Spider-Man & The Black Costume - A Staple In Animation?

[James Harvey]

With Spider-Man 3 opening this Friday, I thought it high-time to kick off our special week of Spider-Man 3-related discussion! Let's get this thread moving again!

Spider-Man 3​

With the black Spider-Man costume returning in both the comics (in the mainstream universe, the "Ultimate" universe and Marvel Adventures Spider-Man title) and appearing in the upcoming movie Spider-Man 3, should the black costume return to Marvel Animation? Is it that landmark of a design?

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Should the black costume return to Marvel Animation? It appeared in the wildly popular "The Alien Costume Saga" in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (talkback), but should it make an appearance in the upcoming Kids'WB! The Amazing Spider-Man cartoon? And if so, how should they handle it?

Related Threads:
-"Spider-Man 3" - Will It Impact Spidey's Animated Future?
-Should "Sandman" Appear in the Upcoming "The Amazing Spider-Man" Series?
-Harry Osborn's Green Goblin - Serious Threat or Bad Joke?
-Venom - Treated Badly in Animation? Should He Get a Second Chance?

 

[Captain Highwind]

Should the black costume return to Marvel Animation? It appeared in the wildly popular "The Alien Costume Saga" in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (talkback), but should it make an appearance in the upcoming Kids'WB! The Amazing Spider-Man cartoon? And if so, how should they handle it?

I understand why they kept the webbing for the movie, but honestly it looks like Red and Blue Spidey with heavy shadows. I hope they use the traditional black costume from the comics, even though it will probably be likely anyway due to animation restrictions.

The webbing looks cool on Venom though, because it looks like veins...

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I'd be all for the suit appearing in the new Spidey show, but that should be saved for at least the 2nd season. Let him stand on his own first before bringing it in. Perhaps have it show up around the end of the 2nd season, and be a big plotline for Season 3. Yeah, this is jumping way ahead, but that's the way I think I would handle it.

 

[Temple Fugate]

I agree with everyone else here that it should show up, and that it should be delayed for a good amount of time before showing up. Half the attraction to Venom is anticipation. They waited for the third movie to bring it in. (I kind of wish it had waited another season to show up in the 90's cartoon but it still went extremely well.) You simply can't do Venom properly if there isn't a well-established status-quo in whatever continuity you're working in. Venom comes in and takes over Peter's life, and he lets it for a while, and it's great to watch IF we already know his character enough to be confident he's got enough good in his heart to eventually turn against it.

Now, I'm not very happy that Marvel is cashing in on the whole black-costume thing. I don't know how it's going to play out in the Ultimate series, but as long as the reason for bringing back the black makes sense and is carried out well, it'll be okay. I'm simply not one for blatant attempts to market a movie that everyone knows doesn't need more publicity. Especially not the black costume, because that's one of the key elements to the Spider-Man mythos.

 

[KYO'NYUU IMOUTO]

The black suit would make for a great third season story arc all culminating in Venom appearing in the finalé and then having a Spidey v. Venom throwdown in the forth season.

 

[The Weed Of Cri]

Not many people know the real reason the black costume was created in the first place. Back in the early 1980's, when Marvel first optioned for a live-action Spider-Man feature film (after the live-action TV series failed), they realized that Spider-Man's traditional red-and-blue costume would be a logistic nightmare for the special effects crew. Most of the web-swinging for the film would have to be accomplished either through live stuntwork or backscreen effects. Back then, the only workable back-screen technique available was the "blue screen" system, that edited out anything that was blue in the foreground. The makers of the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie had a lot of trouble with this system when it kept editing out parts of Superman's costume (if you look carefully in some of the flying scenes, Superman can be seen wearing a bluish-green costume, just so it would show up on a blue-screen backdrop), and the same hurdle was forseen for Spider-Man. So Marvel made the decision to change Spider-Man's costume to a black one, a decision that was to be more-or-less permanent. But then the movie plans got stalled indefinately, and Marvel decided to return Spider-Man to his original (easily recognizable and heavily merchandised) costume.

Nowadays, there are other types of backscreening, including a green-screen system, and CGI has made a lot of backscreening stunts unnecessary.

 

[Captain Highwind]

I had no idea.

But I do know it was designed by Rick Leonardi and Mike Zeck. [/this is good trivia--Write it down!]

