I know the last thing that all of my readers want is another long boring post about Spider-Man. Well, sorry folks, you’re gonna have to get used to it.

Classic Spider-Man pose.

Now, I usually like to admit when I’m wrong about something, especially when I WANT to be wrong about it. So I will admit that I’ve always been skeptical about this newer series depicting my favorite web slinger. I looked at the cartoony character animation style and thought, “gross, couldn’t they have tried a little harder? It looks weird. It’s too simple. This show probably isn’t good. I don’t know if I could get past the character drawings”.

I recently finished watching the newest Spider-Man cartoon series, titled Spectacular Spider-Man, and let me tell ya, it was excellent. I quickly got past the art style. Although I can’t say I particularly liked it, but I got passed it. Really it was mostly the villains I had trouble with (like Green Goblin’s giant chin), but even that turned out to be not a big deal.

I still am having trouble getting over how good of a show Spectacular Spider-Man was overall, and I’m going to give you some insight on why. Fans, you might know what I’m talking about, others…maybe? To start out, it was refreshing to see Peter Parker as still quite young. He’s in high school, and he’s got a lot to deal with in his life. Sometimes being Spider-Man is the least of his worries. He has to juggle around school, friends, girls, a job (taking pictures of himself as Spidey is still a job), and taking care of his dear Aunt May, all while fighting crime bosses, masterminds, and waves of super villains. As hectic as all of these things are, the show is put together very well and balances all aspects of Peter Parker’s life into each episode. This very thing is what made Spider-Man so popular in the first place. He was relatable while still being a kick-ass super hero. Props to the creators for portraying this perfectly.

The storyline behind Spectacular Spider-Man wasn’t dead on with the traditional story that some of us grew up knowing and hold as true, but that is okay. A few changes helped enhance the overall feel of the characters and plot. Also, all of the characters are there, which is nice. In fact, you even see faces of most of the bad guys, which I don’t think any previous Spider-Man shows have done. The biggest difference I can think of is Eddy Brock and Peter being good friends since childhood, which we all know changes later on. Surprisingly for a cartoon show, S. S-M has a very continuous plotline throughout, and there is a pretty big story happening in the background as crime lords are battling for supremacy of the streets of New York, and things begin to get more complicated towards the end of Season 2. I was very happy with the depth in story that was taken, and while this isn’t quite as complicated as…say.. LOST, for a super hero cartoon, it was perfect.

The characters of the show were what brought everything together. Every character, classic or not, was done with a special touch. Everyone had their own personality and problems, and when you look at them you believe they exist and you say to yourself, “man, that’s totally how _______ would act”. And you can always expect Spidey’s normal onslaught of corny jokes to come full swing, but luckily even those are easy to bare. Another thing that I found to be a good formula, was that the writers gave the other high school kids and minor characters an equal amount of importance as the villains, if not even more. The drama that ensues during the show is even somewhat believable. Love triangles(or squares?), popularity problems, cliques. You name it. However. By far the greatest depiction of a classic character in the history of… I don’t even know, ever?, was in this show. If you don’t watch the show for the action, or high school drama, or crazy scheming villains, then watch it for the greatness that is J. Jonah Jameson. I can’t even count how many times I would burst out laughing at this man. Probably every time he was present somewhere. The creators portrayed J.J. almost, if not better, than J.K. Simmons in the recent films. He was absolutely hilarious, and beyond spot of for that character (but this seemed to be true for all of the characters, honestly).

Cast of some Characters.

As a quick note, I’d like to say that the voice acting was all-round spot on. On all parts, this was some of the best voice acting in an american show I’ve ever experienced.

Finally, the action. Which is just that. Action. And it’s solid action. Everything moved fluidly and smoothly, both Spidey and all the villains. Spider-Man had all of his normal moves and common poses while flying through the air and swinging around the city. They definitely took from the comics, and it payed off. The villains and all their gadgets and powers and whatever they had were well done and helped increased the action sequences to perfection.

Again, all of these things are melded together extremely well to create a fantastic show.

Warning. Spoilers ahead.

Now, having said all of that, there’s one single problem with the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. It’s been canceled. Yup, you heard me. Canned. All because of the transfer of rights from Sony to Marvel, then Marvel being bought by the Walt Disney Company, someone somewhere decided that Spectacular was to be canceled to make way for an Ultimate Spider-Man series coming in 2011. This is a huge shame. Spectacular S-M received amazing reviews from tons of sources, and was one of the best American cartoon shows I’ve seen or heard of on TV in a long time. It’s a shame that you can find such terrible trash of cartoon shows on TV, yet something as well put together as Spectacular S-M gets tossed, and before it truly gets GREAT in the story.

Black Cat was barely introduced but definitely had a larger role coming on, Peter just got together with Gwen Stacy (sort of) after 2 seasons of them having difficulties, Harry didn’t become Hobgoblin or the New Goblin or whatever he would have been since his Dad got taken down, Eddy just went to prison where he would have met Cledus Kasady (also known as Carnage, the most ruthless villain ever known). There was just still so much to happen! I can’t believe I’ll never get to see it! And who knows how good Ultimate Spider-Man will be…It just kills me. I might have to go back and read every Spider-Man comic I can find just to fill this void in my soul.

Now, all you who read that despite spoilers who haven’t seen the show. You should still watch it. It’s only 26 short episodes, and it’s a lot of fun.

Villains of Spectacular Spider-Man