movies/tv The Spectacular Spider-Man

[Spidey10 845]

Growing up, Spider-Man was my hero. And there were 3 adaptations of him in particular that I just adored and watched many many times. The Sam Raimi Trilogy (Even Part 3), The Venom Saga DVD (Episodes of the 90's cartoon), and The Spectacular Spider-Man. 

That show is my one of my Top 3 favorite shows of all time (Along with MLP and Breaking Bad), and a prime example of a great show gone way too soon (I remember finding out about the cancellation a few days after my birthday over 10 years ago and it still breaks my heart). 

I remember watching the show when it premiered on Kids WB in 2008 and being really entertained as a kid. But I've grown to appreciate the show more as I've gotten older. The show doesn't just give you cool action scenes with Spidey and him saying funny quips (Which are great in the show) and his villains, it also gives you Peter Parker dealing with his high school life, trying to help Aunt May, working for The Daily Bugle, his relationships with Gwen, Mary Jane, and Liz, etc.

The show also has great story arcs. They could've taken the more episodic approach and it still could've been good, but I liked how they made an animated series with a continuous story (Like Avatar The Last Airbender or Gravity Falls).

The villains in the show are also really well done for the most part. I was never a big Tombstone fan but this show made me love him (Even though he took on the Kingpin role). They also introduce some the villains several episodes before they become supervillains like with Flint Marko and Alex O'Hirn as partners in crime, Otto Octavius working for Norman Osborn (This show also gives us the best adaptation of Green Goblin IMO voiced brilliantly by Steve Blum), Dr Connors secretly working on the Lizard serum, Montana as an Enforcer (Him becoming The Shocker was a cool change IMO), and Eddie Brock as Peter's big brother figure who eventually starts to hate him (The build up to him becoming Venom was so well done even though I felt like he could've been involved a bit more in season 2). I'll admit that I felt like Vulture, Kraven, and Electro could've had a bit more to do besides being Doc Ock's primary partners, but they're still fun to watch as well.

The voice acting is also great. Josh Keaton is Spider-Man in the same way Kevin Conroy is Batman to me. Whenever I read comics, I usually here Keaton's voice coming out of Peter/Spidey. The rest of the cast is great too with James Arnold Tyler as Harry Osborn, Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy, Ben Diskin as Eddie Brock/Venom, Joshua LeBar as Flash Thompson (Who actually has a really good arc in the show BTW instead of just being the typical bully), etc.

And of course, this show has the greatest theme song of all time by The Tender Box. I've listened to this song more times than I probably should and I will continue to listen to it for the rest of my life. It's so good and catchy and I was actually lucky enough to get to listen to it on the big screen when I went to see WALL-E and the music video for this song played before the film.

So yeah, I really love this show. If there's any show I could revive it would be this one. For a long time I thought it was impossible for the show to return and while it's still not highly likely, Sony has recently said that they are planning several Spider-Man based TV shows. Maybe a revival Spectacular Spider-Man could be one of them. If an announcement of the show returning ever happens, I will cry many tears of joy and throw a party. But even if that doesn't happen, I know that some big fans are making their own season 3 right now with their own cast and crew. Sounds exciting to me.

What's your opinion on The Spectacular Spider-Man? Love it? Think it's overrated? Comment and let me know. And if you've never seen it, it's available on Blu Ray if you're interested.

[Splashee 28,537]

So I loved The Spectacular Spider-Man TV series. Though it was very short, it still managed to capture most things I wanted, as well as keep a cool animation style. However, I did watch is when I had a bad flu... So I was in a very bad emotional state, trying to escape the fear I had about being sick. That affected how I enjoyed the show, and I am willing to give it another try just to see if it was as good as I remember, or if i just used it as an escape from my anxiety and illness.

[Spidey10 845]

38 minutes ago, Super Splashee said:

So I loved The Spectacular Spider-Man TV series. Though it was very short, it still managed to capture most things I wanted, as well as keep a cool animation style. However, I did watch is when I had a bad flu... So I was in a very bad emotional state, trying to escape the fear I had about being sick. That affected how I enjoyed the show, and I am willing to give it another try just to see if it was as good as I remember, or if i just used it as an escape from my anxiety and illness.

I think you'll still enjoy it. I rewatched the entire series a couple of years ago to see if it still holds up or if I was just being nostalgic. Very impressed with the attention Greg Weisman and Victor Cook put into the characters and overarching stories. 

[Antiyonder 321]

Yep a favorite of mine, and sad it was short lived.

Have some goodies in relation to it:

Also fun bit of detail even if not really usable.  Weisman having some hope of using a few other heroes did plan put where some of the Non-Spidey portion of the Marvel Universe is at:

https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=11465

The Fantastic Four are active, but occupied with cosmic threats.

Tony Stark and Don Blake have yet to take the trips that would lead them into becoming Iron Man and Thor.

Ant-Man is active while Janet Van Dyke has yet to become The Wasp.

The Hulk is in the southwest and is an urban legend.

Professor X is hasn't formed The X-Men yet, but has recruited Cyclops and Beast as his students.