Richard Jackson writes...

Hi Greg,

I'm a big fan. I work in South Korea teaching English and I thought you would be interested in your creations' progress over here.

I did some research on the internet and Gargoyles: The Movie and some season 1 episodes were released on VHS over here. What a collector's item those would be? The official translated name of the show is "Champion Goliath", but happily enough online Korean fans just call it "Gargoyles."

Channel surfing, I did see The Spectacular Spider-Man on the cartoon channel, 5:30, Saturday morning. That's actually a good time, since Korean children have Saturday school and 5:30am would be just the right time they're waking up.

Keep up the good work and hopefully I'll see Young Justice in Korea.

mick jones writes...

What's with the Cindy Crawford mole on Pete's cheek in SSM?

Bill Friedman writes...

First, thank you for making both of your shows. I loved Gargoyles, but The Spectacular Spider-Man somehow managed to be even better, and I think was probably my favorite animated superhero story ever, and I await Young Justice eagerly.

Second, I had a question. If you had known at the start of the second season that you were certainly not going to get a third, what would you have done differently, if anything?

Thanks!
Bill

Dan writes...

Hi Greg!
Even though the Spectacular Spider-man has been untimely canceled do you think it's possible that it could continue in some capacity? Perhaps in a comic like Gargoyles did?

Anonymous writes...

Hello,Mr.Weisman.I want to ask some questions about Spectacular Spider-Man.

1)I know you originally wanted to use Kingpin as main crime lord in your show,but you couldn't due to rights to him tied to Fox,but you replaced him with Tombstone.But if you were allowed to use Kingpin,would he have same role as Tombstone(sending Enforcers to kill Spider-Man,creating super villains,allying with Norman Osborn,meeting with Venom,and obviously being in Gang War)?Would voice actor be different if you were allowed to use Kingpin?

2.When your show was canceled due to business and legal issues or something like that,i heard such things like "Disney/Marvel didn't care about show" or "Disney intentionally tried to ruin the show" or "It's Sony's fault that show was canceled" or similar things.Do you think that Disney/Marvel or Sony INTENTIONALLY tried to ruin the show or that they tried to save it? Do you blame them for show's fate or not?

3.One thing has interested me in your Gang War Arc.It's about Doctor Octopus henchmen.I know that he runs powerful super villain empire and that he is sort of Big Man Of Supervillains and he has bunch of supervillains to do his job,but i wanted to ask you,did Dr.Octopus had any normal,regular thugs in his employ?.In Reinforcements when Blackie Gaxton told Spider-Man about Master Planner,he mentioned that he(Master Planner/Doc Ock) hire thugs,crooks and construction workers.Also did you planed to use or take closer look to Doc Ock's empire in Gang War Arc?

4.I have question about Silvermane's robot suit.How did Silvermane got it?I mean,he just has it without any explanation.Did Tinkerer had something to do with it or he stole some technology from Oscorp Or Tri-Corp?I loved his suit,but still interesting how he got it.

5.Is there a chance that you could make Spectacular Spider-Man continuation in Comic Book?Did you approached Marvel about it?I know you are working on Young Justice,but still if were are some chance about Spectacular Spider-Man continuation.

6.In your show Jean DeWolff seems to distrust Spider-Man and saying that he goes to far in fighting crime.Is it simple distrust or something happened to Jean in past that she doesn't trust vigilantes.The Punisher is vigilante who goes to far and kills criminals.So did Jean DeWollf had met Punisher and had something to do with each other or she just simply distrusts Spider-Man?

And i will ask some important things

7.Did you and your crew intended episodes we have now to be different or they were made how you wanted?I mean did you had many ideas for current episode or you had different ideas for some episode but those ideas were dropped and you used current ideas.For example:I read that some fans thought that Gangland would be big battle between forces of each crimelord,but in Gangland only bosses fought with each other and their bodyguards played minor role.In other words,what were your original ideas for your episodes.

8.This question is similar to question 7.Did you and your crew planed to include some storylines or characters in seasons 1 and 2,but weren't include or made?For example did you wanted to include Scorpion in season 1 and 2 in some way or another or did you planed to include villains who appeared in season 2 to appear in season 1 or vica versa?And did you planed to make some episodes in Season 1 or 2 but they weren't made?

