Writer Matt Wayne discusses an all-new episode of "The Spectacular Spider-Man"

Black is the new red this weekend when an alien symbiote causes a metamorphosis of Spider-Man's suit in "Persona," an all-new episode of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" premiering this Saturday, May 17 at 10:00 a.m. ET/PT on Kids' WB! on The CW.

In the episode, Spider-Man learns the hard way not to judge a book by its cover when another Spider-Man starts making headlines … as a crook! It's the Chameleon, master of disguise, looting the city and laying the blame at Spidey's feet. The Web-Slinger is forced to team up with another crook, the lovely Black Cat, to stop his foe's faux-Spidey crime spree and clear his name. Along the way, Spider-Man inadvertently comes in contact with an alien symbiote that dramatically alters our hero's color scheme … and begins to mess with his mind.

Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer guest stars as the voice of Black Cat. Dan Fausett directed the episode from a script by Matt Wayne.

Wayne said he enjoyed the task of packing so many plotlines into a single, 22-minute episode.

"It was a good challenge, and I think the show got tighter as we went along," Wayne said. "As a writer, you have to love the pace of this show – it's very freeing for a writer to have every scene be something coming to a crisis. There's very little laying pipe at this point of the season. It's just going from climax to climax."

Wayne penned two other episodes during the series' first season – "Natural Selection," which featured Lizard; and the subplot-packed "The Invisible Hand," which introduced Rhino, revealed Tombstone, and gave the first glimpse of Mary Jane Watson. Wayne also wrote one episode for the second season before shifting to another project. He said it was especially entertaining to write the back-and-forth banter between Black Cat and Spider-Man for "Persona."

"Black Cat is definitely flirting with him – she doesn't know that he's only 15 – so she considers him a man, she assumes he's available, she's going for it, and he's reacting like a 15-year-old," Wayne said, noting Peter's potentially-romantic interaction thus far this season with Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan. "Considering what Peter Parker has been through the whole season, I think it's great we can throw another girl on the fire and have him react this way. It's really capturing what it feels like to be a 15-year-old boy."

Prior to the premiere of "Persona," Kids' WB! will air a repeat of "Natural Selection" at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT.