The Spectacular Spider-Man was an awesome show. From 2008 to 2009, it ran for two seasons
before being abruptly cancelled, breaking the hearts of its viewers. For many, it’s the
pinnacle of Spider-Man cartoons. It’s smart, sentimental, and exciting; and despite
being primarily kid-oriented, it succeeded in being universally appealing to Spidey
fans of all ages. In my mind, the 90’s
animated series is slightly better, but it’s most likely due to nostalgia and
the fact that, among all Spidey cartoons, it was the closest to reflect the comic
books. However, as a show per se, The Spectacular Spider-Man has the
superior quality. It’s for that reason
that, since a season 3 is looking to be impossible, it’s my benchmark to
whatever new Spidey cartoon is out there.
I didn’t like and follow Ultimate Spider-Man because: a.) it was crafted
to exclusively entertain kids, and thus, it was too goofy and juvenile; and b.)
it was the show that was made in order to replace The Spectacular Spider-Man. However,
the subsequent Spidey cartoon caught my interest.
Debuting in 2017, in just the same year in which Ultimate Spider-Man wrapped up, Marvel’s Spider-Man – or just Spider-Man
– showed promise with its first few episodes. In fact, a sense of optimism grew in me
that this could be the spiritual successor of Spectacular Spider-Man. But
after watching the entirety of season one, this is disappointingly not the
case.
Nowhere is Spider-Man as well-written and action-packed as Spectacular Spider-Man. Some episodes are even somewhat bland. And then, there’s this feeling that there’s
no vision and enthusiasm behind its production, giving off a hint that the
prime motivation for its creation is simply due to a corporate mandate (that
is, to reboot Spider-Man in the small screen to tie up with Spider-Man: Homecoming).
Nevertheless, it also can get fun,
engaging, and intriguing. It has its share
of strong episodes. And there are
storytelling moments where it effectively uses its premise and inherent elements to affect an emotional impact.
A noteworthy aspect of this show
is how it fundamentally shakes up the established Spidey mythology. It takes particular components from the mythos and
spins them into something that is both familiar and new. One notable example is that, aside from
Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy, characters like Anya Corazon (Araña/Spider-Girl),
Miles Morales (Earth-1610 Spider-Man), Alistair Smythe (Spider-Slayer), Herman
Schultz (Shocker), and Aleksei Sytsevich (Rhino) are of the same age as Peter
Parker, and are either his classmates or students of the rival school, Oscorp
Academy. Moreover, all of them are super
geniuses like Peter, and are capable of making Tony Stark levels of technology. What I think of this fluctuates between “that’s cool” and “that’s absurd.”
Twists like that prove to be a double-edged
sword. Sometimes, through them, the show is able to reflect freshness
and potential. It doesn’t have to rely
on adapting popular Spidey arcs, but it instead has the opportunity to tell original,
surprising stories and explore new character dynamics. Furthermore, in relation to doing things
differently, it is then able to make genuinely funny jabs on iconic details of
the mythos (e.g. throwing a Spider-Man costume to the trash can a la “Spider-Man
No More!”). On the other hand, its
attempts of flexibility and novelty can also sometimes yield messy, ridiculous, and unbecoming results.
In relation to this, its reimagining of the characterizations work both ways as well. Sometimes, the
results are interesting (e.g. Hobgoblin, Sandman, Doc Ock), but sometimes, they’re
awful (e.g. Kraven, Vulture, Rhino).
To sum it up, again, Spider-Man is no Spectacular Spider-Man. However,
it’s enjoyable in its own right, though the quality of enjoyability is more
certain to work on kids. Adults, on the
other hand, won’t necessarily find it quick to enjoy. As for me, after watching all 25 episodes, I
generally like the first season. Despite
its flaws, I think it still emits promise for greater things in the future. Thus, I will definitely check out season two –
especially because it’s going to follow the “Superior Spider-Man” storyline (the
first time it’s going to be adapted).
No comments:
Post a Comment