Spider-Man Romances In Animation - A Retrospective

[Stu]

“Who am I? Are you sure you wanna know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody told you it was a happy little tale – if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world? Somebody lied. But let me assure you, this, like any story worth telling is all about a girl” Peter Parker – Spider-Man.

Women. Some call them the fairer sex, the more educated amongst us know better. Their nagging is legendary, their taste in films is usually crap (yes sweetheart, she will end up with Mr. Right everytime), and they have an unexplainable fascination with shoes too difficult to fathom for most mens minds. But, the majority of us men folk need them, and often have our lives revolve around them because we are too lazy to learn how to iron properly.

Even The Amazing Spider-Man has had his share of women problems. Since his story began in the 60’s, Spider-Man has always had a romantic tone to his character, in an effort to make him relatable to the teenage audience creators Stan Lee and Steve Dikto tried to reach when they first began working on The Amazing Spider-Man way back in the day. It makes Peter Parker seem that much more likeable, he wants to lead an ordinary life and have a girlfriend but the ever looming presence of his responsibilities as Spider-Man frequently denies him this. Whether trying to romance his boss’ secretary, ignorantly ignoring the advances of the hot chick from college or avoiding blind dates with his Aunt’s friend’s niece, the women have plentiful in Spider-Man’s run in the comics. But this here is an animation forum (or site, for those of you who have stumbled across this on Marvel Animation Age, hello!). How does Spider-Man’s romantic life work outside the comics?

The 67 show usually followed the early Lee/Dikto/Romita run pretty closely, despite there not being a lot of depth to it, and thus, Betty Brant was the object of Peter’s desire for the first season. The long suffering secretary was never a full on romance in the show – Peter obviously liked her and visa versa but we never saw them go out as such, it was more a case of whenever J. Jonah Jameson, Fearless Publisher of The Daily Bugle would go on one of his long winded rants about Spider-Man, Parker or even the teenage generation in general, Betty would be the first one to stick up for him, hell… she’d be the only one to stick up for him, after all, it seems that only the three of them actually worked in the building! No Robbie Robertson in this show, folks!

It’s hard to judge the romance between Peter and Betty because it was never showcased, merely strongly hinted at. Much like the comics, Betty could be described as the one that got away although they did remain good friends afterwards. Betty was a perfectly likeable character in the show and quite the little sweetheart – things rarely went Peter’s way when he stepped into the offices of The Daily Bugle and she was almost up to Mr. Jameson’s level when it came to delivering with the quips or the one-liners. She didn’t really have a defining appearance and she was used as the damsel in distress but once, in the episode’s premiere, The Power Of Dr. Octopus where she is actually concerned for Peter after he doesn’t return home from his photo assignment as Spider-Man had been kidnapped Dr. Octopus. She really did serve more as a supporting character rather than the leading Lois Lane, probably due to the fact that romance in Saturday morning animation in the 60’s probably wasn’t welcome.

Everytime I come to write an animation retrospective on Spider-Man or one of his villains/supporting characters, there’s a feeling of dread that comes over me. It’s not the fact that I’m usually feeling that I really should’ve done this last night instead of doing the pub quiz and losing (again!) and thus have a deadline to race against, no, my feeling of dread is that usually, I’m going to have to talk about the second and third seasons of 67 Spider-Man. As you’re probably aware due to the lack of reviews for them on my site, I really, really don’t like this seasons. I probably have more disdain for them than I do for sheer crap like The Avengers: United They Stand because at one point, I used to really enjoy the 67 Spider-Man series. Sure, it was probably the cheesiest cartoon you’ve ever seen, but it was good cheese. Like those songs that always make you get up and dance in the club, regardless of how many you’ve had to drink. You’d worry about how much of a fool you’ll look the next day, but notice that all of your mates are doing exactly the same thing. Ask whatever passes for the DJ at your nightclub to play Dire Straits Walk Of Life or Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, you’ll see what I mean. Any road, seasons 2 and 3 turned Spider-Man from a daft, ludicrous comedy into some strange science fiction cartoon barely resembling anything Spider-Man had ever done in a comic and sucking everything of even remote interest out of the show so Spider-Man could fight, weird, green skinned villains. The brilliant jazzy score? Gone. The cheap, cheerful animation? Gone - replaced with… crappier animation. Betty Brant? Barely noticeable, replaced with random ladies each week, which only made Peter look like more of a sex pest than anything else. The fact I’ve watched most of them yet fail to remember a single name or interesting character trait says more than a me spinning some crap for a couple of paragraphs now ever could.

For historical purposes (message boards/animation websites [hello again!] can have historical purposes?) it’s worth noting that Mary Jane actually made her animation debut in this show in The Big Brainwasher. There’s nothing here to distinguish her from the over, countless hordes of useless females presented in the show but at least they ensured she was a red head. Curiously, she’s also the niece of Captain Stacy who also appears in this episode. It seems the writers just merged her and Gwen Stacy together. The episode also gets bonus points for including The Kingpin, rather than the aforementioned generic green villains.

That’s about it for the 60’s show – considering that the romance really started picking up when John Romita Sr. took over the artistic reigns of the comic after the show was produced, could we expect to see more romance in the 80’s shows?

 

[Arsenal]

My schtick... it's gone. Someone must have taken it.

I liked the first segment and especially enjoyed your inclusion of Queen's "Don't stop me Now."

Betty is often overshadowed in the Gwen v. MJ debate. I would posit it is for reasons alluded to here. There was never much that was distinctive about her. Betty exists, she likes Peter, she does grunt work for Triple J and sometimes she's taken hostage.

If she were a superhero, her codename would have been Forgettable Girl.

 

[Stu]

When Spider-Man would finally return to the small screen, one might expect to see some of his later adventures in the comics taken into consideration when translating the show. However, for unknown reasons, the show was syndicated with the previous 67 show and actually maintained continuity with it despite the fact it premiered over a decade after the last show had finished. This meant that Betty Brant was still the main girl in Peter’s life, and surprisingly, neither Mary Jane nor Gwen Stacey appeared in the show at all. Then again, neither had appeared in the comics for a few years either...

Marvel actually financed the show themselves and since the animation studio behind the original show had gone bust, they went into business for themselves. The show was now cast in the States, which meant new voices for Spidey and co and all the models were redesigned to replace the cheap 67 designs. I am personally gratefully relieved they did this because the natural decision was to base the show on the artwork of John Romita Sr. considered by many to be the very best Spider-Man artist of all time.

