S01E10 "Spider-Man on Ice"

Characters: Peter Parker/Spider-Man; Frederick Foswell; Harry Osborn; Alistair Smythe; Kingpin; Mendel Stromm; Blade Benson; Ross Macklin; The Enforcers; Dr. Otto Octavius; J. Jonah Jameson; Norman Osborn

Teaser
SPIDER-MAN, swinging his way home from school, sees a half-dozen thugs in an alley attacking a single person. He swoops in and surprises them, and is just congratulating himself on a job well done when they regroup, and in a savage and well-choreographed series of acrobatic moves quickly swarm him to the ground, their leader advances on him with a lead pipe.

Act I
Spider-Man is saved by the intervention of the victim, which gives him time to get to his feet and back into the fight. Now he doesn't hold back, and with the help of their erstwhile victim drives them off. Spider-Man gets a tracer onto the last one away, though, as he deems them too dangerous to leave at large.

Their victim introduces himself as FREDERICK FOSWELL, whose name Peter recognizes: He's a former member of the Cirque des Mervailles, the crime troupe that recently disappeared in a jailbreak. Foswell admits he was one of them, but he's out legit because he cut a deal to testify against the rest of the Cirque, and he's working now as a crime expert for the Daily Bugle. Spider-Man observes that the Cirque is probably out looking for him; Foswell replies, Who do you think it was that jumped me back there?

KINGPIN in his office, seated across from MENDEL STROMM, who is showing some blueprints. The Kingpin complains that he doesn't understand computers; Stromm retorts that he doesn't have to, so long as the computers understand him. His new "Neuro-Cortex," Stromm boasts, will be able to take the guesswork out of crime. It will be able to plot complex heists, and if connected remotely to robotic units will even be able to execute them. He is still building the NC, he says, but needs financing. Kingpin observes that he will need money too. Stromm says that he has contacts in Oscorp and knows of some promising prototypes lying around its labs, which could be stolen and easily sold to foreign governments. Kingpin ponders, then asks his secretary to send "Macklin and the boys" in.

At the Oscorp testing range, HARRY OSBORN is practicing on his glider while ALISTAIR SMYTHE tests out his "ice gauntlet"—an armband/glove device that can freeze at a distance. Harry gets caught in one of the beams, causing the glider to freeze and crash; he leaps from the wreckage with a snarl and charges Alistair, knocking the gauntlet away before his rival can fire it at him. The two trade blows until DR. OTTO OCTAVIUS grabs and separates them. Harry accuses Alistair of intentionally firing at him; Alistair accuses Harry of intentionally trying to get in the way. Octavius orders Harry to leave, and after Harry is gone congratulates Alistair on the modification to his vibrators: instead of stimulating vibrations over a wide area, the new gauntlet stills them in a focused spot, causing intense cold, which makes it a natural tool to use (Octavius observes) in controlling certain kinds of circuitry. Alistair says he was thinking of it as a weapon—a freeze ray—which seems to be the cue for the wall to explode and THE ENFORCERS (the Cirque in their new, masked costumes as Kingpin's men) enter. Octavius hollers for security; Harry looks in, gapes, and dashes away; Alistair shoots at the Enforcers with the gauntlet, catching one and freezing him. The other Enforcers, though, swarm him and strip him of the gauntlet, and one of the dons it and focuses it on the security guards who come charging in. "Sweet!" he exclaims. Spider-Man enters, knocking him and the others about; Harry on his glider joins the melee, dodging ice blasts. The Enforcers retreat, carrying their frozen comrade with them. Spider-Man starts to pursue but he is knocked away by Harry. Spider-Man chases, interposing himself between Harry and the Enforcers' helicopter as it soars away, and calling on him to stop. Harry again brushes him aside, knocking him from the top of tall parapet toward the ground hundreds of feet below.

Act II
Spider-Man webs himself out of free fall and watches Harry chase off after the helicopter. Harry won't listen to Spider-Man, Peter thinks; maybe he'll listen to Peter Parker? He calls Harry on the phone, in his own voice, to say that he's just spotted Harry jetting around overhead. Harry snaps back that he can't talk, he's chasing bad guys; Peter pleads for him to leave the heroics to the cops or the Avengers or somebody else; Harry hangs up, looks around, realizes he has lost the Enforcers.

Kingpin's office: The Enforcers enter; BLADE BENSON is wearing the gauntlet, and he demonstrates its use when Kingpin asks if they've got the dingus. Kingpin gloats over how much money he will get by putting it up for bid. Benson asks what the Enforcers' cut will be, and is told his "cut" is "not being turned over to the cops." Benson retorts that he doubts that the cops can take them as long as they've got the gauntlet. Kingpin demands the gauntlet; various Enforcers urge Benson to give it over. Benson asks who is with him in forming a new gang; only ROSS MACKLIN joins. When other thugs enter, Benson and Macklin blast and freeze their way out.

