Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

The Return of The Green Goblin
Review and Media by Stu

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Episode #49 - The Return of the Green Goblin
Original Airdate: July 12th, 1997

Harry Osborn begins to lose his mind and takes on the cowl of the Green Goblin. Meanwhile, Anna Watson suspects that Peter Parker is behind the disappearance of Mary Jane and asks the Punisher to locate her daughter. Spider-Man is faced with the task of stopping Harry without harming him while eluding the merciless Punisher!

Credits:
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, Gary Imhoff as Harry Osborn/The Green Goblin, Julie Bennet as Aunt May, Majel Barrett as Anna Watson, Marla Jeanette Rubinoff as Liz Allen, Saragota Ballantine as Mary Jane Watson, Neil Ross as Norman Oborn/The Green Goblin, John Beck as The Punisher and Robert Alexrod as Chip

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Review: An enjoyable episode that proved far more entertaining than I originally presumed it would. I've always found Harry Osborn to be pretty annoying, whether it be in the comics or this show, and to be honest, I couldn't see a whiner like Harry becoming The Green Goblin and making any kind of impact like Norman did. Thankfully, neither did the creators.

Harry was utterly useless as The Green Goblin. If you're looking for The Spectacular Spider-Man #200 here, you'll be disappointed. The character that appeared in that issue and the character from this show are worlds apart. The episode portrays Harry as being manipulated by the original Green Goblin. It does fit, but it's still a little weird seeing the young Osborn as a supervillain, especially as he's quite clueless at it.

By far the weirdest aspect of the episode was Anna Watson. She invites The Punisher back to her place for tea. I mean, just look at The Punisher's design! Who invites a dude with a bandana, a skull on his shirt and a coat holding all sorts of weapons? The episode's conclusion gave us a nice, happy ending for a change. It was definatly a "What the hell?!" moment when MJ appeared at the bridge, but the thing I liked most about the ending was the final scene, with Spidey swinging Harry to Ravencroft to get him some help. I thought it was a great little scene, which sadly, this series didn't really get to do all too often. Still, a lame villain didn't diminish this episode at all. A solid effort!

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