EPISODE REVIEW

Episode #15: Deconstructive Testing
Original Airdate - June 22nd, 2009

Both Gwen Stacey and Liz Allen like Peter Parker. So whom should Pete pursue? Meanwhile, Kraven The Hunter has come to New York to make Spider-Man his prey!

Credits
Written By Matt Wayne
Directed By Kevin Alteri
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion
Animation By Dongwoo animation

Voices
Josh Keaton as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy
Dee Bradley Baker as Curt Connors
Xander Berkeley as Mysterio/Quinten Beck
Steve Blum as Seymour O'Reily
Allana Ubach as Liz Allan
Brian George as Miles Warren
Peter Macnicol as The Master Planner
Angela Bryant as Calypso
Grey Delisle as Sally Avril
Andrew Kishino as King Kenny Kong
Phil Lamarr as Rand Robertson
Joshua Lebarr as Flash Thompson
Kathie Scouse as Martha Connors
Eric Vesbit as Kraven The Hunter


Review: Stu - Destructive Testing finds our boy still unable to make up his mind about which girl he likes most (or which girl likes him most, as the case may be) as The Master Planner begins starts his scheme to rid the world of the Spectacular Spider-Man.

The episode also introduces Kraven The Hunter – I’ve never been a massive fan of the character – he’s a lot different from most of Spider-Man’s rouges and comes across as a lot weaker than the majority of them and appears to be a little too one note for my liking. However, this show has done tremendous things with its villains so far and I’ll be entirely honest and say this is a pretty good version of Kravenoff. It’s not as good as Spider-Man: The New Animated Series’ version, but it’s still a worthy effort. Looking at the message board reviews for this episode, it would appear that many consider this the worst episode of the show so far. I would disagree – most are citing that Kraven’s transformation from legendary hunter to genetic freak of the week was unneeded but I thought it added an interesting twist – it was especially appealing to see Miles Warren be the one responsible for Kraven’s metamorphosis – he has the potential to be a great supporting character, something of a Dr. Connors without the conscious. The change into a freak of the week is lifted from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics and I personally admire that they tried to do something more interesting with his character who again, has always been a bit lacklustre to me.

There’s some great humour to be found in this one – my favourite being the visual of Jonah shouting at Kraven’s lion in the offices of The Bugle. From the looks of things, this is writer Matt Wayne’s swansong for Spectacular Spider-Man – kudos sir, you will be missed.

I’m impressed with where they are going with The Master Planner storyline – the thought of a new Sinister Six intrigues me too. This show has had brilliant endings to all of it’s episode since it began, it makes the wait for new week all the more teasing (Heaven help us if they had a month long wait between episodes, that would be a text book example of cruelty!).

Yet another great episode – the show is still going strong.

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