The Spectacular Spider:Man: Season 1

You know, it's been a rough couple of years for my old favorite superhero. With the third film being such a massive disappointment to the fans and the comics taking a turn for the worse due to Marvel's stupefying ret-con that effectively eliminated nearly every interesting thing to happen to the character in the last few decades in a poorly though-out attempt to reboot the character and take him back to his roots, it seemed like I was done with the amazing Spider-Man. Then this show comes along. Now THIS is how you reboot a classic character. Same old cast, same old themes, same old Spidey, but all fresh and new. Don't let the simplistic artwork make you think this is just for kids. This is one of the best comic adaptations ever made and it's aimed at old-school comic geeks as much or more then the younger demographic. Any webslinging fan suffering from the Spider-Man 3 blues will probably be blown away by how good this show is. I'm reviewing the first two seasons here. They appear to be digging in for the long haul on this show, but whether season three and beyond gets made depends on we the fans supporting this show. Let's do that. First box to be checked for a five star show: as always, characters. Remember Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, and Peter Parker's original true love Gwen Stacy? Front and center in this one. Mary Jane gets to sit the early part of the show out and then plays only a supporting role. Just as it should be. While Marvel's attempt to bring an adult unmasked Peter Parker back to his high school glory days of multiple romantic entanglements and identity-hiding hijinks on the printed page fell flat on it's face, "Spectacular Spider-Man" soars by starting over at the beginning and giving us new interpretations the characters we love that are very much true to the spirit of the classic Stan Lee stories. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually interested in Spider-Man's love life. He's beating charming ladies off with a stick in this one! Geek culture has come a long way when the biggest nerd in school is choosing between the hottest girls around. The classic villains are all here, and Eddie Brock is thrown into the mix as a friend of Peter's right from the start. That's right, this show may be true to the spirit of the original works, but this show will keep you surprised by adding it's own twists to the old adventures and keeping them fresh. Many of the old villains have new origins and motivations, though none of them differs enough to cry foul aside from maybe Brock, if only because his decent into evil is so precipitous. Otherwise, absolutely spot-on job done here. Okay, the animation. At first I was really turned off by the minimalist look of the art, but it really wound up growing on me. In spite of the fact that all the characters' eyes are literally a circle with a smaller colored circle drawn inside, I am impressed at how well the character's feeling are conveyed in their facial expressions. Aside from a very short and pudgy Doc Ock, I like all of the new character designs as well. One thing about simplistic art: it animates really fluidly. Batman - The Animated Series wrote the book on that. This one utilizes that principle effectively as well and provides the best action scenes you'll find on television right now. He has a throw-down with Venom in season 2 that must take up literally half of the episode's screen time but is so visually dynamic that it never feels redundant. The best aspect of a show like this one is the writing. Spider-Man has his prodigious mouth back in this incarnation and will almost definitely make you laugh out loud as he continuously heckles the villains. The shy and sweet characterization of Gwen Stacy, the doting of Aunt May, the arrogant manipulations of Norman Osborne, the kindness of Curt Connors, and the buffoonish bravado of Flash are all very well done. The characters are all given a lot of life and personality, which is amazing considering how action-heavy this show becomes at times. While the early 90's Spider-Man series is classic and did a great job of bringing watered-down versions of the comic's stories and tons of Marvel Universe guest stars, the animation has not aged well and the original comics are still better for the most part. Plus you can't even buy it on DVD. "Spectacular Spider-Man" gathers strength from it's original takes on the old stories and focus on the supporting cast. The whipsmart writing doesn't hurt either. Old-school Spidey fans will love this show. New webheads will find this is very palatable to the uninitiated and the next best thing to reading the original works. As animated comic adaptations go, it seldom gets any better. This is exactly how I like to see this most iconic of superheroes portrayed.

