The Spectacular Spider-Man (TV series)

The Spectacular Spider-Man is an American superhero animated television series based on the superhero character published by Marvel Comics and developed for television by Greg Weisman and Victor Cook. In terms of overall tone and style, the series is based principally on the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko and Stan Lee/John Romita Sr. runs of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, with a similar balance of action, drama and comedy as well as a high school setting. However, it also tends to blend material from all eras of the comic's run and other sources such as the Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.[1]

The Spectacular Spider-Man
Genre
Based on
Developed by
Written by
  • Greg Weisman
  • Kevin Hopps
  • Matt Wayne
  • Andrew Robinson
  • Randy Jandt
  • Nicole Dubuc
Directed by
  • Victor Cook
  • Jennifer Coyle
  • Dave Bullock
  • Troy Adomitis
  • Dan Fausett
  • Kevin Altieri
  • Michael Goguen
  • Jake Owen
Voices of
Theme music composerThe Tender Box
Opening theme"Spectacular Spider-Man"
Ending theme"Spectacular Spider-Man" (instrumental)
Composer(s)
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s)
  • Greg Weisman
  • Victor Cook
  • Diane A. Crea
  • Joshua Fine
  • Blake Griffin
Editor(s)
  • Ralph A. Eusebio
  • Bruce King
Running time22 minutes
Production company(s)
DistributorSony Pictures Television
Release
Original networkThe CW (season 1)
Disney XD (season 2)
NX Streaming (season 3-)
Picture format480i (SDTV)
(2008)
1080i (HDTV)
(2009)
Original releaseMarch 8, 2008 (2008-03-08)
Chronology
Preceded bySpider-Man: The New Animated Series
Followed byUltimate Spider-Man
External links
Website

The Spectacular Spider-Man premiered on March 8, 2008, during the Kids' WB programming block of The CW. The series aired its second season on Marvel's sister network Disney XD in the United States and ended its run on November 18, 2009. The entire series was broadcast in Canada on Teletoon. Although a third season was initially planned, the series was cancelled before production could begin due to legal problems between Disney (who purchased Marvel during the show's run) and Sony Pictures Television (who created the series). However on August 7, 2020 it was announced that Sony had acquired the streaming right's to both the Spectacular Spider Man and Spider Man: The New Animated Series the series is set to return on Sony Crackle when it rebrands to NX Streaming in 2021.

Despite the legal troubles and cancellation, the series has received widespread universal acclaim from both critics and fans, with much of the praise being aimed at the faithfulness and fidelity to the classic Spider-Man comics, the fresh, unique yet faithful re-imagining of classic Spider-Man concepts and themes, the unique art style, character designs, voice acting, writing, along with Josh Keaton's portrayal of the titular character, and the balance of comedy, drama, action and the exploration of surprisingly mature themes and the realistic insight into the titular character's internal struggles with the burden and problems of being a superhero. Many have praised the series as being, arguably, the best adaptation of Spider-Man to date.

Synopsis
Main article: List of The Spectacular Spider-Man episodes

The two seasons of the series are each set during a semester of Peter's high school years, with season one running from September to November and season two from December to March.[2]

Producer Greg Weisman has stated that the show's theme is "The Education of Peter Parker."[3] In keeping with this theme, each of the series arcs is named after courses of study: season one's arcs are Biology 101, Economics 101, Chemistry 101 and Psychology 101, and season two's arcs are Engineering 101, Human Development 101, Criminology 101 and Drama 101.[4]

Season 1

The first season features Peter Parker beginning his junior year at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School, having only been bitten by the genetically-modified spider and acquired his powers and alias as Spider-Man in recent months. While harassed at school, particularly by football star Flash Thompson, he is close friends with classmates Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn. In order to help support his Aunt May after the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter gets a job as a freelance photographer at the Daily Bugle, owned by the loudmouth, irascible, egotistical, and gruff publisher J. Jonah Jameson, by obtaining pictures of his alter-ego in action so he could carry out a smear campaign against Spider-Man that has, at least temporarily, turned much of the city against the hero. Peter and Gwen are also given junior lab assistant positions under Dr. Curt Connors at Empire State University, where they join their friend and mentor Eddie Brock. As Spider-Man uses his powers to fight against petty crime, he gains the attention of the Big Man who orchestrates crime in New York City, with attention initially drawn to his fights with the Enforcers, Vulture, Electro and the Lizard. With the help of Norman Osborn, his chief scientist Dr. Otto Octavius and criminal Hammerhead, the Big Man (alias of crime lord Tombstone) oversees the development of a project to create "supervillains" designed to distract Spider-Man from other crimes and stop damaging his profits. These new enemies include Sandman and Rhino, both petty criminals who regularly fell victim to Spider-Man. However, the Big Man's plans become greatly complicated when the mysterious Green Goblin enters the picture. Throughout the first season, the other opponents are introduced are Black Cat who has a crush on him, Shocker and Chameleon. Quentin Beck and Phineas Mason appear as Chameleon's associates. After the Green Goblin is vanquished, Spider-Man's symbiote black suit makes an appearance, eventually leading to Eddie Brock's transformation into Venom.

