Urgh. I always hated that story arc. What the hell were the writers thinking?
What were the writer's thinking?
They adapted the first part (the six arm mutation) directly from The Amazing Spiderman #s 100-102.
I thought it was a cool idea. Maybe a bit awkward/embarrassing to watch sometimes (toward the character), but it really put Peter through his paces. I know a bunch of horrible stuff had already happened to him (death of Uncle Ben and kinda/sorta being partly responsible for it, death of parents, etc), but it was good for us as viewers to see him go through something $#!++y in the "present" of the series and bring him about as low as he could go.
Besides, they did some cool sci-fi twists with it here and there (having the vulture absorb his powers but get the mutation as well) and why would the initial spider bite only transform him a little (confer all the benefits/abilities with none of the physical aspects of a spider) ? It drove the season and kinda made the season, IMO.
Plus, who wouldn't want more than one set of arms ? Useful ! (and I'll admit to finding it kind of a hot look on Peter--before he got all full-on spider, grotesque, and mindless, at least)
Vulture did get his mutation but then they forgot he did when they brought him back in season 4.
"You want me to roll 6,000 of these!? What? Should I quit my job!?" George Costanza, Seinfeld
yeah, this always bothered me. In that episode, they even show a flashback scene where Vulture is fully mutated as the Man-Spider, but NEVER ADDRESS IT. Dumb. It's like they didn't want to be bothered explaining how he got back to normal, so they just pretended like it didn't matter. It was a huge deal to Spider-Man, but for Vulture, eh who cares, right? Ugh.
shareI liked it. One of my favourite story archs in the series.
share
That was directly from the comic books. They even timed it exactly right in having it happen during the Morbius storyline just as it happened in the comic books.
Observe this cover art.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WAyYubO9oIs/TnxY9oxm9RI/AAAAAAAABbk/BHbZd-gz enc/s1600/amazing+spider-man+101+morbius+ist+appearance.jpg
I think it's one of the best story arcs of the show. My only gripe with it has to do with Fox. They aired episodes of this season constantly in reruns. More so than anything in season 1. And to top it off, they would air the episodes out of order. I actually remember, as a kid, watching the Tablet of Time episodes and wondering "what the hell happened to Morbius?" only to actually find out 3 weeks later. Then when I did find out, I wondered "who was that old man who bought the tablet of time?"
Then they did it again in season 3. They aired The Spot episode before the Venom Returns episodes.
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