The Spectacular Spider-Man is considered by many as one of the greatest superhero series ever made and one of the best versions of Spider-Man ever produced. Premiering on March 8, 2008, on the Kids WB Block, The Spectacular Spider-Man was the reimagining of the Spider-Man origin story drawing from many different comic books. It was the first Spider-Man series since the CGI animated Spider-Man: The New Animated Series in 2003 and was originally intended to keep the character in the spotlight for kids between the release of Spider-Man 3 and the then planned Spider-Man 4 set for release in 2011. The series' second season moved over to Disney XD.
Despite receiving critical and audience praise with plans for 52 episodes, the animated series was canceled after two seasons. The series' cancellation was one of the many fallouts from Disney's acquisition of Marvel, as the series was produced by Sony Pictures Television, and Sony relinquished the television rights to Spider-Man in 2009 to Marvel just before the purchase of Disney, meaning that both Disney and Sony-owned parts of the series and could not move forward without the cooperation of the other.
Disney moved forward with a new Spider-Man series to tie into the launch of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, titled Ultimate Spider-Man. Despite fans' desires to see The Spectacular Spider-Man return, it appears to be out of the realm of possibility. Yet despite that, it hasn't stopped fans from revisiting the series and giving new audiences looking for more Spider-Man a chance to discover it for the first time. The series finally made its Netflix debut in the United States recently, so now is the perfect time to check out what many consider to be the best Spider-Man cartoon ever. Here are a few reasons why it has remained so popular.
Spectacular Spider-Man Blends Various Eras Together
What made The Spectacular Spider-Man so unique was the fact that it felt like the perfect blend of every era of the comics. Design-wise, the series draws heavily from the early Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. era of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, with a heavy focus on classic Spider-Man villains first appearing to battle the web-head and the interpersonal life of Peter Parker and his various supporting characters. Yet it also modernized the Spider-Man mythos in a way similar to the Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley.
It also drew heavily from later comic runs, bringing in relatively modern concepts like the black symbiote suit and Venom, and mixing them into traditionally Silver Age stories like the formation of the Sinister Six. It also drew heavily from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film series which precede the series, which even recreated similar shots from the series. In that way, The Spectacular Spider-Man mixed all the different Spider-Man elements, even down to some of its simplest design choices.
Series creator Greg Wiesman broke down their creative process as the Five Cs: Contemporary, Cohesive, Coherent, Classic, and iConic using the years of comic books to distill them down into the core elements that defined the characters. Black Cat's father Walter Hardy was mixed with the burglar who killed Uncle Ben, same with making the Enforcer villain Montanna don the identity of Shocker. It mixes the Ultimate Comics origin of Eddie Brock being a childhood friend of Peter Parker with the classic comic book storyline of the symbiote being of alien origin to create a version of the character that is unique to the series but also feels archetypical. That is The Spectacular Spider-Man series in a nutshell, maxing all the various elements from the comics to create a version that feels definitive.
Embraces Peter Parker as a High Schooler in Fresh Ways
Spider-Man being a high school student is a core part of the character and one that many modern versions like the MCU Spider-Man films, Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, and Marvel's recent 2017 animated Spider-Man series have embraced; however, when The Spectacular Spider-Man, premiered it was a novelty. Other than the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, most versions of Peter Parker were as a college student from the Sam Raimi films, Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series. The Spider-Man comics at the time were in the middle of the "Brand New Day" storyline from Dan Slott, which saw a newly single Peter navigating the world.
The Spectacular Spider-Man embraces the fact that Peter is a high school student, with the series kicking off on the first day of school of his Junior Year (with him having become Spider-Man towards the end of his Sophomore year and spent his summer vacation fighting crime), and spans the first few months of the school year including Homecoming, Halloween and finally Thanksgiving. Each episode of season one is name school subjects Peter Parker would be taking part in, with the first being Biology, the following three after Economics, then three episodes named after Chemistry, with the final four psychology.
Season two continues the naming convention, with the first four episodes named after engineering courses, the following three episodes named after concepts of human development, the next three criminology, and three named after drama terminology. Season two plays out over a period from Christmas to spring with the performance of the school play and fully commits to being a teenage romance, with Peter Parker drawn into a love triangle between his girlfriend Liz Allan and his friend Gwen Stacy, who has been dating his best friend Harry Osborn. Had the series continued it would have stretched into Peter Parker's senior year, with the finale likely being graduation and plans for direct to video movie sequels set during Spider-Man's college years.
Fleshed Out Spider-Man's Supporting Characters
The Spectacular Spider-Man not only embraced Peter Parker as a high school student and how being the superhero impacted his interpersonal relationship around him with friends like Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, and Eddie Brock but also took time to delve into his high school social circle in a way many adaptations have not. Characters like Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, Robbie Robertson, Sally Avril, Gloria Grant, and Kenny Kong are given personality and are allowed to develop and grow as characters outside their relationship with Peter Parker. They have their own distinct personalities and characters arcs, making them feel like fully realized people put in a proper high school drama in a way that the Spider-Man comics of the Silver Age were aiming for; this has been a popular staple of live-action television that the films haven't had time to fully dedicate to.
This also extends to other aspects of Peter Parker's life. His work at the Daily Bugle allows him to interact not only with J. Jonah Jameson but also Betty Brant as a potential love interest, Rob Robertson the son of one of Peter's former bullies turned friends, and reporters like Ned Leeds and Fredrick Foswell who in the comics become super villains themselves in the form of Hobgoblin and The Big Man of Crime respectively. While it was never realized in the series, it helped Peter Parker's life feel so much larger with potential danger around every corner.
The Villains Have Connections Outside Spider-Man
One of the best elements of The Spectacular Spider-Man is its villains, and how the show introduces them even before they become super villains. The first episode sees Spider-Man apprehend petty criminals Flint Marko and Alex O'Hirn, and the two will show up again before eventually being recruited to undergo experiments transforming them into Sandman and Rhino respectively. Quentin Beck appears as a henchman of The Chameleon before suiting up as Mysterio. Eddie Brock has an entire season-long arc to become a villain as he originally is introduced as a close friend of Peter Parker but as the season goes on and Peter's actions as Spider-Man drive a wedge between him and Eddie become Eddie eventually becomes the villain Venom.
The various villains are not only battling Spider-Man but themselves, as The Green Goblin aims to become the new crime boss threatening the current Big Man of Crime Andrew Lincoln aka Tombstone. Tombstone is unaware that the Green Goblin is in fact Norman Osborn, who was a former partner of Tombstone to create villains like Sandman and Rhino. Meanwhile, Tombstone is caught in a conflict with criminals like Silvermane and Doctor Octopus (a former Oscorp scientist who took part in the creation of many of the villains). Meanwhile, the villain the Vulture, who takes up the role as Doc Ock's right-hand man, has a personal vendetta against Norman Osborn not knowing he is the powerful villain The Green Goblin.
The villains being introduced before they become iconic Spider-Man villains, combined with the interpersonal conflicts among all of them, makes the world of the series feel fully lived in with a sense of history and realized in a way that no other adaptation before or since has been able to achieve. Spider-Man has one of the greatest line-up of villains and supporting characters ever, and The Spectacular Spider-Man realized them at their best.