Season 2

Peter Parker's life becomes significantly more complicated as he finds himself torn between both Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan, both of whom have confessed their feelings for him; he eventually chooses Liz. Norman Osborn takes on the role of Peter's mentor, pulling strings to re-establish his job as Dr. Connors' lab assistant, as well as overseeing the installment of the conniving Dr. Miles Warren into the ESU Labs. Meanwhile, as Spider-Man, Peter encounters new villains Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter, leading him to investigate the activities of a mysterious new crime lord known as the "Master Planner". When the Master Planner's first scheme fails, Spider-Man is faced with a three-way gang war between the Planner's super-villain forces, the Big Man's established order, and the old guard of Silvio "Silvermane" Manfredi's family. Peter's search for Eddie Brock also leads to the return of Venom, who attempted to expose Spider-Man's secret identity and remove his powers. Finally, when the three major crime lords are arrested, Spider-Man once again goes up against the Green Goblin, who is once again bent on eliminating the wall-crawler once and for all. The series ends with a cliffhanger due the show being cancelled before a third season could be produced.

Other new characters introduced in the second season include Calypso, Sha Shan Nguyen, Silver Sable, Roderick Kingsley and Molten Man. Quentin Beck and Phineas Mason return as Mysterio and the Tinkerer respectively.

Characters
Main article: List of The Spectacular Spider-Man characters

The timeline of the original Spider-Man story-arcs has been condensed and reconfigured in order to include classic and important characters who originally appeared much later. Characters such as Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn are depicted not completely as direct equivalents to their older counterparts from the comics, but rather as characters who evolve into their established roles from the comics. The series also sports a very wide supporting cast. Every named character who appears in the series, even very minor characters, is based on a character who appeared in the original comics, Ultimate Spider-Man series (such as Kenny Kong), or film series (such as Bernard Houseman). The series also incorporates a number of villains from different eras of the Spider-Man universe, almost all of whom are introduced as regular characters in first episodes before they transform into established villain identities (an example is Eddie Brock, who was introduced at the very beginning of the series, but only became Venom in the season 1 finale).

Cast

Main cast

Additional voices

Crew
Members of the crew at 2007 ComicCon. Greg Weisman far left with Victor Cook to his right. Photo: Comiquero.com
  • Greg Weisman - Supervising Producer/Story Editor/Writer
  • Victor Cook - Supervising Producer (Season 2)/Supervising Director
  • Diane A. Crea - Producer
  • Eric Vesbit - Associate Producer
  • Wade Wisninski - Associate Producer
  • Dave Bullock - Director (four episodes)
  • Kevin Altieri - Director (four episodes)
  • John Diaz - Production Manager
  • Kevin Hopps - Writer
  • Matt Wayne - Writer
  • Andrew Robinson - Writer
  • Randy Jandt - Script Coordinator/Writer's Apprentice/Writer
  • Jennifer Coyle - Director (six episodes)
  • Sean "Cheeks" Galloway - Lead Character Designer/ Character Supervisor
  • Mike Inman - Background Painter/Visual Development
  • Jamie Thomason - Voice Casting Director and Dialogue Director
  • Meagan Healy - Production Art Supervisor
  • Brian G. Smith - Production Art Supervisor
  • Ben Maloney - Production Assistant
  • Sherrian Felix - Production Coordinator
  • Jennifer L. Anderson - Post Production Assistant
  • Sean Herbert - Animation Clerk

Production

A new Spider-Man animated series was announced in August 2006 along with Sony Pictures TV's new direct-to-DVD division, Culver Entertainment, that would produce it with 13 half hour episodes. The series was planned for a 2007 release on DVD while international distributing to TV channels including Sony's.[5] The DVD format was to be four discs with three episodes each. Greg Weisman and Victor Cook developed the show.[6]

