Todd Jensen writes...

Saw the fourth episode of "The Spectacular Spider-Man" this morning, and enjoyed it. In fact, I laughed several times during it, including at the J. Jonah Jameson scenes (yep, that's definitely him all right), and Peter/Spider-Man's difficulty getting rid of the garbage smell.

The Shocker was a great villain, and truly felt like a menace to Spider-Man. I also liked the touch about his remark about carrying out his responsibilities hitting home to Peter, fitting in with his abandoning Harry and his worries about Aunt May.

And we see an alliance formed between the mysterious unseen boss and Norman Osborn, something that could lead to some big episodes ahead.

Keep up the good work.

Greg Bishansky writes...

MARKET FORCES

Another terrific episode. I really enjoyed Greg's take on the Shocker, and making him Montana really works in the context of the series. As I've said before, who is Herman Schultz? Who cares?

Lots of pipe laying here. Sandman and Rhino both, plus a lot of foreshadowing on where Norman Osborn is going.

The Big Man is no longer voiced by Keith David, unfortunately. Kevin Michael Richardson is a decent substitute, but I can't help but miss Keith. There's a certain quality to his voice work that Richardson can't quite capture.

Aunt May wants to introduce Peter the neighbor's niece, Mary Jane Watson. She has a "wonderful personality". Naturally, Peter shudders.

Norman Osborn was great in this episode, telling Harry to "cowboy up", take responsibility and do what he has to do. Like Halcyon Renard. An evil, cold, sadistic, borderline insane version of Halcyon Renard...

... actually, I got kind of a Tony Soprano vibe from Norman's little pep talk. "What happened to Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type. That was an American. He wasn't in touch with his feelings. He just did what he had to do."

Peter finally landed a job at the Daily Bugle, working for jolly J. Jonah Jameson. But, don't fret. JJJ is a decent man deep down. Mariana's trench deep. Dante's Ninth Circle deep.

"Don't go emo on me, bro."
- Eddie Brock to Peter. I'm guessing Eddie's seen "Spider-Man 3"

Moe writes...

Hey Greg! I'm really excited about the Spectacular Spider-Man series and the direction its taken so far. I seriously haven't been this into an animated series since back when I was a kid. At first I was a bit skeptical about the decision to make the character designs more simplistic, but I found it to work quite well with the speed of the animation and the story line in general. Can't wait to see the next episode, and I hope there will be several seasons to come :).

CanusShamus writes...

Hey Greg! Long-time reader, first time writer </cliche>

Well, typically Entertainment Weekly waits for the first three episodes of a new series to come out before they write a review, so I thought I'd do the same. Short version: I liked it.

I'll admit I was skeptical at first, since WB's new Batman show not only didn't live up to movie, it wasn't even better than the 90s TV show. I am, however, one of the few who despised the Spider-Man movies, and going back to the 90s Spider-Man, I realized it didn't hold up too well over time, so I would tentatively say your version surpasses both of them.

If I had to pick the show's strongest point, it would be the animation. When Spider-Man fights Lizard on the train their fight technique is all one fluid motion, and each comes back from a hit right away, using the momentum for their next strike. It reminded me of a martial arts film, and was better looking than all the CGI that was dumped into the films. Also, I liked how Peter's tag is always sticking out of his shirt; it's a subtle thing, but it works great to play up the 'nerdiness' of his everyday persona.

Another development i enjoyed was the characters. I'm interested to see where you're going with Brock (especially after the animosity he showed at the end of episode 3), and I think not bringing in MJ right away was the smart thing to do (personally, I hope she doesn't show up for a good long while; it will make it seem more significant when she does). My only complaint is Gwen: not that I don't love the way she's written, it's just...well, as any Spider-fan knows, it's Gwen's destiny to die, and the fact she may do so before she even leaves high school just seems unbearably bleak. But you never know; she could go the distance after all.

