few dreamlike touches and shortcuts, and for the Saturday morning censorship that kept them from acknowledging the concept of death directly, it was a pretty good retelling. Weisman mixed elements of the original Lee/Ditko story with elements of the movie version. Some of the movie interpolations worked, such as the scene where the Burglar robs the take and Spidey lets him go; the film's version of that was perhaps the best ever, making Spidey's inaction more an act of petty vengeance (for being cheated out of his pay) than a mere sin of omission, and this version reflected that. Other elements from the movie just seemed to be tacked on for the sake of familiarity, like the cage descending around the wrestling arena (although at least his opponent was Crusher Hogan in this version) or the change of venue of Ben's shooting to the library right after the bout, rather than the Parker home weeks later. Weisman even threw in a movielike dream scene of Ben and Peter in the car talking about power and responsibility. It felt too imitative, though it was given a twist by having the symbiote involved in the scene as well, trying to convince Peter to give into his darker emotions and bond with it permanently. Making Ben appear as Peter's hallucinatory conscience, the force that persuaded him to reject the symbiote, was an excellent touch, despite the imitative aspects of the origin story.
Also, I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure Uncle Ben was played here by Ed Asner -- ironic, since he played J. Jonah Jameson in the '90s animated series. Asner, of course, worked with Weisman before on Gargoyles.
I like it that Peter defeats the symbiote with more than just sound waves -- once he understands its nature, he channels his positive emotions, his awareness of friends and family, and refuses to allow it the negative impulses it feeds on. That, combined with the church bell's peals, weakens it enough for him to remove it. Unfortunately, he suddenly has his normal Spidey costume on underneath it, which doesn't make any sense.
The show takes its own approach to how the symbiote bonds with Eddie, too. Eddie is there as Spidey returns the symbiote to the lab, and his hopes of his career being saved are dashed when Spidey tries to freeze it to death (perhaps an unwise strategy, considering it survived in outer space). Now the embittered Eddie becomes as furious at Spidey as he is at Peter, and his rage re-energizes the dormant symbiote -- and from there on, it's a match made in hell. Venom has been born -- which would be really cool if not for that stupid tongue thing. Venom can be an effective nemesis if used judiciously, but his design is ridiculous, especially that stupid tongue. I'm sorry, but Todd McFarlane is not a very good artist or character designer. And the tongue is really over-emphasized in this version -- the thing's maybe 2 feet long! In the context of this show's cartoony character design style, it just looks goofy.
Oh, and I almost forgot, we also got a pretty interesting MJ/Gwen conversation in which MJ got Gwen to (nearly) admit her feelings for Peter and told her she needed to do something about them. That could turn out interestingly. It would be nice, for once, to see a Spidey adaptation that hooks Peter up with Gwen before he ends up with MJ. I'm still wondering if this show will dare -- or be allowed -- to take Gwen's storyline to the conclusion it had in the comics.
