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Recap / The Spectacular Spider-Man S1 E13 "Nature vs. Nurture"

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From now on, we're poison to Peter Parker and Spider-Man! WE'RE VENOM!!!
Venom/Eddie Brock

Having rid himself of the symbiote, Peter reneges in on his deal with Tombstone by apprehending a group of masked goons and giving him their masks as a warning. Following his departure, Tombstone is approached by Venom, who offers to take up the job Spider-Man rejected. Tombstone accepts on one condition: Spider-Man's head. The next morning at the hospital, Peter visits his aunt and leaves a picture of Uncle Ben, berating himself for his callous behaviour. At school, he thanks Flash for the reality check, and Flash begrudgingly acknowledges him but warns him not to mention it to anyone... or else. He also apologizes to his friends for snapping at them the other day, and Liz invites him to help hold the school football team's mascot balloon at the Thanksgiving's Day parade, but Peter says he intends to bring Aunt May home and Gwen, urged on by Mary Jane, awkwardly volunteers to help him. MJ informs Peter about Eddie's grudge, and Peter calls to apologize. Venom answers the phone, sinisterly saying he'll meet up with Peter shortly. At the hospital, May is given a clean bill of health and is eager to get home to prepare dinner, but Peter volunteers to handle Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he makes a mess of the kitchen, and discovers the vial of Gene Cleanser he had taken following the Lizard Incident while changing into his Spider-Man costume. Peter contemplates drinking it, but is attacked by Venom, who reveals he knows who Peter is. Peter recognizes the symbiote and expresses disbelief that it survived and bonded to another human, but Venom sneers at him and easily defeats him, saying that he intends to make Peter suffer for rejecting the symbiote.

Peter realizes Venom is targeting Aunt May and chases him to the hospital, where Aunt May is examining an anonymously-given get well card sent by Venom. Spider-Man attacks him before he can strike, and Venom opts to target Peter's Love Interest, revealing himself as Eddie Brock. Thinking Venom would target Mary Jane, Spider-Man rushes to the parade, where Flash is attempting to flirt with MJ, discovering too late that Eddie's actual target is Gwen, chasing after them only to find Gwen's discarded saxophone. He finds her suspended from the Midtown High mascot balloon, but before he can rescue her, Venom attacks, revealing he is immune to Peter's Spider-Sense due to the "quality time" Spider-Man and "Symbie" spent together. Spider-Man tries to persuade Eddie to reject the symbiote, but Venom rebukes him, preventing him from reaching the balloon as the symbiote's webbing suspending Gwen begins to fray. Spider-Man goads Venom into slashing the balloon so that it would land gently, but Venom snaps the line and tackles Spider-Man when he attempts to carry Gwen to safety. She is caught by the football team, and Spider-Man attempts to take Venom down but is sent flying through a water tower. Realizing he can't win on his own and that the symbiote is trying to prove a point, Peter offers himself to it. Venom initially scoffs at the notion, but Eddie slips up with his first-person pronouns and the symbiote immediately abandons him, causing him to pass out. It attempts to bond to Peter again, only to realize it was tricked and is once again repelled by The Power of Friendship. Peter prevents it from rebonding to Eddie by scooping it into a sack and dropping it into a pool of freshly-poured concrete. Peter returns home to find Aunt May already there, and Gwen and Captain Stacey arrive with dinner and help him clean up the mess he had made, and after dinner Peter dumps the Gene Cleanser down the drain, declaring helping people as Spider-Man to be his destiny. As the Stacys prepares to leave, Peter and Gwen awkwardly say good night, before Gwen suddenly kisses him, leaving Peter reminded of Venom's sinister threats.

This episode provides examples of:

