EPISODE REVIEW

Episode #11: Group Therapy
Original Airdate: May 17th, 2008

With Electro's help, Doctor Octopus busts himself, Vulture, Sandman, Rhino and Shocker out of Ryker's Island prison to quench their mutual desire for revenge. Even with his new black alien symbiote suit, Spider-Man finds The Sinister Six are more than he can handle. Peter Parker might wish for an easier way out of this predicament … but be careful what you wish for, Pete.

Credits
Written by Andrew Robinson
Directed by Jennifer Coyle
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
Clancy Brown as Captain Stacy, The Rhino
Daran Norris as J. Jonah Jameson
Steve Blum as Dilbert Trily
Deborah Strang as May Parker
Irene Bedard as Jean DeWolff
Jeff Bennett as Shocker, St. John Devereaux
Grey Delisle as Betty Brant
John Dimaggio as Sandman, Hammerhead
Ben Diskin as Eddie Brock
Robert Englund as Vulture
Crispin Freeman as Electro
Elisa Gabrielli as Ashley Kafka
Phil Lamarr as Robbie Robertson, Fancy Dan
Peter Macnicol as Doctor Octopus
Vanessa Marshall as Mary Jane Watson
Kath Soucie as Anna Watson

Review: Stu - The supervillains are back and this time they’ve banded together with the sole intention of Spidey’s demise. I remember reading The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 in which a slightly different Sinister Six debuted and thinking it was one of the coolest things ever in my small seven-year-old mind. This time around though Spidey is all decked out in his new symbiote threads and is therefore much stronger than he normally would be. I admit I was slightly cautious about how they would handle this as symbiote Spidey needs to be portrayed as being a lot stronger than normal Spidey but surely they wouldn’t do it at the expense of pretty much every supervillain he’s encountered in the show’s short run would they?

Thankfully not, thanks to some stunningly choreographed fight sequences – they managed to make Spidey look better than ever before without making a single on of the villains look like jobbers. It’s truly the highlight of the episode – this is one episode which I would’ve especially loved to screen grab, I could’ve had hours of fun doing that! It was especially cool to see Spidey, silently asleep during the entire second fight with the six, basically going on instinct.

Not that there wasn’t more to the episodes than just the fight sequences however – writer Andrew Robinson did a fantastic job of building up a feeling of dread for Spidey as he realises the sheer number of villains attacking him and even manages to get a cracking line in regarding the absence of The Green Goblin and The Lizard.

The ending gives off a slightly creepy vibe as Peter seems completely unconcerned with the fact that the symbiote is doing both Spidey’s and Peter’s work for him. I thought it was handled slightly better last week when Peter convinced himself not to return the symbiote as he can do some good with it. We’ve not really scene the suit drive Peter mad or anything, as of yet, now it just seems to be subtly convincing Peter that he’s right and everyone else is wrong. Let’s hope there’s a big break up next week!

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