Spider-man Month - TV Retrospective: The Spectacular Spider-man

It's still Spider-man Month

Watching those 3 movies made me want to make a deal with Mephisto. They were all god-awful. And no-one is going to change my mind on that. I’ll get onto the Amazing (the title, I’m not saying they’re amazing) movies next week, suffice to say I find them a lot more enjoyable, even if they are flawed.

But that’s next week. This week we look at Greg Weisman and Victor Cook’s attempt to bring life into the wall-crawler. Bear in mind, for the purposes of the review, I have not been able to watch all the episodes. I’m doing most of this off memory, so there may be a few inaccuracies. Obviously spoilers will be discussed.

The Spectacular Spider-man was not the first attempt to bring Spidey to life in animation. We have the 60s and the 90s animated series, followed by a few others including Spider-man Unlimited, none of which I’ve watched in any detail. I can only tell you what I have watched has been ok, nothing special but OK. (I am aware the 90s animated series is considered a classic, but has aged badly when compared to the 90s Batman series)

The show only lasted 26 episodes over 2 seasons, the end came about because of the animated rights to Spider-man being returned to Marvel. Sony still had the rights to the show, so Marvel would’ve had to pay commission for Sony to produce the show, which was unlikely to work out so Marvel decided to commission another Spider-man series, I’ll get to that in my retrospective in 2 weeks, but suffice to say: it’s an unfortunate template the other Marvel shows were following.

But I digress. This show really didn’t have enough time to cement itself as one of the greats, but I think, given the quality of the show, it could’ve easily have become one.

We begin with Peter as an already established Spider-man but if you’re worried that audiences wouldn’t know his origin. We see his spider-bite and DNA changes in the opening title sequences, which actually mirrors the clever Spider-man 2 opening in some regards. The title sequence introduces us to a few members of the supporting cast, that are likely to have some importance in the episode. And then we have the theme song.

In the 60's we have a tune very much of it’s time

“Spider-man, Spider-man, does whatever a spider can, spins a web, any size, catches thieves, just like flies…”

This version is a little more energetic, and modern

“Living on the edge, fighting crime, spinning webs, swinging from the highest ledge, he can leap above our heads…”

The 60's theme is and will always be iconic with the character, but I know which one I’d rather sing.

Rather than having overreaching arcs for each season, and filling the gaps with pointless filler (ala Avengers Assemble) Spectacular goes for 3-4 episode arcs it works really well. I’ll briefly go over them

Season 1 arc 1: Introduction: We get an intro for Spider-man, and his supporting cast and villains. (You think Spider-man 3 had too many villains, there were 8 villains in the FIRST episode of the show, 11 if you count soon to be villains like Doctor Octavius, Eddie Brock and Norman Osborn) we also see the origins of the Vulture, Electro and the Lizard

Season 1 arc 2: super-villain gambit. We have the ‘big man’ a villain whose presence will be a part of the series for pretty much its entirety creating super-villains to distract spider-man. It’s actually quite a clever way to introduce 3 big bads, we get Shocker, Sandman and the Rhino for this arc.

Season 1 arc 3: the Goblin strikes: We get the first view of Steve Blum’s exceptionally crazy Green Goblin, who wages war on the big man, and creates an accident that transforms Octavius into Doctor Octopus. The stage is set for a revealation that will come back at a later stage.

Season 1 arc 4: Venom. I said this was the venom arc done right, and whilst his origins in the movie are closer to the comics, I think this works pretty well. We start with the symbiote being brought in for study, only for known super-thief Black Cat to try and steel it, in the ensuing fight the symbiote bonds with spidey and proves that it’s actually useful, hence justifying Peter actually keeping it! Anyway, this story not only introduces Venom, we get Black Cat, Chameleon, and the first appearance of the sinister 6 (consisting of Shocker, Vulture, Doc Oc, Electro, Sandman and Rhino) and we get a bit of a delve into the Uncle Ben side of Spider-man’s origin (unlike in either of the movies, there really isn’t an argument between the Parkers, it’s more the moral dilemma of whether it’s OK to cash in on his abilities, hence ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ (you know, he never actually said that in the original comic) which I think works fairly well)

