"Blueprints" Season 2: Episode 01 Discussion Thread

[ironman29758]

I love the episode but i wanted fishbowl jokes but I LOVE THE Dramatic attidue of Mysterio

 

[Venom 1988]

I wonder if Ock will be dressed idfferent this time around? I mean, he was dressed different when we first saw him as the Master Planner in the comics, if I remember correctly.

I doubt it

 

[Web-Head408]

That ending with the Master Planner gives me the chills.

I am so glad they're adapting that story; my favorite Spidey story ever. And so far it seems that it's being pulled off wonderfully.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Woludn't it be awesome if Spidey was trapped under rubble, like in the comics?

 

[Pirate Queen]

Well, at the rate they draw from the classics, we just might get to see that famous scene.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

okay normally im totally against watching a show early before it airs but for this i just cannot wait....i need a spidey fix....this has officially made my night

 

[Web-Head408]

Well, at the rate they draw from the classics, we just might get to see that famous scene.

I'm really hopeful of that.

I'd have a total geekasm to see my favorite scene from my favorite Spidey story be brought to life.

 

[Ion Kenshin]

great episode ...so glad this show is on the way back...sooo excited

 

[Anwar]

You think they'll keep the "Doc Ock's serum will save May!" plot point too?

Anyways, having Gwen and MJ be closer friends is nice. I know that current day stories have them as having been close friends but were they really that friendly to each other in the original comics?

Hammy Mysterio, well it's a nice change from hardcase revenge dude Mysterio from the 90s. Though I do admit I liked Gregg Berger's voice acting more. Nothing against Berkely.

Things are looking up in Peter's professional life since he has the exclusive Bugle contract and is back at ESU now. Also good that he fully realizes Norman's not quite right in the head.

 

[Ratcrawler]

Of course it could just be Greg and the gang messing with our heads again. Remember how in Season One everybody was OMG SO SURE THAT FOSWELL WAS THE BIG MAN AND THAT THEY SHOWED HIM FOR A SECOND AS THE GUY WITH THE ORANGE MUSTACHE WORKING AT THE BUGLE OMG HE WAS IN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE AGAIN OMG THEY CAN'T FOOL US WE KNOW WHO THE BIG MAN IS WE KNOW ITS FOSWELL AND OMG ITS...

Tombstone!?

Well, why not? For all we know, they could have just used Macnickle(?) as the "distorted voice" to throw us off the track when they reveal Silvermane!

But yeah, I'd like to see Doc Ock pulling the strings behind the new Sinister Six. Plus, remember those more classic looking Doc Ock tentacles in Back's prop house? The ones about to throw sPidey in the huge fan? (sPoiler?) A nod perhaps?

I hope we're not going to have a whole season of Peter and Gwen being tongue tied around eachother. I'd hate for it to drag out.

Well according to the season descriptions episode...

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Well, at the rate they draw from the classics, we just might get to see that famous scene.

Indeed, for example, they adapted (modified/adapted) the cover of ASM Issue #39.

 

[Dread]

Months after the season finale on CW 4kids, and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN is on for a second season. It is slated to air in the states in March, but in typical comic 'toon fashion, is airing months earlier in Canada, which frankly seems to have a much better manner of providing new episodes in a timely manner than the U.S. does. Spectacular Spider-Man was that one cartoon that hit a grand slam from the pilot and by and large never stumbled, not even once. No episode was bad or even mediocre; all were some manner of good, very good, and terrific. It provided some of the best characterization and action sequences of any Marvel cartoon in at least a decade. Sure, the violence wasn't as extreme as, say, MTV SPIDER-MAN which allowed for blood, cursing, and one camera murders, but SS-M's action was more dramatic and fluid, with no repeat animation. But above all, the story was there. It took John Semper's Spidey-Storyarc idea from the 90's and ran with it in far better, more inventive ways.

Frankly, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN put to rest the lie that a cartoon, or any TV show, can't be excellent from a first season. Sure, it was aided by the fact that it is helmed by very experienced people, including talents like Greg Wiesman and Victor Cook. But while most shows are lucky to just be DECENT in a debut season, this was the show that hit the ground in full stride and by the finale, was flying high. It was the best Spider-Man of 2008 and was really fulfilling to me, after being introduced to the web-head on NBC in a playpen to being a full grown adult comic fan in his mid 20's to see all of those things come together in a cohesive, animated whole like SS-M Season One.

