Marvel's Spider-Man "Rise Above It All" Talkback (Spoilers)

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Marvel's Spider-Man "Rise Above It All"
Episode Debut - July 2nd, 2018

Spider-Man has to infiltrate the viral superstars known as the Wake Riders in order to figure out what the end game is with their stolen Vulture tech. But things take a dangerous turn as Adrian Toomes is tempted back to the dark side.

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[Troy Troodon]

Three things...

1. Why doesn't Peter give Jamieson footage of Spider-Man saving the day like what he showed to Max?

2. How was Toomes that easily talked over by the Wake Rider leader?

3. How did the Wake Riders walk off scot free without any jurisdiction shown?

 

[Spideyfan123]

Three things...

1. Why doesn't Peter give Jamieson footage of Spider-Man saving the day like what he showed to Max?

2. How was Toomes that easily talked over by the Wake Rider leader?

3. How did the Wake Riders walk off scot free without any jurisdiction shown?

How was the episode

 

[Fone Bone]

Marvel's Spider-Man "Rise Above It All"

This had the potential to be a good series. But now I realize it never will be.

It's lazy. It's badly written. I have never felt as disappointed with Ultimate Spider-Man as I do with this show on a weekly basis. Maybe the USM where Peter trashes Aunt May's house and Principle Coulson replaces it with an identical one is dumber. But that's the only episode I can think of. And if THAT'S how far you have to go to be dumber than this show, you're in trouble.

My stomach started to sink upon the Wave Riders telling Spider-Man not to sweat the details of the stunt, and that you don't need to worry about that stuff. And when he said that, I knew the writers were lazy. And I suspect lacking actual common sense. People who engage in extreme stunts act outrageously for the cameras, but secretly, they study the science behind the stunts like crazy, and know the inner workings backwards and forwards. And I don't say this as an expert on extreme stunts. I say this as a person who has watched a fair share of DVD extras. Have none of this episode's writers ever seen a stunt featurette? Stunt performers are meticulous professionals who plan everything well in advance. Do the writers not actually know that? Or maybe they do, and assumed I'M not smart enough to actually know that. Honestly, the second idea makes me even angrier.

Tooms' botched reformation had me seeing red. I didn't believe it for a second, because they blew their wad with Ock last week, but I certainly did not expect it to be handled as badly as that. The show actually thinks Vulture joining the bad guys is a shocking twist. What would have been shocking is if he WAS trying to go legit. But this show doesn't see the value in interesting villains, and people working to change their mistakes. That is an interesting notion, and this show is not too keen on being interesting.

On paper this should be the Spider-Man show of our dreams. It's "serious" (without cartoon chibis), and animation techniques have improved enough over the years that even the cheapest animation now looks great. The problem is this show is so badly written and has such unlikable characters. Everything is in place for us to have an amazing current Spider-Man cartoon. But Marvel Animation is incapable of giving us one.*

Honestly I am having a hard time accepting that modern kids TV is just as bad as it used to be, at least on Marvel's end. Superhero producers seem to have learned nothing from the genre's mistakes, and cartoons are just as stupid and badly written now as they were when I was a kid. And that angers me, especially because of all of the good cartoons we've had in the meantime. I know animated superhero shows can be high quality. The fact that they never are anymore (outside of Big Hero 6) is something I think we should all be mad about. 0.

*And no, The Spectacular Spider-Man doesn't count. I think that thing was awful and is the worst thing Greg Weisman has ever written. We've never gotten a good Spider-Man cartoon. We are due.

 

[Matt Parker]

Welp, I liked it quite a bit. It had some truly heartwarming moments, cool action, fleshed out the Vulture more as a character (in season one he just kinda felt like a watered down version of the Spectacular Spider-Man Vulture to me) and used Miles pretty well. I liked that they flipped the concept of the Vulturions on its head. In the comics, they were petty crooks and the Vulture came after them in revenge for them using his tech, while here they actually appealed to his ego and got him to help them by the end.

