I
have always enjoyed the 'origin' episodes. For
me this is another element of why I love the show so much. To
have the characters backgrounds explored in this way both nourishes the
show by deepening it's level of realism and enriches the characters
themselves, making them increasingly interesting.
I did enjoy Bobby's story and thought it especially interesting to
see exactly what happened when Iceman and Spider-Man first met. Homage
was also paid to the X-Men comics, not least by making Judy the name of
the girl whom Bobby was interested in whilst growing up.
Using Videoman again as the villain seemed to me to be a little
unnecessary, as the 'being trapped in the computer' theme had previously
been used in the original 'Videoman' episode.
However, I did appreciate the fact that the Spider-Friends
mentioned that they had fought him before, a rarity in the cartoon world. Good
episode!
Interesting
take on Iceman's Origin. Finally we get to see some of the X-Men
even though in just the flashback scenes. Having a continuation of
the Videoman storyline was a real surprise since most of these shows seem
to have no continuity unlike the later Marvel cartoons. Pretty
decent plot too. We don't find out until near the end that the
direct link between Videoman & Bobby losing his powers. A definite
great start to the second season. One downside I can see is that the
expectation for the show to get better and better was never met after this
very short 2nd season of cartoons.
Fun, fun, fun. Great goofy storyline to present Iceman's origin, which is
pretty faithful to the comics. A wonderfully shocking X-Men cameo is a bonus.
A child today just couldn't understand all of the qualities (the cameos
and continuity) we appreciate so much about this show. These days
cartoons are littered with characters just to sell action figures. Spidey
& Friends was one of the last cartoons NOT designed to do
that. All the charisma and charm is present in this episode. And ALL THREE of the second season episodes have the best animation of the series.
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