The
Spectacular Spider-Man was the sixth Saturday morning cartoon (seventh,
overall) based on Marvel
Comics’ Spider-Man, and the second of three after Unlimited to share a title
with one of Spidey’s many comic series (which, interestingly enough, was also his
second comic series).
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| Promotional poster featuring Spidey, Electro, Sandman, Doc Ock, Kraven, Mysterio, Venom and Green Goblin's glider. |
Developed by Victor Cook
and Greg
Weisman, the series chose to focus on Peter Parker’s (Josh
Keaton) high school years; something that hadn’t been done before (most shows
typically began with or focused on his college years). Upon landing the series,
Weisman purchased seven volumes of The Essential Spider-Man to boil down what
creators Stan Lee
and Steve
Ditko tried to accomplish. From the outset, it was decided that
the series would follow the “5 C’s”: it would be Coherent, Cohesive, Contemporary,
Classic and iConic (cheating with the hard “c” sound of the word). They would utilize
the earliest issues of Amazing Spider-Man as their
springboard while combining elements found in the later comics and even the Sam Raimi film trilogy
(which was just wrapping up around that time).
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| Some of the civilian character models. |
As a result, the characters featured
in the show were a mix from various periods in Spidey’s life and career.
Amongst the regular characters from the comic’s high school days, there was his
widowed Aunt May (Deborah Strang); her friend and neighbor, Anna
Watson (Kath Soucie); gruff Daily
Bugle publisher
J. Jonah Jameson (Daran Norris, reprising his role from the 2000 video game);
Jonah’s son, astronaut John Jameson (also Norris); star football player and
bully Flash Thompson (Joshua LeBar); Flash’s girlfriend, Liz Allan (reimagined
as a Latina, voiced by Alanna Ubach); Jonah’s secretary, Betty Brant
(Grey DeLisle);
Bugle reporter Ned Leeds (renamed Ned
Lee, voiced by Andrew Kishino); Bugle reporter
Frederick Foswell (James Arnold Taylor), who adopted the alter-ego Patch to get
information about the criminal underworld; and Bugle editor-in-chief Robbie Robertson
(Phil LaMarr).
Introduced from his college years was Peter’s friend and future wife Mary Jane
Watson (Vanessa Marshall); his best friend, Harry Osborn (Taylor); Robbie’s son,
Randy Robertson (LaMarr); police officer Jean DeWolff
(Irene Bedard)
and her partner, Sergeant Stan
Carter (Thomas
F. Wilson); Sha
Shan Nguyen (Kelly Hu),
Flash’s second girlfriend after Liz dumped him; and Glory Grant
(Cree Summer),
reimagined from Peter’s neighbor and Betty’s replacement to high school age.
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| Glory Grant berating her boyfriend, Kenny. |
Among
the newer creations was Flash’s best friend, Kenny Kong (Kishino), who was
introduced in 2000’s Ultimate Spider-Man #1
(an updated reimagining of Spidey’s early years) and was Glory’s boyfriend for
a time; Sally
Avril (DeLisle), who had a sole appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15
(Spidey’s first appearance) but was later expanded upon in the pages of Untold Tales of Spider-Man; and Officer Vin Gonzales
and his partner, Alan
O’Neil, who both first appeared in Spider-Man: Free Comic Book Day (2007) as part of
the rebooted continuity stemming from the controversial “One More Day”
storyline. They even introduced the Osborns’ butler, Bernard Houseman
(Jeff Bennett),
who was only seen in the Raimi films.
 |
| George and Gwen Stacy attend Thanksgiving at the Parkers'. |
One
unique aspect of Spidey’s supporting cast was the inclusion of his college
girlfriend, Gwen Stacy (Chabert). Until this point, Gwen was only seen once in
the final episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Gwen was
introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #31
(1965) and dated both Flash and Harry before ending up with Peter. However,
none of the creators particularly cared for her character and found Mary Jane
more interesting; so when Gerry
Conway and Roy Thomas
succeeded Lee as the series’ writer and editor, respectively, they decided to
kill Gwen off at the suggestion of John Romita, Sr. She
died in a conflict with Spidey’s arch-nemesis, the Green
Goblin, in Amazing Spider-Man #121
(1973). Because of this, producers were hesitant to bring her into other media;
particularly cartoons. Gwen, however, had her fans. Weisman had grown up
reading the comics during the Gwen years and wanted the chance to have
audiences fall in love with the character like he had. So, Gwen became Peter’s
primary love interest in Spectacular. With
her came the second appearance of her father, police captain George Stacy
(Clancy Brown), beaten to the punch the previous year by Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man
3 (played
by James
Cromwell). Like in the comics, it was hinted that George had
deduced that Peter was Spidey and often subtlety helped him by providing cover
and alibis to allow Spidey to keep his identity a secret. As with his daughter,
he was also
killed in the comics by another Spidey arch-foe: Doctor Octopus.
