Spidey Returns
It appears that another incarnation of Spider-Man has appeared. This one took the name of one of the titles for the comic-book series. This title is actually from the fourth comic-book incarnation of Spiderman. There have been many before it some were animated while others were live action. This version, however, is another cartoon and it does not try to follow the comic-book title of the same name. The many incarnations of Spider-Man in the past, aside from the comic-book and movie titles, have been :
- Spider-Man 1967 (Cartoon)
- Spidey Super Stories 1974 (Live action)
- The Amazing Spiderman 1977 (Live action)
- Supaidāman 1978 (Live action and Japanese)
- Spider-Man 1981 (Cartoon)
- Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends 1981 (Cartoon)
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series 1994 (Cartoon)
- Spider-Man Unlimited 1999 (Cartoon)
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series 2003 (Cartoon)
- The Spectacular Spider-Man 2008 (Cartoon)
The Plot: so far
The Spectacular Spider-Man starts off with Peter Parker beginning his Junior year of high school, he already has his powers, and his first villain: The Vulture. He deals with the super-villain in the traditional Spidey way, and he deals with bully's the traditional Peter Parker way: geeky. Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, lives with his Aunt May and they are having money problems. He's friends with Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborne. Like some high schoolers, he looks at the new school year as a chance for things to be different for him but of course, they are not. He's still really smart, he's still bullied, and he still isn't popular.
He and Gwen gets an internship with Doctor Connors and finds his freind Eddie Brock working there too! Hints are dropped about an electrician named Max, and if you're familiar with Spider-Man, you know he's going to become Electro, a guy who can produce high amounts of voltage.
After the obvious happens, some modified reptile DNA gets hit by some of Electro's electricity. Doc Connors gives the impression that he's been injecting himself for awhile and hopes it'll help him grow his arm back.
Spectacularly Unique: what's different about the show
The show takes a slightly different time-line than some of the previous creations. For instance, Eddie Brock being a Jock and good friends with Peter Parker. Also, Liz Allan, Peter's crush, is in this show and I can't recall any other show where Liz was a major character. Keep in mind, however, I haven't seen every episode of all of the previous versions of Spider-Man (I haven't seen any of the Japanese version). You usually see Mary Jane Watson, Peter's future wife, but she's hasn't even made an appearance on the show yet. I'm sure, however, she'll be making one soon.
Another new spin is Doc Connors has a Robotic arm instead of his stump that you'd usually see. He lost his arm in the "War" (I'd guess WWII) in the comic books, but they don't mention how he lost it in this show. Another interesting trait in the Connors family is his wife just isn't Martha Connors. She's Dr. Martha Connors. It's unclear how much of a scientist she is in comparison to her husband, but the fact that she is a strong woman character says a lot.
It's interesting to see that the bad guys are getting new/slightly different origins and so it makes you want to watch more, just to see how things are going to turn out. Are these new origins going to change the story of Spider-Man drastically? I guess we'll have to watch and see.
Issues
If you're not familiar with the Spider-Man plot, then you may be a little confused about why he's having flashbacks. In fact, if you're not familiar with him, you won't realize that they are flashbacks. You may also not fully understand his Spidey Sense and why he doesn't consecutively use it when he's at school. In the first episode, Flash Thompson pushes Peter over and his "Spidey Sense" doesn't go off and on another episode when Thompson and some other bullies throw water balloons at him. Peter promptly dodges about three of them and then he decides he doesn't want to bring attention to himself and so he lets the water balloon.
If you know a little about the show, you'll wonder if he got his power from a radioactive spider, like the comic says, or if he got it from a genetically modified spider. Dr. Connors is a well rounded scientist but in this show he doesn't seem to be associated with radiation experiments at all and because the show doesn't tell us explicitly how Peter got his powers, we don't know whether it was radiation, genetic modification, or perhaps some other type of accident that gave Peter his powers. We just know it has something to do with a spider and he doesn't shoot webs out of his hands like the movie. Peter mentions using a web shooter but we don't get any more information about it.
Eddie Brock is also a little different in this show. He's more like an older brother figure, like in the Ultimate Marvel comic, and he and Peter are really good friends. This is a little strange since he normally is Peter Parker's rival and Spider-Man's worst enemy. The second scenario gives him, in my opinion, a decent reason for hating Peter/Spidey. If they are friends, I question what will happen when he becomes Venom. But I wont speculate about one of Spider-Man's worst super-villains. I'll just wait and see how the story develops.
Also, it's clear the modified reptile DNA, that was hit by Elector's electricity, will turn Doc Connors into the Lizard, but this makes those who know about Spider-Man confused. This means there will be another bad guy will have a new origin.
Conclusion
This show premiered March 8th, 2008 and there are many shows to come. It'll be interesting to see how this show develops and what the show decides to do with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Here's a nice montage I found on Youtube of the various animated Spider-Man's of the past.
Note: doesn't include the 2008 version:
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