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HERE
STUDIO: Sony Pictures
MSRP: $15.49
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING
TIME: 66 minutes,
SPECIAL
FEATURES: None
The
Pitch
It’s your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man…again.
The Humans
Spider-Man
crowd circa high school (Peter, Flash, Mary Jane, Liz, Gwen, Osborn and
Spidey’s rogues gallery).
The
Nutshell
This incarnation of Spider-Man reboots his adventures to his high school days. But he still faces all of the same issues, including looking after Aunt May, girl troubles, and balancing out his dual identity. He also faces all of the same old villains, but many of them with upgrades and twists.
The
Lowdown
Honestly, after having reviewed three previous volumes of this cartoon, there’s not that much to add. Quick recap: the show is fun, has good action, throws nice new twists on old material, and maintains the trademark Spidey humor, even though Spidey is anorexic and everyone has big doll eyes. But that’s just the style of the animation. And anyone who buys these three-episode rip-offs rather than the entire season deserves to lose the money they’re blowing. To wit: the complete Season 1, 13 episodes: $22.49. Vol. 8, 3 episodes:$16.49. So again, good cartoon, shitty package.
Now, regarding the three episodes in this offering: Subtext, Opening Night and Final Curtain, another batch of good episodes. We get the Spectacular take on Molten Man, Spidey going against multiple villains during a jail break instituted by the Green Goblin, and a final encounter (for now anyway), with Gobby and a surprise as to his identity. Meanwhile, Gwen has ditched the nerdy glasses and emerged as a hotty and the true object of Peter’s affections. Peter and Gwen realize that they have to break up with Harry and Liz respectively, but even that presents them with problems in the after math of the encounter with the Goblin. Also, there’s a major twist to the Spidey mythology with the identity of his Uncle Ben’s killer and how that presents a major obstacle with an ally. Invisotext on: They make it so that Black Cat’s father is Uncle Ben’s killer. Doh! Invisotext off.
I was actually surprised they pulled me in with Gobby’s secret identity. Hadn’t seen it done that way before, so props to the writers for the misdirections.
The
Package
Video is 1.78:1 and Audio is English
Dolby 5.1. Pretty standard. Look elsewhere for
special features.