The Spectacular Spider-Man was announced by Kids' WB Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen on June 18, 2007 as being picked up and slated for an early 2008 premiere by the Kids' WB! on The CW. Weisman and Cook were assigned to the series at the time as supervising producer and producer/supervising director, respectively. The art style of the series is more simplified than in previous incarnations but retain their iconic elements. This choice was made to ensure Spider-Man would move as he should and replicate the fluidity from Sam Raimi's movie incarnation.[7]

The series was produced by its television animation studio, Adelaide Productions (due to Sony's holding of the Spider-Man film franchise rights) with Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd.,[8] Dong Woo Animation and MOI Animation, Inc. contributed some of the animation for this series. The title sequence for the show was directed by Victor Cook with the theme song written and performed by The Tender Box.[8]

Weisman has explained that in adapting the comics for the show, the producers "tried to follow what [they] came to call "The Five Cs": Contemporary, Cohesive, Coherent, Classic and iConic."[9] "The advantage of hindsight" allowed the show to be "more coherent and cohesive than the original" comic continuity, which contains "considerable duplication, a false start here and there, [and] conflicting interpretations."[9] Weisman studied all of the characters to find their "core essence," and the show often combined characters and storylines when necessary for the sake of coherence.[9] For example, Flash Thompson was found to be "a bully, who deep down is actually an honorable guy," while Shocker was found to be an "iconic costume" with no character, so he was combined with Montana.[9]

The Spectacular Spider-Man debuted on March 8, 2008 with back-to-back episodes, "Survival of the Fittest" and "Interactions", under the banner "Spectacular Saturday".[10] The series debuted under a cloud as The CW had just indicated that the network would end its kid's block for a brokered outsourced block. While Culver had already started producing the second season.[11]

Cancellation

Greg Weisman was hoping to reach 65 episodes.[12] 26 episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man were produced in total.[13]

The series stopped production with a renewal dependent upon the ratings for season 2 on the U.S. Disney XD channel and the sales of the DVDs.[14] If the third season were to have gone ahead, producer Greg Weisman stated that Carnage, Hobgoblin, Ghost Rider, Hydro-Man, and Scorpion would have made their appearances as well as planning to cast Marina Sirtis as Emily Osborn's voice.[15] On September 1, 2009, the television rights for Spider-Man were returned to Marvel by Sony. At the time, President of Marvel Animation Eric Rollman further stated that "no decisions have been made either way" regarding the fate of the series. November 1, 2009 Newsarama reported that the series' cancellation occurred just after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment in December 2009.[16]

On April 13, 2010, Marvel announced that a new series loosely based on the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book storyline would air on Disney XD in the fall of 2011, which actually aired on April 1, 2012.[17][18] The same day the new series was announced, Weisman told IGN: "I've heard nothing directly from Marvel, but I think the Ultimate Spider-Man announcement makes it fairly clear that Spectacular is over."[19] Marvel Animation and Sony also commented on this to Marvel Animation Age, confirming that the series had ceased production.[20]

Weisman would later write that in 2009, in exchange for concessions on the movie rights, Sony had relinquished to Marvel its license to produce television works that used Spider-Man and associated characters, but had retained ownership of The Spectacular Spider-Man series and all of the production elements created specifically for it, such as character designs and storylines. Therefore, neither Sony nor Marvel could continue production of the series, as each lacked some of the essential rights to do so. Additionally, at approximately the same time that Sony returned the Spider-Man television rights to Marvel, Marvel was acquired by The Walt Disney Company.[21][22]

Future plot events

Due to cancellation, many storylines were abandoned. In season three, Curt would have moved in Florida and begun working on a cure for Electro[23] and a planned DVD Spring Break movie would have also been set in Florida between season 2 and 3, as well as movies between season 3 and 4, and between season 4 and 5.[24] Scorpion, Hydro-Man, and Hobgoblin[25] were confirmed to be major villains for season three, in addition to Carnage and Mister Negative. After the initial 65 episode series plan and movies, Weisman had wished to produce DVD sequels covering Peter's college years[26] and his eventual marriage to Mary Jane.[27]

Reception

The series was released to widespread universal acclaim, with many proclaiming the show to be the best Spider-Man adaptation. Before the series premiere, Matt Sernaker of ComicsOnline interviewed some of the Spectacular Spider-Man development team at WonderCon 2008 after a preview screening and stated: "This new Spider-Man series truly is SPECTACULAR... surpasses all of the previous incarnations with ease. If you are a Spidey fan you will not want to miss this."[28]

