This year marks the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man's TV debut. From that first season, we present the first TV appearance of the Scorpion, a common crook who was given powers by a mad scientist hired by J. Jonah Jameson as part of the publisher's obsessive quest to discredit the wall-crawler. Here's "Never Step on a Scorpion":
Rating: B.
Showing posts with label Spiderversary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiderversary. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Spiderversary: The Power of Dr. Octopus (1967)
I'm sure you all know by now what's been happening in the Spider-Man comic books. Peter Parker is dead, at least for the next year or whenever Marvel is pressured into bringing him back. Otto Octavius, aka Dr. Octopus, occupies the webhead's body in a protracted tale of redemption for a classic villain, who swapped bodies with Parker, as Octavius' own body had been ravaged by cancer. It's not the best of ideas, but then, Marvel hasn't exactly been brimming with really good ones in recent months. All they're interested in, really, is how much publicity, good or bad, they can generate with their shock value plots.
So, let's take a journey back to a simpler, happier time. 1967, to be exact, when Spider-Man first dealt on television with "The Power of Dr. Octopus".
Edit, 10/12/23: The video has been deleted. In its place is a title card.
I give Marvel less than 6 months before they push the panic button.
Rating: B.
So, let's take a journey back to a simpler, happier time. 1967, to be exact, when Spider-Man first dealt on television with "The Power of Dr. Octopus".
Edit, 10/12/23: The video has been deleted. In its place is a title card.
I give Marvel less than 6 months before they push the panic button.
Rating: B.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Spiderversary: Mission: Save The Guardstar (1983)
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends introduced a brand-new character in the season 3 episode, "Mission: Save The Guardstar", but unlike Firestar (Kathy Garver), who made the transition to comics, Lightwave didn't, and that's despite the fact that she was posited as the half-sister of Bobby Drake, aka Iceman (Frank Welker), which would have of course meant eventually joining the X-Men had she moved to the printed page. Unfortunately, Lightwave was never heard from again after this 1-shot tale.
Rating: B.
Rating: B.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Spiderversary: Spidey Goes Hollywood (1981)
Time for another season 1 episode of Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends that has a sort of familiar feel to it.
In this story, an independent filmmaker is doing a bio on Spidey, though one wonders how without learning the webhead's true identity. Mix in master illusionist Mysterio, an old foe of Spidey's who appeared in the 1967 series, and chaos follows. Of course, just 3 years earlier, The New Fantastic Four had a similarly themed episode with the FF in Tinseltown. And there's also the matter of Spider-Man having already flopped with a primetime show........
Could they have been foreshadowing Spider-Man's future cinematic endeavors 21 years before the Raimi trilogy? Hmmmmmm.
Rating: B.
In this story, an independent filmmaker is doing a bio on Spidey, though one wonders how without learning the webhead's true identity. Mix in master illusionist Mysterio, an old foe of Spidey's who appeared in the 1967 series, and chaos follows. Of course, just 3 years earlier, The New Fantastic Four had a similarly themed episode with the FF in Tinseltown. And there's also the matter of Spider-Man having already flopped with a primetime show........
Could they have been foreshadowing Spider-Man's future cinematic endeavors 21 years before the Raimi trilogy? Hmmmmmm.
Rating: B.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Spiderversary: Knights & Demons (1981)
Spider-Man, Firestar, & Iceman welcome on-again, off-again Avenger Black Knight in this season 1 episode of Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends. Modred the Mystic provides the opposition in this story, "Knights & Demons".
I never saw this episode, so I can't rate it.
I never saw this episode, so I can't rate it.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Spider-Man Week: Spider-Man (1994)
Having already struck ratings gold with Batman: The Animated Series 2 years earlier, Fox brought another comics favorite back to television in 1994 with Spider-Man, 10 years after the cancellation of Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends.
Storylines were based largely on classic comic book stories from the past, but before the series ended 5 years later, Marvel's animation division had caught up, and adapted the infamous clone saga for television, as if that was really necessary. In one of the most boneheaded decisions in network history, Fox cancelled the series and rebooted by launching Spider-Man Unlimited, sending the webhead to an alternate universe. That series had a completely different voice cast, which was a huge mistake, as they could've carried over from the previous series.
