Spectacular Spider-Man's Saturday Morning Debut

Ultimate Spider-Man: Animated.

I woke up early, well earlier than normal, on Saturday to catch the first two episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man on the Kids WB. The show, which is being produced by Culver Entertainment, features a young Spidey on a timeline similar to that found in Ultimate Spider-Man. It also happens to be pretty good.



From what was shown in the first two episodes it looks like The Spectacular Spider-Man is going to stick around for the long haul. This is mainly because of aspect; connectivity. There seem to be quite a few subplots running through and fusing together each episode. Even after only an hour of animation I felt as if enough seeds had been planted to feed another three or four future stories. We may have only seen Vulture and Electro in action but Eddie Brock, Kurt Connors, and Dr. Octavius have all been established thus far. The one thing that bothers me the most with a show like this is when each story is self-contained. It looks like that won't be a problem with The Spectacular Spider-Man.

I'm also quite a big fan of the action scenes in the SSM. You really get a sense of movement when Spidey is in action as the camera swings and cuts quite a bit. The feeling is very cinematic and sets itself apart from other Saturday morning cartoons.



If I have one complaint about The Spectacular Spider-Man it's that it can get rather cheesy. Both episodes seemed to have a morale message tacked on that didn't really tie into the story. There's nothing wrong with sending a good message, I just felt that it was situationally unnecessary in both episodes.

Did any of you guys catch the first two episodes of SSM? What did you think? Post a comment and share your thoughts. If you haven't you can check them out on YouTube.

The Spectacular Spider-Man airs Saturdays at 10:00am on The CW.

Cheers.

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New Spider-Man Animated Series Kicks Off in March

The wall-crawler is back in his Saturday morning time slot.

A few months ago Marvel announced that Spider-Man was once again going to be returning to the animated world under the title The Spectacular Spider-Man. The show, which features an artistic style similar to that of the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and the Cartoon Network's new Tranformers animated series, will hit The CW in just under a month.

The show looks like it could be awesome. Spider-Man animation needs to get back to where it was in the mid nineties and, while that may be a ambitious goal, I think this new show could do it. The Spectacular Spider-Man is all about Peter getting into the swing of being a superhero. He's young, inexperienced, and has a lot to learn; think Ultimate Spider-Man. Who wouldn't love an animated Ultimate Spider-Man?



The show will supposedly follow a similar timeline to that in the comics but condensed to introduce key characters and plot points at a quicker pace. Hopefully it isn't rushed but still manages to cover enough ground every week. The first episode features the introduction of The Vulture, Peter's first super-villain test in the show.

Hopefully The Spectacular Spider-Man is a success. I've been dying to see a faithful animated Spider-Man on TV for ages and hopefully this can do the trick. Well, at least until Fox and Marvel find a way to bring the 1994 Spider-Man Animated Series out on DVD.

The Spectacular Spider-Man premieres on Saturday, March 8th on Kids' WB! on the CW at 10:00am with two back-to-back 30 minute episodes.

Check out the trailer below.

Cheers.

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