THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: A fitting name!

[Christopher]

It was OK, but I'm not crazy about Sandman stories, his powers are so amorphous and Spidey's are so physical and tangible in nature that the stories always seem outmatched and/or gimmicky. I haven't read many Spider-Man stories so I don't know how it plays out in those so maybe they have other tacks I'm not familiar with.

Sandman was always kind of a second-stringer, but he became interesting for a while when he tried to go straight and actually did some occasional semi-good-guy work. That's probably the basis for the more sympathetic Sandman character from the movie. Unfortunately, he went bad again a few years ago in the comics.

Plus, I had to shift gears from LSH which was in dark epic mode today.

Yeah, it was more interesting than usual. And it was cool to have Corey Burton back as Brainiac(-1), reprising the role from the DCAU. Especially since I heard him playing Megatron on Transformers Animated just an hour later! Two robotic villains, strikingly different voice characterizations, yet equally cold and menacing. Burton is good at what he does.

Except the storyline forces me to wonder: how can the Legion be so irresponsible as to let Superman accompany them into danger? I mean, if he gets killed, then history is changed and the Legion, if not the Earth itself, no longer exists.

And wow, angst between friends doesn't have to last forever? Kind of refreshing. We'll have to see how they handle MJ but I think many of us geeks will be pulling for Gwen.

Yeah, I get that, but on the other hand I'd like to see the Death of Gwen storyline tackled in a filmic adaptation just once. I mean, we kind of got it with MJ in the '90s series, but it's not the same. Now we actually have Gwen as a major character in a Spidey series for the first time, and even though we know this is a kids' show and would be restricted in its ability to tackle death, I have to wonder if there's some way they can take that opportunity. Not soon, of course -- not for a couple of seasons, at least -- but eventually.

Hmm. I read an interview with Greg Weisman on Comics Continuum recently... he said, only partly as a joke, that he'd like to do 65 TV episodes following Peter through the end of high school, and then maybe go to DVD movies covering his college years. DVD movies would be less subject to censorship, so... hmm...

 

[CaptainCanada]

That was another good episode; some increased emphasis on the supporting cast (plus a couple of new additions). Harry was traditionally one the "cool crowd", so it's good to see him advanced a bit more in that direction.

What I found really amusing during the tryouts was the chorus of reactions to the three guys doing well: Liz, Gwen, and the others cheer whenever Peter does well, Sally Avril (the girl Peter tried to ask out in the first issue) looks sour when he does well and cheers whenever he gets clobbered.

The "Villainy Inc." setup with Osborne, the future Doc Ock, and the Big Man's organization works very well; Octavius is definitely a long way from "criminal mastermind" at this point, so I wonder if they aren't going to use the movie idea of the arms as an influence.

My favourite joke was Gwen, when thinks Peter and Betty are going to the formal, asks whether he actually calls her "Miss Brant".

As with Spider-Man 3, they fully exploit the Sandman's flexible form to have Spider-Man cut loose with the violence in ways that aren't lethal (like whacking him with that big metal girder).

 

[Samurai8472]

Apparently next week will be a repeat

 

[Holoaddict]

Yeah, I get that, but on the other hand I'd like to see the Death of Gwen storyline tackled in a filmic adaptation just once. I mean, we kind of got it with MJ in the '90s series, but it's not the same. Now we actually have Gwen as a major character in a Spidey series for the first time, and even though we know this is a kids' show and would be restricted in its ability to tackle death, I have to wonder if there's some way they can take that opportunity. Not soon, of course -- not for a couple of seasons, at least -- but eventually.

A few years back I stumbled across a fan film online Which dealt with the Death of Gwen Stacy. It started with Norman Osborne apparently sane again, but he later had a relapse. Since the Goblin knows who Spidey is, he kidnaps Qwen. This of course leads to the infamous bridge incident.

I believe I originally found this thanks to an article in Sci-Fi Wire. I have tried to find the movie since with no luck. Sure the special effects were not so special, but the film was still neat. It also gave an idea of what a more traditional Green Goblin costume would look like, as opposed to the Power Rangers type version we got in the first movie.

 

[Anwar]

When David Fincher was considered for the Director of SM1 he wanted to do the death of Gwen as the movie story.

 

[Christopher]

SPOILER Review: "The Invisible Hand," written by Matt Wayne, directed by Dave Bullock.

