TNT writes...

Hi Greg,

In the time that you've been working in TV animation, you must have seen many changes in the industry. In terms of the "nuts and bolts" elements of making a show (storyboarding, animation, retakes, sound mixing etc), things must have changed quite a bit.

1. What aspects of production have become easier over time?

2. What has gotten more difficult?

3. Would these changes have more to do with changes in technology, your own level of experience in the industry or to the studio/property you're working with at the time?

4. Is there anything about the industry that was specifically different in the intervening decades with Spectacular Spider-Man or the earlier seasons of Young Justice that wasn't the case before or since?

5. If Gargoyles were to come back with you involved, obviously the most important thing is the continuity of the story, but to what extent would it have to change in its art or animation style to be made today?

wholelottahate19 writes...

Did Gwen know Eddie was Venom by the end of Season 2?

Anonymous writes...

Which of these two would you rather do?

A Spectacular Spider-Man Season 3 or writing the next Spider-Man trilogy for the MCU?

(I mainly ask this because I think you'd be the best choice for writing the next Spider-Man films)

Josh writes...

Simple yes or no question with no spoilers. Was Liz going to remain part of The Spectacular Spider-Man series as an important character alongside the likes of Flash? Not saying they would be a major focus, but in terms of character development and the brilliance of the series getting side characters involved with the plot, was she going to get her redemption in season 3 onwards and played a vital role? I liked the way you altered the comic book version by changing a few things (again no spoiler) and bringing a refreshing look to the character. It would be nice if you give a response that is more than just a yes or no to understand your answer, but it’s ok if you choose not to.

Spectacular Spider-Geek writes...

Hi Greg,
I had a couple of additional Spectacular questions.

1. How does the Osberry work? I understand how Goblin’s Osberry was able to show a full layout of the vault considering who Goblin is. I’m more confused on how Black Cat was able to pull up a map in order to navigate through the prison.
2. In Accomplices, how did everyone track Roderick Kingsley for the final battle? It looked like he just parked at a random parking garage but maybe I’m wrong.
3. This is kind of a follow up to my previous post, but was Menken aware of Norman being the Goblin? He definitely knows of Norman’s dealings with supervillains and gangsters since he held the summit in Accomplices. but I’m wondering if he knew that he was being set up by Norman.

Thanks Greg. Looking forward to more Young Justice in the Spring!

Spectacular Spider-Geek writes...

Hi Greg,

Hope you and your family are staying healthy. I’ve been introducing Spectacular to a lot of my friends and had a couple of questions since rewatching it.

1. What did Ock do to mitigate his powerpack from losing power after his debut episode?

2. In Final Curtain, why does “Chameleon-Norman” need to hire Gargan to find Menken? In the episode, “Chameleon-Norman” is told by the Oscorp employee that the only people that can remove Menken’s address from the Oscorp database would be Norman or Menken. I thought that the real Norman would know where Menken would be since Menken says that Oscorp rented the apartment for him? I’m just confused on why the real Norman wouldn’t know and tell “Chameleon-Norman” where Menken’s location would be in order to lure Spider-Man to Menken.

3. Who came up with the idea to frame Menken? Was it Chameleon or Norman?

My friends are enjoying the show and it’s been a joy to rewatch the show. It still holds up. I’ve been enjoying YJ: Phantoms as well. Finally, I wanted to send my condolences to you for the loss of Dave Schwartz. Hope you are well and stay safe.

Onha21 writes...

Hello Greg !
First, i'am a big fan of your work for years now, the author job is absolutely amazing and you are one of the best for me.
But here I have one question that torture me for weeks since I have seen the masterpiece "Spectacular Spider-Man"
If the season 3 to 5 has happened... Would Peter have left Gwen somehow and ended up with Mary Jane? I dont have to judge your answer I just want to know how I have to see the charaters now... Because one thing that I really love about what you did of Mary Jane, is letting her be a incredible character on her own, not by Pete, and I cant see this Pete with this version of Mary Jane personally, and his relationship with Gwen is for me a masterpiece and one of the major good point of the series.
Deep inside of me I hope that your plan was to do Pete - Gwen the final relationship but I'm not the author here...

With all my respect, thanks for all what you did and will do, we will continue to support you <3

P.S I search for an hour now in the respond and unrespond questions and however I try to formulate the key word of the search bar, I always end with hundreds of question, I read tens of them without fiding one like mine so sorry if this was already post and/or respond, and if it was I will be gratefull to the moderator who is reading me (thanks for this giantfull work that you did for more than 10 years) to link me this post

2nd P.S : My english is really not perfect but I did my best, French are not known for their english talent haha.

Again thanks for all <3 in the past, the present and the future.

Jacob L Goodheart writes...

Hey Greg, huge fan of your work!
I just have a few questions concerning Spider-Man if you don't mind answering.

1.) The 1990's series had a sort of infamy around it for being heavily censcored to the point where Spidey wasn't allowed to punch his bad guys (They couldn't even call the Sinister Six 'Sinister'). Now your spidey throws punches, but did you have to clear any similar hurdles?

2.) I've always seen Spider-Man as a sort of loner superhero, part of that I think is because of Spectacular since there's no other heroes like Daredevil or the Avengers around to help. Do you consider spidey the same?

3.) I'm not sure if you can answer this or not, but did MJ know that Pete was Spider-Man like in the comics? Or was this a version where she, like everyone else, didn't know.

4.) This is more of a statement, but I love the webshooter sound effect you guys used for this show! I have no idea what it is but I'll sometimes hear the same SFX with other shows and think 'Hey! That's Spider-man's!'

Thanks Greg!

Verdragon writes...

Since you've written for the character before, what are your thoughts on the MCU version of Spiderman, and what do you think makes a good Spiderman adaptation as a whole?

Mr.Felipe Barros writes...

Hi Greg, i wanted to say that i simply love your shows(YJ and Spider-Man are my favourites) everthing that you write specifically attracts me and you are probably one of my favorite writers :D. Anyway, recently i was thinking about characters age in Spectacular Spider-Man timeline so here are some questions:

1. How old is Black Cat? i think i saw some interview podcast that you said she was nineteen(but im not so sure) nevertheless, do you think is weird for her to kiss a 16 year old teenager? even though she problably thought he was older.

2. Did someone besides Flash Thompson in Peter class(like Harry or Gwen, or Peter himself) made 17 in the space of 6 months that the show is pass?

3. When Peter was bitten by the spider in the field trip of his sophomore year, he was sixteen already or was he fifteen and made sixteen after sometime later?

4. How are you theses days?

4a. Sorry for any grammatical mistake, im brazillian and english is a little dificult to write. Anyway, i wish the best for you :)

Andrew writes...

Greetings, Greg, hope you're doing fine. On The Spectacular Spider-Man, as I have been doing a rewatch recently, I have but one question, related to the choices in design: what inspired essentially the looks of the main characters? Of course, the comics, but what iterations were more important, for example, when deciding how Spidey's suit would look?

Michael Broder writes...

Is Henchy an original character, based on someone from the comics, or both?
Have you ever thought of doing a motion comic where the actors read the whole comic?

K1811 writes...

Hello, I was a big fan of your work on Spectacular Spider-Man.

Questions:
1. Have you read some of the new Spider heroes like Miles Morales, Cindy Moon, Anya Corazon, etc. What is your opinion of them, and woulf you have used them if given the chance?

2. Who is your favorite girl to be paired with Peter Parker, or if you can't decide on one, who are your favorite romantic interests of Peter?

Jonathan writes...

Not sure if you will answer me, but I have always being curious about something from Spectacular Spider-Man.

How old was Black Cat in the cartoon?

Imaad R writes...

Hi Greg! I'm such a big fan of you and the spectacular team's take on Spider-Man. I grew up with Spectacular, (and young justice!) and it came back as a big inspiration in my life as an artist and writer after insomniacs fantastic games and rereading the classic comics from when I was a kid. You have created my favorite versions of these characters by modernizing them and giving them that classic feel in ways that blow my mind. Im a pretty classic spidey fan (i love lee/ditko/romita) despite being in my teens and I value cohesion like your take did. I have a question however from an aspiring writer to a professional;
If I think that a version long passed (yours) was the best version of something, what can I do to personally find a way to make my own take, despite having a similar mindset? Should I be afraid to be similar?
I would really value your opinion and again, thanks for your fantastic and inspiring work. Really hoping to see more of your stuff!

Denis writes...

Hello, Greg. Before I ask my question, I'd like to pay my respects to how Spectacular Spider-Man turned out. I watched it when I was in school and after watching it as an adult, I can say that it was really spectacular.
However, one thing that saddened me as a kid and broke my heart as an adult was how unfairly Peter treated Liz Allan. It was sad, but what saddened me more was that we unfortunately never found out how these events would have affected Liz further, because I think this is a very interesting character whose development and changes I enjoyed watching, and I don't remember anyone having thought that deeply about this character.
My question is this: did you have plans to develop this character in other seasons and how do you yourself feel about Liz?
I'd love to hear your answer.

Sara writes...

Hey Greg I was wondering in Spectacular Spider Man why was Eddie Brock when he bonded with the Symbiote so much stronger than Peter was when he was using it?

Todd Jensen writes...

In your "big round of question-answering" earlier this year, someone asked you about why there was never a Christmas episode of "Gargoyles", and you mentioned that it was never a big enough priority, though there'd been some ideas for it.

This reminded me that Halloween was the only holiday to feature in "Gargoyles" (unless you count New Year's Eve in the "Bad Guys" spin-off) - it got in twice, in fact, once in "Eye of the Beholder" and once in "Clan-Building", and from there, a thought I'd had about "Gargoyles", "The Spectacular Spider-Man", and "Young Justice".

Now, though I think that both "The Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Young Justice" were both well done, they never grabbed me as much as "Gargoyles" did. (I suspect that this comes from my having grown up on medieval legends and history far more than on DC and Marvel super-heroes, so that "Gargoyles" war far more a "first language" for me than the other two series were.) But one feature of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Young Justice" that didn't appear in "Gargoyles", a feature that really delighted me, was that sense of the year's cycle, traveling through various holidays, in particular (I recall that "The Spectacular Spider-Man" incorporated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's , and Valentine's Day, and the first two seasons of "Young Justice" - I haven't gotten around to seeing Season Three, so can't comment on it - covered the year's cycle - if a different year's cycle from New Year's to Independence Day than from Independence Day to New Year's, thanks to the time skip). Of course, I think it makes sense that those series would focus more on that cycle, since their leads were human (with a few alien leads in "Young Justice", of course, but who were interested in Earth customs), while the gargoyles would have less interest in human holidays (apart from Halloween,for obvious reasons).

More musings than an actual question, but it was an observation that I wanted to share with you.

Alex writes...

1. Do you think Xanatos will ever form a club with Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn? I can't imagine he would find Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark fun for long :)

2. Regarding their wealth do you think Xanatos and Luthor are billionaires and Osborn was a multi millionaire in terms of wealth?

Kiddo writes...

Hey, thanks for hours of entertainment through your shows. I just recently finished watching the canon run of Gargoyles on DVD through the library (Me and a friend greatly enjoyed the journey, and had a lot of fun watching it!) after growing up on your other shows, like Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-Man. So, thank you, and as I’m new here, I’d figure I’d try and put a question that isn’t quite so... obvious.
Did Eliza’s palate change much after the Avalon World Tour?

Akeem M. writes...

Hi Greg,

I know you are not the biggest fan of hypothetical questions, but I have a question regarding Spectacular Spider-Man that can be considered one. We all know about the untimely demise of the show, and the fact that you and the team had an outline of where you wanted the series to go. If Sony were to do animated movies in Spectacular's universe (as that seems to be the only feasible outcome at this time), would you continue with your plans as they were back when the show was running? Or do you feel that you would include some ideas from comics in the past decade while the show was off the air?

Stephan Bowen writes...

Let me start out by saying that I have enjoyed your work on Young Justice and Spectacular Spider-man and anything that I have seen of your work. But my question may be a bit long and/or complicated (probably). So I have watched Spectacular Spider-man for as long as I can remember and enjoy it for what it is, but the way it ended has always made me want more. I have thoroughly looked at the guidelines for the question I am about to ask and couldn't find anything, but I would like permission to make a comic series (if I do) of Spectacular Spider-man. I wouldn't want money for it as for me it would be a hobby, if I were to make it I wouldn't want to harm the fame and attraction that it has gotten in recent years. From what I have heard you say in your Spectacular spider-casts and your interviews that I can source back to you, I have written down in notes and will try to follow as best as I could (at least in a stort standpoint). I'm not trying to disrespect you in any way, in fact it is quite the opposite actually. In essence if there were a season 3 and however far along I am in this (if I go through with it) I wouldn't expect you to (no other way to word this) be inspired by me (I guess) let alone read any of the comic(s). But I would love an answer, if you feel uncomfortable answering here you can email me (stephan.bowen13@gmail.com); in no way is this an endorsement, but I am young (19 yrs old) and am known to make decisions based on an idea

A Fan writes...

Hi Greg,
Since it's cancelation, you've shared a lot about what was planned for Spectacular Spider-Man. I was doing a rewatch of the series the other day and finally noticed Flash's sister during the hospital scene. I'm curious as to whether there was going to be some grand overarching narrative with her in later seasons, or if she was just in the scene to serve as window dressing?

anonymous writes...

Do you think there is more hope of Spectacular Spiderman coming back after Tom Holland saved Spiderman in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He convinced Disney and Sony to negotiate over the rights for a 2nd time after Spiderman was temporarily off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the 1st negotiation. I think Spectacular Spiderman can come back if you help Disney, Marvel, and Sony negotiate over Spiderman TV rights again. If they see the success of the series you've worked in like Young Justice maybe through a portfolio or something, they could give it another shot. Tom Holland showed me that rights issues can be solved if we take action though that might've been because of the big bucks of the movies. Times are different now, maybe if you can help propose those companies to make a deal over the TV rights, they can accept it because it can be financially better for both companies to run something like that. Times are different with revivals nowadays like with Young Justice, companies care a lot about money so maybe you and other people can convince that it will financially benefit both companies. I really believe one day, the series will be revived.

Wei writes...

Thank you for your time and all the great series over the years.

Like other Spider-Man fans I feel it's unfortunate that it's unlikely for Spectacular Spider-Man to return due to legalities (would love to be proven wrong though).

However would you be willing to helm a new animated Spider-Man series for Marvel?

Anonymous writes...

Hi, Greg Weisman! I was rewatching Spectacular Spider-Man, great show, and I was rewatching Intervention specifically. One thing that caught my eyes was the manager, Sullivan Edwards I believe, and I tried looking for a comic book or movie counterpart for him since in Amazing Fantasy #15 the manager is called Maxwell Shiffman. I found a Mr. Sullivan from Spider-Man 1, and a famous promoter in real life named Edward Sullivan, was the manager based on the SM1 character as a homage to the latter? Thanks!

Andrew writes...

Were you involved with the creation of The Spectacular Spider-Man intro, and if so what involvement?

FallenLegend writes...

Hey greg I got one question for spectacular spiderman.

This is something I've always wondered in every version of Venom.

Why did the symbiote covered Peter's face like a "normal mask", but then started to show the scary teeth and the jaw when he became bonded with Eddy?

Thank you, Greg!

Charlie writes...

1. Is there an in-universe reason that Peter Parker doesn't try to join the Fantastic Four or really think about them at all? I understand they're celebrities who deal with unspecified "cosmic threats," but assuming the Baxter Building exists and is in New York I can't imagine why Peter wouldn't think himself at least worthy of their time. Reed Richards has a nearly god-level intellect and Sue Storm's force manipulation abilities have near-unlimited potential, but Spider-Man is at least in the same league as Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, right?
2. Why is Kraven working with Doctor Octopus in "Gangland," as evidenced by Doc Ock trying to call him on his comm?

SLI writes...

Hello,

Like many people, I watched Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse recently and found it delightful (don't worry though, SpecSpidey will always be my favourite rendition of the character).

Into the Spiderverse was very clearly a Sony production and not a Disney one, which I take to mean that while Sony gave Disney back the rights to making animated Spider-Man shows, that clearly does not apply to animated Spider-Man films, at least not at the moment.

1) Does that mean that the SpecSpidey art/story assets would be usable by Sony in a film?

2) Could this realistically mean that if a future "Into The Spiderverse" sequel or spin were made and more "Spider-verses" were introduced (which seems like an obvious next step for them), that we could see SpecSpidey as one of those spider-verses?

Given that they brought spider-man noir into 3D space and somehow made that work, I don't imagine they'd struggle with SpecSpidey's art style, if it came to that.

After all, they were willing to bring in the 1967 cartoon as one of their alternate universes, though hopefully in the case of SpecSpidey they'd take it a bit more seriously, perhaps by bringing in Josh Keaton and a writer or two from the original show...?

Hammerhead writes...

Hey Greg, rewatched Spectacular Spiderman on Blu-Ray and it was great! Two questions:
1. In the episode when the Sinister Six first appear, Toomes wipes some stuff on the prison walls before they escape while bringing Sandman and Rhino their food. What is he doing?
2. In the episode where Norman auctions off his specs for Rhino mercs, there's a moment where Hammerhead headbutts Rhino a couple of times and I think I only noticed it this time because of the blu ray quality, but there's specks of red that appear where Hammerhead hits Rhino in the face. Is that blood??

Anonymous writes...

did you know that your show is awesome?

B writes...

In https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=22687, where Mo asked "I just rewatched spectacular spiderman and I feel there were a few bits inspired by the Rami trilogy, is that true?" and you said "Since I don't know what the Rami trilogy is, I'm gonna say no.", they must have been referring to the original trilogy of Spider-Man films starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi. The Raimi trilogy.

Jacob Levy writes...

Hello Greg,

Congrats on your amazing work on Spectacular Spider-Man, Garoyles, and upcoming season of YJ.

In Spectacular Spider-Man, Uncle Ben dies in the late spring/early summer. Since Season 3 would have taken place during that time period, were there plans either to acknowledge or have an episode centered around the one-year anniversary of Uncle Ben's death.

Thanks again for creating a fantastic series that will hopefully return someday and best of luck with Young Justice.

Sincerely,
Jacob

Christopher Rosa writes...

Dear Greg Weisman,

This is Christopher Rosa again. I sent you a message before, and like I said before I'm a big fan of the shows you work on and write for, in particular The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon. But a part of me feels that you handle Flash Thompson wrong, a part of me feels to that Flash was becoming nice and befriend Peter too fast. I dislike it in the comics that Peter had to accept Flash's bullying because if he tried to fight back he could really hurt him. Though in the cartoon Flash never physically attacks Peter and instead mostly calls him names and pranks him, I feel by Peter easily forgiving Flash like that it was saying that it was ok for Flash to bully Peter. I just wish you show Peter standing up to Flash more, maybe Peter didn't have to fight Flash but he could have stood up to him and told him "I'm not letting you push me around anymore" or he could have told a teacher. But then again, each season only has 13 episodes and there may have not been enough time with that with Peter's life as Spider-Man and social life. That is what I feel, and also me and a friend talk and he told me of an idea of someone telling off Flash and telling him how hypocritical it is for Flash to worship a hero whose example he doesn't have the character to follow in his own life. What do you think of that idea and what I just said?

Olivier Ouimet writes...

So it's been like almost 10 years and I just watched season 1 and 2 of The spectacular Spider-Man and well you probably know where i'm going with this but this would mean a lot to so many people. I was heartbroken by the ending wich wasn't an ending and I'm 17 and this is a kids show sort of and I just had so many feelings. So much was planned for season 3 and 4 just thinking about it... So as there been anything new? Please tell us.

Matt B writes...

I was wondering about Jean Dewolff's change from captain to patrolman and Italian American (I think) to Native American. I like the changes but am curious about the thought process behind them.

Also, what people was Jean from?

Also, does she know Elisa Maza? I'm guessing that Native American NYC cops are a small sorority.

Also, Jean and a few other characters (EG Gwen, Captain Stacy) die in the comics. I won't ask names because of spoilers, but were you planning on some character deaths if the series had continued?

Thanks, and i hope you get to follow up on SSM and Gargoyles someday. I really mss those shows. At least YJ is coming back!

Max writes...

Hey, Greg. If you could do your own personal take on the Spider-Man mythos as a TV series (not like Spectacular. I mean a wholly original concept built from scratch.), what would it be like? With new origins for the villains and all that...

Elliot writes...

What can we do to have Disney marvel and Sony’s attention to bring back spectacular spider-man

Crummy writes...

Just want to say first I fell in love with spectacular spiderman when it aired on teletoon years ago, and recently I rewatched season 1 and 2. Now that I've rewatched it I've become more invested in the characters and I want to know why gwen and peter never had a true relationship, every episode I was wishing for it to happen and it never did. I just want to know if peter and gwen ever did have a relationship in this universe or not after season 3. Thank you for making my childhood great.

Nathan Scott writes...

Hay greg big fan of your work I was wondering if you could explain to me why you used a mouthlay format for young justice and spectacular spider man.

Alark writes...

As another question , have you heard about the new Spider-Man PS4 video game coming out, what are your thoughts on it? Thank you very much for your time.

Anonymous writes...

Hey, Congratulations with Young Justice Season 3! I wanted to ask you a question and how that would have affected the Spectacular Spider-man world. There has been a lot of debate over what kind of scientist Peter Parker is in the comics. In the original Ditko run clearly studied Chemistry, Until ASM #22, when he says: “I wonder if I should specialize in Biochemistry or Physics”. After Ditko left the title, Romita came in and according to the Marvel Handbook, he studied Biophysics. After that, it became a mess, he became Biochemistry researcher, a Chemistry Teacher, Engineer for Horizon Labs, CEO of Parker Industries (with a PHD in Physics) and more recently, the Daily Bugle’s Science Editor. So my question is, what kind of Science he would have studied while in college in the show and what is your opinion about what kind of science major he is in the comics?

Paulo writes...

Hey, I want to know, what is Tombstone origin story? Is he just albino, like in the comics, or is there something that happened to him, like in Spider-Man Animated Series?

It would be something that would be explored in the future?

Lewys Tapscott-Nott writes...

How do you plan out a story Spider-Man?

Emily The Disney Fan writes...

Hello again Mr. Weisman!

I know you've made Radio Plays of Cross overs with Gargoyles, Spider-Man, and Young Justice! Which leads me to this Question if you don't mind!

Is There by chance any Other Particular Disney Animated Series, Like The ones from Disney Channel or any other the other Disney Afternoon shows, That you would like to Cross Over with 'Gargoyles'?

Anon writes...

Hey, Greg. Love the Spectacular Spiderman and I've noticed some visual references to the Raimi films(quite a few actaully) but I'm sure there are many more that i missed. Can you point them out besides those?:
Pic in the bugle of spidey stiking to a wall like he does in Spiderman 1 festival parade, Him swinging in the like in, landing on the train and jumping on the building twards the train like in Sm2, the arms binding to doc ock's back, spidey throwing a piece from the highscool fountain like he throws that piece of clock at doc ock in 2, falling airfight with venom in the highscool like the one at the building site in 3.

BattleBeast writes...

Greetings Greg, as a fan you and your shows I have to ask.
If you could combine Spectacular Spider-Man with Young Justice (or just Marvel and DC in general), what do you think Spider-Man's relationship with each member of The Team and Justice League would be like?
For example:
1) Who would be his best friend on the team?
2) Who would be his Love interest?
3) Who would be his Justice League Mentor?
4) Which YJ villain would be his rival?

Chris writes...

Hello Greg.

I know you don't work for Disney, but regarding their upcoming streaming service and Spectacular Spider-man, I am curious about something. Assuming they would want to add the show, could they or would they be unable to since Sony still holds the show's rights.

Jared. L Powell writes...

What has it been like to work on so many different show that so many people remember fondly?
What was your favorite show to work on out of all of them?

Dakota writes...

Mr. Greg Weisman. I just wanna say that I loved spectacular spiderman, gargoyles (as a very young kid) and young justice. Spectacular and young justice have become my favorite cartoons of all time! You sir are awesome and so are your shows

Chris writes...

Hello Greg. I am curious about Spectacular Spiderman. I know that you have other upcoming projects to focus on, but if Sony were to completely reliquensh all rights for the Webhead including the series and Marvel acquired them, do you believe there would be a chance for you to conclude the series as you planned?

Warren writes...

First of all, I wanted to say I'm a huge fan of your work on the shows Rebels and Spectacular Spider-Man. Now, I wanted to ask what was the reason behind Eddie Brock's look in Spectacular? I always thought he stood out from the rest of characters somehow. I'd greatly appreciate if you could go as in depth as possible. Thanks for giving us such masterpieces and have a merry christmas.

Mohammad writes...

Hey Greg,
I hope all is well~ <3
I just finished The Spectacular Spider man and I can't sleep anymore, my heart aches because of how the show was left off, especially when I enjoyed it so much. It just fills me with negative emotions every time I look at one of Disneys Spiderman cartoon shows knowing well enough that it won't ever be as good as Spectacular Spiderman. I know I won't get any closure no matter what I do. But I do have questions.
My few questions are:
1) How much of Spectacular Spiderman did you write after the end of season 2?
2) Were any of season 3 of Spectacular Spiderman episodes animated?
3) Will you ever work on another Spiderman animated series? Or any other marvel super hero cartoon show?
I just want to add that the way Spectacular Spiderman was created, it was amazing. The character development, the fight scenes, the drama, and of course, the theme song. They were all just perfect. I enjoyed the series greatly but anxiety kept getting stronger every time an episode ended.

Thank you so much for The Spectacular Spiderman, it was great~ <3

Greg Bishansky writes...

Lately I've been thinking of a villain trope that is decades (if not centuries) old. The maniacal laugh or the evil laugh. When used properly, I love it. When not, it can be hammy, over the top, and out of character.

Several of the villains you've written over the years have used it, and many haven't.

Off the top of my head, Thailog comes to mind first. And I wouldn't want Thailog without it. Granted, I sometimes wonder where he picked it up. It definitely wasn't from Xanatos. And while Sevarius might be hammy, I don't recall him doing it.

Hyena also has a maniacal laugh, and given her name (and personality) it definitely suits her.

The Archmage had a maniacal laugh.

Demona laughed maniacally three or four times. But it's not a trait we normally associate with her.

And let us not forget the Green Goblin in "Spectacular Spider-Man". I think he was the only villain on the show to have one. Likewise, I recall Nerissa doing it on "W.I.T.C.H." at least once.

The Joker aside, I do not recall any of the villains on "Young Justice" doing it. Any of them. Maybe I'm misremembering, it's been a while since I watched through the show, but I am struggling to remember and coming up blank.

Which leads to me to ask. Is the maniacal laugh a dated relic? Especially as we expect supervillains to be more sophisticated in our dramatic fiction, superhero or otherwise.

For example, in "Transformers", the classic Megatron used to laugh maniacally all the time. All the time. More modern takes on Megatron have done away with the maniacal laugh.

I love it, don't get me wrong, but should villains still be doing it. If we ever get more "Gargoyles", I definitely want Thailog to continue doing it. But, had Thailog made his debut in the year 2017, would I still want him doing it?

You have gotten the chance to create your own great supervillains as well as write many of the classic and iconic supervillains. Right now, what are your thoughts on the villainous laugh?

Dave writes...

Regarding Spectacular Spider-Man (I don't know if you still take these questions but I'm gonna try), I've seen reviewers talk about how season one talks about Consequences, while season two is about Change and maturity, I would only like to know if there is some sort of pattern to these themes, like if both of them are part of stages of some sort of human development or anything, and also what themes would you like to have incorporated in the following seasons.

