EPISODE REVIEW

Episode #4: Market Forces
Original Airdate: March 22nd, 2008

While Peter Parker resists taking on the responsibility of helping Aunt May pay the bills, Montana – the Big Man's Enforcer – becomes the stunning Shocker to fulfill his responsibility: eliminating the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Credits
Written by Andrew Robinson
Directed by Fausett
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion
Animation By Dongwoo animation

Voices
Josh Keaton as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Jeff Bennet as The Shocker/Montana
Clancy Brown as Alex O'Hirn
Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy
Grey Delisle as Betty Brant
John Dimaggio as Flint Marko, Hammerhead
Ben Diskin as Eddie Brock
Andrew Kishino as Ned Lee
Phil Lamarr as Rand Robertson, Robbie Robertson
Joshua Lebar as Flash Thompson
Daran Norris as J. Jonah Jameson
Alan Rachins as Norman Osborn
Kevin Michael Richardson as Big Man, Coach Smith
Deborah Strang as May Parker
James Arnold Taylor as Harry Osborn

Review
- Arsenal: - What a simple, brilliant idea. Has no one thought of this before? In “Market Forces,” the unseen Big Bad (most likely Kingpin) decides he wants disposable super-villains to distract Spidey. That’s a clever way to introduce a lot of Spidey’s rogues’ gallery without it seeming contrived. Sure, it could become formulaic after a few weeks; but, for now, clever.

Clever concept aside, “Market Forces” seems like the boilerplate episode of Spectacular Spider-Man to this point. It has some clever dialogue (liked the Marianas Trench crack), nice character interaction, appropriate amounts of high school angst and introduced a few plot lines that they will undoubtedly return to. (Did Aunt May just mention Anna Watson’s niece?)

I won’t lie and suggest Spec Spidey is reinventing the wheel, but that is part of the reason it is so reliably entertaining. “Spider-Man Unlimited” tried to reinvent a beloved character’s mythos, and it was a holy Bat mess. Spider-Man MTV often lost its way when it took too many liberties.

Good Spider-Man is one-third action, one-third comedy and one-third high school soap opera; and Spec Spidey has the formula. It won’t surprise any long-time fans. (Only Electro’s origin and Eddie Brock’s introduction were substantial changes from the comics.) But watching this show, I can understand why people would be nostalgic for a dweeby, high school-aged, web-slinging wallcrawler.

This episode’s antagonist, the Shocker, is one of Spidey’s fringier. He doesn’t exactly have the name brand recognition of the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Venom or even Rhino. Recognizing that the villain is more of a weapon than a character, the creators of the show decided to rewrite his origin so Shocker was an already introduced character. No harm, no foul. It’s one less character the creators had to conjure.

The episode was enjoyable without being overwhelming, but there is a magic in consistency. It’s hard to make a good episode, and Spec Spidey has done that each time. Now I want to know if they can make a great episode

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