Headscratchers / The Spectacular Spider-Man

• Where does Peter's camera go when he puts it away in the symbiote? Season 01, episode 10, when he watches Connor's lab with the black suit.

• I've just finished season one of my rewatch, is it ever explained exactly what happened when Eddie leads Gwen off to kidnap her? They talk to each other later, so how did Brock change into Venom quick enough for Gwen not to notice?
  • Season 2 mentions that Eddie fell behind and then Gwen was ambushed by Venom without realizing it was Eddie.

• In Catalysts both of Spidey's web shooters run out of web-fluid mid-battle. During a free-fall, he reloads his left one. What bugs me is that he can still clearly be seen shooting web out of both wrists, even before he takes the time to reload the shooter on the right.
  • He had some left.
    • More accurately, it was a production error. He'd already stated that he was empty when he was falling between buildings and was unable to produce any to save himself.

• So if Brock got all of Peter's memories when he bonded with the symbiote, wouldn't that mean he now knows what really happened when Peter "abandoned his friends" making all of his reasons for hating him debunked?
  • Two theories: The symbiote might have done some selective editing, so to speak, just giving Eddie enough information to make him angry and make life difficult for Peter. Also, Eddie might have been so furious at Peter and Spidey by the point when the symbiote bonded with him that he wasn't going to give Pete a break no matter what, a situation made worse by the symbiote's feeding off and enhancing Eddie's aggressive feelings.
  • Eddie's life is still in ruins because Peter took the symbiote from the lab (and kept it, until the danger became obvious).

• Similar to the above, Eddie is constantly shown to be one of the more moral characters of the show, but when he turns into Venom he completely tosses away any consideration for human life or friendship (as evidenced by going after Gwen, who Eddie was also good friends with). It doesn't really bug me, as I know why it's justified, pretty well too: instead of Eddie being naturally vindictive like in other versions, he is taken advantage of at a weak moment by the symbiote, who takes his anger and turns it up to a dangerous degree. Well done, but kind of unnerving, which is why I put it here.
  • Eddie could easily have returned to his old life by his second appearance, but he chose not to. He may not be naturally vindictive, but it's become pretty obvious that Eddie apparently always had an inferiority complex and feelings of resentment towards Peter that simply didn't come out until after the Symbiote showed up.
  • Eddie was starting to slide even before he got the symbiote. He was starting to hate Peter for messing up his life, and rallying against the world for giving him such a string of bad luck. There's indications that he always resented Peter for having Aunt May and Uncle Ben, where he was alone. Word of God states that most of his "heroic actions" were motivated by a death wish more than an actual moral compass.
  • Actually, Eddie is still vindictive towards Peter and Spider-Man.
• If the symbiote's weakness in this incarnation is still sonic attacks, why didn't it get blown off when the Shocker blasted it?
  • According to That Other Wiki, Shocker fires "concentrated air blasts".
  • Notice too, that when the symbiote damages one of Shocker's gauntlets, it begins to malfunction and emit a continuous sound. The symbiote briefly hooks the gauntlet on a branch, making sure not to touch it directly. Its substance seems to wrinkle and riot before it tosses the gauntlet at Sandman to keep him uncoalesced.

• So why in the world did Peter just leave Eddie on the roof when he got the symbiote off? Does Eddie still have all those memories? Why did Peter not show any concern about that?
  • Greg Weismen said in an interview that as soon as Peter threw the symbiote into the concrete, he swung straight back to the roof where Eddie passed out, but he was gone. Most likely cut for time. He also said he was addressing this in the first episode of the new season. This troper hopes it ends in slightly-d'aww worthy Eddie Brock/Venom vigilante. ON A MOTORCYCLE.
  • Spider-Man probably wanted to get rid of the symbiote as quickly as possible. After tossing the symbiote in the cement, he probably took care of Eddie offscreen. I'm guessing Spidey dropped him off at the Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane.
    • I kinda doubt anyone would commit a guy on Spidey's say-so alone. Peter is probably being laissez-faire on the optimistic assumption that the Symbiote was responsible for the bulk of Eddie's villainy. In the season two opener, it'll probably only be days later, with Peter vainly trying to ring Eddie's cell in the hopes of patching things up.
    • This is confirmed by season two - Eddie vanished off the roof while Peter deposited the symbiote, and Peter's been looking for him unsuccessfully since.

• Why didn't Peter use the gene cleanser to stop Venom? It seems like a Chekov's Gun that never paid off. The beginning of the episode even hinted that was going to be the outcome then he beats him with the Power Of Friendship - again.
  • Why would the gene cleanser have worked on a symbiote?
    • Well it removes foreign DNA from a subject, and you don't get much more foreign than a Symbiote grafted to your body.
    • Except symbiotes don't graft themselves to a subject's DNA, they sort of feed off them or attach to their system. If the cleanser killed anything foreign, it'd wipe out things like from necessary bacteria in the digestive system, which... wouldn't be good.
    • In "Identity Crisis", apparently it does work on the symbiote. But to paraphrase John Crichton, apparently gene cleansing never gets out the toughest stains...
  • It wasn't the power of friendship, it was a very Squicky Power of Love, the symbiote's love for Peter made it betray Eddie. Coolest use of the Power of Love I ever saw.
  • Technically, it was both. The Power of Love made the symbiote choose Peter over Eddie, then The Power of Friendship prevented the symbiote from successfully possessing Peter.
    • Been used once in the comics as well, on a beach no less...