I don't know if this is a previous answered question but after searching through the archives I wasn't able to find one.

Thank you, love all your work and hope you have a good day.

Josh writes...

Hi Greg. When Uncle Ben appeared in Peter's mind to help him fight the symbiote, was that Peter's mind manifesting as someone he loved, or was Uncle Ben really helping Peter from beyond the grave?

FallenLegend writes...

Hey there it's me again. Sorry for asking so many things, but I admire your writing and love your shows.

I have two questions regarding your storytelling techniques.

First How do you manage to always see up us guessing? I know you're very protective on spoilers. But I mean, how do you plan these seeds of questions in our minds?

I have a lot of questions you won't answer because they are spoilers. But how do you manage to make us want to know in the first place.

Your questions are like Hydra. Whenever you answer a question we have as fans (like who are the members of the light) two more questions take their place.

Second

I've heard you mention that you would do series forever if you could. But how would you do that with licensed properties?

Specially after you said you do like characters growing.

Sure with Gargoyles you said you could keep the story after Goliath dies and sure you could make a lot of villains and plots. We already got Alexander Xanatos in the future for one.

But what about Spectacular Spiderman? by season 2 you had already introduced like 90% of his most famous villains. How could you've kept things fresh without creating original characters?

And with Young justice, not complaining about time skips, but eventually all of them will become adults right? Wouldn't you be running out of teenage superheros by time skipping?

I know you're skilled writer. But it seems like theres no way on making these lost longer and keep character growing without creating new characters that aren't part of the franchise.

I'm very curious. Thank you greg!

Adam Ahmed writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,
I just watched Spiderman Homecoming, and many incidents within the movie reminded me A LOT of your beautiful work of the Spectacular Spiderman. I re-watched the entire series again! I love the action, comedy, irony, romance implemented in the series! Needless to say all of us fans of spidey are disappointed of the circumstances, but I want to how will us fans of your work move on from it since we want to see this series revive again? Literally all I see on YouTube are clips from the series and viewers commenting how much they want it back ( and so do I..I am even cried). And also how are your colleagues ( crew members) from Spectacular Spiderman series are doing?
I just want to thank you for creating such an amazing show back in 2008 as many more writers are inspired from your work, and I hope and I hope there will many more work from you

Jack Carpenter writes...

1: Does Peter Parker ever grab fast food/something from a convenience store/food stand/whatever, while in costume?

2: What are the eyepieces of his suit made of? Are they lenses like in all the pre-MCU movies? Mechanical irises like the MCU? Just cloth?

Sam Palmer writes...

Hi Greg, big fan of your work and excited for the new season of Young Justice after quite a break.
Now for the questions:
If you could magically pick another one of the shows you've worked on to bring back, but could only pick one, which would it be?
2. Why this one? Unfinished stories, fond memories of working in it, etc?
3. Realistically, considering factors such as all the politics, the fan base, etc, in your opinion which show would you say would be most likely to come back (even if it's a one in a million chance) and which is the least likely?

John Doe writes...

Hey Greg. I have a few questions.
1) I've read somewhere that you stopped reading comics all together in the mid 90s. Not asking why as you've already abetted that but rather did that ever stop. The abstaining from comics that is for lack of a better word. I assume that you've picked up a read a comic every now and then since you quit obviously but was there a time where you went back consistently?
2) How do you determine when you will answer questions. I tend to check this site maybe once a month and sometimes I'll be back and you've answered dozens of questions, a lot of the times in one day. Other times you'll haven't answered a question in weeks. Is it just as simple as whenever you have free time and want to our is there some uniquely complicated schedule that you follow. (The question sounded more silly as I continued.)
3) Do you consider yourself to have a dry sense of humor. I've been told I do and I find some of your replies downright hilarious that to others might seem to come off as blunt. Or on the contrary are you just more of very blunt person.
4) Can you explain the little joke you do every time someone asks you who would win what fight and you reply with that quote about the hulk and the thing.

Emeka Uzoh writes...

The Spectacular Spider-Man is my favourite TV series of all time because I liked how it focused on Spider-Man and Peter Parker's early years as a teenager trying to learn how to balance his dual life and also deal with the usual things that teenagers go though.

1. Have you seen Spider-Man:Homecoming?

2. I wanted to know when you were making TSSM did you want people to fall in love with the original Stan Lee/Ditko and John Romita Snr run?

3.What is your favourite run of Spider-Man comics?.

DeAngelo Hill writes...

Why don't you have Spectacular Spider-Man in your Twitter Bio? I'm sorry I'm such of fan of the show, And I know you had something to do with it's success being behind the scene s

Mo writes...

I just rewatched spectacular spiderman and I feel there were a few bits inspired by the Rami trilogy, is that true?

Dorkpool writes...

I have a question regarding Spectacular Spider-Man:
Were there ideas you had that you couldn't do for the show or had originally planned but ended up changing? And no, I'm not asking a "what would you have done for season 3" kind of question. It's more of wondering what original ideas you had for seasons 1 and 2, if those ideas ended up changing or pretty much stayed the same from development to screen, and what they were.

Jack Carpenter writes...

In Spectacular 201, who were those... two... random guys with the tire iron on the bridge who tried to attack Mysterio? I didn't really think about it before, but in hindsight, they seem kind of random. Just... two guys, on a bridge, with a tire iron, and a loudmouth dude in a flashy costume shows up, if I recall hasn't actually done anything YET that they've seen, and they just decide to have a go at him.

I though maybe they were the security detail for the TriCorp shipment, but they have neither guard uniforms nor guns.

This is obviously a really tiny, unimportant thing, but... I don't know, it really stood out to me.

Big Choc Choc writes...

Would you come back for a Season 4?

A Fan writes...

Greg,

Spectacular Spider-Man ended it's run on November 18th, 2009. It is June 23rd, 2017 as I'm writing this. To put it simply, it has been a while and with the show's successor Ultimate Spider-Man already completed it's run I was wondering if your opinions on the third season had changed. I know that previously you had said that ideas are only as good as their execution, and that you believed that without a show there was no point in spilling your ideas across the internet. I'm asking if you'd ever consider changing your mind and revealing these ideas, at least some of them (perhaps for the show's ten year anniversary)? Normally I would never ask such a question, I want to make it clear that my intention is not to pester or offend you. You are one of the most brilliant creators out there and your execution of ideas is incredible. But I feel I should at least ask. Due to the arrangements between Marvel and Sony changing it is my understanding that Marvel can never revive the series because Sony holds the rights to that particular version of the character. Why pay to use that Spider-Man when Marvel can make their own and milk it for cash? I would be disappointed but I would respect your decision if you choose to hold onto to these ideas, I know your intention is not to hold these ideas over our heads forever. I'm sorry if this question annoys, offends or warrants any negative response from you. I am not only a fan of the series but a fan of your work and that is not my intention.

Thanks for the great two seasons of the series and everything you've done since then.

Alex Costa writes...

Hi Greg, hope you're doing good.

How old would Johnny Storm, Cyclops and Beast have been in the SpecSpidey universe relative to Peter (if you could have used them)? Would they have been 16 too?

Akeem M. writes...

Hi Greg,
While wading through all these Young Justice topics, I must ask a couple things about Spectacular Spider-Man.

1.Confirmation of characters.
So as you know, you and your team decided against creating original characters for the show. EVERY named person had to be from the comic books, even if alterations were made to their race (Ned, Kenny, Kingsley, Debra, Fancy Dan, Ox, Liz, Mark, the Warren bros. etc.) or gender (Mayor Waters). However there are a few characters that you confirmed who they were, but we didn't get to see too much of them since their role in Peter's life had yet to be realized (Jason Ionello, Tiny McKeever), and would have been more active in Season 3, which is a shame we never got. We also got some fun characters like Dilbert Trilby (Bugle obituary writer in comics, newscaster in Spectacular), Matthew Resnick (Officer murdered in "Maximum Carnage", Vault warden in Spectacular) and Trina (barista/cashier in "Brand New Day" and the same in Spectacular)

That said, there are some characters that we never got names for and just need a confirmation that they are who we think they are. We have Hammerhead's chauffeur, who we believe is Myrna, who in comics is Hammerhead's moll from Gerry Conway's "Gang War" arc.

Another character you mentioned is Eddie's roommate at the Empire State University dorms. You mentioned that his name was "Josh something", and he was indeed from comics. The only Josh that we were able to find was Josh Kittling, Randy Robertson's friend in college during Stan Lee's "Crisis on Campus" with students protesting and a plot to steal the Lifeline Tablet. He was a black student during the racially charged late 60's early 70s [when the comic came out])

Now the question is, are we correct about Myrna and Josh? And are there any other characters from comics that who we've seen, but weren't didn't have their names said in the show (much like Tiny, Jason, Myrna and Josh), if so, who were they? Or if you just provide names, I'm sure we could find them.

2.Ned
So as you know, Ned would have gotten much more screen time in season 3. However, it was mentioned that there was ground work with him and Betty laid out in season 2 that was recorded, however it was cut as there were time constraints and the scenes weren't all that important in the scope of things happening in Peter's life. So out of curiosity I must ask what those scenes consisted of? Simple things like Ned flirting with Betty, or starting to have a romance (kind of like Flash and Sha-Shan's scenes but Betty being more receptive to Ned's advances), or was there anything deeper than that? Also what kind of person is Ned? How would you describe him in Spectacular? In comics, he wasn't too much of a character, but just got wrapped up in a major storyline WAAAY after he was introduced, but I'm curious to know your thoughts on Ned Lee(ds). Not to ask what your plans were for him in a hypothetical season 3, but more along the lines of how you described Betty (being someone who can handle someone like Jonah with ease).

3.Character ages
While I think that it wasn't as thoroughly thought out as Young Justice (like the exact dates they were born and all that), I am curious about the ages of a few characters. Don't worry; I'm not going to ask their EXACT ages and blood types, but generally a ball park. We know most of Peter's circle is 16 (Liz, Harry, Gwen, etc.) with Flash turning 17 in the series, Kenny and Rand being high school seniors (which would put them at 17-18), Eddie being a college freshman (which would put him at 18-19), Betty being 20, Debra Whitman being graduate student age (which would put her in her early to mid-20's), I can assume Norman is in his early to mid-40's, with my assumption that May, Vulture, Tinkerer, Silvermane, being in the same generation (Maybe late 50's early 60's?) However, who I'm interested in is Electro… clearly he's older than Pete's high school crew, but he's also clearly younger than someone like Ock, whom I assume in his late 30's to early 40's. I can only assume that Spectacular Maxwell Dillon is in between Eddie Brock and Debra Whitman's ages… So would I be correct about Max?

Julian Sagan writes...

Hey Greg, congrats on Young Justice Season 3. I have a few quick questions on Spectacular Spider-Man.

1) Peter in the comics is generally considered to be 5'10". Your Peter said he was 5'6". Was the idea to eventually grow him to 5'10" or keep him the same? Sorry if this goes into spoiler territory.

2) Unlike Batman and Superman, Spidey's archenemy is a bit more debatable. Most will point to either GG Doc Ock or Venom but it partly depends on the writer's preference, the era and the continuity. I was surprised by how much equal dedication you guys gave to the Big Three; I feel most Spider-Man writers are somewhat biased to one or the other. So I'm curious, would you say YOUR version of Spidey had an archenemy in the show or did you see all three of them as equals? My instincts tell me it's Norman after Final Curtain but I'd like to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

Thank you and best regards,

JS

Steven writes...

Hi Greg, did you that there was an avengers cartoon titled avengers earths mightiest heroes which was also cancelled after 2 seasons it was great show and if you didn't watch it I highly recommend it. It also featured spider man who was originally voiced by Josh Keaton but then redubbed by drake bell if you would like to hear Josh's voice in that show I would recommend spreading the #joshkeatonisspiderman and #drakebellisnotspiderman

Nathan writes...

So with the sad passing of the wonderful character actor, Miguel Ferrer, I would imagine that the character of Vandal Savage will be recast, but just curious how much, if any interaction do you ever have with the myriad voice actors on your shows? Do you have any noteworthy Ferrer anecdotes to share? Just curious, Im gonna miss that guy being a regular fixture in american media

FallenLegend writes...

Hey Greg, theres something I would like to ask your opinion about.

You see comics have been notorious for being hard on average people to get into. You should know that your cartoons have been much more influential than whatever it's publised on printed form.

For millions of people when they think Young Justice they think of earth 16 and when they think of spiderman they think of spectacular.

Say Teen Titans Tv show' has Starfire as a cute alien and naive girl wich is among the best female characters ever in my opinion. While on comics she is a dumb bimbo with hardly more personalitybthan a brick

Comics on the other hand are harder to get into and well you might jot agree but the quality is much better in cartoons such as yours. I would rather watch young justice that get into the continuity mess that comics are.

It would seem that every continiuity reboot that tries to make things simpler just makes things worse.

In your experience what would you do to make comics as approachable as tv shows are?

B.W. Morris writes...

Hi Greg,

I wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed Young Justice, Spectacular Spider-Man and the first two books of the Rain of the Ghosts series. Your writing helped inspire me to try my hand at fiction writing and, after a couple of years, I now have my first novel published. So I wanted to thank you for being one of those people who inspired me to try my hand at it.

Looking forward to Young Justice 3 and best of luck with it!

Jack Carpenter writes...

1) Why was Cletus Kasady incarcerated in Ravencroft? I mean, knowing him from the comics, it's not exactly hard to guess, but I figured I may as well ask.

2) Why, in your mind, is Flash Thompson such a big Spider-Man fan?

Steven writes...

Can you publically encourage people to buy the spectacular spider man blu Ray to help get the show back as well as sign petitions to bring back the show.

Kit Walker writes...

I'm currently wrapping a rewatch of Gargoyles' canonical seasons and preparing to continue the Weisman-lovefest with a rewatch of Spectacular Spider-Man and a thought has occurred to me: Was Coyote's continued use of Xanatos' face, particularly in his 3.0 and 4.0 versions where that face is on a screen, consciously influence by the early Spider-Slayers? Specifically, the ones that usually had J. Jonah Jameson's mug projected on a screen as they fought.

My guess would be that it's a bit of happy coincidence, as the idea's not the most unique, but since you've proven no slouch on Spider-Man lore...

Anonymous writes...

1.As a Spider-Man fan, I love stories that push Spider-Man and Peter Parker emotionally.

2. I feel that the Spectacular Spider-Man episodes managed to show that Spider-Man and Peter's choices were determined by whatever emotions he was feeling.

3. I want to know what are your favourite Spider-Man stories?

Emeka Uzoh writes...

1. How did it feel adapting the early 1960s stories of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Snr. had created as a fan when you were working on The Spectacular Spider-Man?

I am also a huge fan of your work and writing style.

Jack Carpenter writes...

1) So aside from Spider-Man and Young Justice, are there any other comic properties you'd love to adapt?

2) Which one would you like to have the chance to do most?

Carl Johnson writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,

I had just a couple of questions.

1. One thing about the animation industry is that once a season is over there is no guarantee that the next season will be picked up. Should some one have a plan B for another profession if the next season does not work out? Or is there plenty of work in California that if you did your job well, finding another one should not take long?

2.If someone has a animation idea they want to pitch and have all the details worked out (pitch bible, characters, story, and pilot script) how would they know when they could pitch the idea?

3. I had a question for attires for animation shows. Does it cost more to have different episodic attires for characters or do characters have only one attire to save time? I know in Spectacular, Peter had a winter attire with the jacket, or that one time he had the black shirt with brown pants during the symbiote removal episode but is there a choice on whether they can change their attire episode by episode to add more realism?
Thanks!

cristian writes...

hello:

in spectacular spider-man tv series. did norman knows peter is spider-man like the comics?

Emeka Uzoh writes...

hello,

rephrasing the question, How did you manage to relate to Spider-Man/Peter Parker? that I asked you earlier. I actually wanted to ask you what traits of Spider-Man/Peter Parker's character do you find that you have within yourself?

Brodie Marschall writes...

Hey, Greg,I've got to tell you something, Josh Keaton, the voice of Spider-Man in Spectacular Spider-Man reprised the character in the Marvel Super Hero Squad video games and Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, And he was going to reprise his role in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, But he was replaced by Drake Bell from Ultimate Spider-Man.
What do you think of this?

Marquis writes...

John Semper, script writer of Spider-Man the Animated Series from the 90s, has crowdfunded an audio drama epilogue for the show with much of the original cast. Since he's somehow allowed to do that, I wonder if you've ever thought about tying up some of Spectacular's loose ends through a full-cast audio recording of your own?

Emeka Uzoh writes...

How did you manage to relate to Spider-Man/Peter Parker?

Lloyd keh writes...

Its brought a joy to my heart seeing Young justice get renewed for a 3rd season, the fans really acknowledged this series a lot ! You also took a big part in YJ return. GgvvvvvvvvbbbbbbbYou gave 3 ways we could help The series get renewed for a 3rd series. Netflix also took part in this great return so I was Wondering How can we get spectacular spiderman to return for a 3rd season. There's been multiple petition People have created and multiple I've signed (including the one on change.org). There's also been a hashtag #MakeSpidermanSpectacularagain & people have been influencing others to buy spectacular spiderman on blu ray & I myself have bought it and been doing the same.. I just wanna know if we are taking a step in the right direction & if we are, is marvel and Disney seeing this? I mean they should be seeing all this. It's been going on for years and last thing , how do u feel about this whole spectacular Spiderman thing ?

RexBlazer1 writes...

Out of curiosity, are you aware that, in the original comics, the initial intent for the Venom symbiote was that, instead of going to Eddie Brock, it would go from Peter Parker to a WOMAN who had a grudge of her own against our friendly neighborhood web-slinger?

From what I've heard, the initial idea was that the woman would be pregnant and in labor. Then, her husband would try to wave down a taxi, and the taxi driver, who is paying more attention to Spider-Man in action instead of the road, accidentally hit and killed the woman's husband. The woman would then give birth on the spot, but the child would be a stillborn, and she'd lose her sanity because of the sudden loss of both her husband and her child, sending her to the Ravencroft Institute. She'd eventually regain her sanity and be released, but would still blame Spider-Man for the loss of her family. The symbiote would be nearby and sense her mutual hatred of the web-slinger, and bond with her to form Venom.

The reason Marvel didn't go this route, from what I hear, was that they felt their readers wouldn't consider a woman to be a physical-enough threat to Spidey. (Never mind the fact that a woman with the Venom symbiote would be, by definition, physically STRONGER than Spidey). Thus, they went with Eddie Brock, whose grudge was based on things that happened because of his own stupidity.

Here's the article describing it, just scroll down the page and you'll find it:
http://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-50/

Not to mention, as a result, it came to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Spidey doesn't have a lot of MEMORABLE female villains. In fact, the only one I can think of is Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat, who is very on/off when it comes to villainy, and is TECHNICALLY a clone of Catwoman when you think about it.

Still, imagine how things might've been had they gone with the female Venom route.

Anonymous writes...

Hello Greg! I hope you are doing well and I want to congratulate you for Young Justice season 3 being commissioned. I cannot wait to see it. Here are my questions:

1. How long was your timeline for Spec Spidey, if you had one? I know you had eventual plans to go into Peter's college years and beyond if you had the chance, so I was curious if you had stories, characters, and events such as deaths, graduations, etc. planned out? I'm not asking what stories you wanted to tell but I am curious if you had a long outline, similar to Garg and YJ.

2. Why did you make MJ and Gwen friends in the series? It was a change I loved and considering where Pete and Gwen end up in the comics and where Pete and MJ end up, I thought it was a brilliant idea.

3. For YJ and Spec, was Jamie Thomasson a comic book fan? I ask because I wonder if him being a possible comic book fan helped him cast parts in the show easier. Did he only rely on your scripts or also on other source material?

Can't wait for YJ season 3 and hoping for Garg comics! And I still hold out hope you can write Spider-Man again in another form! Take care Greg and good luck.

Vincent writes...

Do you know if Tom Holland, or any of the cast/crew of Homecoming, or if Feige are fans and have seen Spectacular Spiderman?

Spectacular was an excellent adaptation which really captured the spirit of Spiderman. I love it so much and hope Homecoming does something similar to it.

Kolty writes...

So in Young Justice, you cast Bruce Greenwood as Batman, but not John DiMaggio as the Joker. Any reason on ditching that match-up? I find it amusing.

Josh writes...

I was one time rewatching all of The Spectacular Spider-Man episodes and I noticed in the episode Identity Crisis smaller fronted overlapped letters on the word Kevin Michael Richardson on the closing credit. Was that some kind of goof/glitch and if so how can it happen out of curiosity or perhaps are the letters supposed to be some kind of word maybe? I wish if it is some kind of glitch that it could be fixed someday because I seemed to be triggered by OCD/intrusive thoughts/unwanted thoughts on it lately which seems to make me have anxiety feelings.

James writes...

Hey Greg,

I have some more questions about S2 Ep1 of Spectacular Spider-Man.

1) Did you voice anyone else other than Menken?

2) How did Xander Berkeley land the role of Mysterio?

3) What inspired your version of Mysterio?

4) Where did the idea of the little purple bat things come from? Who voiced them?

I liked the Star Wars reference when Spidey said "May the Spidey Sense be with me."

James writes...

Hey Greg,

Spectacular Spider-Man is the best Spidey adaptation ever in my opinion. I have a few questions about S2 Ep1 "Blueprints".

1) Who was Eddie's roommate?

2) Where did Eddie live? Was it a dorm on campus?

3) How was it having Stan Lee making a cameo?

4) What all does Liz Allan's father own? Liz says he owns some hotels and in a previous episode they gang ate at his restaurant.

5) Where was Miles Warren before he returned to NYC?

I have more questions so I am going to submit another discussion because of the 5 question rule.

Victor Valente writes...

Hi Greg,
So a new Spider-Man series was announced yesterday at the New York Comic Con. Are you taking part in this project in any way? If your not, is there any way you could get aboard it because that would be spectacular.
Thank you so much for your time.

Mair writes...

Hi Greg,
First of all I just want to say thank you for every piece of writing you've ever done. You're a genuine source of inspiration to me and i'm continually amazed by the depth of your storytelling.

You've talked in the past about your decision to keep Emily Osborn alive and around in Spectacular instead of being a missing mother. I was thinking recently about how it's not uncommon for writers to imply that Norman's treatment of Harry to the idea that Harry's birth caused or bought about Emily's death.
You're Norman is probably the most explicitly cruel of all the Norman adaptations towards his son, and yet he totally lacks this excuse. I was wondering if that was something you where conscious of when writing the Osborns?

(P.S Spec!Norman is probably my favourite version of the character. He's cold, clever, charming and creepy, but most of all he's an unnervingly believable bully.)

Chris writes...

After re-watching "Spectacular Spider-Man" episode "Gangland", I was left wondering... Where did Silvermane get that impressive armour.

Windona writes...

Hey Mr. Weisman, a few random questions about Spectacular Spider-Man (even though it's been a while)

1) Did Gwen ever meet Harry's parents? (I ask because she has a way different reaction than Peter about them in Final Curtain, leading me to wonder)

2) I noticed when watching that Norman Osborn's treatment of Harry has multiple signs of emotional abuse (and of course, was revealed to have physically hurt his son in the s2 finale). Was this something intentional/clear, or just 'let's make Norman Osborn's relationship with his son like this' without thinking 'we want to make Norman explicitly emotionally abusive'?

I just want to say, thank you for creating a lot of wonderful characters, and doing them justice. Harry Osborn has always been one of my favorite, and I feel like not everyone appreciates the complexity of his characterization/does it well. (Though this is probably true of many characters that pass from writer to writer)

Also, since I know you like to include a level of real science (a level since sci-fi and fantasy inherently require breaks from science), 3) Did you ever read up on epi-genetics? It's really cool!

writes... writes... writes... writes... writes...

Why didn't SpecSpidey or YJ have "Previously On" segments? Was it a network or production decision?

Zergrinch writes...

Hypothetical question.

ALL of your past and present projects have been renewed, and you have been asked to help them all. Which one would you prioritize, and why?

Aaron writes...

1 what do you think of the marvel and Sony Spider-Man agreement and do you think this could help spectacular spider man get season 3

Daniel writes...

is there still any hope that Spectacular Spider-man could return as a tv show/comic book or movie or is 100% dead?

Green Lantern's Nightlight writes...

Can you name anything noteworthy Stan Lee contributed to Spectacular Spider-Man, because no direspect to him, but it just seems he's credited by default simply because he's associated with the character and nothing more. He's even a producer on the Deadpool film! I did read once his time with Bryan Singer on the first X-Men film, and it seems he has an office at Marvel (well, at least it does when he gets these Marvel interviews from an office).

Anyway, back to Spider-Man, I am curious as to what his contribution was, whatever length it was.

ShadowKiller2000 writes...

In Spectacular Spider-Man, Dock Ock's power source or battery pack or whatever was called the Megalo Pack. What made you guys use that name. Was it something from the Comics?

RexBlazer1 writes...

Hi Greg,

I've asked before about a matter concerning storytelling in a general sense, and now I'd like to ask about a more specific one. Namely about the symbiote in "Spectacular Spider-Man." What I'm going to ask is not really spoiler-ish, I think, but is more of an issue that I didn't think about until recent months. And, to be honest, it's one that I don't see a lot of people noticing.

Simply put, why does the Symbiote costume look the way it does when Spidey first dons it in the show? The audience recognizes it because of how iconic it is, but what's the in-universe reason for its overall appearance? Admittedly, I may've missed something when I first watched the show, and it could be that I'm not thinking of any reason due to not having seen the full show in a while, but it's a question that I think needs answering. Plus, it's something that wasn't addressed in the 90s animated series either.

In the original comics where the Symbiote first appeared, the "Secret Wars" miniseries, the story did give an in-universe reason for the way Spidey's black costume appeared. The heroes had an alien machine that would repair their outfits or give them new ones. When it was Spidey's turn, he was subconsciously thinking about Spider-Woman's (Julia Carpenter's) outfit, which was mostly black and had the classic white spider symbol. There, it made sense.

Now, obviously, you guys couldn't do the Secret Wars stuff within "Spectacular Spider-Man," but in doing the Symbiote storyline, I respectfully don't think you explained its appearance. It just appears and almost instantly becomes a black suit not long after. Sure, the characters acknowledge the different outfit on Spidey, but, again, there wasn't any apparent reason for the costume's design to look the way it did, aside from it just being iconic to the audience.

So, again, I ask you; was there an in-universe reason within the "Spectacular Spider-Man" show for the Symbiote's costume look to appear the way it did?

safminako writes...

Do you think Keith David could voice any other of your characters? If so, which ones?

P.S
I am still a fan of the show and totally used jump off of an ironing board trying to fly when I watched Gargoyles as a kid.

Kellen O'Rourke writes...

Hello again Greg,
A couple of things, I read the archives and I got a couple of answers to my previous questions. I'd like to ask your opinions on the Spider-Man film franchise, specifically the two The Amazing Spider-Man films.
1. Do you agree with the general response on those films or not. As you know none of those films were really loved much.
2. What do you think of it ending prematurly and the franchise getting a third reboot? Are you excited for that?
3. Also wondering, how did the sales go for the complete series of The Spectacular Spider-man on blu-ray? I got it as soon as it was released and let me tell you, it's one of the best investments I ever made.

