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 Review by Screw On Head, Media By Kolbar
Episode #10 - Vengeance Of Loki Written By: Donald F. Glut Music Composed By: John Douglas Guest Starring: John Stephenson as Eric the Viking/Loki/Ymir and Janet Waldo as Zerona the Ice Giant. Review: "The Vengeance of Loki" is surprisingly enjoyable to a "Spider-friends" newcomer like myself. This is a goofy episode with its share of tedious obstacles and goofy moments, like seeing Spider-Man water-skiing across frigid waters as he holds a rope attached to an airplane, but somehow it all works thanks to the charm of the series. The title might be a give-away to some fans that Thor has a role in this episode. And does he ever, as Thor, or his likeness rather, plays a big role in Loki's plan of revenge. Loki wants to obtain a gem from a sunken Viking ship residing at the North Pole, which would grant him great power when paired with a gem already in his possession. Posing as Thor he plans to ruin Thor's name and wreak havoc upon the Earth using this newly acquired power. But what does all that have to do with the "Spider-Friends?" Iceman, or special agent "Wind Chill Factor Zero" as he's called, receives a phone call from the government that there's an ocean liner sinking at the North Pole. It's a hoot to find out that Iceman is a government agent complete with a corn ball codename, though it would make sense for the government to contact an ice-powered hero for an arctic rescue mission, so it does kinda work. He accepts this rescue mission and takes Spider-Man and Firestar along with him. What Spider-Man and Firestar don't know is they won't have much to do in this episode, as they'll be imprisoned inside those two little gems of Loki's. When these three arrive at the pole we meet Thor, who bears a striking resemblance to John Buscema's take on the character. Admittedly Thor is fun to watch despite the limited animation, though he is animated pretty well when he swings his hammer Mjolnir to fly, because there's a great sense of weight there when he swings. After the Spider-Friends plus Thor happen upon the sunken Viking ship and Loki acquires his precious gem from it, Loki makes his move, imprisoning Firestar and Spider-Man inside his said pairs of gems, and banishes Thor and Iceman to Asgard, home to the Gods and Thor's place of birth as well. Where Thor and Iceman end up in Asgard seemed irrelevant to me, as it seemed like such a tired diversion. And it was. Thor is stuck in the "Desert of Despair" where Loki was once imprisoned, and Iceman has to travel through the "Sea of Flames" to then very appropriately hang out amongst some Ice Giants in their frozen land later on. Iceman is aided in his travels by Zerona, who is what else but a giant ice princess. She's a giant in comparison to him and this makes for some funny moments. Iceman's adventure in Asgard did seem like too much of a tangent when I watched the episode, as I would have much rathered to have seen Iceman's "ice-capades" sacrificed in favor of seeing him, Spider-Man, Firestar, and Thor duke it out with Loki more in the episode. As Iceman and Thor are away, Loki, posing as Thor, takes command of the now flying Viking Ship and attacks New York City. The limited budget of the series is strongly apparent with Loki's ship, as he has only one Viking to aid him on his attack on New York City. It was quite odd to see only these two characters firing beams of energy from the spacious Viking Ship. By the end, Spider-Man, Firestar, Iceman, and Thor are eventually freed of their individual diversions and they defeat Loki. Here's how: Iceman and Thor manage to escape from within Asgard to battle Loki and his Viking pal. Posing as Thor, Loki wears his two powerful gems, with Firestar and Spider-man trapped inside them, on his wrists as he fights. The action here is fun despite its limitations in quality. Thor finally manages to destroy Loki's gems and Firestar and Spider-Man are freed, and later Loki is sent to Asgard to face what's coming to him. Overall this is a fun episode, even if there are some tedious aspects to it. Not to get too into nitpicking as this is a fun story, I do have to point out that this episode seemed pretty muddled with all that was going on. Iceman's scenes with Zerona had enough going on between them to warrant their own episode, and it just seemed out of place to have Iceman's in a rush to find Thor and stop Loki. That aside, this is episode is certainly recommended, as I enjoyed it enough to want to catch more episodes of this series. Screenshots: 
 
 
 
 
 
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