9.And most important question:Will you reveal your ideas for Season 3 any time soon?

I'm sorry if my questions bothered you.Good Luck

garg and spidey fan writes...

Long time reader first time poster. Something that I found odd in season two of spectacular spider-man was how apparently Norman set up this mentor thing with Pete up in the season opener yet we hardly saw anything of it. There was the teaser for shear strength and that thing with Pete having an osberry prototype in a later episode but beyond that there wasn't really anything else we saw with this mentor thing. I wonder why was that? Did you originally intend to have more of it as a bigger lead in for Osborns reveal as the goblin and simply found there wasn't enough room for it in most episodes, or were we going to see some of this in flashbacks in a later episode where it would be relevant to the story? I ask because it really had me intrigued when i saw this in blueprints and I was slightly dissapointed with the end result not really being much of anything. Although for the record I really loved the show over all and was dissapointed it ended when it did.

Akeem M. writes...

Hey Greg,
Thank you for the two Spectacular seasons of what may be the best Spidey series ever. Unfortunately it was cut shorter than it should have been because of things that were beyond your or any of us fans’ control. I have a few questions about the show.

1) What race are Miles and Aaron Warren in the show? They are clearly tanned and a darker shade from the white characters in the show. Also, they are voiced by Brain George, who normally plays South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, etc) characters. So I’m wondering what specific race you made them. And hey I might as well throw Ox from the Enforcers as well, who is also clearly tanned and his voice actor is Latino (Mexican to be specific), so is it right to assume that Ox is Mexican?

2) You said you had plans for Emily Osborn as she is dead in the comics and has been dead since Harry’s birth. My first assumption is to have someone to run Oscorp while Norman is “out of the picture” as Harry is too young to be a CEO of a business. Is this the case, or were there other things behind her inclusion. She just seemed to be there in the scenes we’ve seen her in; she was either cutting food or walking away. Was she in on the identity and antics of her husband’s costumed criminal alter ego?

3) You have also mentioned you had long term plans for Kraven the Hunter in his beastly form. Since we won’t be seeing those plans come to the small screen at all I would like to ask what those plans were. Most people think that you were just going to make him human again, either via Calypso, or some other way. Were your plans for him about regretting his choice to become mutated in order to beat Spidey? Please let us know what your plans were, as it is an intriguing departure from the comics (and you tesased us about it).

4) Now, according to you in, your Spectacular universe it is now well known to the public that Norman Osborn is the Green Goblin after his “final” fight in Season 2. In the comics, the Green Goblin’s identity was a mystery to the general public in the comics until real recently in Spidey’s comic history. In fact, before Norman came back from the dead, Norman’s hobby was the leverage that Roderick Kingsley had on the Osborn family for blackmail during his stint as the Hobgoblin. I’m curious to know why you made this decision and how the Hobgoblin story would have been handled with the information that Roderick had just out in the open to everyone in New York like that.

5) Also, even though it's all moot now, I need to know, what were your major plans for the show had it continued...provided that what you answered above wasn't all of it. You don’t need to give any SPECIFIC details since aside from Hobgoblin and Scorpion showing up in season 3 and Peter graduating high school at the end of the series' run, nothing was ever really set in stone. However you did have some ideas about where you wanted the series to go, and I can assure you that the many other fans and I would love to hear any of your ideas about where you were headed with the show. And...the fact that I'm kinda desprate for ANYTHING Spidey related now that there is nothing on TV until next year....

Anonymous writes...

For some reason, Man-Wolf is a very cool villain to me. I loved what you were doing with John in the show. Did you have a plan to make him Man-Wolf? It seemed like Professor Warren was going to be the perfect catalyst/enabler for that transformation.

Also, you once said that even if one didn't like the transformation of Kraven, to bear with it because you had some really cool plans extending from that. Would you be able to give us an idea of what those plans were?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

one last question:
In response to my appreciative ramble on your portrayal of Flash Thompson in the cartoon you answered that you had specific ideas about when and why Flash stopped liking Peter and being friends but you were on the fence about revealing them. Similarly on when he transitioned to actually tormenting Peter and whether all this took place before or after Peter’s parents’ deaths. If you have come off the fence in whole or in part I’d love to hear more.