Early in the series' run, Alan Kistler of ComicMix called the series "one of the best superhero adaptations I've ever seen (and trust me, I've watched more than anyone will probably consider reasonable). It's fun, it's smart, it's mature, it's witty and every episode leaves me wanting more."[29]

In an article entitled "8 Reasons to Watch Spectacular Spider-Man", Reggie White, Jr. from Spiderfan wrote: "If you aren't watching The Spectacular Spider-Man on CW Kids' WB, you are missing out on what is quickly becoming one of the greatest Spidey cartoons of all-time."[30]

Stu from Marvel Animation Age writes in his review of the series: "At time of writing, The Spectacular Spider-Man stands as Marvel's finest animated effort and surpasses most of DC's finest efforts – the only shows in Spectacular's league really, is Batman: The Animated Series itself. With more episodes, it may just surpass it."[31]

IGN stated that Greg Weisman "has only cemented his reputation for quality television animation with his work on Spider-Man."[2] IGN also named The Spectacular Spider-Man the 30th in the Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows in January 2009.[32] The Spectacular Spider-Man was awarded Best Animated Series in both 2008[33] and 2009[34] with the series' version of the main character being named TV's Best Hero in 2008.[35] Subsequently, it was placed second in the Top 25 Comic Book TV Shows in 2011.[36]

Outside of comic resources, Variety highlighted that "although seemingly conceived largely to push a new line of Hasbro toys... the soon-to-fadeout Kids' WB (on the CW!) delivers a credible new version of 'Spider-Man,' emphasizing his relatable headaches as a 16-year-old superhero."[37]

TV Guide listed the series as one of the sixty greatest animated series of all time.[38]

Home media

The series was initially developed so that each three to four episode arc could be edited together into a feature-length home video release. The first DVD for the show, entitled "Attack of the Lizard", followed this plan with the first three episodes edited together to form a stand-alone story with additional footage. The region 1 version was released on September 9, 2008.[39]

This release strategy changed with the region 1 release of the second and third DVDs of the series on March 17, 2009. Originally promoted with the titles "Rise of the Supervillains" and "The Goblin Strikes" respectively, these releases were revised to feature the televised versions of the episodes and were ultimately released as numbered volumes. Since then, retailer stores have stopped releasing "Attack of the Lizard", and have replaced it with volume 1. Volume 4 was released in region 1 on April 28, 2009, in the same format.

"The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season" DVD was released in region 1 on July 28, 2009.[40]

DVD volume 5 was released in region 1 on November 17, 2009.[41] DVD volumes 6 and 7 were released on February 16, 2010. DVD volume 8 was released on April 27, 2010.[42]

The first 4 volumes that comprise season 1 for region 2 have been released with volumes 3 and 4 having been released on August 23, 2010.[43] The remaining 4 volumes comprising season 2 have not been released on DVD in the U.K.

Seasons 1 and 2 of the series are available to buy in the U.K. and U.S. from the iTunes Store (360p); both seasons are also available to buy in the U.K. from the PlayStation Store (480p), Amazon Video (SD/HD) and Google Play (SD).

In promotion for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, it was announced that The Spectacular Spider-Man would get a Blu-ray release containing all 26 episodes. It was released on April 22, 2014.

Syndication

On June 14, 2013, Saban Brands announced that they had acquired the broadcast rights to air the series on Vortexx on The CW for the Fall 2013-14 season, marking its return to The CW since the conclusion of the first season aired on June 14, 2008.[44]

The series officially started airing on Vortexx on August 17, 2013 and it ended on September 27, 2014.

Toys and merchandise

Hasbro released a toy line of action figures in March 2008.[45]

McDonald's Happy Meals celebrated their 30th Anniversary with The Spectacular Spider-Man toys in February 2009.[46][47][48]

In February 2010, Burger King included The Spectacular Spider-Man toys in its Kids' Meals toys range.[49]

gollark: I'm trying to access the osmarks.tk bookCLOUD™, it has some stats on this.
gollark: Wait, that book is popular so people actually know about it, what vaguely ridiculously esoteric books have I read...
gollark: Er. Hmm. Rincewind?
gollark: Imagine: someone tells you "yes I really like [CHARACTER] or [EVENT]". If you have no idea what book they're from or any idea about it, you may have to embarrass yourself and say you don't know! But with a way to search all books ever (okay, you can't do that with just public domain ones however bees) you can have vague surface level knowledge of something on demand!
gollark: I'm aware of that, but they don't have a convenient search thing.