The big question, though, was if the show could maintain it? Was it just a freshman fluke, and now the creative team was tapped? Or stuck on spin cycle for fear of failure? Seeing how the show does in it's sophmore season naturally was a question for everyone.

At least from this debut, "Blueprints", the show hasn't missed a beat. It is carrying on from episode 13 without missing any time, allowing actions to have reactions and consequences, all while building up character conflict, both with and without tights, in the life of Peter Parker. A character franchise that over 45 years of comics have made terribly complicated all seems so simple once this show gets going.

Spoiler

With the Season One finale being set on and around Thanksgiving, it is assumed that the second season (this episode) starts very soon after; perhaps two weeks or less, into early December. It is time for snow in New York and prepping for final exams at Midtown High. But Peter Parker is a conflicted soul. He just battled his best friend as the maniac superhuman, Venom. His Aunt May just recovered from a heart attack, and Parker himself just recovered from weeks under the influence of a vengeful alien. Above all, he is confused about his feelings for Gwen Stacy, his other best friend who kissed him on Thanksgiving.

Suffering from nightmares about his battle with Eddie Brock/Venom, Peter tries to organize his feelings and life via writing a list. Unfortunately, completing the things on it are hardly easy. Aunt May does not like being doted on by Peter, especially since he can hardly cook. Peter and Gwen are now awkward around each other and sharing glances and looks, but being too shy to talk any further. Harry is still off in Europe after his (seeming) career as the Green Goblin. And while the symbiote costume was seemingly buried in cement, Eddie Brock himself has vanished without a trace. While MJ reacts to the tension between Gwen and Peter by encouraging Gwen to state her feelings more directly (she had basically kissed Peter and ran off), Liz Allen clearly gets jealous and starts making more direct moves on wooing the shy Peter Parker, even cuddling with him during a Biology cram session. Of course, the same web-head that can figure out a complicated villain's schemes is oblivious to the actions of the women in his life, which is what it's all been about for Spidey.

Naturally, there is always a new villain to provide the spandex tension of the week. This time it is Mysterio, self proclaimed master of the mystic arts and full on technology thief. He is in fact Quentin Beck, one of the Chameleon's henchmen from Season One, voiced by Xander Berkeley. He gets a lot more dialogue to chew as the fantastic, over the top Mysterio. His redesign by "Cheeks" Galloway is very faithful to Steve Ditko, while keeping things simple for animation. The "bubble helmet" is intact, but you see a face outline; the cape and costume is streamlined and even the "eyes" are there, to hold the cape on. Seemingly able to teleport, sap the will's of others and create dragons and so forth, Mysterio appears unstoppable. Despite being hampered by the cold weather, Spider-Man matches wits against Mysterio, but finds himself unable to stop him until Liz, citing some experience with magicians, reminds him that it is all about distractions.

When Peter interupts a theft of Osborn technology, he tags along one of Mysterio's "teleport" spells (after fighting a horde of little purple bat-gargoyles, learning they were mechanical), he literally peeks behind the curtain and sees the wizard himself. What follows is another brilliant fight sequence where Spidey uses his "Spider-sense" to survive a gauntlet of traps and illusions before having to fight off a small gang of robotic duplicates of Mysterio. At the end it appears that Spider-Man has succeeded, and Mysterio is unmasked and arrested. All is not as it seems, of course. Only a robot was arrested, while Beck, his partner the Tinkerer, and their mysterious boss the "Master Planner", continue with their, um, plans.

Osborn is moving on as well, funding Curt Conner's lab at ESU and bringing aboard his own scientist to replace Dr. Octopus, Miles Warren. Comic book fans would know him as the Jackal who ends up cloning Spidey, Gwen, and a slew of others. Peter gets his job interning with Conners again, as well as an exclusive freelance gig at the Bugle.

Who is the "Master Planner"? In the comics, it was Doctor Octopus, and the finale of that initial arc would be Ditko's last on ASM and would produce one of the most iconic visuals in Spider-Lore, at least before Romita Sr.'s DEATH OF GWEN STACY. This show, from Green Goblin to Big Man, though, has played around with fan expectations, so who knows what we are in store for.

