Spider-Man is making his way back into our lives with the release of Captain America: Civil War but you can get a good look at him in “Spectacular Spider-Man”.
Spectacular Spider-man followed Peter Parker in his high school days. He’s only been Spider-man for a few months and it seems like he’s been stopping normal bad guys during that time with his lack of experience. As most Spider-man shows and comics seem to be, this show depicts his transformation into the “Spectacular” Spider-man instead of just Spider-Man.
The show has the entire rogue gallery that we’re used to. Green Goblin, Venom, Vulture, Mysterio, almost any villain you can think of. Spider-Man doesn’t know how to defeat any of these villains but through witty one-liners and multiple battles he eventually defeats them all and makes it look easy most of the time as well.
Unfortunately the show only lasted two seasons, but they were two very great and entertaining ones. Season one dealer heavily with Peter being bullied in school, having a crush on Gwen Stacy, and being Spider-Man all at the same time. When he wasn’t out being Spider-Man the episodes had an immense focus on him dealing with everyday struggles that really showed how connected he was to young fans everywhere. Peter Parker was seen to be just like everyone else. He would defeat a menacing bad guy such as Vulture to be bullied by Flash Thomspon the following day in school.
One of the best things about this Spider-Man is the development of each character on the show. Eddie Brock started off as a normal person before becoming Venom, Dr. Connors was the humble professor Peter grew to love before he became The Lizard, and even Norman Osborn was normal in season one as well. Of course, somehow everybody close to Peter gets hurt or becomes evil (I wonder why) but that’s what makes him such a interesting flawed character. He needs to cope with the fact that almost everyone he defeats was somebody he knew or a villain that seemed force to act that way.
One thing, I wasn’t a personal fan of was how rushed everything was. Of course characters did change but it felt as if the creators only anticipated two seasons to be produced. Spider-Man grew fairly quickly and the bad guys were created in a matter of a couple of episodes. I love the intent but the execution wasn’t the greatest.
IMDB: 8.1/10
TV.com: 8.7/10
SuperToons: 7.3/10
Available on Netflix: No
Run Time: 2008-2009
Seasons: 2
Episodes: 26
Watch: Not a priority, but it’s a very quick watch
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