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| The Sinister Six version 1.0: Rhino, Electro, Sandman, Doc Ock, Shocker and Vulture. |
The main antagonist of the series
began as the mysterious “Big Man”, an identity that was assumed by Frederick
Foswell and later his children in the comics. This time, however, it belonged
to the super strong albino Tombstone
(Keith David the
first time, Kevin
Michael Richardson after). Much like the Kingpin
in the comics (who wasn’t used as he’d become more of a Daredevil
foe, despite beginning as Spidey’s, and wasn’t included in the rights), Big Man
had a benevolent public persona while secret running the criminal underworld of
the city. To accomplish his crimes, Big Man would often hire a cavalcade of
super villains. Previously televised villains included the aforementioned Green
Goblin (Alan
Rachins as Norman Osborn, Steven Blum
as the Goblin), a ruthless businessman who became involved with Big Man before
setting sights on taking his place; the hard-headed Hammerhead
(John Dimaggio),
who served as Big Man’s public face and muscle; Vulture
(Robert Englund),
whose theft of his proprietary flight technology by Osborn turned him to crime;
Silvermane
(Miguel Ferrer),
a rival crime lord who sets his own sights on running the underworld; Electro
(Crispin Freeman),
an electrician who was turned into an electrical being in a freak accident; Sandman
(DiMaggio), a petty criminal turned that could control sand through an
experiment by Osborn; Rhino (Brown), Sandman’s one-time partner who was given
super strength and invulnerability by Osborn; Dr. Octopus (Peter MacNicol,
a fan of the comics and character), one of Oscorp’s
most intelligent scientists that became fused to his mechanical arms in a lab
accident (and went by his other alias of Master Planner in the second season); Chameleon
(Blum), an international spy and master of disguise; Mysterio
(Xander Berkeley),
a special effects expert; Lizard
(Dee Bradley Baker,
reprising his role from the 2000 video game), a brilliant biologist whose
desire to restore his missing arm transformed him into a humanoid lizard; Kraven the Hunter
(Eric Vesbit),
a skilled hunter later transformed into a beast by a variation of Lizard’s serum;
Dr.
Miles Warren (reimagined as East Indian, voiced by Brian George),
a biochemistry professor who became fascinated by Lizard’s experiments; and Venom
(Benjamin Diskin), whose parents had died along with Peter’s and became jealous
of Peter’s stable home life before joining with the alien symbiote Peter would
come to reject. Appearing sans their alter-egos were Morris Bench (aka Hydro-Man,
voiced by Bill
Fagerbakke) and Hobie Brown, aka Prowler,
who was interrupted every time he tried to speak in a running gag.
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| Molten Man's on fire! |
Newly introduced was Molten Man
(Eric Lopez),
changed from Liz’s half-brother to full brother who had a crush on Mary Jane.
He was transformed by the Goblin by being given nanite armor that made his skin
impenetrable and hot, and could only be turned off by the Goblin. There was
also the Tinkerer
(Thom
Adcox-Hernandez), who developed and provided many of the
villains’ technology. Roderick Kingsley (Courtney B. Vance),
a businessman obsessed with committing crimes and would eventually become the Hobgoblin,
also appeared.
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| Cats and spiders always mix. |
In keeping with the 5 Cs, Weisman
took some liberties with the source material by examining characters’ core
essences and making changes and combinations when necessary. For instance,
cat-burglar Walter
Hardy (James
Remar) was combined with the
burglar who would kill Uncle Ben
(Ed Asner,
who voiced Jonah in The Animated Series)
and provide Spidey with his motivation. That would also cause Spidey to cross
paths with his equally larcenous daughter, Black Cat
(Tricia Helfer).
