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

[RoyalRubble]

Catch a new hour-long episode of Marvel's Spider-Man, tonight starting at 9:00PM ET on Disney XD! Check out the Season Three premiere! The episodes will also be available on DisneyNOW before its debut on TV.

"Road to Maximum Venom" Featurette​

Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom "Web of Venom, Part 1"
Episode Debut - April 19th, 2020

When a new student at Horizon High accidentally unleashes a technology-eating monstrosity called the Technovore, Spider-Man has to take an enormous risk by using a new version of the dangerous V-252 symbiote to defeat the unstoppable machine!

Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom "Web of Venom, Part 2"
Episode Debut - April 19th, 2020

Spider-Man and Max Modell have to find a way to stop Venom (who has been unwittingly unleashed by Dr. Conners) from recovering a weapon that would allow him to destroy our planet!

Comments?

Mod Note: We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC!

 

[Rick Jones]

I think that I kind of expected these hour long episodes/specials to have a standalone feel for some reason. I thought this was pretty enjoyable. It's not vastly improved over what we've seen before but I have no complaints. The backgrounds aren't quite the eyesore I remember from some episodes. I do wonder where the continuity stands with MJ. In the past, we saw Peter get all excited about MJ and it was apparent that she was someone he shared history with but here, he brushes off the idea of hanging out with her as though he never met her. Doing the old reveal with her feels like an odd choice at this point. Curt Conners feels like a real "snake" in this universe. I'd guess that he's still an Osborn stooge. I like Grady. He could be a lot worse as far as bumbling goofballs go. I really like this version of Technovore as an all consuming monster dog and this was my favorite design for it. Max can be a stubborn one but he seems to mean well. This new trust relationship with him and Peter didn't feel all that strange. Did Spidey learn the history of Venom in GOTG? He seemed really clueless about it here.

Being reminded of how belittling Gwen is of Spidey, I wasn't too sad to see that crew written off for a college tour. I wouldn't mind if they were gone for the season but of course, they'll be back (if only to be venomized).

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Fone Bone]

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

That last shot of the episode? I was like "Oh, snap!"

This show is done on the cheap, which is fine by me, because modern animation techniques have improved so much so quickly, you can actually do great action sequences on the cheap. I very much doubt I'd find this show acceptable on this budget ten or fifteen years ago. Now it doesn't really matter.

Why doesn't Peter compare notes with Max about his odd behavior last year? You'd figure that would be the first thing that came up once the identity was fully shared.

Grady's a little annoying, but I like that he means Scott Menville hasn't actually left the show. He's an important part of it.

This version of Connors is a totally untrustworthy dirtbag. Plus he has the same character design of a serial killer drifter.

Solid premiere. ****.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

So, it's obviously two episodes stitched together as one. They flow into each other nicely, but there's still an obvious separation there.

Overall, I actually really liked it. The colors seem a bit different this time. There was some actual shading, though not too much. The visuals and animation were a bit better. Not a radical change like it was promised, but improved overall.

I was so glad not only Max actually told Peter straight-up that he knows his secret, but that they're actively working together. He's even allowed to be flawed as he continues the symbiote experiments in secret and suffers the drawback from it. I always found him to be one of the worst characters, so this is actually endearing him to me. I hope we find out who that person he tried to help was.

I was also surprised to see not only Doc Connors back, but in a much more antagonistic role than before. I somehow don't think the person that tipped him off about the symbiote had anything to do with the symbiote's plan, so I hope we see who is responsible. Also, I find it amusing he's on the other end of the same situation from The Spectacular Spider-Man, where his lab was taken over by Dr. Warren after his mistake was exposed.

I do have a couple of nitpicks, though. Mainly, I think they retconned Peter knowing Mary Jane, since Aunt May talks about her being a new person Peter could meet. Yet way back in season one, it was established Peter and Flash knew her from Midtown and that she was the new mascot ("Go get them, Tiger!"). The second, more minor retcon is Grady's design. Also, does it seem a bit tasteless to make an enemy hologram out of the man who was trying to reform and died by his daughter's hand?

I liked it, all in all. I hope they have another "movie" planned for at least next month. It would be painful if they stretched it out longer than it should.