Hope you're doing well and thank you for your time.

Kellen O'Rourke writes...

Hello Greg,
I have recently got into Gargoyles and it quickly became one of my favorite series and I think you're one of the most brillant people in the business. I saw your name in the credits and I looked up your other works and I noticed that you where one of main heads behind The Spectacular Spider-Man, which I think had the potential to be the definitive Spider-Man series. I've come across several interviews of you discussing the series, you covered most of the characters but you didn't really get into Harry Osborn. He was one of the most interesting people in the show.
1. How did you develop him from being one of Peter's best friends to ultimately passing him over for popularity?
2.If the show had continued, where did you see his character going?
3.What was the reason for having his mother being alive?
Thank you very much for your time.

Anonymous writes...

I've been re-watching Spectacular Spider-Man, and I'm now sure that it's the greatest Marvel show ever. There are a few questions I thought of while watching.

1. What inspired you to have Green Goblin be in a "rhyming mood" in "Opening Night"? I thought it was a really brilliant way to showcase how over the top he is.

2. Since Punisher, Cloak, and Dagger all first appeared in Spider-Man's comics, were you allowed to use any of them?

3. You've talked about where heroes like the Fantastic Four were during this show, even if you couldn't use them, but did you ever consider where Moon Knight, Black Widow, Hawkeye, or Dr. Strange were? Would you have considered using any of those characters if you could have?

4. When you were doing research on Spider-Man to write the show, were there any characters, especially villains, who you discovered and immediately felt like you wanted to use?

5. What made you decide to have Silver Sable be Silvermane's daughter instead of a mercenary? I really liked the change because of her chemistry with Hammerhead and because I think Silvermane is a very underrated villain, so I'm curious about what made you think of making those changes to her.

Cheston Bulgin writes...

Was Spectacular Spider-Man set in the same universe as Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes? I ask because when Spidey was brought in to make an appearance, Josh Keaton was suppose to voice Peter before they dubbed him with Drake Bell. I heard they changed up the animation too when Drake was voicing him.

DJ writes...

Hi,
I noticed that you did a radio show that was basically a crossover between Spectacular Spider-Man and Gargoyles, and I was wondering a few things:

1. I've looked all over the website for the final act, but I haven't been able to find it. Is there a way I can read it and find out what happens?

2. Did you write it as a way of considering trying to merge the Gargoyles universe with the Marvel universe, or were you doing it just for fun?

3. Would you be willing to allow the Gargoyles universe to become part of Marvel or DC if they asked you?

Thanks,
DJ

Atelson Fitgerald writes...

By the time you answer this, I bet the movie is in quick production or you've been sworn to silence. With all the rumors of Marvel's untitled Spidey film coming up, there are tons of rumors saying that it's pulling from the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series including the title and teen dynamic. By any chance, are you involved in any way with the film?

Garrett writes...

If you had all the time in the world to work on the second seasons of your TV Series such as:

Gargoyles

Max Steel

Young Justice

and The Spectacular Spiderman,

What exactly (from the specifics to not-so-specific) would you change/alter them?

Rhino Venom writes...

What country did Kraven and Calypso live in before they came to New York?

Todd Jensen writes...

I've read the synopsis of the radio play crossover you made for "Gargoyles", "The Spectacular Spider-Man", and "Young Justice" (it'd be neat if you could put up the script for it at "Ask Greg" as you did for "Religious Studies 101", and noted that, near the end, you had Batman asking Goliath to join the Justice League. Now, the obvious reason why you had Batman be the one approaching Goliath was for the joke about Xanatos trying to get both Batman and Iron Man to join his club for rich guys with fancy equipment. But I remember how, back when you were making "Gargoyles", you were concerned that people might see it as a rip-off of "Batman: TAS" (to the point where you even drew up a list of differences between the two series); did you choose Batman for that role as a sort of callback to that?

Jacob Kilner writes...

As a fan of Spectacular Spider-Man (I pretty much hold it as THE gold standard for Spider-Man and indeed, adaptations in general) and Young Justice, I like many others were crushingly disappointed by their cancellation.

My question is; as well as focusing on current projects, do you still, if occasionally, look for ways to continue or even complete the stories you started in the past series cancelled?

Even if it has been years since cancellation, do you still hold out hope or even consider options for revival?

Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg,
I've really enjoyed all your work. Spectacular Spiderman s one of my "gateway" superhero shows! Thanks for that and Young Justice. This is a retype of my question because I forgot to mention how much I love Rain! I love big mystery/treasure hunts that build on themselves, and the way that Rain and Charlie save the day (no spoilers!) was so fun and cathartic. Rain's relationship with the other generations in her family is such a valuable dynamic that you just don't see elsewhere. :)

One thing still confuses me about Young Justice, though-I'm trying to understand some of the logic behind Dick's decision to keep Wally "hanging back," as you said.

Why would Dick feel there was "no shortage" of heroes? At the least, they were down the six most powerful heroes on Earth with most of the JL off-planet, and in the War World episodes, almost the entire Team was kidnapped. Why wouldn't he call Wally in then? (M'gann is really powerful, but that was a small planet they were fighting. Also, later, the Reach showed that they had an armada with hundreds of ships left over the fight with the War World - surely he'd want all hands on deck, particularly with so much of the League gone?

Why would Wally's appearance be able to catch the bad guys "off guard" after Bloodlines? Wally was already in the game; the nuclear bomb in Central was well publicized; why would his appearance be any more a surprise after that?

On the War World, Dick knew Artemis wouldn't be an issue because M'gann knew she was down under the ocean, so that wasn't a big concern. Even if Artemis did teleport to the alien world, it seems foolhardy in the extreme (almost unbelievably so) that Dick would attempt to take on a planet with only one other hero when another was supposedly waiting in the wings, ready to help whenever.

It doesn't make sense to me that Wally's appearance would be most needed and the biggest surprise only in Summit, when Dick had more backup than at any other point in the entire season and Wally had already showed up in Bloodlines. How was he more useful or a bigger surprise in a huge crowd than in a group of three on the War World, propotionally, when Dick was in the biggest trouble?

It also seems very, very strange that Dick wouldn't let Wally contribute to the efforts of bringing the people who nuked his hometown to justice. No one died that day, but their livlihoods were destroyed and there would be nuclear fallout. Even if Dick was too worried Wally would hurt himself (?), or whatever, Wally showed in Homefront that he was very capable of support - moral and technical - without necessarily getting into the fray. It seems just so strange that, if Wally really *wanted* to help, that he'd shut him out of something that had so ruined Wally's home. It seems strange that Artemis wouldn't have an issue with Dick forcing Wally to stay home, too.

As an aside, why would Dick initially try to keep the truth about Artemis's death from Wally if he *wanted* Wally to hang back for some reason? How would they guy who wanted to kill every alien robot dead in when he really believed Artemis to be dead in Failsafe be easier to control and tell to "hang back" if he REALLY thought Artemis was dead?

Logistically, to me it feels like Dick was more adept and logically minded when he was 13 than 19 with five more years of experience, which is strange. No real judgement against "Dick," really, but none of this seems to hold water at all.
I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

I enjoyed the rest of the show a lot, though! And Rain is the best!

Thanks. :)

B writes...

For The Spectacular Spider-Man, did you have any specific spin-offs in mind or ideas for other series set in its version of the Marvel Universe, and, if so, what were they?

Raphael writes...

4. I was looking at the TV Tropes 'What Could Have Been' page after someone on Ask Greg mentioned it and I stumbled across this snippet about The Spectacular Spider-Man (SPOILERS for the end of second season pretty much go without saying after all of these years but whatever): "It was planned for a five-season run (ending with Peter's graduation from High School) - the timing of the Disney/Marvel buyout would have limited it to only three seasons, but because the show also switched networks, it only got two. And because of that, we wind up ending with the revelation that all of Peter's friends save Mary Jane are alienated from him, Harry hates Spider-Man, Gwen remains his girfriend after some emotional blackmail from Harry, and Peter didn't even stop the bad guy." Now I'm not interested if a longer run would have resulted in a happier ending because that seems like the kind of thing that you would interpret as SPOILERS. I know this is just a fan run site with no sources and It seems it makes a couple of assumptions right off the bat because it wasn't so much planned for a five-season run as much as there was a long term plan that could have spanned five seasons ideally. But I'm interested in if what it was saying about the switching of the networks limiting the show's run from three to two seasons holds any shred of truth.

Raphael writes...

Hi Greg, I wrote many months ago about the correct episode order for Gargoyles. I actually live in Australia so getting Gargoyles Season 2 Vol. 2 is hard and because I know I won't be able to finish it, I haven't watched all of what I have of Gargoyles yet. That information wasn't really needed but I figured I would put it there as a precursor to saying I'm practically obsessive about The Spectacular Spider-Man, (as a Spider-Man fan like yourself, albeit a much narrower breadth of knowledge as I am only a teenager) love Young Justice, particularly the second season, and am enjoying Gargoyles (I think I'm only just past City of Stone, which was epic in the literal sense) and Star Wars Rebels, that twist in 'Rise of the Old Masters' in particular was really well crafted, which as I write this is six episodes or seven episodes in, I'm slightly behind.
Before I get started, I want to make it clear that whatever I say in my first question, I have no intention to argue with you about what you put in the show as others have been about Wally West at the time I write this. I actually have a few different questions on Young Justice, one on The Spectacular Spider-Man and one about you which are split up and these two paragraphs sort of serve as an introduction to all of it.
1. I'm fairly certain there's an undeniable change of pacing and generally a slight tinkering in the type of storytelling from the first season of Young Justice to the second. In the first season the episodes were relatively self contained episodes that contributed to larger character arcs but in the second season almost every episode, if not every episode, contributed to a constant driving narrative. I've noticed something like this in all of your shows, between their first and second seasons before they all were sadly cancelled. Gargoyles felt like its first season set up the character dynamics and world before the second season expanded its universe, probably due to such a large episode order. And The Spectacular Spider-Man felt like it just grew more confident and ambitious. If you don't think these assessments are correct I'd be very different to hear why your shows evolved. I believe Young Justice evolved the most though. Was that planned from the start or was the show readjusted due to what direction you and the rest thought the show could best move in? Or was it some external factor like a change in writing staff, or a smaller amount of episode? In conclusion, why was the show's overall pacing changed? And if you think I've answered my own question can you elaborate?
2. Was there any break in production? I know there wasn't much space between the airing of Young Justice's first season and its second, but did you have any break between seasons?
3. I'm not sure if this has been asked before, and it seems like a fairly obvious question so I apologize if it has been, but how far into production of season 2 of Young Justice, if at all, did you know it was your last season and how sure were you? When I say you I mean everyone who worked on the show.

Spectacular Spider-Man writes...

1. Why did Liz and Flash break up, and who broke up with whom?
2. How does Peter stick to walls through his costume? Wouldn't the hairs on his fingers be blocked? And how do his feet stick to walls, especially if he's wearing boots in his costume?
3. What is Hammerhead's real name (first and last)?
4. Were you allowed to use Marvel objects not related to Spider-Man? For example, could you mention Adamantium or Latveria?
5. How did Vulture, Sandman, Rhino, and the Mysterio robot escape from prison in Reinforcement? And why did they bother breaking the robot out?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Where was Master Planner's lair? What was the building Spider-Man was looking at, how did he know he could enter underwater, how was it built, and how did the villains get in?
2. What did Black Cat do with the stolen jewel from the end of Persona?
3. How did Vulture fire the lasers from the back of his wings in Shear Strength?
4. Why did nobody at the racetrack notice the Green Goblin? It wasn't a very good disguise.
5. What experiment was Dr. Octavius working on that caused the arms to fuse to him? Was it a normal experiment or a supervillain one?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Are the symbiote's webs living pieces of the symbiote, dead symbiote matter, or just waste produced by the symbiote?
2. Peter's costume gets ripped or torn in many episodes. How does he repair it?
3. In the Big Sky Billiard Room, there is a sign in the background that says "No gambling". Was this a joke, or does Montana not approve of or know about Blackie Gaxton being a bookie?
4. In Group Therapy, there is a sign that says "Jazzy Gianni: The Musical". In Gangland, the restaurant where the M^3 kids are eating is also called Jazzy Gianni's. Who is Jazzy Gianni, and why are a restaurant and a musical named after him?
5. What are those metal things Hammerhead wears on his hands? Do they enhance his strength?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

Since Sony still has the film rights to Spider-Man, could they make a direct to video Spectacular Spider-Man movie? Or would it have to be theatrical? Or could it only be a live-action movie still set in the same universe? Or are they not allowed to do any of this?

Christopher Rosa writes...

Hello Greg this is Christopher Rosa I have some questions for you,

1. I remember reading you saying that there are no original characters in Spectacular Spider-Man, that got me thinking, I remember in episode Reaction there other cheerleaders appear with Liz and Sally, one with light brown hair, another with black hair who was black, and finally one I think with brown or black hair, are these background characters base on canon characters, or are they nameless characters you just made, and if there are not nameless I like to hear there names?

2. I was wondering if you have a change to continued Spectacular Spider-Man, would you change any plans you had in 2009, like there are new supporting characters, villains, and allis Spider-Man has now that did exist, example L. Thompson Lincoln now has a daughter, Im not looking for a spoiler answer and I hope this is not a spoiler question but if you do start up Spectacular Spider-Man again would you consider using a character that did not exist in 2009?

SpiderManFan writes...

I have a couple questions about Spectacular Spider-man so here goes
1) How is Ox, an ordinary human able to hold spidey in a bear hug without him breaking free? (spider-man is able to escape but only by pulling on Ox's moustache and forcing him to let go)

2)Why is it that sometimes spider-man's webs come out in streams and other times they come out like a net?

3) How was Eddie Brock able to make his own web-shooters?

5) How did Peter make the original web shooters? Is it like the ultimate comics where it was a formula his father had been working on and Peter finished it, or is it more like the original comics where he just came up with the idea on his own?

Thank you for taking the time to read all these questions . I recently tried to watch ultimate spider-man and I only made it through a couple of episodes before I gave up on it. Ultimate isn't bad only because they changed things, I understand that some changes are necessary and even enjoyed the changes that were made in spectacular. The reason I enjoyed your show so much is that despite the changes spectacular spider-man stayed true to the spirit of the characters, while ultimate spider-man has not. So thank you once again for making a show that was able to capture the spirit of the original spider-man stories while updating them to a modern setting.

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Was the man with Donald Menken and Chameleon disguised as Norman when the glider was stolen Dr. Stromm?
2. How did Chameleon manage to get Stan Carter tied up, take his uniform, put it on, and get a Stan Carter mask so quickly? And did he have that mask the whole ime, just in case? Also, does he use a voice changer or just imitate people's voices?
3. Does Black Cat have any superpowers? It seems really unlikely that she could have navigated the Oscorp laser maze perfectly, but she might just be that awesome. Were these her probability affecting powers? If so, how did she get them?
4. Where did Dr. Connors get the Colonel Jupiter suit, and how did he know it would fit John after he grew?
5. Does Peter realize the Curt Connors that came into the lab when he was there in Persona was Chameleon? Does the general public think the Spider-Man who broke into the lab was Chameleon?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Do any villains realize that Spider-Man is a teenager?
2. How, if at all, will the Spider-Verse event impact the Spectacular Spider-Man universe?
3. In the Master Planner episode, we see that there are cameras planted all over the city that Doc Ock is watching. We're also led to believe that he's tracking Peter's phone, bu pt later find out he's tracking Gwen. Could Master Planner have seen Peter transform into Spider-Manthrough the cameras like the one near the demolished building, or track his phone?
4. In the episode where wer're introduced properly to Tombstone for the first time, he presses a button to call in Stan and Jean, who immediately burst into the room? How did they get there so fast?
5. In the same episode, Norman is waiting outside the elevator for Harry and tells him to man up. Then he goes back to talk with Hammerhead and apologizes for some reason and acts like he was interrupted. Why was he waiting if he was busy talking with Hammerhead?

Anonymous writes...

Will you ever post the Spectacular Spider-Man series bible?

Anonymous writes...

Was the Michael kid from Gangland Michael Morbius?

Rhino Venom writes...

Hi again Mr. Wesiman. First of all, I wanted to thank you for creating such great backstories and designs for my two favorite villains: Venom and Rhino. I love how Alex O'Hirn's last name is an anagram for Rhino. I have a few questions, too.
#1. How did the symbiote pick up the spores? Were they from the symbiote's planet? And why was only John exposed? Weren't other people, like Foswell, near it too?
#2. I'm not sure about Sandman's last episode. What caused him to become a hero? Was your plan always to make him a hero eventually? And (sorry if this question bothers you) would he revert back to villainy?
#3. Would John Jameson have been fine if he was shocked with electricity before his transformation, or would it have killed him while not Colonel Jupiter?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Where did the hospital get Electro's suit? It seems to be pretty high-tech. it can keep him restrained if he wants, but he can also mentally control the opening and closing of the mask and gloves. It also isn't conductive. How did somebody (in-universe) create this so fast?
2. How is Alex O'Hirn strong enough to keep all that titanium armor on top of him without being crushed?
3. In Destructive Testing, how did Kraven get away? The web he was caught in wasn't even broken, but he somehow ended up in his car being driven by his chauffeur. By the way, how did Kraven get the money to afford this and pay Miles Warren?
4. Is Pat Mulligan on the police force in the show?
5. What is the origin of Tinkerer? He is one of the most interesting villains in the series, but it never explains how he manages to make all these advanced devices (I believe you said he made Silvermane's armor) or how he ended up working for Chameleon. By the way, did Chameleon's flat face that can use a mask to impersonate anyone come from Tinkerer?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. In Blueprints, Mysterio makes a sword appear out of nowhere on the bridge. Since we find out later that Mysterio was just using special effects, where did the sword come from?
2. Did anyone ever find out that George Stacy almost helped Master Planner take over the world?
3. Would Peter be able to save up enough money to buy another camera after his new one got detroyed due to the New Enforcers?
4. Liz's breakup with Peter. Is she over it and happy for him, does she hate him forever now, or will she try to get him back?
5. What does the general public in the show think about the symbiote? One day they discover alien life, then it's stolen, and it seems like nobody cares anymore about the significance of this discovery. (Also, you mentioned that the Fantastic Four were dealing with threats like the Skrulls. Wouldn't this mean that the symbiote is no big deal, or did the Skrulls come after the symbiote and is that why nobody cares? Is Chameleon a Skrull? What does the general public think of Skrulls? Sorry about these Skrull questions, it just opens up so many possibilities.)

Rhino Venom writes...

Hi Mr. Weisman! I recently got into your show Spectacular Spider-Man on recommendation from my friend. I've never been much of a Marvel fan, but thanks to the Amazing Spider-Man 2, LEGO Marvel, and this show, Spider-Man is my new favorite superhero. I'm really devastated that there is no season 3, and I hope that it will get picked up again someday. That being said, I have a few questions.
#1. Under what charges was Molten Man arrested?
#2. What circumstances led to Kraven moving to Africa and developing his skills as a hunter?
#3. How did Master Planner know about and contact Kraven before he came to New York?
Thank you for making such a great TV show! I hope that more seasons will eventually come!

Anonymous writes...

Hello, Mr. Weisman. I am a huge fan of your show The Spectacular Spider-Man, and am still very upset that it was cancelled. I have wondered a few things about the series:

1) What was Mary Jane's old school like, and what was her reputation? It seemed like an easy decision for her to go to M cubed.
2) What is Gwen's new social status? I presume she isn't "Nerdette" anymore. Also, does Rand have a crush on her?
3) Why was Morris Bench a demolition expert? Did this have any significance?
4) What was Mary Jane told to get her to go to the dance with Peter? Did she want to go, or was she forced?
5) Does Peter have pheromone powers like Spider-Woman? Is this why Liz, Gwen, and Black Cat all love him?

Thank you.

Caswin writes...

In the Spectacular Spider-Man episode "The Invisible Hand", when Tombstone makes his offer to Spider-Man... did he have a prior engagement with that briefcase full of money, or do you think he just likes to have a briefcase full of money handy?

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

1. Why is Rand so much nicer than Flash and Kenny? He never picks on anybody, and helps stop Flash from throwing water balloons at Peter. It also seems to be why he's still Sally's boyfriens. What is the reasoning for this?
2. Why is Liz interested in Peter, and how far dod she want the relationship to go?
3. Why does Roderick Kingsley work at a perfume company? This was very clearly pointed out, but I'm not sure why this is significant.
4. Why was Harry such a jerk in Final Curtain? He is manipulating Gwen into staying in the relationship with him, keeping Peter and Gwen apart, but he has never acted like this in previous episodes.
5. Do Peter and Gwen ever get together? Gwen is extremely intelligent, and will probably realize what Harry is doing soon, giving them a happy ending, but this seems too simple for at least three more seasons of subplots.

Spectacular Spider-Fan writes...

What was the need for Gwen's redesign in Spectacular Spider-Man? I loved the original appearance and thought it captured the essence of the charachter perfectly. If the show had continued, would you keep the new look of Gwen, switch back to the old one, create an entirely different design, or switched between them?

Artists Anomalous writes...

This question's been bugging me for years. How did norman osborn survive at the end of 'final curtain'? I'd hate for that cliffhanger to be left unresolved!

Lexikon writes...

Hi Greg.

I saw you at Denver Comic Con on June 13-15 this year, and would like to thank you for answering the questions I asked you concerning Spectacular Spider-Man. I didn't go to your Gargoyles panel, since I hadn't seen the show for ages, but have recently gotten into it. Hopefully you and the crew will be back for the 21st anniversary ;).

Anyhow, after searching the archives, I saw you comment that you didn't want to give your opinion on Spider-Man 3, because you were working with Sony. However, since you are not working with Sony, would you be willing to let us know what you think of the Sam Raimi Spider-man films, both as Spider-Man adaptations and as films on their own? I noticed that in Spectacular Spider-Man there were many references and homages to Spider-man 1, 2, & 3.

Your opinion on the reboot series would also be appreciated, although I haven't seen Amazing Spider-Man 2 due to the bad reviews and being unimpressed by Amazing Spider-Man 1. Plus I'm disappointed that Sony is trying to copy Marvel by making an expanded universe with a Sinister Six and Black Cat movie instead of focusing on Spidey.

Thanks.

Jim Zittlaw writes...

Hi Greg. I've got a question about Spec Spidey.

In a few different responses, you've acknowledged that your Eddie Brock is partly an original creation, with some influence from the Ultimate version. You've said that the show's Eddie Brock is "a little more revisionist" compared to the adaptations of other characters, and when asked if you like Venom, you've said that you "like [Spec Spidey's] Venom."

I find the great difference in the show's Venom is the complete posing of him as a dark mirror to Peter/Spider-Man - as you've put it, Venom has a "dark reaction to the [same] tragedies that Peter faced." Spec Spidey's characterization of Eddie Brock/Venom was the first time Venom worked for me.

Naturally I'm very curious about the show's Venom, as the characterization was unprecedented in some ways. So here comes my question, and I don't mean to ask for spoilers here: Do you see Eddie as a redemptive figure? By that, I'm not hoping to learn whether or not Eddie would have gotten some kind of happy ending. I just wonder if your vision of Eddie is a vision of someone who could have been saved from the darkness. If you'd prefer leaving that to interpretation, that's cool, of course.

Gray Dickson writes...

So from a strictly nerd stance, does spidey in your show rely on spider sense to web swing? I ask this because your spider sense abilities were so clearly defined.

Jenna writes...

hey Greg, i've been a fan of Gargoyles since i was 11 yrs old, i was wondering, how did you come up with the distinct roars, growls and snarls for each clan member? (you can include Demona if you want)

GAvillain writes...

Hey Greg, I just wanted to say right off the bat that I really appreciate your inclusion of a homosexual character (Lexington) in Gargoyles. I really appreciate that as a viewer and fan of your show.

Secondly, I really appreciate the work you did over in Spectacular Spider-Man. Definitely my favorite Spider-Man adaptation. I just wanted to ask you if there were any characters in Spectacular Spider-Man that you particularly viewed as being homosexual or bisexual.

Larin Alexander writes...

Hello mr.Weisman.
  I'm a huge fan of your creations, your espetcially The Spectacular Spider Man, thanks to this show I'm right faith in you found!
  I do a huge fan of Marvel, especially I love spider man! And your the spectacular Spider Man was just manna from heaven, even when it began to show on the Disney XD, it was at that time the highest rating in the history channel!
But when your show is canceled, all dedicated fans mourned as I.Ultimate Spider Man did not meet my expectations and hopes. Show was not bad, but not for a modicum of revolutionary as yours. It does not matter watched it or not, A true insult to even little kids who watch it. The show is SO dumbed down and tries too hard to be funny. There's nothing worse than forced "humor".
We understand you do not want to because it was all over with your TV series, we remember that you told us that Sony returned the television rights "The Spectacular Spider Man'' Marvel back. But why sony retained ownership and all production elements, making for a show: the character designs, story lines????? They that film rights about Spidey was a little???? MR.Weisman What do you think?? - I do not see any sense!Disney's not guilty and Marvel, too, I think that Sony, even if they would have given all that is connected with a the spectacular man on film rights had no effect (and it is on the film rights they totally focused right now, and even threw a television and did not touch )! Disney and Sony are no longer competitors. I think you will not knowingly repeat your show on the Vortexx,and the ratings-your show does not become obsolete, and I think and believe that the show has a chance to be reborn. Well, I believe in your upcoming series of Star Wars Rebels and will definitely be watching!
Please Answer!!
And May the Force be with you and your chance to revive the animated series about Spidey!!!
(I'm from Russia, and sorry if what I have written is not so!)

Jason R. Carter writes...

Have you read this analysis of Eddie Brock?

http://inquisitivewordsmith.tumblr.com/post/60611499239/tssms-eddie-brock-a-nice-guy-or-a-nice-guy

If so, any thoughts?

Anonymous writes...

From where did you get the idea for Electro's origin in The Spectacular Spider-Man? Was it the story team's original idea?

I ask because in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Max Dillon turns into Electro almost the exact same way (gets electrocuted and falls into a vat of special electric eels). I'm interested if the movie blatantly ripped off from the show or if there is some comic book/other source material that you would have gotten this origin idea from.

Thanks - I'm a big fan of your shows, and Star Wars: Rebels seems like it will be pretty great.

Bethany Baldwin writes...

Hey there. I'm a huge fan of The Spectacular Spiderman and I've spent time trying to find out how I can contact one of the writers about a question I have for the show. For the Daily Bugle newspapers on the show, I've noticed they are are the same message but have parts cut off. I've spent my evening trying to figure out the full article but it seems I have hit a dead end.

This is what I have:
"In the opinion of this unassuming and civic-minded publisher and humanitarian, the question is not whether the so-called Spider-man is a hero or vigilante. The question is whether he is a THREAT or a MENACE! How a civilized society can allow a glory-seeking, masked scofflaw to swing through our city - littering it with his sticky leavings - with no fear of the repercussions is beyond the intellect or your humble servant, J. Jonah Jameson. Is it not a fact that criminals like the Vulture, Electro, the Lizard, Shocker, Sandman, Rhino, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Venom did not exist until the presence of the Web-Head created a void that summoned them forth like a plague into our fair town, striking terror into the hearts of our citizenry? Does Spider-man make our city safer? Balderdash. Humbug. Nonsense. Spider-man creates the danger threatening our lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness. Banish the Web-Slinger, and with him you banish those who seek to knock him from his web - making us all quantitatively safer. As for heroes, we have plenty to inspire us, if only we are willing to seek beyond the showy primary colored carnival suit of the Spider."