 

[Temple Fugate]

Not many people know the real reason the black costume was created in the first place.

Wow. That's really interesting. Thanks for the info.

But I do know it was designed by Rick Leonardi and Mike Zeck. [/this is good trivia--Write it down!]

Well now I have to be a jerk and ask...it took TWO people to come up with that?

 

[Bones Justice]

I was a big fan of the black costume when it was first introduced in Secret Wars. I don't hate the original costume but the new costume design (black) was great. I was really disappointed that it turned out that it was evil and Spidey had to get rid of it. I seem to recall that there were a lot of arguments in the letters columns whether or not the black costume should stay or go and the latter won out. Though I could be wrong -- maybe the creators had planned Venom from the beginning, though I doubt it.

I really dislike the black costume they came up with for the new movie. I really wish they had stuck with the original black costume design. Hopefully, they will use the original if they use it in the new animated series.

The 90's animated show made a big change in the origin of the costume. I guess when it boils down to it, it's still an alien from outer space. But it just seems like the show mixed up everything about Secret Wars.

 

[SpongeBobnopants]

I love it! It's the best suit.

 

[Aldrius]

I'd love to see it in the new animated series. Season 2 will have 26 episodes, so I'd love to see an entire story arc with him wearing it.

It's just so... sleek.

 

[Soul]

Well here is a picture of Venom in the new movie if you been wanting to see full frontal

 

[Spider-Man]

I think that the suit should appear in any interpretation of Spider-Man. The suit has become such a quinessential piece to Spider-Man's story that to not at least look at the Black Suit would be criminal. Plus there's no need to ever use the convoluted "Secret Wars" origin which helps to open up alot of avenues to bring in the suit.

 

[Nightwing]

Not many people know the real reason the black costume was created in the first place. Back in the early 1980's, when Marvel first optioned for a live-action Spider-Man feature film (after the live-action TV series failed), they realized that Spider-Man's traditional red-and-blue costume would be a logistic nightmare for the special effects crew. Most of the web-swinging for the film would have to be accomplished either through live stuntwork or backscreen effects. Back then, the only workable back-screen technique available was the "blue screen" system, that edited out anything that was blue in the foreground. The makers of the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie had a lot of trouble with this system when it kept editing out parts of Superman's costume (if you look carefully in some of the flying scenes, Superman can be seen wearing a bluish-green costume, just so it would show up on a blue-screen backdrop), and the same hurdle was forseen for Spider-Man. So Marvel made the decision to change Spider-Man's costume to a black one, a decision that was to be more-or-less permanent. But then the movie plans got stalled indefinately, and Marvel decided to return Spider-Man to his original (easily recognizable and heavily merchandised) costume.

Nowadays, there are other types of backscreening, including a green-screen system, and CGI has made a lot of backscreening stunts unnecessary.

Very cool stuff. And I was able to follow it because I was always a fan of how visual effects are done. In fact the old George Reeves and Christopher Reeve Superman examples are what got me into that stuff specifically.

But I don't understand how this story fits into what I know about a black costume in terms of Spiderman, being the Secret Wars and the alien symbiote and blah blah blah go back home and blah blah bell tower and blah blah Venom.

 

[NightwingAngelo]

"His costume is black!!!"

That was my reaction when I first saw it on the 90's Spider-Man cartoon when I was about 6 years old.

That of course was followed by Eddie's Brock's merge with the Symbiote, which totally creeped me out. LOL! Ah man... the memories. I'm not sure if it was just for shock value, or if it just made for a great story... maybe both. That rocked.

By chance I saw it again on YTV just last week in a 2-hour special: Spider-Man: The Venom Saga.

Man, that rocked!

And yes, I do hope that he re-appears in the new series, and I hope that they new series is done well.

 

[S.C.B]

Technically, shouldn't the credit for the black suit go to whoever designed the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman costume? That was the inspiration for the design, after all (both production and story wise).

 

[Batman]

The Black symbiote suit looked fantastic in the movie as did VENOM

 

[Stu]

Time to choose - which black costume should they use? The movie version or the comic?

 

[Aldrius]

The comic-version is sexier.

 

[The New Titans]

I say the comic costume because not only is the SM3 suit just Spider-Man's suit turned black (although it did look very sleek!), but it also is a bit simpler for an animated series.