World "The Spectacular Spider-Man" Appreciation Thread (possible spoilers) - Part 1

[GamerSlyRatchet]

With characters like the Fisks and the Owl unavailable I’m curious what other people involved in organized crime they would have pulled out of the woodwork. Crime Master? Lucky Lobo? Lobo brothers? Even pulling The Big Man as a title was a bit obscure.

Weisman mentioned a few times he liked the character of Mr. Negative. So I assume we would've seen him.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Spectacular reunion with some of the cast from Spectacular Spider-Man

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

Spectacular reunion with some of the cast from Spectacular Spider-Man

Neat interview. Not much in new info, but Weisman did confirm he specifically intended Mr. Negative for season 3.

 

[Shikamaru]

I've always liked Hobgoblin. Imo he's the last great villain introduced into the Spider-Man mythos in the modern Era. True, a sort of copy cat villain to GG but the mystery surrounding his identity was great and Imo was shown to be a more menacing than GG.

As much as I would love to see or even hear about Weisman's version of Hobs, I don't think we ever will. Weisman is very tight lipped about his plans for Spectacular. He believes in no spoilers even if the show is canceled. His idea is that in the event the show does return, he'd want fans to know as little as possible.

I mean, Young Justice returned so we never know. Even Gargoyles eventually returned in comic form. I wouldn't be shocked if this show eventually returns one way or another, especially with Disney and Sony somewhat working together and Weisman having a good relationship with both. I'm not counting on it or getting my hopes up but it wouldn't shock me, that's all.

On a sidenote, I think 616 Hobgoblin can potentially be a good archenemy for Miles with them both being legacy characters and both having artistic tendencies (granted 616 Miles doesn't have as many artistic tendencies as the ITSV version I'm thinking of, but still). Hobgoblin even gave the Goblin a cape, which Miles wanted to do to his costume. There are some interesting parallels you can do there and have the Hobgoblin feel fresh again, IMO.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

After this month's boring fight in the new cartoon and the moments of idiocy like Spidey keeping his fists on his hips while watching Lizard exit in his school as Symbiote Norman Goblin's back is turned on Spider-Man with slow boring action all around, I felt like watching something Spectacular and watched the climax battle of Final Curtain that wastes no moments and doesn't leave loose ends for.. reasons.

Why is it that after this show we had to wait a decade to see great fights in animation that carry some amazing dramatic weight and story value, and it was in a movie, not a show? I can compliment Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon when it comes to action and animation, but not much else.
The new show fails hard in all of that, and it was supposed to make up for USM's shortcomings.

Spectacular ended in 2009, so I gotta say 11 years after it ended abruptly, 12 after it started, and basically everything about the animated series from 2008 (with exception for Joe Robertson) has been very high level of quality that is used to describe the title character.

Starting with the 80s and the habit of 2 Spider-Man animated shows per decade, this is the record we have:

Eighties: Two entertaining shows (for me at least) that suffer through mostly poorly executed storytelling, but at least got the character and his world mostly right, even though they lack the depth that make Spider-Man a hit character.

Nineties: One show that -while not great- left a big impact on many audience and is hailed to this day as a show to remember fondly, another show that had potential to be great, but was cancelled quickly and has certain issues.

2000s: One solid show despite being confused in episode order and licensing issues, succeeded by one of the best animated shows based on a comic book character that got axed too soon.

2010s: Shows that display failure at understanding the core basics of what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man, what makes Peter Parker an engaging character, boring action, uninspired music, supporting cast that outshine Peter Parker either in value as characters or how annoying and/or bland they can be, less than engaging voice actors for the character, pride in bad puns and lame jokes that take too much time, idiotic behavior, guest stars that are awfully misunderstood by the show writers, and so many more issues.


What make the issues of shows of last decade more painful is that they were made and released directly under the supervision or advice of comic book writers. You'd expect something more interesting and better handled because of that like what we got for PS4, but instead we got the most insufferable takes.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

After this month's boring fight in the new cartoon and the moments of idiocy like Spidey keeping his fists on his hips while watching Lizard exit in his school as Symbiote Norman Goblin's back is turned on Spider-Man with slow boring action all around, I felt like watching something Spectacular and watched the climax battle of Final Curtain that wastes no moments and doesn't leave loose ends for.. reasons.