I can't figure out the rest from here and I was wondering if you wrote this or know who did and can give me a lead on the full thing. Anything would be appreciated, thankyou.

Sebastian Vota writes...

Did you happen to see the reinterpration of famous comic covers on CBR today? There is one that was just amazing which you may appreciate.
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/line5-16-9.jpg

Anonymous writes...

1) Would you be open to work on other new shows that focus on characters you've already worked on? For example, if you were approached by Disney to work on a new Spider-Man show that isn't in the same continuity as The Spectacular Spider-Man, would you accept? Or would you rather move on to different characters?

Anonymous writes...

Hey Greg, did you guys ever plan to give Kenny Kong a more significant role in The Spectacular Spider-Man, or was he already given one without the audience knowing? I ask this because to me he seemed considerably downplayed compared to his Ultimate counterpart.

Paul writes...

I think you once hinted that you 'didn't get enough episodes' to do a musical episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man. Was a musical episode part of your 5 season plan? And if so, which season did you plan to include it in: 3, 4 or 5?

Mike writes...

How was it working with Peter MacNicol? What brought him to mind when it came to playing his characters from Young Justice & The Spectacular Spider-Man? Do you plan to work with him again when possible?

Jack Johnson writes...

Hi Greg,

I noticed that, in one of your previous posts, you answered a fan question by including a schematic of your "pie-in-the-sky" fantasy for the Spectacular Spider-Man (including how you wanted to do movies, certain numbers of seasons, etc. to tell your intended story with a specific road map) and I was wondering if you would do the same for Young Justice (I'm not asking for spoilers or specific details, just information such as how many seasons you would have done, if you would have, like with Spider-Man, done movies or spin-offs, etc.).

Paul writes...

Hi Greg, I know that one of your goals on The Spectacular Spider-Man was to increase the ethnic diversity in Spidey's cast of characters.

With that in mind, why did you change Rhino from (presumably) eastern-European (since his name in the comics was Aleksei Sytsevich) to American (or Irish-American, since his surname became O'Hirn)?

I felt like it went against what you were trying to accomplish by mixing things up with characters like Liz Allen and Ned Lee(ds).

Anonymous writes...

First of all, I'd like to thank you for two great seasons of Spectacular Spiderman. I haven't loved an animation this much since BTAS; the character development, story and animation were all of a high standard.

Now onto the questions.

1. In regards to Spectacular Spiderman's cancellations due to complications, did you or anyone part of the creative team attempt to ask Sony or Marvel to reconsider their decision?

2. With the upcoming Bluray release of all 26 episodes of Spectacular Spiderman, do you think sales and new reception may be able to persuade Sony or Marvel to continue production for a Season 3, and perhaps more?

3. Did the ratings and/or toy sales for Spectacular Spiderman impact its eventual cancellation or was it purely based on specific ownership rights?

I really appreciate you and your partner's work on Spectacular Spiderman, and your contribution and willingness to interact withe community.

Thank you.

Jordan writes...

1. In the spectular spider-man what would've been the legal status/civil rights of mutants?

2. Did you have any idea for magneto backstory in the spider-man story?

SBluemonkey writes...

Hi Mr Weisman

Out of curiosity, given your response about handling Spectacular Spider-Man's school term timeline here: http://s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=19596

One of my favorite things about Spectacular was the approach to episode names (along with everything about the show), each individual episode serving as the "Lesson Plan" for a "Subject". Biology 101, Economics 101, Psych 101 etc.

Since you were planning on factoring M³'s scheduled breaks and other holidays into the show, if more episodes had been possible would they have factored into the name scheme as well as other or "Advanced subjects"? As an example if the movie hadn't gone through would season 3 have started with "Spring Break" before moving onto the next subject? And later on would there have been "Winter Break" or "Fathers Day" episodes in between Peter's senior year subjects?

Presto writes...

So I asked Jeph's assistant about what went down. Would Sony have been able to negotiate Spider-Man's animation rights had they shown evidence to Disney that the show had a viable audience and keep the show on the road? I mean did Sony even try to appeal on that matter or did they just outright give them up.

Avi writes...

Hi Greg, How are you? You may know me from twitter as I tend to have converstations with you at times.
1. Spectacular Spider-man has gotten me into Spider-man. Other than Stan Lee's run, what Spider-man stories do you recommend? I have Kraven's Last Hunt, Death of Gwen Stacy, and all of Lee/Ditko, and will get the rest of Lee's run with Romita soon. Just wanted to get your thoughts on which Spidey stories to buy as you are a big Spidey fan.
2. Did you like the Peter/MJ relationship from the comics? I ask because some writers accuse that relationship as causing sales and quality of Spidey titles to drop, so I wanted to hear your opinion.
3. Since you said you are now working on the third book in the Rain series, did you get the green light for the third book or are you just working on it, in hopes it will be greenlit?
Thanks and hope everything is well!

Presto writes...

I am meeting with Kaitlin Dahill Jeph Loeb's assistant. Anything I can say which would help the Spectacular Spidey cause in any way?

Matt writes...

Hi Greg, I am a huge fan of spectacular spider-man. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of a companies called telltale games, if you haven't maybe take a few seconds to check out their work. I think a game developed by them would be the perfect way to continue the series, seeing as this is a little to none possibility, hypothetically would you ever consider continuing the show in that way?

Presto writes...

Spider mans usually 5'9"/5'10" yet in your series he's around 5'6". Was your intention to have him eventually get to this height as the years progressed?

GAvillain writes...

This has been bothering me for a while, but, in regards to Rhino in SSM, how does he use the bathroom with that suit grafted to his body?

Azon writes...

How old is Adrian Toomes in Spectacular Spider-man?

Preston writes...

Spider-Man question. Why didn't Spidey just tell Eddie and Gwen he was going to die on the streets if he didn't have the money to pay off the bills from the pictures of the lizard and spidey fight?

Hulkie writes...

1. How far did you get to making Spectacular Spider-Man season 3? Were you writing scripts or doing concept art?

2. Will there ever be a time where you'd reveal the full story of what could have been with season 3 of Spider-Man or will you leave it to our imaginations?

Presto writes...

Spectacular Spider-Man Blu-Ray box set got announced yesterday. If we make those sales skyrocket, is there any chance we can bring it back or are we done? Let us fans know and we will get on it.

Miikka writes...

Before I ask my question, I should warn you that I'm from Finland and while my English is pretty good, I make mistakes all the time. So excuse me, if my text is completely unreadable. Anyway, onto my question!

You have always said that SSM takes place in the larger Marvel Universe, even thought you couldn't do any direct references to that in the actual show. So I was wondering, that while the concept of Venom Symbiote makes perfect sense in the universe full of Cosmis beings, time travel, made-up science, magic and whatnot, it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb when you place it to Spidey's more down to earth (pun not intended) "personal universe." So were there ever any plans (even in very early development) to update Venom something more realistic?

J.J. writes...

Hey Greg, have a few questions on the business side of things:
You've said that Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. insist that Young Justice is NOT cancelled, just not picked up. Even if they do pick it up how would that work?
1. You've obviously moved on to work on Star Wars: Rebels along writing Your Rain of Ghost series. If they were to approach you on continuing the show would you be able to? I mean you've said that you and the production team created a bible of sorts for future story lines and character arcs, so you wouldn't have to start from scratch… but that is a lot of work.
2.Would you continue on doing Star Wars Rebels while someone else worked on the show?(The Goliath Chronicles) Or would you still be allowed to juggle both shows? (As unrealistic as that sounds)
I ask this because unlike Spec-Spidey, which was cancelled for legal reason, YJ had no real reason to end. I'm sure most of us would have been more than content with a continuation of the comics set during season 3.
Lighter stuff:
3. Now that you've finished Spirits of Ash and Foam, are you planning out and writing book 3 currently or are you waiting on the sales numbers on the first two books to get the go ahead and get seriously started?
Thanks for the time. Don't have Disney XD so I'll have to wait to catch Star Wars: Rebels online.

beck writes...

if you had a choice what superhero show would you like to do

Jordan writes...

In the spectular spider-man were mutants hated and feared?

hmmaster writes...

Hey, Greg, what an amazing show in Young Justice. I have a couple of questions for you.

1) I was hoping you could comment on this, because you've answered variations of this question at different times, but never this specific one. I thought of an idea that would make a lot of sense for where a certain character's situation would go after the events of Summit and Endgame, but I won't share it with you to avoid getting a spoiler. You've talked in interviews/answers before about Roy and Jade having to get married off-screen in order for CN to approve Lian being born. Were there any story-lines of similar controversial topics that you and Brandon had planned that could have created tensions between you and the network?

2) I recently rewatched JLU, specifically JLU's season 1, and I noticed a striking similarity in the way the format works there and the masterfully-crafted interwoven network of plot-lines of YJ. It seemed like you may have been inspired by that format where there were several stories being told all at the same time, as opposed to other shows that have a more episodic nature (like the first JL cartoon, before JLU). Was it a conscious decision to draw heavily from that idea, or was it something that just happened independently?

Thank you for a wonderful show.

B writes...

What's the status of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Spectacular Spider-Man universe? If it exists, how old and influential is it?

fallenlegend writes...

Hello Greg!

Just a quick question this time. The other time I asked you something about gargoyles and you said that you wouldn't write it for free... wich came as a bit of a shock to me as you have said before that it is your baby proyect.

It's understandable as this is your job and main source of income... But I have to wonder if you would ever have or if you have a personal proyect wich you would do for free.

You deserve every cent you get paid but.. Many (amateur/fanfic) writters write stories for fun and I wonder if this is the case with you. thank you!

Vance Michael Justin writes...

Were there ever any plans to release the music tracks for Spectacular Spider-Man? Certain songs, like the Sandman's theme, were really catchy! Would you know where someone could listen to them free of the show's sound effects and dialogue?

Greg Bishansky writes...

While re-watching "Spectacular Spider-Man" as it has been re-run on the Vortexx, I wanted to talk a moment about what a wonderful job you did with Gwen Stacy on the series.

Obviously, Gwen's time in the comics was before my time, but I had read all those old Lee-Ditko and Lee-Romita and Gerry Conway stories years and years before Spec Spidey was a glimmer in anyone's eye, but for me... Gwen was a standard Silver Age girlfriend, and all that entailed. Mary Jane was more interesting, and I couldn't fault Gerry Conway's decision to have Green Goblin toss her off a bridge... it made for a classic story not just for Spider-Man, but for all of comics.

But I never liked seeing Gwen sidelined as all other adaptations seemed to do. For me, Spider-Man was a story about growing up and Gwen represented First Love to me. Yes, he dated Betty Brant first and flirted with Liz Allan, but Gwen was his first Great Love, and most people don't end up with their first Great Love.

So, for years, Gwen was a Silver Age girlfriend and a Stepping Stone in Peter's journey to manhood from my point of view, and little more than that.

And then your show came along, and while that's how I was looking at Gwen at first, she very quickly grew on me... to the point where I really didn't want to see that classic Gerry Conway story adapted into your universe on an emotional level. Although, to this day, my brain still tells me that sooner or later it needed to happen... and while you have dropped hints that it might happen, you've never confirmed it (and I'm not asking you to)... it's not something that I was looking forward to seeing happen. Something I was dreading, in fact.

So you got this guy who never cared for Gwen outside of intellectually believing in her importance to the mythos to fall in love with Gwen Stacy, and a lot of credit goes to Lacey Chabert, too. While I still love Mary Jane more than Gwen, I think you and your team did your job.

Paul writes...

1) Did Eddie Brock meet Debra Whitman during the events of "Identity Crisis"? She took his job after all, and then when he came back briefly and was offered his old job back by Martha, I wondered where that would leave Debra (though of course his return was obviously not going to be permanent).

2) Why didn't Kraven go after Spider-Man again in the weeks after "Reinforcement", since he presumably could just follow Spidey's scent at any time (like he did when he led Vulture and Electro to the ice rink)?

Anonymous writes...

In The Spectacular Spider-Man season 2, how old is Debra Whitman?

Anonymous writes...

In "Shear Strength", when Norman asked Spidey where Peter was, did he (Norman) really have no idea or did he have an inkling?

Anonymous writes...

Hi, Greg. A few questions about The Spectacular Spider-Man:

1) Regarding Gwen without glasses (in the last four episodes), was her character model completely redesigned for those episodes? It just seems that if you compare her character model for the previous episodes to the way she looks in those last few episodes, she looks completely different, it's not just that the glasses that are missing.

2) Were there plans to give Peter a new set of clothes at some point in the series? I ask because by the time he was in college in the comics, he was dressing with more confidence, though I think there was a bit of that in the later high school issues. Not that Peter in seasons 1 and 2 looks 'uncool' or anything, but I'm curious as to whether he would have started wearing a different set of clothes as the series progressed, like Gwen starts to at the end of season 2.

3) Speaking of Gwen and her clothes, when she's on the phone to MJ in "Opening Night", we see her wearing a black outfit that she doesn't wear to the play, or in any other episode. I doubt that this look was designed just for one very quick scene, so I was wondering if we would have seen more of Gwen in this outfit in season 3?

4) At the end of "Final Curtain", does Harry still consider Peter his friend, knowing that he was planning to take Gwen away from him?

5) Regarding the Hobgoblin, did you have a plan to sidestep potential complaints of the Hobgoblin mystery being too similar to the Green Goblin mystery? I'm not fishing for spoilers here, I'm just interested to know whether you had some kind of twist in mind to make the Hobgoblin mystery feel fresh and not just derivative after the Green Goblin mystery.

Anonymous writes...

When Doc Ock allowed May Parker and Anna Watson to get away in "Group Therapy" instead of just taking Rhino's suggestion to "plough through 'em", was it because he was just being a gentleman or because he was a little bit smitten with one or both of them? Or was it both him being a gentleman AND him having a crush?

Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg! A question about The Spectacular Spider-Man: when it came to the arc subject titles (like Biology 101, Engineering 101, Drama 101), I noticed that you didn't revisit any of the same subjects i.e. you didn't get as far as Psychology 102 or Criminology 102. But I was wondering if you were planning on doing any 102s in season 3, or later down the line?

Anonymous writes...

Who was the first super-villain to discover that Spider-Man was Peter Parker in The Spectacular Spider-Man?

Zer0C00l writes...

Greg! What's going on, man? Happy New Year and all that good stuff. Before I say what I say... please let it be known that I'm not trying to offend you or anyone in any kind of way.

Cool?

So I hear you got a new gig. Congrats! I knew you would. Now here's the thing, bro. I'm a bit worried about Rebels and I need you to set my fears aside. Can you do that? Can you promise the same Weisman QUALITY? Will YOU be leading the ship of Rebels? I know you have partners. You always had team mates from past shows. But YOU were always the head writer. The one with the series bible. The million index cards all over. That was YOU. Everyone else worked under you.

I ask this mainly because of a recent show that totally turned me OFF in a big way. The show was HORRIBLE. What show? That would be "Ultimate Spider-Man". Have you seen this? Greg, I tell ya, I was looking forward to this. I was. Why? Because of the name Paul Dini. Paul Dini! OK?.

Dini is an incredible writer. A huge force that most of his credibility came from working on the DCAU aka the Timmverse. Namely... "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker". Just incredible stuff all around. So when I heard he was apart of this show, I was like, wow, I need to check this out. I knew he had partners but why would that matter when he's writing tons of scripts and is part of the writers room?

Yeahhhh. Basically, Greg, it's clear as day that he's not in charge of anything there. He's there in name only. His partners (Man of Action) are obviously running things. Every episode that I watched (stopped after episode 7 or so) was so over the top and ridiculous. A true insult to even little kids who watch it. The show is SO dumbed down and tries too hard to be funny. There's nothing worse than forced "humor".

My point? IF the talented writer isn't leading the pack then the show will never be what it could be. I just want to make sure that's not going to be the case for "Star Wars: Rebels". I'm about to invest a whole bunch of money to get into the Star Wars universe. Believe it or not, growing up, I never really got into the Star Wars craze. I didn't. I've seen the movies when I was little but don't really remember much. I went to the movies to see Episode One and that was all right. I just never really gave it a proper chance. I feel I can get a better enjoyment out of it today, though. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Just know, I'm mainly doing this for YOU. To fully get myself well versed in the Star Wars universe and prepared for Rebels. I'm going to buy the complete saga of Star Wars on Blu-ray and then I will pick up the CGI Clone Wars animated series as well. I want to be ready for this.

That's why I need to know, Greg, will Rebels be another "Ultimate Spider-Man"? or will it be the QUALITY of a "Young Justice"? Who's truly in charge? Who's the head booker? I hope it's you and I hope Rebels will be everything it can be and should be.

May the force be with you, man.

-ZC

Anonymous writes...

I think you once hinted that you "didn't get enough episodes" to do a musical episode of The Spectacular Spider-Man. Was a musical episode part of your 5 season plan? And if so, which season did you plan to include it in: 3, 4 or 5?

Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg, a quick question about The Spectacular Spider-Man. I believe you've said in the past that your plan was to do 5 seasons which would culminate in Peter's high school graduation. The thing is though, since Peter was still in his first year at the end of season 2, I'm wondering how you would have managed to reach the graduation by the end of season 5. Would you have skipped over the Summer holidays to accomplish this?

If season 1 was September to November, and season 2 was December to early March, and if each month of the Summer were to still get the usual 3-4 episode coverage, then logically a 65 episode, 5 season run would not quite reach the end of Peter's second year, so I'm wondering whether you were thinking of skipping over things like the Summer holidays to reach your goal?

Peter P writes...

Spidey's a pretty skinny dude at the beginning of your series which is great since it makes him more relatable as our underdog hero. I was wondering though, was your Idea of his gradual growth going to reflect in the physical aspect as we'll with his muscles growing larger and him getting gradually taller as well?

Johnny Bond writes...

I was wondering what aspects of Peter and Mary Jane's characters would lead them to becoming closer together if Stan Lee as well as you believed that Gwen was always the perfect girl for Peter.

Carlito writes...

What was your reason to initially have MJ be a "free agent" and then suddenly be into Mark?

Tahu writes...

How does the Rhino perform basic bodily functions such as excretion if he's sealed in the suit?

Giant Boy writes...

I've been rewatching The Spectacular Spider-Man, mostly the second season so far, and decided to rewatch "Subtext".

I really like Molten Man's character and looked him up. I also by chance happened to come across Blackie Gaxton in Betty Brant's page on the Spider-ManWiki.

It said that her brother was put in a similar situation with Blackie that ended similar to what happened between Spidey, Mark, and Liz in "Subtext".

After thinking about it, I'd have to say it was brilliant that you decided to do that story with Mark and Liz, whether or not Betty's brother would have appeared since Molten Man had his story.

Looking foward to Young Justice Legacy, Rain of Ghosts, and Star Wars Rebels.

Giant Boy writes...

In the non-canonical Spectacular Spider-Man/Gargoyles three act radio play crossover, was Mary Jane Watson starting to fall in love with Peter?

By the way, enjoyed reading the script for the radio play. It was amusing.

PETER: That was almost the Look! :D

DanM writes...

Hey Greg... DanM again...
No stories just questions now.
1 - In Rebels is the Producer title of yours a Glorified Title once more or are this the real deal?
2 - In developing characters. Do YOU ever consider how a character name would sound in another lenguage, when you are in the process of naming them? (I ask this because of Count Dooku. Here in Brasil he was renamed Count Dookan, 'cause phonetically speaking it sounds to us as "From a**h*le").
3 - About the toyline. Do the show producers have any say in the development of the toy line? (Like approve or not the design, number of articulations, etc.. That kinda stuff...)
4 - Have you ever considered making a podcast about the show production, while producin it (now, that would be Rebels)?
Thats it for now.. Thanks again for your time
Later

Stephen Murphy writes...

Hey Greg. First off just want to say I'm a big fan of your work I've loved everything you've done and I thank you for all your hard work. My favourite of your shows is Spectacular Spider-Man because for me anyway this series and Mark Webb's Amazing Spider-Man movies are what truly captured Spider-Man for me which is a teenage boy trying to balance out a duel identity that is Spider-Man to me and like everyone else I was sad it was cancelled but things happen. I'm a big Star Wars fan too so I look forward to your work on Star Wars Rebels next year. I actually watched the interview you did with The Everything Geek podcast and it was very fascinating to listen too. I'm also a good friend of the people who run the podcast so seeing some of my friends interview one of my inspirations as a writer was cool to me. Anyway onto my 3 questions all Spectacular Spider-Man related:

1. What was it like getting the voice cast together and finding the right voices for these characters?

2. Were there any actors you had already considered to voice a new character for Season 3 before the show was cancelled?

3. Were there any actors you wanted for the show but were unable to get so they were replaced by someone else?

Anyway thank you for your time Greg. Can't wait for Rebels and whatever work you do next

~Stephen Murphy

SBlueMonkey writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,

You've shared some of the pitches for Gargoyles spin offs such as Dark Ages and 2198 without potentially spoiling anything if they ever get a shot at being made. Would you ever do the same with the bibles for Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice? That would make for fun reading, but if they contain anything you wouldn't want judged out of context it's understandable why not.

Aaron writes...

I've noticed you've refused (repeatedly) to confirm or deny whether Cletus Kasady would have eventually become Carnage in The Spectacular Spider-Man, but can you reveal what he was talking about during his cameo in the group therapy in "Reinforcement"?

cyber-xanatos writes...

I was wondering back then some one asked a question about the spectular universe specifically what heroes were active and you answered that this took place a few months or years before donald blake found mjolnir but you were mum on anyone else i was wondering was the Fantastic Four active

NoOneSpecial writes...

1.After the events of Identity Crisis, did the general public become aware that it was venom who was behind the crimes as the black suited spider man?
2.How could Gwen remain so obilvous to the growing hostility between peter and eddie? I mean she saw immediataley that something was wrong with harry, so why couldn't she see what was happening to eddie? How does she feel about eddie's mental breakdown?
3.Is anyone aside from peter and eddie aware of what happened to the symbiote since it disappeared from conners lab?

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Now that I've posted all my episode thoughts...(in theory I still plan on doing the same on the comics, but...) I want to say thank you for the series in general. (I'd go into details, but it seems redundant after posting all those responses.) I've thoroughly enjoyed it in all its parts. Well, by the time you read this the video game will be out. [Yep!] I probably will have to sit it out. Pathetic as it is, I have to admit to some motion sickness from a lot of video games. I'm assuming I'll be able to get some pretty detailed descriptions from the good folks here. I hope that there will be other continuations as well. (Also good luck on your new Star Wars series.)

I have to admit to more than a little annoyance that another show I enjoy is canceled, but also some confusion. If I understand correctly one of the major factors, if not the major factor in the cancellation is that the merchandise didn't sell as well as they companies had hoped. Good viewership numbers are almost inconsequential. If this is true, (big if, I admit), I don't understand the business model. Why continue making cartoons targeting the older demographic at all? I know the show aimed for a broad audience, but it aimed for each part directly. A lot of cartoons aim themselves at kids directly, and place bonus references and jokes for the older viewers. I've loved many shows like that. But the complexity of characters and plots in shows like Young Justice is not a bonus for older viewers, it is integral. (IMHO) A relationship like, for example, Guardian and Bumblebee is more relateable to a college or adult viewer than a kid. (I would have gone to Babs and Dick, but that was mainly expanded upon in the comics.) A kid would gravitate to the first season romances, or the M'gan/L'gan/Conner triangle. All the relationships were interesting and important to the show, and none were simple, it's just different parts resonant (from experience or at least plot type familiarity) better to different age sets. (Or for out of YJ examples- In Green Lantern- the complexity of Razor and Ia's relationship- given his past lost love, her resemblance, his survivor guilt and rage issues and her ultimate sacrifice is not something that targets the younger viewers of the show. They'll just accept the two are a couple and enjoy the fight scenes. It was perhaps more integral to the show than any Hal based plot. In Tron the entire looks of the show was aimed older, high teens and 20s would be my guess, and not particularly conducive to action figures to my eye.)

Older fans are less likely to buy toys, (or have toys bought for them), but they also have control over their own finances to buy what is actually advertised during broadcast. Between the 24 hour cable tv cycle and dvrs, grown ups will be watching when kids can't, allowing for targeted ads of the none happy meal/stompies/pillow pet variety. (For the record, my 4.5 year old adores her stompies. ~she's 5 now~) I get that a franchise like DC or Marvel or Star Wars can expect some cross product sales, and even a show not squarely aimed at a small kid can have a cool iconic action figure that sells well. But no one expects Smallville or Arrow to survive on toy and apparel sales, they stays on air based on the number and demographics of viewers, just like Birds of Prey did not last for the same reason. Have cartoons, or at least the beautifully animated ones, become loss leaders for merchandise like comics have become loss leaders for movies? And is that a reasonable burden to place on a show that does not squarely target the audience that will buy those toys? Is a high level video game an attempt to tap into an action figure equivalent of older viewers?

I don't want to turn this into a rant about how annoyed I am that YJ was canceled....er, not renewed. I will admit to being mightily confused why DC Nation isn't aiming to expand into more than an hour of programming. I just assumed it was planned to become a 2 or 3 hour block like the old Disney Afternoon, with perhaps a rotating stable of shows. But I am interested on your more insider insight on what the none creative aims are when a new cartoon is unleashed upon the world nowadays and whether they are reasonable. Thanks,

Avi writes...

1. You write strong female characters with skill(Demona, Gwen, MJ, Artemis, ETC). Since women can be portrayed weak sometimes, how do you do it?
2. Other than Stan Lee's run with Romita and Ditko, what era of Spider-man comics did you enjoyed reading the most?
3. What is your opinion on Spider-man: Kraven's Last Hunt, by JM Dematteis? Most people generally like it but others think it may have been too dark for Spider-man (Dematteis was actually going to have the story be a Batman and Joker story at first)

Thanks for the amazing shows! Spectacular Spider-man (I was looking forward to Season 3-5 and DTV's) was absolutely amazing along with Young Justice (I was so looking forward to the next season). I am only up to Avalon part 1, but Gargoyles has been tremendously fun to watch so far. I don't love Star Wars, but Rebels seems great so far and I can't wait. You are an inspiration to me. Thank you.

Endless Strategy writes...

Does Sandman age or contract disease?

Anonymous writes...

On TSSM Doc Ock represented the top of the super villain chain, Tombstone the mobsters and Venom was the personal nemesis. Naturally Green Gosborn combined all these elements and worked within them, is that he was the Biggest Bad?

Anonymous writes...

Hello, Can you tell me who is the interpreter of ''Ella Mi Fu Rapita'' in Gangland? I loved much that voice

Voice Acting Fan writes...

Dear Greg:

Thank you for answering my previous questions!

You have made reference to SAG before, so presumably Young Justice has to abide by SAG rules or get boycotted. I have a few questions related to this and the voice acting part of the production process:

1. How do the voice talent get paid? A flat rate? Are they paid by the hour? By the line? By the episode? Or some variable rate?

2. When you voiced Lucas Carr, did you have to join the SAG union? Or is production allowed to hire non-SAG personnel as long as they pay them differently?

3. You have stated that getting a second character out of an actor entails no added costs. Since it is free, I am wondering why a few actors (Jesse McCartney comes to mind) doesn't get to voice a character other than Dick Grayson. Was it a matter of actor preference, producer preference, or a mix of the two?