Deciding Shocker
was just a “costume without an identity”, the character was combined with Montana
(Bennett), a member of the Enforcers.
Fellow Enforcer Fancy
Dan
(LaMarr) was reimagined as a diminutive African-American acrobat who also went
by the name “Ricochet”, rather than a typical gangster. Silver Sable
(Nikki Cox)
was changed from a mercenary to the daughter of Silvermane who helped run his
organization and once had a relationship with Hammerhead. Although John Jameson
would end up with a cosmic gem that transformed him into Man-Wolf,
the series decided to have him exposed to alien spores that temporarily gave
him powers (and mental instability), letting him become Captain Jupiter.
The
Spectacular Spider-Man debuted on March 8, 2008 as part of the Kids’ WB
programming block on The
CW;
which became TheCW4K!ds
after the block was sold to 4Kids
Entertainment. As Sony Pictures
owned the Spider-Man television rights at the time, the show was produced by
their direct-to-video label, Culver
Entertainment, and their animation studio, Adelaide
Productions. Sean Galloway
was the lead character designer and utilized a simplified style in order to
ensure Spidey could move as fluidly as he did in Raimi’s films. Animation
duties were handled by Dong Woo Animation,
Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd.,
and MCI Animation, Inc. The series was written by Weisman with Kevin Hopps,
Matt Wayne,
Andrew Robinson,
Randy Jandt,
and Nicole Dubuc.
Cook directed the series’ opening titles, which were accompanied by a theme
from The
Tender Box. Kristopher
Carter, Michael
McCuistion and Lolita
Ritmanis handled the rest of the series’ music. The show’s
logo was based on the one that graced
the Spectacular comic
for two issues in 1996 to signify the end of the controversial “Clone Saga”
storyline.
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| Green Goblin shows Hammerhead who's in charge. |
The series proved a hit with
audiences and critics, and was renewed for a second season. Weisman and Cook
had to pull double duty working on the second season while finishing up the
first due to the timing of the announcement. A third season was contingent upon
the ratings of the second season and DVD sales. Unfortunately, the show was
moved to Disney
XD
where it didn’t perform as well and the DVD sales didn’t meet expectations.
Also, during that time, Disney
was in the process of acquiring Marvel (which would be completed by December,
2009) and was looking to bring all of Marvel’s properties under one roof. In
exchange for maintaining the film rights, Sony relinquished the TV rights back
to Disney. The series was cancelled after just two seasons, failing to reach
the 65 Weisman hoped for. Disney opted to introduce their own show in the form
of Ultimate Spider-Man (which also aired
on Disney XD beginning in 2012).
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| The Lizard strikes! |
Had
the series continued, Weisman planned to introduce Ghost
Rider, Hobgoblin, Hydro-Man, Scorpion,
Mr.
Negative and Carnage
(whose alter-ego had appeared in an episode), and introduce Harry’s mother Emily
with the hopes of having her voiced by Marina Sirtis
(who worked on Weisman’s Gargoyles).
There was also a plan to release direct-to-video movies set between the seasons
and following the show’s conclusion, which would have followed Peter to college
and his eventual marriage to Mary Jane.
Hasbro produced a line
of action figures based on the show between 2008 and 2009;
featuring various versions of Spidey and his core foes, playsets and vehicles.
In 2010, Burger King included four toys based on the
show
in their Kids’
Meals. Because each episode story arc was initially
designed to be combined together to form a single stand-alone story, the first
DVD release by Sony
Home Entertainment was Attack of the Lizard in 2008. It combined the first three episodes
together with some additional footage. However, that plan was abandoned for
each additional release and Volumes 2-8 contained the episodes as they were
broadcast. Attack of the Lizard was
re-released as Volume 1
in 2009. In the United Kingdom, only the first four volumes were made
available. In 2009, The Complete First Season was released and
the full show was eventually made available on various streaming services. In
2013, Saban Brands
acquired the broadcast rights to the show and returned it to The CW as part of
their Vortexx
programming block until it was discontinued the following year. To coincide
with the release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014, the entire series was released to Blu-ray
for the first time and then to DVD
in 2016. The series was made available to stream on Netflix, Prime
Video and Google
Play.
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