• In Intervention Flash is the one to make Peter realize that he's being a jerk, right? But the problem is, Flash has no moral highground when he calls Peter out. He's been bullying him probably ever since they started high school. And Peter just takes it? If had an aunt who was my only family and had raised me like a son and had just had a heart attack, in addition to money problems and was then told by the guy who'd made my life hell for years that I'm the dick, I would kick the crap out of him, black suit or not.
  • Family values? The message is almost Disney in content...
  • That's kind of the point. The fact that even Flash thinks he's being a jerk is the thing that makes Peter realize something's not right.
  • It would seem that them being friends in preschool would also have something to do with it.
    • That just makes it harder to accept. The guy who used to be your friend and then turned into a bully decides to call you a jerk just when you're going through the crappiest point of your life? How would you react?
    • And that's what makes Spider-Man the hero, rather then just a common joe...
  • It's a case of Dumbass Has a Point. Pete might think that Flash is a gigantic dick, but he's still right in that told his friends to piss off when they were actively trying to help, which is probably not something he would normally do even under stress. Now when you realize that and the fact that you're starting to refer to yourself as "we," you'd probably realize that some weird shit is going on in your head.
    • Flash is much more than a gigantic dick. He was bordering on criminal behavior. Remember the first episode? He attacked Peter and stole his shoes, and had done so multiple times, leaving it to Peter to dress up as Spider-Man and steal them back. Not to mention throwing a football at a teacher and throwing water balloons at Peter and he just kept going. By all logic, Black-Suit Peter should have beaten Flash to a bloody mess, but instead, he just bows down and kisses Flash's feet. Jerk. Sue.
    • You're missing a few things; first of all, by the time that the crappiest point in Peter's life is happening, Flash has toned down his bullying of Peter. Secondly, regardless of how he treats Peter, Flash does have a good heart, given his admiration of Spider-Man (there are a few times he tries to help Spider-Man fight a supervillain and stupid or not, that takes guts). Finally, Peter is acting like a complete jackass to the people who are trying to help him, and Peter did seem to have a suspicion that something was wrong inside his head, Flash's speech was just the catalyst for him to piece together that the symbiote was manipulating him.
    • None of which excuses Flash's earlier criminal behavior.
    • "Earlier" is the key word here, meaning, in the past. People do stupid, criminal things all the time, especially when they are young and immature. By that point in the series Flash is less of a bully than he was at the start of the show. Most people would probably hold a grudge against the guy who bullied them, but most people aren't Spider-Man.
    • I could accept that a little easier if Uncle Ben hadn't been killed about six months prior to the show. If Flash and the whole school could find out about his Aunt, then why the hell would anybody feel like picking on a kid whose uncle just got shot? There really is no indication that Flash and Peter were friends at all during the first episode. Obviously the writers fumbled the ball there. Yes, Flash matures during the show...but for a supposed old friend of Pete, not only does he ignore his Uncle's death but glazes over his Aunt's heart attack. Even the Flash Thompson from 'The Amazing Spider-Man' showed some concern. Writing fumble, pure and simple.
    • Peter didn't really socialize with Flash or any of the popular crowd before the show started. In fact, during the time when Ben Parker was shot Peter was likely on Summer Break. How could they know? Maybe if they told them, but at the same time if you were to use your Uncle's death as a ploy to get people to like you, then you've got some pretty serious problems with your attitude.
    • Well nobody is suggesting that Pete would use Ben's death as a way to get socially noticed. That's a pretty far leap to take. Peter isn't exactly on the best terms with Flash's group by the time Aunt May gets hospitalized. Yet they all showed concern. Somehow the news spread. Therefore, it's not a big leap to expect Uncle Ben to have gotten the same amount of recognition. It may just be one of the few things we may have to let slide about this show.

• Okay, how does Eddie get webs as seen at the end of 205? It made sense with Chameleon due to the Tinkerer, but Eddie just shows up with webs with no explanation. To be fair, you could argue the same with Spider-Man himself, but you can hand wave it as it's been handwaved before as being made due to the spider giving Peter an understanding of webbing's scientific composure.
  • That's not much of a spoiler by the way. In any case, the logical argument is it has to do with the fact Eddie and Peter share memories thanks to the symbiote. So Peter's knowledge of webs could've easily been passed on to Eddie no problem. Its probably not even real web, it may just be rope.
    • It looked a lot like Black Cat's cables or whatever; how Eddie got his hands on one, I have no idea. Maybe she accidentally left one at the lab during her break in and he took it with him because... um... he has a girlfriend we don't know about and wanted to try something new? IDK.
    • I agree with the second guy. They definitely look like webs and web-shooters, same sound effects and everything. Plus, in addition to Eddie having Peter's memories, he's also a science whiz himself in this continuity, so I think it makes plenty of sense that he built a pair of his own.
    • Uhhh, the symbiote has always been able to create its own webbing in every continuity so far. Just another perk the symbiote has over Spider-Man's web-shooters. It's basically just shooting a sticky strand of its body out of the user's hand.
    • It does exactly that in Spectacular, as pointed out by Peter when he's using it. Eddie, at this point, doesn't have the symbiote, and the whole point of him swinging in in that scene is to get it back. Considering the sound effect, however, he was most likely using mechanical web-shooters he cooked up himself.
  • Well, according to Greg Weisman in the Spectacular Radio podcast, Eddie's father and Richard Parker worked together on the adhesive formula (even proposing it to Normie but being rejected and given the thoomes treatment of being used by dear old Gobby). So if Peter got a copy of the formula it makes sense Eddie would have it two as both their parents worked on it.
• So Venom just breaks through the wall, shouts "Peter Parker is Spider-Man!" and then leaves? There's definitely some missed drama. If nothing else, he should have picked a fight to force Peter to defend himself.
  • Peter would probably have just dodged or ran away, and killing Peter would defeat the purpose.
    • Right, but if he dodges, that would almost certainly have outed him as Spidey. Hell, Venom could have just tossed JJJ out the window. It really doesn't make any sense for him to just leave, though.
    • Venom wants to make him squirm. Ending things quickly in any way runs counter to that purpose - and dragging things out probably gives the symbiote more emotion from Eddie to feed on, which is all it really cares about anyway.
    • He's also crazy. Remember the crazy? The man can't even remember if he wants to ruin Peter's life or just kill him half the time.
• In "Identity Crisis", if they have a bunch of vials of gene cleanser brewed up, couldn't they give one to poor Electro? If not, why are they even making them!?
  • Electro can't consume anything at all, remember. He fried the coffee in the second episode when he tried drinking it.
    • Plus, Electro's problem isn't exactly tainted genetics. He wasn't injected with anything, nor did anything attach to him. It's not entirely clear what happened, but it could be less than an invasion of foreign genetics and more of a shift in the way his body receives electricity.
    • Word of God: They tried the gene cleanser. It didn't work.