The sheer amount of references in this episode were staggering. Lines naturally allude to STAR WARS and even MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, while the fight sequence with Mysterio at the end takes part on a movie sound-stage, much as it is in the Lee/Ditko ASM story where he debuted (which ended during a sci-fi movie set, complete with a fake UFO in the background). While the 90's cartoon Mysterio was vengeful and bitter, this version from Wiesman & Co. captures more of his over-the-top nature. Beck is not only an illusionist, but an actor, but is so vain that he demands that Spider-Man remember him from their last encounter (Spidey humorously barely recalled Beck) and wants to be credited as Mysterio, even with a robot taking his place in prison. Berkeley really put in a show stopping performance with the dramatic one-liners and a slew of Latin spells for his moves. Frankly, this is the ideal Mysterio for me. Angry, vengeful villains are a dime a dozen (on this show, Electro, Venom, Rhino, etc.); Mysterio is best as a showman and that is where he works best. Even the finale, where Spider-Man faces dozens of Mysterio clones in a warehouse, reminded me of not only past comics, but the Mysterio episode from the 1981 SPIDER-MAN cartoon (which came before SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS got NBC's attention and aired in syndication with it), "The Pied Piper of New York Town".

Once again, the storyboarding and pacing of the fight was incredible and fluid. WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN has yet to stage a fight as well as this show's creative team has.

The Second Season is off to as fast a start as the first, with what seems like a few episodes of material crammed into one, where the soap opera life of Peter Parker is virtually as interesting as his battles with the villains of the week. Stories flow onward and nothing is wasted. It is a show that appeals to kids of all ages. SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN is the best comic book show on TV easily. I also say it is Marvel's best cartoon in a decade. It certainly has had a better start than even JUSTICE LEAGUE had. It may go down as the best Marvel cartoon ever, if only network bungling doesn't forestall a Season Three (or beyond). The voice performances are great, the writing is great, the action and animation are great. Beyond some initial getting used to Galloway's character designs (which honestly didn't take long for me, having enjoyed his work on the HELLBOY ANIMATED DTV's), finding a flaw for this show is almost a Herculean labor.

Welcome Back, Spider-Man (my own homage to "Farewell, Spider-Man", the finale of the 90's cartoon). We've missed you.

 

[Mistah K88]

Woludn't it be awesome if Spidey was trapped under rubble, like in the comics?

I don't see why not, they did it in Batman Beyond for cryin' out loud.

 

[Dread]

Indeed. It is about time animated Spidey got that scene back. It was classic. Especially as Wiesman & Co. have done so much to homage Ditko's influence in seemingly every episode, even with characters he didn't co-create.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

Great write up, Dread!

 

[stillanerd]

I managed to catch this episode online and I'm glad to see Spectacular Spider-Man back after so many months. I wondered how some stuff from last season would carry over and I'm glad to see this show continues to surprise me. We get this right away from

Spoiler

the nightmare Peter has about Eddie Brock/Venom, which not only sets up a continuing story thread about Eddie's disappearance but also that Peter still hasn't gotten over the symbiote. Likewise, you knew from the opening titles in which they show the main characters we were in for changes when instead of them being Peter, Gwen, MJ, and Jonah from the last few episodes, it's Peter, Gwen, Liz Allen, and Norman Osborn.

I also like the fact that Peter and Gwen don't rush into a relationship right away, as they both feel awkward about the kiss they shared--which is very in keeping with how both characters have been portrayed as well as most teenagers. Not to mention how Liz Allen is so obviously making a play for him out of jealousy towards Gwen and MJ and Peter obviously being suckered into it with the whole "I need some tutoring, Petey." More like she's gonna tutor you, Petey. t:

And another development is, of course, Norman Osborn sponsoring Peter for his re-instated internship job with the Connors. This is a great idea as it strengthens the notion that Norman sees Peter as the son he should have had. Furthermore, it increases the awkwardness between Peter and Gwen, not to mention the one between Curt and Martha Connors due to their trust issues involving Peter's behavior in "Natural Selection," and it makes Peter feel torn between his obligations with the Bugle after getting a full freelance contract and increased salary with them.

And then there's the Master Planner. Spider-Man fans know that, in the original comics, it was Doc Ock, but considering the Big Man twist Weisman pulled last year, the Master Planner could be someone entirely different. Considering how Mysterio and the Tinkerer are in his employ, it could very well be the Chameleon. Or, considering he has been introduced this episode, it might also be Miles Warren (then again, Warren could be set-up as another Green Goblin patsy later on).

