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THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: A fitting name!

The Spider-Man hyphenate lovers will be happy to know that on Million Dollar Password last Sunday night that "Spider-Man" was disqualified as a clue because the judges called it a hyphenate.

Dr. Reason A. Goodman's ghost lives on ...

--Ted
 
This week, writer Greg Weisman and director Dave Bullock stage an "Intervention" as Peter finally confronts what the symbiote has done to him. At the start of the episode, Peter has fallen thoroughly under its spell. He's sporting it as a black t-shirt, no longer hiding his muscular build beneath baggy clothes (something I'm surprised nobody else notices). His attitude has changed completely, becoming hostile and cold; Josh Keaton does a great job with the voice performance, with Peter barely sounding like the same person. And he has more confrontations with an increasingly bitter Eddie Brock, who's now lost his job because of the "theft" of the symbiote (and the resultant budget cutbacks at the lab).

Also, by this point, the black costume has fully transformed. At first, it was like the Spider-Man 3 black costume, with the same web patterning and logo as the normal costume but with only the colors changed. But apparently it's been gradually evolving its look, and now it's become the full-on original black costume design, pure black interrupted only by the eyes and the larger, more emphatic spider emblem in white. Thus, the symbiote's gradual takeover of Peter's mind is reflected visually -- a touch I didn't notice until today.

Ironically, it's Flash Thompson who finally gets through to Peter and forces him to see what he's become -- a nice bit of nuance to add to the character. Then Spidey swings around town wondering how to get rid of the suit, and conveniently winds up in a church tower while the bell rings. At first, I was afraid they were simply copying the standard bell-tower scene from other versions of the tale; they even emulated the third film by having the costume mask briefly turn into a Venom-like head as the bell rang.

But then the scene took an interesting twist, as the symbiote cocooned Peter within it and the battle moved inside Peter's mind. And in the process, we got what I've been hoping the show would give us at some point: the origin story. Allowing for a few dreamlike touches and shortcuts, and for the Saturday morning censorship that kept them from acknowledging the concept of death directly, it was a pretty good retelling. Weisman mixed elements of the original Lee/Ditko story with elements of the movie version. Some of the movie interpolations worked, such as the scene where the Burglar robs the take and Spidey lets him go; the film's version of that was perhaps the best ever, making Spidey's inaction more an act of petty vengeance (for being cheated out of his pay) than a mere sin of omission, and this version reflected that. Other elements from the movie just seemed to be tacked on for the sake of familiarity, like the cage descending around the wrestling arena (although at least his opponent was Crusher Hogan in this version) or the change of venue of Ben's shooting to the library right after the bout, rather than the Parker home weeks later. Weisman even threw in a movielike dream scene of Ben and Peter in the car talking about power and responsibility. It felt too imitative, though it was given a twist by having the symbiote involved in the scene as well, trying to convince Peter to give into his darker emotions and bond with it permanently. Making Ben appear as Peter's hallucinatory conscience, the force that persuaded him to reject the symbiote, was an excellent touch, despite the imitative aspects of the origin story.

Also, I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure Uncle Ben was played here by Ed Asner -- ironic, since he played J. Jonah Jameson in the '90s animated series. Asner, of course, worked with Weisman before on Gargoyles.

I like it that Peter defeats the symbiote with more than just sound waves -- once he understands its nature, he channels his positive emotions, his awareness of friends and family, and refuses to allow it the negative impulses it feeds on. That, combined with the church bell's peals, weakens it enough for him to remove it. Unfortunately, he suddenly has his normal Spidey costume on underneath it, which doesn't make any sense.

The show takes its own approach to how the symbiote bonds with Eddie, too. Eddie is there as Spidey returns the symbiote to the lab, and his hopes of his career being saved are dashed when Spidey tries to freeze it to death (perhaps an unwise strategy, considering it survived in outer space). Now the embittered Eddie becomes as furious at Spidey as he is at Peter, and his rage re-energizes the dormant symbiote -- and from there on, it's a match made in hell. Venom has been born -- which would be really cool if not for that stupid tongue thing. Venom can be an effective nemesis if used judiciously, but his design is ridiculous, especially that stupid tongue. I'm sorry, but Todd McFarlane is not a very good artist or character designer. And the tongue is really over-emphasized in this version -- the thing's maybe 2 feet long! In the context of this show's cartoony character design style, it just looks goofy.

