The Spectacular Spider-Man

 _***½

The education of Peter Parker truly begins as he not only starts his first day of junior year, but also faces his first super-villain as the wall-crawling Spider-Man. Will Peter Parker finally ask out Sally Avril? Will Spider-Man be able to defeat the villainous Vulture? Will either of them make it home in time for pie?

I have been a Spider-Man fan boy since I was a kid; I grew up with the animated series in the 90s, and I couldn't get enough of it. I tried to get into the comics, but it was in the midst of the clone saga, which really just turned me off, so it was a while before I had a better grasp on who Peter Parker really was. My level of excitement was off the charts when I was waiting in line for 2002's Spider-Man feature, but nothing has ever come close to matching the fondness I have for the wise-cracking animation I grew up with...but I'm willing to let this one try.

This series seems to be tying together things from every generation of Spider-Man stories, and I'm starting to suspect it won't be long before we see clever cameos from Firestar and Iceman, much like the cameo from Gargoyles' Broadway in the second half of the episode. This series seems accessible to everyone, which is always a good thing, but it doesn't rehash his origin, which I like.

I like that Spider-Man doesn't spend time dwelling on his past beyond a brief moment with a picture of his uncle; he cracks wise, and he enjoys his life the way the character was meant to, and it's refreshing to see this take on the character.

Norman Osbourne. I do like that he's a cold-hearted bastard, but he doesn't seem to have any fear. Maybe that's just shade of the Green Goblin shining through, maybe there will be a larger explanation down the line, but he strikes me as too much of a villain to be the tritagonist's father, and I don't believe even he would be able to plummet out of the sky without showing a sliver of concern.

The animation is very clean, but there's something almost too cartoonish about it that's kind of turning me away. It might have something to do with their dead eyes; if the characters had pupils, I might not be voicing this complaint.

The voice work on this show seems to have been cast very well, Josh Keaton makes a very convincing Peter Parker, and Daran Norris nails J. Jonah Jameson. There's something about Deborah Strang's Aunt May that causes some dissonance in my mind, but I'm not sure if that's the voice or the character design. The only voice I really took any issue with in this episode was Grey DeLisle's Sally; DeLisle tends to screech a lot during her voice work, and it just doesn't suit this character. It seriously makes me question Peter's taste in women.

Victor Cook's direction on this episode is nothing to write home about; let's make no mistake, this is a well-directed episode, but it's nothing that hasn't been done in the genre before.

This episode is all about Peter Parker trying to become Spider-Man in his every day life, and I absolutely love it. Most takes on superheroes involve the protagonist learning how to be the hero their city deserves, whereas here we have a Spider-Man who has mastered who he wants to be, who he needs to be, and it's only his alter ego that's lacking. Greg Weisman has a good grasp on the characters and their world, and his first foray into Spider-Man's New York is nearly perfect.

This take on the Peter Parker/Spider-Man dynamic is really fun, and I hope that I look forward to seeing more of it. It's definitely more than the traditional Saturday-morning fare, and Weisman is the kind of storyteller that can take you on an incredible ride. This is gonna be good.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is in the running to become the feature for Tuesdays. The series ran from 2008 to 2009 on The CW and Disney XD with a total of 26 episodes.