As a 30-something child at heart, I stil like my animated shows. Shows like Star Wars: Clone Wars, The Batman, Justice League, Fantastic Four, Wolverine, and so forth. So I'm always looking out for new shows that may grab my attention. Of course, I will always give a comic superhero show a chance. Well, back when this first season aired, it was exclusively on the CW channels here in America. Well, none of those come in in HD on our satellite system, so I was stuck with SD picture in 4:3. To be honest the show didn't look good. For the low-res pic on an HD set and the fact that it was clearly rendered in 16:9 and all I was getting was a cropped 4:3 pic. So anyway, I did DVR the episodes, but never really watched them. I think I watched the Lizard episode, "Natural Selection", I think it was. Well, I really couldn't get into the animation style and being SD didn't help matters. So here we are just over a year after the first season finished airing and the Complete Season 1 set comes out. I had pre-ordered it in the hopes of being pleasantly surprised. Well, my hopes were realized and after watching it over the last few days, I have come to the conclusion that this show is REALLY well done. Yes, the animation (or shall I say the character models) take some time getting used to, but once you do you kind of feel like they actually fit well with the surroundings. The voice acting is great. Got some top-notch voice-over talent there, from Clancy Brown and Lacy Chabert to Keith David. That's one thing that has really helped post-1990 animated shows have staying power, if you will. But I htink the most important part of all that makes this series different and unique is that the producers plan out each season as just one long continuous story. Each episode pretty much starts off with where the previous one let off. Which is nice, because it pretty much eliminates the proverbial "reset button" phenomemon that a lot of shows have. I also like how they allude to the creation of super villains in previous episodes before they actually occur. For example, with Dr. Curt Connors eventually becoming The Lizard by Ep. 2 and then Flint Marko being just a petty theif before he becomes Sandman in several episodes later, and of course how Eddie Brock eventally becomes Venom by the season finale while the seeds of his fate are laid in several prior episodes. Of course, all that is due to the pre-planning of the entire season. In the specal feature on Disc 2, you see how the writers laid out the season with a bunch of color-coded post-it notes, and how they'd move plot points around as to which episode to put them in and when. Very clever on the part of the writers. So then what you get is a very concise story line that carries on through 13 episodes, with very few, if any, plot-holes. Another thing I liked about this series is the violence level. For those who've seen The Batman series, and perhaps even the 2003 TMNT sereies, the violence level is right at that PG-13 level I'd say. Of course it's just cartoons, but still, I don't recall any of those old classic superhero shows ever coming this close to knock-out, drag-down fights and whatnot. As far as any flaws go, I'd say the only thing is...maybe, the chronology of some of the villian and character revealings when compared to the classic comics. Oh, and that's another thing. All of this stories are basically straight out of the old original comics. But like I've said, the writers introduced a few characters before their time, only because of the time constraints with a 13-episode season. Well, anyway, if you're in any way a Spidey fan and wonder whether or not this new incarnation of the classic figure is worthy of your time, I would have to say, definately yes. Just hold your ears while the opening credit theme song plays as that's really the only corny part of this series, if you ask me.

I'm a huge fan of the original 90's Spider-Man cartoon and was skeptical (to say the least) when I first saw the unveiling of this new series. I'm not a fan of the artwork and I'm getting weary of the constant rehashing of Spider-Man's origins. However, after being convinced by some friends to check it out, I have to say I've been extremely pleased with this series. First off, while it is yet another rehashing of Spider-Man's high school origins, the primary love interest for the show is Gwen Stacy and NOT Mary Jane Watson -- a refreshing return to old-school Spidey. Also, despite my personal dislike for the art-style, the animation is smooth and moves fluidly providing some astounding and often times brilliant fight sequences. They also do an excellent job of representing the characters while keeping them unique in personality and ability. The Rhino, Sandman, Venom and The Green Goblin were done exceedingly well in my opinion. The only bad thing I can think to say is that a lot of the teenage banter is very cheesy and sounds too much like an older writer trying to capture this generation's "hip" lingo. I can't help but cringe anytime Eddie Brock or Peter Parker call each other "bro". So, quick list... Pros: - Excellent fight sequences - Great storytelling (representing both the new and the classic) - Great character representation Cons: - "Hip"-lingo - Art-style (this one is personal, most people I talk to love the art)

As a kid in the 1970s, I read comics, and Spider-man was one of favorites. But I put comics aside as a preteen and went onto other things. The 2002 live-action "Spider-man" flick got me interested in the Spider-man character all over again, and I picked up the first several volumes of Marvel's Essential Spider-man trade paperbacks, which encompass the beginning years of the character, from his appearance in 'Amazing Fantasy' #15 into 'The Amazing Spider-man' flagship. Through that collection, I was able to read the old Stan Lee / Steve Ditko Spider-man for the first time, and that pretty much confirmed the fact that, though Spider-man has changed much over the years, the essential core of the character was firmly established in the Lee/Ditko/Romita years -- as were virtually all of the iconic supporting cast and villains. Why mention any of this? Because, put simply, "Spectacular Spider-man" respects the past. It takes the character archetypes from the Lee/Ditko years (and borrows others from later years or iterations, notably 'Ultimate Spider-man') and turns them into characters believable in the 2000s. There is plenty here for the aficionado of the Lee/Ditko/Romita Spider-man to love. Not only the essential character archetypes, but also twists on familiar and beloved storylines from the 1960s and early 1970s, and even an occasional scene or shot that I am pretty sure was done in homage of a particularly iconic scene from the comic book past. Yet, this animated series remains modern in the best sense of the word, and can be enjoyed by anyone who has no idea of the storylines of the Lee/Ditko/Romita years. And for those who do know the Spider-man mythos, there are enough changes to make viewing a fresh experience. Think you already know how a certain plotline or story arc will end? You may be wrong, because the writers have taken liberties and even made some pretty significant changes. I won't spoil the fun by suggesting exactly what, but suffice to say that this is hardly paint-by-numbers adoration of the past. In this reviewer's opinion, this is all to the good. Some may argue about the depiction of certain characters -- the Eddie Brock / Venom character seems to stand out in this regard -- but the real accomplishment here is how many of these characters feel both old-shoe-comfortable and freshly modern at the same time. And with each passing show in the series, the character development increases, not only for Peter Parker and Spider-man but also for a number of the supporting cast, even if subtly. "Spectacular Spider-man" is absolutely worthwhile for anyone who has a love for Spider-man. It respects the character, and has fun with him and his gang. It has a good mix of superhero action and classic Peter Parker angst, romance and interaction with a core group of supporting characters -- 1960s vintage characters like Gwen Stacy (how can you go wrong?), Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson and Liz Allan, along with revamped characters from later years, such as Glory Grant and even Kenny "King" Kong, taken from the 2000s-era 'Ultimate Spider-man' comic. "Spectacular Spider-man" respects its subject matter and deftly combines the iconic with the modern. But most of all, it's great entertainment.

