The first episode of Disney’s third season of Ultimate Spider-Man kicked off with a bang by having Spider-Man join the Avengers and take on Loki, Doctor Octopus, Asgardian monsters and Venom all at the same time. Already, I’m learning that in terms of scale this series attempts to cover a lot of ground and tends to involve a lot of characters and action. So here’s the review of season 3 episode 2 ‘The Avenging Spider-Man Part Two’

With that being said this doesn’t really feel like a Spider-Man cartoon, this feels more like an ensemble piece that focusses on Spider-Man every now and then. Although the narrative decision to play off Spider-Man’s old and new superhero team against each other with him as the driving force for them coming together was a good move as it accurately highlighted the dilemma that Spider-Man has.

I also really liked that the scale of the threat posed by Doctor Octopus in Asgardian armour and Loki weilding Venom inhabited monsters from Asgard was so large that it required the Avengers and Spider-Man’s S.H.I.E.L.D crew to stop them. It’s quite rare that a cartoon storyline will feature moments of such a large-scale, that are normally reserved for cinematic storytelling .

As someone who is unfamiliar with some of the lesser known Marvel characters like Nova, Power Man and Iron Fist It’s actually quite nice to see them get some air-time on a show. Whilst I’ve mentioned like I don’t like that Spider-Man doesn’t get as much of the focus as he should, it’s great that he can be used as a platform to introduce people to other Marvel characters. Sure, it’s probably all for shameless marketing and toy sales, but still.

I also really liked that Spider-Man as a leader is highlighted, he manages to get his S.H.I.E.L.D crew, who are just a bunch of kids like him, to stand toe-to-toe with the Avengers (albeit without Thor and Hulk) and pretty much win. This was a pretty important move because Spider-Man’s eventual decision to re-join his old gang is made all the more important by displaying how significant he is to them. When he’s with them they can take on the Avengers! Or survive Doctor Octopus almost drowning them.

I can’t help but also see this is some kind of meta-narrative with Spider-Man opting to not stay with the Avengers but instead staying in his own team. I see this as Disney’s subtle comment on the Spider-Man film situation. As much as we’d all like Spider-Man to be in the Avengers, perhaps there are better things that Spider-Man can be doing?

But back to the villains, the show feels like the stakes are very much real. Sure, Loki changing the Avengers tower to include a giant golden statue of his bust was a bit over-the-top but it showed just how successful Loki and Doctor Octopus’ plans were. In fact the combined power of the Avengers and the S.H.I.E.L.D crew proved to not be enough to stop Loki, Doctor Octopus and the Venom Monsters. In fact Spider-Man manages to turn Loki and Doctor Octopus against each-other which is the only way either villain is beaten.

But that’s the end of a massive two-part season opener featuring more super heroes than you can shake a stick at. No sign yet of the various different Spider-Men that have been promised, but I guess that we’ll get to that eventually. All-in-all it’s a decent season opener that threatened the status quo left at the end of season two, thus reintroducing all of the major players, only to re-establish the status quo at the end with Spidey, Power Man, Iron Fist, Nova and White Tiger back together.

Want more Spider-Man news? Subscribe to the Whatever A Spider Can newsletter to get the latest news and rumors about upcoming movies, TV shows and comics before anyone else. Or you can follow us on Twitter @WhatASpiderCan or like us on Facebook.