Rocket Racer
First Aired: September 14th, 1996
Synopsis: Big Wheel and his gang of Rocket Raiders rob several banks, leading to Spider-Man breaking off his make-out session with Felicia Hardy to go and stop them. He's able to stop several of the thugs, and some of their money is dropped. Robert Farrell, a young man who needs money for his mother, finds the money, but is arrested by the police since they think he stole it. His bail is paid by Felicia Hardy, since he goes to a school funded by the Hardy Foundation and she cares for him. However, he's furious at what's happened. Spider-Man fails to stop the criminals permanently, and goes to do some tutoring at the Hardy Foundation school, where he notes that in spite of Robert's excellent gyroscopic project, he isn't in. While he's there, Felicia's asked out by a man named Jason Phillips, who's donating to the foundation. Later, Robert's family's grocery store is shaken down by some thugs for protection money. Robert follows one of them to their warehouse, and it turns out that they're the Rocket Raiders. He steals some of their technology and modifies it so that he can use it with his skateboard, creating a new identity as the Rocket Racer.
Rocket Racer initially plans to steal some jewels, but his conscience kicks in and he flees the scene of the would-be crime, but ends up with Spider-Man on his tail. Spider-Man follows Rocket Racer home, while in his base, Big Wheel discovers that his technology has been stolen and plans to kill Rocket Racer so that the police can't question him about it and discover where he found it. While Spider-Man tries convincing Rocket Racer to focus on his scientific skills, Big Wheel attacks. Spider-Man holds off the thugs while Rocket Racer distracts Big Wheel, before recognising that Big Wheel's giant wheel should be stopped with a strong enough dosage of voltage. Spider-Man and he work together to elecrocute it, sending the wheel spinning out of control and into the river. In the aftermath, Robert realises that science is useful, and vows to focus on it. Felicia, meanwhile, agrees to go on another date with Jason Phillips, leading to Spider-Man reluctantly admitting that he's lost her.
Review: Apparently this is considered to be one of the worst episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Okay, I definitely wouldn't consider it to be one of the best, but it's far from the worst; some of the Morbius episodes were far more tedious than this one. Rocket Racer is an underused character, and while this episode definitely drags out his origin, I was nevertheless invested well enough in the character. It also successfully pulls off something I would have thought impossible - it makes Big Wheel destructive enough that he does feel like a genuine threat, and while there's a weird "timing is everything!" aspect of him in the episode, I'd rather see this version reappear over the comics version. The moral is incredibly naive and simplistic, but I'd rather that than a cynical message.
Where this episode does fall apart for me is in how slapdash the continuity, which up until now has been fairly good, is. Suddenly, Peter's a tutor for the Hardy Foundation, something that's never been mentioned before, and he's interested in Felicia again (who for her part, wants to go out with Spider-Man - and while she won't settle for Peter, she will settle for Jason Phillips, the first-place winner for the World's Most Wooden Man competition). It's all a horribly lazy attempt to give Peter a connection to Robert, the protagonist of this episode, but it doesn't come anywhere near close to succeeding.
Overall, while the plot's a bit forgettable, the characters manage to succeed well enough that I'd be okay with seeing both Rocket Racer and Big Wheel return, although I doubt that that they will. One of the worst episodes, though? Nah, not by my standards.
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