#spec spidey

 However at the same time those criticising people who shallowly insulted the Spec designs shouldn’t then be criticizing the 1994 cartoon designs. Again aesphetic appeal of designs are subjective.

 Even if some of the choices were bad let’s remember that...it was the mid-1990s. It wasn’t like fashion was in a wonderful place back then. But even so I feel some people get way to hung up on the designs to bash the show.

 Like Peter Parker was maybe too muscular and broadshouldered in season 1. Is it that big of a deal honestly?

 He spent most of the show as Spider-Man in which his body shape was perfectly correct for the character, especially if you look at Romita Senior and Bagley renditions of the character at the time. In fact McFarlane, Larsen and even Bagley renditions of Peter Parker in the 1990s draw him as fairly musclebound when in his civilian guise.

 Is that yellow cardigan ugly on Mary Jane. In my opinion yes it is but it really is the one and only thing wrong with her design. Everything else she wears including the boots is fine, the boots in fact are things that Mary jane has on and off worn throughout her history, including in her first appearance.

 It’s just...a pretty shallow thing to say the show rides or dies on. Especially when you consider most of the other character’s looks are mostly just replicating the comics.

 Really the show if you bother to put it in the context of it’s time is very strong where it really counts, that is to say the story and the characters.

 For all the loud criticisms about ‘But the Moussy?’ or ‘Hobgoblin came first!’ or ‘Mary Jane wasn’t like she was in the comics!’ or ‘It wasn’t as good as Batman the Animated Series’ the show did sooooooooooooooo much right and many of those criticisms don’t hold up to scrutiny.

 Let’s do some analysis.

 Was the show as good as Batman the Animated Series?

 No but apart from the Simpsons and Gargoyles what American Animated series from around most of Spider-Man TAS’ airing actually was?

 Not even the New Batman adventures or Superman the Animated Series hit anywhere close to BTAS’ quality.

 Those shows were a perfect storm of quality and caught lightning in a bottle.

 Saying a show is terrible for not reaching those heights is utterly unfair, it’s like saying a movie or a gangster movie is terrible because it’s dared not be as good as the Godfather. Or a fantasy movie is terrible for not being as good as Lord of the Rings.

 It’s stupid and ignorant.

 You grade things based upon the NORMS of the time.

 In the mid 1990s there were quite a few cartoons attempting to be more serious, trying to rise above cliché simplistic Saturday morning adventures and since that’s what virtually every cartoon for the previous three decades had been doing each show attempting to do that in context thus deserves major, major kudos.

 And that’s what Spider-Man the Animated Series did too.

 Does the censoring hurt it? Does it’s restricted budget (due to the pricier ventures of other shows, including BTAS) hurt it?

 Sure, but it’s like classic Doctor Who. You judge it based upon the limitations placed upon it not merely on the surface level of the final product. I know that is not the common wisdom for tv/flm criticism...but frankly that just means that common wisdom for TV/film criticism is really, really narrow minded and should instead be reformed. Doing otherwise is like grading a kid with dyslexia harshly when he literally has factors beyond his control holding him back despite him doing his best.

 So bearing that in mind no Spider-Man the Animated Series really isn’t a bad show at all, nor a bad Spider-Man show. Especially when you put it into context of the previous Spider-Man shows or even the ones since.

 In terms of it’s characters and handling of supporting cast and subplots it’s absolutely not just clear cut obvious that Spec Spidey is superior.

 Consider that the show was so well plotted that the grand finale in season 5was being seeded as early as seeded in season 3. That the show managed to hit the emotional truth of the Death of Gwen Stacy DESPITE not being able to kill anybody and then looped that back around into motivating the character for the grand finale and his ultimate emotional fulfilment. Consider the show is arguably the most soap opera-esque American animated series for children ever, with some episodes haveing love polygons let alone triangles. The latter being in fact something all too appropriate for Spider-Man.

 Consider that whilst the show might have altered some characters in a detrimental way, others they made more interesting. Yet others they changed but the altered characters were not uninteresting characters unto themselves despite being different. The Felicia Hardy of this show is a very different beast to the Felicia of the comics, but she is also more reltable and has a more significant arc. She is also not an uninteresting love interest.

 Look I do think it’s a shame that the alterations made to some characters were drastic and detrimental. But taking them in isolation, unlike the crappy USM show, again they weren’t unlikable characters unto themselves. Plus as the first legitimate attempt to properly adapt Spider-Man teething problems were bound to occur. USM being made so long after Spider-Man was a pop cultural icon doesn’t have that same excuse.

 Hell for all people’s griping about Mary Jane in this show, honestly there isn’t much wrong with her as a character unto herself. She just isn’t Mary Jane from the comics, but still has elements of her nevertheless. Her backstory with her father is tweaked but not uninteresting. She can still be resourceful when needed. She could still be supportive and brave and all that. Just watch the Hydro Man episode to see her character in action.

 And for all the griping about character changes...Spider-Man himself is basically perfect.

 Whilst not as whining or neurotic as the comic books (and thereby less aggravating) frankly this version of Peter Parker is how Peter should be written. That is to say not word for word like an exaggerated 1960s Stan Lee comic book character nor as later renditions of the character were which flanderized some of those traits.

 This Spider-Man could feel guilt but wasn’t at times seeming like he was mentally ill.

 He was funny, confident, sometimes selfish, sometimes angry, but ultimately altruistic and heroic.

 Yeah every so often like in the Dr Strange episode the writers goofed up, but on the whole Spider-Man in this show was the first time in any adaptation you got to see the character properly represented which is...well kind of the most important thing.

 More poignantly this show did the spirit of Spider-Man correctly. Despite changes to the characters and lore, the sequence of events and so on this was the first time we got the ‘feel’ of the original Spider-Man comic books.

 Spider-Man was a down to Earth regular guy albeit a smarter and more altruistic one, who dealt with regular life events alongside fantastical superhero stuff. His fortunes vacillated often in relation to his activates as Spider-Man.

 He had a friends and family and acquaintances of people who could exist in real life, a ost of colourful adversaries with their own plot lines weaving in and out of Peter’s own.

 There was a continuity to the show wherein the events of one episode could have an impact down the line, characters had arcs.

 And the series ended with an adoring love letter to the character by highlighting what makes the character who he is. The last few episodes of the show Spider-Man meets a version of himself who’s lost everything and gone to the darkside and contrasts that to another version of himself where he had everything and appreciates the fact that he isn’t either of these people but rather himself. He then saves all of reality  and proceeds to tell his God, his creator, Stan Lee himself that he is his own man beyond what Stan intended for him and goes off into the sunset to be happy.

Ladies.

Gentelmen.

People of the interwebs.

This is the big one.

Spectacular Radio episode 13. Greg Weisman and Vic Cook (the showrunners of Spectacular Spider-Man the Animated Series) unite once more to give you behind the scenes details on Season 1 episode 7, 'Catalysts'.

Why is this one so special?

Well it has possibly the best action witnessed in the show so far as it kicks off a new arc.

It has teen drama and romance, gangland machinations, a good old fashioned hero/villain brawl and lots more.

But you know what else it is?

Not only is it the show's first full showcasing of a certain Ms. Mary Jane Watson (played by Vanessa Marchall), but it also debuts Spider-Man's ultimate adversary.

The Man. The Myth. The Monster.

The Green Goblin!