EPISODE REVIEW

Episode #23: Probable Cause
Original Airdate: October 14th, 2009

Some days, Peter Parker just can’t win… especially when he winds up on a Midtown High police car ride-along with Sally Avril. As Spider-Man, his luck isn’t any better, facing off against Shocker, Ricochet and Ox, i.e. the new Enforcers.

Credits
Written By Kevin Hopps
Directed By Micheal Goguen
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion
Animation By Dongwoo animation

Voices
Josh Keaton as Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Clancy Brown as The Rhino, Captain Stacey
Allana Ubach as Liz Allan
Alan Rachins as Norman Osborn
Greg Weisman as Donald Menkan
Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy
John Di Maggio as Hammerhead
James Arnold Taylor as Harry Osborn / Alan O'Neil
Thom Adcox as The Tinkerer
Irene Bedard as Jean DeWolff
Jeff Bennett as The Shocker
Grey DeLisle as Sally Avril
Kelly Hu as Sha Shan Nguyen
Phil LaMarr as Fancy Dan / Ricochet / Randy Robertson
Joshua LeBar as Flash Thompson
Eric Lopez as Mark Allan
Vanessa Marshall as Mary Jane Watson
Kevin Michael Richardson as The Big Man / Principal Davis
Danny Trejo as Ox
Thomas F. Wilson as Stan Carter

Review: Stu - At last! The Big Man returns!

This episode sees a lot of old villains return as the new bigger, badder, better Enforcers confirm their allegiance to Tombstone who is now all too aware of the ever growing presence of Dr. Octopus and his attempts to usher in the age of the super criminal. It’s a fascinating direction to take the series and it’s one I’d like to see continued should the show survive its sophomore season. It’s cool to see The Shocker again – I didn’t expect to see him again after his departure from The Sinister Six but they did manage to sneak him in here – the good villains always come back better than ever.

Much like Accomplishes the episode seems destined to simply lead to better things – many of the seeds have been planted in this storyline since the first episodes. One of the benefits is that it manages to utilise a lot of the show’s cast without simply stuffing them in for the sake of it. It also fits into the show’s theme of the education of Peter Parker – these episode, moreso than a lot of the others feel like Spider-Man is a boy playing in a man’s world – it’s usually more apparent in his confrontations with Shocker and Tombstone and I think it’s one of the keys to the show’s success. Rather than go the generic route and make everyone a teenager in order to make them more relatable, and in the case of most of these shows, tired and clichéd, the show cleverly uses this to it’s advantages and makes the main antagonists of Spider-Man many years his senior – they’re all older, smarter and more experienced than him. See Tombstone’s line in Catalysts for a more direct case in point. “That’s what we grown ups call irony.”

The ending drops more hints to the return of The Green Goblin. Just how good is this show at cliff hangers? Every episode ending just leaves you desperate to watch the next one immediately – this show will make for a cracking season long DVD release when Sony finally gets around to it. As with all great episodes, this one simply leaves you dying to watch the next one. It makes me sad that each season is only 13 episodes long. More of the same please!

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