Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom "Maximum Venom, Parts 1-2" Finale Talkback (Spoilers)

Rate & Discuss these "Spider-Man Maximum Venom" episodes!

  • *****

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ****1/2

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ****

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • ***1/2

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • ***

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • **1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • **

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • *

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1/2

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

Roxas_Sora

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We should make a list about the cliffhangers or unresolved plots of the series, because there's a high chance we still can see more of this series.

This is the cover of an incomming comic about Spider-Man:
webofsm2020001_cov.jpg


>>Solicit Synopsis
"Peter Parker. Spider-Man. Scientist. Troublemaker?

Thanks to none other than Tony Stark, a new scientific research station for the teenage heroes of the Marvel Universe has just been completed – and Spider-Man just got an invitation to join! Working alongside some of your favorite faces from the MU and a whole bunch of awesome new gadgets, and with Iron Man keeping an eye on the them, surely everything’s going to go great for the heroes, right? ...Right?

Face front, True Believers, and treat yourself to this first issue in an adventure of the WORLDWIDE ENGINEERING BRIGADE!"

The building at the background matches the holo-building shown by Spidey in the last minutes of the special, so we can guess where this is going.
 

Frontier

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We should make a list about the cliffhangers or unresolved plots of the series, because there's a high chance we still can see more of this series.

This is the cover of an incomming comic about Spider-Man:
webofsm2020001_cov.jpg


>>Solicit Synopsis
"Peter Parker. Spider-Man. Scientist. Troublemaker?

Thanks to none other than Tony Stark, a new scientific research station for the teenage heroes of the Marvel Universe has just been completed – and Spider-Man just got an invitation to join! Working alongside some of your favorite faces from the MU and a whole bunch of awesome new gadgets, and with Iron Man keeping an eye on the them, surely everything’s going to go great for the heroes, right? ...Right?

Face front, True Believers, and treat yourself to this first issue in an adventure of the WORLDWIDE ENGINEERING BRIGADE!"

The building at the background matches the holo-building shown by Spidey in the last minutes of the special, so we can guess where this is going.
It's supposed to tie-in with the Disneyland attraction on Avengers Campus, I believe, which the show was also coincidentally doing.
 

Roxas_Sora

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It's supposed to tie-in with the Disneyland attraction on Avengers Campus, I believe, which the show was also coincidentally doing.

Well, you can see this like the first episode of "Guardiand of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout". They might have adapted the attraction material to the series/comics. But either way, you can see by the pictures that the building in this cover is the same that Peter presented at the end of the special. The only thing missing is the white spider's symbol in the red zone.
 

Fone Bone

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Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom "Maximum Venom"

Let's just say I'm ready to move on from the Jeph Loeb / Marvel Television / Man Of Action stuff. That's all I really have to say.

What? You demand a further review beyond that? Fine.

Passable. Acceptable. And that doesn't pass muster and is UNacceptable to me. No, it is not the trainwreck Black Panther's Quest wound up as, but I don't think demanding a great last episode from an action cartoon is asking for the moon either. Better than Avengers Assemble is no kind of bar in a Universe that's designed properly. I'm talking about OUR Universe by the way. There is no part of the Jeph Loeb-era Marvel Cartoon Universe that is remotely designed properly.

Ugh. The Avengers. I could have died happy never seeing the Avengers Assemble version of the Avengers ever again. Those characters are so annoying. So much so that they annoyed me in an entirely new way, which is SO them. Have you noticed that Hulk appeared more in this episode than he did during the entire fifth season? Yeah. THAT is the design of Jeph Loeb's Marvel Cartoon Universe. And it sucks.

And hearing Peter say all of these wonderful and moving empowering words of encouragement to Max Modell and how much he means to him actually made me mad. Because before this brief six-episode season, Max was a pretty unambiguously despicable character who treated Peter terribly on every level. I don't like the show retconning his terrible actions in the last episode as if he's been a friend and mentor to Peter this entire time. Not even close. He's basically been using Peter in the first two seasons, profiting from his inventions, while refusing to offer him a scholarship to the school despite Peter earning him money hand over fist. And Peter is desperately poor and can't afford the tuition on his own, while Max is constantly harassing him to pay it on-screen. Max was basically running this poor kid ragged for the "privilege" of creating inventions for him and making him rich. I am NOT okay with Peter telling Max what a good person he is.

