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Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode ReviewsThe Alien Costume, Part Three
Review and Media by Stu
Episode #9 - The Alien Costume, Part Three
Original Airdate: May 13th, 1995
Spider-Man's old costume returns with a new host, Eddie Brock! Now Spider-Man must defeat any enemy with all his powers
and memories!
Credits:
Story By: John Semper and Mark Hoffmeier
Written By: Mark Hoffmeier
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/ Peter Parker, Ed Asner
as J. Jonah Jameson, Michael Horton as John Jameson, Jim Cummings as The Shocker, Don Stark as
The Rhino and Hank Azaria as Venom/Eddie Brock
Review: All superheroes have their most popular villain. Batman has the Joker, Superman has
Lex Luthor, and Daredevil has The Kingpin, but Spider-Man always was the one who
made most people think longer... was it The Green Goblin? Doc Ock? Carnage? It's
never been as clear cut with the Spidey comics. While this shows 'big bad' was
easily the Green Goblin due to the events of Turning Point, or possibly The
Kingpin, due to his hand in most of the episodes, one shouldn't dismiss Venoms
presence in the series despite his very few appearances.
Taking place right after Spidey rejected the alien costume; it bonded with a
known Spidey/Peter hater Eddie Brock, and went on to torment Peter, stalking
him, his girlfriend, his Aunt May and even his villains.
Whilst the animation was no where near as great as it's previous 2 parts, this
episode still stands up against them, as Venom was a great threat, to both Peter
and Spider-Man, which is probably why he wasn't used so much, if he kept
appearing, would it have had the same effect? Spider-Man Unlimited more or less
answers this question, for those who have seen it. The main problem with Venom
however, is that both his design and the animation was lacking in this episode.
Most of the villains had designs which ranged from great to average, but Venom's was
utter crap, mainly due to it's colouring. For someone unknown reason, Venom was given
blue and red highlights. The red highlights looked really, really stupid.
It looked so much cooler without it. It was just really odd to look at.
Due to this show's digital colouring, most of the blacks looked dull and
lifeless, especially at night, which typically, is where 98% of this episode took place.
Anyone who has read the original Venom stories published in
The Amazing Spider-Man know how great the character actually is. He, after only one
appearance became the chief Spidey villain, but during Marvel's poor 90's run,
he got lost and replaced with the now resurrected (ugh) Green Goblin. The
fact that some fool decided Spidey's top villain should become a hero (?!) probably
didn't help. Thankfully, this episode kept Venom as a villian.
I always preferred the cartoon origin to the comic one, but it's a shame we couldn't
have seen at least one more solo Venom story. I'd have loved to see the famed Island fight
animated, but alas, it wasn't to be.
Still, despite the episode not living up to the previous two parts, it still stands as an
above average episode.
Screenshots:
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