Spectacular Spider-Man is just the thing to please two circles: those who want to get into Spider-Man on a further level than just the movies (if they haven't read much of the comics) and those who are die-hard fans looking for their next spidey-injection. It gives a fresh perspective on the Peter Parker saga, even as it's meant, or aimed at possibly, at kids. Its style reminds one of Kim Possible with the characters' profiles, especially with the eye-lids being so wide as to suggest something so comical its almost hard to take seriously. And it's bright and flashy too, with only the sporadic sort of darkness one remembers from the 1990's Batman animated series.
But when Spectacular Spider-Man works, it works so well as to wonder if it might even beat out some of the best Spider-Man comics has to offer in the 21st century. Sure, some characters can be whiny (Harry Osbourne) or nagging (Aunt May) or underdeveloped when compared to their filmic counterparts or just 'different' in a way that's unsettling (Doc Ock and the Sandman are the two biggies for me). For the most part though the writing is so strong as to give every episode a sense of urgency, of the weight on Parker's shoulders moment to moment and beat to beat. Can he bounce between Mary Jane and his 'night-life'? How can he get those next pictures to the Bugle? Will he beat that incredibly menacing dude voiced perfectly by Keith David? I never thought that the show totally floored me like I've seen from Batman or another recent animated piece like Avatar. But the stories involved me, the animation usually delivered as complimentary to the characters and settings, and its voiced extremely well. Hard to go wrong.
