The Spectacular Spider-Man

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just finished re-watching the first season of this show the other day. My god is it amazing. Even a second time through I was absolutely baffled as how great its writing is and how consistent its quality is. If the 2nd season holds up as well as I remember (and I remember it being even better than the 1st season), then this will easily crack into my list of the top 10 animated shows of all time that I have ever seen. Its just that damn good.

I really love how well this particular take on Spider-Man's story develops the characters, and how memorable each of its episodes are. Even the villains get fleshed out fairly well, and the plot is always exciting. I mostly enjoy how it has a continuous background plot going on in-between Spider-Man's episodic encounters with his new foes and new situational problems. I also enjoy how Peter Parker in this series has a lot of other dilemmas to deal with that are caused by him leading his secret life as a super hero. this show just excels on all levels, and I really have a hard time finding something to fault it for. Even its animation and action scenes are just about always top-notch. This show and Gargoyles have convinced me that Greg Weisman is one of the best writing talents that can be found in the field of animated shows.

[Foggle]

The second season is quite a bit better, IMO. Overall one of the greatest cartoons of the last decade.

[Dr. Insomniac]

It's unceremonious end is one of the most cruel things to happen for TV shows since the cancellation of Firefly. I know there were issues with Sony, and it's typical for none of the Spidey cartoons to conclude with closure, but none of that alleviates how big of a dick move that was.

[Spark Of Spirit]

While my favorite Marvel property remains X-Men, Spectacular Spider-man is easily the best animated show to come from one of their properties. Yeah, the ending kind of sucks, but at the very least it's not really a cliffhanger so much as it's a "this isn't really over" type of deal so I can stomach it.

The episode with the gang war is probably the best episode of the show. So much going on, yet it works out wonderfully.

[Avaitor]

You got season 1 on DVD? Rad.

When the old board was up, I had at least two more great episode discussions planned. One of them was going to be "Intervention".

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Nah, I didn't "buy" the DVDs, I did the smart thing and borrowed them from that one friend of mine who I always free-load off of.

He's always been spoiled by his rich family, so he buys stuff all the time. Thanks to me getting him into TSSM last year, he got the DVD set for Christmas when I suggested/hinted for him to get it.

Yup, it pays to have rich-ass asian friends.

[Avaitor]

Heh, nice.

Reminds me, one of my friends still has my copy of It's Kind of a Funny Story and still hasn't read it.

Well the joke's on both of us. I've had his Chickenfoot CD for over a year, and still haven't played it.

We're awesome like that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

SUPER bump!

I re-watched a few episodes the other day and it sure does age well. IMO, I don't see another Spider Man show topping this soon.

[Avaitor]

The day we finally get season 2 on DVD or the show gets put up on Netflix is when I'll make another rewatch of the series.

I do hope that comes soon, though. This series is so phenomenal.

[Sketch]

I got the second season on DVD across 4 discs. I was able to pick them up for 7 bucks each earlier this year. I don't foresee them releasing a season 2 set like they eventually did for season 1 so it's probably the only way to get them. I'm not up to date on how it was released in Canada however.

Season 1 is also on Netflix in the US but no season 2 from what I've seen.

I can't imagine there being a better Spider-Man show. Weisman and Cook made a truly spectacular show and sowed the seeds well ahead of time for every major plot point and additional character. It was so remarkably well crafted that it was a crime to animation for the series to be cut short. It's everything a Spider-Man show should be. Awesome fights, snappy dialogue and plenty of teenage troubles for our hero who is learning plenty of life lessons a long the way.

It's arguably the best Marvel cartoon ever and quite certainly blows every other Spider-Man cartoon out of the water.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just started re-watching this show the third time through. Honestly, this is one of those few shows that I only seem to appreciate more the more that I watch it. I woulds till proudly say that this is my personal favorite superhero cartoon. For the first time I just noticed the shameless little nod to Gargoyles in the opening scene of the first episode where Spider-Man is hopping off of those gargoyle statues. If this series wasn't headed by Greg Weisman I'd think nothing of it, but since it is I just can't ignore what it immediately reminds me of.

Seriously, though, this may be the one of the only shows in which I find every single episode to be at least good, if not great. There isn't a single lacking episode in the entire package, and even though it may be a short-lived series, what's there is genuinely great stuff. Its the best Spider-Man related thing that I've ever seen, thus far.

I think I can also appreciate a lot more of the references to the Ditko era of Spider-Man comics now that I'm watching it a 3rd time through, since I've recently been reading the classic Lee/Ditko run of Spider-Man comics.

[Avaitor]

Bumping because SSM will be airing on Vortexx in the fall, in case you guys wanted to watch the show again.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Bumping because SSM will be airing on Vortexx in the fall, in case you guys wanted to watch the show again.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

That's great news and all, but admittedly it doesn't do much to excite my personally for 2 reasons:

1. I've already re-watched the show at least half a dozen times.

2. I don't even have the Vortexx channel.

Its still cool news for anyone who wants to catch the show on TV, though.

[Daxdiv]

2. I don't even have the Vortexx channel.

Its still cool news for anyone who wants to catch the show on TV, though.

You don't have CW? What kind of shitty Cable Package do you have? Vortexx is that Saturday Morning block that airs on CW.