The Spectacular Spider-Man is an American animated superhero television series developed by Victor Cook and Greg Weisman, based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. In terms of overall tone and style, the series is based primarily on the Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr. era of The Amazing Spider-Man comics, with a similar balance of action, drama, and comedy, as well as a high school setting. However, it also blends material from all eras of the comic's run up to that point in addition to other sources, such as Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man comics (2000–2011) and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007).
Produced by Marvel Entertainment, Culver Entertainment, Adelaide Productions and Sony Pictures Television, the series aired its first season on The CW starting on March 8, 2008 and ended on June 14 later that year. Its second season premiered on Disney XD in the United States on June 2, 2009 and ended its run on November 18 of that year. The entire series was broadcast in Canada on Teletoon. Although 5 seasons were originally planned (consisting of 65 episodes and direct-to-DVD films), only two seasons aired. The show was cancelled after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment, giving Disney the rights to Spider-Man shows, while Sony Pictures maintained the movie rights.
Despite its short run, The Spectacular Spider-Man has received widespread acclaim since its initial airing, and is considered to be one of the character's finest adaptations, with praise being given for its mature writing, unique art style, modernized faithfulness to the original comics, and the voice performances of the characters, particularly Josh Keaton's voice performance as the titular character. The series' iteration of Spider-Man made an appearance in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, with Keaton reprising his role.
Synopsis The series follows Peter Parker, a student at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School who struggles to balance his responsibilities as the costumed hero Spider-Man with the problems of his personal life. Each season takes place over a semester, with season one running from September to November and season two from December to March.
Producer Greg Weisman has stated that the series' theme is "The Education of Peter Parker", and each of the show's arcs is named after a course of study: season one's arcs are Biology 101, Economics 101, Chemistry 101, and Psychology 101; while season two's arcs are Engineering 101, Human Development 101, Criminology 101, and Drama 101.
Season 1 The first season opens with Peter entering his junior year, having only been bitten by a genetically-enhanced spider and acquired his powers in recent months. In addition to fighting crime, Peter must navigate his romantic affections for Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson, maintain his friendships with Harry Osborn and Eddie Brock, deal with being bullied by football star Flash Thompson, keep his internship position as a lab assistant to Curt Connors at Empire State University, and help to support his Aunt May by working as a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle. The Bugle is owned by J. Jonah Jameson, who leads a smear campaign against Spider-Man.
Spider-Man's fight against crime attracts the attention of Tombstone, the "Big Man" in New York City. With the help of Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, and Hammerhead, Tombstone orchestrates the creation of various criminals to distract Spider-Man from interfering with his empire. Among the supervillains that Spider-Man is forced to contend with are the Vulture, Electro, Lizard, Shocker, Sandman, Rhino, Doctor Octopus, Chameleon, and Black Cat. Tombstone's plans are complicated when the Green Goblin surfaces and attempts to take control of the criminal underworld. After the Goblin is seemingly vanquished, Spider-Man overcomes an alien symbiote who possessed his body, which ultimately leads to Eddie Brock's transformation into Venom.
Season 2 The second season sees Peter's life become significantly more complicated as he finds himself torn between Gwen and Liz Allan, who have both confessed their feelings for him. Harry returns to school after a leave of absence, while his father, Norman, becomes Peter's mentor and aids him in reacquiring his position as Curt Connors' lab assistant.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man faces new villains such as Mysterio, Kraven the Hunter, Tinkerer, Silver Sable, and Molten Man. Several of his old enemies also return, including Venom, who attempts to expose Spider-Man's secret identity and remove his powers. An all-out gang war later erupts between Tombstone's established order, the Master Planner's supervillain forces, and the old guard of the Silvermane crime family. Once all of these major threats have been dealt with, Spider-Man has a final confrontation with the Green Goblin, who masterminded the gang war to eliminate his opposition, take control of New York City, and destroy Spider-Man.
The series concludes with loose ends due to the show's cancellation before a third season was produced. Other new characters introduced, who were intended to have more prominent roles in future seasons, include Miles Warren, Calypso, Cletus Kasady, Morris Bench, and Roderick Kingsley.
Episodes
Cast and characters
The vast timeline of the Spider-Man comics has been condensed and reconfigured to include classic and important characters within the same timeframe. Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson are depicted not as direct equivalents to their counterparts, but rather as characters who will eventually evolve into their established roles from the comics. The series incorporates numerous villains from different eras of the Spider-Man mythology, almost all of whom are introduced as regular characters before they become supervillains in later episodes.