Speaking of casting, Christopher Daniel Barnes was a supposed hot commodity coming off "The Brady Bunch Movie", and was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. TV legend Edward Asner (ex-The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant) became the latest to resurrect his career as a voice actor landing a gig on Batman, and so Marvel brought him in to lend his voice to J. Jonah Jameson. That was a casting match made in heaven, and really, one of the few the producers got right.
Edit, 6/19/25: The video had to be replaced. Here's the intro:
Theme music was composed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, and was some of the best music written for a Marvel cartoon. Ever.
Rating: A.
Storylines were based largely on classic comic book stories from the past, but before the series ended 5 years later, Marvel's animation division had caught up, and adapted the infamous clone saga for television, as if that was really necessary. In one of the most boneheaded decisions in network history, Fox cancelled the series and rebooted by launching Spider-Man Unlimited, sending the webhead to an alternate universe. That series had a completely different voice cast, which was a huge mistake, as they could've carried over from the previous series.
Speaking of casting, Christopher Daniel Barnes was a supposed hot commodity coming off "The Brady Bunch Movie", and was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. TV legend Edward Asner (ex-The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant) became the latest to resurrect his career as a voice actor landing a gig on Batman, and so Marvel brought him in to lend his voice to J. Jonah Jameson. That was a casting match made in heaven, and really, one of the few the producers got right.
Edit, 6/19/25: The video had to be replaced. Here's the intro:
Theme music was composed by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, and was some of the best music written for a Marvel cartoon. Ever.
Rating: A.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Spider-Man week: Rating the Spider-series (1967-2012)
Ever since his debut 50 years ago, Spider-Man has become to Marvel Comics what Mickey Mouse has been to Marvel's current corporate parent, Disney. That is to say, he is the company's most recognizable star. To that end, Marvel keeps going back to him for all new TV adventures every few years, but the results have been mixed. Let's take a look back at those Spider-series........
Spider-Man (1967-70, ABC): The original, and, to many, still the best incarnation of the webhead. Canada's Grantray-Lawrence Productions, which had the dubious distinction of producing the wretched Marvel Superheroes Show in syndication a year earlier, was entrusted with Spidey, but gave up after a year. Enter Ralph Bakshi, fresh from Terrytoons, to give the show some much needed creative energy.
Spider-Man (1981-2, syndicated): As I outlined the other day, this series didn't quite have the reach it should've. When it came out, in my market, we still had just the three network affiliates, and they weren't running cartoons during the day anymore. No rating.
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends (1981-4, NBC): One of the cornerstones of an action-packed NBC lineup, Spidey was now joined by newcomer Firestar and founding X-Man Iceman (Frank Welker). Never mind that NBC kept the show around the lunch hour, which usually meant instant cancellation. This series had something that ABC's Super Friends was lacking, and that was depth in characterization. The more you got to know the characters, the more you wanted to see if there would be any relationships developing. As I outlined yesterday, Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, was designed in the image of Mary Jane Watson, whom for some reason Marvel decided not to bring to TV just yet. That would change well after this series ended. There would be guest appearances a-plenty, and Stan Lee jumped in as narrator beginning in season 2.
Spider-Man (1994-9, Fox): The longest running of any of Spidey's TV incarnations, and one of the better written ones, too, freely adapting from the comics of the period. Mary Jane became a player in this show, and most storylines were in serial format. Viewers were introduced to the Punisher, Blade, and others in the course of the 5-year run. Had it not been for a short-sighted decision by the network and/or Marvel, maybe this would still be rolling along. Rating: A.
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999-2001, Fox): For some odd reason, Spidey's new series was entrusted to Saban, which had taken over distribution of reruns of X-Men, and also famously mishandled The Avengers in the same season. Unlimited got a late start, then was pulled after a month because network suits were panicking over the runaway success of Pokemon, which was the WB's crown jewel at the time. The series ultimately returned to burn off episodes that had already been made and not previously aired, but by then, the ship had sailed.
