The Marvel Animated Universe was a universe that was dead for many decades and yet now thanks to X-Men '97 being as a good as it was it's back in the public eye once again. With one of the characters that cameoed not once but twice on the show also really being one of the many characters that got given his own show in the nineties and it's also a show that I really haven't really talked about for really sometime now and so then join me as I review the episodes that technically introduce us to Madame Web with the episodes in question being called simply just "Make A Wish" And "Attack Of The Octobot" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when Spider-Man accidentally blows up a science building during a fight with Doctor Octopus he finds himself down on his luck and must get some advice from the most unlikely of sources. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad with the plot of both episodes doing a good job of showing us a more vulnerable side to Spider-Man as well as showing us just what the character means to those around him without it being side out loud and while the plot of "Make A Wish" is basically just Spider-Man's origin story but cut down it was still a fun plot to see play out in this with this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Christopher Daniel Barnes as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Stephanie Eustase as Maria Taina Elizando. Also starring in these episodes is Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus , Joan Lee as Madame Web , Dimitra Arliss as Anastasia Hardy , Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson , Sara Ballantine as Mary Jane Watson , Rodney Saulsberry as Joseph Robertson , Scott Cleverdon as Michael Pingree , Roscoe Lee Browne as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin , Marla Rubinoff as Liz Allen , Patrick Labyorteaux as Flash Thompson , Michael Rye as Farley Stillwell , Linda Gary as May Parker , Bob Richardson as Bernard O'Brien , Anne-Marie Johnson as Mousie and Majel Barrett as Anna Watson.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these episodes well then in all honesty in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good. With all of the shows cast turning in some really good performances in both of these episodes which really isn't all that surprising given who is starring in these episodes as alot of the cast in both of these episodes are a bunch of really good voice actors with even Christopher Daniel Barnes pretty much being the voice of Spider-Man and it's not hard to see why as he really does turn in a good performance in this episode with the acting in these episodes really being helped bu the fact that the script for both of these episodes being so good that all these episodes cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help the acting in these very episodes.
Doing the animation for these episodes is the legends and the greats that are currently over at TMS Entertainment. Now the interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad but that's also the problem as the animation in both of these episodes wasn't all that good either as alot of the animation just looks flat and rather uninteresting to look but while the 2D animation isn't that good it's aged alot better then the shows signature use of very early 3D CGI animation which has aged like milk as it just looks ugly and has dated horribly which is not the episodes fault as there wasn't the technology there to make good looking 3D CGI animation with the 2D animation not having an excuse for looking as bad as it was as X-Men: The Animated Series which came out around the same time has alot better animation then what we mostly got in both these episodes and this show as a whole.
These are episodes are technically the first appearence of Madame Web as while she does appear in the previous episode it's a silent cameo near the end of the episode. Where as in these two episodes she plays a part of the episodes with her being the one to send Spider-Man to Maria in the first place as a way to prepare him for something that will happen later on in the shows run which is a great use of the character as it shows us just how smart this character is as she knows everything about Spider-Man without seeing him and thankfully these episodes don't go into her backstory as that is something that could ruin the mystic of the character by giving away to much of how the character was before she got her powers where as now we the audience have the chance to make up our own backstory for the character and the chance to work out just what her backstory might be in the first place with this being helped by the fact that this episode really does give us a great use for the character as she only appears a vert small handful of times and that's really it which is a great way to us a character like this at it allows the episodes to still focus on Spider-man and yet at the exact same time introduce this new powerful character as well.
In what was a shocking move is the fact that this episode has a shockingly dark ending even for a nineties superhero animated series. As it's revealed at the end of "Attack Of The Octobot" that the kid helping to cheer Spider-Man is dieing of a terminal illness and that seeing Spider-Man was the one thing that she wanted to do before she died that right there is not only such a mature plot twist to have in your kids show but it's also one of the more darker plot twists that the Marvel Animated Universe would have as while this universe is known for having dark plot lines almost none of them involve a kid dieing and yet even tho the show rather rightfully doesn't show Maria dieing nor does it show us Spider-Man finding out that she's dieing it's still a dark plot twist to have and while it's something that would have been made all the more emotional if Spider-Man did find out the very next day that she died it works more by leaving her fate up in the air and it also makes it all the more shocking as well as for all we could know she could have died mere moments after Spider-Man drops her of at home where as that would be something that would have been taken away from us if we did find out that she ultimately died.
The main villain of these episodes is Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus who is a good villain but in this episode he's treated more of an afterthought. With us not even finding out why hes going after Spider-Man this time around all we know is is that he;s working with Wilson Fisk who is funding his research into creating the Octobot and yet we don't find out why he's targeting Spider-Man and while the main focus of the episodes might be Spider-Man and Maria you still need to give just as much attention to Doctor Octopus as while he is a great villain in any form of media by not giving him a reason for attacking Spider-Man this time around all your doing is making him come of as an afterthought like you suddenly realised that you need a villain in this episode superhero cartoon and so you just quickly wrote in the first one that you thought of and called it a day and that's enough for a character that is one of if not the most iconic Spider-Man villain as all that does is make the writing of the episode come across as being lazy when we know from the incredible twist at the end of the episode second episode that that really is far from being the case.
Now then these episodes has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty minuets and twenty one seconds for Make A wish and twenty minuets and twenty one seconds for Attack Of The Octobot. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running for this series to have and to be fair these episodes really doe make great use of that running time even tho Make A Wish is mostly made up of scenes of telling us Spider-Man's origin story with the main plot of bot of the episodes not really getting alot of focus in that episode which does make sense as the plot really isn't that thin with episode two making betting use of that running time as it was all about moving the plot of the episodes forward in a way that made sense where as episode one was mostly all about setting up things that would be paid of in episode two that's not to say that episode one is an episode that you can skip tho as this is where we do get hinds to Maria's fate but I will admit that these episodes really do have some really good pacing to both of them tho.
So now then as this is na action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these episodes well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad. As this show in particualr wasn't really all tat known for having great looking action in it as it was more known for having good drama instead and to be fair both of these episodes do have some really good action in both of the episodes with us getting lots of chances to see Spider-Man do what he does best and do so in some really creative looking action scenes and it's during the action scenes in these episodes where the animation really does come alive as it's where we get alot of the best looking animation in both of these two episodes and it's also where we get to see just how fun this show really could be when it at it's best as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this is a solid introduction to the Madame Web character as even tho we don't get alot of screen time with her as a character just from these first two episodes it's quite clear as day that she's going to be treated alot better then what she was being treated like in the Madame Web movie in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all o the good ad as well as all of the bad things that in these very episodes in this very review and as such that really does mean that these very episodes really doe earn theme selves a combined grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very from the official Spider-Man Animated fandom wiki page , the official Sony's Spider-Man Universe fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being the really great the official Spider-Man Animated fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these very episodes and are really of course on the official Spider-Man Animated fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.