• So, Flash just keeps a custom fitted Spider-Man costume in his locker all the time? Okay, maybe that's not so surprising.
  • It's not unlikely that people have started selling Spider-Man costumes. If I recall, they mention in the third movie that Spider-Man outfits are a hot item on Halloween.
  • Not to mention in the Halloween episode you could see a kid wearing a Spider-Man costume without the mask (At least I think you can).
    • In fact, Peter himself wears his costume as a costume in that episode, and no-one finds it odd he has a Spidey costume.

• So how come in Subtext several people identify Mark as Molten Man but nobody's ever noticed Peter's voice as Spider-Man?
  • It's been stated over and over in the comics that Peter's mask obscures his voice a little. Besides, why would Mark disguise his voice, and why would Peter not disguise his voice?
    • In this show, Peter's voice doesn't change, at least not a noticeable amount like Bruce Wayne and Batman in the DCAU.
    • I'd argue differently. Spidey almost has a DJ's affected polish, while Peter's voice is higher, softer and occasionally cracks
    • Peter depends more on change of attitude and behavior than just his voice. As Spidey, he's confident, cocky, and never gives up. As Peter he shows more of his weaknesses and doubts. Because all these people grew up with Peter, they can't imagine someone like him being under that mask.
    • Also, no one would believe that Spidey is just a random kid, which has always helped Peter's disguise, at least in his high school days. One of the common reactions whenever he gets unmasked in any storyline is that the bad guy's surprised at how young / unremarkable he is under the mask.
    • This version of Spidey is pretty clearly like five feet tall, though.
    • 5'6'' actually. He mentions it in the episode with The Lizard.
  • Think of it like this.. This guy manage to defeat supervillians that are capable of defeating entire armies, can dodge gunfire like they were snails and took out some of the most dangerous crime boss in New York. If you were trying to find out Spider-Man secret identity the last thing you would think he is would be a high-school student, most people would think he's some sort of super-soldier, heck most people probably think he isn't even fully human.
    • The problem with this line of thought is that it requires you to think of Spiderman in vacuum. None of the villains in Spectacular are really powerful enough to take on an army. If you look at Marvel as a whole however Xavier's School for Gifted Youth is in New York State somewhere. Suspecting that he's not human is a good guess (he's technically not, I don't know what the Marvel Term is because he's not a Mutant not having been born that way but he's mutated, if I were a New Yorker I would assume that Spidey was an escapee from the Mansion. I've actually always found it odd that despite entire organizations of mutant haters nobody ever seems to suspect that he's one.
    • On this show, you do have to think of Spidey in a vacuum; according to Ask Greg, Xavier's school just opened, and the public doesn't know about mutants. The Fantastic Four, a result of a freak accident, are doing space exploring. Hulk is an urban legend to most people. Spider-Man is just starting out, and he's one of the first super heroes in the world, and the only publicly known way to get powers is through cosmic radiation (Fantastic Four) at the beginning of the series, expanding to freak lab accidents, advanced tech, and super mercenary experiments as time goes on. Peter did have a lab accident, but not even the Conners' thought that a spider bite could result in genetic change. It wasn't dramatic or recorded. And suddenly, there's this wisecracking man out there that can move his body in weird ways and mostly fights mutated or high tech villains. It's not hard to see why people think Spidey isn't a mutant.
• Molten Man's shorts and boots are a real puzzler. The first time he transforms, he's suddenly wearing them, and when he turns back he has his normal clothes on. The second time he transforms (and the first time he goes all fiery) we see his normal clothes burn off and he's wearing the shorts and boots again. All this suggests that it's part of his molten "armor" and that it goes over his normal clothes when he doesn't get hot enough to burn them away. But when he returns to normal at the end of the episode, he's still got the shorts and boots on. WHA?

• Similar to the above—in "Intervention" Peter is wearing his usual pants and a black shirt (possibly just the Symbiote?) with short-sleeves, so you can see that he's not wearing his normal costume under it. (And why would he when he has the black suit?) After his big mental battle with the Symbiote, however, he bursts out of it wearing his full Spider-Man costume. What, did The Power of Love and Friendship actually manage to conjure it up too or something?
  • Rule of Cool, man. It was more dramatic that way.
  • Actually this is explained. Peter specifically mentions that the symbiote is bonded to his suit. So the red and blue is actually inside the symbiote the entire time. When he rips off the symbiote, the red and blue is back on, just like when it first bonded to him.

• Assuming that Sally Avril always thought Peter was a nerd and treated him as such, why did he ask her out in the first episode? I know he's riding high on his new powers and confidence and stuff, but why would he want to go out with such a bitch in the first place? Unless he was planning on dumping her as harshly as possible as a form of revenge, which doesn't seem like the sort of thing he'd do.
  • Love Makes You Dumb. Or rather, A Hot Cheerleader Makes You Dumb.
  • Lampshaded in "Probable Cause": "I can't believe I used to have a crush on her!"

• Okay, we all know from previous adaptations that the Green Goblin has a glider and a vast arsenal of pumpkin-grenades and pumpkin-shurikens. But in this adaptation, he is able to shot electric bolts from his fingertips! But that doesn't bugs me. What bugs me is that we never see how he can do that...
  • Strictly speaking, the finger bolts have shown up in the comics too. They just aren't used much anymore.
  • The old Marvel Handbooks had a hilariously detailed technical diagram of the finger-blasters, in fact.
  • Low-powered energy-beam weapons built into his gloves. That was easy.
  • They're Fingerbeams of SCIENCE, of course!