 

[Pattern_Maker]

Maximum Venom is definitely off to a good start. The animation's improved and I like how they changed a few of the character's designs to show some growth and progression.

It's nice to see that writers haven't ignored the character's wanting to attend college, but why did they have to make Peter forget about a college road trip? Not gonna lie that I'm sad to see Anya, Gwen, and Miles gone for now, which I shouldn't be since they'll be back soon with this season being six episodes. I love how New York is aware of Ghost-Spider, Spider-Girl, and a second Spider-Man now.

Max and Peter's dynamic was great here, especially how he respected knowing Peter was Spider-Man and promised to stop pushing the subject. I never really cared for Max that much, but the Superior Spider-Man saga made me dislike for offering Ock-Peter a payment and not Peter-Peter early in the school year when he should have. Nevertheless, the two had a good student-teacher;student-mentor relationship in this episode which is something a lot of fans said wasn't shown well enough.

I'm convinced the writers took inspiration from Web of Shadows. The synthetic symbiote suit's functionality is too similar to the black suit from that game, except that the synthetic symbiote doesn't appear to make Peter rage. He'll most likely get it back at some point.

I don't have anything to say about Grady or Technovore, that's me not knowing anything about them from the comics.

Doctor Connors, I hate that he's another scientist gone bad, but everyone from Oscorp except for Harry has a massive ego problem and they can't blame Norman anymore since he's dead now. I was kind of hoping he'd go into a coma-like Eddie Brock, but he recovered...

Now to the main star of this storyline, I think this might be my favorite version of the Venom symbiote being portrayed as a villain. I like how it was hinted that he's been planning this invasion since season one of the show and that they used his meteorite origins from the 1994 cartoon in a new way. Heck, since the events of Guardians of the Galaxy are involved maybe what Peter brought to Max was either Earth's planet seed or the Symbiote Planet's planet seed.

I do have a couple of nitpicks, though. Mainly, I think they retconned Peter knowing Mary Jane, since Aunt May talks about her being a new person Peter could meet. Yet way back in season one, it was established Peter and Flash knew her from Midtown and that she was the new mascot ("Go get them, Tiger!").

I don't think it was a retconned in my opinion. May was just telling him that Mary Jane moved next door, but Peter was focused on other things to really care (his friends on the college tour, Max and the synthetic-symbiote).

Did Spidey learn the history of Venom in GOTG? He seemed really clueless about it here.

In the actual two episodes from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Guardians told him that they have encountered symbiotes before and Star-Lord was surprised when Peter told him Venom was found on Earth, but they never sat down and explained to him about the symbiotes like The Road to Maximum Venom implies.

 

[Rick Jones]

Also, does it seem a bit tasteless to make an enemy hologram out of the man who was trying to reform and died by his daughter's hand?

Yeah, that was a little off. I know Sandman is the villain fans are used to but you would think Pete would remember that Keemia is the one that tried to kill him several times.

In the actual two episodes from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Guardians told him that they have encountered symbiotes before and Star-Lord was surprised when Peter told him Venom was found on Earth, but they never sat down and explained to him about the symbiotes like The Road to Maximum Venom implies.

Okay, thanks. It's been a long time since I watched those episodes and I didn't check the recap.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Frontier]

Design-wise I didn't feel like there was much of a change with the show, Spidey's costume having blue palms aside, but the animation definitely looked a touch better and the character movements felt a lot more fluid .

So Horizon High has their own discount Danger Room now? It must really be on the fritz to think that Flint was a bad guy when the real villain was his daughter .

I think it was good to get more into Max's motivation as a scientist and to examine his personal flaws instead of just continuing to portray him as a well-meaning guy who constantly unknowingly jeopardizes Peter. I wasn't sure about him knowing Peter was Spider-Man, but it seems to be adding an interesting new dynamic to the show .

I think it was smart that they wrote the other Spiders out with a believable reason so we're not constantly asking where they are when Spidey's dealing with all this Symbiote craziness. Although if they're all looking for colleges, does that mean Peter and his friends are now Juniors or Seniors? The show has never really been all that explicit about what school year Peter has been in, but I guess he might have been a Sophomore when he started at Horizon ?

