𝙾𝚗 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝙳𝚊𝚢 (𝙼𝚊𝚢 𝟷𝟷, 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟼) 𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜, 𝙿𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚜 𝙷𝚒𝚜 𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝 𝙸𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝙰𝚜 𝚂𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚃𝚘 𝙷𝚒𝚜 𝙽𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝙾𝚗𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚗!

SPIDER-MAN' 94, which will be a continuation of the 90s Spider-Man animated series, has been announced.

The comic will be used to resolve the cliffhanger that the original show ended on and is written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Jim Towe. John Semper Jr, head writer for the 90s Spider-Man animated series, has revealed that he has no involvement in the Spider-Man' 94 comic and wasn't even told or consulted about it by Marvel.

Here is its first look:

Spider-man:The Animated Series(1994-1998)

Spider-man: The Animated Series, 111 (May 20, 1995) - “The Hobgoblin, Part One”

Teleplay by: Larry Brody Story by: John Semper Directed by: Bob Richardson

The Breakdown

Norman Osborn (of Osborn Industries) is sick of living under Wilson Fisk’s heel, so he does what any rational billionaire would do, and hires an assassin. But since this is a Spider-man cartoon, Norman also provides his hitman with a goblin-themed supervillain suit, plus an accompanying array of weaponry, all in keeping with the motif (ie, bombs shaped like pumpkins, a glider loosely fashioned after a bat, and also a laser gun for good measure).  Anyways his name is the Hobgoblin and he’s what this episode is all about.

The hit is meant to go down at a public event where Fisk will be doing some legitimate-businessman-things. Fortunately, Peter Parker is also in attendance as a press photographer, allowing him to save Fisk’s life with his spider-reflexes (Pete still doesn’t know he’s the Kingpin) before jumping into action as Spider-man.  The web-head’s interference doesn’t go over well with the Goblin, who demands more money to finish the job, but Norman ostensibly refuses out of short-sighted greed.  Predictably, that doesn’t also go over very well, so the Hobgoblin decides to get even by stealing/keeping Norman’s goblin-gadgets, and betraying him to…

…THE KINGPIN OF CRIME! So, Hobby heads over to Fisk’s place, and offers to double-cross Norman in exchange for… I can’t remember the specifics. Crime things?  *Checks notes* Yeah, Crime things. As his first assignment, Fisk sends Hobgoblin to kidnap Harry, Norman’s Son, [and Peter’s new roommate - more on that below] for ransom; and the price for Harry’s safe return? The Legal rights to ALL of Norman’s inventions, signed over to Wilson Fisk! Looks like the Kingpin has this one in the bag, except for one little hiccup…

For some reason Fisk refuses to pay for Harry’s abduction, and since Hobgoblin is apparently a man with only one tactic, he heads back over to Norman’s place and offers to double-(or is it triple?)-cross Fisk this time around. Naturally, Norman isn’t buying it, but then the Hobgoblin offers two compelling arguments.  1) “Why not?” and, 2) “give me some even more powerful weapons, please”, which is evidently all the convincing Norman needs to justify handing over the keys to an even larger/more powerful glider; Replete with heat-seeking missiles, projectile razor discs (anything to appease the almighty toy sales reps), and even a cutting-edge remote control! (oooOOOoooh)

Meanwhile, our friendly neighbourhood wall crawler has been busy trying to find Harry, and figures he might as well start by warning Norman, but he coincidentally arrives at Oscorp Industries mere seconds after the Goblin has acquired his new glider.  Since our hero doesn’t realize his adversary is actually in cahoots with Norman (again), another fight ensues, but this time Spidey is overwhelmed by the new enhanced glider jet, and just as he jumps for cover into an abandoned building, two heat-seeking missiles follow him inside and… BOOOM!

Welp! I guess that’s the end of Spider-man.

To Be Continued…

The Verdict

I have a bit of a soft spot for this episode, because it was also the first one that I ever saw.  You see, during the early years of my childhood, I lived in darkness and anguish because cable was too expensive (unlike streaming which has only grown cheaper, more accessible,  and increasingly easier to navigate), and thus many Saturday morning cartoons remained painfully outside my grasp.  The only ways to see new episodes of my favourite shows, were through the efforts of my very thoughtful Granny (who would tape what she could on video cassette), blockbuster rentals, and occasionally friends.  Tragically, Spider-man wasn’t accessible through any of these venues, but I was well aware of the show’s existence thanks to the Toys ‘R Us catalogue, and the weekly TV Guide, both of which kept me up to date on what was hot.  And so it would continue to be, until the glorious day when my parents finally did the right thing, and got a cable subscription (there was a promotion). Of course, you’d best believe that I’d done my research about exactly which programming would now be available to me, and Spider-man was one of the top shows on my hit list. On the first Saturday of my “cable-renaissance” I popped on the TV, and was greeted by ‘The Hobgoblin: Part 1.’  It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Anyways, it’s a pretty dumb episode. Like, the Hobgoblin is extremely reckless, and his motivations are poorly defined. To be fair, his storyline was always messy and anticlimactic, even in the original comics, but that was mainly because the writers kept getting fired before anyone could resolve the story satisfyingly. Even then, the mystery built around character was rife with intrigue in the books, and there was always the sense that Hobgoblin’s story was building to something big.

