This week’s Spectacular Spider-Man series is a dish of super villainy best served cold. Being a business major and an economics minor, I was eager to see how this episode would vilify one of the fundamentals of life. I was happily shocked (don’t groan at that, pun haters) to see that it weaves the next sub-plot, the arrival of super villains will be a distraction for organized crime to continue to expand. The (80’s Texan) Shocker, Norman Osborne, The Big Man, The Sandman, The Rhino (The comics Alex O'Hirn version, holy moley!!) and Doc Ock are all set up to be part of this ‘economic plan.’ This type of storyline is one of the better ones borrowed from the Modern Age of comic books. Déjà vu or not, I think Norman Osborne was even tapped to by these organizations to create super villains in the comics. One side of intrigue aside, I fall into the camp that the Big Man is the Big Man. I think the show shouldn’t fall in love with villain-sharing and have the Kingpin. Let’s leave that skeleton buried with the 90’s. Stand-alone hero shows should be stand-alone shows (well, until season five). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Big Man and the Daily Bugle were on the same episode (Ask your 40 year old unmarried uncle).

Speaking of the Daily Bugle, we have the debut of our favorite boss (anti-villain) J Jonah Jameson, mustache and all. Sure it’s hard to top the characterization that Sam Raimi gave us with J K Simmons, but this JJJ was spot on. Daily Bugle fans (a sad 2% of readers) got their fan wink this episode; JJJ, Jospeh “Robbie” Robertson and his son, Rand, Betty Brand, Ned Lee, and even Frederick Foswell (I say nothing, give Google a workout). I wonder how Robbie will be used. He was a footnote in the movies and he always has the potential yang to JJJ’s ying and even a father-figure to Peter. Then there’s Betty. She’s got options…historically, there’s Peter (but the whole age thing and the MJ bias), Flash (that laugh ain’t going to cut it) or Ned (wonder if he’s going to become the…almost gave that one away). But what I took home was what everyone did, another awesome line to quote, "Are we talking Mariana Trench deep, or Dante's Ninth Circle deep?"

Now, I am not the biggest fan of teenage drama but a volleyball to the face and the class bully laughing like a farm animal will still get a giggle out of me. Like super villains are a good distraction from organized crime, high school antics are a good distraction from being a grown up. Isn’t that really what Peter learns about, responsibility? If not him, maybe Harry did. Though I’m sure Dad’s evil and cold aura would freeze me up, first… And to top it off, a pop culture reference from Eddie Brock?! You just can’t make this stuff up. Who ever thought Brock would call Parker an emo? But then again, it fulfills the stereotype of not wanting to date the Girl Next Door!!! Aunt May is awesome. Period.

The fourth episode keeps up the bandwagon of great writing, with some nice payoffs to the past two, story progression and set up. And a lot like Heroes, you can’t go wrong with churning out some villains, or at least misunderstood people who are heroes of their own stories. This show makes me want to wake up on a Saturday morning! The

Spectacular Spider-Man
"Market Forces"
Written by: Andrew Robinson
Directed by: Dan Fausett