Summing up, I haven't had occasion to watch ANYTHING on Saturday morning for a good long while now, but you can bet I'll be coming back for Spider-Man. Heck, the average fan would probably prefer this to the "Brand New Day" storyline that's going on in the comics right now.

Oh, and since this is a Q&A column: are there plans for any crossover episodes with other Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man teaming up with Daredevil or fighting against Dr. Doom?

Thank you for taking the time to read my comments. Hope to hear from you soon.

P.S. I thought I was so clever for catching the Broadway cameo, but I apparantly completely missed the Hudson one. Blerg.

Michael N writes...

How about asking Cary Bates to write the intro for the next trade paperback. It'd be a nice tie-in to your early comic book work on Captain Atom and he's certainly had a hand in shaping Gargoyles to what we know today. If nothing else it'd be nice to hear his take on Gargoyles.

I'm really enjoying Spider-Man so far. I think there's a lot of smart storytelling in the show; the same thing that attracted me to Gargoyles. I like that stereotypes are skin-deep. For example Flash fits the jock stereotype nicely, but you see some of his jock friends definitely don't. Likewise not all geeks are, well, geeks. That'll make Eddie's turn especially hard to watch.

I think you're a great match for the job of writing/editing Spider-Man. It's filled with characters that are neither "bad" or "good", but all sorts of in between. You've got an annoying (but in a good way!) habit of developing those sorts of characters in ways that make it hard to hate them and root for the "good guy". Xanatos awakens the gargoyles to use them for his own purposes like they're just tools. Then he tries to "discard" them. Then he helps them. Then he gives them a place to stay and helps to protect them. I want to hate him. I know he's going to try and (ab)use the gargoyles again. They know it as well. But I can't hate the guy. It's damn frustrating (but in a good way!) and Spider-Man is going to give you more opportunities to do that with other characters. You've already started doing that with Electro and Vulture.

My understanding is Electro was "created" when Max was struck by lightning. Was the change in his creation a nod to Gargoyles with respect to the creation of the mutates or was that more coincidence than anything else?

Thanks Greg!

Charisma82 writes...

Okay, I hadn't planned on giving a review for each Spidey show that came out, (& I'm still not planning on it as of right now) but I had to give you and all the people who worked on the episode "Natural Selection" props. I feel this has been the best episode so far, and hey, this is only the 3rd one. I really felt for Spidey at the end of the episode, having to look like a coward in front of his friends so he could keep his Spiderman secret. I guess I'm just a sucker for characters who save the day and never get the recognition they deserve, and even worse, look like they wimped out when they really didn't. The whole story was great, and I can't wait to see more.

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

-Charisma82

Jess writes...

Hey Greg! I'm still keeping up with Spectacular Spider-Man and "Natural Selection" didn't disappoint. I feel like each episode is slightly stronger than the one before it as everyone gets more in-tune with the material and each other.

I think you found just the right note with the Billy subplot, where it was genuinely emotional and not cloying. I liked the "I took a cab" bit with Eddie at the zoo. Just a fun little jab a typical cartoon logic. I was not expecting Peter to be fired, so that was a cool moment for me as well. Somehow I have a feeling we'll be seeing the serum again.

Nice continuity nods with the ring-tone alarm, the mention of Electro, and especially Peter and Eddie calling each other "Bro", then having Spidey try to cover it up when he does the same.

One thing I noticed was that during Peter's voice-over before he plans on taking the serum is that he mentions "a hard 9PM curfew" where before it had always been 10.

The cast continues to be amazing (or rather spectacular). In particular, Kath Soucie and Lacey Chabert just completely nailed their parts this week.

Since this is "Ask Greg", I do have a quick question: For small parts i.e. the people at the coffee shop in "Interactions", or Thug #1 in this past episode do you have certain people in the cast in mind, or do you just ask whoever's in that day if they want to do it?

Thanks for your time!

Harvester of Eyes writes...

Thoughts on the Spectacular Spider-Man episode "Natural Selection."