Why is it that after this show we had to wait a decade to see great fights in animation that carry some amazing dramatic weight and story value, and it was in a movie, not a show? I can compliment Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon when it comes to action and animation, but not much else.
The new show fails hard in all of that, and it was supposed to make up for USM's shortcomings.

Spectacular ended in 2009, so I gotta say 11 years after it ended abruptly, 12 after it started, and basically everything about the animated series from 2008 (with exception for Joe Robertson) has been very high level of quality that is used to describe the title character.

Starting with the 80s and the habit of 2 Spider-Man animated shows per decade, this is the record we have:

Eighties: Two entertaining shows (for me at least) that suffer through mostly poorly executed storytelling, but at least got the character and his world mostly right, even though they lack the depth that make Spider-Man a hit character.

Nineties: One show that -while not great- left a big impact on many audience and is hailed to this day as a show to remember fondly, another show that had potential to be great, but was cancelled quickly and has certain issues.

2000s: One solid show despite being confused in episode order and licensing issues, succeeded by one of the best animated shows based on a comic book character that got axed too soon.

2010s: Shows that display failure at understanding the core basics of what makes Spider-Man Spider-Man, what makes Peter Parker an engaging character, boring action, uninspired music, supporting cast that outshine Peter Parker either in value as characters or how annoying and/or bland they can be, less than engaging voice actors for the character, pride in bad puns and lame jokes that take too much time, idiotic behavior, guest stars that are awfully misunderstood by the show writers, and so many more issues.


What make the issues of shows of last decade more painful is that they were made and released directly under the supervision or advice of comic book writers. You'd expect something more interesting and better handled because of that like what we got for PS4, but instead we got the most insufferable takes.

I can't really comment on the new show since I haven't watched it outside of the first 7 episodes or whatever but I'm not surprised it's not doing well.

As for the 'comic book' writers you're referring to, I'm assuming you mean Dan Slott and Gage? If so, again, not surprised the show isn't doing well. Neither of those guys has anything resembling an even halfway decent grasp on the character, especially the former. And I'm being generous when I say that.

But it goes back to 'that's why Spectacular is so good.' The creators of the show did understand the character. They did understand how to craft a good story and weave ideas, write dialogue, choreograph action scenes and more importantly give them purpose and emotional weight. We won't get another good or great Spider-Man show again until another batch of educated creators comes along.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I can't really comment on the new show since I haven't watched it outside of the first 7 episodes or whatever but I'm not surprised it's not doing well.

As for the 'comic book' writers you're referring to, I'm assuming you mean Dan Slott and Gage? If so, again, not surprised the show isn't doing well. Neither of those guys has anything resembling an even halfway decent grasp on the character, especially the former. And I'm being generous when I say that.

But it goes back to 'that's why Spectacular is so good.' The creators of the show did understand the character. They did understand how to craft a good story and weave ideas, write dialogue, choreograph action scenes and more importantly give them purpose and emotional weight. We won't get another good or great Spider-Man show again until another batch of educated creators comes along.

You're doing yourself a huge favor by ignoring the new show. It's somewhat less obnoxious than USM (which I've admittedly enjoyed since the get go) and got things somewhat better, but still manages to remain obnoxious at points. One of this season's episodes gave us Peter's Spidey, Iron Heart, and Amadeus Cho's Hulk, and they outplayed each other in who could be the more annoying character.

Slott and Gage sure have their disappointing stuff, Slott more notably cause of certain stuff, and more notably after the end of Superior Spider-Man, but they still showed more understanding of the character than most writers of USM and the current (thankfully one episode away from ending) crappy show that keep making Spider-Man a blundering buffoon for most of the first season and parts of subsequent seasons. Both of these shows together will make a total of 162 episodes (counting all origin shorts for this new show as one episode in total) of disappointing gross misunderstanding of the character and his world. That amount of crap succeeded one amazing show with some outstanding action and fantastic voice acting, and the first one of the two underwhelming shows started alongside a show that did Spider-Man a lot of justice when it brought him in as a guest star (Earth's Mightiest Heroes).

