MTV screwed the works with Spider-Man in the summer of 2003.
The series was supposed to launch 8 months earlier to tie into the DVD release of the first live-action feature film. In fact, the continuity in this series is supposed to be linked to the movie series. Prolific comics writer Brian Michael Bendis served as an executive producer for this series, which boasted an all-star cast, including Neil Patrick Harris (now on How I Met Your Mother) in the title role; singer Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane Watson; Ian Ziering (ex-Beverly Hills 90210) as Harry Osborn; and, in the series opener, "The Party", Ethan Embry (who was co-starring on Dragnet at the time) as a teenaged Max Dillon, aka Electro.
Therein lies a problem with the series. Dillon was ret-conned into a college freshman and an acquaintance of Peter Parker (Harris), Mary Jane, & Harry. A frat prank gone wrong ultimately leads to the debut of Electro.
Sony & Mainframe collaborated on the series, but no explanation was ever given for the 8 month delay, which ultimately proved costly. Sony would rebound with Spectacular Spider-Man 5 years later, which would be their last Spider-toon.
Rating: C.
2 comments:
I didn't get to see much of this series - MTV was way off my radar and apparently I didn't miss much.
I did think it odd to cast Loeb as a VA. Perhaps MTV wanted to use the music angle (rock star voices a toon character!) since she was on the charts back then.
By then, Lisa Loeb was doing reality TV, her time on the charts had long passed.
I recall her doing something with Dweezil Zappa at one point.
As I've noted, Empty-V didn't do Sony or Spider-Man any favors by delaying the series 8 months, and barely promoting it.
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