Ladies and jellyfish, shalom.
Spectacular Spider-Man is a show I’ve talked about countless times on my channel, but today
I’ll be talking about the most infamous aspect of Spectacular that’s still left
a bitter taste in people’s mouths many years later: which is the way it ended prematurely.
The final episode of Spectacular Spider-Man aired November 18th, 2009, titled Final Curtain,
which was a pretty fitting name in retrospect, and it never got a followup after only 26
other episodes before it.
So why don’t we take a look at it today, shall we?
[Title Card]
The episode starts off with Spidey on the hunt for Green Goblin, attempting to finally
reconcile the true identity of Gobby, whether it was truly Harry, his father, or someone
else.
We get a cool fight scene between him and the Gob Squad, as he’s unable to get Harry’s
location from them.
Yeah, at this point, Harry’s been AWOL for a while and we finally see him run to Gwen’s
house and asking for her help.
(SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN) Sorry, love that song…umm…right now, we have
a hunch that Harry is still Gobby but as we’ll soon discover, the truth is a bit more complicated
than that.
After going through typical Peter Parker girl trouble with Liz, Gwen calls Peter over to
see Harry after he’s returned.
He admits the truth about juicing up on Globulin Green and becoming Goblin, but also says he
destroyed his stash of the juice and remembers someone else as Gobby kidnapping him, which
is why he was missing.
Following this mystery-esque plot, now Peter suspects Norman to be the true Goblin, which
would match Harry’s story and previous hunches.
But as Peter’s leaving, he confesses the truth to Gwen and they both feel mutually
in love with each other (clip), which is all good, but they don’t kiss each other behind
Liz and Harry’s backs, which is a pretty respectable thing, kudos to the writers for
promoting that kind of thing on a kids’ show.
But the funny thing is, Harry says this (clip) and we see him listen to and react to Gwen
saying she loves Peter, so…this would probably make him bitter to both these guys…so just…remember
this.
Spidey shows up to Oscorp to see Harry and Norman together, and despite having a hunch
about Norman, all his clues seem to go nowhere.
I’ll add, the butler saying hi to all of them was kinda cute.
(clip) A lot happens at once here, and while I could say it feels rushed, it’s also paced
kinda perfectly for the tone and mystique surrounding all these characters and all their
truths and lies.
Spider-Man’s completely baffled, and before we can get even a little hint of boring in
this episode, we’re hit with a massive explosion…literally.
The reveal of this was also quite awesome, I have to say.
It gave me under the floorboard vibes from Inglorious Basterds; the way the bombs are
seen ticking right before they all explode, almost killing Spidey.
I just wish the Spider-Sense had actually kicked in a second BEFORE they all blew up,
since that’s kinda the whole point of it, but at least this show is actually consistent
about the Spider-Sense, unlike pretty much every movie and other show.
The use of the Pumpkin bombs in this episode is also awesome, and the layering of the sound
effects of dozens or hundreds of them was really well done.
(clip) Then Gobby just flies in out of nowhere and fights the frickin dude!
The fight scene is choreographed pretty well, and adds some more action to this episode…but
it does go on for a bit too long, especially with the annoying cryptic dialogue Goblin
gets, which is made even more annoying given the way his voice has to sound.
(clip) Yeah, he’s not Joker guys, let’s not force this kinda dialogue when he could
be cracking jokes instead.
(clip) How is he more accurate shooting blind…and WHAT THE HELL?
How’d he just disappear?
What is this crap!
Spider-Man 3 did this as well, how does Goblin just disappear into the null?
He’s not Batman either!
I do like this tracking shot of Spidey’s arm, it is kinda cool to see a POV angle of
him once in a while…but while I’m on the topic of animation, can we talk about the
jarring and idiotic way the elbows in this show were drawn?
Why is there a connecting line in that joint?
Is he a mannequin?
This happens all over the place so it’s not even an error, just…what the hell is
that about?
(clip) *mimicking Joker* “It’s not about money, it’s about sending a message!”.
Back to the mystery element, now that Norman and Harry are out of the picture, the scale
tips to Donald Menken, Norman’s assistant who apparently wiped his entire file and also
had access to Globulin Green.
GODDAMNIT, WHY ARE HIS ELBOWS LIKE THAT?
I swear to GOD, IF YOU WEREN’T VOICED BY THE DUDE WHO VOICED LEONARDO 2007 I WOULD
TOTALLY BE MADDER RIGHT NOW!
Eh, who am I kidding, he was also on Drawn Together and Johnny Test, I WILL DESTROY YOU
CRETIN!!!
Back to High School Musical, Peter and Gwen still haven’t broken up with their dates.
(clip) hEhE, dAtInG PoLiCe GoOd oNe!
After Peter breaks up with Liz, which doesn’t exactly end well for him, he goes to Donald
Menken’s new residence, and surprise of all surprises…Gobby baits him into a room
with knockout gas, until Harry and his father break the windows using the helicopter, letting
the gas outside.
Now, if we take a step back from this for a second, we can figure out that if Donald
Menken was innocent, then the only other person who could have wiped his file would have been
Norman, which would imply he either works for or is the Goblin.
Then we get another fight scene with Red and Green, and honestly this one is much better
than the first one.