  • All for Nothing: For once, a good version. For all of Peter's worrying about how he'll pay May's hospital bills, it turns out he needn't have worried; May's cookbook was well received at the publisher and they sent her an advance. The advance was just enough to cover the bill, with May stating that's okay, as she's already planning a new one with more heart-healthy meals and wonders if she can get an advance for that.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Exploited by Spider-Man. He swings by a construction site and does several impressive acrobatic tricks, amazing the workers, before he swings quickly out of sight. While they're trying to figure out where he went, he sneaks behind them and dumps Venom into the liquid cement.
  • Batman Gambit: Spider-Man pretends to apologize for rejecting the symbiote, knowing that the symbiote will abandon Eddie and leave itself vulnerable.
  • Belly Mouth: Venom manifests one when Peter webs his mouth shut. And then he rips the webbing off and speaks with both mouths.
  • The Big Damn Kiss: At the end episode before Gwen leaves the Parker house with her father, she kisses Peter on the lips.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": Spider-Man to Venom. It doesn't take.
  • Body Horror: Eddie "unmasks" to talk to Peter on the phone by having the symbiote's jaws open up to let his head stick out in gruesome fashion.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Eddie was Peter's oldest friend until his superhero life all but wrecked their bond. Eddie as Venom demonstrates how far his hatred makes him a deadly enemy against Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and a threat to his loved ones.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Venom effortlessly shrugs off Peter's attacks and thoroughly trounces him.
  • Damsel in Distress: Gwen Stacy.
  • Deadly Dodging: Spidey tricks Venom into punching a hole in the parade float, which both knocks Venom off-balance and makes it (and Gwen) start descending.
  • The Ex's New Jerkass: Venom mostly paired with Eddie because a) they both hate Spider-Man/Peter Parker for different reasons, and b) Venom wants to re-bond with Peter and is using Eddie to try and make him want it back.
  • Forceful Kiss: Gwen gives one to Peter.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Liz is noticeably jealous when Gwen lays a hand on Peter's shoulder when she says that he must be under a lot of stress, and she says "Yeah!" while glancing angrily at Gwen before promptly inviting him to help hold the school football team's mascot balloon. When Peter accepts Gwen's offer to accompany him when he brings Aunt May home instead of Liz's offer, Liz leaves in a huff.
  • Heroic Bystander: Mary Jane is the first person in the crowd to realize that Gwen is in danger, and gets Flash to notice too. They then get the football team to come to her rescue when Venom keeps Spider-Man from getting her to safety. Spider-Man thanks them and gets them to clear out.
  • Holding Hands: Two cases involving Peter:
    • Liz notices Gwen placing her hand on Peter's shoulder while comforting him, as mentioned above, and she promptly grabs Peter's hands and invites him to help hold the school football team's mascot balloon.
    • When Peter refuses Liz's offer as he might have to bring Aunt May home, Gwen then grabs his hands while awkwardly making her offer to accompany him.
  • I Can't Sense Their Presence: It takes being snuck up by Venom a few times for Spider-Man to realize his spider-sense can't detect him. The series takes a much more simplified reason why, namely that because Peter spent so much time around the Symbiote that, even when trying to crush him to death, Venom doesn't register as a threat.
  • If I Can't Have You…: The symbiote's attitude towards Peter.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Peter tries this on Eddie but fails.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Played with here, then completely averted because Gwen Stacy doesn't die.
  • I Surrender, Suckers: Peter uses this to defeat Venom.
  • Lethal Chef: Peter cannot cook. Luckily Gwen knew this and brought some replacement items.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Spider-Man is a fairly serious threat to villains in general, but he's usually joking around as he fights and holding back so he doesn't do any serious damage to the criminals. Here, however, there are few quips to be found, leaving the audience and Venom to see what happens when you piss Spider-Man off.
    Spider-Man: STAY AWAY FROM HER!note 
  • Murder the Hypotenuse: The symbiote's plan... or rather, Murder The Hypotenuse And Everyone He Loves.
  • Mythology Gag: Spider-Man defeats Venom by tricking the symbiote into ditching Eddie, which is how he defeated him for the second time in the mainstream comics.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Spider-Man goads Venom into puncturing the balloon holding Gwen with his claws in order for it to slowly descend. Lampshaded by Spider-Man and immediately turned around by Venom, who immediately snaps the web-line.
  • Not Brainwashed: At first, Spider-Man thinks that Eddie's been possessed by the symbiote, much like he was up until the previous episode. Thus, he tries to get through to Eddie... only to learn that he bonded with the symbiote willingly and that he's perfectly happy destroying Peter Parker and everyone he loves.
  • Oh, Crap!: Eddie is visibly unnerved when Spider-Man asks the symbiote for a reconnection.
  • Red Herring: When Venom goes after someone Peter loves the most besides Aunt May, Peter believes Venom will go after Mary Jane because of a past incident between her and Eddie. However, he soon learns there is someone even closer to him: Gwen Stacy.
  • Rescue Romance: Peter (as Spider-Man) and Gwen.
  • Something Only They Would Say: How Peter realizes who Venom is.
    Venom: We know who you love the most... Bro.
    Spider-Man: Eddie?
    Venom: You guessed!
  • Stock Sound Effects: Venom's roar.
  • Thanksgiving Episode: The episode takes place on week of Thanksgiving. Spider-Man even ends fighting against Venom during the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: None of the Midtown High marching band members seem to mind Spider-Man sneaking through them while he's searching for Gwen.
  • Unwilling Suspension: Venom webs Gwen to a monkey balloon.
  • Voice of the Legion: Venom speaks with both Eddie's voice and the symbiote's voice. Unlike when it was bonded to Peter, Venom's is much more clearly two beings speaking at once, often slightly out of sync to make it more uncanny.
  • Yandere: The symbiote, which abandons Eddie to return to Spider-Man when it thinks he's willing to accept it, and before that is willing to kill everyone Spider-Man cares about in retaliation for him rejecting it.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: Spider-Man and Venom trade almost as many insults as punches. Although Spider-Man eventually screams at Venom to shut up, much to Venom's amusement. "He can quip it out, but he can't take it!"

 
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Eddie became Venom willingly

After learning that his former friend Eddie Brock is Venom, Peter assumes the symbiote is possessing Eddie like it did him. In truth, Eddie bonded with the symbiote willingly and his seething hatred of Peter needed little prodding on its part.

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Main / NotBrainwashed

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