The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series

[Jekyll]

This show and the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90’s are easily the best cartoon series Marvel has put out.

[Mistah K88]

I'm pretty much guilty of that but I watched it anyways. I didn't realize how good it was until I saw the SM toons that came after.

To be honest you could say that Ultimate's art style was actually better than the 90's cartoon, AND had better animation than it as well (with that Disney budget ANYTHING is possible) however, it just wasn't for me. I do hear that it did get better as the seasons passed though. I remember something similar going on with the cartoon "The Batman" where it had a rocky start but got better as time went on, I haven't really watched Ultimate since the first couple of episodes so maybe someone can vouch and say that it got better as time passed.

Hmm, since Spectacular, every media adaption of Spidey has portrayed Spidey when he just started in super heroics as a teenager. However, I'd say that the problem I have is most didn't bring the maturity aspect with it. I think that Spectacular's Peter is the most mature we've seen teenage Spider-Man outside of comic books. I do think that not having any adult heroes in his universe to compare him to helped, as no mentor was needed. (then again no mentor was needed when Spider-Man started out in the comic books and there were adult heroes in existence...but I guess that's a different era).

One 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).

[Frontier]

10th Anniversary Poster:



It will be handed out at the 10th anniversary panel at Sacramento Convention Center October 21st.

[Miles To Go]

God damn it, I nearly spat out my coke thinking it was a comeback announcement.

[Batman Begins 2005]

Love this show. One of the best Spider-Man things ever. Holds its own with them.

[Frontier]

God damn it, I nearly spat out my coke thinking it was a comeback announcement.

I don't know if there's any way for the stars to align to bring back Spectacular.

Marvel doesn't seem all that interested in revivals of their old shows and I don't think Sony could do anything short of a feature-length film revival with how the animation rights got divvied up.

[Batman Begins 2005]

I'd make do with a one off book or limited series. Better yet would be the show's return.

[Inversed]

I think the only possible way that the stars could align for this show to come back is if Marvel's Spider-Man ends with Marvel Animation not having a new Spider-Man show to replace it, and Into The Spider-Verse does incredibly well, mayyyyyyyyybe they would cut another deal for them both to work on an animated show.

And ALSO, Greg Weisman needs to be available, since he's working on Young Justice right now and we don't know what he has planned next.

[Frontier]

I think the only possible way that the stars could align for this show to come back is if Marvel's Spider-Man ends with Marvel Animation not having a new Spider-Man show to replace it, and Into The Spider-Verse does incredibly well, mayyyyyyyyybe they would cut another deal for them both to work on an animated show.

I'm not sure what's going on with Marvel Animation moving forward.

It seems like all the current shows are going to end and there's not going to be much else other then Marvel Rising specials and the Moon Girl cartoon.

But I just don't see Marvel having enough incentive to co-produce a cartoon with Sony beyond the reasoning of "it would probably be a better Spider-Man cartoon then what we've been doing."

And ALSO, Greg Weisman needs to be available, since he's working on Young Justice right now and we don't know what he has planned next.

And I think Vic Cook has moved onto other projects, although I'm not sure if he's still involved with Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters (a show with a lot of Spectacular in it's DNA).

[Mistah K88]

I think the only possible way that the stars could align for this show to come back is if Marvel's Spider-Man ends with Marvel Animation not having a new Spider-Man show to replace it, and Into The Spider-Verse does incredibly well, mayyyyyyyyybe they would cut another deal for them both to work on an animated show.

And ALSO, Greg Weisman needs to be available, since he's working on Young Justice right now and we don't know what he has planned next.

The show started out as DTVs, so Into the Spiderverse does make me ponder exactly what they can do with the rights to this series. Could they possibly continue it via animated movies while Disney/Marvel does their own thing? Also, I wonder if plans would go as they originally envisioned before the series was screwed by the network, or if they would take ideas from the decade that has passed? Would Sony/Marvel try to force Miles Morales in this universe. Would they force Gwen to be more like Spider-Gwen? ThereÂ’s plenty of questions that I have.


IÂ’ve noticed that in this show, some of the villains had their own little jingles when it came to the background music, whenever they showed up, or fought Spider-Man one on one. Gobby and Venom are obvious, but I swear Ock, Electro, Rhino, and Sandman have themes. Maybe IÂ’m hearing things. ItÂ’s kind of like Batman the Animated series where the rogues has their own little theme music.

Hypothetically, if the show did come back, is there anything modern, that was introduced after the shows end that you would have liked to see the showÂ’s team tackle? Or do you think they should stick with only things that existed while the show was running.

[Frontier]

The show started out as DTVs, so Into the Spiderverse does make me ponder exactly what they can do with the rights to this series. Could they possibly continue it via animated movies while Disney/Marvel does their own thing? Also, I wonder if plans would go as they originally envisioned before the series was screwed by the network, or if they would take ideas from the decade that has passed? Would Sony/Marvel try to force Miles Morales in this universe. Would they force Gwen to be more like Spider-Gwen? ThereÂ’s plenty of questions that I have.