4. How long does a typical recording session last? Do you sit in throughout the whole session, or leave it up to the voice director? How many episode(s) are typically recorded in a sitting?

5. When one of the voice actors sing a song (Reach for a Reach, Hello Megan), they get separately credited. Is this subject to a different rate, or is the singing part simply added as a "character" in determining pay?

Thank you, and I hope by the time you are reading this, you've already got several gigs lined up!

FallenLegend writes...

Hello greg

You previously said that you don't like gran finales and you don't intend to really give closure to any of your shows/stories. Not even gargoyles that as you described it is your "baby" even if you don't own it.

Does that mean that we will always get cliffhanger endings from your tv show when they get canceled?

What about your new book series, will it end in a cliffhanger too?

As much as I am a fan of your stories Greg, It feels empty not to have any closure at all.

No offense but basic story telling has beginning-conflict-resolution and as fans we never get to see a resolution of the overall plot.

I mean having an ending that gives the illusion that "the story never truly ends" is great (that's not what I am critical of).

But I think that not having an ending that acknowledges that the story has to end for real life reasons(maybe becuase you simply can't write stories forever, becuase you aren't getting more episodes, becuase you have to move on etc)... is disrespectuful to your fans that expect to have a complete story.

Take JLU unlimited ending. It even ended with wonderwoman saying "...and the adventure continues" and even left two unresolved plot points, But at the same time it ended the main plots and acted as a send off/good bye to it's fans and it didn't feel empty.

Sorry for being so critical, you are a big inspiration and even if I don't agree with you always I think you are a fantastic story teller (an inspiration for me in fct) and I am planing on buying our new book.

Nicky Wan writes...

With the 5th anniversary of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" series I thought I'd ask another question especially since it's been about 4 years since I last asked one. Even now it's not possible to buy a disc copy of season 2 in the UK.

1. Is there anyone or group that fans could lobby in regard to having the series released properly e.g. a complete boxset or even better an HD release?

2. Similarly is there anyone or group fans could lobby in regard to releasing some of the behind-the-scenes footage that was recorded? I noted while reading some of your responses that they had asked you guys to record things but it was never used and it would be a shame for this to never see the light of day.

I hope you're keeping well. I loved the Young Justice series and was sorry to see that one stop too!

Anonymous writes...

This isn't a question, but I felt I had to write about this. I just saw your post about the site 'kickstarters' and I just want to assure you that I, at least, would DEFINATELY throw money at any of the three shows you mentioned (Gargoyles, Spectacular and Young Justice). Initiatives like that, where audience and creator 'cuts out the middleman' have always been my vision for the future of entertainment. Your shows in particular would have top priority for me.

Anayeti writes...

Hello greg,

Two words to say about young justice episode summit:Intense & Incredible!! However, words cannot do justice on how good that episode really is!! Summit was full of surprises!!

Although, i have a few questions as well:

How did the light know about the reach and the scarab?

When did the light became aware of the meta-gene? Cause that's what their goal is about; evolving.

Why did the reach abduct young people?

Plus, i loved how you brought diversity to spectacular spiderman! :).

Also, i hope you, brandon and team can comeback to young justice!! I fully support the 5 year gap, its about growing up, its so realistic. Dc comics should do a comic based on the earth-16 you created!! You successfully reinvented the superheroes by combing old elements from the comics along with new elements and original ideas!! I salute you for that!!

blacksuitspider43 writes...

Hi Greg,
What do you think of the Ultimate Spider-Man TV series?Honestly I am not to impressed even though I tried to give it a chance. I hate how the creators say it is for kids but that isn't an excuse for a poor qaulity tv series. I loved what you did with Spectacular Spider-Man bceuase you made the characters seem real and have devlopment. I fell in love with all the characters in way I never thought I would with a cartoon. Your series also didn't shy away with having some mature themes and plotlines but without making it to intense for kids. That is why I don't like USM because there is zero countiation o episodes and the characters are boring and have no development. The series is also doesn't seem like Spider-Man because the humor is forced unlike SSM where the humor comes natural and was funny. His humor in USM is more like deadpool than Spider-Man because he always breaks the fourth wall. So I really don't get why the creators think it is all right to dumb done a tv series because kids are not stupid they are smart and can enjoy good stories and characters. So what are your thougts?

webslinger4ever writes...

What your favorite incarnation of Spider-Man besides the comic version? So that would be cartoon or movie.

Whedonite writes...

I loved your Spectacular Spider-Man TV series. It was far by the BEST interpretation I've seen of Spdier-Man in any of the movies/Televison

1. have you seen The Amazing Spider-Man? Did you notice the little elements they used from SpecSpidey? Like the satchel and the blue shirt? What are your thoughts on that?

2. Would you work on a Spider-Man or a MARVEL show in general again?

TheSuperiorSpiderMan writes...

Were there other superheroes that existed in the Spectacular Spider-Man universe? Like, Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men etc.

Beck writes...

Hi Greg,
I was wondering in the final episode of SSM (final curtain) was that really Norman Osborn at the airport? I am so sad that the series never got it's third season it was such a good show, but because it was cancelled that cliffhanger will never be resolved.

EXALT writes...

Some questions about SpecSpidey...
Did you have any plan to reveal the origins of A)Hammerhead's... well, hammer-head
B)Tombstone's durable skin
c)the Venom symbiote?

MasterGhandalf writes...

I've recently been reflecting on your shows, and one thing that's really jumped out at me is that every one of them I've seen is extremely arc and continuity based, but also has, rather than a single "Big Bad", at least two core villains who contrast with and play off each other- Xanatos and Demona, Nerissa and Phobos, Tombstone and Norman Osborn, the Light and the Reach. Even the unproduced Stargate spin-off you posted about a while back had Osyros and Anubis. I was wondering if this was a conscious decision on your part to deliberately include this element in your shows, or if it's just something that flows naturally while designing a series?

Tom McC writes...

Hello Greg!

I have watched both seasons of the Spectacular Spider-man last year and I honestly loved every minute of it, I thought it was both written and animated very well andbecause of this its a real shame the series never continued from where it was left off (imagine the possibilities!). Now its officially my favourite Spidey continuity, hats off to you and the team.

But there has been something thats been bugging me, just one small thing that I wouldn't mind your feedback on. Throughout the series Norman Osborn has been portrayed as a no-nonsense character who never apoligizes for any faults from his company, his son or even himself, a trait which becomes very important on the last episode. However in the episode "Market Forces" Norman apologized to Hammerhead for being interrupted by Harry which seems to be breaking character given the hype about it. What I want to know is was there a reason for it? Are Tombstones lackeys special in some way that they need special treatment or was this simply a continuity oversight?

Hope you can answer my question and good luck in your future endevours!

Jaden writes...

You're probably tired of these types of questions by now but I was wondering how old Tye, Eduardo Jr, Virgil and Asama are?

Also, I heard from an insider that Ultimate Spider-man might be replaced after this season. I hope Marvel is smart enough to bring you back for a new series

Anonymous writes...

What are your thoughts about:

1- The Gargoyles fandom?
2- The W.I.T.C.H. fandom?
3- The Spectacular Spider-man fandom?
4- The Young Justice fandom?

Anonymous writes...

Which fandom do you honestly appreciate the most:
1- Gargoyles fans
2- Spectacular Spider-Man fans
3- Young Justice fans
4- Greg Weisman fans

Clark Cradic writes...

Was Norman's attitude and quirks as the Green Goblin all an act to intimidate and mislead people or was it a bit of his own true nature leaking out while in costume?

SSM Fan writes...

A few SSM questions:
1. The titles: I think it was incredibly clever of you to come up with "theme" titles for each arc. How did you come up with it? And more importantly, how did you make each title's double meaning perfectly suit the plot of its respective episode?
2. Why did the Vulture dip his fingers in what looked to be smashed potatoes and smeared it on the wall in "Group Therapy"?
3. You said the Scorpion was slated to appear in season 3. Could you give us a taste of his involvement in the plot? Would he already be a super villain, or would he become on à la Sandman and Rhino?

You are a genius and it makes me sad you are not as appreciated as you should. Networks should fight over you and lock you to a 10 years contract per show. And it makes me sick how some crappy shows get renewed and milked forever and your shows get cancelled in their peak.

I really hope on day you can get to do movies or at least TV series.

A Big Fan.

Anonymous writes...

1. Alot of the times in the comics when conners becomes the lizard, he always changes back because there are still trances of the formula in his system. Did the gene clenser completely remove all the lizard dna from his body, so that this isnt the case?
2.If peter had taken the gene clenser when he still worn the symbiote, would it remove both it and his powers?
3. Why was marco selected for ocks experiment first?

FallenLegend writes...

Hey Greg I just wanted to ask you if you have ever thought on finishing writing all your stories in case you never got to finish them in your life time?.

I don't want to be pessimistic. But just like Moses wasn't able to be on the promised land...

I recall Tolkien had the same issue with his unfinished tales. It would be cool if you at least considered finishing gargoyles. Many of your fans would be grateful if we got to know the full story :)

EXALT writes...

Is your writing of Snapper Carr in any way influenced by the fact that you know that it's gonna be you playing him (the question may also be applied to Donald Menken in SpecSpidey)?

masterbow writes...

One of my favourite thing you have a tendency to do is have recurring background characters. I really liked the one in spectacular Spider-Man, where Spidey webs up a nerdy guy and a pretty girl to keep them out of the way of a runaway car. A season later, we see them again when she accepts his proposal on Valentine's Day. I was wondering do you have little stories in your head about these types of characters and if you'd be willing to share them with us?

Abigail writes...

Is the character Sha Shan Nguyen based on any pre-existing character in the Spiderman comics?

Arthur Lias writes...

This will be risking DELETION huh?S
Spectacular spider-man ended...but it was an awesome show that adapted the great elements about spider-man.I don't have a problem with Ultimate spider-man but your show was amazing,SPECTACULAR even. Also love Young Justice!The five year time skip was surprising but the writing is great.Hope superboy doesn't punch reality;)That would be really surprising.Anyway, in a vain attempt to not get DELETED I will ask a question:
1)How do you feel about 52 joker
2)How about him,um,uh,losing face
Yours questioningly,
A.Lias

Huge GW Fan writes...

One of my favorite episodes of SSM is "Gangland" because of the awesome fights mixed with that beautiful opera score. Ever since I've been obsessed with finding out the name of each piece, and after a thorough research, I think I got it. It would mean a lot if you could confirm this:

- "Pari siamo": The meeting turns sour; Hammerhead turns coat.
- "Ella mi fu rapita, Parmi veder le lagrime": Silvermane suits up. The fight moves downstairs.
- "Scorrendo uniti remota via": Ock and Silermane fight Tombstone. Ock turns on Silvermane.
- "Pari siamo": Spidey catches chandelier. Fight ensues.
- "La Donna é Mobile" (duh) Fight continues outside.
- "Ella mi fu rapita, Parmi veder le lagrime": Ock closes in on Spidey, Fat Lady sings, Tombstone saves Spidey. Spidey disassembles Silvermane. Sable threats Hammerhead. Ock tries to vivisect Spidey.
- "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata": Fight moves to the sewers.

I hope YJ gets a third season and we get to see something similar like this!

gaiachild writes...

It isn't really much of a question, but all in all, I just wanted to say "Thank you". Thank you for all the high quality shows you produced that enriched my childhood and still give me intelligent and gripping entertainment in my favorite media, animated shows, as an adult.
Most off all, I also wanted to express my admiration for your resolve. While privately I may often joke bitterly about the "Weisman curse" whenever one of your shows gets unfairly canceled way too soon despite (arguably) having the best quality in the entire program. You will always have my gratitude for continuing to produce great shows despite all the stones placed in your way.

As for questions:
1. If you had the means to, would you do a Young Justice/Gargoyles Crossover?
2. Sorry to bring up this unfairly missed opportunity gain, but if you had remained on the staff for "The Roswell Conspiracies", do you think that show would at some point crossed over with Gargoyles?
3. In the spirit of question one, do you think Demona would make a good Red Lantern?

In any case, once again, thank you. Thank you for raising the quality and complexity of the already great W.I.T.C.H. cartoon, thank you for producing the best animated Spider-Man series to date, thank you for bringing Starshiptroopers to the screen in the way it should have been in the first place, thank you for doing such a great job with Max Steel, thank you for doing a huge part in keeping animated DC material extremely high quality, especially at the moment, and of course, thank you for Gargoyles, probably my favorite franchise ever, and I am rooting for you to one day get it back and do more wonders with it.

Connor writes...

Hi Greg! I wanted to ask about your methods of storytelling. For adapted shows like The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice, you seem to have planned out certain events and arcs in advance and seem to include nothing if you aren't going to follow up on it later. Do you have a personal set of rules or guidelines for when you work on projects like these?

Kyle writes...

Hi Greg,

Can i say you're quite unlucky because first you're show Spectacular Spiderman was awesome and critically acclaimed then it gets cancelled and left on a cliffhanger (which people got so upset and frustrated) and then young justice is on hiatus when it gets better and better. Why does bad things happen to things that are going good?

C. David Cole writes...

Hi Mr. Weisman,

First I like to tell you that I'm a big fan of your work, especially Gargoyles, I sad that the series ended and that you didn't get chance to create the season 3 you envisioned; I hope that you get the opportunity to work with the series again someday and tell the rest of the stories you had in mind. Secondly, I like to thank you and the moderators in advance for taking the time out of your schedules to read my questions.

I read that when you worked on Spectacular Spider-Man you had a central theme for the series "The Education of Peter Parker." So I was wondering:

1. Did Gargoyles have a central theme? If so what was it?
2. Do you think that a series has to have a central theme?
3. Do you think that each episode within a series has to have its own theme? Can some episodes be non-theme oriented? (Ex: Can the heroes try to stop the villains from committing some terrible act without there being a deeper meaning to it.)

W.C.Reaf writes...

I've been rewatching Spectacular Spider-Man over the summer, as well as introducing it to some friends who loved it, and I noticed some interesting subtle things that I hadn't picked up on before.

Such as Adrian Toomes and Otto Octavius worked together as scientists and they each have tech that relies on some form of mental control interface. Otto's is obviously more advanced because it needs to be since it controls extra limbs, but they have the same basic control principle. So I assume they worked together on a project that required such an interface with the brain.

And Dr Curt Connors was doing the spider experiments, combining different traits from many spiders into one super spider, as possibly a stepping stone for his research into combining lizard traits with humans.

Were these intentional or am I seeing connections where none were intended?

Peter writes...

hello grieg i would like to ask you just a few questions
1.why did you chose "Spectacular Spider-Man" instead of "Amazing Spider-Man"?
2.it seems like you you building up to the Peter & Mary jane relationship if you don't mind may i please get your thoughts on that?
3.and the origanal con.jupiter suit was built by Tony Stark dose Stark and Earth's mightiest heroes have a place here and is this inline with Chris Yosts Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes? oh and by the way you and chris yost are big time geniuses thank you the both of you.

Tim S writes...

First off, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for Spectacular Spider-Man, which is, IMHO, the finest superhro show ever created. Now, for a few questions!

1. Did you have any influence over choosing the art style for the series? Because I absolutely loved it.

2. Do you have a favorite Spidey villan that DIDN'T appear in the show?

That's really all I have to say, other than thanks for working so hard to make such great shows. Looking forward to more Young Justice!

Motti writes...

When I was young i watched Gargoyles. My reaction? Meh. Fast forward, year 2009. TvTropes recomended The Spectacular Spider-Man as best animated Spidey show. I hate Spider-Man, but hey, let's give a try. My reaction? AWESOME!!! Hm, lets check other stuff this Weisman guy did. And i rewatched Gargoyles and W.I.T.C.H. My reaction? THIS WEISMAN GUY IS AWESOME!!! He's funny, creative and his villains are amazing. Hm, he's gonna produce Young Justice. Let's check it when it comes out. My reaction? GREG WEISMAN IS OFFICIALLY DEITY IN MY EYES!!! So thank you, Mr. Weisman for giving human kind such awesome cartoons! And now some questions:
1) If you have a billion dollar budget what movie or show would you create? (Shakespeare excluded. We know you would do Kennet Branagh style, 4 hours long, Hamlet)
2) Did you ever met Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman or Grant Morrison?
3) Did you ever considered writing again comics? P.S. Loved Captain Atom both in YJ and comics
4) Whom do you preffer: DC or Marvel? As world, not as a employer
5) Ever been in Europe?
Also, I'm kinda worried for YJ. It seems TV network can't endure your awesomeness, so they ruin 3rd seasons for your shows. That, and Teen Titans are back and new Batman show is in production. Of course, i could be paranoid. No matter what, your work will be always epic! Once again, thank you Mr. Weisman for your awesome work!
P.S. Steve Blum as Green Goblin and Josh Keaton as Spider-Man? BEST. CHOICES. EVER.

Bridge writes...

hi greg its me again, i made an error on the comment about spectacular spiderman, what i meant to say was conceal dr conners's identity as the lizard instead of using disclosed.

Sorry

Bridge writes...

hi greg,

I would love to say thank you for providing us with shows like young justice and spectacular spiderman with all the twists and turns in the story line.

For spectacular spiderman, i was fooled that harry was the green goblin when it actually norman. Just when i thought i had the Green Goblin so played out (making the harry seem so obvious) and yet so deviated (making it Harry instead of the traditional Norman), I was wrong.

I loved how the show kept with the original story of the Green Goblin AND found a surprising and original way to tell it. That's what i call killing 2 birds with stone.

Same goes for young justice, how Red Arrow accuses Miss martian, Artemis and Superboy of being the mole when it was Roy. I admit myself i thought it would be artemis which roy was suspicious and when i found out he was the mole, i thought to myself hypocrite but when i found out he was a clone and a sleeper agent?! Oh my....

I love surprises like these keep it up!

Andy G writes...

Hello Greg and welcome back,

i would like to say in my opinion that spectacular spiderman is the best adaption since the 90's with great storylines and character development such as flash thompson's sense of honour in sports (Probably Cause) which really surprised as he is portrayed as an arrogant jerk.

I liked the themes of character development such as "defrosting the ice queen" e.g. Liz Allen warms up to Peter and becomes open minded (Interactions) and Sally Avril because concerned with peter's safety (Probably Cause) and showing a bit of compassion. Not to mention about Harry's transition from friend to a jerk when he becomes popular which i like to call "Acquired social narcissism".

The characters hated towards spiderman are well understandable e.g. J jonah jameson's anger towards spiderman after rival papers sold well with front covers of spiderman than the bugle's front cover of his son miraculously and heroically piloted the shuttle to safety against impossible odds of survival. I would be annoyed if that happened to me.

I liked how the series show a more human peter parker and how he can be portrayed as a sleaze and quite an opportunist as would be willing to take any opportunity which would benefit him and other people he knows in the long run if how could avoid the consequences e.g. Taking photos of the lizard but disclosing Dr conners as the lizard from the public to win the prize money for his aunty, however that minor consequence can build up major consequence e.g. miles warren managed to get a that pic of the lizard to uses to blackmail Dr conners into giving up control of his lab to miles after dr. conners said his research was a "dead end".

I would like to say thank you for producing a spectacular series of spiderman and even though it's cancelled i continue to use my imagination.

P.s. Ignore the haters and continue doing what you do best.

Rex Dawson writes...

Hello greg,

I would like to say thank you for producing animated series like young justice and spectacular spiderman especially. I'm sorry to hear about your loss and i hope things will get better.

There are a few questions if you don't mind me ask but:

1) In spectacular spiderman, why did peter chose liz instead of gwen first and did he even like liz at all? is it because peter is seen as a nerd and liz is popular and attractive and he chose to be with Liz because it would boost his credibility and change peoples perceptions of him?

2)Why did mary-jane decide to give gwen stacy a makeover? is it because to help her self-confidence or to make peter notice gwen more and make him realise that gwen is the girl for him? or is it because even though peter was with liz, she never gave up on helping gwen to get with peter because she believes there's a connection between them? Because this love triangle between peter, liz and Gwen caught my interest.

Thank you

Todd Jensen writes...

I've seen a few more episodes of Season Two of "The Spectacular Spider-Man", up to "Growing Pains", and continue to enjoy them. "Growing Pains" was my favorite because of all the Shakespeare quotes in it, which I had a lot of fun identifying, and which fitted the story so well. (Not to mention that Flash and Sally's attempts to do "Hamlet" were hilarious.)

And talk about a cliffhanger ending! I'm looking forward to the next episode after Venom's big revelation.

MLP FAN writes...

Hey greg I just watched your work on spectacular spiderman and needless to say I think you did a great job, as an old fan of the 90's seires I think you surpassed it in many ways.I still I can't believe I liked tombstone as a villain

On to my question.

1.- I saw some character worrying for the steriotypical "social hyerarchy" stuff like football players and cheer leaders being "popular" (example Flash). Personally I never experienced such a thing as everyone just hanged out with whom ever they liked it.

My question is Do you believe that social hierarchy of populars, not populars does exist? or you portrayed it due to tradition (many shows portray that)

Thank you for your time

Todd Jensen writes...

I recently got to watch the first two episodes of Season Two of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" on YouTube (I hadn't seen them before now, since I don't have cable) and enjoyed them.

I noticed at the end the MasterPlanner's line to Kraven about "hunting in packs". While it works in its own right as a hint of things to come (presumably super-villain team-ups), I thought "pack" was appropriate. Kraven was hunting Spidey for the same reason that the Pack initially hunted the gargoyles - the "Most Dangerous Game" motive - and, like Wolf, had himself upgraded into a mutate (though feline rather than canine). He even got photographs of Spidey at the start of the episode from the MasterPlanner, just as the Pack got the photographs of Goliath at the start of "The Thrill of the Hunt". I don't know if the "hunting in packs" line was intended as a "Gargoyles" hommage or in-joke or not, but I liked it and thought it appropriate.

Akeem M. writes...

Hey Greg,
At the end of Spectacular Spider-Man, Norman going into costumed crime is public knowledge. The question is, how many people know about his strength enhancing formula, Globulin Green and how it affects people? Norman showed his family (Emily and Harry) and Donald Menkin; and by extension Peter and Gwen know about since Harry told them about the formula and what it does to people. Is the Gobulin Green formula public knowlege in New York City? Or is it one of the only secrets the Osborn family has about Norman goblining it up?

Zach writes...

Greg Do you think The Spectacular Spider-Man would ever be continued in a comic?

Bad Lyre writes...

If (somehow) you were given one final 13-episode season in which to wrap up the Spectacular Spider-Man, how would you do it?
How, if at all, would you try and resolve hanging plot threads, like Gwen and Peter's relationship and Norman's Houdini act?
Would you take advantage of being owned by Disney by introducing other Marvel characters that you didn't have the rights to use before? If so, would you bring more Spidey-related characters in, like Kingpin or Daredevil, or better-known heroes, such as Iron Man?

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Phillip writes...

Do you know of any plans for a complete second season release of Spectacular Spider-Man?

Xanatos writes...

I was just recently watching "Destructive Testing" from Season 2 of the Spectacular Spider-Man, and I was wondering, what was the creative decision to make Kraven a genetically altered human rather than just him being a "normal" guy?

Also, did you have any plans on MIles Warren creating clones or becoming the Jackel later down the line had a season 3 been made?

Anonymous writes...

A couple of years ago, I heard that some deleted scenes from The Spectacular Spider-Man had been shown at Comic Con. The details surrounding those deleted scenes have been kept under wraps for so long now - is there any chance you could give a breakdown of the sequences that didn't make it into the episodes, please?

I know that one deleted sequence was Shocker being rescued by Fancy Dan and Ox in Group Therapy, and that another was a line by Norman in Final Curtain that he hated how vulnerable Vulture had made him, but could you elaborate on the other stuff that was cut for time please?

Jonathan writes...

Do you have any plans to further the plot of Spectacular through means outside of television? Like, something written, perhaps in the way of a script or in a more novel-like style of writing?

The Question writes...

Since it appears that it is unlikely that your version of spider-man won't finish it's storyline, did you already know how it would have ended if given the chance? If so, was there any major storylines you wanted to address during you're intended run? This is in case father time catches up with you and you don't take your vision to the grave. :)

Todd Jensen writes...

The first season of "Young Justice" takes place over the course of half a year, starting on the Fourth of July and continuing to New Year's Eve in the Season One finale (with episodes set on Halloween and Thanksgiving along the way). I remember that the first season of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" similarly stretched from the start of the school year in September to Thanksgiving (with a Halloween episode along the way), and that the second season got up at least to Valentine's Day. The time progression in "Gargoyles" was more vague, but we had two Halloween stories ("Eye of the Beholder" and the Double Date story) and three wintry episodes in New York ("Her Brother's Keeper", which ends with a snowfall, "Re-Awakening", and "The Price"), as well as a clear timeline for the Stone of Destiny story.

I like this sense of the year's progress through the seasons and landmark days (like the Fourth of July and Halloween), but it doesn't seem that common in animated series outside your own work. I've seen two speculations on why that element is so rare in animated series. One is that a lot of the people who engage in such creative work aren't big on continuity and change, far less than you are. Another is that most people involved in creating animated television series live in or near Los Angeles and other parts of California, where the climate is pretty much the same year around and there's less a sense of four seasons than in other parts of the United States. I was wondering what your thoughts were on these theories.

Anonymous writes...

You said before that there isn't any recorded, on camera footage of the voice actors for Young Justice. Why did you record behind the scenes stuff for The Spectacular Spider-Man but not for Young Justice?

Michael writes...

Hi Greg!

Like many fans, I was deeply saddened to see Spectacular Spider-Man get cancelled after only two seasons. The show had so many good stories left to tell and really left a lot of open plot threads (Peter and Gwen's relationship, Norman Osborn's future plans, the Venom symboiote's whereabouts etc.) that were just begging to be explored.

With that in mind, have you given any thought to proposing a Spectacular Spider-Man comic book that would continue the storylines you and your creative team had planned? I know that you've gone this route with Gargoyles, and I think a Spectacular Spider-Man comic would really excite and satisfy fans who wanted to see where the series would have gone without incurring the expense of continuing the show (since I realize a lot of your talent has moved on to other projects -- incidentally love Lacey Chabert as Zatanna in Young Justice!). Marvel is already producing an Ultimate Spider-Man comic based on the new animated show -- would it really be out of the realm of possibility for them to produce a Spectacular Spider-Man comic and/or miniseries? After all, DC produced new issues of the Batman The Animated Series comic book, The Batman comic, and Batman the Brave and the Bold long after the cartoons were cancelled.

Best wishes

Michael

6f6ea3 writes...

Hey again, Greg. Hopefully this question will catch you while you're at your office or Beverly Hills office, but I'm just dropping by a follow up inquiry about posting the SpecSpidey bible.

Sorry if I'm being a pest, I know by the time you read this you'll have slogged through a couple hundred questions about Red Tornado's shoe-size or the like since you answered my last question. Keep the faith, you're made of sterner stuff then I.

Miten writes...

Hey Greg it's me again and I was wondering
how did you get the role of spectacular spiderman.

Eagle-Owl writes...

YJ questions:

1) Clancy Brown as Agent Faraday, and Faraday looks A LOT like George Stacy. Spectacular Spider-Man reference?

2) Parasite was working for Intergang. Does this say anything about the current whereabouts of Bruno Mannheim or Whisper A'Daire?

Codeman1992 writes...

