EPISODE REVIEW

Episode #20: Identity Crisis
Original Airdate: July 27th, 2009

Peter Parker’s secret identity as Spider-Man has been outted by Venom, leaving Pete and his loved ones vulnerable to all of Spidey’s enemies.

Credits
Written By Andrew Robinson
Directed By Jennifer Coyle
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion
Animation By Moi Animation

Voices
Josh Keaton as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Dee Bradley Baker as Curt Connors
Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy
Allana Ubach as Liz Allan
Joshua Lebarr as Flash Thompson
Ben Diskin as Venom
Brian George as Miles Warren
Grey Delisle as Sally Avril
Kelly Hu as Sha Shan Nguyen
James Arnold Taylor as Harry Osborn
Cree Summer as Glory Grant
Daran Norris as J. Jonah Jameson
Phil Lamarr as Rand Robertson

Review: Stu - Identity Crisis follows up from last week’s episode as The Daily Bugle staff is made aware that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Naturally they have their suspicions which leads to more cutaways from the main story as Ned Lee interviews the supporting cast to confirm if they believe there’s any chance Peter Parker is Spider-Man. It’s arguably the most ambitious episode the show has done because it’s tricky to keep the identity a secret without relying on a cheap trick or turning the supporting characters into idiots. It works for the main part – but as Lee’s interview with Curt and Martha Connors shows, some people will remain curious. I hope this is picked up upon in future episodes.

Speaking of the supporting characters, it’s great to see the majority of them developed so well in this show – Flash in particular is a stand out now that he has no girl and puny Parker does. This episode further goes into Peter and Gwen which is a great thing and shows us more of MJ and Baxton who presumably will be turning into The Molten Man shortly. I think it’s great how they’ve ixnayed original characters and keep bringing characters from the comics in. What’s even more impressive is that I don’t even know who some of them are and I’ve been reading comics for years (I still can’t remember where Shisaw is from, nor am I aware how to properly spell her name!). Continuing with the supporting characters, I’m loving this running joke with Hobbie Brown. I didn’t even realise what they were doing with the character until a few episodes ago but they’ve had this joke going since the middle of the first season. Brilliant!

Venom is arguably the trickiest of all of Spider-Man’s rouges to get right as the majority of the fans either love or hate him and the expectations are also ridiculously high. The villains in The Spectacular Spider-Man have all been pretty much outstanding so far and since Venom was built up as the big bad for the first season finale people were expecting big things – while I would rank him as the best of the bad guys in this show, he’s defiantly up there – his hatred of Peter Parker before he learned that he is Spider-Man is the main reasoning behind this and Venom at the best we’ve ever seen him here (beyond the original comic books before they turned him into a boring Lethal Protector).

Fight scene wise, Jennifer Coyle has done it again – these fights are getting better and better each week. I think this show has topped Justice League Unlimited as far as throwdowns go. Between the fights, the clever innuendo, the actual use of romantic relationships and the mass amounts of defenestration (look it up), I wonder if BS+P actually watch this show, or if they’ve finally realised that the world won’t cease to exist if a cartoon character falls though a glass window (I thought I’d save you the time looking that big word up. Plus, I’m not sure I spelt it correctly).

Identity Crisis can only be described as another delightfully dazzling episode. The show continues to go from strength to strength. Long may it continue!

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