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With the release of "Spider-Man 2" comes a barrage of new Spider-Man merchandise, including a re-release of the original Spider-Man (both Deluxe and Superbit editions) and a load of 'The New Animated Series' DVDs. Among them - "The Mutant Menace".
From the MTV series, the disc includes three episodes. In the first, titled "Tight Squeeze", Peter Parker sells some video to a TV station from a recent heist by a group of former KGB agents. While at the station he meets a new girl - Indy. Later, while visiting the Indy at the station, a group of people, including Peter are taken hostage by these new villains. The catch? They'll only let everyone go when Spider-Man comes to the rescue. So, Peter has to do some fancy footwork in order to get away and come back as Spidey. The plot is a little thin, but I guess it works.
The next episode, "Law of the Jungle" may be a story that's a bit more familiar to Spider-Man fans. Doctor Connors injects himself with a serum to help regenerate his arm which was lost in an "industrial accident". But his science ain't an exact science. Instead, he's transformed into the "Lizard". So, Spider-Man must face-off against his professor when Connors targets Oscorp (and Peter's pal, Harry) for revenge.
Finally, there is the episode titled "Sword of Shikata". Here, a sleazy millionaire Hollywood wannabe hires a woman named Shikata to capture Spider-Man so he can add him to his wildlife collection. However, when Spider-Man turns out to be a worthy adversary for Shikata, she halts the deal and instead plans a fight-to-the-death with our wall-crawling superhero. With a little help from Mary Jane, we learn the secrets of Shikata's powers and, of course, Spider-Man is our winner.
For special features, well, there aren't any save for previews from some animated titles including Tokyo Godfathers, Cowboy Bebop and a few others.
Before checking out this disc, I had never seen an episode from 'The New Animated Series'. I'd heard from a few people that it wasn't the best Spider-Man material out there. (In my own opinion, that title still belongs to the early/mid-90's series.) If I had a complaint, it's the title. "The Mutant Menace"? Of the three episodes, there is only one mutant! Also, having never seen the series before, a few of the plot points were a bit lost on me. Why couldn't they have released a complete season to put all the episodes in perspective?
That said, I really didn't mind this one. Sure, the stories are a little weak, but the heart and that great Spidey wit is still there. It took some time to get used to the animation, but once I got into it I was hooked. It definitely made me want to check out the other titles in the series.
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