The Spectacular Spider-Man/Survival of the Fittest

Survival of the Fittest
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	March 8, 2008
Production Number	101
Written by	Greg Weisman
Directed by	Victor Cook
— N/A	1x02 → Interactions
The Spectacular Spider-Man — Season One

Survival of the Fittest is the first episode of the first season of The Spectacular Spider-Man. It features Peter Parker on his first day of his junior year of high school. As Spider-Man, he faces his first real villains, The Enforcers and Vulture

Starring: Josh Keaton (Peter Parker / Spider-Man)

Also Starring: Dee Bradley Baker (Curt Connors), Irene Bedard (Jean DeWolff), Jeff Glen Bennett (Montana), Clancy Brown (Alex O'Hirn), Lacey Chabert (Gwen Stacy), Keith David (Big Man), Grey DeLisle (Sally Avril, Betty Brant), John DiMaggio (Flint Marko, Hammerhead), Ben Diskin (Eddie Brock), Robert Englund (Adrian Toomes / Vulture), Brian George (Aaron Warren), Phil LaMarr (Rand Robertson), Joshua LeBar (Flash Thompson), Peter MacNicol (Otto Octavius), Daran Norris (J. Jonah Jameson), Alan Rachins (Norman Osborn), Kath Soucie (Martha Connors, Anna Watson), Deborah Strang (May Parker), James Arnold Taylor (Harry Osborn)

Plot Overview

It's the last day before school, and Peter Parker is swinging around town as his alter-ego Spider-Man. He comes across a couple thieves, Flint Marko and Alex O'Hirn who he easily stops, but then we see that Big Man is watching them and orders Hammerhead to get The Enforcers. Meanwhile, Adrian Toomes is at OsCorp yelling at Otto Octavius for OsCorp stealing his ideas for a Magnetic Air Transport System. Norman Osborn comes down and has Toomes removed from the premises.

It's now the morning of Peter's first day of being a junior at Midtown Manhattan High School. As he's coming down the stairs, he hears his Aunt May talking to Anna Watson about the money problems they have been having since Peter's Uncle Ben passes away. May doesn't want Peter to know, so he acts like he didn't hear and goes off to school. Once he gets there, he meets up with his friends Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn, and then gets up the nerve to ask out popular girl Sally Avril, who turns him down. The other popular kids, including Flash Thompson and Randy Robertson show up and proceed to pick on Peter, including stealing his lunch. We are then shown Hammerhead bringing in The Enforcers, made up of Montana, Fancy Dan and The Ox to talk to Big Man over the speaker. Big Man orders them to get rid of Spider-Man because he keeps getting in their way.

Back in school, we are shown Aaron Warren's biology class ending, when he stops Gwen and Peter to offer them internships with Dr. Curt Connors at his laboratory at Empire State University. Next we see Peter hanging out with Harry at his place, with Peter talking about how he isn't the school newspaper's photographer anymore and that he will be taking care of the Parker's money problems by taking the internship with Connors. Harry's dad Norman overhears them, and is pleased with Peter's new job, and is upset that Harry wasn't up for it. Just then, Adrian Toomes, now suited up as the Vulture, comes in and kidnaps Norman. He flies through the air holding Norman by his suit, trying to scare Norman into admitting that he stole Toomes' ideas for OsCorp's Tech Flight. When Norman refuses, Toomes drops Norman, when Spider-Man swings in and saves him. Norman is dropped off in front of police officers Jean DeWolff and Stan Carter, who were having a conversation about if Spider-Man really helps the city. They run into a building and Toomes flies away.

Peter then goes to meet Gwen at Connors' lab where they will have their first day of work. Once there, they find out that their friend Eddie Brock is Connors' personal assistant. We then meet Connors' wife Martha, who also works with them. After a quick shot of Curt Connors injecting a serum into his arm, he comes out and meets the new interns. With Eddie showing Peter and Gwen around, Peter asks how much the job pays to which he finds out that it doesn't pay anything since they are high school students without experience. On the way home, Peter talks about the money problems to Gwen who tells him it will come. Just then, a Daily Bugle newspaper flies into Peter's face with a front page story on Spider-Man, giving him an idea. He goes to the Daily Bugle, where the guards don't let him in, so he climbs up the wall and goes in through a window. He sees J. Jonah Jameson, the head of the newspaper, who mistakes him for a boy he sent on an errand. Peter then offers to get pictures of Spider-Man in action, which Jameson turns down but then proceeds to tell Robbie Robertson that they need pictures of Spider-Man in action.

The Vulture again attacks Norman Osborn, and Spider-Man once again comes in to fight the Vulture off. At the same time, The Enforcers are coming in a helicopter to go after Spider-Man. Spider-Man fights off The Enforcers, and then the Vulture comes in and attacks him at the same time. Spider-Man ends up taking care of both of them at once by smashing the Vulture's wing into the blades of the helicopter. After all of this, Peter comes home to his Aunt May, who tells him that he now has a 10PM curfew, and that if he will be home later than that, he needs to call, and that it better be to tell her that he's on his way home.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Flashbacks to Peter getting bit by a radioactive spider at Curt Connors lab on a school field trip.
• Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey get internships at Curt Connors' lab.
• Adrian Toomes becomes the Vulture.
• Curt Connors is seen injecting a serum into his arm.
• Characters we are introduced to that become villains at later times:

Spoiler:

Flint Marko (Sandman), Alex O'Hirn (Rhino), Curt Connors (The Lizard), Otto Octavius (Dr. Octopus)

Trivia

The Show

• In Aaron Warren's biology class, the text written on the blackboard include the titles of the first three episodes of the show (Survival of the Fittest, Interactions and Natural Selection)

Behind the Scenes

• This is the only time Big Man was voiced by Keith David. In further appearances, he was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

Allusions and References

• Gargoyles: A couple of times during the episode, you see stone gargoyles which look similar to the main characters from Gargoyles, which was another show that Greg Weisman worked on.

Quotes

• Norman Osborn: Toomes?
  Vulture: Not Toomes now. I'm what you called me. I'm the Vulture
  Norman Osborn: I called you a buzzard
  Vulture: What?
  Norman Osborn: You can't even get the name right.
• Norman Osborn and Vulture (at the same time): Who are you?
  Spider-Man:Why I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, of course.
• Spider-Man (to Vulture): Look, Beaky, I admire anyone who dresses up as their family animal. Better still, you can fly. So I gotta ask, you heard the one about great power coming with great responsibility?
• Spider-Man (after Vulture tearing his costume): Uncool! Do you know what these spider suits cost?