My son thoroughly enjoys Spider-man and the new series takes Spidey back to his high school days. There are some really nice spins on the regular bad guys (Electro is physically altered into electric energy instead some guy in a suit, and Rhino's suit is permanently bonded to him), as well as the overall continuing storyline of the NY underworld which is, at this point, run by the "Big Man" aka Tombstone. Eddie Brock and Peter are friends whose parents died together in a plane crash, which is a departure from the original storyline, but the writers make it work. Peter Parker doesn't always make the right decision but learns from his mistakes and does right in the end. It is a true coming of age story that always sticks to the very phrase that Spider-man is known for..."with great power comes great responsibility." My son has been watching the second season on DisneyXD and the story is getting even better. Overall I highly recommend this to any Spider-man fan as well as anyone looking for good family entertainment for kids and adults alike.

Spectacular Spider-Man is a well written and produced cartoon. Unlike most Marvel cartoons which suffer from horrible drawing, Spectacular is actually well drawn. My understanding is the folks behind Gargoyles produced this cartoon. Older animatoin fans recall that Gargoyles was the only show besides Batman The Animated series that tried to have a style. Spider-Man fan boys make take issue with the very slight influence on Anime on the character designs, but its modest and effective. I guess if I had one bone to pick with this cartoon - as well as the films - it would be using Venom in the series. Venom is one of the most over used and ill suited characters in the Spider-Man franchise. A guy in a black Spidey suit with a big tongue hanging off his face -- its rediculous and tasteless (no pun intended).

In great shape and it arrived even earlier then expected which was very nice.

Spider-man has always been my favorite superhero growing up, with his great powers and everyday troubles he experiences just like we do. At first I didn't want to see this series (I have fond memories of the 90's series) after looking at its more cartoony look, but after watching some episodes, I was completely wrong. The writing is very strong, capturing the essence of the comic's original storyline, and having a balance between pathos, humor, and action. The actors are great; Josh Keaton makes a good Peter Parker reminiscent of Christopher Daniel Barnes from the 90's series and of Tobey Maguire's performances from the movies (the 2nd one is my favorite). The real show stealers are the villains; Robert Englund (best remembered as Freddy Krueger) is a great Vulture, Peter MacNicol captures the sly wit and sinisterness of Doctor Octopus. Finally the animation is actually well drawn and animated and gets you into the action. I do have some parental warnings though; Some have said this is good for years 4 and up, but I say take the Y7 seriously. The action can get a little brutal at times and two villains are frightening (Lizard and Venom). Lizard's transformation is a bit disturbing, but thankfully it is brief. Now I only wish season 2 was on DVD....

Bien

I grew up on the 60's version of Spidey but it is dated and very expensive, if you can find it. I thought I would give this a try at this price point and I am so happy that I did. There is a great assortment of villains that my son loves and Spidey has a rather cocky / sarcastic sense of humor that I really enjoy, in this updated version. It has something for everyone that wants to see more of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

I was totally blown away, exciting, funny, energetic, really spectacular! Very entertaining for both adults and kids. This is the best rendition of Spiderman for anyone interested in the series.

La meilleur adaptation animée des aventures de Spiderman... pour le peps et la qualité graphique. Ca change des vieux épisodes des années 94 et avant ! En attendant une série plus sombre et plus adulte. Le coffret comprend 4 DVD dont chacun 3/4 épisodes de la saison 1. Vivement la saison 2 ;-)

J’ai acheté ce dessin animé pour’ mon fils de 5 ans et a notre grande surprise, il y en avait 4.