With Spider-Man's current show being such a stain on his mostly successful animated career, you're probably wondering what made his previous cartoon so much better. Well don't worry, because for this Recommendation I'm going to tell you readers what makes this Spider-Man show superior. Here's our first Recommendation of 2015, The Spectacular Spider-Man!
First premiering in 2008, The Spectacular Spider-Man was created by Greg Weisman. Set three months after Peter Parker became Spider-Man, Peter is just starting his Junior year of High School. The show often revolves around Peter juggling his responsibilities as Peter Parker and as Spider-Man, often having to make sacrifices to personal life to uphold his duty as a hero. The show does a great job characterizing Peter Parker (voiced by Josh Keaton) as a highly intelligent, but socially clumsy teenager. As the show progresses, Peter makes new friends, gains more confidence and becomes a more experienced superhero. Spider-Man's various villains not only receive cosmetic revamps, but also streamlined backstories to better tie them into the overall setting. While other Marvel heroes don't appear in this show, the diverse cast of characters makes this fictional New York feel more expansive. You have your flashy super-villains like Electro and Mysterio, but then you have more down-to-earth mobsters like Silvermane and Tombstone. Spider-Man's greatest villains like Green Goblin and Venom are presented to have more personal relations to Peter Parker before they ever become his enemies. Weisman described the structure of the show to be presented as "The Education of Peter Parker". The first season's story arcs are based on Biology, Economics, Chemistry, and Psychology. This formula is repeated in season two through Engineering, Human Development, Criminology and Drama. I mentioned during my review of Ultimate Spider-Man that three themes are important to any Spider-Man adaptation: Comedy, Responsibility and Action. As mentioned, Responsibility is given heavy attention in Spectacular Spider-Man with every decision Peter making having repercussions. In an early episode, Peter gets a job taking pictures of Spider-Man for The Daily Bugle. After his first pay check, Peter must decide whether to use the money to support his Aunt May or to spend the money on a better camera. This is one example of Peter's constant struggle with his responsibilities, not even counting how many times Peter would have to ignore a favor or task to stop crime. The action of the show is fluid and well fit to it's type of art style, often presenting fight scenes that are both vivid and exciting, while also having effect behind them. When Spider-Man is knocked around like a hackey-sack by The Sinister Six, you feel every ounce of pain he feels simply by watching the expressions on his mask and the fantastic voice work of Keaton. Speaking of which, Keaton nails Spider-Man's comedy perfectly. Unlike Ultimate Spider-Man's hand feeding attempts to spark a snicker, Spectacular Spider-Man uses the character's natural sense of humor to entertain the viewers. Spider-Man is presented as being upbeat, sarcastic and clever, like Bugs Bunny is red tights. He teases his villains and makes quick snarky comments that aren't seen as mean because Peter isn't as harsh when he's outside the suit. With these themes, the show balances the lore of Spider-Man perfectly.
The show was cancelled after two seasons when relations between Marvel/Disney and Sony began to crumble. The third season would have included characters like Hobgoblin, Carnage and Scorpion, but Spectacular Spider-Man was replaced by Ultimate Spider-Man before we could see these characters realized. The show is still on Netflix, DVD and online sources if you're interested. If you want a good Spider-Man story outside the comics or something to enjoy with the kids, this is hands down the best on-screen presentation of the character. Thanks for reading!
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