A running battle unfolds across the rooftops before Benson and Macklin get away, drawing the attention of the police and of Spider-Man, who mistakes the breakout as a raid on Fisk Enterprises by the Enforcers, particularly after having to swoop in and scoop his old classmate Richard Fisk to safety. The Kingpin, gratefully collecting Richard, offers Spider-Man a "king's ransom" for bringing him the miscreants; Spider-Man respectfully declines, and as he swings away calls his drone-camera into play to record the upcoming fight.

Elsewhere, Macklin and Benson are holed up on the top floor of a skyscraper, trading the gauntlet back and forth as each one tries to figure out various settings, with each taking turns saving the others as police helicopters sweep around them and SWAT teams down on them. Triumphant after beating off a major assault, they shout up at the last police helicopter that they want one billion dollars not to freeze the city solid, and demonstrate by ice-blasting a nearby building before blasting the chopper. Spider-Man saves the pilots, and spots Harry swooping in on his glider, only to be knocked aside by a gauntlet blast; Spider-Man has to save him (again!) and set him on a rooftop just as Alistair appears in his Shocker armor. Spider-Man groans about having to save everyone from the bad guys before he can get a shot in at them. Shocker dodges and closes, but when he's close enough to make one telling, point-blank shot, Harry (from a nearby rooftop) uses a jammer on his glider so that the shot doesn't get made. This infuriates Spider-Man when Harry brags about what he's done, and he has to jump in and catch the frozen Shocker after the bad guys freeze him in mid-air. He drops Alistair next to Harry and tells them both to stay out of trouble while he tries to get the gauntlet. He dives in, springing from wall to wall and dodging blasts, until Benson tells Macklin not to aim at where "he is, but where he's going to be." Macklin freezes a wall just before Spider-Man lands on it; unable to stick to it, he plunges to the ground. Macklin looms over him with the gauntlet trained.

Act III
Spider-Man is saved by Foswell, in his old Cirque costume, diving in to knock Macklin away, but he gets blasted by a frost beam, and Spider-Man pulls himself and Foswell up and out of the way to the rooftop where he left the teens. There he finds Alistair and Harry in another fistfight, which he ends by banging their heads together. He instantly apologizes for getting so rough, but demands to know why they're fighting. Harry and Alistair each accuse each other of trying to steal glory from the other and for himself. Spider-Man yells that no one should care who gets the glory as long as the bad guys get taken down. Speaking of which: He notices Macklin and Benson making a break for it by riding an ice path out of their low-slung skyscraper and onto the rooftop of a much taller one. His query as to what they're up to now is answered by giant blasts that hit and shatter other skyscrapers hither and yon. Spidey tells everyone that unless they can all start acting like a team, same as the bad guys, they're never going to win.

But in their new hideout, Macklin and Benson are arguing about which buildings to target, how much ransom to demand, and what to name themselves as supervillains: Ice Storm or Blizzard? The argument ends with Benson retorting that he's got the gauntlet so he should make the decisions; Macklin attacks him; in the struggle Benson is blasted into solid ice. Macklin rips the gauntlet from him and throws the frozen figure off the roof. (It splashes into the bay.) Now, as Blizzard, Macklin raves at the top of his perch, blasting the gauntlet at everything that flies by.

In a shot revealing only his hands, Spider-Man taps a code into a wristband, asking how close he has to get in order to deactivate the ice gauntlet; Alistair gives him a distance and says he has to point it right at the weapon. Harry by remote control steers his glider (with Spider-Man balanced atop it) toward Macklin's aerie while Alistair and the unmasked Foswell watch. It swoops in right at Macklin, who ices it solid with the gauntlet. Spider-Man's head falls off, revealing strands of webbing in the neck. As Macklin gloats over taking down Spider-Man, a figure masked as Foswell leaps onto the rooftop and jams the gauntlet, then takes Macklin down with webbing. When he speaks over his captive through his mask, it's in Peter's voice. Behind him, the camera-drone lowers into view, filming.

Dissolve to: Footage of the final fight between Macklin and a figure in Foswell's Cirque costume, which cuts to Macklin being led away. J. JONAH JAMESON praises the amazing work shown by "Frederick Foswell, reformed criminal turned All-American Hero," and regrets only that he failed to also capture the arch-criminal Spider-Man. Reverse angle on NORMAN OSBORN, watching with Harry and Alistair. He praises their work in general, but his only specific praises are for Harry, which leaves Alistair glowering. After dismissing Alistair, Norman tells Harry that he is only disappointed that he didn't take down the Spider-Man too. Harry agrees that that is his biggest regret as well.

Commentary: ""Spider-Man on Ice"" 

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