And it seems Gwen and Anya still don't know Peter is Spider-Man? Is that going to come up at all this season ?

I sometimes wonder whether Peter really knows that much about his school when he didn't know about the drawback to his internship, that his school has a popular baseball team, or that there's a brochure .

May Parker, bringing Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson together since the 60's. It's nice to get some buildup to Mary Jane, and Aunt May trying to get Peter to see her, which I'm hoping is building up to the show's take on the iconic "Face it Tiger..." moment. I'll wait and see about any continuity issues for when she and Peter actually meet, because it could be they knew each before and MJ just recently moved in with Anna Watson. For a second it seemed like Peter was starting to realize who Aunt May was talking about before Grady called him. I can't wait for them to meet and to finally get to see Mary Jane .

I can't say I was expecting to see Grady Scrapps again after he obliviously helped AIM use a bunch of Avengers for power-batteries, but here we are. He's still kind of a colossal dork and screw-up, even if his heart is in the right place, but at least he came through in the end .

This show hasn't shown an aversion to featuring Iron Man villains before, but Technovore was still a surprising addition to the series. I thought the show had a pretty interesting and fun take on the creature as this tech-eating, tech-upgrading, robot dinosaur thing, and it was pretty cool watching Spidey try to overcome all the different tech it absorbed .

It was neat seeing Spidey get a costume upgrade with the docile V-252, we really don't see that happen often in Spidey cartoons. It was also kind of cool that it turned into a grey version of the Ben Reilly Spider-Man suit. I'm not surprised it didn't stick considering how it was a little too easy having a Symbiote at Spidey's beck-and-call is, but considering how much they promoted that suit I'd be surprised if we don't see it again .

So...Curt Conners is an actual bad guy now? As in, not a bad guy because of The Lizard? Aside from the blonde mullet that probably stood out the most to me this episode. And did anyone else find it weird that they never mentioned The Lizard, him working at OsCorp, or that Peter had dealt with him before in season 1? It almost felt like they were treating him like a brand new character. I'm curious who he's working for since I have to imagine there's bigger subterfuge at work if Conners was the one who was really behind Technovore .

Max brought up all those Avengers with public identities and failed to mention that Ms. Marvel, who we know is a prominent Avenger in this continuity and has the most similar circumstances to Peter, wears a mask and has a secret identity. And why even bring up Vision? He's a robot whose name is literally "Vision" .

I'm not against Max and Peter working together more closely, but I'm just not a fan of Peter having a voice in his ear while he's out doing his job as Spidey. It's why I was glad when it seemed like they were going to drop the Spiders Nest element with Doc Ock's death .

It's weird for me that Bren Pronsky was supposed to just be the voice of Eddie Brock and now he's just voicing the Symbiote that can effectively be just as much of a danger without a host. Like, was there even a need to introduce Brock to begin with ?

So Venom manages to signal the other Symbiotes to come to Earth, having apparently been a herald for the other Symbiote's this whole time .

Did "Maximum Venom" just kill off Venom for good? It certainly seemed like Peter eradicated the Symbiote...is the collective Symbiote's going to create a new Venom to make up for it or is this actually it for Venom ?

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

Did "Maximum Venom" just kill off Venom for good? It certainly seemed like Peter eradicated the Symbiote...is the collective Symbiote's going to create a new Venom to make up for it or is this actually it for Venom ?

Max mentioned he managed to get a small piece from the last time it was defeated. I'm assuming the rest of it is locked up somewhere.

 

[Frontier]

Max mentioned he managed to get a small piece from the last time it was defeated. I'm assuming the rest of it is locked up somewhere.

I wonder if it's locked up close to where Eddie Brock is...

 

[Rick Jones]

May Parker, bringing Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson together since the 60's. It's nice to get some buildup to Mary Jane, and Aunt May trying to get Peter to see her, which I'm hoping is building up to the show's take on the iconic "Face it Tiger..." moment. I'll wait and see about any continuity issues for when she and Peter actually meet, because it could be they knew each before and MJ just recently moved in with Anna Watson. For a second it seemed like Peter was starting to realize who Aunt May was talking about before Grady called him. I can't wait for them to meet and to finally get to see Mary Jane .

