Date of airing: February 3, 1996 (FOX Kids)
written by: Mark Hoffmeier, Stan Berkowitz, John Semper
directed by: Bob Richardson
This was an episode packed with storylines, which got a “hot damn” out of my mouth by the end of it. I am surprised that a 20-minute long episode, including title and end credits, can be filled with so many events, almost making this feel like an overbloated episode of animated television. Sometimes I am also wondering if there is ever an episode of an animated Spider-Man property that takes times with its characters for 20 minutes and just stands still for a scene, without any explosions or rapid movement or fight sequences, or things like that. I am asking because SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE had two such scenes – Miles and Gwen talking in front of the New York City skyline while upside down, and Miles and his mom having a chat on the roof of their house – the camera was lingering on the characters, giving a few seconds of absolute silence and focus.
So what exactly was happening in this episode? Silvermane and Kingpin
were hunting the Tablet of Time. Smythe came back with a Megaslayer,
which reminded me of Iron Man and MODOK combined. Dr. Connors
transformed into the Lizard again while on the hunt for the tablet. Curt
Connors and Kingpin’s wives were kidnapped. Kingpin and Vanessa have
marriage troubles. Silvermane’s daughter found some interest in Peter
Parker, so she started flirting with him (although I fear that might be a
trap for Connors). Hammerhead returns. Tombstone was introduced. And in
all this, Spider-Man still had to deal with his mutation and even
decided to help out Connors with his, even if that part of the episode’s
narrative was the shortest one. There was pretty much no time to
breathe at all. How was all of that able to fit within 20 minutes?
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| Spider-Man is taking a necessitated fish bath. |
I liked all of these stories, even if the episode’s main premise reminded me too much of the Indiana Jones franchise. It also felt like it was starting an entirely new storyline, pretty much ending the Neogenic Nightmare arc, even though the episode began by making sure that this was Chapter XI of the arc, as well as mentioning the mutations Spider-Man and Connors were going through, signaling a continuation of that storyline.
Anyway, SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES turned into an adventure action show for this episode, and all of a sudden people were interested in a mystical tablet from ages ago. Old fart Silvermane wants to drink from its fountain of youth, and Kingpin probably just wants to make money off of it, although I was surprised to hear that the initial bid for the tablet was only $50 million. If people knew its proper power, it would have either been shot into the Sun already, or more money would be involved. Then again, if you shoot the tablet, which reacts after light hits it, into the Sun, what is going to happen to the universe if the Sun’s rays hit the tablet? Food for thought...
The fights in this episode were pretty good, almost teasing what a fight between Spider-Man and Iron Man looks like, because Smythe controlling the robot almost went in that direction. The proportions of Smythe’s operating fighting machine may have been a little bit off (especially with Connors’ wife in its hands), but I dug that the wallcrawler had someone to fight who was overpowered for a bit. For once, a villain was a danger to the titular superhero. The fact that Spider-Man also had to fight against Hammerhead (that guy really was not the smartest of them all, was he?), Tombstone, and the Lizard made this half hour of television seem like he was supposed to fight the second- or third-class villains from the rogue gallery before the season finale was getting to the main villain attraction (Silvermane?).
The fight against the Lizard might have been less intriguing than the fight against Smythe, but I still liked that Spider-Man saw to save Connors and not just get rid of or run away from him as he would from any other supervillain he might see as stronger. Also, with the Lizard returning into Spider-Man and Connors’ life, there might be another ongoing storyline in the making: Will Connors continue to fight off his alter ego, or does at least his mind stay on top of things if he happens to transform? Connors in his Lizard form was calling for his wife, so he may have a shot at having his mind back at least.
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| Smythe thinks he is King Kong. |
Then there was the moment of Alisa being interested in Peter Parker –
a story that may have come out of nowhere. When she was revealed as
Silvermane’s daughter, I was surprised though. I wonder if she continues
to be a snitch and only wants to hang around Peter to get to Connors,
or if there might be real love at play and Alisa is just another love
interest for Peter to get into trouble with, now that Mary Jane seems
history and Felicia will most likely not be in the mood to date after
the entire Morbius debacle. Because really, Peter dating the daughter of one of
his arch enemies? That could be another intriguing story arc for the
future of the show. Anything to keep Peter away from hislove interests from the comics, right?
