Cartoon Review: The Spectacular Spider-Man Ep. 16

“Reinforcement”

Review
With the introduction of Mysterio and Kraven in the first two episodes of Season Two it was only a matter of time before the Sinister Six returned; though I did not to expect them to return in the third episode of this season. I don’t know if it was just me, but I thought it was a bit too soon to see the Sinister Six again. I would have liked to have seen more development of Master Planner and what Tombstone, the current Kingpin of New York City, thinks of someone invading his turf.  I would have also liked to see a few other Spider-Man villains being introduced into this universe, like Scorpion or Smythe.

In any case, this is only minor complaint as “Reinforcement” was a fun action packed episode. This new Sinister Six was a great mix of characters that was much closer to the original Sinister Six group as they added Mysterio and Kraven to the group with Sandman, Vulture, Electro, and Rhino. The only one missing was Doctor Octopus, who is replaced by Rhino as the original member. And with Doc Ock’s reaction to being recruited I am wondering who the Master Planner is as I thought it was Doc Ock.  But, Doc Ock’s reaction in this scene and at the end makes me wonder if it is some other character that is the Master Planner.

I loved how they the creative team behind this show decided to split up the group into pairs to take on Spider-Man. The teams of Electro and Vulture, Sandman and Rhino, and finally Mysterio and Kraven all proved to be a great challenge to our favorite superhero. Each pair provided a different type of fight that really tested Spider-Man both physically and mentally. All the fights had a lot of energy as Spider-Man having to fight off the various members of the Sinister Six had him constantly on the move without much rest.

And I’ll admit that there were times during each fight that I found myself smiling or laughing at the banter between Spider-Man and his Rogue Gallery. Some of my favorite moments from the fights were Spider-Man trying to banter with Vulture and Electro even though he had burnt his tongue and Rhino’s line before going through the ice: “I hate you so much.” It was classic.

Also, I found it interesting that there was a brief mention of Cletus (aka Carnage) when Kraven went to recruit Electro and Doc Ock. It was something that I missed when I first watched the episode but when I went back to re-watch it I caught the brief mention. Since we saw Venom introduced in the first season I would not be surprised if we saw Carnage later in this season.

Even though this was an action heavy episode there was some development with Peter’s personal life, mostly the Peter/Gwen/Liz love triangle. It is interesting seeing that even though the first season ended with the kiss between Peter and Gwen that the creative team behind this show continue to keep the two apart. And I have to agree with MJ that it is Peter’s wandering eye that is keeping them apart.  I wonder how long it will be before we see them together. I did like Peter getting distracted by MJ by thinking “Will you look at her. She’s gorgeous!” It was a funny line that gives more reason to it being Peter not Gwen that is keeping the two apart.

Overall, this was another great episode for the second season of The Spectacular Spider-Man and I hope that with the first three episodes being so action heavy that we get more episodes focusing on Peter’s personal life.

Episode Rating – 9.5/10
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Kevin