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Ultimate Spider-Man
#5 - Flight of the Iron Spider
Original Airdate - April 22nd, 2012
When Spider-Man meets Iron Man, one of his favorite super heroes, he receives an Iron Spider suit developed specially for him by Tony Stark. Spidey must learn how to operate the complex suit before jeopardizing his relationship with his fellow teen super heroes.

Ultimate Spider-Man stars Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Chi McBride (Boston Public) as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg (Iron Man, Thor, The Avengers) as Agent Coulson, JK Simmons (Spider-Man) as J. Jonah Jameson, Steven Weber (Wings) as Norman Osborn, Greg Cipes (Teen Titans, Ben 10) as Danny Rand/Iron Fist, Ogie Banks as Luke Cage/Power Man, Caitlyn Taylor Love (I'm In The Band) as Ava Ayala/White Tiger, Logan Miller (I'm In The Band) as Sam Alexander/Nova, Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Doctor Octopus, Matt Lanter (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) as Harry Osborn/Flash Thompson, Tara Strong (The Fairly Odd Parents) as Mary-Jane Watson, Misty Lee (Batman: Arkham City) as Aunt May, and recurring guest star Stan Lee (Spider-Man) as Stan the Janitor.

Guest starring is Adrian Pasdar (Heroes, ABC Family's The Lying Game) as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Phil LaMarr (Futurama) as Jarvis and Keith Szarabajka (Angel) as The Living Laser.

"Flight of the Iron Spider" was written by Man of Action.

Ultimate Spider-Man is produced by Marvel Animation and carries a TV-Y7-FV parental guideline.

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Okay, this was an episode Kumori was waiting for, so prepare for the lengthiness of the text.

Let’s get on with the bad portions of the episode first. Okay, Nova is as irritating as ever. The pacing of certain scenes was so damn fast you could barely make out whether they’re fighting or…well, making out. A large number of visual gags were downright awful, and some of the humor did not stick [mostly when Pete was at Stark International, both before and after the Living Laser took control of the two armors].

With that out of the way, we can concentrate on the positive aspects of this episode. Which, unlike the previous four, this episode is filled with.

Tony.Stark. This rendition is easily the third best so far [right after Loomis/Downey Jr. and Hayes]. His sheer smugness, his arrogant posture, his ego beyond all egos [this being written by a massive egomaniac, mind you] – this is the Tony Stark golden stories are made of. And his snapping at Fury and vice versa? Flowed like the Danube. It was just more natural than any other thing thus far on the show. And if fans are worried about the lack of womanizing? Well, these twenty-two minutes give us a good idea of just how sexed-up and flirtatious the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist can be. Also, Phil LaMarr as Jarvis? How can one not utter an “awesome!”?

Next, the Living Laser. Considering how overused the Armored Adventures Parks was, and how utterly UNUSED his Earth’s Mightiest counterpart had been, this one overshadows them any day of the week. If a show can utilize a C-tier villain and make him a threat, what’s to stop them from making an actual decent episode with an A-tier Spidey villain?

Don’t answer that.

Although some visual gags were painful to bear, the Spider-Pig cameo, along with the Dancing Quintet and the SHS double-dumpling really felt pleasant. Again, this coming from someone who has not seen SHS, nor will in the foreseeable future.

The team, save for Nova, was well used and defined a tad more. Iron Fist is more incredible episode by episode, with signore Cipes doing a more-than-decent job voicing him. Ava was even tolerable, if not done well even. Power Man also found some ground.

Which brings us to the whole point of the episode; the new suit.

Animation-wise, it shined. It flowed, it soared, it stood out even when not trying to do so. And the battle sequences? The best thus far, if one might add, though nothing like the latest one in Avengers EMH [those Kree and that Ms. Marvel…whoops, wrong show!]. Tony and Peter worked like clockwork. And the team did equally amazing in fighting the possessed Iron Man armor [which was represented as an actual threat; kudos].

And a closing statement; Pasdar voice-acting, the movie-like suit, the flight scenes and fights, all of those nigh-perfect equivalents of the Madhouse anime bearing the title character’s name. Another bonus for this episode.

So, yeah. Best one thus far, but still not decent enough. Hopefully the episodes that follow will be at least as good, but preferably better.