You also said that Flash’s well timed hauling of Peter over the coals for his bad treatment of others was the reason he was went to the hospital and not to visit Aunt May. (Though I suppose he may have visited as well.) If despite all the animosity he believes he justly holds towards Peter he still came and did that, it speaks all the more highly of him. Also kudos to the animators for giving him that annoyed look that fits very well with: ‘I have to be doing this right thing here, but you really don’t deserve it’.

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

This is touching on the type of theoretical questions you hate, but I’ll attempt it…

Are there any shows you watch that you wish you were involved in? Any shows you are glad you weren’t involved with because you wouldn’t want it any other different than it is? Any shows you didn’t enjoy, but think you could have made the concept shine? I don’t necessarily mean something you worked on and it didn’t work out, (like when you wrote the series bible to Roswell Conspiracies or the like), I mean even seeing a cartoon as an adult that you enjoyed as a child and thinking ‘if I were doing that…’. That creative itch that sometimes hits when watching a show and really wanting to play in that sandbox.

I figure either you'll hate this question or one or two examples will suddenly spring to mind.

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

I read an interesting article arguing that Ditko walked away from Spiderman because of an affront to his Objectivism principles. Specifically that he was setting up Norman Osborn to be Peter’s mentor and an exemplar of Objectivism. I was wondering what your thoughts were on the theory, and if there was ever a thought about it when working on Spectacular Spiderman?

lamberto writes...

i was wondering how your production team came to the decision on how to pronounce sha shan nguyen's last name. it is also my last name and since i was young i have always pronounced it "new-win". yet others pronounce it "new-yen". just curious. you don't see "nguyen" much in the media.

Z_n_a_k writes...

Dear Greg,please tell me,when will we see third season Spectacular Spiderman?

anonymous writes...

Hello,
I checked the archives and didn't see it asked, so if it was, sorry. I'm confused. You said that the timeline for "The Spectacular Spider-Man" is basically the 1962 era, when Spidey first meets his foes and when he first meets the early Marvel heroes, like Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, and Ant Man as examples. You mentioned Donald Blake hasn't gone to Norway yet and become Thor, but I thought Thor was from 1962 and made his debut before Spider-Man? Anyway, I wanted to ask, when does this show go into the "1963" era of your show? Season three, if there is one? Has it basically started since the January and on episodes of season two?

Thanx for reading. :)

Frederick writes...

Hi, Greg. I wanted to know if there's a website or magazine or SOMETHING that has ratings/updates for Spiderman in it? I'm sure you get a lot of questions asking for the status of the series, and I wanted to know if we can be proactive and check a source or something.

Yotam writes...

Dear Greg,

I suspect you are not permitted to give out any information regarding the matter about which I'm about to ask, but seeing as how I have nothing to lose by simply asking, I'll just go ahead and hope for the best:

What can you say regarding the current status of The Spectacular Spider-Man TV status? Has the show been officially cancelled? I've figured that might be the case considering it's been a while since the last time anything was said about the show, but I wanted to get an official word before losing hope.

Best regards,
Yotam.

AJC writes...

Hi

Sorry this isn't about the ASM comic you wrote, although I will read it soon. This is a question I was surprised no one has asked and I'm wondering if you thought about it. My question is concerned with the Spectacular Spider-man show. What's unique about your series is that well, its serialized. We're seeing Peter grow up month by month and were watching the seasons of the year change. I'm assuming you aren't going to do a time jump or anything so finally here are my questions: did you vic, or cheeks ever question how you were going to show pete age visually? Considering this is not like other tv shows where there is no strict chronological time line, did you talk about having peter's design change every year, every mid season etc. to reflect that he is getting older? What about other characters?

I hope I remember to come back and find this question in your blog many months (or years!) ahead because I am intrigued by how you will answer this.

John writes...

Love Spectacular Spider-Man, great show. Personally, I like it because it reminds me of Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita, rather than the increasingly complex and twisting story lines of the present.

1) Will Gwen die? I have to know. You've said that you wanted to "stay true to the themes" from the comics, but I always thought Gwen's death was sort of unnecessary.

