MTV Spider-Man: Where Did It Go Wrong?

[karasu]

Friends sucked horrendously. If I want to see a show that takes place in New York I'd turn on a rerun of NYPD Blue.

 

[Ssrn53]

Certain New York characteristics and character types don't translate well in the eyes of Middle America.

Mister Intensity

OK. This statement makes better sense. Although I don't care what translates well to middle America because I'm not from middle America. Their norms probably don't translate well to the American North East.

As for 'Friends' that does not represent New York attitude. New York culture is way too diverse to be represented by what your calling "The New York 'tude". To say otherwise would be a generalization. There is no defacto New York 'tude. There can't be.

 

[Mister Intensity]

OK. This statement makes better sense. Although I don't care what translates well to middle America because I'm not from middle America. Their norms probably don't translate well to the American North East.

As for 'Friends' that does not represent New York attitude. New York culture is way too diverse to be represented by what your calling "The New York 'tude". To say otherwise would be a generalization. There is no defacto New York 'tude. There can't be.

I never really said that only that some New York character types, particularly don't really translate well on television. That's one reason the character of Indy wasn't well liked by some fans because she comes across as an obnoxious "hipster" to some (personally I liked the character).

Mister Intensity

 

[Funkatron]

They should have just animated Ultimate Spiderman and be done with it

 

[Spider-Man]

They should have just animated Ultimate Spiderman and be done with it

That would have been pretty cool to see, actually. I would've preferred that over what we got. But then again, they probably would of made alot of changes to it anyways to make it fit in with MTV's demographic, whoever that is.

 

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

I gotta admit, I kind of liked the MTV Spider-Man.

THE GOOD STUFF
- Peter: Like someone (the Blue Wolf?) said, they kept him mostly the same from his comics or movie incarnations, and that was a good thing.

- Indy: Admittedly, she gets bonus points simply because she's an original character and she's Asian (Indy was short for Indira, if I remember correctly). Fundamentally, though, I thought she was fun, and sort of playing the Lois Lane role in addition to Gwen Stacy. I never really got the sense that anybody was coming close to guessing who Spidey really was, but she was probably the one who came closest.

- Electro: WAY better than the comics version, IMO. Gets kind of the Mr. Freeze treatment Paul Dini gave in Batman: The Animated series.

- The animation: Love it or hate it, I thought it was at least original, and I liked the little tricks they pulled when Peter would change from civvies to costume in the blink of an eye.

THE BAD STUFF
- Harry & MJ. Thought both of them were dull, and I didn't care much for Harry's voice actor.

- When is it on? Maybe it was just that the show never moved me enough to seek it out actively, but I thought there were a few pre-emptions and air-time changes, which are never good for a show. You can't watch if you can't find it.

- No Aunt May.

-- Ed/Ace

 

[Stu]

Welcome to the Marvel board Ace!

The series gets judged harshly. Arguably, if we had seen more than 13 episodes, we could've had a lot better show. If you notice the first episode they animated, The Party, looked a helluva lot worse than the finale, Mind Games Part 2 did. The voice actors also sounded a lot more confortable in thier roles as the season went on.

I still think this is the best version of Harry ever. He just made me laugh, there was a lot of subtle hints of a deeper character, for example, he obviously was having some trouble with drinking, and relationship issues. Arguably, the fact his friends barely noticed his drinking was a little weird... probably affected how he acted around people, and his lack of friends beside Peter and Mary Jane.

Still, I'd loved this series so much more if it didn't end on a damn cliffhanger! The curse of Spidey strikes again!

 

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Still, I'd loved this series so much more if it didn't end on a damn cliffhanger! The curse of Spidey strikes again!

Actually, if you think about it, the series didn't REALLY end on a cliffhanger. Spidey made a mistake, Indy got really badly hurt, and Peter quit. End of story. It's a massive bummer of an ending, and it's not the one we wanted to see, but it's really only a cliffhanger because we're expecting him to come to his senses and be Spidey again.

In some ways, that ending is perfectly faithful to the whole Spidey mythos, and moves it firmly into the realm of tragedy. Peter becomes crime-fighting Spidey after the death of Uncle Ben. "With great power" and all that. Then, one day, using his "great power" ends up causing as much personal pain to Peter as the death of Uncle Ben did. It's a reversal of the origin, which ends up undoing the origin.

The fact that this is as upsetting as it sounds probably says a lot about the fundamental optimism that underlies a lot of superhero fiction.

-- Ed/Ace