Oh rather "Capture the Flag." Because just like the mini game in Halo, Unreal Tournament, or any other multiplayer shooter games, in which one person runs around with a flag and everyone else tries to kill, that's basically what this episode was...one long capture the flag. Naturally of course, since it was pretty much packed with action nearly the entire time, it was rather fun, even though there wasn't much in the way of development.
As a consequence, much of the subplots on the Peter Parker side that have been perfectly balanced thus far got pretty much set aside on the shelf. Not that there wasn't some nice moments. For one thing, it's even more heavily implied that Captain Stacy knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, as also hinted last week, and the episode makes the suggestion that Spidey suspects this as well. Yet that appears to be the only consequence from that arc, as we still get the traditional Peter's late for his date and has to come up with an excuse to Liz, or that he didn't seem to be there when Spidey was on the scene and yet, somehow (wink wink) manages to get some decent pictures. Speaking of those, I thought it was classic how Peter, after Liz forgave him, instantly thought of Gwen and had to correct himself. And I also liked the partnership he had with Foswell, which in some ways echoes the working relationship that Peter and Ben Urich sort of have (not to mention Peter's thought of "Does everybody have a secret identity?" when Foswell revealed he was Patch.)
Also, this episode was certainly dominated by the debut of Silver Sable. Now in the comics, she's essentially a foreign and very wealthy mercenary for hire, who runs an international independent contract firm that hunts down war criminals and terrorists, and who as even employed former super-villains on occasion, including Spidey's enemy, Sandman. Here, she's been reinvented as the daughter of incarcerated Crime Boss, Silvermane, and also (and this was totally unexpected) the ex-lover of Hammerhead. And as Spidey said about the pair's past history..."Eww!" Now, while can understand Weisman and company wanting to give Silvermane an enforcer as well as be his child, in this case a daughter, and it's a little clever (although somewhat forced) to have
Silver Sable fill that role for
Silvermane. However, as a result of this re-interpretation, Silver Sable comes off, almost exactly like Black Cat, expect that she's a member of organized crime, has a silver plated Tomohawk Helicopter constantly watching her back, and carries around what is a Rob Liefeld style BFG that's essentially an oversized staple gun. Which is odd, considering Black Cat made an amusing, albeit rather pointless, cameo in this episode. Even Nikki Cox sounds a lot like Trica Helfer, but considering it's different voice actors playing the part, it doesn't appear that Black Cat and Silver Sable are actually one and the same, which actually would be kind of a neat twist.
I do, however, like some of the clever little schemes that went on in this episode. First, of course, was Roderick Kingsley, in that he plays the snipless wimp when he needs to in order to distract and switch the device and get away from the scene. Makes his possible turn as the Hobgoblin that much more interesting. The other of course was Doctor Octopus. At first, I wasn't sure what his game was considering he first didn't say anything or bid on the device except sit back and be pampered by the two babes he brought along (ha, he's got eight limbs and together, both women do, too.
t
. But then he sends the Rhino out to destroy it, playing on the idea that "there can be only one Rhino" and still get the leg up on the competition by having the "super freaks" in his corner. And of course, there's Norman Osborn, who basically played everybody by making them believe he was selling something to them all this time.
Finally, I also liked a bit of the quippage Spidey had in this episode. The funniest moment came when he threw the roadside cone at the Rhino and then says "Wow! I got the thingy around the thingy. What's my prize!" My second favorite also involved the Rhino, in which Spidey, after realizing he's about the bring the parking garage crashing down, says "Don't tell me Rhino used the same tactic on me that I used to beat the Shocker."
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