So, despite some ‘nice’ but not outstanding animation, the show was usually very pleasing to the eye. How did it hold up in the writing department? The show was produced in the 80’s – take that as you will. The show portrays Peter on a severely down on his look fellow and thus, if he’s not getting pounded by supervillains, he’s getting his ass kicked for not taking Betty out like he promised. There’s more of a romance between them here – in the 60’s show you feel like they are friends who would like to date, but here they’re shown dating with Peter’s like as Spider-Man constantly getting in the way of things. It’s what I find most appealing about the character – he desperately tried to maintain his normal life, but his double life gets in the way. It probably stands as why I like Spider-Man more than Batman, my second favourite superhero – Bruce Wayne is usually a really, really dull counter part, and most of the time reading about Bruce is usually just filler until Batman comes along. The original four movies are especially guilty of this and I rate Batman Begins as highly as I do because its version of Bruce Wayne is just thrilling to watch. Kudos, Mr. Bale. I also find the current Spider-Man comics to be dull and uninteresting – the writing has been pretty lousy for the last couple of years anyway but now that everyone knows his secret identity, the magic has gone, for me.

Unbeknownst to many, Spidey’s leading femme fatale also appeared in the solo 80’s show in one episode called Curiosity Killed The Spider-Man, The Black Cat makes her debut in animation.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember it being filled with all sorts of innuendo which they simply wouldn’t have gotten away with if the show was placed on network television, rather than being syndicated (which might explain why Black Cat never appeared on Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends). Her design is very well done here in the show but a few too many cat puns and meeoowww’s soured the experience. She’s also a full on supervillain here that probably goes against many people’s favourite version of the character, but for the sake of one appearance, it doesn’t really bother me. There was no real romance to speak off, like there would be in her next appearances, but I thought it was worth mentioning all the same.

The romance in the solo show can probably be best described as unremarkable, but not unenjoyable. Given the time in which it aired, it’s not too much of a surprise – romance is primarily used to attract girls and sometimes even the older demographics that was no use to the creators of the 80’s. Boys had their cartoons, girls had theirs, and adults had better things to watch.

Things picked up dramatically on the romance front when NBC decided that gasp! Boys and girls can both enjoy the same cartoon! At the networks request, Marvel made Spider-Man part of a team to make the cartoon more of a buddy show with Iceman from The X-Men and a new, original character called Firestar being added to the fray. The Spider-Friends, as they would be called would be all about having fun and fighting crime. A lot of Spider-Man fanboys balked (and still do) at the idea of Spider-Man in a team but I never minded it, compare this to the early 80’s show and it’s easy to see that Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends is so much more superior (Sorry Mr. Talpur!)

The romance was interweaved into the show with both male leads having the hots for Firestar although neither had the courage to actually admit it to her, and Angelica spent a lot of time flirting with both boys whilst they fought the various villains which menaced the metropolis. The show is utterly silly yet enjoyable – it’s pretty much got the same visuals as the solo show but Spider-Man was recast to the relief of many and Dan Gilvezan was brought in and injected more fun into the role. Whilst I don’t quite rate him as highly as Christopher Daniel Barnes or Neil Patrick Harris I don’t think either of the aforementioned voices would’ve worked in the role.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the romance between Spider-Man and Firestar as Firestar is utterly adorable, she’s actually probably the most likeable of all of the ladies in Spidey’s animated adventures and her model is great – it reminds me so much of the legendary Romita Sr’s depiction of Mary Jane that you immediately get flashbacks to the comic every time she’s on screen – she simply glows. For those of you unfortunate souls not well versed in the Spider-Man comic mythos, Romita Sr. drew the finest version of Mary Jane ever. It’s not even debatable, he’s simply the best. The fact that it’s been over 35 years and no one has even come remotely close to topping him suggests that nobody is going to ever take his crown from him.

The most romantic episode of the season is actually one of the dumbest the show ever did. For a show that features a supervillain being created from an arcade game, this feat was not a small one. In Spider-Man Meets The Girl From Tomorrow, Spidey instantly falls for a girl whose ship has crash-landed from the future and after having a little fun in New York, he decides that he’s going to leave his life behind and travel back to the future with this girl. Moments before he decided to leave, he and Firestar share a sweet little kiss before she bids him a fond farewell. It’s the most romance we ever got in the show, but it was actually really, really memorable. Given the nature of 80’s shows, we never got a real resolution to the romance or even the show, so we’ll never actually found out if Spidey did indeed get the girl. After 3 everyone, 1, 2, 3, awwww….

 

[Kazuya Prower]

They could've had Debra Whitman as Peter's girl in the the 80's solo series since he was dating her in the late 70's/early 80's in the comics.

 

[Caswin]

*Looks at grammar, punctuation, spelling...*

Tired?

Anyway, I know you don't like the latter seasons of the sixties Spider-Man show, and was kind of disappointed that you didn't spend more time there (a retrospective's a retrospective, after all)... but didn't Carol of "Home" merit a mention, at least?

​

 

[batgirl2007]

Are u going to move on to the 90's please?

 

[Stu]

My schtick... it's gone. Someone must have taken it.

Nonsense. Who could ever forget your stunning Thunderbird retrospective? It will surely only be topped by your Flash Thompson article. Perhaps afterwards, we can team up on an Aunt May retrospective and retire, knowing that our efforts will never be topped!

I liked the first segment and especially enjoyed your inclusion of Queen's "Don't stop me Now."

Everyone loves Queen, epsecially when they are on the outskirts of tippsyville.

Betty is often overshadowed in the Gwen v. MJ debate. I would posit it is for reasons alluded to here. There was never much that was distinctive about her. Betty exists, she likes Peter, she does grunt work for Triple J and sometimes she's taken hostage.

If she were a superhero, her codename would have been Forgettable Girl.

I always liked Betty - probably just because I have a fondness for the Lee/Ditko stories. I can't think of any other time that she's really been that interesting since thier run concluded, so she probably was just apart of the package.

They could've had Debra Whitman as Peter's girl in the the 80's solo series since he was dating her in the late 70's/early 80's in the comics.

They could've done a lot with the 80's solo show - given how they weren't tied by the networks but the show was made with the idea to sell Spider-Man to a network, which they did. They probably went in with the idea of making it as network friendly as possible, simply to increase thier chances of someone picking it up.

*Looks at grammar, punctuation, spelling...*

Tired?

Tired doesn't begin to describe it, recently. Lots of things have been taking thier toll on Stu in recent weeks, but this is a romance retrospective, not an update on the author's social life. Add these to my already lackluster grammar/spelling skills and yeah, you'll be finding a few mistakes.

Are u going to move on to the 90's please?

Certainly, Batgirl. These retrospectives take place in chronological order - I start with the 60's and go from there. The first part of the 90's will be up later this evening. Must say, nice avatar too.