Hi Mr. Weisman, I just wanted to give you props on developing one of the most interesting and creative superhero series on television. Young Justice is one of the greatest superhero series I've watched. I put it up there with the great Batman The Animated Series and all the Timmverse Shows. So, like I said before, I give you props and you are a extremely well versed writer and it's proof in your work. With the new Spider Man movie coming out soon, I've noticed it's very reminiscent of The Spectacular Spider man. At least in the case of turning Gwen into a potential love interest in High School, who both her and Pete intern somewhere. That's my first question, have you noticed that? My second question is regarding The Spectacular Spider Man. I'm in my Spidey Obsession phase and always turn to your show whenever I'm in that phase. Since there's not gonna be a Season 3 of the show, can you drop any potential storylines or where the show was gonna go after the finale of Season 2? I know this is really long, but I'm a huge fan and hope I can be as great of a writer as you are one day. Thank You Mr. Weisman for your time.

ILikeSpiderMan writes...

Hi Greg!

Obviously I'm a huge fan of your work, since I'm, y'know, posting on your site. I've just been sitting and listening to your Spectacular Spider-Man podcast interviews, which are offering some "spectacular" insight (haha, ha).

You talk about Gwen Stacy being the first (one?) true love of Peter's life, and her incredible importance to him. You've also discussed your desire to adapt the feel and general story of the original comics as faithfully as possible. Given that Gwen is most famous for being killed by the Green Goblin, what does that mean for Gwen's future in the series? I'm not asking what your plans for the show were (I don't want spoilers, as some small part of me still hopes that somehow this show will have a future), but I'm wondering if you and the other writers were even considering including Gwen's death in the series. Would it warp the show's tone irreparably? Would it still be possible to write a fun-loving, wise-cracking Spider-Man after this? Would the CW/Disney allow this on a children's program?

Or did you and the other writers/producers decide upfront to veto the idea?

I understand how this could easily be seen as a spoiler request. I'm less curious about the potential plotline of future SSM episodes, and more wondering about the considerations you and your writing team take when adapting material from the comics, especially grittier, less-child-friendly stuff.

Thanks profusely!

Justin F. writes...

Hey Greg. I wanted to let you know that I, and a large portion of the internet community, absolutely loved Spectacular Spider-Man. The show accurately portrayed who Peter Parker was, his troubles, his difficult choices, and his life as Spider-Man. Me, being a teen in high school, thought Peter was someone I could relate to, even though he had these extraordinary powers. Being able to relate to Peter Parker is something that should be constant (and for the most part, has been constant) in every Spider-Man story. I know I'm not the only one who thinks that the series should have went on for much longer. However, I know that the series' ending had to do with Disney/Marvel purchasing the animated series rights from Sony. Since this was pretty much out of your hands, I'm here to propose an idea.
Since the rights to the theme song, character designs, etc. for The Spectacular Spider-Man are locked by Sony, and you couldn't possibly resume the show even if you wanted to at Disney/Marvel, I suggest making, if you'd be fine with doing so, an INDEPENDENT episode (about 45 min. or an hour long)of The Spectacular Spider-Man and release it online. Sean Galloway could come back to do the designs, and you could get the voice actors who would agree to it back if the scheduling works in the favor of both parties. This is more than a scheduling thing than anything, when you're not busy with Young Justice and they're not busy with anything, but it may be able to work. And since it wouldn't be
released under the Sony or Marvel banner, and if you make it perfectly clear that it's a "fan film", no breach-in-contract would occur at all.
I'm sorry if I'm sounding selfish, but the show had a HUGE, HUGE fan base, and most of this HUGE fan base, when tuned in to watch Ultimate Spider-Man on Sunday, all cringed in unison (no offense to Marvel or anyone who likes the show). It just doesn't match the charm that your interpretation of Spider-Man had. So I would definitely like for you to take this into consideration. Would you be able to make an independent "final" episode of Spectacular Spider-Man exclusively for online, one that is a "fan film" of sorts? Thank you for your time.

-Justin

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Wow! Is it hard to keep up with even the questions to post new ones. Thanks for reopening the queue!

Condolences on the lose of your Grandmother. I remember the months before my grandmother died how she had retreated into herself and was all but unrecognizable, than all of a sudden came back to herself for a week or two at the end. I still treasure it as a great gift that we were reminded who she was before the end. She was a good deal younger than 100 so we were not quite expecting the end, but I can understand what you mean by feeling that the person you love is already on the way somewhere else. I am glad you have so many years and so many wonderful memories to look back on.

1- I see someone already asked if you can explain some of the terms you used when you broke down the stages the of episodes in progress. He mentioned ‘online’ in particular. If you didn’t already do so, can you also define ‘slug’?

2- I know you prefer to record the voice actors together in conversation, unlike many other cartoons that record the voices in isolation. In live action tv and movies are recorded out of order, that’s the most efficient way to use the sets and actors. Since there aren’t sets for cartoons, and you prefer to have all the actors together anyway, are the scenes more or less recorded in order?

3- You mentioned in the past moments when stories just come together and surprise you- when the next event seems to announce herself, unplanned but seemingly totally organic to the story. Like when “Owen is Puck!” announced itself. Or when you kept hearing “Thailog” when the video was being rewound. Did you have any such moments for Spectacular Spiderman and the other shows you worked on? Have you had any with Young Justice yet? Can you share any if they’ve already happened?

4-One last question for this catch-all batch... what do you think of the new DC Nation shorts? I’m not crazy about loosing the opening credits, but I love shorts and think it is an easy trade. I love that they are all different and playful and yet often also a series. My favorite so far is the one with Batgirl and Supergirl trying to convince Wonder Girl to ‘borrow’ Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. (Oddly I have become used to (and approve) on Dianna being portrayed as someone from another country, with a light to strong intonation of something foreign, but it never occurred to me the same would apply to Donna.)

Begin pontification: I’ve never loved the Teen Titan cartoon, (plenty to like, but never loved), but I love the fact it is turning up in the shorts. Back when Disney XD was Toon Disney I wondered why they didn’t run shorts. (To be fair I didn’t have a TiVO at the time and it was possible they were already running the “Have a Laugh” abridged classic shorts as well as Shaun the Sheep. But they weren’t running any new material.) It seemed odd to me they were trying to compete with the Cartoon Network’s reach into the older demographic and didn’t, for instance, declare one night a week the 10 o’clock older folks movie night, (say a Miyazaki flik), and intersperse it with shorts- gorgeous, varied, counter expectation shorts like they gleefully did for Fantasia 2000. (I had the idea a long time ago.) If some of those shorts were back door pilots...great. It worked for the Simpsons They could have led to another late evening night of new programming of new shows. They couldn’t compete with cheap nostalgic cartoons or crude adult ones because that just isn’t Disney. Disney can never put out a Family Guy type show under the Disney label. Maybe they could do it on ABC, but not something with Disney in the name. (Even Miyazaki’s Princess Monenoke had to be released in the US under the Miramax label because a PG-13 cartoon would be problematic under the Disney label.) It a rather obvious route for a high end cartoon station to go and might have netted a few Oscars away from Pixar. Or perhaps more for Pixar. End pontification.

Of course it would have been an ideal place to run a little Gargoyle related short. :)

JayBe writes...

Hi Greg, first off I just wanted to say you're awesome. Spectacular Spider-man was THE best Spider-man cartoon/interpretation of all time and IMO the best superhero cartoon of all time (although YJ is now a close second for me). It still pains my heart that it didn't reach past a 2nd season. And despite not being interested when I originally heard about Young Justice, it's quickly become one of my favorites due to the awesome character development/continuity that seems to be your trademark. Having just seen the new Ultimate Spider-man (which I read you won't be watching), I can safely tell you that although it's not the complete crap-fest I thought it would be, it's nowhere near the level of greatness of Spectacular Spider-man.

So anyway, my question is actually about SpecSpider-man (and sorry if it was asked already, I went through as much of the 600+ search results as I could). Could you possibly go into the general idea of what we were going to get out of the next few seasons if it hadn't been cancelled? I know there's probably a thousand details you could give (which would be awesome), but was there any overall story concepts you had that were going to blow our minds? For instance, were we actually going to see Gwen Stacy die?

Thanks for reading even if you can't/don't want to answer.

SpideyFan writes...

I've just gotten a chance to sit down and watch Spectacular Spidey, and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Between it and YJ, I am totally sold on your work. I love the way you structure your stories (on an episode-by-episode basis, and the way you build up longer arcs), and how you manage to present only the most pertinent/interesting information, and trim the narrative fat. It makes your shows a total joy to watch; the stories have such a deliberate sense of movement, everything seems to have purpose. Watching your work inspires me!

Here's the "Ask" part:
In the series finale (S2E13 "The Final Curtain"), Spidey's big confrontation sees him fighting pumpkin-headed grunts in little flying goop-shooting ships. Was this something the creative team was gung-ho about putting in the series, or was it more related to pressures from the powers-that-be about opportunities to sell toys?
Also, how often is marketing, or promoting the DC/Marvel/what-have-you brand a consideration for you when you're creating a show?
Finally: how did you start writing? I don't mean on the level of occupation (i.e. what jobs got you started), but how did you establish for yourself the discipline and confidence in your skills necessary to write professionally?

And I'm sorry to hear about your grandmother. It sounds like it was her time. My own great-grandmother just passed on, and I can tell you she was as ready for it as we were resistant to it. It certainly made the mourning process a lot harder to initiate, since there was this enormous sense of relief that she wasn't in any more pain, or so lonely anymore. I think a sort of hollow initial response is natural. Hope this is some condolences.

Thank you and adieu,

SpideyFan

akif writes...

the new spider man show isn't that good i wish that you can continue the show anf young justice at the same time

The Greenman writes...

Hi Mr. Greg Weisman,

I have been a fan of yours since Gargoyles. One of the things that interest me is the basic structure of the themes and world building in the series. One of the styles I see continue to pop up in your series is the relationship between science and sorcery. This is something I have been a fan of in comics like Iron Man and Fantastic Four (specifically Dr. Doom versus Reed Richards). I love the simple explanation that energy is energy.

1. Now I didn't see much of this argument come up in your Spectacular Spider-Man series, because Peter debunked Mysterio, but can you say that you ever planned to and who you would've used to explore that science versus mystic aspect?

2. I am upset that directors such as Jon Favreau and Shane Black have knocked down the very idea of Mandarin showing up as not to approach the so-called mystic aspect. Though, it could be be alien in origin or something, as they claim and prove that even super-science isn't allowed in the MCU. Have you read and understand the Iron Man comics specific to Mandarin and Tony's relationship to science versus sorcery? Was it influential at all in your writing?

Mike writes...

1. How did the Rhino overcome his hydration problem?
2. What are the names of Tombstone's bodyguards?
3. Is Tombstone the Big Man or is it someone else entirely?

FanMan writes...

Being that the Spectacular Spider-Man was cancelled almost two years ago now, are you yet able to reveal details of what you had planned for season 3? Or do you still intend to keep that information back in order to use it on a later show or if Spec-Spidey gets (against all odds) renewed at a later time?

Derek writes...

I'm a big fan of continuity as I gather you are too based on your use of dates, your shows in general and an interview you did years ago critizing the X-Men for not evolving and moving forward. I think DC has some fantastic characters and concepts, which is one of the reasons I like Young Justice. However, I've found that without fail whenever I start reading their books and enjoying them, they erase characters and storylines I've become fond of from existence in a big reset or reboot in an effort to become “new reader friendly” e.g Linda Danvers, Helena Bertinelli, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain, Team Titans, Infinity Inc etc.

In the end, this practice alienated me as a reader and I no longer buy DC books because as a reader I find this extremely irritating. So first of all, I'm glad that your not doing that with Young Justice. The characters in show have already greatly progressed through season 1 and I'm very optimistic about the Season 2 based on the first episode.

I'm curious though as a comic book reader what do you make of DC comics and their practice of the "reset"?

Miten Dama writes...

Hey Greg I'm a huge fan of your work and
I'm a huge fan of the spectacular spiderman
out of curiousity could you tell me what would have happens in season 3
if the show had continued I'd really appriciated
from your biggest fan Miten Dama

Anonymous writes...

If spectacular spider-man continued would you have mention any other Marvel heroes like the fantastic four?

Spen writes...

Hi Greg! First off, I'd like to thank you for posting all those old production memos from "Gargoyles". I love reading 'behind the scenes' stuff, and seeing the way the story develops over time. It kind of reminds me of Christopher Tolkien's "History of Middle-Earth" series, albeit on a smaller scale.

Now, I have a few questions that I hope can be considered to all fall under the general category of "series development". A couple of them might be stretching it a bit, but I think it'll be okay (and if not, you'll tell me).

1. You started posting production memos for your "Re-Awakening" ramble. Are there any surviving memos from "Thrill" to "Her Brother's Keeper"?

2. When you wrote "The Journey", did Scott Thomas send you a prod. memo?

3. Are there any memos from "Spectacular Spider-Man"?

4. One thing that really struck me when reading some of the notes from early '92 was just how early the Pack came along in the development. Which got me to thinking about another early villian. Was Tony Dracon's involvement planned all along, and he just happened to first appear in "Deadly Force", or was he created specifically because "Deadly Force" needed a new villian? (Awkward sentance, I know, but I can't seem to get this phrased quite right. Do you get what I'm saying?)

Thanks for taking the time to answer these. We will now return to our regularly scheduled "Young Justice" questions.

DmarvelC writes...

If you could, would you have put your Spectacular Spider man on the team?

Zach Baker writes...

Hey Greg!

I recently saw this line from an interview with Steven Bochco in the early 80's, talking about Hill Street Blues (which currently has its first two-and-a-half seasons on Hulu Plus, by the way):

"Maybe the biggest problem with Hill Street, in terms of popular success, is that it is a show that demands to be watched. And most people do not watch television. They simply are in its presence."

I love that quote. What an insightful way to encapsulate about what was essential and great about Hill Street Blues, without going into all the details of what made it so outstanding. Just leave at this: unlike nearly anything before it, in many ways it was a show that demanded to be watched. I think that characteristic also applies to Gargoyles as well, no doubt due to the major influence Hill Street Blues had on the show (as you've often mentioned).

Nowadays, that quality, of being a show that "demands to be watched," is characteristic of so many excellent shows that appear on HBO, Showtime or AMC (before hitting DVD boxsets and iTunes), places where popular success isn't the one and only yardstick. And again and again, we've seen how this kind of series can flourish in the atmosphere of creative freedom offered by these outlets.

Can viewers hope that someday soon, that kind of environment will produce an animated serial drama that has the same level of quality, complexity and acclaim as these channels' current headline series? If so, what might it take for that to happen?

Fluttershy writes...

Hey greg what's up I would love to ask you a questions regarding your story telling techniques

You have said in the past that you could go be telling stories forever if you wanted and in fact sometimes not even the tv show is enough for them hence the comics.

But have you ever considered in giving your characters and stories a Grand finale?.

I think something that has made me a bit sad is that in your past shows you have been cut short due to executive decitions out of your control and we have been unable to get anything resembling an ending that actually gives closure (w.i.t.c.h,Spectacular spiderman, gargoyles etc)

However it is always nice when a tv show character directly says goodbye to te audience(like batman the brave and the bold) or when every major plot point is solved at the end.

A big trait of western media in it's majority like tv shows and specially comics is that the characters "are frozen in time".

Spiderman for instance will always be a young man that fights crime and the story won't go beyond that,same for superman and batman. When the story gets after a certain point we as fans tend to get reboots reapeaing the smae story.

I would like to ask you if given the chance will you give us a finale to your works like gargoyles.

Will we ever see the closure of them?
Do you believe in "grand finales"?

Or do you want simply to never give them a real ending o your shows and simply give the idea that the story will be around forever?

Sam writes...

You've said before that you like to partake in mental casting for characters that you never got to animate in Gargoyles. Did you do this as well for Spectacular Spider-Man's unmade third season, and if so, any chance you could tell me what voice actors you had in mind for the new characters?

Lavariel writes...

Dear Mr. Weisman,

Thank you for all the wonderful work you've done from Gargoyles, to Spiderman, to Young Justice. Been a fan for years.

1) From your experience, what was more enjoyable to work with? Working on a show that was completely yours to control - Gargoyles - from character development, plot, and storyline? Or Spiderman and Young Justice where the basics has already laid out?

2) Was there more pressure to succeed working on Gargoyles because it was original and the creativity was your to control? Or was there more pressure to work on an adaption on Spiderman and Young Justice because the bar has already been set?

Peter Parker writes...

Is spiderman the mole ??

Greg Bishansky writes...

One of Tombstone's first lines of dialogue was "In my life I've been known by many names, my favorite is Tombstone." So... would his least favorite be "Lonnie?" ;)

In all seriousness, I have to agree that Lonnie is a pretty undignified first name for a character of the stature that you reinvented Tombstone into. But I did enjoy that his middle name was "Thompson" making one of Spidey's biggest enemies and Peter's nemesis at school both Thompsons.

Akeem M. writes...

Hello Greg,
A couple questions about Emily Osborn's inclusion in the series (don't worry, nothing having to do with un executed plans)

Anyway, when asked about keeping Emily Osborn alive, aside from having plans for her later down the road, you also decided out of the three friends who had single parent households (Peter, Gwen, and Harry) Harry would be the one where it wasn't fundamental to his character compared to the others. One of Harry's biggest traits is his messed up relationship with his father. It was also said that Noman's disdain of Harry came from losing his wife in exchange for Harry. Would you say that in Spectacular Spider-Man that Harry's problems came from his messed up family life in general with Emily being alive? Basically Harry's issues aren't solely on Norman, but Emily as well (whether directly or indirectly).

Also, it's of course a given why Peter has a single parent household, however, when choosing out of the other two when it comes to who HAD to be in a single parent household, what stopped you from letting Gwen's mother still be alive? Does it mainly have to do with the fact that Capt. Stacy was going to live throughout the series run, but Norman was going to 'die'?

Also, would you say that Emily Osborn loves herself an extemely tough steak?

Roy writes...

What is the name of Hammerhead's chauffeur?

Anonymous writes...

You have said in the past that if you were ever allowed to use guest appearances in spec spidey(if it had continued) there was a particular Hulk story you wanted to adapt. Was it the story from Amazing spider-man annual 3? If not which story was it?

Algernon writes...

Hey again, hopefully the queue hasn't become to full by now. Anyway, I remember asking you once if you'd ever be willing to post the TSSM series bible online. As I recall, you said you'd think about it.

Just wondering if you've given the idea any further thought?

Anonymous writes...

When Miss Martian defeats Psimon, we see his "pupil" crack into a web-shapped crack that resembles a black web. Was this an intentional nod to SSM?

Finister2 writes...

In the final shot of The Spectacular Spiderman, we see what appears to be Norman Osborn boarding a plane.

My question is: Was that really Norman Osborn or the Chameleon in disguise?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

I was wondering your opinion on the New 52. Not the execution, I have a hunch you don't have the time to read much of any of it, but the idea of it.

Although I have found a few books I really like, in general I object to heaving aside continuity and trying to rejam the history back into a too short time frame while wiping out character development. The idea of accessibility is a red herring because if they were capable of sticking to self contain arc inviting to new readers they wouldn't need a reboot to do so. Then again, I came into comics after Crisis on Infinite Earths and am conditioned into thinking it was necessary.

Anonymous writes...

Did mutants exist in the spider-man show?

Ronnie L. writes...

Have you considered pitching Religious Studies 101 as a one-shot, now that Disney and Marvel are one and the same?

PEJ writes...

Hey, Gregory,
I really REALLY want the Spectacular Spiderman series to continue. I want to see what happens next. Is there anything you can do to help it come back?

Michael J. Eilen writes...

Hey greg, my name is Michael. I was a huge fan of your spectacular spiderman series. And I'm not sure if you're gonna know the answer to my question or not, but I'm just gonna shoot for it. Question: Do you have any idea why Marvel canceled it? I mean, both season 1 and 2 had decent reviews and many fans liked it. So, I gotta ask,Do you have any idea why Marvel made that decision.

Eagle-Owl writes...

Have you seen the trailer for Ultimate Spider-Man? I'm asking because it looks horrible. I mean seriously, a Spider-toaster?!? I miss Spectacular Spider-Man. You know better than to give us Spider-toasters.

Greg Bishansky writes...

Thank you for your informative reply on my Betty Brant post. Now, and this is a question I've been pondering for a while, how did you go about your approach to Aunt May?

I love Stan Lee's run on Spidey, but this is one of the few cases where I have to admit that I greatly preferred other writers' takes on the character. Stan's Aunt May was constantly in and out of the hospital... and constantly, dimwitted. I preferred Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, J.M. DeMatteis, and J. Michael Straczynski's takes on the character.

I can forgive and understand her being overprotective. It's been mentioned later that she had lost a child, and Ben's death was just as traumatic for her as it was for Peter. But what always seemed unreasonable for me was how she thought Dr. Octopus was a good and nice man. She didn't realize that she was being held hostage, that he was a dangerous supervillain, or even that he had these giant metal arms attached to him. And then there was the story where she took him on as a border. I'm not even going to get into that weird story where she almost married him... but that wasn't Stan, that was Gerry Conway.

Your Aunt May, while being protective of Peter, wasn't overprotective to the point of absurdity. And one of my favorite Aunt May scenes was in "Group Therapy" where she stood up to the entire Sinister Six to prevent them from attacking Spidey. And Ock's almost gentlemanly approach insisting that she step aside was, I think, a nice nod to Ock liking her in the comics. I also loved that she never referred to Spidey as "that awful Spider-Man!"

So, what did you think was the core truth of Aunt May? How did you go about interpreting her in your show?

Eagle-Owl writes...

I don't know if this would count as spoiler request (please tell me if it is), but had The Spectacular Spider-Man continued and had Pete looking at different colleges, what other colleges (aside from ESU) would he have looked at?

Patrick writes...

Hello, Mr. Weisman! I'd first like to say that I'm a big fan, and I'm thankful that you take the time to answer all of these questions despite how frustrating it must get at times.

Since I can't think of a non-spoilerific YJ question, here's a Spectacular Spider-man related one: In "Reactions," why did Green Goblin try to kill Otto? Did he know that he was creating another supervillain?

Greg Bishansky writes...

Out of curiosity, how old was Silver Sable in season two of "Spectacular Spider-Man." She doesn't seem older than thirty... I'm just curious, because if Hammerhead worked for her dad before he went to prison, twelve years prior was she above the age of consent when they had a relationship?

MasterGandalf writes...

Quick Spec Spidey question- is Silver Sable an albino? I was just wondering because in addition to her white hair, her skin's notably paler than anybody else's (except for Tombstone, who of course *is* albino) and her eyes are an odd pale violet. Not a huge question, I know, but I was just curious.

Antiyonder writes...

Rewatched The Spectacular Spider-Man Season 2 this year, and I have to say that Growing Pains after several more viewings has really grown on me, especially having read many "Spider-Man has been framed" stories.

Now of course whenever said frame up occurs, Peter tends to recall them. But New Yorkers (whether they are civilains or fellow heroes) barely seem to recall that someone like the Chameleon or Mysterio posed as Spider-Man before.

Growing Pains on the other hand takes the more plausible route of having someone question whether Spidey's gone bad. Captain Stacy's comment towards Jonah sums it up: "This isn't the first time that the Bugle got it wrong when a copycat dressed up as the webslinger. Now do you really want to embarrass yourself and your paper! Again?"

Harlan Phoenix writes...

Though I know your mind isn't the kind to play favorites, but given how you acknowledge The Mirror as your favorite/the best episode of Gargoyles, I think this might be able to fly.

Do you have any particular episodes of WITCH or The Spectacular Spider-Man that, if it wasn't your favorite necessarily, you felt was the best of those shows? And for what reasons, if so?

Greg Bishansky writes...

I realize you're still not keen on revealing future plot points for what would have been season three and beyond of "Spectacular Spider-Man." But this question is about the first two seasons, although if the answer ever came, it would have been later. Which I guess places this in a murky gray area. Anyway, because I've been dying to know...

During the two seasons of the show, did Mary Jane Watson know Peter Parker is Spider-Man? In the comics, she knew since the night Uncle Ben died, so I ask if this was the case in "Spectacular Spider-Man" as well. A lot of her behavior towards Peter seems to point towards this.

Matthew writes...

This is about pretty much all the series you've worked on. I've noticed that most of your series has a large cast of recurring characters (and that despite this characters tend to be very well delineated.) Now for Young Justice, WITCH, and Spectacular Spiderman that may be just because they were pre-existing properties and already have large casts. However, Gargoyles also had a large cast.

Was this a because of conscious choice?

Do you perfer working with a large cast of characters?

Greg Bishansky writes...

Another Spidey question. This one is both Spectacular related, and about your Amazing Spider-Man back-up story.

When you wrote and produced "Spectacular Spider-Man," you tried to get to the core truths of who each and every character was. Well, I need to ask you about who Betty Brant was in your series. We've never seen much of her besides Peter trying to ask her to the Fall Formal, and Ned asking her out on a date. She didn't even have a single line of dialogue in the entire second season.

I ask, because in the comics, and this is something that often seems forgotten by most people, Betty Brant is a pretty horrible human being. It's not something I was even really conscious of until my friend, Josh Bertone, started writing a series of articles documenting the history of this character.

She was pretty bipolar when she dated Peter. Constantly flipping out at him if he so much as glanced at Liz Allan, or another human being who lacked a penis. And then, turning around and playing around with both him and Ned Leeds.

She later married Ned and then abandoned him on their honeymoon. Had a one-night stand with Peter, and was later on having an affair with Flash Thompson that lasted for months and months. Which was driving Ned nuts, although, his brainwashing at the hands of the Hobgoblin arguably made things worse. But the affair started well before this Hobgoblin business. Hell, she had the nerve to ask him if their marriage meant anything to him as he was walking out on her, and he replied with "more than it means to you" and he was right.

Of course, Betty now blames the Hobgoblin for all of her marriage's problems and never once really acknowledged any wrongdoing on her part. It's almost Demona-esque how neatly she's able to deflect any feelings of guilt.

And finally, there was Betty's appearance in the back-up story for Flash Thompson that you wrote (loved that story), and when Betty first sees Sha Shan, she is mad. I think I'll quote my friend Bertone, who said it better than I could:

"The icicle speech balloons are a cool callback to the Ditko days but take a look at that scene again. Betty isn’t responding to Sha Shan…Betty starts it! Betty doesn’t greet Sha Shan with an apology or any remorse. No! She’s mad at Sha Shan! Why? What did Sha Shan do to her? It’s not like they had a Betty/Veronica relationship. Betty stole Sha Shan’s man! Sha Shan has a right to be mad! Betty doesn’t!

"Betty Brant is the only woman who will have an affair with your boyfriend and then somehow be mad at you as if she was the victim. What a horrible person."

The above isn't a criticism of the story, or how you used Betty. It's a criticism of Betty as a person.

So, I have to ask. Would your interpretation of Betty, had the series gotten more in depth with her have been this terrible, awful individual? In the comics, she makes Sally Avril look as cool and fun to be with as Mary Jane by comparison! If so, I'd say Peter dodged a major bullet there, when Aunt May put a stop to this in "The Invisible Hand." Come to think of it, May never liked Betty in the Lee/Ditko run either. Betty is definitely not the girl you bring home to meet mom.

Zeke Hero writes...

Greg,

First of all, I'd like to say I'm a huge fan of your work since Gargoyles made my young mind snap from "short attention span" to "give me more character-driven serial fiction!" during the Disney Afternoon days (jeez, I'm old...). When I heard you were doing Spectacular Spider-Man, I knew I was going to be in for a treat and while the show only got two seasons, DAMN were they exactly what I needed out of a Spider-Man show.

