The Spectacular Spider-Man

[Movie Mike]

The Spectacular Spider-Man: I just watched volume of two and three of this animated series and I am very impressed. The writers of this show get what makes Spider-man one of the all time great superheroes and that is the sheer fun of being a superhero. All three of Sam Raimi's movies kind of lack that, occasionally we get a glimpse of Peter having fun but due to the time constraints of a movie we mainly get Peter's life turning to crap, now with this latest animated show we get the pure web slinging joy. The series also runs with solid continuity with story arcs that run throughout multiple episodes and deals with many story elements from the comics such as Harry's drug addiction (of course in this cartoon he takes the Goblin juice to get better at sports, unfortunately it's addictive and drives you nuts) and gives us great new origins for some of the best Marvel villains. Tombstone kind of replaces Kingpin as the leader of New York's crime underworld and with Hammerhead as a middleman he hires Norman Osborn to create super villains to distract Spidey away from his peoples day to day criminal activities, thus Sandman and the Rhino are born at the hand's of Osborn's chief scientist Otto Octavius.

And the Spidey banter is excellent. When Spider-man first tackles Doctor Octopus he quips, "You're a cephlopod I'm an arthropods, can't we just hug it out?"

We need more superhero stuff like this on television and less dreck like Smallville, it's just sad the a supposed kid's show is some of the best superhero stuff out there.

[Dan Mancini]

I'm working on reviews of both discs now and you've hit on part of what I've written: That Raimi's flicks never quite managed to capture Spidey's smartass sense of humor, but this series sure does.

[Movie Mike]

Many people defended Raimi's Spider-man's lack of quips in battle as something that can only be done in comic book panel form as in "real time" you couldn't get those comments off in the middle of a fight. Well this series certainly show's how it can be done.

Any word of them releasing it in season box sets instead of volumes?

[Steve T Power]

My key problem with Raimi's flicks is the angsty darkness - not every super-hero can be Batman.

[Movie Mike]

Unfortunately with the success of The Dark Knight we are probably going to get a lot more darker superhero movies. I remember reading studio notes awhile back about how they want to make the next superman all dark broody.

[Dunnyman]

OK, Season Two is winding up, and this show has gotten amazing. The writers have somehow managed to condense 40+ years of Spidey (and some 200+ characters) into two seasons, and it works on every level. They got the smartass sense of humour, they revamped villains, put established characters of different eras in the same place and time, and they even nailed J. Jonah Jameson (although I can't wait to see how Marla Madison comes into this), and they've managed to make the whole thing interesting, different and yet still familiar & nostalgic at the same time. Flash Thompson has gone from bullying jerk to deep, deep character, the whole Gwen/MJ/Peter thing is still simmering, and we get a hint of...Aunt May in an interracial romance?? Actually, for the first comic series to ever feature a black character on a regular basis (Robby), I'm not surprised because the black/white/asian students in Peter's friends don't seem to recognize ethnicity as any kind of barrier to friendship and love, which is kind of ....neat.
This may sound un-believeable, but the writing's on a par with the first three seasons of Battlestar Galactica, it's that good.
Check it out!! You will not be sorry!!!