lowarts is the type of guy that would get annoyed at the scene of Peter washing the pan with the soft side of the sponge

Spectacular is pretty much one of these animated spidey adaptations that fully understands the character and concept of everyone's favorite web-slinger. It was a real shame this series was cancelled way too soon just as it was at the peak of its popularity and the producers had big plans which will never happen.

I was just shaken to my core by being reminded of how much the creative team promised with this show, how hard it actually delivered, and how unfair it is that it got cancelled.

This is one of the ONLY series I can think of where every single supporting character gets significant development. Even Sally Avril, the school snob grows up a little by the end. And Flash Thompson's growth and Harry Osborn's changes in this show were better than any other adaptation, maybe even more so than the comics. I can't even think of another superhero cartoon that pulled off writing a balanced cast half as well as TSSM did. I was most eager to see what was in store for Gwen Stacy and for Black Cat in particular. The place we left off with both of them in season 2 set up for such interesting things.

The one thing I have to disagree with you about is the shows introduction of Mary Jane. You have to keep in mind that this show was made by fans of the source material. The way she is introduced in this show is a direct adaptation of how Mary Jane was introduced in the lee/ditko/romita Era of "amazing spider-man." Peter avoids meeting her because he doesn't trust his aunts judgement then when they finally meet for the first time he opens the door and realizes that he was being stupid. It's very sit com esque and for spider-man fans the way those characters meet for the first time is just iconic. So for me I don't mind the moment because it's a slightly modernized adaptation of a story I already like. Also the reason Peter freaks out when aunt may says "she has a wonderful personality" is because for a long time there was a cultural attitude that if someone lead by talking about a potential dates "personality" when describing them then they were likely trying to hide a lot of their negative qualities. Given how the dating scene has changed over the last few decades you don't see people expressing that belief as much nowadays but this show was made in the early 2000s when it was definitely more common place.

I super disagree with what you say about peter destroying the symbiote. He's pretty stuck in regards to sharing how the symbiote has been dangerous, because he can't share is double life, and he can't reveal that spider-man was compromised at a time when trust in him is critically low. And I think he was pretty confident that freezing the symbiote would destroy it.

Regarding Otto’s lack of build up, I mostly agree, but there is one scene that makes him more sinister: When he describes the Rhino armor’s features, he rants about it in a way that seems prideful, followed by shining glasses and mad scientist music before Norman interrupts him. That seems off from someone who was supposedly sad about Flint Marko’s assumed death.

One complain I have is that not every villain needs to have an emotional connection to Peter/Spider-man. This is a tv show with at least 2 fight scenes every episode, if every fight makes Peter re-evaluate how he's handling things, then he never really grows, because then his growth would become diminished by constantly learning a new lesson. Sometimes a villain is just a hired gun without much emotional weight, that doesn't mean there can't be an emotional weight, but it doesn't mean that focus should be made right off the bat. The bigger villains like Goblin, Tombstone, and Venom have that kind of development because they're the big villains with bigger story arcs. When the show was made, they planned to go through Peter's entire High School career, then have direct-to-DVD movies depicting his College years. That's a lot of time that they were probably planning to eventually give certain development to certain characters. This isn't a movie franchise where they have to adapt all the big moments and speed through certain development to put these characters in their prime. It's a tv show with a bunch of smaller stories gradually building up an overarching plot, and those plans for future plots were sadly cut short before they had the chance to be developed. Not every fight is the ultimate battle between good and evil, not every fight has a big emotional stake, and not every villain will immediately have a deep backstory or personality that's immediately delved into, because where would you go from there? Shocker isn't immediately this super complex character because to him, it's just a job. He doesn't have a personal vendetta, he just follows the money. There is stuff that can be delved into about his character, but it would be unwise to immediately focus on that at the start of the show.

I actually want to defend the logic of what Peter did with possible logic he did. Peter was still in a heightened emotional state that made him focused on killing the symbiote. The symbiote is a living organism which means it is prone to be affected by changes in temperature. Most organisms won’t survive in extreme heat or cold so Peter as a scientist would know this and attempt to kill it in one of two ways: extreme cold or heat. He would have no reason to assume that the symbiote could survive either so assumed it would die based on scientific logic.

