Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

Secret Wars, Part 1: Arrival
Review and Media by Stu

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Episode #61 - Secret Wars, Part 1: Arrival
Original Airdate - November 7th, 1997

Madame Web and the Beyonder transport Spider-Man to an alien planet where no evil exists. As a test, the Beyonder introduces evil into the planet and tasks Spider-Man with choosing a team of super-heroes to fight alongside him against the growing evil in the once peaceful planet.

Credits
Written By: John Semper and Karen Milovich
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man, Robert Hayes as Iron Man, Joan Lee as Madame Web, Earl Boen as The Beyonder, Cam Clarke as Mr. Fantastic, Gail Matthius as The Invisible Woman, Quinton Flynn as The Human Torch, Patrick Pinney as The Thing, David Hyter as Captain America, Iona Morris as Storm and Joseph Campanella as The Lizard

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Review:
Ah, "Secret Wars." Often the subject of a love/hate relationship of the show's fans based merely upon its title. And the complaints? It's nothing like the real "Secret Wars" classic Marvel crossover! Where are all the villains? Why is Spider-Man the leader? Some questions are left for the episodes themselves to answer others are left to the apparently not-so-common common sense.

It's a translation of "Secret Wars" comic arc in a Spider-Man show. Spider-Man. It's only logical they would use his villains. It's the same answer as to why he is the leader. This show did guest stars very well, because it managed to find a great balance between developing the guests' respective characters and having the story take place in Spidey's world. Take the Daredevil episodes, for example. Spidey's villain were used, but were given connections, and in turn, the guest had a connection to Spidey, as he was Peter's lawyer.

I especially liked the somewhat slower pace of the episode. Whilst it's true a lot of the episodes had a lot crammed into them, taking a breather is always appreciated. I was especially impressed with The Beyonder's explanation of his fascination of good vs. evil. I loved Spider-Man selecting his team. Whilst there were a lot more people in the original "Secret Wars" line up, most of them were horribly underdeveloped, and came across as horribly two-dimensional. I can understand why he chose whom he did. Since this line up is often the subject of much controversy, I thought I'd go though each of them.

The Fantastic Four - As Spider-Man himself explained, he has never faced, or even met, Dr. Doom. Knowing how dangerous Doom is, Spidey would've been foolish to ignore the FF, as he put it, they've fought him and won. These episodes did a fairly good job with the FF. The designs were pretty cool. Spider-Man: The Animated Series changed things up for their designs here, taking a more modern root with their costumes. The Thing was slightly jarring to look at, and Johnny Storm's flame was orange instead of his bright red, but overall, the Fantastic Four worked here.

Iron Man - The weirdest choice, as there was no real specific reason for Iron Man to be here, other than the fact there were friends. Perhaps Spider-Man felt he needed someone he could trust, especially since he wasn't sure if the FF would help him or not. The armour design is the same as the one in "Carnage," but still looks really cool. A nice detailed design that actually looked good every single time it was used. It's also worth nothing here that the animation in this episode was on par with the first season. There was some really beautiful stuff here.

Captain America - Again, he helped Spidey defeat Red Skull. It's also obvious from the previous "Six Forgotten Warriors" arc that Spidey considers Cap something of a legend. Hell, he even got him out of the vortex that held him prisoner. His design was fine, both here and in "Six Forgotten Warriors." I would've preferred the colours to be a little brighter, but well ... it could've been worse. Cap also became an interesting foil to Spider-Man and The Black Cat's relationship, I especially enjoyed their little would be romance.

Storm - The hardest to justify, as Spidey's experience with her in "The Mutants Agenda" was brief, to put it bluntly. It was pretty odvious she was only used here for her powers. She was the only X-Man to be used, because her voice actress was available at the time (that's it, yup), whereas the rest of the X-Men actors were Canadian and would've had to be flown in to L.A, which proved too expensive for Fox.

As you've probably gathered, I really enjoyed "Secret Wars." I love part one, but dig part three just that little bit more. On to the next episode...



Screenshots:

Part One