I think there's an interesting parallel there between Peter and Adrian. Adrian gives Peter a speech about how he wants to make a mark on the world, and he doesn't want to be remembered as a super villain. However, when he ends up working with the Wake Riders, you realize that all he really cares about is what other people think of him. He doesn't actually want to make the world better, he just wants to have his ego stroked.

Peter, meanwhile, cares more about making an actual impact than the fame and fortune. The Wake Riders were clearly fans of him, and going along with their act could have improved his public image. But, he decided that his ideals were more important than being liked.

Sure, this isn't the best written show ever or anything, but the episode was about something and did have a cool underlying message.

Season 2 continues to impress.

 

[Frontier]

Peter wants to see The Avengers acting incompetent? He should just watch season 1 of Avengers Assemble. He'll get plenty of Iron Man material there .

I'm glad to see this show capturing an aspect of Spider-Man that we haven't seen in a while, where we have the general media lambasting and casting aspersions on him, but he doesn't let it get him down and he still enjoys the little victories that count .

The show initially set up Vulture to be a big part of the show, right down to his VA being listed with the main cast, but in season 1 they never really did much with him. So it was nice to see the show do a Vulture-focused episode that put Adrian Toomes back in the spotlight .

I still wouldn't say Toomes came out of this episode as a more complex or deeper character, but I would say his portrayal here is consistent with his characterization in season 1 where his main motivation was his ego and gaining recognition for his work. Although I do think it was a little too soon to be doing another story where a villain appears to redeem themselves only to do the opposite in short order .

The Waker Riders were an interesting revamp of the Vulturion concept from the comics, especially compared to the "Vulture Force" from season 1. Actually, their whole shtick about utilizing social media to commit crime and make money feels closer to Screwball from the comics then the version of Screwball on this show .

Remember when Spider-Man used to be able to generally deal with threats on his own? Now it seems like he either needs to be saved by other Spiders or by his own villains on a constant basis .

It was nice to see the show finally remember that Miles is a Spider-Man too. Miles also becoming Spidey's "promoter" was fun, although it also made me realize this version of Miles feels more like Ganke then Miles Morales .

Vulture managed to escape with his upgraded Vulture suit and the Wake Riders managed to avoid jail time, so I'm guessing we'll probably see these guys back to menace Spidey at a later date .

1. Why doesn't Peter give Jamieson footage of Spider-Man saving the day like what he showed to Max?

Because Jameson would still find a way to construe that footage against him, like he did with the footage of Spidey fighting the Wild Pack .

2. How was Toomes that easily talked over by the Wake Rider leader?

Because Toomes' sense of ego and accomplishment is his main drive as a villain, and the Wake Rider's capitalized on that .

3. How did the Wake Riders walk off scot free without any jurisdiction shown?

I'm not as sure about this. I mean, it would probably be easy to assume they got off because they're "celebrities," but I guess the police genuinely didn't have enough evidence to hold them .

My stomach started to sink upon the Wave Riders telling Spider-Man not to sweat the details of the stunt, and that you don't need to worry about that stuff. And when he said that, I knew the writers were lazy. And I suspect lacking actual common sense. People who engage in extreme stunts act outrageously for the cameras, but secretly, they study the science behind the stunts like crazy, and know the inner workings backwards and forwards. And I don't say this as an expert on extreme stunts. I say this as a person who has watched a fair share of DVD extras. Have none of this episode's writers ever seen a stunt featurette? Stunt performers are meticulous professionals who plan everything well in advance. Do the writers not actually know that? Or maybe they do, and assumed I'M not smart enough to actually know that. Honestly, the second idea makes me even angrier.

I assumed they told Spidey that to make sure he didn't think too much about what they were doing, to hide what their true goals were with their stunts.

 

[Gold Guy]

I would have liked this episode a lot more if it didn't just follow another episode featuring a villain who may have turned over a new leaf, and featured a fangirl of said villain.

I mean, I still thought it was solid enough, and it was nice to see Miles actually do something, but eh. I'm ready for a stronger episode.