Ur knocking Mj’s introduction but I think that “face it tiger, you hit the jackpot” is like one of the top famous lines in Spider-Man along with the responsibility speech

Oh, and I gotta add: this is my favorite version of Mary Jane. While she didn’t have a lot of development in what we got, I liked that she was more emotionally and socially smart compared to her peers, and that she was flirty without it being creepy. Also, that while Peter finds her attractive, she isn’t an actual love interest and her and Peter’s relationship isn’t in that level yet. Also, you could argue there’s hints in the show that she already knows Peter’s secret.

In regards to your gripes with MJ’s depiction in this show, the show intended to focus more on Gwen for the first few seasons. Much like in the comics, it will gradually lead to Peters growing closeness with MJ when his relationship with Gwen goes south.

Bro, I cannot abide by the level of MJ slander in this video! Saying she was a one note character was like a bullet through my heart!

I genuinely think Spectacular Spider-Man is one of the top 5 if not top 3 animated shows of all time. It's one of those few shows that gets *better* when I rewatch it because I notice so many more details that give the show depth.

Good idea to cover this now, while Spidey is on everyone's minds. I hope this series works out well for ya!

god i love this show. greg weisman did a SPECTACULAR job.

I remember having a DVD of Spectacular Spider-Man as a kid since I didn’t really have anything to watch on TV, so I usually stayed entertained by this show as a kid. I miss those days.

I was gonna make a series about this show inspired by your other "as great as we remember?" videos, but now you've done it for me!

I also hardcore disagree about the venom situation. Why would petter explain in a lot of detail why he is destroying the Symbiote besides just saying it’s bad and needs to die the situation is far too complicated for him to explain. Then when it comes for waiting for it to be destroyed he isn’t supposed to be there he is technically breaking in the kill the symbiote with someone in the room. If he stays too long which he wouldn’t know how long that would be. The police could be called and the situation would get more complicated. Also from how it froze why wouldn’t he assume it’s destroyed. It makes complete sense for him to just brush it off and leave because he is doing what he thinks is best and what he did would be enough. Not him being out of character or stupid. So I’m just going to have to say this was a bad take

Spectacular Spider-Man is one of those cartoons like Avatar that no matter how old you get it not only holds up but you get to appreciate a lot of aspects of the series you didn't as a kid.

The episode where Spidey is trying to get rid of the symbiote and having that internal battle with himself is one of my all time faves. It's such a great way to do the origin story and it understands the character SO well. I always dreamed about something like that making it into a movie someday.

I would say for a kids cartoon this show puts a little more effort than expected, especially when it is primarily an action show. This makes it that much more special for fans of Spiderman and those just being introduced to Spiderman. I think that's what makes Spectacular looked upon so fondly even if it may falter at times in writing or presentation. It feels this show made a genuine effort to entertain.

It is unfair that this show got 2 seasons and Ultimate got 4 seasons. Darn legal disputes...

I love this show but have absolutely no nostalgia for it. I remember when it came out I specifically avoided it because I thought it looked like a kids show. It was only in the past few years when I decided to give it a chance and it quickly became one of my favorite adaptations of all time

Just want to say that I loved how they handled MJ in the show as a whole. I’m not a fan of Spidey adaptations that start early in his career that go for MJ right off the bat. I like it when they are the endgame couple and not the first one. It’s one of the reasons I love MJ in this. She is incredibly comic accurate and incredibly supportive of everyone. I do feel that we would’ve gotten to see more behind her curtain in future seasons, but what we got is still one of the best adaptations of her. I would love to have a third season of this show, and with Spider-Man hype being at an all time high, old shows being revived, and the possibility that Spectacular Spidey could appear in Spiderverse, I have high hopes we can get a continuation.