• What exactly does Norman Osborn have to gain by becoming the reigning crimelord in New York? As it stands, he suffers from Cut Lex Luthor a Check Syndrome, possessing vast wealth without to begin with. So why go to all the trouble of dousing himself with the Goblin serum and becoming a supervillain? To be fair, this was never really explained in the comics either=This guy put a lot of thought into it, but a lot of it was his exceptionally clever Wild Mass Guessing rather than anything confirmed in the comics. So what's the Goblin's excuse in the Greg Weisman version?
  • Maybe Osborn was driven insane by inhaling the globulin green gas, and he didn't act coherently anymore.
  • That Mad Goblin guy isn't too far from the actual truth actually. In 2004, Marvel Knights Spider-Man ran a year long storyline in which Green Goblin kidnaps Aunt May. At the end of the story, even though Spidey won, Goblin twists the knife by mailing him a letter congratulating him on his victory and thanking him for being Norman's bitter enemy, because otherwise Norman would just be a regular businessman and would grow quite bored with life.
  • Word of God says he first began developing the Goblin gear after Vulture kidnapped him in the first episode- Norman hated being that helpless, and vowed that it wouldn't happen again. As for taking over the Big Man's empire, it's a). a challenge, b). a way to test out the new tech in an actual combat situation and c). another source of power and revenue for Norman himself. Also, it's distinctly possible that working with the Big Man to create supervillains simply gave Norman a taste of underworld power and he decided he wanted some.
  • Plus the fact that Gobby is crazy.
  • Though this Gobby is a bit less crazy than some versions; there's definitely a method to his madness.
  • Because in addition to being abducted by the Vulture in the very first episode, Osborn was also in bed with Tombstone. It started as a profitable venture when he was creating supervillains for Tombstone, but when he was concerned that there was too much attention being called on him for it and wanted to let the heat die down a bit, Hammerhead pulled rank and threatened him. At that point, his options were "Continue doing this until my cover is blown and I go to jail for the rest of my life," "Try to pull out and wake up in a bag at the bottom of the river," or "Find a way to topple Tombstone and take his criminal empire for my own, so that the consequences of my decision to get involved in this in the first place don't ultimately kill me and possibly my family." Without the Green Goblin disrupting Tombstone's crime monopoly and introducing all kinds of new problems into his life that turned his attention to other things, Norman probably would have been dead or in prison by the end of the first season, and a man like Tombstone might have threatened Harry and Norman's wife as well.
  • Its possible that, given his willingness to harm his own son, he was just a sociopath. He didn't care about the money, he just wanted to control people.

• Is it just me, or does Sally Avril out-and-out hate Peter? She scowls and sneers whenever things seem to go his way (such as when the other girls cheer for him at football tryouts), blames him for stuff that isn't his fault (Liz and Flash breaking up), and actively tries to make him look bad to Liz's parents (commenting that Peter isn't there when she arrives for the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream). Flash and the other guys in his clique mainly seem to view Peter as an easy target for teasing, but don't go out of their way to make his life a complete hell, but Sally actually seems to have it in for Peter. She might not be a monster, as she says, but she *is* a four-star bitch, as another troper described the movie version of Mary Jane...
  • Peter has repeatedly challenged the social hierarchy, by asking her out, by showing up to the dance with a hot chick like MJ, going out for the football team, and dating Liz Allen, to name a few. Being the Alpha Bitch, she views Pete as a threat to the natural order of things (jocks and cheerleaders above geeks and nerds, etc.).

• Okay, so Miles Warren blackmailed Dr Connors ito letting him take control of the lab, by threateig to expose him as the Lizard to the ESU Board of Directors. Uh, Connors only ever experimented on himself! Warren actively sought out other people to use as test subjects! WTF?!
  • That you turned yourself into a giant lizard-monster and went on a rampage isn't something you want out in the open, and could very likely kill your career. Warren and Connors each have something on the other, but Warren is far more ruthless. It's pretty obvious why things went down the way they did, really.

• Okay, so Spider-Man's geeky alter ego, using his own funds, managed to create a spider web material for human use, something real world scientists haven't been able to do, but would love to. What does he do with it? Fights crime and takes photos of himself. Does he market it? NO, of COURSE NOT, because what if the criminal underworld had spiderwebbing? They could be unstoppable! So, instead of using his formula to save millions of lives in geologically active areas of the world, by using spiderweb to hold buildings together, instead he adds some chemical to it, so it'll dissolve and plays Superman around New York City, to hell with every other city in the world.
  • Yes. In comic books, scientists are useless.
  • Would you want to watch the adventures of the Spectacular Construction-Material-Man and his foe the infamous dry-rot? Didn't think so.
  • In one of the early comics, Spidey actually did try to sell his formula to get some money to pay for one of Aunt May's operations, but they wouldn't take it when they realized that it wasn't permanent. Spidey leaves, commenting to himself that while it could be possible to modify the formula to make it longer lasting, his commitment to saving lives doesn't leave him with enough free time to do so.
  • There's also the fact that the whole point of Spider-Man is he TRIED to cash in on his talents, and look where that got him.

