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

[ItchyWebShooter]

I know per Weisman's 'Ask Greg' site that he stated he did in fact go to Marvel and ask to continue the series in comic book form like he's been able to to with Gargoyles but unfortunately Marvel shot it down.

Uggggghhhhhhhh, what do they have to lose? It'd be like printing money!

 

[Mistah K88]

Funnily enough, when it came to the art style, I actually liked the simplified designs... Then again, I'm one of the people who enjoyed the art style for most characters in The New Batman Adventures over Batman the Animated series (sue me). I like the exaggerated designs that made the show look... well... unique. I also liked the Wolverine and the X-Men super thick calves as well...

However, if a comic were to be based on the show (with Greg and them behind it of course) I wouldn't be opposed to the art being more reflective of the fact that it is static and not animated.

Trust me, something like THIS would have had even the biggest naysayers singing praises.

 

[ItchyWebShooter]

I too enjoyed the art style. It's the simplicity that gave the action such fluidity and coherence. Beautiful stuff.

 

[The Joker]

I got a lovely surprise in the mail this morning;

 

[ItchyWebShooter]

Gorgeous! Enjoy it.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Funnily enough, when it came to the art style, I actually liked the simplified designs... Then again, I'm one of the people who enjoyed the art style for most characters in The New Batman Adventures over Batman the Animated series (sue me). I like the exaggerated designs that made the show look... well... unique. I also liked the Wolverine and the X-Men super thick calves as well...

However, if a comic were to be based on the show (with Greg and them behind it of course) I wouldn't be opposed to the art being more reflective of the fact that it is static and not animated.

Spoiler

Trust me, something like THIS would have had even the biggest naysayers singing praises.

Based on the still ongoing "Art is kidified, can't take the show seriously" comments, I trust you.

I got a lovely surprise in the mail this morning;

Spoiler

Did you watch the whole thing on your player?

 

[The Joker]

Most of it. Just have a handful of episodes left in season 2. Just finished the awesome gang war arc with Ock, Tombstone, and Silvermane.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

I too enjoyed the art style. It's the simplicity that gave the action such fluidity and coherence. Beautiful stuff.

The only dig that I can say with regard to the animation is the apparent drop in quality between the episodes with the two animation production companies they were using.

Hanho Heung-up Co Ltd did a much better job with the animation over MOI animation Co Ltd. At least for me, I can notice the difference.

 

[Mistah K88]

After watching the series premiere "Survival of the Fittest" can we talk about how many villains (or future villains) were introduced in the first episode alone?

We got
Vulture
Shocker (and by extension the other 2 enforcers)
The Big Man/Tombstone (voice only)
Hammerhead
Rhino
Sandman
Doc Ock
Connors/Lizard
Eddie Brock/Venom
Norman Osborn/Gobby

We had a good chunk of season one laid out for us in the first episode it seems.

The show had a knack for showing villains well before their debut episode, which I wish the movies would do (I understand why they don't but still). I honestly think that showing them as civilians and not turning them into super villains the first time we saw them helped build gravitas for when they eventually turned into villains. They did this in Batman the Animated Series with Harvey Dent appearing before "Two Face part 1", by having him appear in a couple episodes before that ("On Leather Wings" and "Pretty Poison") This was also something they continued with introducing characters in one season and making their super villain debut in the next season. This is what happened with Quentin Beck to Mysterio, and most likely would have happened with Morris Bench to Hydro-man, and Kingsley to...(WHY did this show end before we got a TASTE of this storyline?!)

The question of the day which villain had your favorite introduction?

Also, you think Octavius originally being afraid of Spider-Man came from THIS?

 

[PeterBenParker]

Dr. Connors, easily.

Aside from being my favorite Spider-Man supporting character/villain, I really appreciated how they fleshed him out and continued to use him after being The Lizard. Bonus points for giving his family some focus, too.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

We had a good chunk of season one laid out for us in the first episode it seems.

Indeed. Hearing Weisman talk about the show, it's evident that he and Victor Cook were very diligent in their efforts with regard to the storytelling in the show. There weren't any coincidences here--the detailed references were there for a reason. I really enjoyed how they were able to continually build upon and evolve the characters.

The show had a knack for showing villains well before their debut episode, which I wish the movies would do (I understand why they don't but still). I honestly think that showing them as civilians and not turning them into super villains the first time we saw them helped build gravitas for when they eventually turned into villains. They did this in Batman the Animated Series with Harvey Dent appearing before "Two Face part 1", by having him appear in a couple episodes before that ("On Leather Wings" and "Pretty Poison") This was also something they continued with introducing characters in one season and making their super villain debut in the next season. This is what happened with Quentin Beck to Mysterio, and most likely would have happened with Morris Bench to Hydro-man, and Kingsley to...(WHY did this show end before we got a TASTE of this storyline?!)