This one we swing across the city, with fast moving visuals, now with Harry and Norman,
Pumpkin bombs all across the buildings, and Gobsquad fighters in flying drones and on
the rooftops for Spidey to go through.
The action here is really impressive, although I can’t say the same for the CGI drone things
they fly in; they look a bit too SpongeBob in Tehran for my taste.
After all that, Spidey finally unmasks Goblin, to reveal it was actually Norman all along,
who had been masquerading along with Chamelion to keep people guessing who the true Goblin
was.
(clip) Gee, maybe that suspicion would have come in handy when you were telling clues
to Spider-Man, not right when it’s made obvious to you, ya goof!
Also, how’d you know it was a mask?
Goddamn, I would have laughed so hard if his face just stretched like when Tyler pulls
on Ben’s face to prove he’s human, or when Kevin pulled the wig off the janitor.
(clip) I’m getting distracted here, Norman reveals all the secrets of his plan, including
dressing up and spraining Harry to make him look like the Goblin all along, and working
with Chamelion to hide footsteps.
And the climax of this episode comes when Spidey launches him into a water tower full
of Pumpkin bombs, causing a massive explosion right in Norman’s face!
The most heartwrenching part is hearing Harry’s scream of pain, and Peter’s one eye reaction
is a beautiful cherry on top.
(clip) I honestly find the entire death scene and climax in general to be extremely rushed,
when it could have been more emotional with a longer emphasis on the death, with some
better music and louder sound design in there, because the way it is right now makes me wish
we got less stupid high school scenes and more of this meaningful crap!
Cut to the funeral, as Harry is bitter about Spider-Man killing his father rather than
helping him, and he tells Gwen that being with her is all that’s keeping him sane.
This is particularly annoying to me because he acts oblivious about Gwen’s messages
to him and how she doesn’t like him anymore, even though WE LITERALLY SAW HIM OVERHEAR
THEM earlier saying they love each other.
It’s almost like he’s taking advantage of her, but I guess that’s Peter’s karma
after indirectly killing Harry’s father.
It’s not even like the Tobey film when Gobby killed himself, here it was basically Peter’s
placing the bomb on the glider that did it.
So I totally feel the emotional connection we get at the end of the episode, as Peter
has to come to terms with responsibility as it comes with power.
And probably the highlight of this episode is the very final scene, as we see Norman,
still alive, in the airport, as we’re left with a cliffhanger that suggests that he actually
didn’t die.
I don’t know how the hell that’s possible after flying head first into a pool of bombs,
but ya know what?
It was supposed to keep the executives from canceling this show, so I respect the attempt,
and I do mean ATTEMPT.
-
Spectacular Spider-Man got cancelled on November 18th, 2009.
It’s rather sad to say this really, about a cartoon with so much potential, getting
cancelled after only 26 episodes.
Really, it was one of the most mistreated cartoons of all time, and very few shows of
this quality ever received the type of backstabbing that this show did at this time.
Greg Weisman, the creator of Spectacular, had reportedly wanted to make 65 episodes,
or 5 seasons, and reportedly had plans to bring in some awesome new villains like Scorpion,
Ghost-Rider, Hydro-Man, Carnage and Hobgoblin.
While these weren’t as famous as characters compared to the cast we got in these 26 episodes,
it still would’ve been really interesting to see how the show would have gone on.
So why did it get cancelled so soon?
Well, for one, the fate of the show was heavily dependent on the ratings for season 2, and
while the ratings for season 2 aren’t currently available anywhere, I don’t think that was
the reason for its cancellation, as season 1’s ratings were fantastic for the network.
No no, the real reason the show got cancelled was because of something that always ruins
a show: corporate meddling.
On the first of September of 2009, the TV rights to Spider-Man were returned from Sony
to Marvel.
While Eric Rollman, the President of Marvel Animation stated that "no decisions have been
made either way" about the fate of Spectacular, this would later be proven wrong when Disney
bought Marvel 3 months later for 4 billion dollars.
While today we consider Disney as a global superpower, owning Lucasfilm, Fox, ESPN, Pixar
and yes, Marvel, back in 2009, it was a much different story.
While it was later proven that Sony had still kept ownership of Spectacular and all the
production elements, such as storylines and character designs, they had given up the rights
to use Spider-Man and associated characters to Marvel, so technically neither of them
had the necessary rights to continue the series.
And again, Disney acquiring Marvel just a few months after this whole shebang didn’t
help anyone’s case.
A few months later, Marvel announced a new Spider-Man series coming to Disney XD.
This of course, later turned into what we all know as Ultimate Spider-Man.
The very same day as this announcement, Greg Weisman told IGN, "I've heard nothing directly
from Marvel, but I think the Ultimate Spider-Man announcement makes it fairly clear that Spectacular
is over.".
This, along with Marvel and Sony confirming this, nailed in the coffin for Spectacular
Spider-Man.
It was certainly dealt an unfair hand, and was undoubtedly the best Spider-Man cartoon
to ever air, but I like to think positively and think that it's cancellation just kept
it at its pure form, before seasonal rot and lack of quality could kick in.
It was ultimately one of the best cartoons of its time, and was, in my opinion, truly
SPECTACULAR.