• Is it just me, or is Eddie a bit of an asshole? Apparently him and Peter are really good friends, but half the time he never so much as gives Peter the benefit of the doubt and quickly goes into "I HATE PETER" mode.
  • Some of it is Justified though, like the whole thing with Lizard. Even then it was mainly the Connors that gave him grief(for good reason).
    • Another Headscratcher, couldn't Peter said "My Aunt is poor, we need money, so unless you have a million dollars your willing donate to me, back off!" or maybe that my personality to complain.
  • Eddie was certainly angry with Peter (and from his perspective, not knowing about Spider-Man, it was completely justified), but I'm of the opinion he would have eventually calmed down and made up with him- unfortunately, the symbiote got him first, and "calming down" wasn't on its agenda.
  • While Eddie isn't in his right mind when he says it, he accuses Peter of having it easy, since he had his aunt and uncle to adopt him while Eddie was sent to foster homes. There's the possibility that he's subconsciously resented Peter all these years and is looking for an excuse.
• It Just Bugs Me that they finally cancelled it, in spite of the extraordinary critical acclaim (more than once has it been named second only to Batman: The Animated Series in terms of comic book adaptations) AND the massive dump of character and story development we're left with in the final episode. You can't just leave us hanging like that! The final twist of the knife comes not only from the cancellation in face of such a huge cliffhanger, but the announcement of yet ANOTHER Spider-Man cartoon in its place, based off the Ultimate universe. (As if SSM wasn't Ultimate-Spidey enough...) The whole thing just makes no sense. Let's take a cartoon that has nigh-universal acclaim and praise, decent ratings, and a huge fanbase, cancel it for shits and giggles, and then replace it and hope no one notices.
  • There are a few reasons why what happen did happen.
    • One: Marvel did get the animation rights back, but they still didn't get the rights to the show. Assuming they really did try to get them and couldn't, they probably said, "Screw this!" and just opted to do their own show.
    • Two: The movie reboot's reportedly going to be based on the Ultimate comics, too, so they may have wanted a cartoon to tie in to that. And despite a lot of elements from Ultimate (Eddie Brock's age and being Peter's friend & a scientist before he became Venom, Kenny), Spectacular was still very much based on Classic Spider-Man.
    • Three and lastly: At the end of the day, the show was produced out-of-house. Even if Marvel had gotten the rights to the show, it may not have meant that the show was renewed. In all likelihood, Marvel still would've done a new show.
    • Exactly, Spectacular was made by Sony, but Sony lost the rights to make TV shows about Spidey. It's not that hard to understand why it couldn't continue. They didn't cancel the show for kicks.
    • There's also the fact that not everyone could return. Victor Cook(Who deserves as much credit for this show as Weisman does) had already moved on to work on the new Scooby Doo show and some of the others had exclusive contracts with Sony. Weisman himself had moved on to Young Justice (which was announced not long after the cancellation of Spectacular, so he was probably attached to YJ when Spectacular officially ended). So if they have to hire a lot of new people anyway, I can understand why they went with making a new show.

• I've only seen the first three episodes, so maybe this gets addressed. Why doesn't Spider-Man do photo-shoots for himself during non-combat situations, so that he can take the time to get the shot set up correctly? Sure, it's less dramatic if there's no villain in frame, but I'm sure the Bugle would be happy to run it anyway. He does it in most of the continuities I've seen. In general, though, I've liked how they've made it clear that Spider-Man is mainly an inconvenience to Peter Parker, and vice versa.
  • Probably at first because he didn't think of it, and later because he's gotten to know Jameson, and knows he's more likely to print (and therefore buy) dramatic, sensational images over ones of Spidey just swinging/standing still.
  • Also, he would need an excuse to have pictures of Spider-Man just posing for the camera. If you're referring to the Ultimate version, where he simply hops around and gets pictures of himself, he says that they're from when Spider-Man visited his school (which actually happened, btw), and it works because he doesn't continuously have to imply he's getting such lucky breaks, because he doesn't take pictures of Spider-Man after that. In Spectacular, Spider-Man has never been around Midtown High (at least not until much later in the series, when he already has the job at the Bugle) and he's Spidey's official photographer, so it's better to get photos of Spidey fighting enemies. Plus, as mentioned elsewhere, it's not as though he has time to just pose for pictures, so taking pictures while fighting kills two birds with one stone. The excuse he ends up giving later on ("He rings my cell to tip me off whenever he's about to fight a baddie") proves much more reasonable.

• The ending of the "Final Curtain". Ok, I know sometimes it is indeed doubtful that No One Could Survive That!, but come on! Osborn fell straight in a huge tank full of gas bombs without his gas mask on immediately whereupon they all exploded. How the hell could he survive THAT?
  • Per the comics, one of his powers is a healing factor, which is how he cheated death there despite having his glider's blade stuck through his heart.
    • That, and he survived the climax of the final arc of The Clone Saga, which involved Spidey tossing a huge bag full of pumpkin bombs at Norman.
  • Unless it wasn't Norman... or even a human. *cough*Mysteriobot*cough*

• In regards to the theme song, what the heck does "arriving in the speed of time" mean?? Spider-Man travels at the blistering pace of one second-per-second? It gets worse when you consider that they could have put "nick of time" or "speed of light" in there and it would have sounded fine. Doesn't stop it from being a kickass theme song though.
  • It's catchy lyrics; don't think too hard about it.

• In "Natural Selection" Peter senses when Flash is about to barrage him with water balloons, dodges some but then realizes he's giving away his superpowers and just stands there and allows himself to be drenched. Uhm, why doesn't he just run away?
  • Because by standing there and getting drenched, everyone will forget how he dodged a bunch of them, and only remember his humiliation, whereas if he ran off, people would be left with the memory that he can dodge water-balloons pretty damn well.
    • But it's not exactly an incredible feat, is it? After all, Flash wasn't shooting a paintball gun at him or something. He might've just gotten lucky a few times and then skimped when he saw that Flash wasn't going to stop. Whereas standing completely still in such situation was, well, kind of unnatural. IMO it was even more likely to draw attention to the incident. Or did he expect everyone to have the attention span of a goldfish? It may be a minor gripe, but it always jarred me how hard he actually tried to look like a wimp. What's more, several episodes later at the try-outs for the school team Peter displays some pretty effective stunts, and nobody went "Ohmygodheisspiderman" on him.
    • Keep in mind he later takes the fall for Harry by doing the same thing he did with the water balloons. To quote Liz Allan, "I guess yesterday was just beginner's luck."

• On his Characters tab Tombstone is listed as, among other things, a Scary Black Man. Am I missing something?
  • He's a black Albino.
  • In other words, he's a Scary Black Man with a skin problem.
  • Well, in the comics, he started out fighting Spidey as a Badass Normal African American albino; he got superpowers some time after he'd been introduced as a villain. The 1990s cartoon just collapsed his two origin stories into one (more sensible) story.
  • Apparently, Weisman learned early on he couldn't use Kingpin, so he looked around for another mob-affiliated villain to stick in his niche, and settled on Tombstone because of his uniquely intimidating appearance and sense of physical power- which proved, when wedded to the Magnificent Bastard intellect this incarnation gave him, to be quite formidable indeed.

