So begins the
new animated take on Spider-Man, developed by Victor Cook
and Greg Weisman. To separate it out from previous versions,
this series gets the adjective "Spectacular." If the series
doesn't quite achieve that, it's at least a good clean start,
even providing a cool theme song that doesn't call
to mind the iconic one from the 1960's series. (It's just
as singable - young Luke immediately picked it up.)
Cook and Weisman
have made their version a little more cartoony in design,
which works on a couple of counts. It gives the show its
own sense of style, fitting in with Kids!WB's other superhero
shows without looking like them. The look also steers away
from trying to find a middle of the road look for all the
characters to match the comic books - and yet, Spider-Man
has never felt more like Steve Ditko's art come to life.
Despite the
required muscular definition that Ditko never included,
a cartoony Spider-Man stretches and squashes the way we
always imagined Peter Parker doing. The directors give Spider-Man
impossible angles, incredible agility and a sense that sometimes
Peter himself is surprised at the way he moves. Best of
all, those big white eyes narrow just like Ditko had them
do. Never mind that that's impossible; we're talking about
a guy bitten by a radioactive spider.
The show also
doesn't trouble itself too much about that spider. Everybody
already knows how Peter Parker got his spider-powers; this
series wants to delineate how he truly becomes Spider-Man.
Surprisingly
and perhaps bravely, the show runners also buck current
multi-media tradition and ignore Mary Jane Watson. Though
they've recreated Gwen Stacy to kind of align with what
was done in Spider-Man 3 -- she's as brainy as Peter
- she reclaims the role that everybody thinks MJ
had in continuity. Or she will. For now, she's a confidante
(along with a nerdier Harry Osborn) as Peter navigates his
way through Junior year of high school.
Mary Jane probably
will show up. After all, the first episode has a quick but
pointed scene with Anna Watson, though Aunt May doesn't
try to set Peter up with her niece. The show abounds with
little easter eggs for those who know continuity, tying
hero and villains together in a neat little web. Peter and
Gwen have internships with Curt Connors (someday to be the
Lizard and already experimenting with the formula that will
do it). His lab assistant is Eddie Brock, an unofficial
older protector of puny Parker, which will make the turn
to Venom all the more painful and surprising for younger
viewers.
Yet it's an
absolutely appropriate series for all ages, and more than
anything else, that chalks this up as a solid entry in the
history of Spider-Man. Clearly marketed at kids, Spectacular
Spider-Man acknowledges that audience without insulting
adults. Look closely, too, and you'll notice that Spider-Man
resolves all his fights (so far) without punching his opponents.
The emphasis here is on how cleverly he fights, which makes
sense when you consider that Peter Parker has to be a physics
whiz.
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In the first
two episodes, we've seen The Vulture and Electro, the latter
radically redesigned to look far less stupid than he does
in the comics. He, too, gets a degree of poignancy as a
somewhat arrogant guy caught in an accident, lashing out
more out of pain and fear than a real desire to do evil.
What too often gets missed, it seems, is that for all of
Peter Parker's troubles, the thing that made the comics
work in the first place was a sense of hope, the possibility
of redemption and the healing powers of Aunt May's banana
cream pie.
And really,
that's why we like Spider-Man.
