WesternAnimation One of finest comic book adaptations
Helmed by Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman and Victor Cook from the Hellboy DT Vs, "The Spectacular Spider-Man" premiered in 2008 to tie in to Sam Raimi's 2007 film "Spider-Man 3". Ever since this show was fist announced as a DTV series, I was looking forward to seeing a new Spidey series, and the announcement of Weisman's involvement made me really look forward to the premiere. It did not disappoint.
"TSSM" is one of the best comic book cartoons out there, and I'd rank it just as high as "Batman: The Animated Series". It pays tribute to the Ditko and Lee's run in the 60's, but skillfully adapts other elements from the movies, the Ultimate Comics, and decades worth of comic book history and content to create a cohesive, developed world. It is mostly faithful to the source material, while still putting on new twists and revamps here and there.
The writing is sharp, providing for some nuanced dialog, some clever Spidey humor, and likable, endearing characters from Peter and his flawed character, to his strong supporting cast and extra characters, to his colorful Rogues Gallery. Everyone has an interesting relationship with each other. The stories are almost formatted to have several mini story-arcs in both seasons, but the episodes themselves are episodic enough to not get viewers confused. Character development is aplenty as well. The voice cast is mostly perfectly cast, from Josh Keaton giving an iconic performance as Peter and Spidey, to Lacey Chabert as Gwen, Vanessa Marshall as Mary Jane, and the villains such as Steven Blum's deliciously evil Green Goblin, or Kevin Michael Richardson as the cold, calculating Tombstone.
Though the show's stylized art style is a point of controversy, I personally enjoyed it. It is a fresh breath of air from anime and Timm imitators, and provides for some neat costume updates, such as Vulture and Electro. The art style also allows for some great animation and fight scenes, such as Symbiote Spidey's first fight with the Sinister Six, or the opera fight between three mob bosses. It is fast-paced, but not without detail.
Overall, "The Spectacular Spider-Man" is an excellent show. Though it was cancelled due to unfortunate Executive Meddling, it remains a high-quality production. One of the best cartoons of the 2000's, and one that hopefully will not be forgotten anytime soon.
WesternAnimation The best Spider-Man cartoon, period.
Move over 90's TAS, this one is taking its place next to Batman: The Animated Series as the best superhero cartoons ever made. What makes this show so good? The writing does NOT talk down to kids. Not only are plots complicated and drawn-out (in a good way), the humor is actually funny, as Spider-Man should be. I cracked up after hearing the one-liner he said after defeating The Rhino. Also, the characters make a huge contribution. They're very well-written, and almost all sympathetic, with the exception of some of the villains. But even those are still fun to watch. And Josh Keaton was the PERFECT choice to voice Peter, not only nailing the man, but also the Spider. Half the humor comes from his delivery. This is a show that goes out of it's way to appeal to everyone, and it succeeds marvelously. Unfortunately, Disney chose not to renew it, and instead gave us Ultimate Spider-Man (shudders). But even so, this was a show that was not afraid to take risks, and shows as much love for the early Spider-Man mythology as Stan Lee probably has himself. If you're looking to show your kid a good superhero cartoon that you can enjoy together, this is the one.
WesternAnimation A look back with hindsight
By the time I'm writing, it's been around 13 years since Spectacular Spider-Man, praised by many as the greatest Spider-Man cartoon of all times, ended. We got two other Spider-Man cartoons since then - and both got bashed for being inferior to it. I remembered, like most people, loving this cartoon, but my memory of it was getting blurry. So I decided to rewatch it entirely. I just got down re-watching, and I am happy to say the show still was as great as I remember... for the most part.
I don't have enough room on this review to praise all the pros. The animation and actions are great. The world building is better: the series takes time to introduce most antagonists in advance in their normal identities, then has their transformations into supervillains happen later. You really see the setting evolving from a relatively grounded world with normalish organized crime, to the gang war between supervillains and regular criminals by season 2. While not all villains are particularly complex (though we do get some really good sympathetic ones), even the simple ones are cool in their own right; this show features one of my favourite Dr Octopus ever, with his initial meek personna contrasting with his transformation as an egomaniac Mad Scientist. In contrast to its immediate successor, I really like this Peter: they make a good job at portraying him as shy and smart, yet snarky, and he actually makes me laugh instead of wanting to punch him.
However... I also noticed some flaws this time around. Now, I realize the show was cancelled for right issues, so I am not going to hold its depressing ending or the unfinished plotlines against it. There are, however, two things I feel like criticizing. For starter, this Peter has a frustrating Aesop Amnesia; I get that a driving force of the show is him struggling to balancing his two lifes. I get errors like the Lizard Incident, as he was still starting. But by the end of the show, when he's actually agreeing to test a new jail for the police the same day he knows his girlfriend expects him to be there, I was just rolling my eyes.
Speaking of girlfriend, that leads me to my other issue: the romance drama. The show pulls that annoying cliché Love Triangle with Liz Allan, and we have to sit through several episodes of Peter being a terrible boyfriend to her. Which feels like a tedious waste of time because it's made blatant that he is really into Gwen. Not helped by the fact that they did make Liz likable - so we're just dragging for a breakup we know will be painful to watch. To conclude, I still enjoyed that show a lot, and I am glad I rewatched it. And I still believe it's one of the best Spider-Man cartoons, possibly the best (I'd have to rewatch the 90s series to say for sure), and while it being brought back is... unlikely, I'd love if it did end up happening somehow. But let's not kid ourselves - the show still had some issues.