• Ok, the cold didn't kill the symbiote. Why didn't Peter try to Kill It with Fire? What, were all the abandoned steel mills closed for Thanksgiving? Instead he dumps it into a bath of liquid concrete at a construction site. You know, even without obsessive ex-lovers, such things tend to be disturbed from time to time, during repairs, renovations or demolitions. Not exactly the best can to seal the evil in.
  • Spidey may have thought that the cement would crush or suffocate the symbiote; it's only after he thinks he's seeing Venom around again that he seems worried that there was a possibility it could have been freed.
    • Crush and suffocate a creature that originated in space and survived a shuttle re-entry? I don't think so. Although it might explain why he wouldn't trust fire either. Are the symbiotes destructible at all?
    • Obviously, we can agree it didn't work. Of course, extreme temperature is also unlikely to deter a creature that can survive in a vacuum. As far as I'm aware, the only thing that really damages the symbiote is vibration (Carnage's symbiote is also vulnerable to fire, but it's explicitly different from its progenitor, since it was born on Earth).
    • Actually I meant, that since Peter, I think, knew the symbiote's origin, it's weird he'd try something as mundane as cement. As for vulnerability to fire, funny thing is, I've just learned, courtesy of Cracked.com, that Venom is supposed to be especially vulnerable to fire. So?
    • Whether or not the symbiote is vulnerable to fire isn't important, since Peter never actually tried fire and had no way of knowing what effect it would have. On reflection, seems more likely he wasn't trying to kill the symbiote by burying it, just entomb it, hopefully forever.

• Seeing how Tombstone didn't want Spidey actually working for him as much as not interfering with his operations, why didn't he just kill or at least cripple the web-head when he had him pinned? Moreover, when Black Spidey takes his offer on but then refuses in face, Tomb just sits there only to demand that Venom kills Spidey seconds later. Why didn't he attack Spidey himself?
  • Tombstone, like a certain other Magnificent Bastard from the same creator, probably considers an enemy like Spidey to be potentially useful while alive, not so much if dead. After all, they share many enemies (Green Goblin, Master Planner and his operation, any ordinary criminals not associated with Tombstone's empire) so he probably would rather lay low and let Spidey take them on and stay out of his way, while quietly making a hefty profit from his normal business on the side. Killing Spidey was probably a test for Venom, and had it gone off, Tombstone gets, essentially, a more powerful Spider-Man he can control- which he wanted in the first place. Keeping the original around would, in that particular situation, be both redundant and a potential liability.
  • Except that by the time of the first confrontation none of those are on the scene yet, and Tombs' "hefty profit" was severely hurt by Spidey's interference.
  • And Tombstone still thinks there's a chance he can get Spidey to work for him; besides, he outright states that while Spidey is busy fighting supervillains he's not seriously hurting Tombstone's empire at all, and guess what he's been doing for the past few episodes. But the real issue is that he's too much into Pragmatic Villainy to throw away such a potentially useful resource, even when said resource hates his guts.

• When Spidey is beaten by Venom, he pretends to give in and offers himself to the symbiote. The symbiote disengages from Eddy, consumes Peter, but then has to leave him too, because his will is too strong or something. When it tries to return to Brock, Spidey ensnares it in his webbing. Uhm, why didn't he do it while the symbiote was crawling towards him? Why allow the symbiote to consume him? He couldn't know for sure the symbiote wouldn't want to stay with him, could he? So why risk it?
  • If he made a grab for it immediately, it probably would have just jumped back onto Eddy. He needed to weaken it first by exposing it to emotions which are, more or less, toxic to it- effectively, how he got rid of it before, only without the bells. He knows he can do it again because he already did it once.

• This is more of a fanbase issue than a show issue, but why is it that any fanfic where Harry's a major feature he's always made out to be an abusive boyfriend or some horrible monster? Is it just romantic preference or is it something else? I mean, I doubt the relationship between him and Gwen would last much longer naturally because Harry heard Gwen admit she always loved Peter and Harry manipulated Gwen into staying in the relationship longer. Am I missing something here or is it the fanbase?
  • Seems to be another simple case of Die for Our Ship, mixed with the fact that with the show ending, Pete and Gwen couldn't get together.
  • I would guess that it's also because of the way he manipulated Gwen's emotions to prevent her from breaking up with him. That kind of attitude isn't far off from emotional abuse, and a lot of fanfic writers don't really seem to understand/care about the difference between emotional and physical abuse.
• At the end of the third episode of the first season, everybody is pissed at Peter for taking photos of the Lizard and Spider-Man instead of helping. Well... why didn't Pete just tell them he's Spider-Man? Eddie and Gwen have been his best friends for years and have both proven to be able to keep their mouths shut (at least before his Face–Heel Turn regarding Eddie) and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Connors will reveal the secret of somebody who knows that Curt is the Lizard. I get that this is Spider-Man and drama over how Peter's secret identity ruins his life is required, but why put him in the position where he has no logical reason not to tell them?
  • Peter or Spidey, he'd still compromised Dr. Connor by making those pictures. Sure, they'd be grateful if they knew he'd also saved him, but it'd still be very awkward. Hell, it might've done more harm than good, if they'd imagined that he's only in the heroics for the money (frustrated people don't tend to be rational). The real question, of course, is why the hell didn't Peter think of using an alias or not signing them at all.
    • How did the photos compromise Connors? The Lizard had already appeared in public place, and one filled with people to the brim on top of that. He would have made the news either way, photos or no photos. The real question should be why Mrs. Connors decided that Peter wasn't trustworthy, given that he didn't really reveal anything that wasn't already public.
  • Because Peter, smart as he is, doesn't always think the consequences of his actions through, which we see several more times throughout the series (though never quite so majorly).
    • Besides which, JJ would have been the one who decided to list Parkers name in the by-line. So Pete would have needed a reason to convince JJ not to print his real name, and who knows how that conversation might have gone?
    • "I don't want any of Spidey's enemies coming after me because they might think I can lead them to him." Which is actually what Rhino later does.
    • But by that point the only real villains Spidey had met were an electrician and a (now cured) Lizard-man. Sure, he could've asked later, but by that point he'd have became the "Spider-Man pictures" guy.

