Review By Jon T, Media By Stu

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Episode #20 - Attack Of The Arachnoid


A scientist duplicates Spider-Man's powers and commit's crimes in his costume and even has Spider-Man believing he has gone mad! Can Iceman and Firestar unveil the truth before Spider-Man is found guilty?

Credits
Written By: Michael Reaves
Music Composed By: John Douglas
Guest Starring: Frank Welker as Matt Murdoch.

Review:

To anyone who's seen or read enough about the 1981 solo Spider-Man series, this episode will be very familiar. For some reason (time, budget, who knows?) the makers of the show decided to recycle the villain and general plot from

Thankfully, this version is superior in virtually every respect to the original story, and is in fact one of the better third season episodes. Having not only a duplicate villainous Spider-Man, but also Peter questioning himself due to possible exposure to a mind-altering gas adds a decent twist to an old plot device. That the other spider-man, Zoltan, is actually an outright super-villain rather than a misguided scientist (as in the original story) makes the eventual appearance of the Arachnoid something to be truly reckoned with.

Another big bonus to this episode is the very welcome, appearance by the classic Spider-villain Scorpion. He's delightfully completely crazy as portrayed here, and also serves to give Spider-Man someone worthy to fight while Iceman and Firestar initially deal with the Arachnoid. The denouement is also something good to write about, as it’s Spidey himself who fittingly saves the day, and as in the best stories, he does it with the power of his mind (almost literally, in this case!).

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