First off, I like this incarnation of the character of Peter Parker a lot, more so than in other cartoon versions. He's still a kid with a lot to learn, and like most kids, he thinks he knows everything. I like how even getting a good picture of himself as Spider-Man is a learning process.

And I also like the continuity in the series. In the previous episode, we see Connors's formula get shocked. And Curt puts it in his pocket. And now we see the consequences (unless, of course it just resulted from months of him injecting himself, and that last one was the proverbial back-breaking straw). The animation was awesome, in particular his morphing into and out of the Lizard. I like how the tail was formed. And the pacing of the fight scenes reminded me of the movies, which was fine. Those gave us a fantastic sense of Spider-Man's agility, as do these.

I also didn't expect to find myself saying this, but I like Eddie Brock as a character. I wasn't thrilled when I first saw his name in the cast, but I love what you've done with him so far. Giving him this personal connection with Peter Parker might actually make Venom more interesting. He seems to be building a reputation of not being able to successfully tackle baddies in Connors's lab. And I like the way he and Spider-Man worked together at the end. He's a bit reckless, but he also seems to have a strong moral sense. So he and Peter have that in common. I'm actually finding myself caring about what sets him on the road to becoming Venom.

Anyway, favorite moment in the episode: Billy Connors confronting his mutated father. I'm not sure Curt recognized him, and I'm wondering if this might come up again. And I also like how Peter Parker chose not to take what might cure him of his powers, but he also didn't throw it away. More foreshadowing, I suppose.

All in all, you and the rest of the crew have done a fantastic job so far. I was never a regular reader of the Spider-Man comic, but I'm getting more and more excited about this show the more I watch it. Keep up the good work.

David Blyth writes...

In the new Spider-Man animated series, Gwen already has a small inkling into Peter's financial problems, so why get irritated when she perceived his photo-taking of The Lizard as selfish when it was to benefit his Aunt? Is she just following the crowd's attitude, or was she afraid for Peter's safety and her anger is a result of that?

Aldrius writes...

Ramble on Spectacular Spider-man episode 3.

That attitude is gonna get Peter into a lot of trouble... so is actually having a happy life. Don't you read comic books, young man? Any time you're life is going WELL, that's when fate smacks you upside the head.

Still like that theme song.

Aunt May is okay. I think I jumped the gun when I watched the first episode.

Hmm... is Stan Lee always the executive producer on these marvel animated programs?

Stop meddling with weird science, Curt! It never results in good things. Though I do like the attention here. He's well intentioned. He's not selfishly just trying to heal his own arm. He's trying to save decapitated people all over the world.

Go Gwen. Yay! Random jock friend who's name I should really learn. Is he a classic Spider-man comics character that I don't know about?

"What are we celebrating? Oh... crazy god-defiling science!! This will end well."

Smart AND perceptive. Quite a man this Parker boy.

So Billy's a scientist too. They start them so young these days.

That's a very nice lizard design.

Peter the coward. That's nice of him. He could have come up with a better excuse than 'My aunt may won't be able to sleep unless I get home.' But I guess he didn't have much time.

Still very funny. I like Peter's banter. Feels very natural. And of course it fits the character perfectly.

Spider-man seems to like fighting on the subway/train lately. I guess the subway's a subterranean place for the Lizard to hide out.

People really should check on those over-anxious kids more often.

I wonder what kind of Lizard Curt blended his DNA with... a cocktail of iguana, and crocodile, or what?

Heh. Peter even cares about Polar Bears! What a guy.

And Aunt May proves herself more dangerous than the Lizard! That's three super-villains that she's beaten out with her telephone!

And the Lizard reverts back to normal.

That ending was really, really powerful. I'm feeling that one in my ribs. And hey, great responsibility, there are consequences for Peter's actions. Even if they weren't his fault per se. Halcyon would be proud.

The ending REALLY sold this one to me. And the general mood and feel of it. And I'm still not sure about the spider mask in the sky at the end. It's... interesting... but... yeah. Not sure about it.

Over-all. Bravo.