• Norman's mantra in this series is "I never apologize," this even became a plot point in the final episode, tipping Harry off cause Chameleon Norman did apologize. Except in the Fourth episode his meeting with Hammerhead is interrupted by Harry knocking over a plant. When he come back he says, "My apologies for the interruption." Huh? Dude, you wouldn't apologize when Vulture threatened your life and you constantly go on about how you don't apologize, so what happened?
  • I actually once saw an explanation for this that I think makes sense- in this case, the "interruption" was Harry, not anything Norman himself did. He wasn't apologizing for himself, he was apologizing for his kid being a nuisance. If Norman had somehow caused an interruption, he wouldn't have apologized for it.

• Hobgoblin and Scorpion were supposed to appear in season 3 and likely had their character designs finished. At least I recall someone saying they had been. Have either of these designs ever been shown to the public?
  • It's unfortunate, but no they have not.

• Peter webs the last vial of gene cleanser under his desk. It remains there for days/weeks/whatever until he needs it. Uh, doesn't his webbing dissolve after an hour? Shouldn't the vial just fall to the ground and shatter while he's asleep or something?
  • I don't think it's ever stated in this series how long his webbing lasts. Also, it's light enough that I doubt it'd shatter if it did fall from that height.
    • If the webbing only lasts for an hour, shouldn't guys like Ox, half the city (all the crashed helicopters, buses and trains should do massive damage if the webbing suddenly broke) and other guys Spidey have caught be very dead? If the one hour limit is to be accepted why doesn't the Bugle or anyone else mention how great Spidey is at murder?

• What was the Black Cat doing at the 3M Halloween ball? Is Felicia Hardy a student there? And if she is, how is that Peter didn't make a point of avoiding her since he found out the Black Cat is the daughter of his Uncle's murderer (of which he knew the name, or could have easily looked it up. Then normal logic would tell him who the Black Cat is), given she vowed to make him pay in the occasion?
  • The Halloween Ball happened before either of them ever met. She didn't swear vengeance on him until her second, and last, appearance. And as for why she's there, given Black Cat's personality, it's not a stretch that she just crashed it for shits and giggles or even use the rather crowded ball as a way of hiding from the police by hiding in plain sight.
  • If Felicia is a student at 3M, Peter probably did make a point to stay away from him. Or possibly Felicia did out of shame (if her values are like her father's, she considers theft perfectly acceptable but not murder).
• Why did the gene cleanser work to separate Venom from Brock? The symbiote didn't alter Brock's DNA, did he?
  • It destroys non-human DNA, therefore it would kill the symbiote, regardless of whether or not it was attached to anyone at all.

• Venom (and Peter while bonded to the symbiote) uses "we" instead of "I", referring to the human host and the alien symbiote. So why does the symbiote use "we" when referring to just itself?
  • This troper always assumed that was the just the symbiote taking its obsession with Peter to the next level. To add Nightmare Fuel maybe Peter drove it insane when he separated from it. Or maybe it just didn't bother to learn proper grammar. The former is far more likely to be true though.
  • Here's some food for thought, in Intervention while Peter is in the car with the symbiote, it actually refers to the night that Peter let the thief get away as if it was always there. This is actually some great Fanfiction material.

• Peter's treatment of the symbiote in the various versions of the story has always bugged me a little, but the Spectacular Spider-Man version takes the cake. All it really wants is to be together with Peter, and not only does he "dump" it in response, he tries to murder it via freezing afterwards. Imagine how well that would be received by viewers if it was a human involved instead of a living puddle of muck. And in this version the symbiote is clearly capable of talking with its host, so surely Peter could've at least tried reasoning with it.
  • The symbiote's definition of being "with" Peter involved it subverting his personality to be in line with what it wanted in a host and at times directly taking over his body. What would you do if faced with a creature that had directly attacked what makes you, well, you?
    • I have to admit this does have a strong whiff of What Measure Is a Non-Human?. Many, if not all, of his human or meta-human enemies have repeatedly tried to murder him, endangered other people and committed all kinds of crimes, and yet he never entertained the idea of killing any of them. But here bam, "it's too dangerous, it could fall into the wrong hands" - it's deep freeze time, never mind that "it" is a sentient being! Hell, my own first question was "why didn't Peter try fire when cold failed" for which I'm kinda ashamed now.
  • Are you forgetting how the Symbiote alienated him from his friends, hijacked his body, cooperated with a local crime lord, and tried to murder Doctor Octopus?
    • Nobody's saying Pete should've become best pals with the Symbiont, but he tried to execute it.
    • And it has tried to kill him, and others. It's not really a lifeform at that point, moreso a parasite.

• Where the heck was Black Cat during "Accomplices"? After her little cameo at the beginning she just disappeared. Why didn't she go for the device? She could've helped Spider-Man in his battle with Silver Sable and Hammerhead while Rhino destroyed the McGuffin and and the two them take him out. SERIOUSLY, WHERE WAS SHE?!?!
  • Presumably, once she found out that Tombstone and Doc Ock (and she may have found out about Silvermane and Silver Sable's involvement later, though Sable hadn't shown up yet when Cat left) were involved, she decided the potential gain wasn't worth the risk and felt it wiser to sit this one out.

• I don't get how Spidey fell for Norman's red herring. He's been up close and personal with the Goblin more than once, and there's a very noticeable height difference between Norman and Harry.
  • Movie Magic. Even in real life pretty significant height differences can be faked rather convincingly with the right combination of posture and lifts/high heels and the Spectacular Spiderman universe is one where people can use make up and masks to look enough like specific people that Harry Osborn mistakes the Chameleon for his own father as do several other people. The Green Goblin mask is so good that he can accurately convey emotion through it, which is worlds beyond any masks (not elaborate make up but latex pull them on over your head masks) that we can make in the real world. Based on that the height difference is an easily overlooked detail by comparison to the limp.
    • We already had the Chekhov's Gun set up with identifying costumed characters by height. When Chameleon is impersonating Spiderman, one character can tell at a glance that it's not the real Spiderman because the height is wrong.
    • Watch season one again and notice the Goblin is rarely ever shown standing straight up. His knees are usually bent on that glider, and he's crouching on Tombstone's desk. The moments Spidey got up close to the Goblin were few, far between and over quickly.

