Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Reviews

The Cat
Review by Stu, Media by Kolbar

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Episode #43- The Cat
Original Airdate: February 8th, 1997

Still dealing with the loss of Mary Jane, Spider-Man's friend Robbie is framed of a crime. Spider-Man works with J. Jonah Jameson to clear his name.

Credits:
Story By: John Semper
Written By: Sean Catherine Derek
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, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Doctor Octopus, Jack Angel as Nick Fury, John Phillip Law as The Cat, Nita Talbot as Anastasia Hardy, Rachael Davies as Agent X and Steven Jay Blum as Brace Huntington

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Review:After a three-year plus wait, we are finally introduced to the Black Cat in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. As one of the few comic book characters I was aware of beforehand, it was interesting to see how they would finally introduce her. I felt it would be too difficult a transaction to see her become a super villain, even as a nine-year-old. Luckily, so did the show's writing staff.

I especially liked how the show linked her origin to that of Captain America's. The 'super soldier formula' subplot was great motivation for Kingpin. The series did have a few episodes which featured Kingpin in which his presence simply wasn't needed. This episode, however, was not one of them.

Her introduction was handled especially well, specifically the relationship with her long last father, who was being held by S.H.I.E.L.D. Given the number of times she'd been kidnapped or attacked by some super villain, it also defied logic she would become just another clown in spandex for Spider-Man to fight, so they had her learn that with great power comes great responsibility. I thought this was a very clever move.

Whilst it's true she did get annoying in several episodes, her debut was good, arguably her best episode. It wasn't until we got more Morbius episodes that I felt the show started something of a downward spiral. Jennifer Hale, who voices Felicia as both herself and her super-powered person, did manage to create another, seperate voice from Felicia, which added a nice bit of mystery for the series' character. The Black Cat's design wasn't too bad, but it usually suffered from some terrible colouring. This season was easily the worst looking of the whole five.

While The Kingpin actually helped the plot move along nicely, instead of simply being in the way as he's been in the past, the other episodes big villain didn't fare so well. Doc Ock was more or less wasted here. What could've been a great follow-up to his connection with the Hardy's from "Dr. Octopus: Armed And Dangerous" was quickly forgotten about, and he became a just another hired mug. Aside from kidnapping Felicia, he didn't actually do anything in this episode. Doc Ock is wasted yet again.

Despite some dodgy parts at the beginning of the episode, the animation in this episode was almost the quality of that of the first season. Spider-Man himself looked awesome throughout. Not a terrible episode, but it does get better from here.

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