A pretty good one, showing the transformation of the previously-seen Alex O'Hirn into the Rhino, and revealing more about the scheme underlying the creation of these villains. Meanwhile, Peter tries to get a date for the fall formal and a historic first meeting occurs.

The action choreography is back to being imaginative again. I liked the way Spidey tore off the hood of the car and then gummed up the engine. And his battle with the Rhino was clever, the way he figured out how to defeat him. In the original story, Spidey whipped up a formula that let him dissolve the Rhino's hide, but here he finds a more plausible solution, one that actually takes advantage of its weakness: it's so impermeable that O'Hirn can't sweat, and is overheated by his own exertion. Except the writing is self-contradictory; there are references to Rhino getting dehydrated and being extremely thirsty, but how can that be if he's not sweating? (For that matter, if that suit's so impenetrable, how does he engage in, err, bodily functions other than sweating? On second thought, I don't want to know.)

The revelations about the "invisible hand" -- or hands -- were actually a bit confusing. We find out that the unseen Keith David-voiced person who's been giving the orders is not the Big Man, but Tombstone (who's a big-shot executive in this version, something I don't remember being the case in the comics -- perhaps he's their surrogate Kingpin?). The real Big Man is more concerned with committing normal crimes while Spidey is distracted battling the supervillains whose creation Tombstone is ordering. But why are other people attributing to the Big Man the things that Tombstone is doing? Are they actually in cahoots? That was left unclear.

We got to know Jameson a little better, as a beat from the first movie was re-enacted: supervillain smashes into the Bugle, demands Jameson tell him where Peter Parker is, and JJJ protects him. Yet at the same time, we get the classic Lee-Ditko-era beat of Spidey webbing JJJ to the ceiling -- albeit for more benevolent motives, to keep him out of Rhino's reach, rather than just out of sheer cussedness.

The one thing missing from the Bugle sequence: Aunt May was there, but we didn't see Peter/Spidey expressing concern for her safety. That should've been his overriding thought. Also, we didn't get any sense of what May thinks of Spidey in this version. They had a chance to lay down some critical elements of Peter's relationship with May, and they passed on the opportunity.

Meanwhile, Peter's pursuit of Betty has apparently been resolved, and the episode closes with a re-enactment of the moment where Peter finally meets Mary Jane Watson. This show handled that moment almost exactly how the '90s series did, but that's okay, since they're both recreating the comics version. And "Face it, Tiger, you just hit the jackpot" is nearly as iconic a Spider-Man line as "With great power there must also come great responsibility," so they both pretty much had to keep that moment intact.

Nice subtle in-joke: at one point, as Spidey's swinging through town, a sign atop a building is briefly visible (its individual letters passing in front of the camera, seen from behind), and the part of it we see spells "...DIT CO."

 

[Holoaddict]

I liked the part where Spidey confronts Tombstone. The bad guy tires to get Spidey to look the other way when crimes are committed by his thugs. Spidey says, "I will never look the other way again." Even though I have never read the comics, I know enough about Spidey to know where THAT idea comes from. Hopefully the young kids watching understand it as well.

 

[Anwar]

About Tombstone, the general theory is that the Big Man is smarter than the average Crimelord and Tombstone is his real right-hand man instead of Hammerhead, and Tombstone is acting as a surrogate so everyone will go after him instead of the real guy in charge. Hammerhead and everyone else assumes it's Tombstone whose Big Man when it's not.

 

[Christopher]

^^Good theory. Note that Frederick Foswell had a number of lines in this episode, by the way; he was the guy who reacted to Rhino in the elevator, and then the one whom Peter asked for information about Mr. Lincoln.

 

[CaptainCanada]

My favourite part was Peter's triumphant "I am wearing her down!" after Betty agrees that she'll think about going to the dance with him.

I wonder if we're actually going to see any of the formal, or just the aftermath next episode.

Really great action this week.

Based on Hammerhead's hint about Doc Ock, I'm guessing that at some future point Osborne will decide to get rid of him in order to eliminate any links between him and organized crime, thus leading to the creation of Doctor Octopus.

Except the writing is self-contradictory; there are references to Rhino getting dehydrated and being extremely thirsty, but how can that be if he's not sweating?

No, he sweats through his face, which Spidey acknowledges should be enough under normal conditions, hence taking him into the steam tunnel.

 

[Christopher]

Except the writing is self-contradictory; there are references to Rhino getting dehydrated and being extremely thirsty, but how can that be if he's not sweating?