• How did Uncle Ben Appear during Peter's Battle in the Center of the Mind. The Symbiote was bonded to Peter's body, but Uncle Ben was a corpse buried deep underground. Was it his ghost?
  • Isn't this explicitly stated? The symbiote called up Uncle Ben's memory to torment Peter with guilt over his death, but Peter's memory of him was so strong he was able to act independently of what the symbiote had wanted. "You called up my memory; you're stuck with me," remember?
• Is there a voice changing device inside the Green Goblin mask? I can't picture Osborn doing that voice on his own. Wouldn't it hurt his vocal cords after a while? Also, he seems a little TOO in character if you know what I mean 0_0
  • The Goblin mask already has a gas mask built in. Why wouldn't he put in a voice changer? It's not like he lacks the funds or technology, and not being recognized as Norman Osborn is incredibly important.

• Norman's secret as the goblin would have been public knowledge in season 3. How?? The only ones who know his secret are Harry, Chameleon, and Peter Parker. I seriously doubt the public would take the word of a "costume menace", a 16 year old kid, and a criminal.
  • And any number of people in the buildings around the fight when Norman Osborn's mask was off who decided to look out the window, any pumpkin heads looking up, any cameras in the area (even assuming Peter didn't take pictures of the fight out of respect for his friend, security cameras exist), the fact that a corpse that was identified as Norman Osborn's (even if it wasn't) was found with a Green Goblin costume on (I doubt that anyone had the time and motive to take the costume off before police arrived). Really, after using a populated part of New York City as a battleground, I would be more surprised if people did not notice. That's not even taking into account the fact that Captain Stacy would believe Spider-Man, and that Gwen could confirm that Harry thought he was the Green Goblin until it was proven to be someone else.

• Why is it that Hammerhead's female chauffeur was never given a name or had any lines? Seriously, she was technically a recurring character and antagonist through both seasons and yet I never once heard her say anything or be addressed by name. I know that since the show has a large cast she probably wasn't going get much, if any, development, but c'mon, no name or even a line. Really?
  • According to Greg Wiesman, she's an actual character from the comics. They were probably planning on doing something with her before the show was canned.

• In the last episode, what does Spider-Man say when he blows up Norman's glider at the end of the fight? Something along the lines of "you had no right to blow up your son?" It sounds really garbled.
  • I believe it was something along the lines of "You wouldn't know right from wrong if it blew up your glider!"
• In the second season, Flash gets cast as Nick Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" after the director sees him figuratively making an ass of himself. But this is after the director had already announced a casting list that did not include Flash, so presumably, someone had already been cast as Nick. Nick is a pretty major role, so did the director really just push some more qualified actor aside from one of the play's most memorable roles in order to mock Flash?
  • Yes.
  • I assumed Hobie was the original pick for Bottom, leading to him getting relegated to understudy. After all, everything else he does gets preempted.

• Why does Rand keep dating Sally? He seems to be an okay guy, so why would he date an Alpha Bitch like her?

• In "Opening Night", why did the Goblin/Norman opt to release the inmates and fool Captain Stacy and J. J Jameson into thinking that the Vault had been hacked? He (Norman) was trying to sell them on the Vault's security, and having a lunatic hack and take over the place during its demonstration doesn't scream "secure".
  • Norman prioritized killing Spider-Man over his business venture with the Vault.

• After going through all the trouble of convincing Harry and Spidey that the former was the Green Goblin, why did Norman throw it all away by kidnapping Harry while in the Green Goblin persona?
  • By that point, Spider-Man knew that the Green Goblin was back. He needed time to set up his Grand Finale, so to speak, so he needed to make sure Spider-Man wouldn't realize who was the real Goblin too soon- and notice that the finale opens up with Spider-Man desperately scouring the streets for Harry instead of going after Norman Osborn, and souring the man's plans.

• Throughout Accomplices, why does Peter play keep-away with the drive instead of just pitching it into the harbor? He has no reason not to destroy it. It wouldn't have helped since it was fake, but he didn't know that
  • Most likely he was in a rush and didn't consider throwing it. After all, he was supposed to be in date.

• This troper wants to know what the deal is with Harry's mother. Word of God says she's Spared by the Adaptation because they thought it'd be strange for the trio to have only one parents or no parents at all. Yet, she seems to be a complete waste of character, just only used as another example of Harry's miserable life. She hasn't said a single word, nor is interested in any of the action going on. One gets the impression that she's unhappy with her life. If the series had third season, would she become an Ascended Extra or continue to neglect Harry?
  • Apparently she would have gotten a bigger role in Season 3, and been voiced by Marina Sirtis to boot. Since Weisman is famously mum about spoilers, even for canceled series, he hasn't revealed what his exact plans for her were.

• Okay, seriously? In "Identity Crisis", the Daily Bugle very intended to expose Peter Parker as Spider-Man. But they know Peter; he's a good kid, a little flawed, but a good kid nonetheless. If they reveal his secret identity, all the criminals like Goblin, Tombstone, Doc Ock would outright murder him and his loved ones? Not only that, the Bugle will be responsible for hundreds of casualties with the criminals now free to do what they want.
  • Which is why Mr. Robertson is hesitant. But Ned Lee doesn't know Peter that much and has been wanting to break the story. JJJ is infuriated at Spider-Man after what happened to his son, and has never been shown as reasonable when it came to Spidey. Ultimately, Jameson is the one who runs the Bugel.

• By the time of Season 2, why didn't the Sinister Six just try to rush Spider-Man like before? He doesn't have the Black Suit?
  • They didn't know that the black suit made him stronger, so they had no reason to assume that he would be an easier target after ditching it.

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