Ironically, I wouldn't actually object if Peter was merely jiving Max simply to get him to throw off the Symbiote. He doesn't have to MEAN that Max is great if it gets the job done and saves the day. But the moment is played as if Peter is being entirely sincere instead, which is beyond irritating.

Grady not knowing they are all Spiders feels like the stupidest of loose ends. What kills me is it could have been fixed with one line of dialogue and a reaction shot from Grady. It's the last episode. It changes nothing. Instead I feel like Grady is going into this new enterprise at a disadvantage from everyone else, (which is an icky feeling) and with his eyes entirely closed from the truth. And wasn't it Harry himself who always ragged on Peter for this exact same kind of thing? Why is he participating in this dishonesty instead? Ugh. Unnecessary, man.

I noticed two things about the special effects in the climax: First, that they were great, and second, that maybe the show shouldn't get a TON of credit for that. Because this show is clearly done on the dirt cheap, and if great effects are actually affordable and easy to do, it's literally the least they can do. I would actually settle for passable effects and a great story instead. But this is how Loeb's Marvel Cartoon Universe is actually designed, and I don't ever get what I want from it.

And I'm not EVER calling this or the other recent shows an "Animated Universe". Cartoon Universe is all it gets. "Animated Universe" suggests of prestige and effort with continuity none of these show have bothered to put in any work toward. It's an insult to the stuff done by Bruce Timm and Greg Weisman to pretend this is any sort of continuity at ALL. It's random cartoon nonsense on its best day.

Still, I'll give them points for not only explaining the season subtitle, but having it make a lick of sense. What did the Sinister 6 actually have to do with Ultimate Spider-Man's last season anyways?

Am I correct in thinking that the reason this season existed at ALL was to capitalize on the surprise success of the Venom movie? If that's so, am I crazy to wonder why Eddie Brock didn't appear once? Is it even MORE unreasonable to wonder why he was never even mentioned? I get Venom is Sony, but Marvel is usually better at synergy, and if they wanted to bask in Venom's success, they could at least give Sony their due and not ignore everything they did, including using Brock.

I feel like this review is harsher than I actually feel towards the episode. The episode was acceptable, especially by the standards of the rest of the Loeb cartoons. But I'm tired of settling for acceptable and acting like that is okay in 2020. It's totally not. I'll be giving this a healthy three and a half stars served with a fresh helping of Michelle Obama-level shade and side-eye. It's pretty much what the episode and the entire series has deserved. And that's ALL it's deserved if you ask me. ***1/2.
 
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M.O.D.O.K.

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Grady not knowing they are all Spiders feels like the stupidest of loose ends. What kills me is it could have been fixed with one line of dialogue and a reaction shot from Grady. It's the last episode. It changes nothing. Instead I feel like Grady is going into this new enterprise at a disadvantage from everyone else, (which is an icky feeling) and with his eyes entirely closed from the truth. And wasn't it Harry himself who always ragged on Peter for this exact same kind of thing? Why is he participating in this dishonesty instead? Ugh. Unnecessary, man.

That is an excellent point. I guess it's easier to dismiss with Grady since he's the comic relief character of the season, but it really is no different than constantly hiding it from Harry. You could argue that Grady is not entitled to those secrets, but there's a serious power imbalance there. It's also ironic since I was annoyed that Peter didn't tell Gwen and Anya about his secret, BUT also found their responses annoying since they hid their own secrets and constantly assumed the worst of him when he was at a low point, just like Max did.
 

Frontier

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That is an excellent point. I guess it's easier to dismiss with Grady since he's the comic relief character of the season, but it really is no different than constantly hiding it from Harry. You could argue that Grady is not entitled to those secrets, but there's a serious power imbalance there. It's also ironic since I was annoyed that Peter didn't tell Gwen and Anya about his secret, BUT also found their responses annoying since they hid their own secrets and constantly assumed the worst of him when he was at a low point, just like Max did.
I mean, I like Grady, but I'm not sure I'd trust him with something as important as a secret identity :sweat:.

I think it would only be a problem if the plan was to keep involving him in their Superhero work without him knowing who they really are, but so far, aside from when he's involved himself in things, he's not like their official tech support or anything. W.E.B. ostensibly has nothing to do with them being Superheroes but them being teenage science peers.

