COMICALLY SERIOUS By CALLEY LAMAR Last week we took a look into some of my personal favorite villains from Spider-Man’s long publication history, and in that column, I mentioned how several of my favorite portrayals of the characters came from one particular adaptation: The Spectacular Spider-Man.

The Spectacular Spider-Man was an animated series that aired from March 8, 2008 to November 18, 2009. While this was a short two season, 26-episode long series (cut short by executive dealings, but we’ll get into that), the series remains immensely popular with a vocal fanbase that hope for the series to receive a revival.

The series was developed by Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman and director Victor Cook. The series focused on Peter Parker (portrayed by Josh Keaton) entering his junior year of high school after recently acquiring his superpowers and becoming Spider-Man over the course of the summer.

Much of the series is devoted to Peter’s struggle to maintain both aspects of his life and to find a balance. While this is nothing new for comic readers or those that watched the films, The Spectacular Spider-Man more than any other version actually managed to strike the perfect harmony between both of Parker’s alter-egos, and a big part of that is the series focus on Peter Parker himself.

Past Spider-Man cartoons (save for the 90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series) tend to focus on the Spider-Man aspect of the characters life, leaving much of his supporting cast out of the series entirely (usually save for Aunt May or J. Jonah Jameson) to instead let the action play out between Spidey and the villain of the week. This focus on Peter allowed the A and B plots of each episode to organically mesh. The Spectacular Spider-Man revels in the character’s long history by including loads and loads of characters throughout the entire Spider-Man franchise. Indeed, every single named character in this series debuted in either a Spider-Man comic, movie or game prior to when this series aired. It is the strong supporting cast that helps to elevate much of the interpersonal drama experienced by our titular hero. Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Liz Allen, Aunt May, Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant, J. Jonah Jameson, Captain George Stacy and Norman Osborn aren’t just names and faces lifted from the comics, but fully developed characters in their own right. And unlike a lot of series, each member of Peter’s civilian life has unique traits that an audience can easily identify and pick up on. Nobody feels cookie cutter, and that extends to the villains as well.

Not since Batman: The Animated Series has there really been a superhero television show that felt like the hero’s enemies were growing and evolving along with him. This is helped in large part by the show introducing character long before many become supervillains. It takes five episodes for Flint Marko to become Sandman, six for Alex O’Hirn to become Rhino, and eight for Otto Octavius to become Doctor Octopus. And all those characters were introduced in the very first episode to boot.

They would also sometimes mix different versions or characters together to make new composite versions such as having Montana of the Enforcers take on the mantle of the Shocker, while the character of Tombstone was upgraded to a Kingpin-style role (the latter was mostly due to a weird rights issue with using the Kingpin character).

Tonally, the series resembles the Stan Lee-John Romita Sr. era of Spider-Man comics with elements of the Sam Raimi films and the Ultimate Marvel imprint thrown into the mix.

One of the major hallmarks of the series is the incredibly animated fight scenes. The series used a simplistic design to help make the animation smoother for the highly kinetic and faced paced fight scenes. Spider-Man in this series makes great and creative uses of his abilities and the environment to deal with different enemies. The enemies also adapt and change up tactics during each encounter with the Webhead, leading to no two fights that are quite the same.

Special mention should also go to the incredible voice cast that really elevate the material. These are some big named voice actors like Steve Blum, Crispin Freeman, John DiMaggio, Vanessa Marshall, Darrin Norris, Grey DeLisle, Dee Bradley Baker, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Glenn Bennet, Xander Berkley, Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself), Clancy Brown, Phil LaMarr, Peter MacNicol and Ed Asner.

Now for the part nobody likes…the series cancellation.

As widely praised as the series was, it was the unfortunate victim of corporate meddling. In September of 2009, it was announced that the television rights for Spider-Man were returned to Marvel by Sony. The series’ cancellation would occur shortly after Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment.

Sony had relinquished its license to produce television works involving Spider-Man for concessions on the movie rights. Due to this, neither Sony or Marvel have all the pieces to revive the series. Sony owns The Spectacular Spider-Man series and all the production elements created for it such as the characters and storylines, but Marvel has the rights to make any tv series about Spider-Man.

Fans of the series would continue to experience frustration at the series’ cancellation when it was revealed that Josh Keaton was tapped to return as Spider-Man in the Disney produced series: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (another great show cancelled by executive meddling) for that show’s second season. Keaton had reportedly recored his lines for the episode, but Marvel would dub over his lines with Drake Bell in the role. Bell portrayed Spider- Man in the Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man.

Despite a 13-years of time passing in-between, legal troubles between Sony and Marvel, and Marvel’s push to make their characters in every form of media reflect the MCU; many fans have continued to voice their support for the series to return with many petitions and hashtags to save The Spectacular Spider-Man.

The entire series is available on Blu-ray and recently was put onto Netflix. This is is one I highly recommend checking out. As a fan of the series, I hope that something comes along enabling the series to continue. As a fan of Spider-Man in general, I know there is no exaggeration in saying that this series encapsulates the character and is possibly the greatest adaptation Spider-Man has received, and more cynically, may ever get.

Spider-Month ends next week with a look at some the best storylines involving the ole Webhead.