TV Review: The killer of “Opening Night” gets revealed

We are now in our second episode of our drama terminology story arc of The Spectacular Spider-Man. In this episode we finally get a proper reintroduction of Black Cat. Also we get to find out the identity of Ben Parker’s murderer in Opening Night. Also, Spidey gets to fight almost of all of his villains … in jail!

Norman Osborn has Spider-Man locked up in the maximum security prison known as the Vault, to test out the security of the cells. Everything goes awry when the Green Goblin takes control of the prison and locks in the cops in and unlocks of the super villains to get their revenge on the web head. Spider-Man gets help from the Black Cat as she tries to spring her father, The Cat, out of the Vault.

This episode starts out with Spider-Man getting locked up in the Vault, giving the audience a sense of shock and mystery on what happened and how Spider-Man got caught. Almost like the beginning of last episode, except this time the episode isn’t told in flashbacks as they simply explain that Spider-Man volunteered to try escape from the prison for security testing. The interactions between Spidey and J. Jonah Jameson are very funny, as Jameson believes that Spider-Man should be locked in the Vault and Spider-Man just wants to show off his escaping skills to get his boss frustrated. There is even a point where the villains are beating Spider-Man and Jameson pauses when Captain Stacey asks if he really wants all of those villains to win. Also another thing to note is that Peter Parker is nowhere to be found in this episode.

The story telling method in this episode is not too different from what have been seen in this season before. Throughout the episode, while Spider-Man is trying to escape from the Vault, the kids in the High School are performing the school play. Since the human development title episode story arc, we have seen that M3 is putting on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this episode, the play is finally being performed; however, one major character is missing, and that is Harry Osborn as Puck. In reality, we see that the Green Goblin is at the Vault with the controls to the prison and that is why Harry can’t make it to the play. Obviously, Harry is still prepared for the play in his Green Goblin state, as the Goblin is heard rhyming throughout the episode, and even performing lines from the play. Hobie Brown has finally broken his silence in this series as he performs as the fawn Puck. Something really cool that the episode does is that the spider is dressed in Spider-Man’s colors and the fawn has the same colors as the Green Goblin. The interaction between those characters and between Spider-Man and Green Goblin mirrors each other and flows throughout the episode. Again, it’s nothing new, but really good story telling. Also, just like Peter Parker is nowhere to be found on this episode, Harry Osborn is also completely absent.

Unlike most characters in this series, the Black Cat was introduced to us as a costumed villain first. In this episode, we actually find out her real name is Felicia Hardy, and her dad is locked in the Vault as he is known as the Cat. The big change that this series does to the Cat is that they make him the person responsible of Ben Parker’s death and ultimately makes Peter don the Spider-Man mask for doing good instead of selfish deeds. This really brings our hero in a manner that we haven’t seen. His quips are gone and suddenly become serious which brings him and Black Cat into an uncomfortable situation.

With the Vault containing the most dangerous super villains of New York, we also see other past villains. Molten Man makes a return in this episode, and just as I felt with Reinforcements, I think it is just too soon to see this villain again, especially in a cameo appearance. The Enforcers also return without their super upgrades. Even Montana doesn’t don on his Shocker costume as he is mostly known as that identity now. The biggest question that I have that doesn’t get addressed is where Quentin Beck/Mysterio is. We see that Quentin Beck in the Vault is only a robot and it is just odd that Captain Stacey or Spider-Man doesn’t question the whereabouts of the real Mysterio.

Now Spider-Man knows that the Green Goblin is back and he has one more episode to stop him again once and for all. A lot is riding on the next episode, like how will Liz’s and Peter’s relationship fair out especially with everything that has happened between them this season. Also, we have Peter’s relationship with Gwen, as it is more than obvious that those two are in love with each other. All of this with getting Harry off of the Globium Green so the Green Goblin will be gone for good … again.

Episode 212, ‘Opening Night’ will air tonight at 9PM EST on Disney XD and Disney XD HD.