Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion/The Calm Before the Stormranger

The Calm Before the Stormranger is the 14th episode of Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion. It is also the third chapter of the "Family Business" arc.

Featured Characters

 * Spider-Man / Peter Parker (flashback and main story)
 * Stormranger (first full appearance; secretly Peter Parker's unnamed sister)

Supporting Characters

 * Horizon High School
 * Max Modell
 * Students
 * Tigra / Mary Jane Watson
 * Ghost-Spider / Gwen Stacy
 * Spider-Girl / Anya Corazon
 * Kid Arachnid / Miles Morales
 * Firestar / Liz Allan
 * Wave / Michelle Jones
 * American Knight / Kevin Walker
 * Alpha Owl / Carlie Cooper
 * Aunt May
 * J.A.R.V.I.S.
 * AC-5 / Ace
 * Bilderberg Academy
 * Anna Maria Marconi
 * Anne Weying (first full appearance)

Antagonists

 * Athena Industries (first appearance)
 * Athena Gonzales (first appearance)
 * Techpire / Ariel Haven (first appearance)
 * Drago (single appearance; destroyed)
 * Gabby Flenkman
 * Joseph Rockwell (first appearance)
 * Big Wheel / Jackson Wheele (first appearance; cameo) (appears in TV, computer screen, or hologram)
 * White Rabbit / Lorina Dodson (first appearance; cameo) (appears in TV, computer screen, or hologram)
 * The Griffin / Johnny Horton (first appearance)
 * Hammerhead (cameo) (appears in TV, computer screen, or hologram) (Death)
 * Wake Riders (mentioned only)
 * Truman Marsh (mentioned only)

Other Characters

 * Betty Brant (appears in TV, computer screen or hologram)
 * Richard Parker (flashback only)
 * Mary Parker (flashback only)
 * Ant-Man / Scott Lang (mentioned only)
 * Cassie Lang (mentioned only)
 * S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Nick Fury (mentioned only)
 * Henry "Hank" Pym (mentioned only)
 * Chris Cooper (mentioned only)

Plot
In the Triskelion, Peter Parker and his friends are overhearing from J.A.R.V.I.S. (also labeled Jarvis) more details about the Parker files created by Richard and Mary Parker, including the content of their scientific inventions and projects. When Peter voices intentions of continuing his parents' second project, which involves a robot body which Jarvis was meant to use as a host body, Jarvis reveals it is located in the undergrounds of where it is now Horizon High School. Just as Peter makes it there with Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy, the school is attacked by Draco, a dragon-like humanoid android. Right before the three can suit up for action, Draco is intercepted by Stormranger, a mysterious armored female individual with technology of both Stark Industries and the Kree Empire.

Stormranger manages to defeat and destroy Draco, and takes a deep soft look at Peter before leaving in silence. Later on, while Stormranger's heroic actions are being reported about in live news, Draco's destroyed body is taken to be examined in Max Modell's personal lab, where he and Anya Corazon discover it is technology from Athena Industries, a formerly small company which mainly focused in building innovative tech and making the world a better place. Modell also reveals that the company became corrupt after its CEO Athena Gonzales became mentally ill and overwhelmed with a god-complex, by which she believes herself to be the dark reincarnation of the. Later on, Peter suits up as Spider-Man and goes on to find Stormranger, and with Carlie Cooper / Alpha Owl and Ace monitoring him. During which, Spider-Man overhears news from Betty Brant that Hammerhead was killed by a individual female described by local witnesses to be someone wearing "old white dress and armor pieces". He eventually encounters Stormranger roughly interrogating the Wake Riders' former publicist Gabby Flenkman, who currently works as Gonzales's assistant, for information of where Athena Industries' head scientist Dr. Joseph Rockwell keeps the source of its beast machines and super soldiers. After holding Flenkman (whom he mutually distrusts) webbed down, Spider-Man speaks with Stormranger, who reveals that she was seeking to protect the Central F.E.A.S.T. shelter, which is targeted for destruction by Gonzales and her mercenaries along with Stark Expo, while convincing him of Gonzales's intentions of destroying places she deems unworthy to exist. Right before she can reveal why she appeared hesitant to Peter Parker at Horizon High, they discover a tracer in Flenkman's badge, discovering she was also being used as a beacon to lure another of Gonzales's creations, consequently attracting Gonzales's "beast machine super soldier": the Griffin, a cybernetically enhanced metahuman resembling a flying lion. Through the mind-control devices implanted on Griffin, Gonzales demands him to terminate Spider-Man and Stormranger.