There's part of me expecting stuff like Peter and MJ hanging out or the girls learning Peter's identity to only happen at the very last minute without us getting to see the payoff.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Comicman2014]

Something is really bugging me about the Grady Snaps guy. Why does he look and sound like Doc Ock? He has the yellow and green colors of classic Ock and he is voiced by Scott Menville. Is this unintentional?! Did Ock create an imperfect clone of himself and abandon him?

By the way, am I the only one who thought the real Electro was going to appear in the second half? Max and Pete were talking about electricity being the symbiote's weakness, so I figured it was Electro who was sabotaging the train.

I bet you the guy Max Modell was talking about saving is his boyfriend Hector.

 

[SweetShop209]

I'm pretty sure Scott Menville is still Grady Scraps simply because the creators liked working with him. It reminds me of how Lotor died in the season 6 finale of Voltron Legendary Defender, and AJ Locascio was cast in another role since the creators liked working with him.

 

[Frontier]

Did anyone else think it was weird when they made Conners a biomechanical scientists? Isn't he normaly a geneticist? I forget if they specified what his specialty at OsCorp was.

I wonder if whoever he's working for promised they'd use the V-252 to restore his arm?

By the way, am I the only one who thought the real Electro was going to appear in the second half? Max and Pete were talking about electricity being the symbiote's weakness, so I figured it was Electro who was sabotaging the train.

Yeah, the promo made me think it was Electro too, especially since we saw her in the trailer (although that turned out to be a construct).

I bet you the guy Max Modell was talking about saving is his boyfriend Hector.

I thought it might be Max's boyfriend/husband from the comics too, although I feel like the show might be stretching itself just including MJ, I'm not sure we'll see Max get a romance this season .

 

[SweetShop209]

I thought it might be Max's boyfriend/husband from the comics too, although I feel like the show might be stretching itself just including MJ, I'm not sure we'll see Max get a romance this season .

Either they won't include it, or it'll just be along the lines of they're already together, but the show doesn't focus on the others being that surprised.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

Something is really bugging me about the Grady Snaps guy. Why does he look and sound like Doc Ock? He has the yellow and green colors of classic Ock and he is voiced by Scott Menville. Is this unintentional?! Did Ock create an imperfect clone of himself and abandon him?

We've met Grady before, but they did a weird redesign of him. Yeah, he looks more like Otto than himself.

Did anyone else think it was weird when they made Conners a biomechanical scientists? Isn't he normaly a geneticist? I forget if they specified what his specialty at OsCorp was.

I don't know if it was specified, but I don't think it matters. Osborn was the one that gave him the Lizard formula and promised him an actual regenerative cure for his arm. He wouldn't need to make the formula himself. I'm just glad this show is specific about what fields their scientists are good at, instead of making them good at everything like Ultimate Spider-Man did with Connors and Doc Ock.

 

[RoyalRubble]

I thought this was a pretty good premiere for the new season. It sets up the story well enough, with the return of the symbiote, and by the end of the second part, summoning even more such symbiotes to our planet. Here are some quick thoughts on both parts-

Grady Scraps is a decent addition to the main cast, I don't really have a whole lot to say about him but it seems like his skills will come in handy in future missions. I do find it kind of funny no one within the show notices his similarities with Otto, I wonder if they're saving that for when Anna Maria meets him or something.

I liked that Max Modell knows Peter's secret, and the two make a pretty good team. (Now if only Max would learn to call him Spidey...) That bit towards the end with some of Max's backstory was handled well enough. It's weird to think they're really only touching on that now after he's been present since the start of the show.

Technovore was decent, it provided some fun action scenes in the first part but that's about it. It's another case of science gone wrong, which this show (and Spider-Man projects in general, really) do so well. I wanted to say it was nice seeing Curt Connors again - despite his kind of weird character design - but I didn't expect him to be such a bad guy.

There were some other neat bits in here, like Spidey's new suit, the Mary Jane tease, the training simulation at the start, etc. Overall, I enjoyed these episodes and am looking forward to seeing the rest of the season.