Season 2 arc 1: The Master Planner. The Master Planner (it’s Doc Oc, it’s hardly a secret) begins to bring together super-villains for his new plan. We get Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter as new villains, who go onto to join the new incantation of the Sinister 6 (with Doc Oc and Shocker being replaced by by Kraven and Mysterio) before the final showdown with Doc Oc (and yes, I know it's supposed to be Doc Ock, but I can't bring myself to use that because there's no k in Octopus, and Oc has the same pronunciation)

Season 2 arc 2: Venom’s revenge: as Spidey fights sandman once again, Eddie Brock gets Spider-man paranoid enough to reveal the location of the hidden symbiote, they rebond, and try to wreak their revenge on the wall-crawler. We also get Colonel Jupiter for a brief period, before a bizarre story where Venom reveals Peter’s identity to the Bugle. The end result is actually a smart move for what was seemingly a small moment from season 1. I won’t reveal the details here.

Season 2 arc 3: Gang War. The Master Planner is back, hiding in the shadows, and keeping tabs on the super-villains. The Big Man is up against an old rival known as Silvermaine, and his daughter Silver Sable. He pulls out all the stops, giving specialised suits to his enforcers, allowing the recreation of Ox and Ricochet, who work alongside Shocker. The end gang war begins because of a betrayal of the Big Man’s assistant Hammerhead, and ends with all of the gang leaders being arrested, but with the revelation that the scheme was orchestrated by the Green Goblin

Season 2 arc 4: Goblin triumphant. The Green Goblin uses his newfound control of the underworld in attempt to kill Spidey. He uses his connections to create Molten Man, the final new supervillain of the series. Spidey ends up in a tough spot, having to team up with the Black Cat to take out all the super-villains in the prison. Complicating matters is that Black Cat came into the prison to rescue her father, who also happens to be the mugger who killed Ben Parker. The final episode is where the Green Goblin launches a massive ambush on the wall crawler, turning the city into a death trap and using a mountain of goons combined with his own abilities. It’s a massive battle gives us new insight into the twist from season 1.

So as you can see, spidey gets a lot of action, but Peter Parker is far from ignored, in fact, it’s amazing just how many characters get an arc. Money troubles, curfews and amateurish mistakes become interesting parts of his 1^st season. A love triangle between him, Gwen and Liz Allen dominates season 2. But it’s not just him that gets a character arc. Liz Allen, Mary Jane, Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, J Jonah Jameson (actually giving him a valid, if selfish, reason to hate Spider-man,) Captain Stacey, Kurt Connors, Gwen Stacey, just about the entire main cast get an arc of some sort. And it’s exceptionally good to see, very few writers could pull this off, but the writing team here are on top form here.

The voice acting is also top notch: Josh Keaton kills it as Peter Parker/Spider-man, solid performances from Clancy Brown playing the Rhino and Captain Stacey, James Arnold Taylor playing Harry Osborn, Steve Blum playing the Green Goblin and the Chameleon, Kevin Michael Richardson as Tombstone (I know he was the second actor in the role, but he voiced-matched it almost perfectly) and Vanessa Marshall as Mary Jane Watson. I also give credit to the other voice actors: Lacey Chabert is an excellent Gwen Stacey, Alan Rachins does a great Norman Osborn, Ben Diskin was a frightening Venom and a decent Eddie Brock. Peter MacNicol does a great job as Doctor Octopus, and there are many others I could name

But there is a black mark against the series: the design choices. As not exactly an avid reader of the comics, I’m not qualified to talk about the design choices for the villains or their choice of characteristics for the villains. My biggest issue is with a particular design choice. The eyes are very basic in design, white balls with massive irises and no pupils. This comes off looking rather odd, like it was simplified for a toy.

It takes a bit of getting used to but I implore that you try because this show is fantastic. Really good animation, fantastic music, stories that outmatch the movies 10-fold and all whilst balancing Peter Parker and Spider-man perfectly. I’d be hard-pushed to pick out a favourite episode for each season, I love it that much.

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from The Spectacular Spider-man and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.