 

[Stu]

When Spider-Man: The Animated Series began the show promised to be more faithful to the comics and follow them closer than the previous adaptations of the books did. Given how much Peter Parker had grown up since the last time he was animated by the time the show hit the air, as well as being married to Mary Jane, one would expect MJ to feature prominently in the series. Which makes it all the more interesting that Debra Whitman was the first of Peter’s girlfriends from the comic to be introduced. Her introduction also sprouted one of the show’s best one liners “Oh no, not Debra Whitman. The little sister I never had. Or wanted.” Night Of The Lizard itself is awesome. A great script, spectacular animation and brilliant characterisation made the episode worth remembering, not the would be romance.

Things picked up in the second episode when Felicia Hardy is introduced. They actually aired Spider-Slayers before The Sting Of The Scorpion here in the UK which I thought was a pretty dumb idea as it jumbled up his relationship with Felicia. I always thought his relationship with Felicia was a lot more interesting that his romance with Mary Jane, or even with Felicia again when she became The Black Cat. Introducing her before she became The Black Cat was a stroke of pure genius on Semper’s part in my opinion.

Anyway, back to The Sting Of The Scorpion. Miss Hardy is introduced with yet another brilliant one liner from Peter

Felicia: This isn’t the direction I wanted us to head in Parker.
Peter: But I thought you lived this way?

Shortly afterwards, the classic Spider-Man comes out as he finds he has to ditch Felicia as someone is stalking them. The lady’s ego comes out here as soon as she realises she’s been rejected. “He walked away from me. Who does he think he is?” Oddly enough, this greatly impressed her. Perhaps they could go for lunch?

It’s not clear if she was actually dating Flash Thompson by the time The Spider Slayers aired but she was more interested in Peter on that evening, which resulted in a jealous Flash posing as Spider-Man to try and scare the crap out of Peter. One thing again leads to another, and Peter must leave to fight a giant Spider Slayer robot, and whoops! He abandons Felicia again. Now, he was no longer a mystery man. To her, Peter was simply a coward who ran away at the first sign of trouble. Meanwhile, Aunt May was trying to convince Peter to take her friend Anna Watson’s niece out. Peter, like all sane men realised that a blind date is a ridiculously stupid idea, but Aunt May’s nagging was legendary and he finally agreed to take her out… then completely forgot all about it. MJ made her introduction with the legendary “Face it tiger, you just hit the jackpot line!” making our hero instantly smitten.

Visuals wise, Felicia again trumps MJ. She had the much better model, and even with the amazing animation from the first season, MJ always looked crap. Purple jeans, a yellow sweater and cowboy boots? Add that to a somewhat unusual face design and a voice that makes her sound like a ditzy twelve year old so she certainly wasn’t going to replace Firestar as Spidey’s best love interest so far. Felicia’s outfit actually matched her personality and voice acting veteran Jennifer Hale sounded like a massive snob, perfectly fitting the character to a T. Peter spent the rest of the season constantly trying to juggle both of them, but not really getting anywhere with either of them. Our lad was simply spinning his wheels instead of moving forward, when he wasn’t scaring Felicia in his alien costume of course. The season ends with Peter getting a big slap from MJ, courtesy of The Chameleon who kissed when he was disguised as Peter.

As he is Peter Parker, one could only expect things to get much worse in season two...

 

[HenriDucard]

Ha, I totally agree with you. Black Cat/Felicia Hardy was a much more interesting character than Mary Jane. Plus for a cartoon character she was pretty hot. MJ is an annoying twit in this show and in the movies (I'm not sure about the comics). I was saddened in the end when Black Cat left.

 

[Arsenal]

Far be it from me to hate on a redhead, but I agree that Felicia and Peter had better chemistry than MJ and him. Consequently, I thought getting rid of MJ in the third season was a masterstroke. Using MJ as the TV version of Gwen Stacy was brilliant. I never saw it coming. It allowed Peter to have a Peter & Felicia/Spider-Man & Black Cat relationship very similar to Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle's tete-a-tete.

Then MJ came back. And much silliness ensued.

 

[Stu]

The second season of Spider-Man actually opens with Spidey daydreaming about both Felicia and MJ before his powers start to play silly buggers with him. Realising that he doesn’t have a choice in the matter and realising he is Spider-Man no more, he is free to do as he likes! Date girls! Get a job! Lie in on weekends! He realises this the moment after he’s forgotten to meet Felicia at the Coffee Bean, his old hangout from the John Romita days. His luck goes from bad to worse when Michael Morbius, the arrogant jerk from his class rescues Felicia from a mugger and by episode’s end, they’re dating. You ballsed up there, Pete. Not to worry, there’s still MJ as a delightful consolation prize. With the thought that he might be turning into a monster any minute, Peter began to separate himself from MJ should the worst happen.

When the mutation finally does take place and Peter finds four extra arms emerging from his sides, who should call him but MJ, once again forcing him to ditch her. Once the transformation gets worse and he becomes Man Spider, his humanity attempts to find comfort with MJ as the monster takes over, only to realise he’s actually scaring the poop out of her and would you believe it? He actually starts something between Harry and MJ as she is immediately taken by the fact Harry tried to protect her from Man Spider. I love the fact that they were willing to try so many different things with the romances in the show and didn’t just have 65 episodes of Peter pining for MJ – they were willing to take some bold moves with the romances and actually had them play an integral part in Peter’s life.

Morbius becomes even more of a pain in Peter’s ass when he steals a vile of his poisoned blood and is bitten by a radioactive vampire bat and becomes a living vampire. I always thought the build up to Morbius was outstanding – make you absolutely hate him for being an arrogant prick and then stealing Pete’s girl before turning him into something of a sympathetic villain. Sadly, the censors got in the way and everything quickly went down the crapper the moment he started craving plasma. One wonders if Morbius should’ve gotten past the concept stage the moment they said he wasn’t allowed to suck blood…

Interesting enough, Felicia grows to hate Spider-Man after she believes he kidnapped Morbius. This wasn’t really played up on as much as I’d have liked but given how the next two episodes were pretty much so off topic for Spider-Man it’s doesn’t surprise me. I like Blade, but I really don’t see what he’s doing in a Spider-Man show, especially as I’d already seen enough of Morbius at this point….

Peter officially finds himself with both his girls on the arms on his friends after he is forced to tell MJ that he likes Felicia more to save her from an attack from Morbius and, Felicia, of course, is still with Morbius. After a brief flirtation with Alicia Silvermaine in The Tablet Of Time, Peter manages to get back in MJ’s good books when she invites him to meet her Father she’s not seen in years. The lad is finally rid of his mutation disease, he seems to be getting back in the good graces of his girl and once again, it all goes to pot as MJ is then announced as missing! Not the most brilliant of cliff-hangers but it did make me want to see season three right away instead of having to wait for bloody months. Imagine, a 14 week long storyline which kept throwing toss after turn at you and then when you finally think you’re going to get a nice happy ending, the leading lady goes missing! You’re a cruel one, Mr. Semper…

It turns out that MJ hadn’t actually run away to play happy families with Daddy dearest, she’d actually been brainwashed and joined a cult lead by Baron Mordo. A nice, if not completely out of tone team up with Dr. Strange followed. After a disappointing retread over Spider-Man’s origin and the introduction of Madame Web, things picked up in the middle of the season as at long last, The Green Goblin made his debut.