This show had a real chance to do something a bit more intentional, but the one brief reference to Hobgoblin’s secret identity is almost thrown in as an afterthought.  Additionally, he doesn’t really seem to have any master plan other than committing acts of violence and betraying people for… profit, I guess? There’s just not a lot here to draw me in.

Obviously, if you’re a kid this is a rollicking good time with lots of flashy gadgets, and exciting action sequences. So, I guess at the end of the day the episode succeeds at what it set out to accomplish, and that’s fine.

2.5 stars (out of 5)

Parting Thoughts

Thanks to this episode, I was briefly under the assumption that Hobgoblin had always been the OG Spidey-Goblin-Foe in the comics, with Green Goblin being introduced later on.  It’s an interesting choice to have Norman start out as the mastermind behind the Goblin before eventually adopting it for himself. Sadly, I don’t think this show ever did a whole lot with HG’s and Norman’s relationship, which seems like another missed opportunity, but I could be forgetting something.

Mark Hamill provides the voice work for Hobgoblin, but he mostly just copy/pastes his Joker voice from ‘Batman: the animated series. It’s serviceable, but I would have preferred something a little more original. But then a gig is a gig, and since he was probably hired FOR that voice, I can’t really blame him for leaning into it.

I find it kind of hilarious how much of a big deal Norman makes over the Goblin-Glider’s remote control.  Talk about the height of technology, amiright?  Man, Hobgoblin is gonna lose his mind when he finds out about blue-tooth-operated drones, roughly 30 years down-the-line.

I skipped past it in the breakdown, but midway through the episode Aunt May decides to visit Peter at his new place (Norman offers to pay for Harry’s condo if he can find a respectable roommate, and Pete fit the bill) when Hobgoblin interrupts to kidnap Harry with a gas bomb.  As a result, May is rendered unconscious for the rest of the episode, and taken to the hospital.  The Doctor explains that she’s experiencing an ‘extended form of seizure’, which is notably not how seizures work, meaning May Parker’s diagnosis is either medically significant (warranting further examination), or the result of malpractice. The American health-care system strikes again!  But seriously Pete, you need to get a second opinion.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994-1998) "Night of the Lizard" (1994) directed by Bob Richardson written by Gerry Conway, Stan Berkowitz, and John Semper

Static Shock Complete First Season DVD Release Announced

Warner Brothers has announced that they will be releasing the Complete First Season of Static Shock via Warner Archive.  The set will be released on March 28 priced at $24.99 SRP.

Meet Virgil Hawkins, a mild-mannered teen in the wrong place at the wrong time when a chemical explosion rocks the streets of Dakota City – changing him from supergeek to super-hero. Based on the Milestone/DC Comics…

Spider-man: The Animated Series, 110 (May 13, 1995) - “The Alien Costume, Part Three”

Teleplay by: Mark Hoffmeier Story by: John Semper & Mark Hoffmeier Directed by: Bob Richardson

The Breakdown

Peter Parker/Spider-man is back in his classic duds, and he’s feeling pretty great about not being possessed by an evil alien goop-suit anymore.  Unfortunately, Rhino and Shocker are both still feeling decidedly uncongenial about the ass-whooping they took from the ol’ web-head over the past couple episodes, and take it upon themselves to team up for some payback.  However, just as it’s looking like their alliance might bear fruit, a third party enters the fray and… webs them both up?  Wait, isn’t that Spidey’s schtick?  Normally it would be, but there’s a new player in town who’s out for blood, and unfortunately Rhino and Shocker are just the appetizers.

That’s right, Eddie Brock has joined with the Symbiote as it’s new host, and they’re both equally PISSED at one Peter Parker. While Eddie blames Spider-man for ruining his life (even though his woes stem almost entirely from being a liar and fraud), the symbiote hates Peter for not consenting to bond with it permanently.  Combined, they not only share a mutual hatred for Pete/Spidey, but Eddie also consequently inherits all of Spider-man’s powers and knowledge (including his secret identiy), courtesy of the symbiote.  Having fully embraced their union, they now call themselves “Venom” since they’re like poison to Spider-man, you see, [it’s a bit melodramatic, but they’re in a mood so you just have to go with it] and now they want to destroy him.

Their first confrontation amounts to little more than a brief skirmish, with threats of more to come, but Venom does effectively dominate overall.  Over the course of the episode Peter is forced to play defense as Venom comes at Peter through the various facets of his life.  At one point he unmasks Peter on the rooftop of the daily Bugle in front of gawking pedestrians (Pete escapes before the cameras can zoom in on his face), another time he cock blocks Peter’s date with MJ, and most gallingly, he even knocks over the tree in Aunt May’s front yard.  For those concerned readers, I feel obligated to reassure you that Peter does put the tree back into place, but Venom’s flagrant disregard for mother nature is the final push that our hero needs to take on the offensive.