One thing that I wish had been expounded upon more with Venom is that the symbiote is *lying* to Eddie by omission. The symbiote only shows Eddie the parts of Peter's life as Spider-Man where he was the most self-seeking or opportunistic; essentially, only the parts that would feed Eddie's hatred of him. The symbiote *knows* that whole reason Eddie was angry at Peter in the first place was because he thought Peter abandoned them during the Connors arc, and it DELIBERATELY WITHHOLDS this information from Eddie to ensure its own survival and get revenge on Peter. It made it really tragic when Eddie developed a dependency due to the feeling of power and control the symbiote gave him. I wish the show would have had a chance to explore this more. It's like in Star Wars when the Emperor never tells Anakin that the Separatists are on Mustafar because he *ordered* them to be there and that he was responsible for the other side of the conflict as well. Knowing this would have affected their decision! I'm fully convinced this show would have rivaled Batman: The Animated Series if it had been allowed to continue.

The Eddie issue would have been SO easy to fix, too. Imagine Eddie tries to free the symbiote as Peter tried to kill it. Perhaps Peter hurts Eddie or simply fails to stop him. I don't think that would change much of anything and it feels both sides of this conflict.

Alright, I gotta say it. The vibe you're supposed to get from "Ms. Wonderful Personality" is that she's ugly. The idea goes that there are a ton of things to compliment a girl on like her face, her hair, her eyes, or her physique. If your go to compliment is her personality then you're avoiding the fact that she's ugly. That's why Peter and Harry shiver at the words "wonderful personality"; they think Mary Jane has to be ugly. That's why Peter is so astonished when he finds out M.J. is actually hot. Not that this fixes your complaint, but yeah.

To be honest the forced miscommunication in the venom plot didn't bother me as much as some other plot contrivances. It's still contrived, yeah, but it happens right after the symbiote giving Peter a majorly traumatic flashback to his uncle's death and he's probably still running on adrenaline after escaping it. It makes sense he'd be thinking nothing but "oh god kill it" and mess up not explaining things to Eddie cos well.. he's exhausted and just desparate for this whole thing to be over. You would think that in this situation he'd care more about making sure it was dead though. But again, he's exhausted as hell after the worst day ever and just wants to get this done and get out of there. It's still a stupid decision but it doesn't seem like an implausible mistake to make in a situation of heightened emotion. Or idk, maybe I'm just more willing to forgive one moment of bad writing when the rest of the episode was great, I dunno!

This is almost dream come true - your channel is perfect to analyze this cartoon. Strange that it was somehow overlooked by the popular content creators thus far.

How fitting I just finished season 1 yesterday. 😁 Love seeing your videos. Been here ever since the FMA comparisons.

truly yes the best spiderman cartoon ever

My only one minor gripe about this review is that you’re breaking these episodes down into arcs. By doing so, I feel you’re limiting yourself to a specific portion of the narrative which means any potential complaint you would’ve had for an episode in that specific “arc” could’ve already been answered/fixed in another episode in another “arc.” Spectacular Spider-Man isn’t like, say, Teen Titans where it has some episodic episodes and some episodes that are connected. Almost every episode in Spectacular ties into each other in one way or another that makes it a cohesive narrative from beginning to end. So, splitting these episodes into arcs just doesn’t seem right to me when criticizing the show. Other then that, I really liked your analysis and appreciate you going further with criticism (even if I don’t agree with some complaints) as it feels most issues with this show are often neglected. So, it’s great seeing a different perspective in regards to what didn’t work. I especially agree with the critique regarding Electro and how the personal dilemma Peter initially faced should’ve been explored just a little bit deeper. Overall, I look forward to seeing the next part in this analysis. Great work

If I recall correctly the Doctor octopus thing was actually explained. They did it like the Spider-Man 2 movie where the microchip in the back that was controlling the arms was messed with and or broken during one of the experiments he was doing, and the AI and the arms themselves are what pushed him over the edge and changed his whole attitude.

