#the alien costume

[episodicnostalgia]

Spider-man: The Animated Series, 108 (Apr. 29, 1995) - “The Alien Costume, Part One”

Teleplay by: Len Wein, Meg Mclaughlin, Stan Berkowitz, & John Semper Jr. Story By: Avi Arad Directed by: Bob Richardson

The Breakdown

It’s the story of the century!  Beloved Astronaut John Jameson (nice-guy-son of major-dickweed J. Jonah Jameson) is undergoing an exploratory mission of some asteroid that happened to be passing by.  John discovers a fancy black rock embedded in the asteroid’s surface, that seeps a black ooze after being pried loose (whaddaya wanna bet that’s going to be important later on?). Unfortunately for our boy, his actions somehow trigger a volcanic response, which is nonsense, but it gives john a reason to escape back to his shuttle with the rock and hurry the plot along, so I’m all for it.

The rock is, in fact, a newly discovered super-powerful radioactive mineral called “promethium X”, but it’s predominantly a McGuffin for Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin) to cause trouble over.  But none of that really matters, because the main attraction was always the introduction of…. RHINO!  Oh, and possibly Venom’s backstory for those of you who are into obscure niche characters. Speaking of which…

Back on the shuttle, the goo starts attacking John and his partner, JUST as they’re re-entering earth’s atmosphere (which is admittedly not ideal).  Capable dude that he is, John succeeds  resist the goo’s attempt to envelop him, just long enough to make an emergency crash landing on the George Washington bridge which has been completely-evacuated-and-no-one-died.

Enter Peter/Spidey, who shows up to help rescue the astronauts from the wreckage, although not without incident, because Rhino shows up to steal the promethium X for Fisk.  The ensuing fight does not go well for Spider-man, but thankfully Rhino doesn’t have time get lethal, since Fisk is eager to  retrieve his prize (to be fair, Rhino does seem like the sort of guy who could get easily sidetracked).  Without an active opponent, Spidey has just enough time to rescue John and his partner (the goo being nowhere in sight), before getting dragged off the bridge and into the river with the teetering space shuttle.  Spider-man swims to safety handily enough, but his suit is covered in a black substance that he mistakes for pollution.  Gosh, I wonder if it’s the alien goo from the space shuttle?

Predictably, yes it is.

That night, the goo jumps off Pete’s spider-suit and attaches itself to him.  After waking up from a freaky (but VERY metaphorically relevant) dream, Peter finds himself hanging upside down from a web (not unlike how like a spider can), and what’s more, sporting a sharp new black ‘n white spider-themed suit.  An impromptu test run reveals that the suit not only looks totally fucking SICK, but also amplifies his superpowers (plus the ability to generate it’s own webbing); additionally it can also morph into any other clothing Peter wants simply by reading his thoughts. Neat! No need to consider the horrifying ramifications of THAT any further! In spite of how alarmed he almost certainly should be, Pete ultimately takes everything in stride once the initial shock wears off, quickly brandishing a newfound (and curiously aggressive) confidence.

But there isn’t any time to bask in this new development since the Rhino is still at large, and he’s doing some more crime for Fisk in regard to that whole Promethium X thing.  Armed with his new black suit, Spidey sets out to confront Rhino, and this time he completely dominates a little TOO well.  In fact, as the fight progresses, Spider-man begins employing tactics that could be seen as excessive.  Just as our hero is about to administer a killing blow, he snaps out of his bloodlust, and leaves before doing something he can’t take back.  Shortly thereafter, Spider-man reflects on how close he came to taking a life, and is left to wonder if something is… happening to him?  Oh yeah, a there’s also a flash of lighting that symbolically alters Spider-man’s reflection into that of Venom, which does seem fairly ominous, but it's anyone’s guess as to how that could be relevant.

Guess we’ll have to wait for answers though, because…

TO BE CONTINUED!

The Verdict 

This story arch was one of my favourites back in the day, which is in no small part due to the symbiote.  In the comics the suit stuck around as a character/element for quite a while before it became Venom, and the resulting lore that stemmed from that caught my imagination as a kid. Naturally the story had to be pared down for TV, but this show does an admirable job of reworking the complex origin of the comics, into something a little less convoluted [which includes battles on alien worlds, and a whacky mix-up with the costume-fixing-device, and I’m not even making any of that up], without outright cutting the extra-terrestrial angle. Many subsequent re-telling’s have often lean towards establishing the symbiote as a man-made-bio-suit-gone-wrong, which I personally find less interesting.

Although even as the first-of-three-chapters, there are a lot of pieces being juggled here, and while it can feel a bit rushed, you’ve gotta admire how much information is being effectively conveyed in 20 minutes of children’s programming.  I believe this was the show that introduced (or at least developed) the idea that the Symbiote causes the host to become aggressive, and it’s a story telling choice that adds some real urgency to Spider-man’s circumstances.  This is likewise an ideal story to introduce less complex characters like Rhino, who don’t particularly need a whole episode dedicated to explaining them [more on this in the ‘additional observations’ section], leaving more room to focus on Peter.