The episode itself is a nice, slowly paced single episode which actually managed to feature the majority of the cast very well, with both of the big romantic leads getting more depth added to them and yet more twists keeping the audience guessing.

The episode in question sees Norman Osborn turn into The Green Goblin after he inhales a dangerous amount of an experimental gas. The overdose created a new personality which carried out Norman’s revenge – kidnapping and judging those who turned against Osborn previously. One of the victims of course, being Oscorp Board Of Directors member, Anastasia Hardy, Felicia’s old dear. Spidey and the future Black Cat’s paths cross again as he attempts to save Mrs Hardy from the dreaded Goblin, but ultimately fails when The Goblin pulls off a dirty trick and tosses them both from the top of their building forcing Spidey to save Felicia and leaving Mrs Hardy for himself.

MJ gets in on the action, with both her and Peter secretly thinking that Harry is in fact The Goblin, Peter even admits that he is tempted to tell her in hopes of putting her off Harry and back onto him until he realises that he doesn’t have actually have any proof that Harry is The Goblin. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. The episode ends with Felicia expressing her gratitude to Spider-Man by planting one on his lips, much to Peter’s shock! It added a whole other level to their relationship as she fell in love with Spider-Man and Peter found himself fighting himself for her affection!

The Rocket Racer, a terrible, terrible episode followed this, with Spider-Man telling Felicia that the situation is crazy – Spider-Man can’t have a girlfriend. Peter is later fobbed off by Felicia which basically put an end to Peter and Felicia… I think he finally got the hint. You can’t blame him for trying for so long… after all, she’s rich!

He’s back to pining over Mary Jane in the next episode as he is falsely accused of treason! On top of that, his Aunt was hospitalised with some stress related illness. Peter the fugitive enlists MJ’s help to see his ailing Aunt and they share a brief kiss for which she apologises. Bigger things happened in this episode though – Spidey finally became aware of the existence of The Kingpin and Daredevil guest starred!

Peter’s life hit the skids in the opening stages of The Ultimate Slayer as it’s revealed that Harry and Mary Jane are now engaged! Rather than be happy for his best friend, the moment he sees MJ, he simply asks “Why Harry?”. After hearing her sob story, he’s convinced that she doesn’t love Harry and still believes he has a chance. After saving Spider-Man saves her from Smythe the cyborg, MJ gives Harry her ring back and confesses to Spider-Man there’s someone else. I thought this was a little rushed but still nice to see there was some still twists they could throw in. You know he’s eventually going to end up with MJ anyway but romances are most interesting for the chase – as soon as they settle down it becomes dull and uninteresting. One need look no further than the comics to see this – MJ used to be a sexy bombshell constantly adding new twists to Spidey’s story – then she just became a boring wife who sometimes aspired to be an actress, when the writers could be bothered to remember.

Back to the cartoon, things took a confusing turn for the positive later on in the season, as Peter and Mary Jane are now magically a couple, with no explanation as to why she dumped nor any romantic reunion between Peter and Mary Jane – they are a couple again and we as the audience are to except it - she also says it’s fine that he runs off constantly and keeps making up lame excuses for leaving, basically allowing herself to be a doormat for our webhead… if you’re thinking that this was horribly out of character and does little other than make MJ look stupid, you’re not wrong – unfortunately, I cannot elaborate further as I refuse to break my solemn vow of only allowing one single sentence when mentioning The Spot in a retrospective.

The quality of the series picked up dramatically when The Green Goblin returned in Goblin War! when Peter and MJ are invited to the Felicia’s engagement party. Spider-Man’s impromptu appearance at the gala shows us that Felicia does indeed still harbour feelings for our wall crawler despite the fact she’s engaged to Jason Phillips who is finally revealed to be The Hobgoblin in this episode. I was impressed with how long they managed to keep his identity a secret in the show but it was jarring to see him become a complete wimp the moment he was unmasked. I actually prefer The Hobgoblin to the Green Goblin in both the comics and the cartoon so it just seemed especially… wasteful to me. There’s some great stuff elsewhere in the episode though – Norman cracking up in front of the mirror again and Felicia pouring her heart out to Spider-Man, stating she’s like a black cat bring bad luck to everyone around her.

The next episode is simply my favourite in the show’s entire run and no one saw the conclusion coming. Spider-Man’s feud with The Green Goblin comes to an end here after using Dr Ohn’s time dilation accelerator to discover that Spider-Man is fact Peter Parker and using Norman to taunt Peter at Harry’s birthday party. Harry, of course, didn’t want Peter there to begin with – Peter was invited by Norman’s insistence. I remember thinking the dinner scene was simply riveting – watching it as a child, I had absolutely no idea how Peter was going to get out of the situation as Norman had been established as being completely bonkers at this point, mainly from the beginning of the episode were he is shown arguing with himself.

The episode can almost be considered heartbreaking – especially as the opening scene shows Peter telling Madame Web he’s not interesting in her or the superheroics anymore – he knows what he wants from his life now and it’s Mary Jane.

“This big battle you’re preparing me for? I’m not interested. Mary Jane loves me, and I love her. My life is complete.”

So when Mary Jane meets her demise in the episode, Peter takes his frustrations out on Madame Web and then reflects in his own misery with perhaps the show’s great inner monologue;

“For so long now, I’ve tried to be there for everyone – tried to live up to the responsibility that comes with this great power. But when push came to shove I failed the people who needed me most. The woman I love is gone…. Gone forever…”

The most shocking part? He was absolutely right.

 

[Nygma]

I probably have more disdain for them than I do for sheer crap like The Avengers: United They Stand because at one point, I used to really enjoy the 67 Spider-Man series. Sure, it was probably the cheesiest cartoon you’ve ever seen, but it was good cheese. Like those songs that always make you get up and dance in the club, regardless of how many you’ve had to drink. You’d worry about how much of a fool you’ll look the next day, but notice that all of your mates are doing exactly the same thing. Ask whatever passes for the DJ at your nightclub to play Dire Straits Walk Of Life or Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now, you’ll see what I mean.

Or how about requesting Jive Talk from the Bee Jee's. (Realizing everybody leaving)....... Where'd everybody go?

