The popularity of Spider-Man continues as we move onto another show following the adventures of Peter Parker as Spider-Man. The Marvel animated shows have somewhat improved as I’ve continued forward so I have high hopes for this one. I also look forward to seeing the different portrayals of the villains and hero cameos since the shows seem to stick closer to the comic canon. This show only has one season, 13 episodes, and aired in 1999.
The intro to this show was very cool and had some intense and engaging theme music, which played throughout action scenes in episodes. There were also a few moments where the classic Spider-Man theme song (from the previous show I reviewed here) was played as well. He wears a few different suits in this show as well, my favorite being the nanotech suit with a spiderweb cape. Something I particularly liked was how the scene captions were text boxes like those seen in comics. Something I struggled with was how Venom and Carnage had their hosts, however, they could turn into blobs and shift around as needed. That didn’t make much sense since they had human hosts that don’t have the body structure to do that. Their feature as main villains though was done well and I enjoyed watching their chaos.
Peter looked odd, to say the least. He was a lot more punk looking with a hair color and style that reminded me of Jaden Yuki’s hair from Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx (side-by-side below). Peter is already with MJ at the beginning of the show and her concern for him continuing to be Spider-Man is clear. However, Peter ended up on a different version of Earth so their relationship wasn’t shown much aside from the first episode. It was somewhat disappointing to see him have to fight other people’s battles and not have the opportunity for character growth on his own planet with his own relationships. The show also didn’t end well as it was cancelled before he was able to return home and be his own person.
Other characters featured in this show, in order of appearance, were John Jameson, Venom, Carnage, Nick Fury, the Knights of Wundagore, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture, and Electro. There were other smaller characters featured as well from time to time, but I didn’t consider any of them noteworthy, memorable, or recognizable to a regular viewer.
Overall I have mixed feelings about this show. On one hand, Spider-Man is a great character in this show, has a comic accurate personality, a good sense of humor, and everything he did aligned with his moral and logical compass. On the other hand, Spider-Man wasn’t actually on Earth but on Counter Earth instead which made it difficult to care about what happened. I didn’t get to see Spider-Man battle his traditional villains and those who did show up were different versions of the ones found on regular Earth. If this Peter/Spider-Man had the opportunity to fight villains on his regular planet he would’ve grown much more as a character and his strengths could’ve been highlighted better.
In the end I wasn’t pleased with the way the season ended because it was on a complete cliffhanger. The show had been cancelled due to low viewership, which I don’t find too surprising, and we will never know what happens with the Symbiotes and if Peter ever makes it home. While I am a bit frustrated with this cliffhanger ending, since I wasn’t fully invested in the show the lack of ending is tolerable. However, I wouldn’t suggest watching it since it doesn’t have a proper ending.
Peter Parker (left) and Jaden Yuki (right):
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