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By Joshua Jabcuga

February 12, 2004

“Does whatever a spider can,”--until they squashed him: Despite some minor, er, bugs, Josh Jabcuga says THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN showed real promise, that is, until the bastards at MTV decided to pull the plug on the webbed one. Check out this review of the first, and possibly last, season, now available on DVD, where we wonder where it all went so wrong.

There was a time when fans of comics, Marvel Comics fans in particular, had no hope at the movies or on television. I’m telling you, kids these days just don’t know how good they have it. Back in the day, the best Marvel Comics fans could do were some lame appearances on the ELECTRIC COMPANY by Spider-Man or Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as THE HULK (which wasn’t half bad, but that damn piano music during the credits always made me weep like a colicky newborn). As far as cartoons, er, that is, animation, the best we had was SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS. Sure, there were a few others, but the pickin’ was slim. When it came to movie and TV production, it seemed Marvel Comics was damn near cursed. There was the infamous Roger Corman-version of THE FANTASTIC FOUR, which shall forever haunt us all in the form of a bootleg video at your nearest comic convention. There was that rumored original SPIDER-MAN script (wasn’t James Cameron attached?), stuck in the webbing of studio red tape and politics. There was that Dolph Lundgren version of THE PUNISHER (which may still actually be an improvement over the soon-to-be released 2004 cinematic stab at the character). And let’s not even talk about that dreadful joke of a film that did more to kill off Marvel’s chances at the big screen than any other, in the form of CAPTAIN AMERICA. For awhile there, it sure seemed like the House of Ideas had all the ideas, but none of the cool movies or cartoons to go along with them, like rival DC Comics had under their (utility) belt, such as the iconic portrayal of Superman by Christopher Reeves, or the classic Tim Burton-directed BATMAN.

And then forty days and forty nights of floods washed away all the bile that had embarrassed Marvel Comics fanboys for too long. With the triumphant release of X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN to packed cinemas, and in the light of DC Comics’ own movie adaptation problems (For starters, Joel Schumacher’s embarrassingly over-the-top take on BATMAN AND ROBIN, and the preproduction woes of SUPERMAN—Nicolas Cage as Superman, anyone?), it’s been long overdue to see Marvel Comics claim its throne at the box office. While there have been some missteps (Some didn’t think DAREDEVIL played too well; personally I thought fans’ expectations were too high, their reviews too critical)—Marvel at least has been taking their best shot, using the most apt minds in the business to port their vision to the multimedia masses. (And don’t forget: For every half-baked movie based on a character not found on Marvel’s main roster, like DAREDEVIL, there’s a surprise like BLADE 2, which was leagues better than it had any right to be). Although with upcoming releases like THE PUNISHER (which has been met with a miserable reception from Internet fanboys who first laid eyes on that weakling Thomas Jane) and even a feature for the Swamp Thing rip-off MAN-THING (which was at one time tapped for the straight-to-video market, but as a result of some positive buzz will most likely see a wide theatrical release), one has to wonder, is there too much Marvel product out there right now? Sadly, the answer is a resounding YES! How else can you explain THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN getting lost somewhere in the shuffle?

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN, (all 13 episodes recently released on a double-disc DVD set), originally aired on MTV in 2003. Unfortunately, the show has not been picked up by the cable station, although Sony is apparently shopping the series around. Recently I sat down and watched the series in its entirety. I believe MTV ran the show on Friday nights, and while admittedly I’m not an expert in the area of Nielsen ratings, I’m not too certain that Friday nights is a prime slot, especially given that the show was aimed at an older, hipper, MTV crowd. (The hip crowd isn’t exactly home on a Friday night, are they?) For that matter, I’m not convinced ratings had anything to do with the station not picking up the show, as I’ve heard unofficial reports (read: message board postings) saying the show had garnered respectable ratings.

It was interesting to watch an entire run of episodes back-to-back. (To be perfectly honest, I watched them over the course of one weekend—including a Friday night. I guess I’m not part of that hipper MTV demographic, at least not on that particular Friday night.) I rather enjoyed what I saw. THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN is an extremely solid, well-assembled package.

The first thing that will strike you about this show, obviously, is the animation, courtesy of MainFrame Entertainment. The artists that make up MainFrame are the same that brought us the wonderfully ahead-of-its-time ’toon REBOOT. Like REBOOT, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN is completely computer-animated. It’s cutting-edge stuff, and it works perfectly for a character like Spider-Man. The team at MainFrame isn’t simply a bunch of hack animators who have the benefit of using some incredibly sophisticated computer program. Evidently, they’ve done their homework. Clearly they’re fans, and if not, they’ve at least done some mighty fine research. You can see this just in the many poses that Spider-Man twists his body in while gliding through the air, many of which come courtesy of years of web-slinging in the comics. I found myself saying, “Hey, that’s a Bagley pose!” Or “That’s a McFarlane.” Apparently some of the programming they did was initiated specifically for this project, which may have included the characters’ unique coloring, giving them their robust, CGI-look, but also another layer which makes them distinctly “toon-like.”