In an earlier scene it’s established that a new space shuttle is about to launch from the New York area, which is unbelievably good timing, and since our hero is not one to pass up a perfect narrative opportunity he hops straight into action.  The wall crawler starts by vandalizing Eddie/Venom’s apartment, posting news clippings of his recent public humiliation (from the time he was caught doing that fraud I mentioned earlier), and Venom LOSES it.  But this is all going a part of Spidey’s arguably tenuous plan, who pops out of hiding to taunt him further.  A chase ensues as Spider-man barely manages to keep one step ahead of Venom until they finally arrive at the rocket launch.

So what is the plan, exactly? Well, as we learned from the last episode, the symbiote is especially susceptible to loud noises, to the point where it can’t even hold it’s form if it comes across something that generates enough noise.  Since a church bell did the trick last time, Spider-man figures that a shuttle rocket blast should more than do the job, and he’s not wrong.  The rockets start to fire up, and the symbiote melts away from Eddie, giving Spider-man the chance he needs to collect it into a web sack, and stick it to the side of the shuttle promptly before it launches into space.  With the Symbiote officially out of his hair, the web-head leaves Brock to be arrested by the authorities who don’t take kindly to trespassers, especially not ones wearing nothing but their underwear.  And that takes care of that.

Oh! and Pete even gets to go on a date with MJ while he silently represses this most recent trauma, so I’d say that makes it all worth it!

The Verdict

This was easily one of my favourite episodes as a kid, because (as I’ve discussed recently) it would have been statistically unlikely for it not to be. Watching this episode now I can see why it would have totally rocked my world at the time, but in retrospect I’d say this is my least favourite chapter in the alien costume saga.  Obviously the showdown between Venom and Spidey was always going to be the big climactic finish to this story arch, and by-and-large it successfully delivers on that front, but that’s also probably why I find the first two chapters more compelling. 

In Parts 1-2 the threat to Spider-man is in losing himself TO the symbiote in a battle for what is essentially his soul, whereas here the threat is largely physical.  There is still the psychological component of Venom knowing Peter’s secret, but I think we needed another episode to let that threat ruminate properly.  Before there was even time for the existential dread of the situation to sink in, the two opponents are neck deep in the final fight, which ends the conflict on a fairly definitive note.  Obviously, Venom does eventually return, but only once (and not for a while), and to me the appeal of the character was the dread of knowing that he/they could return at any time without warning.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this episode for what it is.  Once again we have another entry that’s consistent with what the show has been so far, in acting as a faithful introduction for children into Spider-man’s world.  All-in-all, this episode is still more good than bad, which is a great deal more that I could say for the any of Venom’s depictions on the big screen.

3 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

Upon meeting Brock-as-Venom for the first time, Spider-man wonders how Eddie got the symbiote.  Gee I dunno, Pete. maybe it happened around the same time you left an incredibly dangerous alien life form to slither away without checking first to make sure it was dead, in VERY SAME BUILDING that you left Eddie hanging by a web, where (I feel the need to reiterate) he would have surely perished when your webbing inevitably dissolved if the symbiote hadn’t intervened.  But I guess we’ll never really know for sure, PETE.

There’s an unintentionally-amusing sequence where Venom gets knocked off a train while chasing Spider-man.  In order to catch up with his intended prey, Venom hijacks a semi-truck  (which are famous for their speed an maneuverability) to continue his pursuit.  The way it’s set up I was fully expecting Venom to use it towards derailing the train, which would have been pretty rad, but instead he just politely pulls up to an over pass and hops back on the train as it passes by. It’s just so quaintly anti-climactic, and while I can’t find anything to support this, I feel like original plan probably involved something more epic or catastrophic that was cut during production.  It would be perfectly in line for this show to change something like that due to censorship or budget constraints, but we’ll probably never know for sure.

Overall, Venom’s design on this show is pretty iconic, but (as many others before me have pointed out) I do his Venom’s lips a little… off-putting? Or maybe just, “not quite right”.  I always preferred the more toothy/skeletal look from the comics, which looks more ghoulish and terrifying, and just suits the character a bit better, in my opinion.  That being said, I’m sure this version is a better kisser, if demonic steroid junkies what gets you hot and bothered.

Venom Lore: This episode establishes that the symbiote has existed since the dawn of time, just traversing the universe and seeing the sights (including countless other alien civilizations).  In the comics, the symbiote’s origins were kept a mystery for quite some time before eventually revealing that it belonged to an invasive species that travel from one planet to the next, bonding-with-and-consuming the indigenous lifeforms until they run out of compatible hosts/victims.  Personally I’ve always found the second option to be conceptually more horrifying, but I’ve never seen it played out in a way that I found even remotely interesting.  As much as I’m intrigued by the lore itself, I kind of prefer the idea that the symbiote is possibly the last of its kind (at least until it spawns Carnage), as it maintains some mystery.  With that said, this version is less complicated, and probably serves this show’s purposes better.

On a Non-Venom related note: This episode technically marks the first team up of the show (albeit one that’s short-lived) between two fully fledged super-villains, featuring Rhino and Shocker. These occurrences would become increasingly more frequent starting with season 2, which quickly became rife with team-ups, guest appearances, and crossover episodes.