The pair have a brief fight against the Griffin before Spider-Man has Stormranger take Flenkman away while he holds the Griffin off. Spider-Man is soon joined in by Tigra, Ghost-Spider, Liz Allan / Firestar, Michelle Jones / Wave and Kevin Walker / American Knight to defeat the Griffin. Through the Griffin's DNA sample, Jarvis identifies him as Johnny Horton, Gonzales's bodyguard and first test subject for her experiments. Regrouping in Horizon High, Peter consults Modell, who has found files claiming that his parents had once worked in Athena Industries until they quit due to Gonzales's delusional nature. Miles Morales, Mary Jane and Kevin volunteer to follow Peter and confront Gonzales while Gwen and Anya stay to check up the robot body, though not before Peter entrusts Gwen with a material which Hank Pym and Nick Fury entrusted him to keep earlier. As Spider-Man and the team reach the Athena Industries headquarters, they are confronted by Gonzales's most trusted henchwoman Ariel Haven / Techpire, and stop her from trying to reach Stark Expo. Stormranger, who is immune to Techpire's abilities to corrupt technology, arrives and outmatches her in a fight before Tigra senses a mysterious empathy between Peter and Stormranger (which would explain Stormranger's unknown reaction to see Peter in Horizon High earlier). Overhearing this, Ace scans the status of New York's registered citizens, revealing to Gwen and Anya that there is another living Parker in New York besides Peter himself and his Aunt May. Using the material Peter entrusted her to use, which is revealed to be the Tesseract, Gwen powers up the robot body and stores Jarvis's software in its head. After overcoming more traps in Athena Industries, Spider-Man, Tigra, Kid Arachnid and American Knight confront Gonzales, whose attire, weapons and delusional personality confirm that she was Hammerhead's killer as she reveals her plan to wipe out the F.E.A.S.T. shelters and other places "created by unworthy, pitiful mortals" who would dare oppose and betray her "like the Parkers did years ago". She reveals to have built an swarm of mechanical harpies created with technology from A.I.M. and Hydra and sends them to attack the young heroes.

Spider-Man and the team battle the robots while Stormranger takes on Gonzales herself in a fight which takes place outside the facility. The Griffin recovers, escapes S.H.I.E.L.D. agents trying to contain him and attempts to aid his master, but is stopped by Ghost-Spider, Spider-Girl and Jarvis, who infuse him with an antidote which reverts him back to his human form. In response of Rockwell detecting "infinite radiation" in Jarvis's body, Gonzales demands her robots to destroy him and obtain his core, but Jarvis (using the energies of the Space Stone in the Tesseract) teleports them all near the Sun, where they are immediately destroyed. Spider-Man and Tigra manage to locate the core of Athena Industries, which is the source of the beast machines and super soldiers, and destroy it, shutting the facility down and de-powering Techpire. As Gonzales, Haven and Rockwell are taken to prison, Stormranger (acknowledging Spider-Man as a friend of Carlie) entrusts Spider-Man with safe-guarding a Neuro-Cortex-powered flash-drive she recovered from Truman Marsh before leaving. Back in Horizon High, Peter gives the flash-drive to Carlie, who discovers it has the consciousness of her said-to-be deceased father Chris. Later on, Peter is approached by Gwen, Anya, Ace and Jarvis; the latter reveals to have analyzed Stormranger's biological DNA and discovered that she shares the same blood DNA of Peter's parents. Reflecting upon a night when he overheard his mother tearfully confessing herself afraid that Peter would grow up without ever knowing his sibling, Peter realizes that Stormranger is also his parents' daughter, and his long lost younger sister...

"'To Be Continued...'"

Voice Cast

 * Robbie Daymond as Spider-Man / Peter Parker
 * Ashley Johnson as Tigra / Mary Jane Watson
 * Mae Whitman as Stormranger
 * Laura Bailey as Ghost-Spider / Gwen Stacy
 * Melanie Minichino as Spider-Girl / Anya Corazon
 * Nadji Jeter as Kid Arachnid / Miles Morales
 * Nancy Linari as Aunt May
 * Cameron Bowen as American Knight / Kevin Walker
 * Alanna Ubach as Wave / Michelle Jones
 * Natalie Lander as Firestar / Liz Allan
 * Katrina Kemp as Anna Maria Marconi
 * Kari Wahlgren as Anne Weying
 * Fred Tatasciore as Max Modell, The Griffin / Johnny Horton, Drago
 * Grey DeLisle as Betty Brant
 * Nika Futterman as Athena Gonzales
 * Rachael MacFarlane as Techpire / Ariel Haven
 * as Gabby Flenkman
 * Greg Ellis as Joseph Rockwell

Trivia

 * The title is based on the phrase "The Calm Before the Storm".
 * At one point, Athena Gonzales quotes: "I am not a queen, or a monster. I am the Goddess of War!". Those lines are similar to the ones said by Hela (who quoted: "I'm not a queen, or a monster. I'm the Goddess of Death!") in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
 * Jarvis using the Space Stone's power to teleport Athena Industries' harpies away is similar to the way Soundwave teleported Airachnid and her Insecticons to Cybertron's moon in Transformers: Prime episode "Thirst".