One of the reasons for this “layering” (and I’m sure there is a better word for the technique) was pure aesthetics. MainFrame was responsible for the STARSHIP TROOPERS series, and apparently the technology had become so good that the effect was almost too eerie, in the sense that you thought you were viewing possessed humans mimicking marionette puppets. (Just like in the FINAL FANTASY film, the “actors” were very lifelike, even photo-realistic, but most agree something was missing…perhaps a soul.)

For THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN, the animators decided to turn it up a notch and take a step back simultaneously. The motions of the characters are very fluid, but they don’t try to convince you that you’re watching real, breathing actors. Instead, watching THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN, it’s as if you’re reading a comic book that can’t sit still in its own right, leaping right off the panels itself. The coloring, especially the lighting, are extraordinary effects heretofore unseen in weekly television animation.

The voice talent casting on the show is inspired. Neil Patrick Harris, TV’s Doogey Howser, probably saved himself from total obscurity (and cruise ship theater) by providing the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. As the dork with superhuman powers, Harris was a more than suitable choice (minus the part about the superhuman powers). Lisa Loeb plays comics’ original sex kitten herself, Mary Jane Watson. The show-stealer is Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders from BEVERLY HILLS 90210), who seems to be having the time of his life delivering his wise-ass dialogue (not a far stretch from his work on 90210) as Petey’s pal, and son of the Green Goblin, Harry Osbourne. His delivery is warm and loose. Oddly, Harry Osbourne bears more than a striking physical resemblance to a grown-up Macaulay Culkin.

Other recognizable performers lending their voices to the show include rapper Eve as The Talon, Gina Gershon as Shikata, Rob Zombie as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard, and in a nice nod to one of Marvel’s other film properties, Michael Clark Duncan reprises his role as Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. The Kingpin, which he originally played, both in voice and in “person,” in DAREDEVIL.

The dialogue is very sharply written. It seemed to mimic the speech of twenty-something college kids very closely, both in style and content. At one point Peter Parker is with M.J. and Indira “Indy” Daimonji (one of the series’ few recurring roles), and Harry Osbourne says something to the effect of, “Boy, if Parker plays his cards right….” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

The action sequences are another one of the series’ strong points. The fight scenes are fast-paced and comic book-esque, as they should be. (No duh!) For animation, though, I found the action to be very smooth and exciting. The series is surprisingly violent, and at times reminded me why it played in the late evening on MTV. The violence isn’t overwrought or gratuitous, just punchier, in the literal and figurative (Spidey) sense than what you’ve come to expect from years of watching Saturday morning cartoons while downing overflowing bowls of Capt. Crunch. Sometimes it’s still hard to forget that animation was once geared strictly for kids. Thankfully, times have changed and that stigma has been largely erased. Some of the racier violence is exactly that, implied, like, for example, a suggestive shot of an armored car driver being killed off-camera by her partner with a shotgun (who finds his mind controlled by that particular episode’s villains).

Which leads us to the series’ villains. Granted, I’m not up-to-date with Spidey’s rogue gallery these days. (Essentially, I retired from reading the Spider-Man books after my intelligence was more than insulted…try beaten, stabbed, spit on, and drowned, with that God-awful Spider-Man clone bait-and-switch storyline Marvel ran in their Spidey books some time back). As a kid, though, boy, did I have my favorites: Doc Octopus, Kraven the Hunter, Venom (and later his spawn Carnage), Green Goblin. Fortunately, some familiar faces make the transition, including Kraven, The Lizard (Who happens to appear in the series’ strongest episode, and one worth going out of your way to see, titled “Law of the Jungle”), Silver Sable, and even an updated attempt to modernize the character Electro. Electro didn’t turn out quite as well as the green and yellow costumed baddie I remember from my youth, but eh, you can’t fault them for trying. Besides, the costume I remember from my youth was downright silly, come to think of it. Maybe the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy update on Electro was an, ahem, necessary evil.

Unfortunately, and maybe as a result of the short thirty minutes (minus commercial time) given per episode, the writers didn’t have much time to cook up the villains’ motives. The villains aren’t given much time for valuable, elaborate backstories explaining why they’ve turned their lives over to a career of crime and tacky spandex costumes. The backstory we’ve come to expect, in order to give us a reason to both fear the villains and root for the hero, is rushed at best. The slow boil usually reserved for a two-and-a-half-hour movie is now like a quick two-minute zap job allotted for reheating microwave dinners. There’s also a lot of gimmicky, coincidental plot developments, like how Harry just happens to be dating a girl who is also one of Spider-Man’s latest adversaries, or the one where Peter’s college instructor turns out to be The Lizard himself. Granted, some of these developments were seen in some fashion in the original comic; it just comes across as being a little too pat during a thirty minute show. Maybe a one hour time slot would have provided the villains a little more time to gestate. Minor flaws and all, I certainly wish MTV would have given THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SPIDER-MAN more time itself to gestate.

Josh Jabcuga still hasn’t forgiven Marvel Comics for that lame Spider-Man clone saga. We hope he’ll get over it someday. Until then, he can be found writing Squib Central, published every Thursday, exclusively at WWW.MOVIEPOOPSHOOT.COM.

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