I agree and with the way films are being utilized now, following the world-building of the MCU, it seems this would be a better overall route. That said it's more difficult to use that type of pacing within movies because even though you can have sequels upon sequels and connections across other movies, they're still supposed to be self-contained entities to a singular overall arc. And, movies are not made as often--you're usually looking at 1 1/2 to 2 years between sequels. TV has the advantage here.

But, also I think there's something to be said about quality of storytelling, writing and simply having a better understanding of the characters. Look at how well TSSM handled Doc Connors/Lizard in the first three episodes with a combined runtime of 66 minutes-ish. Such a great adaptation. Compare that with the first ASM movie. It was nearly double the length and couldn't even match the level of quality in TSSM. You could argue that TSSM didn't have to show the origin of Spider-Man however TSSM also wasn't solely focused on Connors...there was much more going on with other characters and plots. So, it seems apparent to me that one is just simply that much better. And it comes down to the production team.

The question of the day which villain had your favorite introduction?

Norman Osborn.

Also, you think Octavius originally being afraid of Spider-Man came from THIS?

I suppose. Greg and Victor pulled things from all sorts of references to the mythos in a varitey of ways but imo Octavious was just afraid of everything in the beginning. Toomes, Norman, his own shadow, lol. I think you could just put Spider-Man on the pile.

 

[The Joker]

Well I just finished watching all two seasons on glorious HD blu-ray. Undoubtedly the best adaption of Spider-Man. Bar none. It's amazing how many characters and storylines they not only did well, but manage to cover in just two seasons. Just proof that it's about quality rather than quantity.

One thing that struck me even more is Greg Weisman is CLEARLY a big fan of the Raimi Spider-Man movies. This show was peppered with nods and inspiration from those movies, including Spider-Man 3. Here's a few that stuck out to me;

Spidey's origin, complete with the class field trip and the little glass cages of super spiders and one goes missing. The chat with Uncle Ben in the car when he drops him off at the library. The little hairs growing out of his fingers.

 

[The Joker]

Cont'd....

Otto wearing the white sleeveless vest, tentacle harness, the metal spine going up the back of his neck with the chip, the lights in the tentacle claws, and the trench coat look.

Symbiote Spidey suit being a black version of the regular Spidey costume;

Train action pose;

 

[The Joker]

Cont'd...

Train save recreated with a truck;

 

[PeterBenParker]

Yeah, SSM had everything a Spider-Man fan would want and then some. Just an excellent series that ended too soon.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

One thing that struck me even more is Greg Weisman is CLEARLY a big fan of the Raimi Spider-Man movies. This show was peppered with nods and inspiration from those movies, including Spider-Man 3. Here's a few that stuck out to me;

In interview with him for Spider-Man crawlspace podcast, he mentioned something about taking decisions the movies were smart in.
Did you notice shots from the final swing in Spider-Man 2 used for the intro?

 

[Mistah K88]

Now when the original DVDs were released with titles like "Attack of the Lizard", Rise of the Supervillains" and so on and so forth they had some alternate scenes (like the title of the episode actually being the month it happened in and small details, (like the water balloon hitting Peter's crotch, as well as changing the sounds of the guns to actually sound like guns), Have they released ANY of that in these DVDs/Blu-ray releases, or did they strictly use the episode as they showed up on TV. I know season one had a lot more in it as it was originally a set of little movies, which they stopped in season 2... but I was wondering if they at least kept the cut for TV runtime scenes for special releases.

 

[The Joker]

In interview with him for Spider-Man crawlspace podcast, he mentioned something about taking decisions the movies were smart in.
Did you notice shots from the final swing in Spider-Man 2 used for the intro?

Oh yes. There's others I didn't include because there was so many that I'd be all night listing them lol. Like Norman keeping creepy tribe like masks in his study.

 

[Shikamaru]

SSM was the BTAS of Spider-Man in more than just quality. Both were offshoots of the success of the first Batman and Spider-Man franchises, (both Elfman-scored as a bonus), who incorporated bits of pieces from their respective franchise but mixing them up with parts from the comics and other versions.

Honestly, strictly quality speaking, I think this could have surpassed TAS in the long run. While I like Bruce Timm, I find him to be hit-and-miss. TAS has a lot of good-to-bad episodes. Greg Weisman, IMO, has a more consistent track record, and also does the serialized format better. I thought Young Justice became the best superhero show to date by Season 2; it's a tragedy to consider where this should would have stood.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Oh yes. There's others I didn't include because there was so many that I'd be all night listing them lol. Like Norman keeping creepy tribe like masks in his study.

And Bernard. No "I loved you, like I loved your father" comment.