Main cast Josh Keaton – Peter Parker / Spider-Man Lacey Chabert – Gwen Stacy James Arnold Taylor – Harry Osborn, Fredrick Foswell / Patch Daran Norris – J. Jonah Jameson, John Jameson Vanessa Marshall – Mary Jane Watson Joshua LeBar – Flash Thompson Alanna Ubach – Liz Allan Clancy Brown – George Stacy, Alex O'Hirn / Rhino, Ox (pilot) Alan Rachins – Norman Osborn
Additional voices Thom Adcox-Hernandez – Phineas Mason / Tinkerer Ed Asner – Ben Parker Dee Bradley Baker – Curt Connors / Lizard Irene Bedard – Jean DeWolff Jeff Bennett – Montana / Shocker, St. John Devereaux, Bernard Houseman Xander Berkeley – Quentin Beck / Mysterio Steve Blum – Green Goblin, Chameleon, Blackie Gaxton, Dillbert Trilby, Seymour O'Reilly Angela Bryant – Calypso Max Burkholder – Billy Connors Robert Costanzo – Sullivan Edwards Nikki Cox – Sable Manfredi / Silver Sable Jim Cummings – Cat Burglar (season one), Crusher Hogan Keith David – Big Man (pilot) Grey DeLisle – Betty Brant, Sally Avril John DiMaggio – Flint Marko / Sandman, Hammerhead Benjamin Diskin – Eddie Brock / Venom Charles Duckworth – Hobie Brown Robert Englund – Adrian Toomes / Vulture Bill Fagerbakke – Morris Bench Miguel Ferrer – Silvio Manfredi / Silvermane Crispin Freeman – Max Dillon / Electro Elisa Gabrielli – Ashley Kafka Brian George – Aaron Warren, Miles Warren Dorian Harewood – Dr. Bromwell Tricia Helfer – Felicia Hardy / Black Cat Kelly Hu – Sha Shan Nguyen Andrew Kishino – Kenny Kong, Ned Lee Clyde Kusatsu – Ted Twaki Phil LaMarr – Robbie Robertson, Rand Robertson, Fancy Dan / Ricochet Stan Lee – Stan Eric Lopez – Mark Allan / Molten Man Jane Lynch – Joan Jameson Peter MacNicol – Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus / Master Planner James Remar – Walter Hardy / Cat Burglar (season two) Kevin Michael Richardson – Tombstone, Principal Davis, Coach Smith Kath Soucie – Martha Connors, Anna Watson Deborah Strang – May Parker Cree Summer – Glory Grant Danny Trejo – Ox Courtney B. Vance – Roderick Kingsley Eric Vesbit – Sergei Kravinoff / Kraven the Hunter B. J. Ward – Mayor Waters Greg Weisman – Donald Menken Thomas F. Wilson – Stan Carter
Crew
Greg Weisman – Supervising producer, story editor, writer Victor Cook – Supervising producer, supervising director Diane A. Crea – Producer Eric Vesbit – Associate producer Wade Wisninski – Associate producer Dave Bullock – Director Kevin Altieri – Director John Diaz – Production manager Kevin Hopps – Writer Matt Wayne – Writer Andrew Robinson – Writer Randy Jandt – Script coordinator, writer Jennifer Coyle – Director Sean Galloway – Character designer Mike Inman – Background painter, visual developer Jamie Thomason – Casting director Meagan Healy – Production supervisor Brian G. Smith – Production supervisor Ben Maloney – Production assistant Sherrian Felix – Production coordinator Jennifer L. Anderson – Post-production assistant Sean Herbert – Animation clerk
Production A new Spider-Man animated series was announced in August 2006 along with Sony Pictures Television's new direct-to-DVD division, Culver Entertainment, that would produce it with 13 episodes. The series was planned for a 2007 release on DVD while international distributing to TV channels including Sony's. The DVD format was to be four discs with three episodes each. Greg Weisman and Victor Cook were both hired on to develop the show.
The Spectacular Spider-Man was announced by Kids' WB Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen on June 18, 2007, as being picked up and slated for an early 2008 premiere by the Kids' WB! on The CW. Weisman and Cook were assigned to the series at the time as supervising producer and producer/supervising director, respectively. The art style of the series is more simplified than in previous incarnations but retain their iconic elements. This choice was made to ensure that Spider-Man would move as he should and replicate the fluidity from Sam Raimi's movie incarnation.
The series was produced by its television animation studio, Adelaide Productions (due to Sony's complete control over the Spider-Man entertainment license at the time) with Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd., Dong Woo Animation and MOI Animation, Inc. contributed some of the animation for this series. The title sequence for the show was directed by Victor Cook with the theme song written and performed by The Tender Box.
Weisman has explained that in adapting the comics for the show, the producers "tried to follow what [they] came to call "The Five Cs": Contemporary, Cohesive, Coherent, Classic and iConic." "The advantage of hindsight" allowed the show to be "more coherent and cohesive than the original" comic continuity, which contains "considerable duplication, a false start here and there, [and] conflicting interpretations." Weisman studied all of the characters to find their "core essence," and the show often combined characters and storylines when necessary for the sake of coherence. For example, Flash Thompson was found to be "a bully, who deep down is actually an honorable guy," while Shocker was found to be an "iconic costume" with no character, so he was combined with Montana.
The Spectacular Spider-Man debuted on March 8, 2008, with back-to-back episodes, "Survival of the Fittest" and "Interactions", under the banner "Spectacular Saturday". The series debuted under a cloud as The CW had just indicated that the network would end its kid's block for a brokered outsourced block. While Culver had already started producing the second season.
Cancellation Greg Weisman was hoping for the series to reach 5 seasons, consisting of 65 episodes in total.Ask Greg (Weisman): May 03, 2008 However, only 2 seasons and 26 episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man were produced.