I think it would probably depend on how much independence the creative team would have.

If they weren't mandated to give Gwen powers or throw Miles in there, I doubt Greg would do it (especially if it interfered with his original plans). I doubt Greg is even that aware of either Miles or Spider-Gwen, personally.

And considering how they haven't quite fit in Marvel's Spider-Man I don't think he'd see the point of including them in a show about Peter Parker.

Hypothetically, if the show did come back, is there anything modern, that was introduced after the shows end that you would have liked to see the showÂ’s team tackle? Or do you think they should stick with only things that existed while the show was running.

Smartphones? I don't think Smartphones were really a thing back then .

Although in all seriousness I think the only major modern Spider-Man element that Greg was interested in using was Mr. Negative. I don't think that would be any different now.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

This show and the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90’s are easily the best cartoon series Marvel has put out.

While I agree when it comes to Spectacular, Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes is better than the 90s Spider-man cartoon.

[Batman Begins 2005]

While I agree when it comes to Spectacular, Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes is better than the 90s Spider-man cartoon.

Agreed. The Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes are #1 and #2 for Marvel's best cartoons with SSM holding the top spot.

[Inversed]

The show started out as DTVs, so Into the Spiderverse does make me ponder exactly what they can do with the rights to this series. Could they possibly continue it via animated movies while Disney/Marvel does their own thing? Also, I wonder if plans would go as they originally envisioned before the series was screwed by the network, or if they would take ideas from the decade that has passed? Would Sony/Marvel try to force Miles Morales in this universe. Would they force Gwen to be more like Spider-Gwen? ThereÂ’s plenty of questions that I have.

IÂ’ve noticed that in this show, some of the villains had their own little jingles when it came to the background music, whenever they showed up, or fought Spider-Man one on one. Gobby and Venom are obvious, but I swear Ock, Electro, Rhino, and Sandman have themes. Maybe IÂ’m hearing things. ItÂ’s kind of like Batman the Animated series where the rogues has their own little theme music.

Hypothetically, if the show did come back, is there anything modern, that was introduced after the shows end that you would have liked to see the showÂ’s team tackle? Or do you think they should stick with only things that existed while the show was running.

Yeah, that's a good point. Their initial plan was to do 3 or 4 seasons and the rest of the series would consist of DTV movies, so maybe they could jump to just doing that. It wouldn't be as good as a full third season, but it'd be something at least.

And I feel Spectacular would continue doing its classic Spidey take than trying to incorporate alot of the modern stories, since that was one of the biggest appeals of the series.

[Mistah K88]

To tell you the truth, outside of name dropping "Punk'd" I don't think anything has really been too dated in Spectacular as of yet. If anything the Master Planner's scheme in Shear Strength would only be more effective in conquering the planet now than it was when the show aired... I could only think possibly the Ozberry phone shown in a couple episodes clearly being based off of the Blackberry being a dated reference, but then again THAT phone does things that our current phones WISH they could do.

Agreed. The Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes are #1 and #2 for Marvel's best cartoons with SSM holding the top spot.

RIGHT before the Disney buyout Marvel had FIRE with their animated series. Spectacular, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, even Wolverine and the X-Men were all excellent series that actually had me invested despite being a good decade out of the targeted age group. Granted, as someone who likes Cyclops, I've had PLENTY of problems with the latter, but I cannot say that I was not entertained at all. After the Disney deal, I can't say that I have really cared about any cartoons afterward enough to faithfully watch them, just to catch them here and there (when NOTHING else is on), as they tend make me realize I was way out of the demographic when watching them. I'm sure they are successful, as kids seem to enjoy them.

There are plenty of civilian characters in the show who never had their names mentioned during the show at all, and we only know them because Greg mentioned them in other venues; like the aforementioned Jason Ionello and Tiny Mckeever; who were part of the Midtown High football team (when the only characters of that team who have spoken are Flash, Randy, Kenny, and Hobie). I would ask why they would bother giving these characters names at all as they didn't do to much during the show's run, thus were simply background fluff. However, something tells me that the characters would have probably have been put to use later down the line if they went out of the way to give the character a name; much how Sha-Shan was seen in Season 1, but didn't really do anything notable until season 2.

Josh Kittling
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #68 (January 1969)




Greg said that Eddie's roommate at the Empire State University dorms was this Josh character. In the comics, Josh was a friend of Randy Robertson's when he and Peter were in college. As you can see from the comic pic with him, Randy, and Peter, it was during the racially charged late 60's early 70's. All we know about him in Spectacular is that he's Eddie Brock's dorm mate at Empire State University. This is one of the cases where you wonder "why bother giving this character a name at all?", as we only see him one time in the series, for a quick second at that.

We could only speculate that he probably would have been seen if more happened with Randy later in the series. We know that Eddie is a college freshman in this series (which would put him at 18-19), and we could assume the same of Josh here being about the same age. Randy Robertson is a High School senior in the series, which would possibly put him in the same circles with Josh somewhere down the line had the show continued, as season 2 ended in about March, with Randy, and Kenny Kong getting ready to graduate in a few months.