Spider-Man (2003, MTV): Promised for November 2002, in the wake of Sam Raimi's first "Spider-Man" movie, the series was delayed to the following summer for reasons never revealed, known only to MTV and the show's producers, Sony and Mainframe Entertainment. The video game-style animation was actually more of a hindrance, offsetting a star-studded cast that included Neil Patrick Harris (now on How I Met Your Mother) as Spider-Man/Peter Parker and singer Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane. Acclaimed writer Brian Michael Bendis made his television debut as a producer and writer on this show.
Spectacular Spider-Man (2008, CW; 2009-10, DisneyXD): The downward spiral of animation continued with this second entry from Sony, which relied on Americanized anime designs, instead of the more traditional linework. This series followed "Spider-Man 3", the final part of the Raimi trilogy. The biggest mistake was throwing Eddie Brock (Venom) in the mix as a high school student/aspiring reporter-photographer and rival of Peter Parker (Josh Keaton). Brock was a product of the 90's, but was included in "Spider-Man 3", and so Sony felt a need to include him in the cartoon. CW carelessly let this get away, letting 4Kids take over programming their Saturday block in the process, and then DisneyXD cavalierly decided to put this show on a weeknight!
Ultimate Spider-Man (2012, DisneyXD): The latest, and lamest, adaptation yet. Do I really need to say anything further? Sure, it has its fans, but so do cockroaches......!
Now, you'll notice I didn't reprint the ratings I put on most of these series. If you click on "From Comics to Toons" in the labels line, it'll take you to a list of the series already covered, where I've covered them in more detail. In this writer's opinion, the quality of the Spider-toons has gone down in recent years, with only a brief uptick in the ill-fated MTV series, which might've been doomed because Mainframe needed extra time for the computer animation.
Ranking them in order:
1. Spider-Man '94
2. Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
3. Spider-Man '67
4. Spider-Man '03
5. Spider-Man '81 solo series
6. Spider-Man Unlimited
7. Spectacular Spider-Man
8. Ultimate Spider-Man
Discuss and debate.
Spider-Man (1967-70, ABC): The original, and, to many, still the best incarnation of the webhead. Canada's Grantray-Lawrence Productions, which had the dubious distinction of producing the wretched Marvel Superheroes Show in syndication a year earlier, was entrusted with Spidey, but gave up after a year. Enter Ralph Bakshi, fresh from Terrytoons, to give the show some much needed creative energy.
Spider-Man (1981-2, syndicated): As I outlined the other day, this series didn't quite have the reach it should've. When it came out, in my market, we still had just the three network affiliates, and they weren't running cartoons during the day anymore. No rating.
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends (1981-4, NBC): One of the cornerstones of an action-packed NBC lineup, Spidey was now joined by newcomer Firestar and founding X-Man Iceman (Frank Welker). Never mind that NBC kept the show around the lunch hour, which usually meant instant cancellation. This series had something that ABC's Super Friends was lacking, and that was depth in characterization. The more you got to know the characters, the more you wanted to see if there would be any relationships developing. As I outlined yesterday, Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, was designed in the image of Mary Jane Watson, whom for some reason Marvel decided not to bring to TV just yet. That would change well after this series ended. There would be guest appearances a-plenty, and Stan Lee jumped in as narrator beginning in season 2.
Spider-Man (1994-9, Fox): The longest running of any of Spidey's TV incarnations, and one of the better written ones, too, freely adapting from the comics of the period. Mary Jane became a player in this show, and most storylines were in serial format. Viewers were introduced to the Punisher, Blade, and others in the course of the 5-year run. Had it not been for a short-sighted decision by the network and/or Marvel, maybe this would still be rolling along. Rating: A.