As for Mysterio himself, while I thought the design looked cool, he came across as really cheesy with his Doctor Strange (or would that be Doctor Orpheous from the Venture Bros). Sure, that was the intent, but it really started getting overblown what with the latin incantations and summoning "monsters" and what not. Although, I really liked the scene how when Mysterio "revealed himself" as Beck and Spidey couldn't remember ever seeing him before. Classic. Not to mention Beck is so vain, he has to let Spider-Man know who he is, even if it involved sending a robot duplicate of himself to prison.

Other gems included the use of snow in many of the sequences whereas other cartoons would have shyed away from it, the Stan Lee cameo, Peter wearing his Spidey costume over sweats as an alternate to thermal wear, and Spidey taking a page from Daredevil's playbook and fighting off Mysterio's illusions blindfolded and with his Spider-Sense.

All in all, the second season appears to be off to a pretty good start.

 

[The Joker]

Read the voice actor cast list in the credits at the end of the episode. Peter MacNicol, the voice actor for Doc Ock, did the Master Planner's voice.

It's obviously Doc Ock who is the Master Planner. The Big Man story is not nearly as infamous as the Master Planner one, so it's not really a surprise that they changed that around.

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I don't see why not, they did it in Batman Beyond for cryin' out loud.

Exactly.

 

[Ratcrawler]

Flaws aren't hard to find, just really easy to forgive and overlook. If you don't mind my asking, what were the monty python and star wars references? I overlooked those. But my two favorite quotes from this epoisode so far were..

Peter: --Oh, wait, that's subphylum Cheliceratum--

^For all the non-biology geeks fast enough to catch that, it's sPiders & crabs & whatnot. I love how this show has jokes too smart for 95% of the viewership.

Quentin(bot?): As the WAITER! You remember; "Demitasse, sPider-Man?"

^I said that laughing out loud at the same time he did, because I loved the delivery of that line in Persona. I mean sPider-Man just defeated his imposter and then a waiter asks him if he wants a tea with a weird name? Brilliant! Best self reference I've heard in a while.

 

[stillanerd]

Flaws aren't hard to find, just really easy to forgive and overlook. If you don't mind my asking, what were the monty python and star wars references? I overlooked those. But my two favorite quotes from this epoisode so far were..

Peter: --Oh, wait, that's subphylum Cheliceratum--

^For all the non-biology geeks fast enough to catch that, it's sPiders & crabs & whatnot. I love how this show has jokes too smart for 95% of the viewership.

Quentin(bot?): As the WAITER! You remember; "Demitasse, sPider-Man?"

^I said that laughing out loud at the same time he did, because I loved the delivery of that line in Persona. I mean sPider-Man just defeated his imposter and then a waiter asks him if he wants a tea with a weird name? Brilliant! Best self reference I've heard in a while.

Spoiler

When Spider-Man fights off the Mysterio robots, one of them, which has no head, no legs, and one arm, goes after him and Spidey responds with "Oh come on! What are you going to do? Bite my knee caps off?" before he says "Oh wait, you can't! No mouth." The line and scene, I believe, is inspired by "Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

 

[Ratcrawler]

Oh, with the black knight, right? Ok, I got that.

 

[stillanerd]

Oh, with the black knight, right? Ok, I got that.

Yep.

 

[Dread]

Great write up, Dread!

Thanks.

I guess stillanerd and I must agree to disagree about Mysterio. I loved his over-the-top magician supervillain delivery.

Read the voice actor cast list in the credits at the end of the episode. Peter MacNicol, the voice actor for Doc Ock, did the Master Planner's voice.

It's obviously Doc Ock who is the Master Planner. The Big Man story is not nearly as infamous as the Master Planner one, so it's not really a surprise that they changed that around.

Good point. I hadn't seen the credits. That's great, because I never liked that Dr. Octopus in the comics after a while sat back and let Osborn be Spidey's #1 nemesis after a while. Glad that isn't happening here.

Also glad someone could understand some of that Latin. My knowledge in dead languages is rusty.

 

[Ratcrawler]

I barely understood any of what Mysterio said. Hopefully this ep will have latin in the captions instead of just [chants latin]

 

[Spider-ManHero12]

I loved his over-the-top magician supervillain delivery.

Yeah, every time I saw Mysterio in this episode, I always couldn't wait to see what tricks/gadgets he'll use.