Here's how the episode is described:

"Peter Parker (Neil Patrick Harris) struggles to balance his freshman year at Empire State University with his secret life as Spider-Man. Peter's geeky high school friend, Max Dillon (Ethan Embry), is trying to fit into college life by joining a fraternity and becoming one of the 'in-crowd.' Unfortunately, the fraternity is only allowing Max to participate in their 'rush process' as a big joke. When Max is hazed at a party the prank takes a turn for the worse and ultimately leads to the creation of Electro, a high voltage villain that threatens the campus. Max / Electro has a score to settle with his previous tormentors and he's relentless. Only Spider-Man can stop him from destroying innocent and not so innocent students."

"He was a human piñata in high school," executive producer Audu Paden says of Electro. "He's like, 'I'm in college, nobody knows me. I can be cool now. I don't have to get beaten up any more.' And he's trying to belong to the wrong groups, the fraternity boys. The very people that were treating him terribly before are the people he's craving to be a part of.

"And they lure him in and they humiliate him and they destroy him, and then he's out for revenge."

Like his origin, Electro's look is tweaked from the comics, as well. "The traditional suit is this big goofball costume with a big star face," Paden says, noting the star element remains somewhat.

Friday's second episode, "Sword of Shikata," features a villain made for the show, Shikata, who is voiced by Gina Gershon.

Here's how the episode is described:

"Richard Damien (John C. McGinley), a wealthy businessman / avid collector hires Shikata, master martial artist / swordswoman, to capture Spider-Man for his collection of rare animals. Shikata and Spider-Man soon have their first head-to-head fight and Shikata decides that he is too noble a foe to simply capture - they must fight to the death. Shikata informs Richard Damien that they no longer have a deal and that instead she plans to lure Spider-Man into the fight of his life. Richard is not a fan of this alternative strategy and sends his thugs to kill Shikata. Unfortunately, it is the goons who find themselves victims of Shikata instead. Afterwards, Shikata hunts down Spider-Man and informs him that they must fight until one of them is dead. Soon the pair is engaged in an all-out brawl on the streets. Things begin to look grim for Spider-Man until Mary Jane Watson (Lisa Loeb) arrives on the scene with a bit of information that may help Spider-Man vanquish Shikata without compromising his integrity."

Clancy Brown, who does the voice of Lex Luthor in Superman and Justice League, provides the voice of Damien's right-hand man. Ed Asner, who did the voice of J. Jonah Jameson in Fox Kids' Spider-Man, does the voice of Officer Barr.

Rob Allstetter, Deputy Sports Editor for the Detroit News, has been a comics journalist for the past decade, having written for numerous publications. He currently publishes The Comics Contiuum. He can be reached at: RobAlls@aol.com.

The Trailer Park Archive

July 2 2003 - Hellboy June 25, 2003 - Ang Lee June 18, 2003 - Eric Bana June 11, 2003 - Spider-Man Animation June 4 , 2003 - Lou Ferrigno May 27 , 2003 - Teen Titans May 20 , 2003 - Bryan Singer May 14 , 2003 - Al Gough May 8 , 2003 - Kelly Hu April 22, 2003 - Aaron Stanford April 18, 2003 - James Marsden April 15, 2003 - Jaime King April 8, 2003 - Halle Berry April 2, 2003 - Anna Paquin March 26 , 2003 - Scott McNeil March 21 , 2003 - Alan Cumming March 18 , 2003 - Michael Rosenbaum March 14 , 2003 - Ted Raimi: The "Other" Raimi Is Coming Back March 11 , 2003 - Maria Canals likes the call of the wild March 7 , 2003 - John Shea - Welcome to Mutant X March 4 , 2003 - Anthony Cistaro - Witchblade February 27 , 2003 - David Kaye - Professor X February 18 , 2003 - Victor Webster February 14 , 2003 - Ben Affleck February 11 , 2003 - Colin Farrell February 7 , 2003 - Comic Controversy? January 31 , 2003 - Static Shock January 24 , 2003 - Jennifer Garner