‘MORBIUS’/’ENTER THE PUNISHER’/’DUEL OF THE HUNTERS’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
‘MORBIUS’ (Part 1)
Here we are on what is arguably a three-part story in Season 2 of the ‘Spider-Man’ animated series. As well as the ‘Spider-Man’/‘X-Men’ two-parter crossover, this is considered to be a highlight in Season 2 where Spidey ends up being the mutant monster he most fears. We’ll delve into this more later on.
In ‘Morbius’, the first episode of this three-parter, Spider-Man hopes to have a serum given to him for his mutation by Dr. Mariah Crawford. But Spidey experiences excruciating pains in his sides. He gets impatient when he demands the cure from Mariah Crawford, who very soon gives him the cure.
Meanwhile, Michael Morbius steals a blood sample of Peter Parker’s from his locker. He experiments on it, hoping to win the position to become Dr. Connor’s science assistant. It costs him when a vampire bat drinks Peter’s blood during Morbius’ experient. Morbius gets bitten by the bat.
Very soon, Morbius undergoes a terrible transformation. He becomes the living vampire stalking at night in New York. He hungers for plasma/blood and goes after innocent victims. It’s very intriguing how Morbius ends up being a victim as well as villain in the ‘Spider-Man’ series as the living vampire.
At this point in the review, I wonder how the ‘Morbius’ movie with Jared Leto will turn out. I don’t know much about Morbius as a Spider-Man villain, but it’ll be interesting to see how a tortured living vampire character from the Marvel comics might turn out in a movie. Then again, it might not be brilliant.
Spidey fights Morbius off for a bit before discovering what happened to him in his experiment via a tape recorder. Peter Parker tries to warn Felicia Hardy about Michael Morbius becoming dangerous. Felicia thinks Peter has become jealous. She tells him to go away. Peter should’ve gone as Spidey. 😀
Eventually, Morbius as a vampire visits Felicia and she becomes terrified of him. Spidey fights Morbius again, trying to get through to him before the sun comes out. Morbius becomes comatose during the day before he wakes up in the night, becoming a vampire again. He soon stalks the night.
The episode concludes with Mariah Crawford phoning Sergei Kravinoff to warn him about the serum she gave to Spider-Man having side-effects. But Peter Parker takes the serum and he soon grows himself four extra arms. Peter screams his head off, realising the serum didn’t work as he hoped…
‘ENTER THE PUNISHER’ (Part 2)
The story of Spider-Man getting four extra arms was originally in issues #100-102 of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ comics. Morbius was featured in that storyline too. I don’t think Spidey becoming the Man-Spider happened in the original storyline, but it is effective to be added in the animated series.
In ‘Enter The Punisher’, once Spidey gets his four extra arms, he’s hunted down by the lethal vigilante called Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher. I was introduced to the Punisher character via the animated ‘Spider-Man’ TV series. I don’t know much about him and I haven’t read any of his comics.
The Punisher has had his own movies and he’s had his own TV show lately. He’s a hardened, grittier character in those movies compared to his appearances in the animated ‘Spider-Man’ TV series. But he’s still pretty ruthless and is determined to put an end to Spider-Man once and for all in this story.
Apparently, Spider-Man is accused for kidnapping Michael Morbius and Felicia Hardy quite wrongfully puts the blame on him. They even think that Morbius is Spider-Man once he’s in the air and on the walls of buildings. Why did they mistake Morbius for being Spider-Man? He’s not even wearing a mask?!
The public are even more surprised when they see Spider-Man having grown four extra arms. The police detective Terri Lee is back in this story and she sees both Spider-Man and the Punisher when they’re up on the city skyscrapers. She demands identification on the man who has the skull on his shirt.
It felt painful when Peter had turn down Mary Jane’s offer for a romantic movie night. He can’t let Mary Jane see him in the state he’s in with four extra arms. Mary Jane gets angry with Peter for avoiding her and is determined to see him at his house in an instant. But Peter soon webslings away!
While Aunt May and Mary Jane worry about Peter, he as Spider-Man tracks down Morbius’ location and where he originated in his lab. Spidey follows the sounds of the tape recorder he picked up from Morbius in the previous episode, unaware he’s being followed by the Punisher in his battle van.
Spidey manages to find Morbius, but spoils his experiment when he attempted to find a cure for his vampire condition. Morbius soon flies off and Spidey attempts to follow him before he gets gunned down by the Punisher. Ending up in a warehouse, Spider-Man soon transforms into the terrifying Man-Spider…
‘DUEL OF THE HUNTERS’ (Part 3)
In ‘Duel of the Hunters’, with Spidey now as the monstrous Man-Spider, the Punisher intends to destroy him. I don’t know why the Punisher couldn’t see that Spider-Man had become a victim once he became the Man-Spider. But as the episode unveils, the Punisher has had a big tragic family past.
The episode also sees the return of Sergei Kravinoff a.k.a. Kraven the Hunter, who reunites with Dr. Mariah Crawford upon his return to New York. Kraven dons his Hunter suit to search for Spidey as the Man-Spider as well as the Punisher. Kraven and the Punisher soon cross paths with each other. 🙂
At first, Kraven and the Punisher are antagonistic towards each other. Kraven soon persuades the Punisher that they should work together in order to hunt the Man-Spider down. It’s interesting how Kraven has noble intentions compared to the Punisher, who is hell-bent on revenge towards Spidey.
Morbius is still around in this episode. He causes trouble as he attacks Debra Whitman at ESU. Flash Thompson manages to save her but gets drained of blood by Morbius. The Man-Spider soon enters in and tackles Morbius before Debra Whitman sounds off the fire alarm. The Man-Spider flees away.
It was intriguing to see the Man-Spider seemingly a victim in this episode and becoming animal-like. It has memories of Peter Parker and it struggles to suppress its animal-like instincts when wanting to reach out to loved ones like Aunt May and Mary Jane. It makes the episode like a horror movie here.
The Man-Spider does try to see Mary Jane and inadvertently knocks out Harry Osborn in the process when trying to fend him off. The Man-Spider is almost about to attack again but soon runs off. Mary Jane can sense that the Man-Spider almost knew her in some way. But how can that possibly be? 😀
The episode concludes with Kraven and the Punisher managing to tame the Man-Spider and Dr. Crawford gives the anti-serum to him. Spidey reverts back to normal and is grateful to Dr. Crawford for saving him. I’m pleased Spidey’s back to normal. I wouldn’t like him to be a Man-Spider forever.
This three-parter of Spidey getting extra arms and becoming the Man-Spider was very gripping to watch. I’m sure it got viewers on the edges of their seats when Spidey became a monster and a way needed to be found to get him back to normal. With Spidey rescued however, Morbius is still about.
‘Morbius’/’Enter The Punisher’/’Duel of the Hunters’ rating – 8/10
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