Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion/City of Heroes, Part 2: Where There’s Smoke

City of Heroes, Part 2: Where There’s Smoke is the 8th episode of Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion.

Featured Characters

 * Spider-Man / Peter Parker
 * Firestar / Screwball / Liz Allan (last appearance and Screwball) (first appearance as Firestar)

Supporting Characters

 * Randy Robertson
 * Robbie Robertson
 * Harry Osborn
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Yuri Watanabe (first appearance)

Antagonists

 * Mysterio / Quentin Beck (first appearance)
 * Molten Man / Mark Raxton (first appearance)
 * Kingpin / Wilson Fisk (first appearance)
 * Master Planner (first appearance) (secretly Otto Octavius)

Other Characters

 * Betty Brant (appears in TV, computer screen and hologram only)
 * Ghost-Spider / Gwen Stacy (mentioned only)
 * She-Hulk / Jennifer Walters (mentioned only)
 * Lion King (First appearance) (Shadow only; unnamed)

Plot
Midtown High School students are watching as Peter Parker / Spider-Man is battling against Molten Man, a super-powered criminal with Pyrokinetic abilities seeking a unknown power source within Midtown High. It turns out to be coming from the Blood Gem shard which is on Liz Allan's possession. Just as Spider-Man webs him down as hard as possible, Molten Man attempts to shoot a fire blast at the students who take cover, but Liz (who was not notified of the danger) is hit by the blast. However, for Spider-Man's relief and Molten Man's confusion, Liz is unharmed and well, and, after knocking Molten Man unconscious, Spider-Man checks on Liz and notices the Blood Gem shard in her hands before it dissolves and its energy is transferred to Liz's body.

As Molten Man is taken in to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody by Yuri Watanabe and her men, Spider-Man checks on Liz to see if she suffered any side-effects despite having survived Molten Man's attack without any sign of injury. To their both surprise, Liz finds herself able to fly and liberate fire from her body, eventually discovering that the Blood Gem shard absorbed some portions of Molten Man's powers and transferred them to Liz, who is at first terrified but still, remembering the lessons Peter learned as Spider-Man, filled with purpose to embrace these powers for the greater good, although Peter suggests she needs to understand and practice her abilities more. Later on, Spider-Man is battling a gang of criminals seeking to assault Oscorp of behalf of Wilson Fisk the Kingpin. The robbers are soon foiled and humiliated by Screwball, who does not sound like or appear to be Liz as Spider-Man first discovered and is shown to be more heroic than she previously was, and is bent to perform the "Ultimate Prank" before her retirement. The two take their leave as the robbers inform a furious Kingpin of their failure. Later on, Spider-Man is alerted by Harry Osborn of another robbery committed in one of Oscorp's facilities. Making it there, he finds himself up against Mysterio, a super-powered criminal and master of trickery and illusions. Revealing to have employed Molten Man to collect the Blood Gem shard in Midtown High, Mysterio uses a series of illusions based on the Man-Spiders to attack Spider-Man.

Just as Spider-Man seems outnumbered, Liz (donning a newly made nanosuit which adapts to her Pyrokinetic powers and styling herself as "Firestar") merges and helps him. The duo destroy the illusions and defeat Mysterio, forcing him to flee, but not before Spider-Man's mask optics scan Mysterio's eyes through the broken spot of his bubble helmet. Regrouping in the main lab of Oscorp, Peter, Liz and Harry find data about Mysterio, who is revealed to be Quentin Beck, a former Oscorp employee who was fired for the unstable nature of his powers and currently seeks resources to overthrow the Osborns and take the company for himself. Harry eventually reveals that he had ordered the creation of new drone units, on which Peter deduces that Mysterio's plan is to use the drones to spread his illusions to all over the city (and possibly the country). Later through one of the drones, they spy on Kingpin and overhear of his intentions of hunting down Screwball as a punishment for her interference with his plans. Having a minute to think, Peter ends up having an idea about how to foil both Kingpin and Mysterio. Later on, before he can order his henchmen to hunt for Screwball and terminate her, Kingpin is confronted by a Oscorp Drone which blackmails for him, informing him that Screwball plans to perform the "Ultimate Prank" against Mysterio in his lair which is a fun-house scenario, leading Kingpin and his men to take advantage of the situation and set an ambush there. Later in the fun-house, Spider-Man duels with Mysterio as Screwball sets up a series of pranks around the area. Before she can finish, Kingpin and his men begin throwing explosives around the fun-house, setting it on fire with Spider-Man, Screwball and Mysterio still inside.

Spider-Man and Mysterio flee, but Screwball stays behind and allows herself to be engulfed by the flames. Just as the villains tease her apparent passing, Screwball resurfaces from the fire, still alive and unharmed and, to both Mysterio and Kingpin's shock, is revealed to be actually Firestar, as part of her Ultimate Prank, and to both Kingpin and Mysterio's ire, Spider-Man knew it all along. Furious, the two engage the young heroes, who naturally defeat them; Spider-Man strips Mysterio off his bubble helmet and slams him unconscious with it, and Firestar wears Kingpin off by tricking him into destroying fiery duplicates of herself enough to render him unconscious with a fiery blow. Kingpin and Mysterio are carried to prison as one of Kingpin's mercenaries is revealed to be in league with another criminal mastermind calling himself the Master Planner, who vows to still accomplish what Kingpin could not. Later on, Liz is having a moment with Robbie Robertson, to whom she apologizes for that other day when she was Screwball, and with Robbie forgiving her and assuming that thanks to her experience with Spider-Man, she has learned her lesson and did a better job as a super-heroine. Embracing her new alter-ego, Liz continues fighting crime as Firestar, while Spider-Man swings around feeling amazed that he inspired another friend for a great cause, and muttering: "So, who's next?". From the top of a building, a mysterious new vigilante begins leaping walls and buildings at the same direction Spider-Man is following.

"'Next: Long live the king...'"

Voice Cast

 * Robbie Daymond as Spider-Man / Peter Parker
 * Natalie Lander as Firestar / Screwball / Liz Allan
 * Zeno Robinson as Randy Robertson
 * Sumalee Montano as Yuri Watanabe
 * Ernie Hudson as Robbie Robertson
 * Grey DeLisle as Betty Brant, Screwball's disguise voice
 * Max Mittelman as Harry Osborn
 * Crispin Freeman as Mysterio / Quentin Beck
 * Clancy Brown as Kingpin / Wilson Fisk
 * Charles Halford as Molten Man / Mark Raxton
 * Scott Menville as Master Planner