Peter Parker and his SHIELD buddies are on a field trip led by Agent/Principal Coulson through the museum of natural history, and are in the Norse mythology wing. When Danny Rand manages to transcribe the rune writing on the piece, a Frost Giant is summoned and goes on a rampage. The teen superheroes are unable to stop it until Thor is called to take care of the ice giant. However, when the prideful hero touches a strange stone around the creature's neck, he is transformed into a frog via the scheme of Loki. Can Spider-Man, his chums, and the Frog Of Thunder manage to save Asgard from being taken over by Loki and his gang of Frost Giants? Of course they do.
The most clever bit in the entire episode was the Frog Of Thunder part. That was one of the most memorable parts of the iconic Walt Simonson run on THOR aside for the Surtur Saga, and while a show like "A:EMH" which is very straight forward would be a poor place for it, a show that plays itself for laughs at all costs like this is a natural. While you could argue that all it did was allow the show to make fun of Thor almost the moment he arrived, all I'd respond is what ELSE would one expect of this show, which never takes anyone or anything seriously? There were parts that reminded me of other "the hero is turned into a frog" episodes from other shows; most notably "KISS N' TELL" from "LEGEND OF ZELDA". It is part of a humility lesson which Thor often has to learn from time to time and is often part of his character arcs. Travis Willingham voices Thor and does a fine job with what he has to work with.
As usual, Spider-Man continues to be the most irritating presence on his own show. The "face the camera and talk to the audience as if they're morons" segments are back in full swing, although arguably not as severe as in some other episodes. The fact that "EXCLUSIVE" lacked those bits and was easily the most suspenseful episode of the show is a clear sign the show's writers and producers clearly believe those bits are comedy gold. The running gag of the show is that Peter Parker hates field trips because he always gets bitten by something on it, which telegraphs the dumb joke in the finale 20 minutes in. As usual, Sam Washington/Nova is the butt of jokes and is even more irritating than Spider-Man, while White Tiger continues to lecture Spider-Man upon competence, which he rarely takes seriously unless he has to. Power Man and Iron Fist continue to be the moderates on the team, often contributing to the rare moments of sanity the show has. As usual, Spidey and the show will make joke after joke after joke and at best 10% of them are genuinely funny.
"Let's see that again in slo-mo!" Um, no, Spidey, let's not and get on with your generic ripped-from-1981 plot. Seeing Nova smacked into a display case like a baseball was mildly amusing with the sound effect; I don't need to rewatch it in an exaggerated slo-mo sequence for another minute as the show desperately tries to wring another cheap laugh out of a cheap joke.
"They can't all be winners." Honestly, Spidey? I'd settle for a SINGLE winner.
The show attempts to tell a moral about humility and turning weaknesses into strengths - a theme for a few episodes - but Spider-Man once again ruins it. At one point he whines about having to be "the title hero" and thus be obligated to learn a life lesson as opposed to getting a short term trinket. I honestly am having a hard time buying that this is the same character who bought into "with great power comes great responsibility" at all. The show also had some awkward power level stuff; in the museum all five heroes are unable to hold their own against a single Frost Giant and even before they get their Norse weapons, they're able to bat around quite a few without nearly as much trouble. At this point I am starting to think this show is "THE TICK" played straight. The joke of "THE TICK" was it was about a lead hero who was a complete moron, but the show itself was aware of it and used it as the basis for a lot of the humor - "I'm my OWN comic relief!" is one of many timeless Tickisms from it. Instead, "ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN" is about a hero who is a moron, but neither the show or the lead understand that, so you have to deal with the moron saving the day because the show buckles that way. It's during segments like that where I think more about J.J.'s rants than I should and realize, hey, most of the museum got wrecked by Spidey and his chums; he really IS a menace!
Let's talk about Loki. He's voiced by Troy Baker here and like Thor and Odin, sports the designs ripped right from the film franchise. That's perfectly fine, but as often happens on this show, it is the writing and not the animation or the models which doom it. If anyone expected him to be a master schemer and manipulator as in "A:EMH", you are wrong. With his horned helmet and color scheme I actually kept getting reminded of Serpentor from "G.I. JOE" every time Loki was on screen; which is probably an apt comparison. Loki was very much a villain ripped right from the 1980's decade of animation; simplistic scheme, higher pitched voice, and winds up defeated in such an embarrassingly telegraphed way that even kindergarten aged viewers might roll their eyes and see it coming. In fact, children might think up more complicated episodes playing with their action figures.
Still, the episode has its positives. While there are annoying video-game inspired segments and deformed animation bits, they're kept to a minimum compared to, say, the pilot. As always, the authentic character models for most of the characters are so incredible that it is a shame that Marvel Heroes appearing in as lame a show as this have never looked better. As I mentioned earlier, the "Frog Of Thunder" stuff was genuinely clever, and I suppose could have been handled far worse than it was. Thor himself seemed to be worthy of learning the lesson which Spider-Man and Nova fail to on this show. At this point I realize I am happy that the Nova here isn't Richard Rider, because I would be far more offended if Rider were treated this poorly than I am of Sam. Having Thor, Loki, and Odin look like they do in the films is naturally wise; and I must say after "A:EMH", all it right in the world to see Odin with a missing eye patch.
((I've always wanted to use this emoticon))