You know would be awesome? If Batman and Spider-Man had a conversation together, and Batman tells Spider-Man not to let go of his life outside of Spider-Man. I definitely know Peter has learnt this lesson plenty of times in his own comics and films. But I think it would be cool if the two had a conversation about double lives.

Man, that was it!! I cannot wait to see the next part of this review of the next season!! Spectacular Spider Man was a great show for me. I still remember it to this day. I cannot wait to rewatch it sometime. And I cannot wait to see your next review about the show!!

Thanks for this video. I didn't see a lot of this series and teen Peter never really engaged me as much as his older and more developed, but a glad this Peter has a praiseworthy series to showcase him.

I really love Spectacular Spider-Man. I think they handle the Black Suit story arc pretty great. What I like about Spidey's black suit is that looks like Sam Raimi's version. But it slowly transforms into his original look in the comics. It is the symbolism of Pete's downward spiral of his own darkness. I kinda get with your criticism of Eddie Brock. He is essentially a combination of 616 and Ultimate versions. I think writers slowly turn Brock into a jerk to Peter, but I feel that they rush it a bit.

Aww yeah my favorite Spiderman cartoon of all time. Also great to see this series returning on your channel.

What i like about spectacular is that it is just a Spider-Man story it doesn’t try to introduce other heroes like other Spider-Man shows do it really gives you the sense that the city would fall apart without spidey

This is like, the most upbeat you've ever been, and I'm just SO HERE for that.

It's funny how the show tried to keep Green Goblin's identity a secret like they did in the comics, it worked there because Green Goblin was new character, but it doesn't work in an adaptation when everyone knows it's Norman Osborn.

I’ve binge watched the show over the weekend and I really wish this show had continued! I think this is one of if not the best interpretations of the character and his world

One of my favorite aspects is that with a few exceptions almost every character is established and/or introduced before they become a costumed villain

I can see why the situation with the symbiote and the transition to Venom didn't sit right with you, but to be fair, if Spider-Man did explain the situation to Eddie right at that moment, it's not like Eddie would even take his word for his right then and there. After all the stuff Eddie's been through, he probably would've just seen Spider-Man as a liar trying to hide the fact that he's cowardly thug. And I'd imagine that Peter only left in such a hurry to keep things from escalating further. He's still 15-year-old teenage who probably couldn't bear to hear his oldest friend scold him further. I personally think the scene helps to show Peter's flaws without making him come off as a complete idiot (unlike Ultimate Spider-Man), but that's just my opinion. I feel like you're being a bit too harsh on Peter making a mistake here, but it's one I can somewhat understand.

Great video man. Looking forward to the next.

Yes, it’s Spectacular. Heck, I love this cartoon more than the Live Action films.

@Lowart Would you consider going through The 90s Spider-Man series after Spectacular Spider-Man. It is probably the second most praised Spider-Man series "Though that may not be saying much considering how heavily critiqued the newer shows are, and how poorly some of the really old Spider-Man shows are." Regardless it be cool to see if you take an interest. The 90s series is currently available on Disney Plus.

Great video, appreciate the analysis brother

Yep I always hated that Peter never reflected on that, instead I wanted him to try to speak then fight, however he always fight then maybe talk😂😂, that happened multiple times

I just recently started watching this on Netflix. I’ve gone through the whole first season and some of season 2. As far as season one goes, it’s the best piece of Spider-Man media I’ve seen in a very long time. I think that the ending of season one was just perfect, Peter finally realizing that Spider-Man isn’t a curse. He came to terms knowing he’s going to have bad days and Spider-Man will be at fault, but he puts his friends, family, and basically everyone in New York over his own mental and physical health. I also just loved how of all people that made him realize he was turning into someone awful with the symbiote, it was Flash Thompson who helped him see that the symbiote was breaking not just Peter, but Spider-Man as well. That moment of Peter thanking Flash for essentially saving Spider-Man was everything I would’ve hoped for. Peter just being friends with everybody while at the same time being an absolute toy that everyone plays with just works because Peter is just that good of a person. The entire show is just fantastic, and don’t get me started on the title sequence. The title sequence alone should convince anyone to watch the show lol.