Visuals wise, Felicia again trumps MJ. She had the much better model, and even with the amazing animation from the first season, MJ always looked crap. Purple jeans, a yellow sweater and cowboy boots? Add that to a somewhat unusual face design and a voice that makes her sound like a ditzy twelve year old so she certainly wasn’t going to replace Firestar as Spidey’s best love interest so far.

Well on the bright side MJ shouldn't have a problem getting a role in a children's sitcom.

Sadly, the censors got in the way and everything quickly went down the crapper the moment he started craving plasma. One wonders if Morbius should’ve gotten past the concept stage the moment they said he wasn’t allowed to suck blood…

Maybe they should've just gone with him not being a vampire, and gone with an original take and kept the scary look. But then again you open a whole new can of worms with whining fan boys, complaining about the lack of comic book accuracy. Then no one goes home happy.

You know he’s eventually going to end up with MJ anyway but romances are most interesting for the chase – as soon as they settle down it becomes dull and uninteresting. One need look no further than the comics to see this – MJ used to be a sexy bombshell constantly adding new twists to Spidey’s story – then she just became a boring wife who sometimes aspired to be an actress, when the writers could be bothered to remember.

True, there are very few fictional relationships that stay interesting after the boy and girl get together, there's a few out there. But I can't think of them off the top of my head. I'm in the camp that believes that Peter and MJ's marriage was wasted potential for a new approach. But God knows that this is Marvel, as they've managed to find levels below rock bottom that I didn't even know existed.

Back to the cartoon, things took a confusing turn for the positive later on in the season, as Peter and Mary Jane are now magically a couple, with no explanation as to why she dumped nor any romantic reunion between Peter and Mary Jane – they are a couple again and we as the audience are to except it - she also says it’s fine that he runs off constantly and keeps making up lame excuses for leaving, basically allowing herself to be a doormat for our webhead… if you’re thinking that this was horribly out of character and does little other than make MJ look stupid, you’re not wrong – unfortunately, I cannot elaborate further as I refuse to break my solemn vow of only allowing one single sentence when mentioning The Spot in a retrospective.

Stu, that's the second most pathetic attempt I've seen in someone trying to drag a sentence on and on... and... on. But who really blames you for trying?

I actually prefer The Hobgoblin to the Green Goblin in both the comics and the cartoon so it just seemed especially… wasteful to me.

Too bad Jon Semper didn't feel the same way.

 

[HenriDucard]

Kind of off topic, but do you know that Morbius was in more episodes than Venom and Osborn-Goblin???!!! That isn't right!

 

[Antiyonder]

True, there are very few fictional relationships that stay interesting after the boy and girl get together, there's a few out there. But I can't think of them off the top of my head.

The relationships that lose luster could just as easily be attributed towards bad writing. I don't really get the whole boy and girl lose romantic tension after getting together. I mean married couples have arguements/disagreements which I believe equals tension does it not.

As far as the couple getting together, yeah it would make sense to put it off if the relationship was the sole focus of the show. As far as it goes for Spider-Man, yes romance is a main element, but it's the the sole focus as it would be in say Maison Ikkoku.

The overall theme of Spider-Man is Peter trying to juggle between his civilian life and crime fighting life, the romance/realationship is a part of it yes. Take Amazing Fantasy #15, how much of it dealt with Pete's girl trouble in the entire story? About a few panels or so. The marriage shouldn't really be as big a problem, providing that it is merely a development in the character's life and not the main aspect. Again it's writing and tact that makes the difference.

 

[Stu]

Season four opened with Spider-Man suffering from flashbacks to the scene at the bridge. Personally, I thought it was good the first time they did it, as they showed that it continued to haunt him. However, they really did overdo it – the scene was showed over and over again to the point where I was simply sick of seeing it. It would’ve been better had they simply showed quick, instant flashes of the fight on the bridge and MJ’s disappearance – the entire sequence simply interrupted the point of the rest of the episode. Clearly distraught over the loss of MJ, Peter decides he’s had enough of this life and doesn’t want to be Spider-Man anymore, but quickly changes his mind after Robbie is framed and Jameson gets himself in trouble whilst trying to prove his innocence. He later decides to stick with the costume after getting a much needed pat on the back from Robbie.

After that, after three entire seasons of build up, ladies and gentlemen, introducing The Black Cat! After a tussle with a wasted Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man begins looking into Felicia’s past and discovers her Dad has actually been locked up in S.H.I.E.L.D because he is the only man who is aware of one of the world’s best kept secrets – the Super Solider formula which turned Steve Rogers into Captain America. I remember getting Goosebumps watching that episode – this was back before spoilers ruined everything but there he was right there on the TV! Captain America himself!

The Kingpin then injects Felicia with the formula, creating The Black Cat. I thought this was a lot better than those stupid bad luck powers from the comics – the whole thing was an original take on the character which I thought was much more interesting than the comic storyline. Spider-Man and Black Cat originally act as enemies but after she tells him she needs his help to free John Hardesky, they team up to break him out of the Kingpin’s Crime Central. The episode in question is full of great twists and turns – everything falls into place perfectly, it was simply exceptionally well crafted.

The rest of the season, however, takes a quick dive. There was no real hook to the storylines – after doing so well in the previous seasons of maintaining a serialised storyline, going back to episode of the week stuff wasn’t really a welcome change. Add that to a great lack of any great villains and you’ve got a pretty disappointing season.

The highlight of the season is The Return Of Kraven in which Spider-Man is still bitter over the loss of Mary Jane and has little regard for the feelings of those around – Harry, the people he is trying to protect and even The Black Cat. He even tells Black Cat to stop playing games and leave the costume at home; “My great power has brought me nothing but grief. Quit while you still can.”

I remember really disliking this episode when I first saw it, but I think it gets better everytime I see it now. Chris Barnes does an exceptional job venting Spider-Man's frustration when he believes that Dr. Crawford has been killed by the beast. The role was superbly cast - a lot of people don't care for Barnes in the lead role but I always thought he was absoloutly sensational.

He spends the rest of the season warming up to The Black Cat but refusing to get too close because ultimately, he knows the relationship will end with her being six feet under like it did with Mary Jane. Things are complicated further when Morbius returns and Felicia reveals that she is The Black Cat to him, something she was never willing to do with Spider-Man.

She eventually leaves him for Morbius to help him and Blade rid the world of vampires, leaving ol’ webhead on his own. Not for long though – The Punisher begins to investigate Mary Jane’s disappearance and Harry goes mad due to the loss of both his Father and Mary Jane without any explanation and Mary Jane mysteriously re-appears without the slightest memory of where she’s been. I thought her return was a little rushed to be honest and to be totally honest about it, I like Spider-Man as a bachelor. He isn’t half as interesting when he’s married, all great romances are about the chase – things quickly become stale and predictable the moment they become together.

