The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series

[Kaitou D. Kid]

He mentioned in an interview that he was just copying what Stan Lee did on the comics with the characters growing, so if he had his way, he likely would have allowed Peter to age, but who knows if Marvel would let him.

I doubt Marvel would have been able even if they wanted to. Outside of not having the rights to use other Marvel characters, Weisman had full creative control like Insomniac does now.

Plus, the show had an actual timeline like Young Justice and not a floating timeline like the comics. So even if they could have stopped Weisman from growing Peter up, they couldn't have done it without cancelling the show (which, again, they legally couldn't before Sony gave the TV rights back).

[Lukmendes]

I doubt Marvel would have been able even if they wanted to. Outside of not having the rights to use other Marvel characters, Weisman had full creative control like Insomniac does now.

Plus, the show had an actual timeline like Young Justice and not a floating timeline like the comics. So even if they could have stopped Weisman from growing Peter up, they couldn't have done it without cancelling the show (which, again, they legally couldn't before Sony gave the TV rights back).

Ah, wasn't aware that Weisman had full creative control, that's good to know.

And yeah, the timeline's on the cartoon, but a lot vaguer than YJ, since YJ shows dates and even hours, Spectacular more or less vaguely says "x thing happened months ago", and stuff like celebrating hollidays, but since Peter never left high school, then it can feel like the time advancement was just comic book time, but hey, can't hold that against the cartoon since it wasn't supposed to be cancelled...

Maybe I should use this "Check out how time advances in Spectacular" to binge watch it a fourth time, or was it fifth? Losing track of it .

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Ah, wasn't aware that Weisman had full creative control, that's good to know.

And yeah, the timeline's on the cartoon, but a lot vaguer than YJ, since YJ shows dates and even hours, Spectacular more or less vaguely says "x thing happened months ago", and stuff like celebrating hollidays, but since Peter never left high school, then it can feel like the time advancement was just comic book time, but hey, can't hold that against the cartoon since it wasn't supposed to be cancelled...

Maybe I should use this "Check out how time advances in Spectacular" to binge watch it a fourth time, or was it fifth? Losing track of it .

Only difference between Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice is that the former isn't established to take place in a specific year like the latter does, but it still doesn't mean Marvel could get away with not aging that Peter. Season 1 still establishes Peter as a high school junior, and the senior high school students were going to leave the show once Peter entered his senior year, according to Weisman. Not to mention we probably would have gotten some references of Peter being in his senior year like how the first season established he was in his junior year.

Spectacular Peter going to college was set in stone. Only way Marvel could have prevented it is to pull the plug on the show.

[Mistah K88]

They didnÂ’t make a point to establish PeterÂ’s specific year in high school for nothing. The later cartoons I donÂ’t recall them naming his year in high school, just that he was in high school. Plus with the show runners having characters like Randy Robertson and Kenny Kong as seniors with other characters like Flash Thompson and Hobie Brown as juniors (and Sha Shan as a Sophmore), something tells me they had specific plans for that (as it would have been easy to just put everyone in the same gradeÂ…kind of like how everyone relevant to Peter was snapped out of existence and brought back with him in the MCU. The entire show as is took place over about 7 months (it was a really odd year for New York).

Would be better if Roderick stayed "inexperienced" like that, a villain who can perfectly guess how everyone's gonna act is really boring, the way he outsmarted everyone but still ended up failing was fine, and if he got to win in another opportunity, then I think it'd be better to be more or less like this, 'cause a villain whose plans work too perfectly is really not that insteresting to see.

Methinks it would be like the Hobgoblin in comics, where he was inexperienced starting out and even afraid of characters like Wilson Fisk, but became a big deal on his own later. I see him gaining competence and learning about his enemies, even forming alliances with other criminals. I think it was one of the non Roddy Hobbys who teamed with the Rose and participated in a gang war with Roderick watching from the shadows. ItÂ’d be fun to notice that the HobgoblinÂ’s methods and mannerisms are completely different sometimes. ItÂ’d make people think heÂ’s another nutcase, but in reality itÂ’s a different person behind the mask at that moment. Unlike Norman, where it was him every single time in costume, I feel that Roddy would have sent people out as the HobgoblinÂ… Whete SpideyÂ’s observations of the villain would let him know something is off. Im wondering if characters like Lefty Donovan and Jason Macendale would have even be used.

[Lukmendes]

They didnÂ’t make a point to establish PeterÂ’s specific year in high school for nothing. The later cartoons I donÂ’t recall them naming his year in high school, just that he was in high school. Plus with the show runners having characters like Randy Robertson and Kenny Kong as seniors with other characters like Flash Thompson and Hobie Brown as juniors (and Sha Shan as a Sophmore), something tells me they had specific plans for that (as it would have been easy to just put everyone in the same gradeÂ…kind of like how everyone relevant to Peter was snapped out of existence and brought back with him in the MCU.

Maybe we would have stuff like other characters graduating, then maybe other juniors are introduced, and eventually the characters who graduate return after Peter himself graduates and they catch up and stuff.

The entire show as is took place over about 7 months (it was a really odd year for New York).

It would be funny if a character is introduced, who left NY the year before, then comes back next year, hears all of the bullshit that happened in the year the character was gone and reacts with a very baffled "huh" .

Bonus points for stuff like how Green Goblin became the "Big Man of crime" for like, a week, then lost that empire like he's speedrunning lol.

Methinks it would be like the Hobgoblin in comics, where he was inexperienced starting out and even afraid of characters like Wilson Fisk, but became a big deal on his own later. I see him gaining competence and learning about his enemies, even forming alliances with other criminals.

That could be nice and help to make him stand out from Norman, who was always "the guy above you" kind of villain, and hardly relied on anyone else, and when he did, he generally let those guys handle stuff until he got his empire.

I think it was one of the non Roddy Hobbys who teamed with the Rose and participated in a gang war with Roderick watching from the shadows.

Roderick was the one who worked with Rose, but he used Ned to keep his own identity hidden:

https://i.imgur.com/aUvKfCr.png

https://i.imgur.com/7HRF1c2.png

But after a while, Roderick got bored with being a super villain and had Ned be the one active during gang war:

https://i.imgur.com/O8vVaNt.png

https://i.imgur.com/jZZs9f4.png

https://i.imgur.com/eECEqPe.png

So the earliest point where Ned became active as Green Goblin is hard to pinpoint, but gang war and trading info with Fisk seem to be "definites".

Makes me wonder what the hell Spencer's doing with the still living Ned, if that is even Ned, could always be one of the Chameleons with a very convincing story, specially since it's kinda odd that both clone Ned and Ned wanted to warn Betty about something...

Also, why's Europe such a favored resting spot for Goblins? First Norman, then Harry, now Ned (Assuming he's Ned and all), did Roderick go to Europe when taking a vacation too? Lol.

ItÂ’d be fun to notice that the HobgoblinÂ’s methods and mannerisms are completely different sometimes. ItÂ’d make people think heÂ’s another nutcase, but in reality itÂ’s a different person behind the mask at that moment. Unlike Norman, where it was him every single time in costume, I feel that Roddy would have sent people out as the HobgoblinÂ… Whete SpideyÂ’s observations of the villain would let him know something is off.

If Hobgoblin ended up having multiple people using the same identity, I think Spidey would be the first one to suspect that Hobgoblin is more than one person, when Green Goblin returned and attacked Spidey, "Norman" and Harry, "Norman" raised the possibility that it could be someone mimicking Green Goblin's voice and technology, which Spidey immediately dismisses saying that the way he speaks, and the way he moves, means it can only be the real Green Goblin and not someone pretending, and keep in mind Spidey fought GG only two times after his return at that point, so Spidey's pretty observant, well, then again, they fought plenty of times before so that gave him experience I guess... But yeah, I doubt Spidey would take that long to wonder if it's just one guy wearing the Hobgoblin's mask.

Im wondering if characters like Lefty Donovan and Jason Macendale would have even be used.

I think Macendale would be more likely to be an "alternate" Hobgoblin than anyone else, since he was the second longest active Hobgoblin, though since Spectacular is such a big love letter to Spidey in general, Lefty Donovan is a possibility too.

I honestly wonder if Ned would be Hobgoblin at all, the whole thing with Ned was an awkward retcon to begin with, and the easy brainwashing was silly, and honestly, whatever things Ned was used for, Lefty Donovan could be used for them, but it's still possible Lefty Donovan wouldn't be used at all and it would be Ned instead, either way, I find it unlikely they'd make two Hobgoblins be brainwashed as it's a redundant plot point, and remember, in Ditko's ASM, Chameleon pretended to be Spidey in ASM#1, and then Mysterio did a better impersonation of Spidey in ASM#13, and when Spectacular adapted these plot points, instead of having them happen separately, Spectacular made Chameleon do the disguise, while Tinkerer and Quentin helped him with gadgets and trickery, so with that in mind, I don't see both Ned and Lefty happening separately, so maybe it'd be just one of them, and maybe one getting traits from the other, or both at once, which I don't really see it working that well, but hey, it's a possibility either way.

[Voices From the Eyrie]

Maybe we would have stuff like other characters graduating, then maybe other juniors are introduced, and eventually the characters who graduate return after Peter himself graduates and they catch up and stuff.



It would be funny if a character is introduced, who left NY the year before, then comes back next year, hears all of the bullshit that happened in the year the character was gone and reacts with a very baffled "huh" .

Bonus points for stuff like how Green Goblin became the "Big Man of crime" for like, a week, then lost that empire like he's speedrunning lol.



That could be nice and help to make him stand out from Norman, who was always "the guy above you" kind of villain, and hardly relied on anyone else, and when he did, he generally let those guys handle stuff until he got his empire.



Roderick was the one who worked with Rose, but he used Ned to keep his own identity hidden:

https://i.imgur.com/aUvKfCr.png

https://i.imgur.com/7HRF1c2.png

But after a while, Roderick got bored with being a super villain and had Ned be the one active during gang war:

https://i.imgur.com/O8vVaNt.png

https://i.imgur.com/jZZs9f4.png

https://i.imgur.com/eECEqPe.png

So the earliest point where Ned became active as Green Goblin is hard to pinpoint, but gang war and trading info with Fisk seem to be "definites".

Makes me wonder what the hell Spencer's doing with the still living Ned, if that is even Ned, could always be one of the Chameleons with a very convincing story, specially since it's kinda odd that both clone Ned and Ned wanted to warn Betty about something...

Also, why's Europe such a favored resting spot for Goblins? First Norman, then Harry, now Ned (Assuming he's Ned and all), did Roderick go to Europe when taking a vacation too? Lol.



If Hobgoblin ended up having multiple people using the same identity, I think Spidey would be the first one to suspect that Hobgoblin is more than one person, when Green Goblin returned and attacked Spidey, "Norman" and Harry, "Norman" raised the possibility that it could be someone mimicking Green Goblin's voice and technology, which Spidey immediately dismisses saying that the way he speaks, and the way he moves, means it can only be the real Green Goblin and not someone pretending, and keep in mind Spidey fought GG only two times after his return at that point, so Spidey's pretty observant, well, then again, they fought plenty of times before so that gave him experience I guess... But yeah, I doubt Spidey would take that long to wonder if it's just one guy wearing the Hobgoblin's mask.



I think Macendale would be more likely to be an "alternate" Hobgoblin than anyone else, since he was the second longest active Hobgoblin, though since Spectacular is such a big love letter to Spidey in general, Lefty Donovan is a possibility too.

I honestly wonder if Ned would be Hobgoblin at all, the whole thing with Ned was an awkward retcon to begin with, and the easy brainwashing was silly, and honestly, whatever things Ned was used for, Lefty Donovan could be used for them, but it's still possible Lefty Donovan wouldn't be used at all and it would be Ned instead, either way, I find it unlikely they'd make two Hobgoblins be brainwashed as it's a redundant plot point, and remember, in Ditko's ASM, Chameleon pretended to be Spidey in ASM#1, and then Mysterio did a better impersonation of Spidey in ASM#13, and when Spectacular adapted these plot points, instead of having them happen separately, Spectacular made Chameleon do the disguise, while Tinkerer and Quentin helped him with gadgets and trickery, so with that in mind, I don't see both Ned and Lefty happening separately, so maybe it'd be just one of them, and maybe one getting traits from the other, or both at once, which I don't really see it working that well, but hey, it's a possibility either way.

"It's not the voice, it's the words. Not the tech, but the moves. That was Gobby; the one and only."

One of my favorite lines of dialogue in the series.

[Mistah K88]

You know, I was thinking about the Green Goblin’s little electric finger lasers (do we call them sparkle blasts?). Has he ever used them as much as he has in this show? This question I thought up after going through the forgotten abilities thread. As I go through other adaptations I don’t see them used as much if at all. Thinking about how the Hobgoblin improved Green Goblins abilities in the comics (which once again doesn’t make sense for Kingsley, Ned, or anyone who was a suspect), I’m wondering about what would have stood out about the alterations to what we know about what the Goblin used. Sure there’s the pumpkin bombs, razor bats (which also had a pumpkin theming), the finger lasers, and the “gobwebs” (the latter I wonder if that was an attempt to bring those ghost things into play by changing it to an adhesive slime[slime is still Halloweeny right?]). What would have been different about the Hobgoblin’s gadgets and abilities? I feel they found a way to explain the Goblin formula’s alteration, but I can’t think of the other things that Hobby did outside of the identity crisis.

One thing I find interesting about Kingsley in this show is they had Norman screw him over at the end of the sole episode he was in, essentially cheating him out of 500 million dollars. This if anyone would want to give Osborn the middle finger, it’d be him, Vulture, and Octavius… Did Kingsley’s Hobgoblin work well with others? I want to say Macendale kind of did, but he was kind of all over the place. The Goblin Glider being pretty much the same machine as Vulture’s harness I can kind of see him working with a Hobgoblin.

[PCN24454]

You know, I was thinking about the Green Goblin’s little electric finger lasers (do we call them sparkle blasts?). Has he ever used them as much as he has in this show? This question I thought up after going through the forgotten abilities thread. As I go through other adaptations I don’t see them used as much if at all. Thinking about how the Hobgoblin improved Green Goblins abilities in the comics (which once again doesn’t make sense for Kingsley, Ned, or anyone who was a suspect), I’m wondering about what would have stood out about the alterations to what we know about what the Goblin used. Sure there’s the pumpkin bombs, razor bats (which also had a pumpkin theming), the finger lasers, and the “gobwebs” (the latter I wonder if that was an attempt to bring those ghost things into play by changing it to an adhesive slime[slime is still Halloweeny right?]). What would have been different about the Hobgoblin’s gadgets and abilities? I feel they found a way to explain the Goblin formula’s alteration, but I can’t think of the other things that Hobby did outside of the identity crisis.

I remember Goblin using them a lot in the TAS version.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Just binged it again on Disney+. Figured if it breaks record views like X-Men TAS did, Disney might buy the rights and bring the show back.

So binge binge binge!!!

[Kaitou D. Kid]

In light of Greg Weisman's upcoming new book, a friend of mine and I did a lookback on The Spectacular Spider-Man.

https://subatomicviewer.wordpress.co...ebhead-part-i/

[Ubauba01]

Just binged it again on Disney+. Figured if it breaks record views like X-Men TAS did, Disney might buy the rights and bring the show back.

So binge binge binge!!!

How does the view count of X-Men compare to Spider-Man TAS?

[Kaitou D. Kid]

How does the view count of X-Men compare to Spider-Man TAS?

On Disney+? I think it was way higher.

At one point X-Men TAS was the most viewed show on Disney+.

[Mistah K88]

In light of Greg Weisman's upcoming new book, a friend of mine and I did a lookback on The Spectacular Spider-Man.

https://subatomicviewer.wordpress.co...ebhead-part-i/

This was quite interesting.

Re: Randy's personality. One of the cameos on the show was Randy's friend Josh Kittling (Amazing Spider-Man #68) who was Eddie's roommate at the Empire State University dorms in the moment in Season 2 when Spidey was looking for Eddie. While not named in the show, it's interesting that they would name this split second character. Characters like Randy and Kenny would probably have exited Pete's circle somewhere in Season 3 (they were seniors to Pete's junior). This would put Randy in college around someone like Josh, where Randy could possibly develop his civil rights activist mindset. I'm kind of curious how they'd adapt something like "Crisis on Campus" as some of the chess pieces are there (except the lifeline tablet and Kingpin), but some of the specifics are over in this day and age. There's no shortage of college protests though, so they'd find something.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

This was quite interesting.

Re: Randy's personality. One of the cameos on the show was Randy's friend Josh Kittling (Amazing Spider-Man #68) who was Eddie's roommate at the Empire State University dorms in the moment in Season 2 when Spidey was looking for Eddie. While not named in the show, it's interesting that they would name this split second character. Characters like Randy and Kenny would probably have exited Pete's circle somewhere in Season 3 (they were seniors to Pete's junior). This would put Randy in college around someone like Josh, where Randy could possibly develop his civil rights activist mindset. I'm kind of curious how they'd adapt something like "Crisis on Campus" as some of the chess pieces are there (except the lifeline tablet and Kingpin), but some of the specifics are over in this day and age. There's no shortage of college protests though, so they'd find something.

Good point!

[Kaitou D. Kid]

Part II is up!

https://subatomicviewer.wordpress.co...bhead-part-ii/