The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season Review (Spoilers)

[matt_zimmer]

The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season

I am both impressed and frustrated with the first season of The Spectacular Spider-Man, the newest animated take on the Marvel Comics superhero. Impressed because, for the most part the series has the best dialogue of any superhero cartoon since Justice League Unlimited. And frustrated because this version of Peter Parker is unlikable and truly hard to root for.

I get that Spidey is young in this version (it takes place during Peter's high school years) but Parker is portrayed as SO insensitive and clueless that it's very hard to like him out of costume. Both Static Shock and Batman Beyond had teen heroes you could root for. Here, Peter is so often a jerk (albeit usually of the ignorant variety) that I wish I could reach through the screen and throttle him at times. Gargoyles' Greg Weisman is behind this show so I'm a little surprised that the characters are so unlikable.

Considering a good chunk of the tail end of the season features Spidey in the black alien costume I was originally inclined to give him a TINY bit of slack. Unfortunately what I've seen of the second season so far indicates that this is simply the way the writers PLANNED to portray Peter and they have no intention of changing it. Sigh.

This could be a GREAT cartoon. The animation is spiffy and the voice cast are all great. The stories are diverting too. But without characters who you can sympathize with there really is no getting around the fact that this series is a bitter disappointment for both Spider-Man and Greg Weisman fans.

Best episodes of the year are the Lizard spotlight (Natural Selection) and the finale of the Green Goblin arc (The Uncertainty Principle). Worst episodes are the sour Interactions and the derivative Intervention. Season Overall: ***1/2.

Survival Of The Fittest: A fine debut episode that probably rocks so hard because of the Gargoyles references and the fact that Keith "Goliath" David voices the Big Man for the first show. It's a shame Kevin Micheal Richardson replaced him but I have to admit Richardson is a nearly flawless sound-alike. ****.

Interactions: This is the beginning of the Spidey as a jerk phenom which is really galling because Electro didn't have to turn into a villain at all but Peter pushed him in that direction HARD. Lame. **1/2.

Natural Selection: Nice episode and probably the best of the season. They did Peter behaving badly RIGHT here because he didn't really have a lot of options and was forced to hurt the people he cared about. The dialogue is also particularly sharp this episode. *****.

Market Forces: Shocker is kind of a boring villain but I'm amused that this version is a redneck. ***.

Competition: John Dimaggio (Bender on Futurama) is absolutely great as the Sandman. I wasn't really feeling the football try-out subplot but I think the show feels the need to kill time with the high school stuff. ****.

The Invisible Hand: Liked the way Spidey defeated Rhino here. I've always thought Mary Jane had one of the lamest introductions in comics history and the fact that the cartoons keep trying to ape is practically verbatim is lame. More Peter jerkiness: who does a loser like him think he is to judge someone sight unseen on their looks? No-one is beating down his door at school (at least not yet). ***1/2.

Catalysts: Like this version of Green Goblin a lot. Steve Blum (Wolverine and the X-Men) is terrific and I liked the confrontation between Spidey and Tombstone at the end. ****.

Reaction: I think Peter MacNicol does a fabulous Doc Ock but other than his voice the character needs work. I don't buy the nebbishy lickspittle going psychotic within seconds of being fused to the tenticles for one second. And his costume (compared to the old show) is completely bland. ***.

The Uncertainty Principle: I'm trying to decide if all of the obvious hints that Harry was the Goblin were stupid or clever. It could easily be argued stupid because people who saw them would have known it would be Harry three episodes early. Clever because they were SO obvious that you almost thought they were red herrings to throw you off Norman Osborne's scent so it was a surprise after all. I'm leaning toward clever but I not discounting stupid completely. Also loved Spidey teaming up with Tombstone. ****1/2.

Persona: Like Black Cat (Battlestar Galactica's Tricia "Six" Helfer! Yowza!) but I think Chameleon is one of Spidey's lamer villains and was especially disappointed to see him without Nick Fury. ***.

Group Therapy: I saw the revelation of Spidey being asleep during the battle coming but it was still such a clever twist that I enjoyed it anyway. For people who know Venom is coming, having the Symbiote defeat the Sinister Six so easily just made his upcoming battle with Eddie Brock look that much tougher. ****.

Intervention: Hated this episode. I hated it because it followed WAAAYYY too close to the movie's mythology for me to enjoy it. This is supposed to be a seperate continuity and I hate to think that Weisman feels the slightest need to keep the show recognizable to newbies. **.

Nature Vs. Nuture: Decent season finale but making Venom the Big Bad of the season was a mistake. It should have been Gobby or at the very least, Doc Ock. Venom's a cool character but he isn't Spidey best baddie and shouldn't have been played like he is during the first season. Goblin is Spidey's biggest foe and the series (like the 90s version) is giving him short shrift. Still, Gwen kissing Peter at the end of the episode was very sweet. ***1/2.

Spider-Man: Re-Animated: Cool featurette. I especially liked seeing the faces behind all of the voice actors. *****.

Stylizing Spidey: I think the creators believe this show is better than it actually is. ***1/2.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Trailer: Where was the music video that was promised in the trailer? ***.

DVD Menu: Lame. Static and no music. At least there is episode selection. *1/2.