The next episode ends with a brilliant cliffhanger as Spider-Man reveals that he is Peter Parker to Mary Jane and then pops the questions which comic fanboys were no doubt dreading to hear “Mary Jane – will you marry me?” and even worse, she agrees, after throwing herself off a building, no less. Women. Crazy. One of the little touches that I love about this episode is that Spider-Man is actually sat on Bruce The Gargoyle, who was the one who suffered through many of Peter’s rant about terrible his romantic life was in the previous seasons.

The rest of the episode is thoroughly tedious (poor Lizard, you deserved so much better). I think this season would’ve been a lot better had they actually had Peter and Felicia reveal their identities to each other – that would’ve added a great spice to the relationship and would’ve worked a hell of a lot better than the random “See ya Spider!” conclusion we received.

Pete and MJ get married a couple of episodes later – there’s nothing of great interest about the episode other than the surprise appearance of The Black Cat at his wedding – yes, Peter invited his ex. Classy. Harry shows up, threatening to kill everyone unless MJ marries him, Liz randomly decides she loves him and stops him, whilst Spidey flirted with his ex outside. It’s not an especially brilliant episode, it just seems to lack a certain spark.
The next couple of episodes feature Spidey teaming up with Captain America and the Six Forgotten Warriors – there’s no romance in these episodes, so I’ll skip over them and probably go on and on about them when I finally get around to finishing Cap’s retrospective.

Next, the show’s most confusing plot point comes into play – the fact that the MJ he married isn’t actually the one he first hit the jackpot with, she’s actually a clone, based on her and Hydro Man’s DNA. Given how close we were to the show coming to a close, I still don’t understand why they felt they needed to kill her off – I understand that Peter works better as a bachelor but if everyone else thought that, why marry him off to begin with? For a full on rant about it, check out the page on the website, here. See folks, if you’ve ever had to deal with creating a website that suffered numerous delays, never quite looked as nice as you wanted it to and realised that most of the work you had done for it was crap so you restarted it from scratch, occasionally you need to vent. Or other times, you simply wait until you review an episode that you hate and unleash a rant chock full of fury.

Again, the next episodes feature Spider-Man leading a team to Battle World to prove which is mightier, good or evil. No romance involved beyond a brief flirtation with The Black Cat and Captain America.

Sadly afterwards, the show reached its conclusion, where most people probably expected him to finally get the girl. But alas, it was not to be. Despite an awesome appearance from Gwen Stacy in an alternate dimension and an arrogant MJ, this episode is all about Peter, and it’s simply bloody brilliant.

After saving all reality, overcoming his own misery and defeating one of the show’s coolest villains, don’t you think our hero deserved a happy ending? Me too, but people rarely seem to notice that he actually did.

SPIDER-MAN: “Y’know, for so long, I thought that I never got any breaks. But now, after all I’ve been through, for once I like my life. I like myself and for the first time ever, I wouldn’t wanna change anything about me.”
STAN: “Gee, you’re defiantly not the guy I’ve been writing about all these years.”
SPIDER-MAN: “Well Stan, we all have to grow up sometime. Even us characters of fiction.”

And yes, after that he went off to find Mary Jane. That’ll ding dang do for me.

Spider-Man would return in a new cartoon a few years later. He was already married to MJ in this show, but spent the majority of it on an alien planet, fighting Beastiels. I found the show to be thoroughly awful as it’s pretty much the polar opposite of what Spider-Man is all about – a relatable, down to Earth, down on his luck superhero with the coolest set of villains ever (sorry, Batman). He isn’t a friendly interplanetary superhero, he doesn’t wear nanotech and he doesn’t team up with The Green Goblin! The show sucked, and there’s no interesting romantic moments to be found. One dare say you could remove the word “romantic” from the last paragraph and it would still be accurate.

Next: Spidey Goes To Hollywood.

 

[Nightwing]

I have to agree that Felicia was delivered better than Mary Jane, but I truly did feel MJ's character, despite some of the mess ups fans in this thread claim happened with her character, such as putting up with Peter leaving abruptly when there's trouble. I think she was mostly herself. She just made some compromises once she realized she was in love with a guy who ran off to take pictures of trouble when it started. They had to get past
that stuff somehow in order to get to the point of the particular episode, and I think that worked okay.

Kudos to the mentioning of Firestar. I feel the exact same way verbatim about her. She was just fantastic in every way artistically possible for a cartoon character's creation and translation to screen.

Also props for Dan Gilvezan as Spiderman in Amazing Friends. You're absolutely right. He did a fantastic job.

*Looks at grammar, punctuation, spelling...*

Tired?

Tired??? Sure! But ALSO, don't forget! He's British! I mean look at this stuff:

The second season of Spider-Man actually opens with Spidey daydreaming about both Felicia and MJ before his powers start to play silly buggers with him. Realising that he doesn’t have a choice in the matter and realising he is Spider-Man no more, he is free to do as he likes! Date girls! Get a job! Lie in on weekends!

Boy is that fella British!

The MJ and Felicia stuff that happened once Green Goblin made his debut was fun but, again the most interesting and bold part was the Felicia aspect. I also thought the MJ and Peter conversation was really great. They had an easy out in assuming Harry was the Green Goblin, but they didn't take it, and Peter made sure that MJ didn't let herself think it.

This also made me feel for Harry, since all the Spiderman stuff was happening around him and without his knowledge, and yet he was hurt by the consequences as badly if not the most. Later on though, like the movie, he shows his more clingy self and make the transition to Green Goblin easier to take, cuz he's being such a jerk face.

The framed Peter Parker Mary Jane kiss is another good example. He and the viewer probably loves the fact that this intense story forced Mary Jane to show her true feelings in a "oh the heck with it, this is too important to play games and dance around" kind of way.

I'm mostly fine with Morbius, mostly because I was very young when these episodes first aired, and had not yet developed the part of my mind that would tell me "absorbing" a person's "plasma" through one's "hand holes" for a supposed vampire is idiotic. He was fun to hate for stealing Felicia, though, but I more or less felt he was sincere, since the reason he was in America was to help the people of his home country, and he knew that to "win" financially in America you have to be tough and have an edge.


Jason Phillips was done very well, and I think he got what was coming to him, in costume and out of costume. He, just like the Hobgoblin in general, is a thug who had good enough connections to join the armored/super powered ranks and fly around. He was devious, and clever, and above all ambitious, but he's not better than the Green Goblin, Spiderman's "Joker." Unfortunately he didn't get as much screen time as he should have. The decision of bringing in Hobgoblin first wasn't John Semper's, but he made it so it helped both characters in the long run.