Spectacular Spider-Man is the only cartoon has ever adapted Stan Lee and Steve Dicko's 60's comic stories and tones. That's very rare to every spider-man cartoons and really wish this type of adaptation comes out more.

Awesome I love your channel and I love this series. Keep up the good work

It was a great show. It’s a shame that they never made a season 3.

I just Finished binging this show today, that is the biggest coincidence i’ve ever been apart of

Such a great show, I love these videos, thanks for making them!

The fights are absolutely phenomenal and the characters are all really clearly developed

I never got why Eddie was so mad at Peter after he figured out he was Spider-Man. His look should’ve changed. He saved Dr. Connors. He wasn’t a cheap bailer, he was a hero.

Even just that small nod to carnage in the group therapy scene which doc ock and electro was soo cool

Great idea for a video series! I hope you someday go back to analyse seasons 2 and 3 of Avatar, and I also hope to see you tackling all classic 2D Mario games! Cheers, and Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Your reaction to the wonderful personality line made this entire video worth it even beyond your normal analysis. Also your point about venom is an interesting one. I thought you were going to bring up what I noticed when I first saw that scene. Eddie hates Peter and Spiderman because of several misunderstandings do to their shared identity . So him getting and learning their the same person should eliminate most of Eddie's hostility. Now you could assume the symbiote is clouding Eddie's judgment and hiding information, but that's not really confirmed until much later.

this show is so perfect to me i've watched it 5 times over and it gets better every time.

I have so much nostalgia with this show especially the lizard episode and the perfect opening song

I watched this as a kid but I only remembered like one or two scenes when i rewatched it recently. So, free of nostalgia, it still held up really well and all of the characters were handled super well.

without watching the video: yes, absolutely. i recently re-watched the entire series, and i only do that with series i think are magnificent.

I’m at 8 mins in but these are the mistakes Peter should be making, not the mistakes like sending a drone strike to attack him and his friends. Mistakes that effect his RELATIONSHIPs and doesn’t make him look stupid.

this show works so well because of the effort they took to set up the characters so the conflict often felt unavoidable also, one of my favourite little details in the show is the gradual change in the venom suit between episodes, it's so cool

Yes, it absolutely is I just finnished it. it is just as good as everyone remember. Geez there are so many good things about it it’s phenomenal

If memory serves me correctly about season 4 hobgoblin,and carnage were supposed to be villains in it,hence the interaction where we saw Cletus Cassidy in an asylum

Every cartoon you look back on is in my top 10 cartoons of all time and I love it. Need samurai jack next

Just re-Re-watched s1. Glad this video exists!

I haven’t seen any of the spectacular Spider-Man, but I love Ultimate Spider-Man. That episode with Deadpool still kills me whenever I watch it.

I’m so excited for the next part

The dude josh literally brought his A material as lines such as “ no, in fact my fans demand a certain number of quips in a battle”

so i love the final episode of season 1 BUT i think it would of worked better if venom attacked peter in the school, during the school hours and peter has to try to go dress up as spiderman while also helping out everyone from venom, with the end of the season eddie brock tells the world that peter parker is spiderman, leading to season 2 being more focused on bad guys effecting peter parker and an entire investigation going on about him.

Regarding the Symbiote, I do agree PARTLY with how Peter handled the situation when it came to Symbiote and Brock. However, one thing that I thought was fairly obvious was that if he explained what the symbiote actually is, the first question that would come up is "how do you know this" and at that point, he would have to admit to stealing the symbiote INTENTIONALLY (he was framed for it originally) which could've caused some more issues and questions. "So you ARE A menace!" "If you want me to believe you, show me your face." Brock already believes that Spider-man stole the symbiote. I do think that trying to freeze the fucking alien from the cold vacuums of space was a little bit of big brain moment though.

