Review and Media by Stu
Episode #3 - Law Of The Jungle
Original Airdate August 15, 2003
Peter’s professor, Doc Conners, injects himself with reptilian DNA that slowly changes him into the
angry, vengeful Lizard. As the serum affects Doc Conner’s brain, Spider-Man must stop the creature
as he begins seeking revenge on those who have wronged him - including Harry!
Credits
Directed By: Alan Caldwell
Music By: John Digweed, Nick Muir and William Anderson
Animation By: Mainframe
Guest Starring: Rob Zombie as Doc Conners/The Lizard and Ed Asner as Officer Barr.
Review:
After seeing the 'On the next episode of Spider-Man' clip from The Party, I was eagerly anticipating this one, despite the fact the clip was only a few mere seconds in length, the episode looked stunning. Just that shot of Lizard leaping on Spider-Man and the two of them falling from the top of the building had me pumped for this one. Luckily, I only had to wait a day! With the possible exception of the 2-part finale, Mind Games, this episode is arguably the highlight of the entire series.One of the major plus points for me, is that this is probably the only episode of the series which feels like it the show is a spin off from the movie. The main focus of the story is so closely entwined with the original motion picture that it felt like a sequel of sorts, which most of the episodes lacked, in my opinion
One of the weirder complaints of the series was how fast Peter changed to Spider-Man. I personally dug a few of them, but some of them were just daft, and lacked any logic (the morphing scene in Mind Games being the prime example). This episode had the coolest changing sequence in the police station room, with thge light flashing on and off. It’s still a little too fast, but damn, it was a nice visual.
As seen in the previously mentioned police station an unusually dark fight takes place, which was actually pretty creepy for a cartoon in all honesty. Scary moments aren't usually done well in animation in my opinion as if you do it too well; you've scared the censors and the soccer moms start protesting. One day these so called ‘protectors’ will learn how to use a bloody remote.
Again, much to my disappointment this time, we see the villain dealt with in a permanent way. If this show has one flaw it’s that the villains are too 'villain of the week' and there's no real theme to the villains. I would have loved to see them hype up a big villain and use him in the finale, but nope, most of the villains come and die within the half hour. Ironically, the returning villains episodes are a step above the introduction ones.
The fight scenes were absolutely astonishing. I wasn’t too fond of The Lizard’s look when I saw the image online, but damn, he truly was a great, creepy villain. Whilst a lot of this episode seems to do a great job building Harry up into a supervillian which we have no idea if he’ll become or not, it’s still arguably his greatest episode.
Whilst one, if not the major aspects of this show was the love triangle between Spider-Man, Peter and Mary Jane, a lot of the time, it simply felt too forced(the ending of Heroes and Villains) , or was tedious to watch (Head Over Heels), here it was portrayed perfectly. This is before Indy came into the mix, and well confused everything. This is also after the series has been viewed in correct (DVD) order, so the show actually makes sense. The kiss at the end wasn’t a cheap ploy that was completely inconsequential. It was actually a great little scene and gave a dark episode a nice ending for our hero.
Screenshots:
