Disney XD’s Spider-Man swings back into action in ‘Vengeance of Venom’
Disney XD’s Marvel’s Spider Man returns in epic hour long special “Vengeance of Venom” and let me tell you it did not disappoint.
After a nearly month long vacation, the Queens-born superhero picks up where we last left off: gearing up a for a Venom-themed invasion. It seems that Spidey can’t catch a break. Much like our world currently batting the novel coronavirus pandemic, Spider-Man and his fellow heroes have to combat their own pandemic: the alien symbiote, Venom and his invasion of Manhattan. At least Spider-Man was able to contain this pandemic to Manhattan.
The hour long special begins with where “Amazing Friends” last left us. Both Spider Men: Peter Parker & Miles Morales continuing their ,I guess you call it “All-Star team up” with Riri Williams aka Ironheart, Amadeus Cho’s Hulk, Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy’s Baby Groot. At the Conclusion of “Amazing Friends,” Peter and his mini-avengers , along with Dr. Strange himself, discover a massive invasion of symbiotes are heading towards their neck of the woods: Earth (Manhattan if you wanna be technical).
The Spider-team’s first fight in part 1 of Vengeance of Venom pits Hero against Hero and boy was it tense. Everybody’s favorite Avengers return from an off-screen mission in space only to comeback with a whole makeover:a venom-themed makeover. The first fight immediately puts you at the edge of your seat or bed if you’re truly in quarantine mode. It was tense as you witness the hero’s that are left slowly back into a corner. As time progresses, Spider-Man begins to lose his friends one by one. The alien invasion becomes spider-Man’s biggest challenge yet and he just stoped an entire Goblin war last year.
Disney XD did an amazing job creating the venomized avengers. Although the Avengers, and everyone else who was venomized, were nothing more but puppets for alien symbiotic life-form, it was a tiny bit scary see them in evil mode. Yes, its only a kids cartoon but hey as a die hard Marvel fan who follow Disney Marvel animation likes its one of those daytime CBS Soap Operas, scared is what I was, only a little. One could say that despite being scared, the venom-version of the Avengers looked awesome, which is why turning the channel or closing the DisneyNow app ,if your streaming it, would be hard to do. In terms of behind the sence work, the venomized-avengers sounded like they were using some sort of voice modulation on a light scale to combine the voice of the charcters to being controlled with venom vocal pipes, a nice detail to mention. A+ goes to the Symbiotie Supreme design, a venom-controlled Doctor Strange. The strong designs elements of the Venomized Avengers deserves an overall A+ in details.
Now on to Spider-Man’ team performance. Peter Parker originally believed that the seed he obtained from the symbiotic, that he destroyed in the season 3 premier was infecting the world. Come to find out the symbiote seed was a homing beacon for the invasion. Cool right? Here we are thinking its the source of the invasion but no it was the vemon spices coming to our neck of the woods.
When the alien invasion was on the horizon, Spider-Man seemed like he going at this alone. This episode by itself shine a spotlight on the Spider-Team, allies new and old. It brought a warm feeling seeing Spidey’s team united before they sucame to invasion. The teamwork during last year’s Goblin War is one for the superhero history books.
New ally brought to Spidey’s side is Marvel’s Batman, Marc Spector, the totally not Moon Knight. Just when it seemed like every hero and New Yorker alike was venomized, Spider-Man found himself out numbered when a mysterious man with major issues jumps to the rescue. After their fight against some infected New Yorkers is finished, the two head for Spector’s underground lair, which turns out to have been built for months according to him. Anyway, Spector and Spidey find themselves teaming up and as the teamwork progress, what starts out as a “I don't like you, You don’t like me” scenario turns into one awesome team up between the two heroes. The development for this literation of Moon Knight is ideal for a kids cartoon like Marvel’s Spider-Man. It shows him dealing with the aftermath of a personal struggle, which leads to him giving upthe Moon Knight Costume. Yet somehow Spider-Man ,as he always does, shows Spector the true way of being a superhero by dishing out his uncle’s most famous quote “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Can we talk about May Parker for a second ? Talk about #girlpower. Spector was continuing to don the “everyman for himself” persona as he was raiding an Avengers compound when he was attack by a group of symbiotes. Just when he was about to shake hands with defeat, May Parker, of all people, with a group of New Yorkers swoop in to the rescue. Nobody saw this coming. Earlier in the 1 hour special,Spider-Man ws looking foe to make sure she was safe. It was assumed she was venomized but no she out there on the battlefield forming her own avengers team with random New Yorkers. That’s New Yorkers for you, when the going gets tough we band together. Seeing New Yorkers together taking back their city reminds me of the the current climate today in a way. Injustice slaps us in the face and in a peaceful manner, we take to the street to let others know this is not okay.
Spider-Man, May Parker, Moon Knight, Max Modell, who is Peter’s teacher, and the rest of New York eventually clean up New York, with the help of venom Baby Groot becoming the Anti-Venom. Who would have thought that Baby Groot would have saved the day? For that Baby Groot, New Yorkers are gonna celebrate Earth Day extra hard next year. Vengeance of Venom delivers action, heart-felt moments, ‘edge of your seat’ moments and. Most importantly, Spider Man was able to do what he does best: be a constant reminder of why Pop culture fanatic love him. Overall, it’s a memorizing two parter that’s worthy of repeat binging. Vengeance of Venom deserves an A+.