2) On imdb, I read that you wanted Venom and Spider-Man to settle their differences and become allies. That seem so completely implausible that I had to ask about it.

Rohan writes...

Okay, whether or not it actually happens, are you in support of a third season for spectacular spiderman? I know it's based on ratings (and we have a lot of signatures on the petition site), but do you want it to happen?

Matt writes...

Greg,
I noticed that almost every single villain gets an episode or two (sometimes more) to be introduced to the audience before taking on Spider-Man in Spectacular Spider-Man. Rhino, Sandman, and the Enforcers were thugs, and Hammerhead has had a few bits of his past revealed as well. So why did you choose the opposite course of action for Tombstone?

Also, excellent issue of Amazing Spider-Man. Flash Thompson seems to be a hard character to really understand, but you truly understand Flash. Thank you.

Greg Bishansky writes...

This is a question I've been sitting on for a while. But, does Mendel Stromm exist in "The Spectacular Spider-Man" Universe? Part of me would think that he does, but at the same time, the more I think about him, the more redundant he becomes.

Obviously, in the comics, he was the creator of the formula that transformed Norman Osborn into the Green Goblin. Although, in this series, Norman claims that he invented the globulin green... and, while he's not exactly trustworthy, I haven't been given a reason to doubt him.

Yeah, he could fill the role of the scientist partner that Norman screwed over, but we've got that in Adrian Toomes... sort of. Granted they weren't business partners, but Norman screwed him over and stole his invention. Otto also fills a role as a scientist in Osborn's employ who Norman stabbed in the back.

And, as a supervillain, Stromm was the self titled, Robot Master. Which would feel redundant if the much more interesting Spencer Smythe and his Spider-Slayers ever pop up.

Like you, I try to think of the core truth of who these characters are, and Stromm's role seems to be filled by other, more interesting characters.

So, I'm curious, does he exist? Or has he gone the way of Herman Schultz?

Mo writes...

Hi. No questions this time, just had some quick comments:

1) I read your issue of ASM. Fun stuff. I liked the use of the framing device; it was a nice story to go along with the Morbius feature. I hope you write some more issues in the future.
2) I read on Wikipedia that Boomerang will appear in the 4th season of Spidey as a new member of the Enforcers. I'm not asking if it's true, I just thought you might find it funny.
3) If the show's renewed by the time you get this, congrats. If not, i'm pulling for ya.

Thanks again!

David B. Jacobs writes...

Hey Greg! I was just rewatching a couple of episodes of TSSM and a few more questions came to mind.

1. In Opening Night, why didn't they confiscate Spidey's webbing when they locked him in the Vault? If he was a real prisoner, they surely would have....
2. Also, I noticed that in the end of said episode, Hobie says "Goblin shall restore amends" instead of "Robin shall restore amends." Obviously this was intentional, but what was DEVERAUX's motivation for changing the line?
3. Had Nick Bottom not been cast before Flash got the part?
4. In Subtext, Hobie is seen at the rehearsal with MJ and Liz. Though I don't Midsummer's by heart, I assuming that meant that he already had a part (he at least had lines - he was cut off by Deveraux again). What was his original part and who replaced him when he became Puck?

Anonymous writes...

Hey Greg, The Gargoyles/Spectacular Spider-Man Crossover You Wrote For The Radio Play At The Gathering is Canon Right? Or it will be once Disney approves to make it right? i mean since Disney now bought marvel comics and that's what you intended for it?

PPL writes...

Hi Greg,

This isn't about Amazing Spider-Man #622, but is sort of related, and something I was wondering about for a while.

How did it come about that Tricia Helfer was cast as the voice of Black Cat on TSSM? I think most people would have known her from Battlestar Galactica, in which she plays a somewhat similar role*.

I noticed that she also voiced Black Cat in a Spider-Man game from 2008. Do you know whether she first did recordings for TSSM or for that game?

I ask because it doesn't seem like she's best known for her voice acting, but also that I wouldn't expect you to allow the casting of voice actors on one of your show solely based only on their reputation as a live-action actor.

*Or multiple roles, if one wants to get into that kind of discussion, but that hardly seems like the right thing to bring up here.