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Transformative Adaptation

Today's Spider-Man entry—"S01E06 "Party Animals"" —is another close adaptation of the IRL material, right down to the title. Changes, FWIW:

* In the original, Sytsevich is a student at Horizon who is intentionally infected by Raymond Warren. I wanted to remove Warren's villainy (see below) which means the Rhino needed a new origin. Also, Sytsevich being a cheerful and friendly student who is cured at the end made it very awkward for the IRL series when they tried bringing the Rhino back. Returning Sytsevich to something like his comics origin (but spying for a crime boss rather than the East Bloc) makes it easier to give him the traditional treatment later on.

* In the original, Warrren is an outright villain, already transforming between Jackal and human form, and he infects Sytsevich as a demonstration project for Osborn. This is me again feeling the tug of BTAS. I don't like Warren's unabashed villainy in the IRL series and wanted to give him an origin closer to, say, Two Face in Batman. I also wanted to remove Osborn's complicity, as it hardly seems in character for him to accede to a dangerous plot being executed in a situation where he knows his son will be.

* In the original, the diagnosis and cure are entirely concocted without adult supervision by Peter and friends. This is far and away the most annoying facet of the IRL series. What is it with contemporary stories and their "Science, be-yotches, boo-yah, amirite?" garbage? As one YouTuber put it recently, they sound like frat bros trying to imitate what they think scientists sound like: "They talk like it's beer, hookers and sports ball but with, y'know, technobabble instead." Having high school students (no matter how bright) concocting Stark-level technology on the fly is another aspect of the same thing. My own revision still strains credulity, but at least (I hope) it's better for letting a putative expert in the field (Warren) do most of the brainwork.

There are additional, minor changes here and there. Kingpin, for instance, does not appear.

*

I got a new treatment written yesterday, but it wasn't much of a victory, as it closely models an actual episode. But I had to get it out of the way before pushing myself into the really new territory on the other side of it.