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999-2001, Fox): For some odd reason, Spidey's new series was entrusted to Saban, which had taken over distribution of reruns of X-Men, and also famously mishandled The Avengers in the same season. Unlimited got a late start, then was pulled after a month because network suits were panicking over the runaway success of Pokemon, which was the WB's crown jewel at the time. The series ultimately returned to burn off episodes that had already been made and not previously aired, but by then, the ship had sailed.
Spider-Man (2003, MTV): Promised for November 2002, in the wake of Sam Raimi's first "Spider-Man" movie, the series was delayed to the following summer for reasons never revealed, known only to MTV and the show's producers, Sony and Mainframe Entertainment. The video game-style animation was actually more of a hindrance, offsetting a star-studded cast that included Neil Patrick Harris (now on How I Met Your Mother) as Spider-Man/Peter Parker and singer Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane. Acclaimed writer Brian Michael Bendis made his television debut as a producer and writer on this show.
Spectacular Spider-Man (2008, CW; 2009-10, DisneyXD): The downward spiral of animation continued with this second entry from Sony, which relied on Americanized anime designs, instead of the more traditional linework. This series followed "Spider-Man 3", the final part of the Raimi trilogy. The biggest mistake was throwing Eddie Brock (Venom) in the mix as a high school student/aspiring reporter-photographer and rival of Peter Parker (Josh Keaton). Brock was a product of the 90's, but was included in "Spider-Man 3", and so Sony felt a need to include him in the cartoon. CW carelessly let this get away, letting 4Kids take over programming their Saturday block in the process, and then DisneyXD cavalierly decided to put this show on a weeknight!
Ultimate Spider-Man (2012, DisneyXD): The latest, and lamest, adaptation yet. Do I really need to say anything further? Sure, it has its fans, but so do cockroaches......!
Now, you'll notice I didn't reprint the ratings I put on most of these series. If you click on "From Comics to Toons" in the labels line, it'll take you to a list of the series already covered, where I've covered them in more detail. In this writer's opinion, the quality of the Spider-toons has gone down in recent years, with only a brief uptick in the ill-fated MTV series, which might've been doomed because Mainframe needed extra time for the computer animation.
Ranking them in order:
1. Spider-Man '94
2. Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends
3. Spider-Man '67
4. Spider-Man '03
5. Spider-Man '81 solo series
6. Spider-Man Unlimited
7. Spectacular Spider-Man
8. Ultimate Spider-Man
Discuss and debate.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Spider-Man week: The origin of Spider-Man (1982)
Renowned TV & comics writer and part-time independent filmmaker Don Glut, who spent some time in the 70's writing for Marvel, penned "Along Came Spidey", which to some observers is considered a definitive take on the web-spinner's origin. This comes from season 2 of Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, but strangely, narrator Stan Lee is not heard, at least at the beginning, though they cleverly advertised a feature piece Lee was supposedly writing for the fictional Daily Bugle.
As some of you might be aware, Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, was created for the show, and was integrated into the Marvel Universe proper a couple of years later. If the resemblance to Peter Parker's long-time squeeze, Mary Jane Watson, creates any confusion, well, the original plan, from what I understand, was for MJ to be part of the show in the first place!
Rating: A-.
As some of you might be aware, Angelica Jones, aka Firestar, was created for the show, and was integrated into the Marvel Universe proper a couple of years later. If the resemblance to Peter Parker's long-time squeeze, Mary Jane Watson, creates any confusion, well, the original plan, from what I understand, was for MJ to be part of the show in the first place!
Rating: A-.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
On The Air: Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)
I'm going to be as frank as I can.
Ultimate Spider-Man, airing twice every Sunday on DisneyXD, isn't the best animated incarnation of the wall-crawler. This is despite the creative pedigree involved. Spidey's co-creator, Stan Lee, is an executive producer and has a supporting role as a janitor on the show. Producer Eric Radomski and creative consultant Paul Dini are better known for their work on DC's universe of heroes. The Man of Action studio, which boasts talents like Duncan Fegredo and Steven T. Seagle, created Ben 10 & Generator Rex for Cartoon Network.
So where does it go wrong?
