While Dr. Connors is awarded a grant by Adrian Toomes, the latter, now calling himself the Vulture, seeks revenge on Norman Osborn, who is trying to buy his company, and has created a suit that allows him to defy gravity and lets him temporarily steal the youth of others that he created from the Tablet of Time.
This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptational Late Appearance: While in the comics the Vulture was the second of his enemies Spider-Man ever faced, in this episode the Vulture shows up after Spider-Man has faced many other enemies, including Venom and Shocker.
- Continuity Nod: Felicia is upset over losing Michael Morbius after the latter was turned into a giant bat by the Neogenic Recombinator,
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Adrian Toomes before becoming the Vulture, ran his company, Toomes Aerodynamics, into the ground researching anti-gravity and ways to turn back aging, and doesn't mind killing people, like Norman Osborn, to prevent them from taking over his company.
- Covert Pervert: When Toomes makes himself young, and poses as his own new second in command, Arthur Avis, he flirts with Debra.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Norman Osborn's attempt at buying Toomes' company out from under him was based entirely on Osborn's claims that Toomes' experiments in anti-gravity flight were failures that would end up bankrupting the company. At that point, however, Toomes had finished a fully-functional anti-gravity personalized flight suit. If he'd just flown it over to the board meeting and shown it off, Osborn would have been thrown out of the building and Toomes' company would have been rolling in money. Instead, Toomes took up the identity of the Vulture to assassinate Osborn for trying to take over, which cost him everything.
- Dual Age Modes: Toomes designs his flight suit to let him drain the life force from people, turning them old and making him young, though this is usually only temporary.
- Embarrassing Rescue: When the Vulture placed a device on Spider-Man's forefront that rendered Spidey immobile until the device was removed by Flash Thompson. Spidey didn't like being rescued by someone who bullies his alter ego.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Norman Osborn is right about how Toomes is bankrupting his company, given how he isn’t showing he succeeded at creating his flight suit, and given a grant that his company seemingly cannot afford to give away.
- Liquid Assets: The Vulture drains the youth from his victims with his suit that he created from the Tablet of Time.
- Mad Scientist: Adrian Toomes. To the point where his research on anti-gravity and youth rejuvenation has nearly bankrupted his company.
- Revenge Before Reason: Adrian Toomes could have saved his corporation, Toomes Aerodynamics, from being bought out by Norman Osborn by just showing off that his anti-gravity experiments had worked and he'd built a workable flying suit. Instead, he dressed up in the suit as "the Vulture" and tried to assassinate Norman Osborn for the effort, which ultimately cost him his company.
- To Be Continued: The final scene of this shows an unconscious Peter Parker turned into an old man by the Vulture, after the latter successfully drains his youth.
- Villain Ball: Toomes could prevented Norman from buying his company at the beginning of the episode, if he had just showed that he was able to successfully create a flight suit, but instead choose to become the Vulture to get revenge on Norman.
