Spider-Man The Original Animated Series Season 3 - Volume 1   Starring (voice): Paul Soles, Peg Dixon and Paul Kligman Clear Vision RRP: £14.99 MAR1035 Certificate: U Available 01 March 2010

Here we go for another bunch of episodes from the original Spider-Man animated series, with the theme tune you just can't get out of your head. This time it's Season 3 - Volume 1 and, unlike Season 2, we return to the first year format of two individual story segments in each episode. So we effectively get 12 tales over a running time of 2 hours and 5 minutes. This ensures that the the plots are tighter and more concise, doing away with the need for the endless time wasting swinging we had in Season 2.

In The Winged Thing, the flying Vulture attempts to instill fear into the city's inhabitants; in Conner's Reptiles, Spider-Man tries to help Dr Conner who has changed into the man-sized Lizard; in Trouble With Snow, a snowman is struck by a live electric cable, comes alive, grows larger with each snowfall and terrorises the city; In Spider-Man Vs Desperado, a wannabe cowboy on a mechanical flying horse, robs banks; In Sky Harbor, a zeppelin aircraft carrier with first world war planes firing lasers holds the skies to ransom; in The Big Brainwasher, the Kingpin ropes an oblivious Mary Jane into his scheme to bring city officials under his control. It's a joy to see MJ dancing like she's covered in insects. In The Vanishing Doctor Vespasian, a scientist uses invisibility to steal some priceless jewels; in The Scourge of the Scarf, a master thief uses a hypnotic projector to send the city to sleep while he robs every theatre on Broadway of its takings; in Super Swami, the magician returns to cause havoc in New York with realistic illusions; in The Birth of Micro Man, Spider-Man gets miniaturised in his bid to recapture an escaped criminal scientist; in Knight Must Fall, a knight in shining armour, riding a motorcycle steed, prevents a robbery, only to steal the money himself; and in The Devious Dr Dumpty, a gang uses gas-filled inflatables to steal gems.

The weirdness of season 2 is reigned back in with the return of some established Spidey enemies, such as the Lizard, the Vulture and the Kingpin, but not quite to the extent of Season 1. Still, it's a welcome return to a semblance of normality. These were simpler times, so don't expect intricate story arcs or complicated plots. The 1996 Spider-Man series was a work of art compared with this, but I still hold fond memories of the reruns.

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Ty Power