I've read the questions posted and have sat here making sure I won't ask an *eye-roll*-worthy one or something that will inspire the "no comment"-of doom, so here goes:

Gargoyles and Young Justice both have a family quality to the teams of characters that are our protagonists. We're introduced to a small band of 6-7 heroes by the writers and over the course of adventure after adventure we the viewer comes to feel as much as a part of that "family" as they do with each other. My question is (and I am in NO WAY fishing for spoilers or hints or what have you) what are your feelings on shows that expand these bases down the line? I remember, for example, that when Avatar added Toph her initial episodes didn't seem to gel with the audience I was viewing the show with and it felt like (to us) that the character didn't fit into a narrative we'd become accustomed to, yet by the end of the season (and this was our fault for not trusting the writers), Toph was a great piece of a larger cast that grew organically. Do you feel that adding, say, Angela as a new member of the Gargoyle family can hurt the narrative established with an audience burned time after time by artificial 90's cartoon storylines or does the idea of getting to add, say, the Wonder Twins (again, not fishing hence why I use these guys) offer up an opportunity to you as a writer for a left turn in the plot that you get to have a "trust us, we know what we're doing" stance with your audience?

(man that was a huge run-on senence...)

second question

When you and Brandon were mapping out the season (I saw the great behind the scenes video from SDCC), what was the best ah-ha moment (related to something we've already seen, not a spoiler or fishing trip) that you as a team came up with? Mostly I'm just looking for an anecdote about working as a team, you could even be vague and pronouny.

Third and final quesiton

You've now gotten to work on Marvel's Spider-verse, and the entire DC universe. I've noticed that in both cases you've gotten to go your own way on certain characters you've gotten to use (e.g. Silver Sable was a villain on Spider-Man with a relationship to Silvermane). Which comes first in cases where this occurs? Do you riff on story ideas and go, "we need a psychic badass" and then go, "let's use Psimon, but let's tweak him a little" or do you (or someone on the team) say, "Man, we REALLY need to use Abra Kadabra and I think I know how we could do that!" Since both shows have shown you dipping into a huge pool of characters, what about a character makes them a "semi-blank canvas" character that you can take as an opportunity to fit within your storybeats versus a character that you feel is fully-formed and just needs an artistic tweak to fit your plot?

Again, thank you so much for this board, your time, and this show. You've contributed so much to quality animation and, I hope you see the compliment here, but when I and my friends push Gargoyles on to newbies, we usually describe it as, "It's like the Wire, but with Shakespere, monsters, and the NYPD"

Matthew writes...

Not a question, but I thought you might want to read a very positive review of Spectacular Spider-man:

http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=spencer_ellsworth&article=042

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Silly little question- Do you ever feel the urge, (or give into the urge), to slip something into a script purely because you know something about the actor? Like writing a song into a scene because you know the actor sings, (but maybe not telling them that they're going to be doing Sondheim or Gilbert & Sullivan till after they agree to sing 'some ditty'), or make them speak a foreign language because someone is fluent (but perhaps has a horrid accent)? Someone has a great cackle? Find a reason to have it come up. Someone is afraid of canaries? Put on on the character's shoulder for the whole episode. etc The only example I can think of now would be to have M'gan spout a long series of made up equations to see if Danica McKellar's head explodes in the face of nonsensical math. (Or replace of a series of made up equations with her own theorem at the last moment and wait for her to notice.)

Or does "Jalapeno!" qualify as such evil?

The Spectacular Spider-Man Season 3 writes...

Can't you just talk to Sony, so that they would let you supervise the Spectacular Spider-Man, Season 3? So that they could change their mind to let Marvel use Spider-Man for the Super Hero Squad Show season 2 finale, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 1 finale, and main character for season 2 of Avengers and season 3 of Super Hero Squad, i'm tired of him being in just comics and video games, please bring back The Spectacular Spider-Man!

Jeff writes...

First of all, many thanks for bringing us a great Spidey series. Just a few questions to put my mind at rest, as it bothers me to have my favorite stories left unfinished. Since the show is unfortunately canceled, I wanted to ask how would it have ended for the following characters.

1. Eddie/Venom (Would he have made peace with Peter: brothers again? Anything else?)
2. Gwen or MJ
3. Norman
4. Harry
5. Carnage: was he planned for an appearance?

Please I'd really appreciate if you can go into detail with these, especially first 3.

Jamie writes...

Hey greg,first of all, you're awesome, i remember when i was only 5 and i would re enact your gargoyles haha good times.

If you were to compare Young Justice and your other works, would young justice be in the top 5?

How many views are you having on Young justice ?

Edward writes...

Is the Green Arrow short in continuity with Young Justice since you were/are involved with both?

nacnud writes...

Dear Greg,

In a question long back by a different poster, you said that in Season 2 of The private Spectacular Spider-Man, Charles Xavier was just a professor of a private school. If the X-Men portion of your "Spectacular" universe are as well dedicated to the comics as Spider-Man's show was, does this mean the X-Men in your universe are currently:
Cyclops
Beast
Marvel Girl
Angel
and Ice Man?
Or would there be a different line-up?

Anonymous writes...

I really like Robin's jokes, I've always been a fan of wordplay.

Oh Young Justice is the first of your show's that I've watched, but it was so good that it made me want to look into Spectacular Spiderman, and WoW it's really good I'm only a couple episode in but I love the way you have all the villains kinda developing into villains instead of just villain of the week type of set up.
Haha and the theme song is pretty entertaining.

tomi writes...

I really enjoyed these first preview episodes of Young Justice. And perhaps even moreso than that i enjoyed to hear Crispin Freeman to return back to your services: i think he made fantastic work as both Speedy and Guardian, and eventhough you can still hear a bit that it is the same actor, he made it possible for those two characters to be divided and personified from one and another.

He was excellent as Electro, and i was fan of him before that(i came hooked sometimes around i first saw first few episodes of Wolf,s Rain).

From what i,ve been able to gather, he seems to be not only true professional, but also smart, intelligent guy with great thoughts, coupled with sharp and delightful sense of humor. I have seem him to appear in many of Gatherings(often paired with good old Thom Lexington Adcox), and i,ve heard that he was fan long before your paths crossed, often discussing with his fans about serie,s themes.

If it isnt too much trouble, could you give little bit of greenlight how you two met, and how your cooperation began?

Hopes for better to your work from fan from far-off-land Finland: maybe there arent too many Finnish Gargfans, but i am one of them.

Pidä lippu korkealla!/Keep your spirits high!

Chris writes...

Please forgive me if the following questions were asked.
1. What was your comment on the video game Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions? How did you like that they used some of the actors from Spectacular which were Josh Keaton, Thomas F. Wilson, Jim Cummings, Steven Blum, and John Dimaggio (not sure if I spelled that right)?
2. I know you don't like to answer questions about future plans for Spectacular, but did you pick any actors for Scorpion and Hobgoblin?
3. Did you know that a few of your ideas were taken from the 1994 Spider-Man cartoon? Such as the symbiote coming from John Jameson's space shuttle. Although TAS used a space shuttle crash instead. Another example is Vulture going after Norman Osborn in his first appearance. Another is Spidey hanging upside down and looking at the black suit at a tall building.
4. When you look at the Spectacular Spider-Man, do you believe that you have done a good job for the show?
5. What is your view on the Scarlet Spider? Would he have been worthy of being in the Spectacular Spider-Man if given the chance?
That's all I have for you. Please make the DVD company that makes the DVDs for Spectacular Spidey make a complete season 2 DVD. That would be greatly appreciated.
Your fan,
Chris

Alan writes...

Dear Greg,
When is season 2 of the Spectacular Spider-Man coming out on DVD? I've been patient for like a month after the volume 8 DVD was released. Now I can't wait any longer! Please try to make the company that makes the DVDs make them make season 2 of TSSM. Please?
From,
Alan

Anonymous writes...

Hey Mr. Weisman, love your work! First and foremost, thanks a ton for taking the time to answer the many questions of us crazed fans, I haven't heard of many who care enough to do this. Secondly, congrats and best of luck on Young Justice, it looks like it has just tons of potential, and I look forward to seeing more.

My quick question is a pretty insignificant one I suppose, but for some reason it's always bugged me (I apologize if it's been asked already, I checked the archives and searched). In the Spectacular Spider-Man episode 'Catalysts', there's a bit where Spidey's web-shooters run out, and he reloads one of them during free-fall. After this, t first it seems like he's going to be, understandably, shooting webbing only from the one he reloaded, but then he can be clearly seen firing web from both web-shooters, even when he has only reloaded one. Was this merely an animation goof, or was there a specific reason?

Craig F writes...

Hey Greg,

I'm a huge fan of Spectacular Spider-man and I was heartbroken when it was cancelled. On the flip-side, I'm loving Young Justice, so I have to ask... If it weren't for Spidey getting cancelled, would you still be working on YJ?

BonnieB21:-) writes...

Long time lurker, first time poster!

I've been trying to think of some questions I know no one else has thought of before. It's taken me a while, but I finally got them.

I've been a fan of Spiderman all my life and have watched EVERY cartoon version either in syndication, on cable, or when they originally aired. I was rewatching "Along Came Spidey" the origin of Spiderman from Spiderman And His Amazing Friends last night (a gorgeous episode, one of the best of the series and the BEST of his various origin stories (present company excluded)). But I believe this was the last time his full story was told. As in before Spiderman became a crime fighter, he was a "plain, old, SUPERSTAR!!!!!". I saw your Spectacular Spiderman origin and I had to ask you this:

I know you had to/wanted to keep towards Spiderman's live action movie origin which rushes through all the pre-crime fighting stuff. But if you could've, would you have explored Spidey's fame-whoring past? Cause I've always wondered why no one else in New York City, no other fans, or no one else remembers Spidey's pro-wrestling, personal appearance making, TV show guest starring past. If J. Jonah Jamision had a reason for hating Spiderman, I would think that would be it.

I used to watch '60s Spiderman every morning in syndication before going to school. But I hadn't seen it in a very long time until ABC Family/Disney reran a bunch of old Spidey episodes, but only one of '60s Spidey. The interesting thing about Peter Parker/Spiderman is that Peter talks in a mild mannered, soft spoken voice in his real life but once he dons the mask, his voice got deeper and more authoritative. That was the only series that had such a huge differnce between Peter and Spidey.

On Spectacular Spidey, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between the way Peter sounds and the way Spidey sounds. Was there a reason for that? For the most part, Peter's and Spidey's lives don't connect too much (as in Spidey doesn't have to have long conversations with Peter's friends). But I would think at least of one person be it Aunt May, Gwen, or M.J. would be able to tell Peter's voice over a cell phone and Spiderman sound an awful lot alike.

Thanks for taking the time to answer fan questions!

Anonymous writes...

Was Carnage and Shikata to appear on "The Spetacular Spider-Man" before it was canceled.

Dan writes...

In the theme song of the Spectacular Spider-man under one of the photos there is a headline reading " the final, fateful photo by Peter Parker". Was this hinting at something?

Sree writes...

1.When coming up with the theme song for spectacular spiderman, how many bands and how many versions of the song did you have to go through? Did you n Victor Cook have much input into selecting the ulimate song?

2.Do you know what Victor Cook is currently working on?

Akeem M. writes...

Hello again, another spec spidey question here.

In comics Tombstone had a connection to Robbie Robertson, making him more of one of Robbie's personal enemies. Is there a reason you decided to disregard that when making Tombstone the "Big Man". OR was it not omitted, and you just didn't have enough time to show anything concerning Robbie's relationship with Tombstone (or it didn't have enough impact on Peter/Spidey's life...yet)?

Also, we all know why you decided to get rid of Herman Schultz, but of all the people to be Shocker, why Montana of The Enforcers? Was there something that you saw in Montana that would plant him as a great match for the Shocker suit?

Also...if there is ANYTHING you want to give me for your discontinued plans for the future like "you would have liked this to happen" just spill it out... Just kidding...

Thanks

Baron Ultron writes...

Few thing have bugged me since cancelation of Spectacular Spider-Man.

1)Does Marvel hate Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon or not.I ask this because they are making new Ultimate Spider-Man Cartoon and Spectacular Spider-Man was canceled and there was lack of promotion in Marvel.Com(While Avengers or Super Hero Squad have many promotions).Also in one of your answers you said that Marvel are not planning to make comic book based on your show or something like that.So does Marvel hate your show or not?

2)This might be stupid question but worth a shot.Will you ever work for Marvel or Disney again due to cancelation of your show and Disney retooling Gargoyles into Gargoyles Goliath Chronicles.

3)What do you think about Avengers:Earth's Mightiest Heroes Cartoon.Do you think it is as great as Spectacular Spider-Man or bad.Also in your opinion which show is better:Young Justice or Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

4)Will you watch Ultimate Spider-Man Cartoon?And also is there a chance that you will work on Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes or some Marvel Comic Book?

Good Luck

Ian Whitcombe writes...

I'm curious about the philosophy behind recieving episode premise approval for a show from DC (and I'm assuming Marvel too for SSM?). I wonder which would describe it better:

1. You submit the episode premise as a checks and balances procedure working in good faith that the episode will be approved provided there aren't any legal or logistical oversights that would make the episode impossible to produce. What I think I'm asking is if they recognize your desire as producer to make the episode, and they would only veto a premise if there was some sort of hassle.

2. You submit the episode premise in the hope that DC likes it and sees value in the episode's production. This would imply that the episode could be approved or vetoed based on the creative "whims" of DC.

Algernon writes...

Hey Greg, how's it hanging.

Not a question so much as a request but I was wondering if you'd ever considered posting the "Spectacular Spider-Man" series bible online like you did for "Gargoyles"? I've always been impressed by the amount of thought you put into your shows, and it'd be a great insight into the creative process behind such a fantastic toon.

John Derrick writes...

I hate to say it, but I was extremely disappointed in the Young Justice premiere. Don't get me wrong--the animation was gorgeous, the dialogue entertaining, the story intriguing. But the gender imbalance was a huge turn-off for me.

Why was it that the women of the Justice League were only shown in the last five minutes of a two-part pilot? Why did the male sidekicks get to go on a rebellious adventure and force the League to accept them as a team of their own, while the first girl is only added to "Young Justice" at the very end, introduced by her uncle and guardian like some sort of token?

I expect that the women will have a lot more to do in the episodes to come, but I still find it profoundly problematic to introduce the characters in such an unequal manner. I believe there are too many men in the world as it is who see women as mere supporting players in their stories. Why reinforce this stereotype for a whole new generation of superhero cartoon fans?

SoundForSound writes...

Any reason for Disney to not just do a digital only release of Gargoyles via iTunes? Would not that be cheaper to release than DVD, or who knows? Any word on if YJ will be available on iTunes? Keep up the great work. Spidey was amazing, so am looking forward to YJ.

SLG writes...

Hey Greg,

Really liked the Young Justice pilot, very solid stuff. I especially like the line Robin had about how Batman would "have his head" for taking so long to get out of those shackles. Robin seemed pretty capable, and I'm sure he'll get closer to Batman's level as time goes on, but I do hope we'll get to see the master at work every once in a while.

I also really have to say that I loved the action sequences (and the writing, of course). They had a great flow to them and a great sense of pace. I was also a bit surprised at how hard hitting some of the fights were, by which I mean they seemed to be fairly violent, even compared to something as recent as SpecSpidey, though that's just my take on it.

So anyway, you say that your brother, Jon Weisman, is writing for Young Justice, which got me thinking about how that was also the case during your time on WITCH. Since someone was nice enough to upload the entire series onto YouTube it has been easy enough to go back to. One of my favorites of that show was "S for Self", mainly because of the songs "Demon in Me" and "Will to Love" that played during it, for which you and Jon wrote the lyrics.

So this is a bit out there, but do you suppose that original songs, like those produced for WITCH, are something that would ever have a place in Young Justice?

How about an entire episode in the form of a musical? Buffy style, you know you want to.

Akeem M. writes...

Hello again sir,
Once again I have a few Spec Spidey questions
Now, as you know, in Spectacular Spider-Man, the extra arms that Doc Ock has are detachable. The harness itself is stuck to Octavius, yet the arms can be removed. My question is, what was your reasoning for doing this? From my knowledge this was never done in the comics. Was it so Ock could be feasibly locked up without those tenticles having to be locked up as well?

Now, we all know what people thought of Mr. Lincoln in the show, but what would you say the public's opinion on Hammerhead? Obviously criminals know who he is (much like every crook knows who the Big Man is (which is how the rumor surfaced up multiple times), but what about the public. Is Hammerhead a well known criminal?

Also, when choosing minority races for minor characters what factors made you choose that specific race. For example, you wanted Rhino to be South African (I suppose to go with the whole "Rhino" thing. Ned Leeds and Kenny "Kong" McFarlane had names that could easily be changed to more Asian sounding without changing too much (Leeds to Lee and the nickname Kong as a literal last name.)So what influenced you to pick certain races for certain minor characters? For example did Roderick Kingsley's love for the carribean influence you to making him black? Did Gwen's Debra Whitman look influence you to make Debra Whitman black because of her extreme similarities to Gwen look wise. If Belladonna were to appear would she have been Latina since she already is a Carmen Sandiego homage?

Anonymous writes...

is there going to be a spectacular spiderman season 3

Anonymous writes...

Who would you rather be trapped in an eight hour car ride with; Demona; Nerissa; or Green Goblin?

Anonymous writes...

In Young Justice, are we going to see police and some villians use real guns like in Batman: Brave and the Bold?

If yes, do you actually take your time and effort to draw them in great detail similar to the ones from Batman: Gotham Knight?

Jackson writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,

my name is Jackson, and I am an avid fan of The Spectacular Spider-Man. So the first thing I would like to say, even though you've probably heard it heaps of times over, is that The Spectacular Spider-Man was the best adaptation of Spider-Man to date, and in my opinion the best cartoon I've ever seen (and I've seen a fair few). I could go to great lengths to describe just how amazing a thing it was. I was devastated beyond belief when I heard that TSSM was cancelled. It truly was masterpiece.

And now that I've said that, my question. It concerns a character I believe you should be quite familiar with; Donald Menken. Being the fan that I am, I have watched the episodes many times, and Mr Menken interested me. My main question about him is, in the episodes that he appears, is he meant to be a character who really just does what he's told, or does he have any sort of initiative? I mean, for Norman to trust him enough to show him globulin green AND host the rhino specs auction (which are both pretty dangerous things to share), there'd have to be something about him that Norman recognised as making him a trustworthy confidant. What was this quality?

Thanks so much for your time. Maybe more questions in the future.

Javier writes...

Hi Greg, first of all i want to say that Spectacular Spiderman was the best incarnation of the character i have seen outside of the comic books, and its a shame that it lasted only two seasons. i have a couple of questions if you dont mind, hopefully you will be able to answer them, if not i understand, you are a very busy man after all.

1) I was really amazed by the quality of the animation and the character designs, it looks even better than the other DC movies that i have seen. How do you maintain that standard of quality in a weekly series? All tha animation is done in the US?

2) Is Josh Keaton voicing Barry Allen? It sounded like him but maybe im wrong, he did an outstanding job as Peter Parker, hopefully he will have a role in the series

Thank you for your time, as a fellow animator im really glad that we can still have some classic 2D animation to look foward to, Best of luck Mr Weisman

Clark Cradic writes...

Does Felicia Hardy in your series wear a wig or die her hair? I'm guessing the white hair isn't natural in your world.

Mo writes...

Forgive me for being dated, but I have a Spidey question. In rereading some of my collected editions of the Lee/Ditko era, I realized that Peter Parker was established as a high school senior. In Spec. Spidey, he is an underclassmen (I forget if he's a freshman or sophomore). Why the change?

Neil writes...

Do you still listen to that Spectacular Spiderman theme song (full version)? It's so catchy!

Anonymous writes...

i know this is gonna be a "im not inclined to tell" or "no comment" but this really has been bugging me. Emily Osborn literally did nothing on the show so what exactly were your plans for her. my only guess would be that she takes over oscorp since harry is too young. if im right PLEASE tell me.

nygma619 writes...

Hey Greg, a couple Spectacular Spidey ?'s that I hope you'll be able to answer:
1.) Someone asked a question on whether you had plans for S.H.I.E.L.D., and you said "No", not "No comment". So I'm curious, where do you see Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point in time? Have the government approved the group, or has there not been a reason to create the group yet?

2.) The Lizard in his first appearance was not seen as talking, but was seen as a mute, savage beast. I'm curious, what was the thought process behind making him that way?

3.) What happened with MOI animation in the second season? Blueprints, Shear Strength, Growing Pains, & Gangland are in my opinion the weakest animated episodes of the series. Their season 2 work just felt alot less fluid than their season 1 work, and compared to Dong Woo and Hanho their animation from season 2 was alot more fluid looking than what MOI was doing. I know there's a camp of people who complained about Hanho going off model, but I always accepted the squash and stretch being used alot more, since that's how Victor Cook intended the animation to be.

These next 2 questions are tricky to ask since I'm not sure if they break the "won't spoil because their better off being revealed in execution" code you've gone by, but I'll give it a shot anyways:
4.) You said that Roderick Kingsley owning a perfume company would be brought up in his next appearance. Does that mean you had plans to introduce Belladonna?

5.) You said you know who the main villains of each arc would be in season 3, but you didn't have everything planned out beyond that. Hobgoblin sounds obvious, Scorpion, Maybe. So are the main villains of each season 3 arc, something you'd be willing to reveal(at the very least), or not?

6.) About the radio play, when Cleatus says to Demona, "I'll have what he's having.", how come Eddie wasn't saying "YES, YES, OH GOD YES" when he became Venom again before that?

Looking forward to Young Justice!

Jim writes...

You may or may not have followed the hubbub earlier in the summer when Donald Glover (young and very charismatic black comedian/actor) was campaigning on Twitter for a chance to audition for the role of Peter Parker in the new Spidey movies. Nothing ever came of it, but it sparked a huge internet debate over whether a black Parker was true to the character.

I myself was very open to the idea. After all, nothing about Peter's character or circumstances dictates that he has to be white. Heck, May isn't even related to him by blood; the only characters that would need to be adjusted are his parents, Uncle Ben, and Ben Reilly-- assuming any of those even make it into the new film.

Given that SpecSpidey is my very favorite version of the mythos, and given that the show was notable for, among other things, mixing up the races of various (mostly minor) characters, I was curious as to your thoughts on the subject. Not to the point of any conclusion, but just a reasoned opinion. Are there some things about Spidey that are just TOO traditional, too sacred, that changing them dilutes people's perception of the character? Is his race one of them? You went with the classic white-with-brown-hair interpretation, and I don't think there are many arguments that you succeeded quite well at adapting Parker.

I'll admit I'm wary of making this post, as I don't mean for you to look like you're choosing sides or giving some definitive answer. After all, I've already made up my mind on the issue; I'm sure most people have. Or they sure seemed to have when this controversy was still fresh. But being that you are something of an expert at adapting this specific property, as well as someone who was willing to add diversity where it was appropriate, I'd really like to pick your brain and hear any thoughts you might have regarding this issue.

Alan Gavinchki writes...

Hey Greg
When you look at the Spectacular Spider-Man, you realize there are a lot of important villains. Which do you consider the main villain of the whole show. I thought of some possibilities.
1. Tombstone because he is a crimelord and was the first to want to kill Spidey.
2. Hammerhead because he is Tombstone's assistant and made the most appearances out of any villain.
3. Green Goblin because he is Harry's dad and he made supervillains for Tombstone and wanted to take over his enterprise. He did once and he made Spidey's life turn upside down.
4. Doc Ock because he was a victim of the Goblin and was the leader of the first Sinister Six and organized the second one. Him alone during the Master Planner and Gang War saga would make him the main bad guy.
5. Venom because he was once Pete's best friend and he possessed the same suit Spidey had. Afterall he was the one who pointed out that Peter loved Gwen. He also revealed his identity to Jameson!
I hope one of these villains I chosed are correct for their major role.

R.I.P. Spectacular Spidey

Emily writes...

I imagine that you had to read alot of comics when making shows like Young Justice or Spiderman. So did you get those comics for free from the Marvel and DC saying you needed them to help with the shows or did you have to go out and buy?

Clark Cradic writes...

What comic universe would you say you're more knowledgeable about: DC or Marvel?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

I'm sorry to hear you are feeling some vitriol coming your way for the differences between the Young Justice comic book and coming cartoon. As a huge fan of YJ I was hoping for a Spec Spidey type treatment of the original source material and I bet others were too. That said, I just keep repeating to myself that that is not to be so I should just look forward to a different great cartoon.

I did have the thought of, 'then why not use a different name?' If I can come up with a couple more ridiculously bad ones to balance the numerous "Blah" ones I may post some names that came to mind...

Oscar writes...

Hi i am a big fan of spider-man and i have a few questions

1)Will the new show for spider-man be starting all over or continue where you left off on the spectacular spider-man?

2)Do you think the new spider man show will better?

3)Are y'all going to use the same characters?

4)Why did the Spectacular spider-man show get canceled?

5)Do you think y'all could have gone far with the spectacular spider-man more than the 1994 series?

6)Last question Do you think there will be ever a chance that they could bring back the Spectacular spider-man if the the new one won't receive good ratings or it crashes like other shows that lasted 13 episodes or less?

Thank you for your time

Algernon writes...

Hey again Greg,
I've recently started rewatching "The Spectacular Spider-Man", and I thought I'd test the waters with a question you probably would never have answered while the show was on the air. If every character from the show was taken from the comics, then who was Hammerhead's female chauffeur?

Alan Gavinchki writes...

Dear Greg,

I forgot to ask, when will season 2 of TSSM be released on DVD? I am not patient as you can see. Would the DVD feature any plans you had for a possible season 3? Sorry I forgot to ask you that question in my previous question.

Your fan,
Alan

Alan Gavinchki writes...

Dear Greg,
I was really looking forward to a season 3 of TSSM, but due to recent news, I am a little disappointed that we won't see that show again. I have a few things I want to say. Firstly, I want to thank you for this great show. The two year run was my favorite two years yet. I have a few questions.

1. Would we have seen the Punisher? I'm a huge Punisher fan and I would've loved to see him.

2. I already know Scorpion and Hobgoblin would appear, but what other villains would we have seen?

3. Would Sandman become a good guy?

4. In the episode "Accomplices", Roderick Kingsley got away from the fight with Spidey, Silver Sable, and Hammerhead and ended up running away without a coat. But at the parking garage, Kingsley is seen in a different car (his limo was destroyed and appeared to have no other form of transportation) and had his coat back. When he saw Rhino, he seemed less surpirsed rather when he was attacked by Silver Sable. Was this Roderick's identical twin brother Daniel?

5. Speaking of Rhino, I loved seeing him and Spidey team-up. Would Spidey team-up with any other villains?

6. When the symbiote went into the sewer, was it possible that it reproduced and would create the Carnage symbiote?

7. Final question, would Miles Warren become the Jackal? If so, would he do something like the clone saga and make Ben Reilly? I'm a huge Scarlet Spider fan and I was really hoping we'd see him.

That's all I have, thanks again for a great 26 episodes.

Your fan,
Alan Gavinchki

GEOGNE writes...

