Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

The Lizard King
Review and Media by Stu

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Episode #51 - The Lizard King
Original Airdate: July 26th, 1997

Peter proposes to Mary Jane and asks Doctor Connors to walk her down the aisle. But before the group cancelebrate, a group of Lizard-Men attack and bring them down into the sewers. Spider-Man finds himself in the battle of his life as he fights the Lizard-King and his horde of minions!

Credits:
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Gordon Kent
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, Saragota Ballantine as Mary Jane Watson, Kathy Garver as Gila and Joseph Campanella as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard

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Review: This episode was a strange and unfortunately rather pointless episode. Season four was easily the worst of the series, suffering from too much filler and not enough in-depth character work. Thankfully, there was some actual development in the episode, mainly Peter asking Mary Jane to marry him, but after the last episode's cliffhanger, I was expecting something a little better.

I found the engagement mush to be far more entertaining than drivel with the lizard creatures. There's one priceless moment in the episode. When Peter and MJ tell their aunts of the news, Aunt May is naturally thrilled, hugging Mary Jane. Peter opens his arm to Anna, and she starts shouting at him. Peter's reaction was absolutely hilarious and i by far the best part of the episode.

The whole premise a race of lizard people living in the sewers is ... pretty dumb. While tying the creatures to Curt Conners and The Lizard was neat, it's a bizarre twist to the character's story. Given how strong his original appearance was, I was hoping for a better sequel. The show repeating a hell of a lot of footage from "Night Of The Lizard" only made me yearn for the first season again. Most of this season wasn't too bad on the animation front, but when you A-B them with the first season, it's honestly hard to tell if you're watching the same show.

Undoubtedly one of the cooler things of the episode was the guest appearance by Kathy Garver, who voiced of Firestar in Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends! A neat blast from the past!

Also, Debra Whitman gets the spotlight here, but mishandled. It seemed a little rush that she was suddenly a party girl, being that every single one of her appearances beforehand featured her as a hardcore science nerd. At least she was given a genuine motivation as to why she a party girl - she was grieving over Morbius.

Overall, it was a very disappointing episode. It's a bit of a shame; The Lizard is such a cool villain.

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