How about the fact that aside from some great artwork----and, oh, by the way, that's an improvement over the anime-inspired Spectacular Spider-Man from 2008---the visuals have a tendency to get too busy. Too many unnecessary bells & whistles to illustrate the overly expository narrative of the webhead himself (Drake Bell, ex-Drake & Josh). If you don't believe me, well, try this sample:
I get that the show is aimed at a younger audience. As I said, it airs twice (at least) on Sundays, in the morning, and in primetime, so that adults who don't catch it in the morning can watch. One of the show's producers is comics & television veteran Jeph Loeb, who has worked on shows like Lost & Heroes the last few years, and, according to frequent correspondent Magicdog, is aiming to replace the current Avengers series with one that will correspond to Ultimate Spider-Man. Has Loeb ever heard the phrase, if it isn't broken, don't fix it? Apparently not.
Rating: D.
Ultimate Spider-Man, airing twice every Sunday on DisneyXD, isn't the best animated incarnation of the wall-crawler. This is despite the creative pedigree involved. Spidey's co-creator, Stan Lee, is an executive producer and has a supporting role as a janitor on the show. Producer Eric Radomski and creative consultant Paul Dini are better known for their work on DC's universe of heroes. The Man of Action studio, which boasts talents like Duncan Fegredo and Steven T. Seagle, created Ben 10 & Generator Rex for Cartoon Network.
So where does it go wrong?
How about the fact that aside from some great artwork----and, oh, by the way, that's an improvement over the anime-inspired Spectacular Spider-Man from 2008---the visuals have a tendency to get too busy. Too many unnecessary bells & whistles to illustrate the overly expository narrative of the webhead himself (Drake Bell, ex-Drake & Josh). If you don't believe me, well, try this sample:
I get that the show is aimed at a younger audience. As I said, it airs twice (at least) on Sundays, in the morning, and in primetime, so that adults who don't catch it in the morning can watch. One of the show's producers is comics & television veteran Jeph Loeb, who has worked on shows like Lost & Heroes the last few years, and, according to frequent correspondent Magicdog, is aiming to replace the current Avengers series with one that will correspond to Ultimate Spider-Man. Has Loeb ever heard the phrase, if it isn't broken, don't fix it? Apparently not.
Rating: D.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Spiderversary: Spider-Man (1981)
Here's one that literally slipped right through the cracks.
While most of fandom knows Spider-Man returned to network television with the Amazing Friends series on NBC in 1981, a syndicated solo series that launched at the same time wasn't picked up in a lot of markets, including mine. For that reason, the 1981 Spider-Man solo series lasted just one season, while Amazing Friends hung on for a total of 3 seasons before being cancelled, then returning a decade later as part of the Marvel Action Universe anthology series in reruns.
I rented a VHS compilation of this series once. Just one episode, if memory serves me correctly, with Dr. Doom the villain du jour. What was interesting was that it sounded like long time Sunn Classic Pictures announcer Brad Crandall as Dr. Doom, which I believe is Crandall's only cartoon credit of note.
While most of fandom knows Spider-Man returned to network television with the Amazing Friends series on NBC in 1981, a syndicated solo series that launched at the same time wasn't picked up in a lot of markets, including mine. For that reason, the 1981 Spider-Man solo series lasted just one season, while Amazing Friends hung on for a total of 3 seasons before being cancelled, then returning a decade later as part of the Marvel Action Universe anthology series in reruns.
I rented a VHS compilation of this series once. Just one episode, if memory serves me correctly, with Dr. Doom the villain du jour. What was interesting was that it sounded like long time Sunn Classic Pictures announcer Brad Crandall as Dr. Doom, which I believe is Crandall's only cartoon credit of note.
A couple of frames in the intro also appear in the Amazing Friends open, and the title portion was modified for Amazing Friends.
I don't think the series has been collected on DVD as yet, but Disney, the current rights holder, would be wise to consider doing so in light of Spidey's 50th anniversary.
Rating: B.
I don't think the series has been collected on DVD as yet, but Disney, the current rights holder, would be wise to consider doing so in light of Spidey's 50th anniversary.
Rating: B.
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