Oh, and I almost forgot, we also got a pretty interesting MJ/Gwen conversation in which MJ got Gwen to (nearly) admit her feelings for Peter and told her she needed to do something about them. That could turn out interestingly. It would be nice, for once, to see a Spidey adaptation that hooks Peter up with Gwen before he ends up with MJ. I'm still wondering if this show will dare -- or be allowed -- to take Gwen's storyline to the conclusion it had in the comics.
 
I watched the last five minutes...having had to take the dogs for a walk prior and I so love this show. As I stated in a previous post it seems to have taken the best pieces of Spider-Man that fans love from all eras and mediums and webbed them together to create Spectacular Spider-Man. Even the theme song which I hated when I first heard it...has grown on me to the point where I hum it all the time!!! I'm so getting this on DVD and can't wait to see next week's episode. Is next week's episode the finale?
 
^^Yes, next week is the finale of the first season, or half-season, or however it's defined. The 13th episode out of the 26 extant ones, and we still don't know whether the back 13 will be carried on CW4Kids or somewhere else.
 
^Ok...I know that from reading a previous interview that the show has been designed with regards to future DVD releases so they didn't advertise after they showed the trailer that it would be the first volume season finale. I guess there was no need to.
 
Also, I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure Uncle Ben was played here by Ed Asner -- ironic, since he played J. Jonah Jameson in the '90s animated series. Asner, of course, worked with Weisman before on Gargoyles.

and last time uncle ben was voiced by "family affair's" Brian Keith

quite a few scenes lifted from the spider-man 1
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One episode left.

So, who will be Brock's target? Will he go after Peter and Peter alone, or MJ as well for their interaction in "Therapy"?

Maybe he may even go after Gwen as well if she tries to stick up for him again, seeing her as a traitor siding with Peter through everything.
 
Well in previous incarnations Eddie/Venom has always gone after the people most closest to Peter. In Spider-Man 3 Venom went after Mary Jane, in the comics Venom scared the shit out of MJ so much that she demanded that Peter loose the black suit and sewed him a new red and blue suit. In the Fox Animated Series Eddie threatened to go after both Aunt May and Mary Jane...so it could be all of the above. There are multiple targets...
 
The synopsis for the finale says that May and Peter will be having a Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends, so I'm guessing Eddie will crash and subtly threaten everyone in front of Peter to mess with him.
 
The synopsis for the finale says that May and Peter will be having a Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends, so I'm guessing Eddie will crash and subtly threaten everyone in front of Peter to mess with him.

I believe both the comics and the '90s animated series did a scene like that after Norman Osborn found out that Peter was Spidey. So it would be interesting if they did that with Eddie. It would help add a bit of a classic touch to the Venom character, and be subtler than the heavyhanded terrorizing of the comics version.
 
In the Fox Animated Series...Norman discovers Peter's secret while using Dr. Ohn's time dialation device when Peter is changing into Spider-Man in an alley. Norman never attending any Thanksgiving dinner at the Parker's...he does in the first Spider-Man movie of course. Also I just watched the episode where Peter finds out that Harry is Green Goblin and was shocked...then I realized it was a nice nod to the Fox series when Peter suspects that Harry is the Green Goblin after seeing him take goblin schmatics in anger.
 
In the Fox Animated Series...Norman discovers Peter's secret while using Dr. Ohn's time dialation device when Peter is changing into Spider-Man in an alley.

Yes, I know. By popping in and out repeatedly, he made Peter think his spider-sense was giving him false alarms, so he ignored it and took off his mask while GG was watching. In the comics (ASM #39), Gobby used a gas that suppressed Peter's spider-sense.

Norman never attending any Thanksgiving dinner at the Parker's...he does in the first Spider-Man movie of course.

I never said it was a Thanksgiving dinner at the Parker's. In the animated series, it was a dinner at the Osborn home. And I seem to recall a similar scene in the comics, though I can't track down the issue.

Also I just watched the episode where Peter finds out that Harry is Green Goblin and was shocked...then I realized it was a nice nod to the Fox series when Peter suspects that Harry is the Green Goblin after seeing him take goblin schmatics in anger.

Err, actually it was based on the fact that Harry was the second Green Goblin in the comics.
 
^ I do remember the dinner scene inside the Osborn home...and Amazing Spider-Man #39 has my favourite scene of all time when The Green Goblin is dragging Peter through the air on his Goblin glider while Peter has his ripped civies on and his suit on underneath...classic and I wish they had used it in "Spider-Man".

I know you weren't talking about a Thanksgiving Dinner perse...was just trying to point out that it wasn't a gathering of that sort lol.