WHY DID YOU GUYS CANCEL SPECTUALR SPIDERMAN PLEASE BRING IT BACK ITS SUCH A CLEAN SHOW WHY DID YOU i HAVE A LOVE FOR THAT SHOW SIGNED GEOGNE

Clark Cradic writes...

If the series had continued long enough for you to include the Scorpion, would you have made the source of his powers like the Rhino or like Kraven?

Tyler writes...

Hey Greg ,

I have another question about the episode storytelling in the Young Justice cartoon. Is the cartoon's episodes going to be told similar to The Spectacular Spiderman and Gargoyles with one long story arc, that ends each season with a big bang, But in each season the characters still recall what happened in the first season or will the show be told similar to Teen Titans and JLU where each episode has its own story?

Anonymous writes...

Man, every Spidey question you answer that ends with some form of "it's moot now" or "we'll never see it" is depressing. I miss the show so much, miss anticipating what great new direction you guys were going to take it in, miss the awesome surprise of each new design by Cheeks, the great voice acting and sharp writing, the structure of the seasons and the way you were organically growing Spidey's world, etc. I'm really excited for Young Justice and think it looks great, but at heart, I'm mostly a Marvel, and specifically Spider-Man, fan. So basically, just thanks for the show. I loved it, it's a credit to your great talent in the field, and it was unquestionably the best animated Marvel adaptation ever made, series, movie, or otherwise.

Anonymous writes...

in the future where u know for a fact that spectacular won't get renewed-even though it was made pretty clear-would u ever consider posting something talking about some of your plans for the characters on the show. no every single character because that will take forever but some of the thing that ended on a cliffhanger like one question about man-wolf and kraven...and what you might've been planning for hobgoblin and scorpion. also, do u think the sales of the second season dvd's could have anything to do with sony not renewing the show because it kind of seems like they're waiting for that to get money out of the people who want a third season and think buying the dvd will help? the reason i ask that is because i read on marvel animation age that spec spidey is still a sony production and its up to them.

Anonymous writes...

"I had plans for both John and Kraven -- in fact those plans were connected. But I'm not inclined to go into detail on them at this time. "

You, sir, are a horrible tease. If you ever are inclined to go into the plans you had for certain characters, etc. in the series, please, please do not hold out on us. :) For some of us, it's all we've got left to keep experiencing the greatest Spider-Man adaptation every produced. :)

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Interesting background on Flash... You say that part of Flash's development would be becoming more aware of and dealing with his long held grudge to Peter. Does Peter have any inkling of why Flash turned on him? Not that he's given any indication of it openly, but was Flash's abandonment an emotionally scarring event, or was it lost in the greater trauma of his parent's deaths?

Greg Bishansky writes...

You know I loved "Spectacular Spider-Man" and I am sad that it is gone. Your recent answer on how Flash's enmity for Peter began fascinated me and depressed me at the same time. That was quite deep.

I'll admit, the element of the show that has been fascinating me the most is Emily Osborn. Mostly because this is the only continuity where she's actually alive (and thus a completely blank slate), and the few teases we got made me wonder what is up with her. What kind of mother is she? What kind of wife is she?

She was just so mysterious. We know why Norman and Harry missed the school play, but why didn't she go? That couldn't have been a coincidence.

And then, while I know it was non-canonical, when she finally did speak, and presented this mysterious tape from Norman, along with "the Green Goblin is not what your father wanted for you" it raised even more questions.

So, I need to ask. What role was she playing? Did she know Norman was/is the Green Goblin?

Greg Bishansky writes...

I wrote this blog entry up a few months back, and I thought I'd share it with you. I'm curious as to your thoughts on the matter:

Ever since Disney bought Marvel, people have been asking Greg Weisman if he has any interest in integrating the "Gargoyles Universe" (which would be the first sixty-five episodes of the series, and the two SLG comic series "Gargoyles" and "Gargoyles: Bad Guys") into the Marvel Universe, and Weisman keeps saying no. Yet people keep asking him.

I love "Gargoyles" and I love the "Marvel Universe." I love "Gargoyles" more, and I'm not afraid to say it. But this is a terrible idea, and I'm going to talk about why it's a terrible idea.

First of all, the two universes are pretty incompatible. Time travel works differently in both universe for one. In "Gargoyles" you cannot alter history, and that series is so much better for it. If it were a part of Marvel, it would be too easy for Goliath to, let's say, go back in time and prevent the massacre of his clan back in 994 Scotland.

I suppose you could retcon away those Marvel time travel stories like "Age of Apocalypse" and "Days of Future Past." While I would not mind that, it wouldn't be fair to the fans and creators of those stories.

Second, while I have no doubt the existence of gargoyles would be shocking to the people of the Marvel Universe, it wouldn't have the same impact it should. Not in a world where mutants, super-beings, Atlanteans, Inhumans, Eternals, Norse gods, and Fin Fang Foom are already known to exist with Galactus stopping by every other Tuesday.

Third, okay, Marvel's Odin is now a Child of Oberon, as are the Asgardians. Okay... how well do you think that's going to go over with the fans of Jack Kirby's Thor who have been reading it for nearly fifty years now? Hell, there are still some people who are uneasy about Odin being subject to Oberon in "Gargoyles." I'm not one of those people, but I understand where they're coming from.

Now, I know some people are bound to mention the NON-CANON Radio Play from the 2009 Gathering, that was a crossover between "Gargoyles" and "The Spectacular Spider-Man," so let's get this out of the way. That wasn't actually the Marvel Universe. It was a re-imagined, and stream-lined version of it. It also helped that both shows were created or developed by Greg Weisman. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it, but I don't think anyone wants this to be a regular, or even a recurring occurrence. I think it worked well as a pandering love letter to fans of both franchises, and the voice actors who brought these characters to life.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the Marvel Universe is not really going anywhere. It is very cyclical. Things come, things go, status quos change and are restored. Spider-Man is married for twenty years, then he is single again. Magneto reforms, then is a villain again, then reforms, etc, etc.

For example, I respect a lot of what Joe Quesada has done for Marvel. However, the notion of him having any kind of creative influence over "Gargoyles" scares me. "Goliath and Elisa were more interesting before they finally declared their love and got together. The core of it was always impossible love, so now we have to split them up." You know it would happen.

"The Gargoyles Universe" is going somewhere, even if we're currently not getting any new fiction, it was always evolving. Never going backwards, but moving forwards. It was an evolving tapestry, and change was constant. Marvel, on the other hand, lives and breathes on the illusion of change, while actual change is non-existent. Death is meaningless. Characters don't age, and the status quo may shake up on occasion, but it is always eventually restored.

The Marvel Universe was built by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko, and maintained by many very talented and creative people acting as custodians of that work. But, for better or worse, it is a soup with hundreds of cooks. Many great chefs, and more than a few fast food fry cooks.

"Gargoyles" was co-created by Greg Weisman, and while he had a lot of help, he was the only co-creator, and the one who never stopped working on it. He was the first author of "Gargoyles" and more than likely he will be the last author of "Gargoyles." For the better. We saw "Gargoyles" without Greg Weisman, and it was nothing good.

Both universes have their place, but you couldn't merge them without one of them being significantly altered in the process. Now, I will admit my bias again and say that I wish the "Marvel Universe" was more like the "Gargoyles Universe" but, there's no real point. It's been around for nearly five decades (over seven if you want to talk about Timely Comics), and it's not going to change. As I've made clear, I think that's kind of the problem, but an understandable one given the nature of Marvel Comics. DC too, for that matter.

Now, I realize a lot of the above makes it look like I'm saying "Gargoyles" is great and Marvel is awful, but I don't feel that way at all. I just don't think such a thing would work without one of the universes suffering for it.

Mo writes...

Hello again Mr. Weisman. First, let me say how sorry I am that Spec Spidey was cancelled. It truly was the best show Marvel ever produced and was the first I honestly felt told stories of the web-slinger and didn't talk down to it's audience. Bravo on making an excellent program.

This does, however, make me all the more excited about Young Justice. I never read that specific series, but i've been a fan of Teen Titans for a while (including the trippy TV series) and am really looking forward to this series. I have a few questions, though:

1) Why the change in Aqualad's character? Was Garth just not interesting enough or was Jackson just cooler? And did the idea for him come from the comic first or did you guys make it up?
2) Why add Ms. Martian to the roster? She's a fun character to be sure, but doesn't exactly scream classic Titans/YJ member (It sort of seems like she's a stand-in for Starfire as the 'alien immigrant' of the team).
3) Will any voice actors from Spec Spidey be working on Young Justice?

Thanks again.

Edgar writes...

Hi I am Edgar and I am a fan of spider man and the cartoons they are of it. I have been watching the new show "The Spectacular Spider-Man" and is going good and i think you should keep going with. If this is a real website that Greg Weisman reads him self please continue the season 3, the last two where great and since you are making this show i thought it would be best to find a way to tell you. I know this is out of topic here in Gargoyles but this is the only way i found of contacting you so far. Please continue with the show don't stop like they did with "Spider-Man - 1994 animated series". So hopefully you will read this and change our mind. Thank You for making does two episodes so for i would give them 9.5/10 and you will continue with the work. Thank You for your time if you reads this.

AJC writes...

Very excited for your new series! Its good that you can move on to something else, especially after how spec spidey ended.

My questions are, how much have you watched of teen titans and justice league and JLU?

Will you watch the new ultimate spider-man cartoon when it comes out?

Ming writes...

Hi. First, I heard about what happened to the Spectacular Spider-Man. I'm sorry you didn't have a chance to do all the things you wanted to do. I would have loved to see stories Venom vs. Carnage, Harry Osborn as the New Green Goblin, the Hobgoblin, the deaths of Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn or a shortened version of the Clone Saga or the return of Norman Osborn. Ah, well, so much for possibilities.

Anyway, I'd like to ask about Young Justice:

1) Will you be adapting Young Justice or Teen Titans storylines (i.e., Young Justice: A World without Grown-Ups)?

2) I heard that Red Arrow (or at least, the Roy Harper before Cry for Justice and "Rise" of Arsenal, which I don't know if you've heard of) and Tempest will show up. Any other Titans or Young Justice characters that will show up as the show progresses?

Alex writes...

Dear Greg,
You may remember my name. I wrote to you twice concerning if I could help write the third season of the Spectacular Spider-Man. Yes I realize taht was stupid but I don't care about that anymore or if you even reply the two earlier messages. Yes I realize there won't be a third season and we'll never see possibly grestest Spider-Man TV show yet. I only have a few things to say. I want to thank you for two years of seeing this show. They have been the best two years yet. I just want to say that this is probably by far the greatest Spider-Man TV show. Why? It wasn't because of the first animated appearances of the Enforcers, Tinkerer, Colonel Jupiter, Ricochet, or Molten Man. Or the other villains I've come to love in this show (most notably Hammerhead, Electro, Sandman, Rhino, Tombstone, Green Goblin, Kraven, Silver Sable, and Silvermane). I like it because in a way I am Peter Parker. Not physically, but with his love interests. I became friends with a girl who had glasses. She recently got contacts. But yet she went to a different school in the same district. I haven't seen her in a year. I rely on Facebook or e-mail to talk to her. But yet I sometimes get the feeling I may lose her to someone else. This is in a way like Gwen Stacy. The reason why I wish there was a third season is because I want to know how Peter would finally be with Gwen. (If he would.) If I don't know what happens, then I don't know what could happen to my own relationship. I know I shouldn't rely on a TV show to solve girl problems, but I think this show could make it possible for me to go all the way with her.

Right now, I don't care if this series becomes the longest Spider-Man TV show, I just wish if the third season could at least explain how Peter would get to be with Gwen. Also I would to see Spidey fight new threats. (The villains I would've loved to see were Scorpion, Hydro-Man, Tarantula, Beetle, Green Goblin II, Hobgoblin, Prowler, Carnage, and Jackal.) If possible, could tell me how Peter would be with Gwen and if any of the villains I listed would've made their appearances or if there were others I didn't list? If you can't do it here, you may feel free to e-mail me at luckygalucki@bellsouth.net. Once again, thank you for a great 26 episode series.

Your fan,
Alex Galucki

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.

Alex writes...

This is a question about Spectacular Spider-Man, have you guys actually started on season 3 and beyond or are you waiting for the ok from the network executives?

David B. Jacobs writes...

I recall that you've only seen a couple of episodes of Spider-Man TAS, and from your descriptions, I believe they were Season 3 episodes. But the curious thing is that in Alien Costume Part One, a Season 1 episode, the symbiote came to earth via John Jameson's space shuttle, much in the way as in TSSM. So my question is: Is this a simple case of great minds think alike, or was the idea of bringing the symbiote in that way proposed by someone else on the crew who may have seen more of TAS?

Merc with a Mouth writes...

1. In an episode of SSM Spidey says this side of Vlad the Impaler what does that mean? Did Vlad have split personalities or something?

David B. Jacobs writes...

Hey Greg!
Don't know if you'll know this, but when Sony relinquished Spider-Man TV rights, did that include the theme song? In other words, assuming TSSM comes back (and I'm also assuming that it will have already been renewed by the time you get this), then will you be able to use the same theme song, or will you have to make a new one? 'Cause I LOVE that theme song!!!!!!! (Although I'm sure you could another one just as good....)

Merc with a Mouth writes...

1. What's Season 3's status as of the end of Season 2?

2. Will you be able to use any Spidey/Punisher team up arcs?

3. If you use Human Torch will you be able use the rest of the FF?

4. Also will you have Sandman and Electro join the Frightful Four and use the arc where they ambush Spidey on the Statue of Liberty?

5. Also will Sandman reform?

6. Will we see Daredevil? I doubt it but just wondering.

7. Sorry about all these questions

Lauren writes...

When we see Felicia drive up to Ryker's in "Opening Night," her ID says Selina Drew. Is the Selina bit a reference to Catwoman, or just a coincidence?

Anonymous writes...

Hi Mr.Weisman,i love your Spectacular Spider-Man show.It is a fantastic show which i recommend for everyone to watch and i hope Marvel/Disney will renew series.I am very worried that this show may not be renewed or may be there will be some major staff and writer changes and show will become like Gargoyles:The Goliath Chronicles which you consider non-canonical and fans don't really like it.Anyway i have some questions.
1)First of all i know you planned everything from day one(i mean about plotlines,character development,episodes and etc).So i want to ask you do you felt the pressure when you and your team made episodes,do you felt that fans might have considered your show a mediocre one or just they wouldn't like the episodes?
2)What's your opinion about other Marvel shows like Wolverine And X-Men,Iron Man Armored:Adventures and Super Hero Squad Show?
3)Are the chances that there might be release of Spectacular spider-man soundtrack?
4)I'm bit confused,since Disney owns Marvel and Sony returned tv rights of Spider-Man to them,can we fans expect appearance of Wilson Fisk,The Kingpin Of Crime?And does Kingpin exist in Spectacular Spider-Man universe?I mean you can't use other superheroes in your show(yet) but they exist in Spectacular Spider-man universe,so i wonder,does Kingpin exist in Spectacular Spider-Man universe?
So this all my questions,sorry if i made some grammar errors.Bye

Whatsit Tooya writes...

Sorry, I missed part of the guidelines, my mistake, please forgive me.

P.S.
Why does Disney XD promote "Zeke and Luther" so much instead of TSSM?

Jason R. Carter writes...

1. "Reinforcement" question: if Vulture and Electro were the appetizer and Sandman and Rhino were the main course, what did that make Kraven and Mysterio?

2. Have you seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeMnUuoeCwI

The!!? writes...

In, "Subtext" Molten Man put Spidey in a bear hug basically and the only thing that was burned was Spidey's suit, I would think there would be more damage...maybe you can explain this for me?

Romi Ramirez writes...

Hi sir i have to no im a very huge big fan of spectacular spiderman please you have to make season 3 just like the rest of ur fans we want see more..thank you i just had to tell u. ps would peter get baq liz she really seem to love him?

David B. Jacobs writes...

So.... Just who WAS Patch's mystery employer in Accomplices? I'd think it was triple J, but I'm not 100% certain....

David B. Jacobs writes...

"IGN: This week he quickly revealed himself to what was left of the Sinister Six. Why did he want to keep it a secret from them last week? "

"Weisman: I think what we saw this week was his inner circle. Tinkerer, Electro, Vulture â€" that's the inner circle. Those people were in on it. But not every member of the Sinister Six was part of that inner circle. So although Sandman, Rhino, Kraven are all free, on the loose and still affiliated with the Master Planner, none of the three of them were part of the inner circle, so they didn't know that Ock was the Master Planner. But the other three did know. So that's what we were trying to show by keeping specifically those three in â€" to tell you the hierarchy. "

1. Now correct if I'm wrong, but I got the vibe that Electro had no idea. In Reinforcement, though I don't remember the exact line, he said something along the lines of how the Doc has changed and isn't the same man anymore, and that he was really disappointed. Then in Shear Strength, he was completely confounded by Ock's revelation! "I don't get it, Doc...." So.... can you explain to this confused fan?
2. Why those three? I've always kind of gotten the feeling of kinship between Ock and Vulture - in Survival of the Fittest, though is Toomes is yelling at Octavius, he also says that Otto recommended Oscorp, so they must've been acquainted beforehand. But Electro? I can understand why he looks up to Otto (I've done a whole character analysis on Electro, in fact), but I can't imagine that Ock would just keep him in the loop to have a good, loyal henchman.... And I mean, Tinkerer's great at, y'know, tinkering and all that, but so's Ock himself, so it's not like he really NEEDS the squealer!

As always, thanks for your time!

Robby Barrows writes...

I wonder, how would you handle Carnage and Cletus Cassidy in [i]Spectacular Spider-Man[/i]? Are there any plans for season three for them to appear?

And are more Marvel characters going to appear? Like Thor, the X-Men, Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Man?

David B. Jacobs writes...

Hey, again, Greg!
So, I recall you saying somewhere (I think on the Season Set) that the reason you redesigned the Vulture was because you didn't want too many green villains....
So, and I'm not sure if you can say this, but I don't really see it as a spoiler, when you guys design Scorpion, do you want to use his blue suit? Or have you not yet decided yet?
Thanks Greg! Good luck tomorrow! (I'm writing this the day before the finale airs - you'll be able to tell me how it went by the time you get this!)

adam g writes...

so is there any news on spiderman i know its a faq but i just want to know if they have given you the green light?

Rottieboy writes...

Greg-Spetacular Spider-Man is a great show! I hope it has been renewed by the time you read this. Anyways my question is why did Pete try to destroy the symbiote by freezing it when it came from the vacuum of space? How could anything on Earth top the cold of space?

Thanks to you and all your staff and actors for the best Spider-Man adaption ever.

nicholas writes...

im a big fan of the spectacular spiderman who is the man in the airport in the last episode of season 2 and why did you all show him
if the season 3 is aloud to be aired would it come out next year
AND PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ BEG THE TO ALLOW IT TO HAVE A SESON 3 PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ

David B. Jacobs writes...

Arthur Jr. writes...
* I got your response for the Sinister Syndicate question. While Boomerang, Hydro-Man, Leila Davis (who became the second Beetle), Rhino, Scorpia, and Speed Demon are Spider-Man's enemies, you might be right about the other three. Outside of Beetle first appearing to fight the Fantastic Four and later fighting Spider-Man when getting revenge on Human Torch, Blacklash is an Iron Man villain who Spider-Man helped fight in Marvel Team-Up #72 and #149. Constrictor first appeared in Incredible Hulk #212 and fought Spider-Man and Moon Knight alongside Ringmaster in Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3 #7. Just giving any side info there in case you gain some inspiration for one of the possible future seasons.

Wow.... I have just been out-geeked....
I am going to tell myself that he looked that up....

David B. Jacobs writes...

Paul writes...
2) Is there a voice modulator in the Green Goblin's mask? (Surely there must be, since it's hard to believe that Norman puts on the Goblin's voice himself).

Greg responds...
2. I believe so.

Now how come when I asked that same question, you wouldn't answer? :(

Fred M. writes...

Not really a question but something I thought of today... I absolutely love the fact that Doc Ock continues to refer to Spider-Man as "arachnid" and Shocker continually refers to him as "bug"...Obviously Doc Ock is a doctor and an extreme intellect and Shocker is portrayed as a little more of a "good ol' boy" type who wouldn't worry about such detail.... I thought of that today and thought "Hmm, that's a very interesting layer to the series" Kudos on the depth of this "kids" show!!

Anonymous writes...

Do you know if they plan to make season 3 of "The spectacular spider-man"?

Arthur Jr. writes...

Mr. Weisman, I just read your response about the amalgamizing of characters. I have some other questions here:

1. Though the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime is one of Spider-Man's enemies, they first appeared in "The Incredible Hulk" #3. I was wondering if that will prevent you from using Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime in any episode of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" in case you don't get the rights for the character.

2. I read on the archives that someone asked if Stan Lee will have more cameos in any proposed season of "The Spectacular Spider-Man." He's also voicing the Mayor of Super Hero City in "The Super Hero Squad Show" which is voice directed by Jamie Simone (who provided Akamaru's vocal effects in "Naruto"). In case you've seen the episodes that feature his characters, what do you think of Stan Lee's performance in that show?

3. If Courtney B. Vance reprises Roderick Kingsley in the proposed Season Three, will you use another voice actor to voice Hobgoblin like you did with Alan Rachins voicing Norman Osborn and Steven Blum voicing Green Goblin? I think something like that also occurred when you and Jamie Thomason casted Clancy Brown to voice Ox in "Survival of the Fittest" and later casted Danny Trejo as Ox in "Probable Cause." Do you have any comment on that?

David B. Jacobs writes...

First, to answer a previous question (my geek sense is tingling!): Ultimate Kraven was first shown in his mutated form in the first issue of Ultimate Six (an in-canon mini-series which is usually considered as an arc of USM and is even present in USM reprint volumes).

And now, on to the question!
When exactly did Captain Stacy deduce that Peter is Spider-Man? Was it just after Venom revealed that he realized, "Oh, yeah! Duh!" Or did he know before then? (I get the feeling from his ending monologue that he only just figured it out in Identity Crisis.)

Clark Cradic writes...

I know during Electro's debut he couldn't drink a cup of coffee, but I'm still curious: Does Electro still need to eat or drink to survive or does his electricity somehow sustain him? And if he does have to eat, how does he do it?

Mark C writes...

I noticed a lot of the Voice actors from Gargoyles appear in Spectacular Spider-Man. Once you finally get the chance for more episodes, do you plan on getting more Gargoyles actors to play a role in the show? If so, which do you have in mind?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

Small ramble on the character of Flash Thompson (noticed over time, but prompted by his behavior in Gangland)...

I haven't read the comics so I don't know how much of this is original to you and how much of this is from Lee/Ditko/Romita, but he really is an amazing character, (and is backed up with some fine voice work). He could just have been a jock/bully/buffoon cipher, but he isn't.

The first glimpse we got was when Peter was acting as a jerk under the influence of the Symbiote. Flash is in the hospital, presumably visiting Aunt May, and gives Peter whatfor for mistreating his friends and family. We learn later that they had once been friends, but there doesn't seem to be any love towards Peter prompting him. One can assume that he gave the advice for the benefit of Aunt May, and maybe even Gwen and Harry. He has an innate sense of ~something~ that made him actually angry to see Peter mistreating others. A very strange thing to see in a bully. All this amusingly and believably followed with an insistence that no word of this kindness be known by others.

Later we see that he has the good grace to wear a cheerleader outfit with pride after a lost bet, and enough respect of his teammates that they joined in the costume. We find out that for all his bluster about being quarterback and BMOC he is justifiably proud of his accomplishment and for the right reasons - he feels a responsibility to his team, on and off the field. He hates Harry later, not for being a wimp, but for disappearing when the team needed him.

He displays bravery - From what we learn as the series progresses, messing up his knee is an acceptable trade for winning the Championship. Had it just been about him, and not his team and school, that would not be the case. As funny as it is to see his adulation of Spiderman, he ran out in spandex and crutches and stood up to armed bad guys. And, though my memory is faint with the months since the episode aired, I think he also tried to help Spidy against Venom.

Back to his interaction with Harry- another surprise; Flash's strong sense of honor. It's one thing to be honest enough not to juice and even be horrified that a teammate did, but to immediately realize that it taints his own accomplishment and have the moral strength to go to the authorities and lose that championship despite absolute certainty no one would ever have found out?. Add to that he may well have sacrificed his own athletic future to get that championship? Very impressive. It's no wonder Shashen (sp?) finally agreed to go out with him.

Speaking of Shashen- he originally went after her just because she wasn't interested, but the change in his voice (kudos to the actor) when she explained why she agreed to go on that date further impressed that he is at heart a very fine human being and probably will be a impressive adult.

So not so small a ramble...oh well.

A few questions-
1-Given all these positive characteristics, how did he become a bully? I get how he got the swelled head, but actually picking on Peter, Harry, Gwen and presumably others? (I think I remember you writing that he saw Peter as somewhat of a fake, but Harry who was such a... 'nebbech' to be pitied and Gwen?) {mmm…spellcheck suggests nebbish for nebbech- I have to ask a Yiddish expert what the nuance between the two words actually is.}

2-When did he and Peter stop being friends? I gather it was a long time ago or else Harry and Gwen would not have been surprised. Was there a particular reason or did they just drift apart as Flash grew into a big strong athlete and Peter became a brain?

3-When did he start picking on Peter? (If I remember what you wrote correctly; when did he start seeing Peter as a fake?) Was 'Puny Parker' a long standing animosity, or did they spend years just not being anything to each other after the friendship ended?

4-Extrapolating from his visit to the hospital I'm assuming that despite not liking Peter, Flash retained a fondness for Aunt May and Uncle Ben. Was he hit hard by Uncle Ben's death? Did he in anyway reach out to Peter or conversely become less sympathetic in some way as a result?

5-Or am I completely off base and the friendship was so long ago Peter's parents were still alive?

thanks

Merc with a Mouth writes...

1. Will we see Cloak and Dagger, Tarantula, and Black Tarantula? (different people Tarantula a South American criminal, Black Tarantula's a crime boss

2. Also what do you mean most members of the Sinister Syndicate because last time I checked, Beetle,
Boomerang, Hydro-Man, Shocker, and Rhino are all Spidey villains so the only non Spidey villain is Speed Demon

3. What about Jack O Lantern?

Mark C writes...

I actually have a question a friend wants to know...

If Marvel and Disney are so pleased with your work on The Spectacular Spider-Man and give you the opportunity to make another Marvel series when your 65 episodes are done (Note I said WHEN because I have higher hopes for this show than I did with Futurama) would you, Victor Cook and the rest of the crew be willing? If so, which other of Marvel's superheroes would you like to work with?

Autumn Leaves writes...

1. Why did Electro go from "I want to be normal again" to "Being Electro is awesome!"?

2. You mentioned Ock only revealed he was the master planner to his inner circle. Why the tinkerer if he's a freelance agent?

3. Why does Sandman exclusively work for the Master Planner? His powers were paid for by the Big Man, yet Hammerhead had to pay a services fee.

4. Is Doc still at Ravencroft or have the staff caught on to his act?

*Spoilers*

5.The only named villains not in jail/Ravencroft are Lizard, Vulture, Sandman, Goblin, Chameleon, Mysterio, Kraven, Hammerhead, Tombstone, and Silver Sable. Correct? No escapes have been cut for time right?

6. What are Mark's chances of Parole? He hasn't done that much compared to some of the other villains, (destruction of public property) and can't really do anything without Goblin's remote. (Not that anyone knows that)

Awesome show and I really hope you get more seasons.