The current show had the gall of having two of the best Spider-Man voice actors in a single episode (Josh Keaton as bored and boring Norman Osborn and Yuri Lowenthal as bored and uninteresting evil Curt Connors) along with the unimpressive new voice for Spider-Man (who is pretty fine as a voice actor in other roles), and they stand still where action is required, and pointless slow motion still plays a part in the action.

I want to hope for improvement this decade, but with the current state of things and staff I doubt we will get any reason to find hope for the future of Spider-Man's TV animation. The crap makes it even harder for me to watch Spectacular Spider-Man again cause it's something sooooo good that ended way way too early I can't helpe but cry when watching, and made way for 164 episodes of disappointment starring Spider-Man, and some average shows that some times guest star the dumb and dumber versions of Spider-Man.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Watched some cool moments from season 2, had a lot of fun watching them, then I started brooding over the right to enjoy such awesomeness that the tangled web of rights prevented from moving forward.

 

[Venom 1988]

Yea it sucks. It legit bothers me that USM was able to get 104 episodes when the Spec team's goal was half of that (since they had 13 episode seasons).

 

[kguillou]

I still remember Weisman giving an interview from waaaayyy back where he laid out his whole plan for the show. He wanted to do a couple of DTV’s with Peter in college and stuff telling more mature stories.

If the Snyder Cut can get released, how do we get this thing going, people? Ten years later im still not over it.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I think one of the DTVs he had planned was the Death of Gwen, which I have no doubt would have been done well.

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

I still remember Weisman giving an interview from waaaayyy back where he laid out his whole plan for the show. He wanted to do a couple of DTV’s with Peter in college and stuff telling more mature stories.

If the Snyder Cut can get released, how do we get this thing going, people? Ten years later im still not over it.

Years ago, I would've said the rights issues. But these days, Sony seems to be pretty comfortable using nostalgia for the Maguire and Garfield movies in their games and potentially in the movies. So, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Honestly, I wish the show was acknowledged AT ALL. A Spectacular-styled skin would be a great addition to a Spider-Man game sequel. The first game and the Miles Morales one are using cartoon-based skins, and the Mangaverse skin the former had resembles Spectacular Peter a lot, right down to the orange-ish red and the cartoony proportions.

 

[Mistah K88]

I still remember Weisman giving an interview from waaaayyy back where he laid out his whole plan for the show. He wanted to do a couple of DTV’s with Peter in college and stuff telling more mature stories.

If the Snyder Cut can get released, how do we get this thing going, people? Ten years later im still not over it.

Seconded... It's one thing to get caught into a cartoon as a kid and have fond memories of it...but this show hooked me as an ADULT! I was in college when this show was on the air, and now in my 30's I still hunger for more!

With the domino effect of this show, Wolverine and the X-Men, AND Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes getting cancelled one right after another, I swear Disney/Marvel was targeting ME specifically. (Did I not buy enough Marvel comic books? I'm SORRY Disney/Marvel please forgive me!)

Yea it sucks. It legit bothers me that USM was able to get 104 episodes when the Spec team's goal was half of that (since they had 13 episode seasons).

Also, with each season taking about 10 months to finish...they could have just thrown us a bone and have Sony either wrap it up or give us up to season 4 while Ultimate was in production since it didn't premiere until 2012...They spent more time keeping everyone in the dark about the show's cancellation rather than just saying it outright.

Years ago, I would've said the rights issues. But these days, Sony seems to be pretty comfortable using nostalgia for the Maguire and Garfield movies in their games and potentially in the movies. So, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Honestly, I wish the show was acknowledged AT ALL. A Spectacular-styled skin would be a great addition to a Spider-Man game sequel. The first game and the Miles Morales one are using cartoon-based skins, and the Mangaverse skin the former had resembles Spectacular Peter a lot, right down to the orange-ish red and the cartoony proportions.

Same...just SOMETHING as small as a costume would make my day. (If they use the Green Goblin sooner or later, they could make the pumpkin bombs scream and I'll be over the moon.)

