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Review And Media by Amazing Spidey
Episode #9 - The Alien Costume, Part Three 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, Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson, Michael Horton as John Jameson, Jim Cummings as The Shocker, Don Stark as The Rhino and Hank Azaria as Venom/Eddie Brock Review: All superheroes have their most popular villain. Batman has the Joker, Superman has Lex Luthor, and Daredevil has The Kingpin, but Spider-Man always was the one who made most people think longer... was it The Green Goblin? Doc Ock? Carnage? It's never been as clear cut with the Spidey comics. While this shows 'big bad' was easily the Green Goblin due to the events of Turning Point, or possibly The Kingpin, due to his hand in most of the episodes, one shouldn't dismiss Venoms presence in the series despite his very few appearances.Taking place right after Spidey rejected the alien costume; it bonded with a known Spidey/Peter hater Eddie Brock, and went on to torment Peter, stalking him, his girlfriend, his Aunt May and even his villains. Whilst the animation was no where near as great as it's previous 2 parts, this episode still stands up against them, as Venom was a great threat, to both Peter and Spider-Man, which is probably why he wasn't used so much, if he kept appearing, would it have had the same effect? Spider-Man Unlimited more or less answers this question, for those who have seen it. The main problem with Venom however, is that both his design and the animation was lacking in this episode. Most of the villains had designs which ranged from great to average, but Venom's was utter crap, mainly due to it's colouring. For someone unknown reason, Venom was given blue and red highlights. The red highlights looked really, really stupid. It looked so much cooler without it. It was just really odd to look at. Due to this show's digital colouring, most of the blacks looked dull and lifeless, especially at night, which typically, is where 98% of this episode took place. Anyone who has read the original Venom stories published in Amazing Spider-Man know how great the character actually is. He, after only one appearance became the chief Spidey villain, but during Marvel's poor 90's run, he got lost and replaced with the now resurrected (ugh) Green Goblin. The fact that some fool decided Spidey's top villain should become a hero (?!) probably didn't help. Thankfully, this episode kept Venom as a villian. I always preferred the cartoon origin to the comic one, but it's a shame we couldn't have seen at least one more solo Venom story. I'd have loved to see the famed Island fight animated, but alas, it wasn't to be. Still, despite the episode not living up to the previous 2 parts, it still stands as an above average episode. Screenshots: 
 
 
 
 
 
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