Also floating heads is an iconic Spider-Man iconography

The 1997 spider man is still the goat x men blade punnisher morbious venom dr strange and many more a fantastic amazingly well made show that still holds up

13 years later and only now I notice that newspaper that reports on Chameleon-Spidey crime spree also mentiones Venom... who has yet to even appear. Then again, only now I noticed that there's an actual cohesive text in that article, so cudos to the team for attention to detail, even if some mistakes happened along the way.

I remember this show! I've never seen anyone talk about it before.

Amazing video. Dare I say...spectacular. I subbed :)

What Peter supposed to tell Eddie? “Yeah I stole the thing and used it for my benefit but I’m going to kill it now” like would that have worked out any better for him?? I’m sorry that just feels silly that is such an unforgivable “mistake’

The thing about the nice personality was making fun of the fact that girls described as having a “nice personality” and nothing else, was usually interpreted as them being ugly. They of course flipped this trope and made Peter’s date Mary Jane, which is why he was surprised. He thought aunt may was telling him she was ugly, or at least that’s what he gathered from it

I know the joke's lost on you younger kids, but back then describing a girl as "she has a nice personality" meant she wasn't a looker, or she wasn't pretty. Peter read that as people making a backhanded remark versus Aunt May saying it earnest. That's the setup and the payoff is its Mary Jane Watson. It turns out Peter misread Aunt May's remark because there's an age difference and Aunt May didn't know what she said may have had negative implications.

The thing you said about Eddy becoming Venom could have been so easily fixed by the producers too, just make it like Eddy was sneaking on the room or something and Spiderman didn't actually realize he was there or something similar and it woulda been better

Never got around to watching this series, kind of cool to see it as an outsider looking in

I remember me and my sister bonded over the theme song. We sang it everytime

I once had like 4 episodes when i was like 12 after I had watched it when I was a kid and I think I rewatched those 4 episodes a thousand times

Respectfully disagree regarding the whole thing about the villains, Dr Octopus especially. Personally the contrast between his meek nice attitude pre-transformation and his insane egomaniac self after it is what sold this as one of my favourite Doctor Octopus ever, because it made it all the more shocking. The transformation might lack build-up, but to me it helped make him creepier.

can we talk about the small things that i love about this take on peter/spider-man. like when he was fighting the sinister 6 one of them broke out the web & spider-man makes a quip out loud but in his head he says “man i gotta start making that stuff stronger” or when his suit got too big in the winter & he had to change it. i love the small details.

Missed opportunity to say "maybe it'll even be SPECTACULAR" at the end there XD

I like the art style and absolutely love its interpretation of The Green Goblin. It’s one of my top 3 favorite versions of The Green Goblin.

Spectacular Spider Man Is One Of The Greatest Spider Man Animated Series Of All Times 🧡

The shocker and tombstone quotes were the best in the series imo. Tombstone straight makes Peter understand he's fighting a war he can never win and tombstone is Peter learning that he has to continue to fight that war because it's his responsibility

👏👏👏 great review dude! Watched the whole thing and agree with it all. Spider-Man is one of those heroes that would never do anything mean or against his friends. Even if they were mind controlled or something Spider-Man would rather find a way to immobilize instead of hurting them. So this Spider-Man not even explaining why you’re about to destroy someone’s career right in front of them is ridiculous. Eddie Brock is his friend so him doing that is not in his character.

He does handles killing the symbiote in the ultimate spiderman comic run the same way. These are moments I just have to chock up to him being an emotional kid who gets angry or overserious and neglects to consider his friend's emotion. At the same time, killing the symbiote would be better in the long run for everyone. Still rubbed me the wrong way though so its good to see others think so too.

Just wanna mention that Aunt May referring to a "girl with a nice personality" is actually a reference to the comics where Peter assumes that's code for "she's ugly but has a nice personality". This is something I've seen in multiple other books, movies, whatever and I think was a more common assumption in the past. Not to say that it isn't pretty sexist, but it's not the same as Peter being a pig that Lowart seems to have assumed.

great video

NUMBER 1- LOVE THE INTRO, ITS NOT CHEESEY AT ALL

Is it a coincidence that I was watching Spectacular Spider Man and Lowart posted this video?