See also

Notes
  1. Animation for the series is outsourced to Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd., Dong Woo Animation and MOI Animation

References
  1. Interview with Greg Weisman (Part 1) by Sean Elliott: Archived June 22, 2008, at the Wayback Machine March 7, 2008
  2. Goldman, Eric (June 27, 2008). "The Spectacular Spider-Man's Past and Future". IGN. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  3. SDCC 07: The Spectacular Spider-Man July 27, 2007
  4. Ask Greg June 3, 2009
  5. Schneider, Michael (August 2, 2006). "Sony drives new disc biz". Variety. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  6. Elliott, Sean (March 4, 2008). "Symbiotically Bonding With 'Spectacular Spider-Man' Producer Victor Cook - Part 1". If Magazine. Electric Entertainment. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  7. Baisley, Sarah (June 18, 2007). "The Spectacular Spider-Man Title of New Marvel Series for Kids WB! on The CW". Animation World Network. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  8. Weisman, Greg (March 9, 2008). "Ask Greg: Spectacular Spider-Man 101 credits". Station Eight. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  9. Ask Greg May 14, 2009
  10. Ball, Ryan (March 6, 2008). "Spider-Man Begins, Batman Ends on Kids' WB!". Animation Magazine. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  11. Lowry, Brian (March 6, 2008). "The Spectacular Spider-Man". Variety. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  12. Ask Greg (Weisman): May 03, 2008
  13. Press Release For Upcoming "The Spectacular Spider-Man" DVDs, Season Two Updates by James Harvey: January 30, 2009
  14. "Update as of January 2009". S8.org. 2009-01-29. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  15. Ask Greg (Weisman): March 24, 2009
  16. Pepose, David. "ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN: The Animated Series, Disney XD 2011". Newsarama. April 13, 2010.
  17. "Marvel Animation Age". Marvel.toonzone.net. 2010-04-13. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  18. SuperHeroHype (2010-04-13). "Animated Ultimate Spider-Man Coming to Disney XD". Superhero Hype. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  19. Goldman, Eric. "Ultimate Spider-Man Comes to TV". IGN. April 14, 2010.
  20. "Marvel Animation Age". Marvel.toonzone.net. 2010-04-15. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  21. Ask Greg (Weisman): February 09, 2012
  22. Ask Greg (Weisman): August 31, 2009
  23. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". s8.org.
  24. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". s8.org.
  25. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". s8.org.
  26. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". s8.org.
  27. "Search Ask Greg : Gargoyles : Station Eight". s8.org.
  28. "WONDERCON COVERAGE: Spectacular Spider-Man". Archived from the original on 2011-07-08.
  29. "Review: 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' Animated Series". ComicMix.
  30. White, Reggie (2008-04-15). "Rave : 2008 : 8 Reasons to Watch Spectacular Spider-Man". SpiderFan.org. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  31. "Marvel Animation Age - Spectacular Spider-Man (2008)". Marvel.toonzone.net. 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  32. "30. The Spectacular Spider-Man". IGN. Archived from the original on 2012-06-03. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  33. "IGN TV: Best Animated Series 2008". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  34. "TV Best Animated Series 2009 - Spectacular Spider-Man". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  35. "IGN TV: Best Hero 2008". IGN. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  36. "IGN's Top 25 Comic Book TV Shows". IGN. December 14, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  37. Lowry, Brian (March 5, 2008). "The Spectacular Spider-Man". Variety.
  38. "TV Guide Magazine's 60 Greatest Cartoons of All Time". TV Guide. September 24, 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  39. TVshowsonDVD.com by David Lambert: Archived 2008-07-02 at the Wayback Machine June 28, 2008
  40. TVshowsonDVD.com by David Lambert: Archived 2009-05-22 at the Wayback Machine June 18, 2009
  41. TVshowsonDVD.com by David Lambert: Archived 2009-09-11 at the Wayback Machine September 8, 2009
  42. February 25, 2010
  43. "Play.com". Play.com. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  44. "Vortexx on The CW Unveils New Action Adventure Programming for 2013-'14 Slate - Business Wire". 14 June 2013.
  45. Comics Continuum by Rob Allstetter: December 2, 2007
  46. "McDonald's Happy Meal website". Happymeal.com. 2010-02-22. Archived from the original on 2012-05-25. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
  47. India Infoline News Service: Archived July 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine February 09, 2009
  48. "McDonald's Advertisement @ Dailymotion".
  49. "BK Kids' Meals Toys". Club BK. Burger King Corporation. Archived from the original on January 26, 2010. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
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