The animation quality in this episode seems improved as well, and I’m guessing it may have been afforded a slightly higher budget.  Whatever the reason, there’s some pretty strong imagery all throughout the episode, some of which even would go on to be borrowed in Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-man 3’ (for better or for worse).  At the same time, the story suffers as much as it benefits from the aforementioned-breakneck pace, and while it’s consistently entertaining, the script (as per usual on this show) tends to sprint through the emotional beats.  That’s not a condemnation of the episode though, so much as an acknowledgment of what it is, well made, chaotically imaginative escapism for children.

3.5 (out of 5) stars

Additional Observations

the Black suit is a such a great look, and may be the only variant spider-costume (at least for Peter Parker) that comes close to matching the iconography of the original red ‘n blue.  I only wish they could have extended the symbiote-saga for an entire season, but I’m sure that would have cost too much to animate, since it would have ruled out recycling character animation from previous episodes.

There’s a nice bit of foreshadowing where John is being enveloped by the Symbiote, and he screams, causing the goo to recoil. [For those who don’t know, the symbiote is famously sensitive to loud sounds] causing it to lose cohesion.  I realize it’s kind of silly that any human scream would qualify as loud enough to weaken Venom, but works nicely for a kids cartoon, as a little easter egg for young audiences to notice on repeat viewings.  And maybe John took some opera training back in the day.  You don’t know!

Promethium X: I guess the scientific-naming-committee was feeling a bit dramatic that day. The poetic imagery must have been too much for them to pass up.

Fun fact: Issue #1 of the Amazing Spider-man features a story where Spider-man tries to help John Jameson safely land his space vessel (been a while since I’ve read it, but that’s the gist).  I’m assuming that issue inspired the inclusion of John in this episode as a tactically chosen homage.

I kind of love that this show never really delves into Rhino’s deal.  He’s just kinda there, like we’re simply meant to accept him at face value, and it works like a hot damn.  I seem to recall ‘Spectacular Spider-man’ did a bit more with the character, and that entire series is gold, so I’d never discourage anyone’s attempt to tell a really great Rhino story, should it strike their fancy.  But nine-times-out-of-ten he’s just used (and functions as) a super strong guy in a military grade anthropomorphic rhino suit, and that’s also fine; He does undeniably look like a big strong Evil-Rhino-Man, after all. I have no follow up questions, and never once felt the show missed out on an opportunity to flesh out his origin.

[389]

H.R. GIGER'S ALIEN

[spirk-trek]

Georgia Schmidt, Carole Shelyne, Serena Sande, Meg Wyllie, & Sandra Lee Gimpel

A tribute to some lesser-known women of Star Trek :)

[puppyeared]

trick or treat!

treat!! You get.. some looplet konpeito :3

[maulfucker]

it's so so sad that the aliens in the original and even the prequel trilogies look so weird and fucked up (which is great) and then newer stuff makes everything so smooth and human-faced. where's the meat greebles and nonsensical snouts

[squeakadeeks]

Space outlaw from bee and puppycat! 🤨 ⭐️🪐🛸✨

despite the fact that ive already done 3 space costumes, I had one more campy cartoon space kick left in me I suppose. I tweaked space outlaw's design somewhat significantly but the vibe is still there haha. I wanted to make something 50's space alien adjacent and by god, i was going to make something 50's space alien adjacent.

[imageingrunge]

girls & their skin suits

[brokehorrorfan]

Halloween Costumes exclusively carries a Alien "collectors grade" mask sourced from Xenomorph designer H.R. Giger's original molds.

Made from latex and vacuform by Distortions Unlimited, the mask measures 32.5" long and 15.5" high and doubles as a high-end display piece. It'll cost you $1,789.

[vertigoartgore]

90's Venom by Rod Reis.

[cat-cosplay]

I've been told we don't promote our Patreon enough. Help keep the cats in Costumes!

[holotuff]

Belated spooky scare for the year

[sersh]

CAILEE SPAENY Rain Carradine spacesuit design by Carlos Rosario for Alien: Romulus

[389]

[darkenergyslivers]

the space jockey behind the scenes on alien (1979) via retroscifiart on ig

[theactioneer]

Emma Porteous "Pvt. Hudson" costume from Aliens (1985)

[squeakadeeks]

MORE OC COSPLAYS 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

Here's another OC cosplay hot off the presses! I wanted to stick to Sulu's actual character design and cartoony art style I usually draw him in for this project. I'm really happy with the cartoon look since its quite uncommon that i make things look pop cartoony in costume form.

Sulu as a character is a transient space wanderer who floats through an oceanic space world helping sea space denizens. His character is dedicated, wistful, and a complete workaholic to a fault. In general for the design style I took inspiration from gurren lagann, space dandy, and steven universe.