PARTNERS IN DANGER
Chapter V

Silvermane resurfaces, his schemes pulling the shadows of the Neogenic Nightmare back into the light. The episode becomes a reckoning with past horrors, as the fate of the Scorpion and the Vulture is revealed, their twisted forms reminders of how science can corrupt as easily as it can create.

Felicia Hardy stands at the heart of the drama, her dual identity pressing against the mask she now wears. Her potential romance is charged with longing and impossibility. Felicia’s independence and Peter’s caution clash, yet their attraction grows stronger in the silence between them. The episode becomes a meditation on the cost of love in a world of masks, where devotion itself can be a threat.

Around them, villains rise and fall, their fates entwined with the Neogenic experiments that haunt Spider-Man’s past. Silvermane’s return ties the threads together, reminding us that power and corruption endure, even when their hosts are broken.

At its heart, Partners is about connection and sacrifice. It shows that even in a world of heroes and villains, the greatest danger lies not in battle, but in love — a force that can unite, but also destroy, when lived beneath the mask.

Spider-Man and Black Cat move to stop a crime, but Felicia is seized by Alistair Smythe. Smythe intends to use neogenics to restore the adulthood of his employer, Silvermane, and demands Spider-Man capture either Scorpion or the Vulture to secure her release. To draw them out, Spider-Man persuades Curt Connors to announce a breakthrough in Neogenic science.

Scorpion, desperate for a cure, is manipulated by the captive Vulture into stealing money to fund Connors’ treatment. Spider-Man intercepts him, defeats him, and delivers him to Smythe. Yet Smythe betrays his word, capturing Spider-Man as well, and prepares to use Scorpion’s DNA to exchange Peter’s youth for Silvermane’s lost years.

The experiment is interrupted when Scorpion’s girlfriend Sarah frees the Vulture, who rushes to save Scorpion. Chaos erupts, and Spider-Man breaks free. In the struggle, Silvermane’s energy is transferred not to himself but to the Vulture, restoring his youth while leaving Silvermane aged once more.

The recombinator overloads, tearing the building apart. Flames and destruction consume the lab, but all within escape before the collapse. Smythe’s schemes lie in ruins, and Silvermane’s grasp on power slips further into decline.

In the aftermath, Spider-Man and Black Cat stand together, their bond deepened by trial and survival.

There’s flashbacks to Smythe’s transformation in The Ultimate Slayer, as well as Silvermane’s de-aging from Ravages of Time. Scorpion also flashes back to his origin from The Sting of the Scorpion. The Vulture and Scorpion were last seen in The Final Nightmare.

Richard Moll now voices Scorpion with original actor Martin Landau unavailable at the time of production.

Thwip Quip: “Great, now I’m gonna have to learn to web sling in a stroller!”

The Return of Kraven | The Awakening