 

[UltimateWebhead]

Now when the original DVDs were released with titles like "Attack of the Lizard", Rise of the Supervillains" and so on and so forth they had some alternate scenes (like the title of the episode actually being the month it happened in and small details, (like the water balloon hitting Peter's crotch, as well as changing the sounds of the guns to actually sound like guns), Have they released ANY of that in these DVDs/Blu-ray releases, or did they strictly use the episode as they showed up on TV. I know season one had a lot more in it as it was originally a set of little movies, which they stopped in season 2... but I was wondering if they at least kept the cut for TV runtime scenes for special releases.

No, unfortunately the Blu ray release did not have anything extra like you mentioned. I was hoping for something, anything along those lines. Commentary, art gallery, extra/deleted scenes, trailers, etc. They just souped up the show with the HD boost and that's about it.

Oh yes. There's others I didn't include because there was so many that I'd be all night listing them lol. Like Norman keeping creepy tribe like masks in his study.

The Raimi influence is everywhere in the show. And rightly so. Weisman and Cook have talked about it many times--in their efforts to make the show as coherent as possible, they pulled from various sources and whatever ideas that were already done that they liked, they included in the show. And I remember specifically Weisman talking about how much he enjoyed what Raimi did with the origin, i.e. Peter and Ben in the car talking about responsibility, the burglar running past Peter in the wrestling arena, etc.

SSM was the BTAS of Spider-Man in more than just quality. Both were offshoots of the success of the first Batman and Spider-Man franchises, (both Elfman-scored as a bonus), who incorporated bits of pieces from their respective franchise but mixing them up with parts from the comics and other versions.

Honestly, strictly quality speaking, I think this could have surpassed TAS in the long run. While I like Bruce Timm, I find him to be hit-and-miss. TAS has a lot of good-to-bad episodes. Greg Weisman, IMO, has a more consistent track record, and also does the serialized format better. I thought Young Justice became the best superhero show to date by Season 2; it's a tragedy to consider where this should would have stood.

Good post and I agree.

BTAS has issues with quality from one episode to the next however, that show was truly innovative and set the bar for animated shows. TSSM did have a much more consistent level of quality going from one episode to the next but it was not innovative. TSSM did not shape nor build upon the genre like BTAS did. TSSM basically took the checklist of how to make a successful adaptation and checked all the boxes. Of course it's without a doubt an excellent show and has by far given us the best adaptation of Spider-Man...it's too bad the show had to end the way it did.

Off topic--not sure if you're aware but Weisman is currently working on Season 3 of Young Justice.

 

[Awest66]

Coming off this brilliant show, Ultimate Spider-Man felt like a slap in the face.

 

[Mistah K88]

I think what was more annoying was how the shows cancellation was jerked around when the heads up top (Sony, Disney, Marvel) knew good and well they were cancelling the show after Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. I hear Ultimate became better as the seasons went on, but I never stuck around for it after a few episodes of season 1.

I think Ultimate would be best compared to The Batman (as the latter became better after a couple seasons). Only BTAS was well beyond wrapped up when The Batman debuted, and even then it somehow managed to run alongside the DCAU’s Justice League…)

Another thing I was always pondered was with it taking about 10 months to make a season, we could have actually finished the series with Peter graduating High School before Ultimate even premiered in 2012 (Spectacular ended in 2009 and was 2 seasons deep out of 5). So, we would have gotten to explore a modernized 80's era of Spidey as more characters from that era were being introduced (Debra Whitman, Kingsley, Morris Bench, etc), as well as themes (Gang War, Miles Warren starting to tamper with genetics, etc).

One of my major qualms with this show ending as soon as it did is that I don’t see anyone else trying to do Hobgoblin any time soon in any adaptions of Spidey, as in order to have Hobby, you must have Gobby (unless Hobby’s toy was already made like it was in the 90’s). And I REALLY don’t see anyone else making an attempt to streamline that extremely convoluted mystery storyline, as you have to plan ahead and set things up early; which as I mentioned earlier in this thread, this show had a knack for doing that… We had Ned assigned a Spider-Man and Goblin expose in season 1 (which could lead to him sticking his nose into places it doesn’t belong trying to get a story), Kingsley introduced in season 2 (also showing the differences “Kingsley” shows under duress [panicked with Sable, calm with Rhino]), Green Goblin establishing himself as a crime lord in NYC (which after his defeat at the hands of Spidey, residual followers would easily be persuaded into following another Goblin [Hobby basically picking up something Gobby left behind and making it his own]), thus tying into the Gang War… SO Hobgoblin I’m sure the Hobgoblin adaption would have been AMAZING. C’est la vie.

 

[ItchyWebShooter]

I agree. And Hobgoblin started out great in TAS, but by the time we got the reveal it came out of nowhere and was lackluster (to put it nicely).

 

[Shikamaru]

Off topic--not sure if you're aware but Weisman is currently working on Season 3 of Young Justice.

Aware. And hyped.