No, he sweats through his face, which Spidey acknowledges should be enough under normal conditions, hence taking him into the steam tunnel.

No, he doesn't say it's enough. That's the whole point. The reason Rhino is overheating is because he can't perspire over enough skin surface to carry away the heat he's generating. What Spidey said was that the Rhino's plight was bad enough under normal conditions (hence his desperation to cool down) so that the steam tunnel would amplify it even more.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

At the risk of being depressingly pedantic, Spider-Man does say that Rhino's sweating is *enough* for most situations. However, I also wondered about his other body needs but I've wondered about that from the comics well before this.

I really like how this series has worked in the rich Spider-Man mythology, it seems for every element they address in an episode that another seed is planted for the future. It's been working pretty well so far.

 

[Christopher]

This week is "Catalysts," written by Andrew Robinson and directed by Victor Cook, and introducing the Green Goblin. It's a direct follow-through on the end of last week's episode, with Peter and Mary Jane attending the fall formal dance at the school and MJ stealing the show, while inevitably Peter is called away to take pictures when the Goblin attacks Tombstone at a gala event attended by Jonah and his son John Jameson. MJ continues to be "the jackpot" for Peter, not only making him the envy of the other boys, but being understanding and patient with his absenteeism.

Meanwhile, Harry's emotional state is deteriorating, and just before the Goblin appears, we see him drinking from a vial labeled "Oscorp -- Gobulin Green." Clearly we're supposed to think he's Gobby, though I doubt they'd make it so obvious if it were true. Probably it's a red herring.

Anyway, the Goblin mask design is a little weird, with goofy-looking animal-like ears sticking out to the sides, but he was an effective adversary, allowing for some classic hero-villain banter and aerial combat. The action choreography was once again in fine form; most notable was a deft move wherein Spidey... I'm not sure how to describe it... grabbed the ceiling with his hands and flipped his body backward to secure his feet as well. The animators do a great job of making Spidey move the way Spidey should move. And I think there was even an homage to the '90s Spidey cartoon -- a sequence of Gobby chasing Spidey through the girders of a skyscraper under construction reminded me very much of a similar scene from "The Hobgoblin" in the '90s series.

Mary Jane's character design isn't as stunning as it should be, a symptom of the overall character design style of the show, but the character animation helped make up for that, and Vanessa Marshall did a decent job with her voice. In other voice work, well-known anime-dub actor Steve Blum is doing the Goblin, no doubt to conceal the character's identity (Alan Rachins is Norman Osborn, James Arnold Taylor is Harry). And Tombstone/Big Man is no longer being played by Keith David, alas, but by Kevin Michael Richardson doing a fairly good Keith David impression.

 

[CaptainCanada]

And Tombstone/Big Man is no longer being played by Keith David, alas, but by Kevin Michael Richardson doing a fairly good Keith David impression.

Richardson's been doing the voice ever since his second appearance.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Missed it but might have to find it to see GG.

 

[Christopher]

And Tombstone/Big Man is no longer being played by Keith David, alas, but by Kevin Michael Richardson doing a fairly good Keith David impression.

Richardson's been doing the voice ever since his second appearance.

I know that now, but I didn't notice it until today. Which just makes me more impressed at what a good voice artist KMR is.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Meanwhile, Harry's emotional state is deteriorating, and just before the Goblin appears, we see him drinking from a vial labeled "Oscorp -- Gobulin Green." Clearly we're supposed to think he's Gobby, though I doubt they'd make it so obvious if it were true. Probably it's a red herring.

Wild guess, just for fun, Harry's using it to excel on the football team, Norman's using it to excel on the glider, if they follow the legend closely enough then Norman will get killed and Harry will already be crazy enough to don the mask, which lets them condense the timeline.

 

[Anwar]

The stuff Harry took was globulin, a performance enhancer. It's why he's been acting weird and those strange devious looks on his face (roid rage is messing with his personality).

It's making him stronger but messing with his head.

Anyways, Gwen didn't go into green-eyed monster mode, but she didn't go to pieces either so she's not a wet blanket. As I predicted, Brock is again PO'ed at Peter seeing him as a selfish sell-out doing stuff for himself instead of his friends.

 

[Christopher]

^^True, it was no doubt intended to be a tie-in with globulin, but the vial definitely said "Gobulin Green."

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

How did they get away with that "Randy?" "Very!" joke on saturday morning?