LOOK! Look at that picture there! See that!? He's still alive I tell ya! Woops, sorry!

Chris Barnes does an exceptional job venting Spider-Man's frustration when he believes that Dr. Crawford has been killed by the beast. The role was superbly cast - a lot of people don't care for Barnes in the lead role but I always thought he was absoloutly sensational.

.....what? What what whaat??


Confused with the Mary Jane clone story? Well! See below for Spiderman's reaction!

Bazing!! Again, I took it for what it was, but yeah I'll surely agree with fans who thought it was weird and therefore useless. I understood the twist, but it seemed eccentric and a bit overboard.

Again, the next episodes feature Spider-Man leading a team to Battle World to prove which is mightier, good or evil. No romance involved beyond a brief flirtation with The Black Cat and Captain America.

Hold the phone, Billy Bones! This is by far worth noting since it was pretty much PLUCKED from my head both then and to this day as an adult!

In The (slightly dulled down from the comics version of the) Secret Wars, Captain America and Black Cat were summoned to the strange planet to help fight the battle with evil. Captain America was chosen originally, and Black Cat later on because Spiderman has worked with her very closely before, and was able to juice up the machine that brought the heroes over for one last teammate.

The two had much in common, so as they were walking toward the scene of one of their battles, they got to talking and even flirted a bit. During this time, we're inside Spiderman's head with his thoughts as we so often love to be. I don't know about you, but Spiderman reacted EXACTLY as I would have, and thought exactly what I was thinking. I think this was a excellent scene. You didn't see much stuff like that then.


Thanks Stu. Excellent as always. Aaand if you need someone to proofread these things when you've got one eye closed while writing them don't hesitate. Reading them is my favorite part of the entire Marvel Animation Age if not Toonzone itself (it's up there with my WF stuff).

 

[Stu]

Spider-Man finally made his way to the big screen on May 3rd 2002 (Christ, 5 years ago today!) , after a 40-year wait. Considering how embarrassing the Batman franchise had made superhero movies, Marvel had a hell of a lot riding on this franchise – you’ll notice since it became a success, everyone of his Amazing Friends seem to be getting their own movies.

The movie actually got Spider-Man right – which was practically a miracle at the time. Given that the only ones that had even come remotely close where the original Superman movie and X-Men, I am especially thankful that Sony got the franchise. God knows how terrible it would’ve been if Warner Bros. Or Fox got the rights to it…

The movie shows the classic story – boy is bitten by a genetically altered spider which gives him the ability to cling to any surface, superior strength, speed and reflexes and a strange sense of premonition. He immediately uses these powers to win some money to impress the object of his desire – Mary Jane. The movie is a lot better than a lot of people give it credit for – in regards to other comic book movies, only the sequel, X2, Batman Begins and the original Superman movie top it – considering how many superhero movies we’ve had, it’s quite an impressive feat. The romance is of typical Hollywood flavour – right until the last scene in the movie, in which Peter realises that his responsibilities as Spider-Man outweigh his own happiness. I remember the film getting a lot of flack for not having him get the girl but it’s just the perfect ending for me. It also sets up the sequel perfectly.

But before we got a sequel, we got a new Spider-Man cartoon, taking place after the movie. It was greatly hindered because of the upcoming sequel but it’s romantic relationships were superior to TAS in my opinion. The original movie set up some great ideas for it’s sequel and in turn, this show, but the characters were rarely allowed to progress or grow. Add this to the fact too many things were tailored to the MTV audience and you have a show that simply isn’t for everyone. I don’t think the show deserves the bashing it seems to get online from the fanboys however. If you look up the none fanboy reviews about the show, the majority of them are pretty positive. The DVD reviews usually recommend picking up the set, and if you’ve ever been tempted, I would recommend you do so. Personally, I enjoyed the show a hell of a lot more when I watched it again on DVD, mainly because the episodes were actually in order and thus less confusing to watch and secondly because the set is sweet – the transfers and features are outstanding.

The main premises of the show entails Peter keeping his secret from MJ, the girl he loves but knows having a relationship with her would only jeopardise her safety and his best friend Harry, who believes Spider-Man killed his Father, unaware of the fact his Father was The Green Goblin.

Please note, the retrospective covers the show in the order the episodes are displayed on the DVD, because both the airdate and production orders contain a glutton of continuity errors.

The show opens with the characters pretty much in the same place they were after the movie – Harry and Peter live together but MJ and Peter are now a awkward around each other – you get the feeling that neither of them quite know what to say to each other when all they really want to do is just blurt out their feelings for each other. He can’t because he has a secret identity to keep and her safety to think about and she won’t because she doesn’t want to get burned again after the incident at the graveyard in the first movie. She even hints in the first episode how frustrating she finds it that Peter won’t follow his heart whilst he is in the middle of one of his nerd speeches.

After rescuing her from Turbo Jet (don’t ask, another lame MTV villain) we see that not only is she still smitten with Peter, MJ clearly still has her spark for Spidey. There’s a somewhat confusing kiss between her and Peter at the end of the episode which honestly baffles me – nothing is made of it after it takes place. The only explanation I can think of is to give the episode a happy ending. Any thoughts?

As mentioned previously, I think the relationships in this show are better, if only because both MJ and Peter (and Harry for what it matters) are more interesting in this show.

The leading lady gets a much better voice in Lisa Loeb who honestly brought a lot more to the role than anyone gives her credit for. She manages to bring sympathy to the character and really helps make her likeable, which is more than can be said for Kirsten Dunst. She’s quite the sweetheart – you actually want Peter to end up with her. Her design however, is a little… awkward. They couldn’t give her long hair because of the difficulties the animators had with it, but she’s just got a weird shaped head! Her clothes are much better this time around – no stupid cowboy boots but sadly, the majority of the women in the show had much better models than Mary.

Peter does slightly better – the head and face are pretty much perfect but he’s got a terrible taste in fashion – purple pants and a skin tight black T shirt over a long sleeved white top. The creative team mention on the DVD that Peter needed something long sleeve to conceal his Spider-Man costume which makes sense but it doesn’t really match his character and no sane man goes outside wearing purple pants unless he desires to be ridiculed by all those around him. If I ever turned up to my local drinking establishment of choice in purple jeans, I would surely be slapped and sent home to think about what I’d done. Fortunately, Neil Patrick Harris was cast as the hero and is simply Amazing. Given the difficulty a lot of folks have had casting Spider-Man, Harris is easily the best since Chris Barnes said farewell in 1998. He actually manages to voice each character differently – Peter is constantly mumbling and filled with self doubt whilst Spider-Man had more confidence about him and will proudly deliver a clever one liner. The difference isn’t night and day but Peter and Spider-Man aren’t that far apart so it shouldn’t sound too different to begin with. Harris puts in several performances that even the late great Christopher Reeve himself would be proud of.