 

[Venom 1988]

Also, with each season taking about 10 months to finish...they could have just thrown us a bone and have Sony either wrap it up or give us up to season 4 while Ultimate was in production since it didn't premiere until 2012...They spent more time keeping everyone in the dark about the show's cancellation rather than just saying it outright.

The thing I never understood (and maybe Greg Bishansky could shed some light in case he still visits this forum) was why did they wait to even start a potential season 3? If I remember correctly, production on season 2 had already started while season 1 was airing in Spring 2008. So they were essentially working back to back on those 2 seasons. And while season 2 didn't air in the US until June 2009, season 2 had been done for months since they were already airing episodes in other countries as early as January 2009.

Did Sony only greenlight them for to do 2 seasons and they wanted to wait and see how the ratings were? I don't recall when the animation rights reverted back to Marvel (I know it was prior to the Disney deal though) so its possible maybe the rights had reverted prior to the end of season 2 production?​

 

[kguillou]

I think if the show had been cancelled today, in this day and age of social media prominence the fans would have had a decent shot at making their voices heard to save the show.

Look at Young Justice, i think that ended in 2013 or 2014? 6 years later they brought it back because the fans made their voices heard online and WB acknowledged that theres a hunger for it. I think unfortunately too much time has passed since the show’s ending for Marvel/Disney to even pay it any mind at this point.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Adults are more demanding of the continuation of this show than children are, and I became an adult the same year Spider-Man 3 was released in theaters and followed this show since it was in production.

At this point I'd rather see a new show with the same standards of quality combining well decided storytelling and writing, effects, art style, animation, action, sound design, proper voice actors and performance, and music that elevates the atmosphere of the scene instead of being generic and boring. An added bonus will be seeing it progress for all planned episodes and seasons.

 

[Herofan]

Why did the symbiote want to, feel it had to, separate Peter from all his other relationships?

 

[Scarlet Spider]

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Why did the symbiote want to, feel it had to, separate Peter from all his other relationships?

It needs to feed on negative emotions, so it needed to keep Spider-Man edgy and angry to feed itself.

 

[Venom 1988]

Don't give me hope lol

 

[kguillou]

Greg’s busy working for DC anyway on YJ.

 

[Daltonio]

I honestly can't believe it's been over a decade since this show was cancelled, reading that honestly blew my mind. It's crazy how fast time flies sometimes. Over 10 years ago already.. insane.

I'm usually cynical when it comes to these things but I've always had a nagging feeling regarding this show that we haven't seen the last of it. It may still be a few more years off but I wholeheartedly believe that we'll eventually see some sort of continuation or conclusion of this series.

 

[kguillou]

In this day and age where everything is being resurrected i dont wanna say its impossible but I feel like this show is completely gone. For a show with such high prestige around it, Marvel wants nothing to do with it—probably because of the complicated Sony rights. I dont see them bending over backwards to revive it because some fanboys like us on the internet are asking for it. And, also, Greg Weismann is working for DC now and seems focused on Young Justice. For those two reasons, I cannot see the show coming back.

 

[Mistah K88]

While we know that Scorpion and Hobgoblin were planned for season 3, it's definitely obvious that some civilians were shown who would have become villains in season 3, like Morris Bench and possibly Cletus Cassidy. What are the statuses of all the villains that were already in the show? Here's what I've got.

At Large:
Hammerhead
Vulture
Kraven
Silver Sable
Sandman
Mysterio
Green Goblin (though he's definitely benched)
Tombstone (kind of neutralized)
Kingsley
Miles Warren
Lizard (though I'm not sure how often he'd show up as a beast)
Ravencroft:
John Jameson
Doctor Octopus
Electro
Eddie Brock
Jail:
Rhino
Silvermane
Montana (Shocker)
Fancy Dan (Ricochet)
Ox
Molten Man

Also...despite Peter being a teenager, it's interesting that all of his villains were adults. Even those who were not too much older than him (Eddie Brock and Mark Allen) were legally adults with Mark being the only one that went to school with Peter and only was there an extra year because he was in juvenile hall.

 

[Venom75]

This is still my favorite Spidey cartoon. I really love what they did with Eddie Brock and making him one of Peter's best friends. It really made the connection between the two alot more personal and that made for a better Spider-man vs. Venom grudge.