Also on Harry becoming Green Goblin 2 in the comics yeah...but in the animated series before he does become the second GG Peter thinks he is the original Green Goblin and I couldn't help but remember that from the animated series.
 
I've got to retract my theory that Eddie was infected by the symbiote somehow earlier, but shit! he's a total asshole.

When you lose your job, you go get another one. Work the drive-through at Burger King if you've got nothing else going for you. Spending all his time and energy blaming Pete made him the obvious target for the symbiote of course, but it's hardly mature and responsible. He obviously was already "going after" someone Pete cares about last episode, MJ, and played the "bad boy" and scared her and freaked her out enough for her to walk away. It makes me wonder why he asked Gwen out several episodes ago.

The writing in this show is deep and mature, and it makes me want to read a lot into this character's actions. Eddie seems to be naturally a borderline "something", Narcissist I guess, blaming everyone else for things that go wrong instead of taking charge and fixing his own life. But how does this fit with his legitimate heroics going after the Lizard?
 
The writing in this show is deep and mature, and it makes me want to read a lot into this character's actions. Eddie seems to be naturally a borderline "something", Narcissist I guess, blaming everyone else for things that go wrong instead of taking charge and fixing his own life. But how does this fit with his legitimate heroics going after the Lizard?

They can coexist. He's a basically decent guy with a fatal flaw, and he had some bad breaks that caused that flaw to become increasingly pronounced until it crowded out the rest.
 
Having seen this episode, which was otherwise pretty good, I'm going to have to reiterate that this show's version of Brock just doesn't make much sense. From episode 1 to episode 10 he's been a normal guy who gets a bit miffed when he thinks his friend is being a bit self-centred (though all of these could basically be resolved if they actuall talked for five minutes); the last two episodes he's gone from normal to an obsessive psycho with basically no transition. The 90s TAS version made more sense (this show made an admirable play for additional depth, but I don't think it worked).

The rendition of his origin was pretty good, though at times it skated too close to just remixing Spider-Man 2002 (though that's the version of the origin young viewers will be familiar with, I'm sure).

In terms of Symbiote-influenced Pete, he got off pretty lightly, all things considered; basically one scene interacting with people who weren't already pissed off at him, where he got a bit angry, and that's easily written-off as the stress from his aunt's condition.
 
The Eddie Brock shown in Spectacular Spider-Man seems to be heavily influenced by the version from Ultimate Spider-Man who was only pretending to be Peter's friend while wanting access to their father's work on the cancer cure suit. That Eddie was pretty much a dick head, only putting on a facade for Peter. He went out on a date with Gwen and Eddie attempted to make it into something more...this Eddie seems similar to the Ultimate Eddie.
 
Yeah, but it's been stressed that he and Peter actually were friends, and that he didn't have an agenda.

There's also something of a shift in Brock's dislike for Spider-Man/Peter; in the comics, originally, and more successfully established in 90s TAS and the movies, Brock gets into trouble by his own selfish/corner-cutting/lying actions, but refuses to accept responsibility and blames it all on Spider-Man. The refusal to accept responsiblity for the consequences of his own actions, to me, marks him as a clear opposite for Spider-Man. Here, Brock is blaming Spider-Man for stuff that's, well, not really anyone's fault; certainly not Brock's.
 
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True on all points...I can't remember because I haven't seen the Alien Costume Saga in a while but Brock in the Fox series had a hatred on for Spider-Man only right? It wasn't until he bonded with the symbiote that there was a shared hatred for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man. I kind of remember Eddie being jealous of Peter always getting the photos before him...but not out right hatred. In Spectacular...it seems like Eddie began his descent shortly after Peter bailed on him and the Conners in order to help out as Spider-Man. I could understand him being angry about that...I haven't seen the bulk of the episodes though to comment on any of his other actions. I'm basically speculating given what we know from previous vesions of Eddie Brock.
 
True on all points...I can't remember because I haven't seen the Alien Costume Saga in a while but Brock in the Fox series had a hatred on for Spider-Man only right? It wasn't until he bonded with the symbiote that there was a shared hatred for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
He didn't know Peter very well, if at all, as far as I can remember. He kept getting into trouble in Spider-Man-related incidents (he assured JJJ and the police that he knew who the Lizard was, but Spidey saved Connors in time to have him keep his secret (and webbed up Eddie so that he couldn't squeal and ruin their lives before he rescued Connors), thus making Brock look like a fool; he assured JJJ that he'd captured Spider-Man, but it turned out to be someone else wearing the costume, again, looking like a fool; and so on).
 
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