Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

The Spot
Review by Stu and Media by Stu

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Episode #39 - The Spot
Original Airdate: November 9th, 1996

Ex-employee of Stark Industries, Dr. Jonathan Ohn, invents a portable interdimensional device that accidentally makes him a living embodiment of a portal. Calling himself the Spot, he tries to steal money to fund his research and his unstable invention creates a vortex that threaten to engulf New York.

Credits:
Written By: James Kreig
Music Composed By: Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi
Animation Services By: Toyko Movie Shinsha (TMS)
Guest Starring: Christopher Daniel Barnes as Spider-Man/Peter Parkr, Oliver Muirhead as Dr. Jonathan Ohn/ The Spot, Wanda De Jesus as Dr. Sylvia Lopez, Robert Hays as Tony Stark, Joseph Campanella as Dr. Curt Connors and Mark Hamill as Jason Phillips/Hobgoblin

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Review: Since the series finished, debate has raged between its fans, which episode is worse? The Rocker Racer or The Spot? There's no better way of describing this episode than absolutely terrible. The script was beyond poor, The Spot was a fairly lame bad guy, and his voice left one wishing a portal would come and suck up my TV. It was so camp, it wasn't funny. Ugh.

And this episode continued the increasingly lame portrayal of The Kingpin. As a villain who was at a risk of suffering from overexposure, I have to even wonder why Fisk is here. Surely, someone less important could have been used? The episode was such a calamity, every scene it tried to do just failed. Miserably. The biggest one is that Peter and MJ are now a couple again. We didn't even get to see them reunited! For a show which had Spider-Man constantly struggling with the romances in his life, you'd think they'd actally show him getting back with MJ! They'd spilt for a more than a full season!

Even the ending lacked sense, if The Spot could make these portals, why didn't he just make one when he was in limbo world to get out? The big sacrafice makes no sense. It's also amusing to think about what Spider-Man did after? Did Fisk get his plane back or not?

Possibly the only redeeming moment comes at the end, with a very cool Hobgoblin cameo, setting us up for "Goblin War." But boy, everything else? Pretty lame. I realise they needed to work in the inter-dimensional technology, but there had to be a better way to do it than this!

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