There’s a sweet little exchange between the two of them in the amazing Law Of The Jungle in which she gives him a nice little kiss for being a good friend to Harry, but classic Peter isn’t sure how to react to it.

She’s kidnapped again in The Sword Of Shikata, which is an episode known for being really, really crap and hallow but having some of the best fights in the show’s short run. Given how utterly incredible the fisticuffs are in this show, Shikata is still worth watching in it’s own way. After putting up with lacklustre fights in the previous cartoons, it was nice to see them finally cut loose and have Spidey and his villains pound the crap out of each other.

Pete and MJ then have the awkwardness of double dating when you actually aren’t dating as Harry gets a new girlfriend in Cheyenne, The Talon, another lame MTV villain who was apparently supposed to The Black Cat before Eve was cast and the character was changed to be more like the actress portraying her. Stupid MTV.

It’s in Tight Squeeze, however, that things get a little confusing. Peter is taking hostage inside Empire 1 and strikes up a conversation with Indy the research girl. I know a lot of people, even those who like the show are iffy towards this episode but I always like the idea of Peter being stuck in the building and only Spider-Man can save the remaining hostages. There are several problems with Indy – the first one is that she’s so over the top that she’s as annoying as hell. She never had the chemistry that Pete and MJ had – it was clear which one the audience wanted our hero to end up. There’s another one of those “Awwwwww” moments as MJ runs to reunite with Peter only to have her moment stolen by Indy sticking her tongue down Peter’s throat.

Head Over Heels might sound like a good title for the Pete/MJ shippers but it’s an utterly forgettable episode in which Spider-Man must deal with an irritating fangirl who takes her obsession with him too far. There’s an amusing scene in which Peter and Mary Jane try to open up to each other but find it’s beyond them. The highlight of the episode sees MJ seeking Harry’s help for her problems with Pete and he instantly refuses, claiming that she’s trying to turn him into one of her chick friends. MJ gets kidnapped and rescued by Spidey once again and Spidey vents his frustrations again in an amusing scene in which he tries to tell her something personal about himself without exposing his secret.

“Deep down, I’m afraid you’ll think I’m just a big boring nothing. There’s not much to tell you… except for the coolest secret stuff about me.

Like this!”

Spider-Man Disabled brought along the one little moment that the fanboys love to endlessly complain about for little reason. Apparently, because Spider-Man is a superhero, he isn’t supposed to get laid and the Internet cried fowl when he and Indy shared a little afternoon delight.

It does raise an interesting question though – if he’s willing to date Indy then why doesn’t he allow himself to go out with MJ? It’s the show’s most confusing plot point and it was never addressed. It’s not actually clear how much of a couple Indy and Peter were but by the time Mind Games came about, I really couldn’t care as the finale more than made for the rest of the episodes.

For those of you reading this who skipped on Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, you owe it to yourself to purchase the DVD, if only for the two-part finale. It’s simply brilliant – I dare say it’s Spidey’s best appearance in animation. Coming from someone who greatly enjoyed the show, I don’t mind saying most of the other episodes pale in comparison to these two – they are simply magnificent.

The story sees Spider-Man tricked into living his greatest happiness only for it to turn into a nightmare shortly afterwards. After finally confronting MJ and hearing her explain the difficulties she’s having with both Spider-Man and Peter, he finally confessed and unmasks in front of her. In all the various forms of MJ discovering the secret, this one is by far the best. You can see the guilt of her constantly being placed in danger because of him is getting to him to the point where he just apologises to her. Morgan Gendel, the writer of the episode, clearly understands Peter’s frustrations and the unfair predicament that is his life – stop being Spider-Man and ignore his responsibilities, which cost him his Uncle Ben’s life or carry on as Spider-Man and place everyone he loves in danger the moment someone finds out who he is. (This is where I’d rant on and on about how utterly stupid Spider-Man’s recent unmasking in the comics is and how it goes against the very fibre of his character but I’ll spare you that for now, you’ve done so well to get this far into the retrospective)

He tries to side step this problem and finally admit that he is Spider-Man and confess his fondness for her and she is ecstatic that he trusted her enough to tell her the truth. She’s then killed by Kraven The Hunter seconds later.

Of course, the whole scene is a figment of his imagination, designed by the Gaines Twins so they can seek their revenge on Kraven – and part two brought us the very best fight scene in the history of Marvel animation, Spider-Man Vs Kraven. I absolutely love the prologue in which Spidey simply declares “I’m gonna rip you apart, Kraven!” and Kraven just looks on in horror.

Spider-Man comes to his senses shortly before killing Kraven when he realises the evenings events don’t seem to be matching his memory of them.

He goes after the Gaines twins to rescue Mary Jane again once he realises he’s been duped and succeeds before again realising it’s his fault that she’s constantly in danger. He then leaps to the roof to finish off the twins and is tricked into pushing Indy off the building!

Overcome with guilt, he goes to stop the Twins after Indy is hospitalised. After that, he’s decided enough is enough – no one is happy because of Spider-Man. His best friend is bitter of the death of his Father, neither he nor MJ are happy and Indy is in a coma. He’s decides he’s had enough – he is Spider-Man No More.

I’d have loved to see where’d they go from there, but MTV wasn’t interested in picking up more episodes. Morons.

Up Next: At Long Last, Love?

 

[Caswin]

Spider-Man Disabled brought along the one little moment that the fanboys love to endlessly complain about for little reason. Apparently, because Spider-Man is a superhero, he isn’t supposed to get laid and the Internet cried fowl when he and Indy shared a little afternoon delight.

Who said it had anything to do with him being a superhero?

In other news, swearing... yeah.

 

[Xurk]

Peter needed something long sleeve to conceal his Spider-Man costume which makes sense but it doesn’t really match his character and no sane man goes outside wearing purple pants unless he desires to be ridiculed by all those around him. If I ever turned up to my local drinking establishment of choice in purple jeans, I would surely be slapped and sent home to think about what I’d done.

Okay, I can say LOL now and it will actually be true [as I did just that]!

This seems to be the longest MAA retrospective yet, at least in form of word count... something of a romantic fool in Stu, ey? Anyway, it's been thoroughly interesting, too bad it has to end soon!

 

[Stu]

This seems to be the longest MAA retrospective yet, at least in form of word count... something of a romantic fool in Stu, ey? Anyway, it's been thoroughly interesting, too bad it has to end soon!

It does appear to be the longest one so far - it's taken a lot longer to complete than I thought it would. It would've been done by now but I couldn't resist a nice, long post about how much I love Spider-Man 2.

Me, a romantic fool? I'm as romantically challenged as the hero of the hour, regrettably.

More soon!