Original Spider-Man Season 2 Volume 2 DVD

We have come a long, long way. When I first received this disk I expected the mid-90s series and not the extremely camp 60s TV series that is possibly a step below the original Adam West Batman in corny camper. Many will watch this series out of a love for the character or for the nostalgia feel and to be honest the show isn't as bad as I thought it might be. Sure, compared to the recent Sam Raimi films everything here seems a little tame, but it's still fairly enjoyable.

The set includes six self-contained episodes which means you can dip and choose and not have to worry about not seeing the previous season or episodes. Each episode is your typical action cartoon, villain enters causes amok and Spider-man stops them, it's simple, but then that is why it has worked for so many years. The animation of this series is basic to say the very least with many shots that are simply just painting and backgrounds with the camera moving in and around it. These backgrounds and characters are re-used so often that if you are pedantic (like me) you could literally piece the episode from previous ones like a jigsaw. That being said the vocal talents are great at moving the story along and Paul Soles as Peter Parker/Spider-man is perfect in this role and is neither a whiny brat or a bit too Buzz Lightyear as the hero.

It seems odd that rather than be released in a full Season set, this series has been split over several separate disks. This of course means that any extras that could be given (and as far as I know there are none) will probably be saved for the final disk of the season. If I'm honest it's the lack of extras that disappointed me as it would have been nice to have gotten some artwork, drafts, maybe even a few interviews with those involved or a commentary.

Original Spider-man: Season Two-Volume 2 isn't exactly a disk that you will play often, in fact you may only ever watch it the once. However, it is a nice piece of nostalgia from a time when animation was simple and when not every show had their own videogame, trading card set or pyjamas.