Ugh.  Where to begin?  This one really missed the mark in my opinion.  First and foremost, Spidey was designed to be a struggling hero.  He doesn't know the ropes like a superhero should.  That's a big part of his charm.  For the Spider-Friends to be telling ANYBODY else how to do it is just ludicrous and completely out of character for the web-slinger.  All three of the Spider-Friends started the hero biz inexperienced and at a relatively young age.  Who are they to tell someone in the same situation, that he shouldn't be doing it?  It makes this whole episode feel like the SUPER-FRIENDS. (Which I HATED as a young child because they all, especially Superman, acted as "high and mighty" as the Spider-Friends do here.)  Second, there was no reason to totally neglect reference to the previous Videoman episodes by having Spidey act like it is the first time he has ever seen him.  It's insulting to the viewer by making one feel as though the creators thought we would be too stupid to remember him.  Third, the Gamesman and Francis Byte, both original characters created for the series, are REALLY REALLY annoying.  NEXT!


This is my least favourite episode, and Jon I couldn’t agree with you more. The character of Francis Byte (who failed to entice my imagination) took centre stage in this episode and almost pushed the Spider-Friends to one side.  I didn’t appreciate the fact that the Spider-Friends reacted as if they had never seen Videoman before and I found the other characters created expressly for this episode to be both dull and irritating.  I have always felt rather cheated by this episode.

  
Boy, it is funny how they can make so many fantastic and even mediocre episodes then suddenly just an all around horrible episode.  It seemed doomed from the start.  I mean honestly, the Gamesman?  Did they borrow this villain from Dynomutt?  And for some reason, Spidey's voice sounded strange throughout the entire episode.  As already mentioned, not remembering Videoman and the Spider-Friends telling Francis to sit this one out and all... I mean come on!  Do they really believe he is going to listen to them?  Even if we over look the flaws mentioned it is still just a bad storyline full of tired themes.  Again with the hypnosis and then the damsel in distress.  This episode never grabs you, it just lacks any interesting sense of danger or that we should even care about the goofy new characters.  Even the X-men cameo at the end doesn't help except in the fact that we the viewers realize the episode is ending at that point.