Of course, if they end up using W.E.B. as their super secret Spider-Lair to convene and go over Spider-stuff and keep Grady out of the loop, then it would probably be time to tell him.

I'm honestly curious how the writers would've handled Mary Jane finding out. Would Peter end up telling her before Aunt May found out? Would it be a case of him constantly bailing on her and their dates to go be Spider-Man until he eventually explained everything to her? Would she figure it out on her own?
 

M.O.D.O.K.

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I'm honestly curious how the writers would've handled Mary Jane finding out. Would Peter end up telling her before Aunt May found out? Would it be a case of him constantly bailing on her and their dates to go be Spider-Man until he eventually explained everything to her? Would she figure it out on her own?

I'd prefer the latter. It shows that she's clever and thoughtful without being a super-genius. Also, I don't think any show or movie ever adapted that story from the comics where she reveals that she always knew because she saw him sneak into his room as Spider-Man. Spectacular MJ always gave me a vibe like she always knew, but the show never really confirmed that.

Also, they never really brought up MJ being the mascot, then. The only hint that even remotely hints it is MJ's jacket having the same colors as Midtown High, and that could also be a coincidence.
 

Frontier

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Also, they never really brought up MJ being the mascot, then. The only hint that even remotely hints it is MJ's jacket having the same colors as Midtown High, and that could also be a coincidence.
Well, mentioning her being the mascot would've involved the writers remembering that episode where it seemed like Peter already knew her, so maybe that's why they didn't want to bring it up :p?

I am kind of curious about MJ's status at Midtown and what she does or her reputation is like since we never got see much of that even when Peter was at Midtown at season 2. It seems pretty reasonable to assume she might be on the girls' basketball team given she's shooting hoops every time we see her in a casual setting :).
 

Korra_Fan

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The finale was serviceable, but it had a HUGE disadvantage in that it was following "Generations", which was honestly more climactic, exciting and satisfying (the weird, pointless twist on Swarm's identity notwithstanding). I definitely agree with people who say that the Venom stuff this season was a mandate and that the writers had no interest in it.

Mary Jane was great, though. It's a shame we won't be seeing any more of her.
 

Frontier

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The finale was serviceable, but it had a HUGE disadvantage in that it was following "Generations", which was honestly more climactic, exciting and satisfying (the weird, pointless twist on Swarm's identity notwithstanding). I definitely agree with people who say that the Venom stuff this season was a mandate and that the writers had no interest in it.

Mary Jane was great, though. It's a shame we won't be seeing any more of her.
I think in a way Osborn made for a stronger, full-circle, villain than Venom did (especially since Harry was involved) but I think this was a necessary ending for Max, Horizon, and Peter's time there.

I think both were much better handled than Adrian Toomes as the Goblin King.
 

Spider-Man

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If this is the series finale then it was good but a bit underwhelming. I was hoping for something bigger but I get they wanted to focus on the characters themselves and not the big action pieces though we still got plenty of those. The twist with Max becoming the new Venom was great, though I was disappointed that the show didn't dive that far into Max and it kind of hurt when Max said he had no one. He does, he has a partner named Hector Baez and he's married to him. Even a quick line would've been nice, but nope. Really disappointing and just so tiring. I do like the open-ended nature of the finale and hope that maybe it'll lead to more from this show in the future. There were some really nice moments here and there, especially with Peter and MJ, and it was good overall but could've been better I think. Still this show really took me by surprise, especially after the garbage fire of Ultimate Spider-Man, and I hope this isn't the end of it.
 

Frontier

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If this is the series finale then it was good but a bit underwhelming. I was hoping for something bigger but I get they wanted to focus on the characters themselves and not the big action pieces though we still got plenty of those. The twist with Max becoming the new Venom was great, though I was disappointed that the show didn't dive that far into Max and it kind of hurt when Max said he had no one. He does, he has a partner named Hector Baez and he's married to him. Even a quick line would've been nice, but nope. Really disappointing and just so tiring. I do like the open-ended nature of the finale and hope that maybe it'll lead to more from this show in the future. There were some really nice moments here and there, especially with Peter and MJ, and it was good overall but could've been better I think. Still this show really took me by surprise, especially after the garbage fire of Ultimate Spider-Man, and I hope this isn't the end of it.
I did find it kind of weird that the show had a gay man in such a prominent role all this time but it never actually came up at all in three seasons :sweat:.
 

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