Date of airing: November 19, 1994 (FOX Kids)
I have no idea why I never watched this version of the Spider-Man franchise, and instead watched 2003’s SPIDER-MAN: THE NEW ANIMATED SERIES at least twice or thrice, as well as some episodes of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN before I gave it up due to time constraints (and because the show bored me a bit). I probably thought that 1990s animation shows were too hyper for me, and I would easily get annoyed by the fast animation cutting and the most ludicrous action sequences where characters never stand still and stuff continuously explodes left and right. Also, this show was always the heart and rock of the Marvel animated television world, and with X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES one of the most well-received animated shows of all time (I wouldn’t know because I haven’t watched that one either), it was about time for me to get my head up all in this series, to see whether or not I still get annoyed by animated shows targeted to young boys who love seeing stuff blow up and characters fight to the death without ever getting bruises. So, here I am, watching this show for the first time, wondering when I will be annoyed by the hyper-sensuality of the show: The rapid change of colors, the loud sound effects during action sequences, the fact that Spider-Man is the main character while Peter Parker is rarely seen in the show, or simply the never-ending score, as if composer Mark Snow had been behind the music.
All of it made me wonder if I’m actually in the target audience of these kinds of animated shows, besides having realized that those elements and genre traits distanced me from ever getting into either X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES or BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES or even some of the more obscure 90s animated shows that regularly aired on Saturday or Sunday mornings on various TV networks. But I guess I’m too much of a Spidey nerd to stay distanced from this show forever and always, and there must come a time during which I get into shows that are completely outside everything I’m interested in. Granted, I’m gay for Spider-Man, but weekend morning kid cartoons? Yeah, maybe I will have a problem with their audiovisual assault tactics...
 |
| A supervillain has shown up – time to dress into the superhero costume! |
First of all, the storytelling was pretty solid, considering the short amount of time that was needed to get the story told, but with only 20 minutes of Spider-Man action against Curt Connors in his reptile form, there was absolutely no time focusing on the characters for even a second. While Aunt May was dealing with due bills, the writers could have used it to bring some depth into the show, and yet the unpaid invoices were a plot device to have Peter hunt for the $1000 picture of the lizard, which is a generic Spider-Man storyline. And I can imagine it will be used multiple times throughout the show: J. Jonah Jameson will tell everyone what the next picture is worth, and Peter will get the prize money to help someone out because he is the responsible superhero. The only story with depth in this episode, and that’s just a maybe, was Debra Whitman being so excited by Peter being such a brave man when Connors turned into the lizard and attacked them in the lab. As if the writers didn’t even want to get into the two most prominent love interests for Peter Parker and start a different story first, and this from the beginning. And I wouldn’t even mind seeing Debra become a love interest for Peter, since they seemed to be lab partners already.
Secondly, I loved the animation. It looked like it was coming straight from the 90s, but I felt a bit nostalgic about them, wanting to watch a few more animated shows in that style, although hopefully without the pretentiously irritating score. And here we have the biggest problem of the series after one episode: The music was forcefully pregnant, even during Peter’s scenes when there didn’t even need to be any music. Instead of focusing on the dialogue exchanges between Peter and the person he was conversing with, the producers had to stick a score into the scene, which was on the same level of volume as the dialogue was. And I already know I won’t stand listening to the score all the time, which is why I will have trouble binge-watching SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (so one episode every couple of days will have to suffice).
Also, I’m worried that the writers were wasting one member of Spider-Man’s rogue gallery after another, without banking on the hope that the villains might be reused for another episode, maybe with an eye on the Sinister Six or another villain group, maybe even an original creation by the writers (yeah right, as if that is ever going to happen – but hey, Harley Quinn happened). Granted, Curt Connors was saved at the end, and I have no idea if the fight underwater reversed the transformation (it almost looked like that, but it means that Connors’ machine was not working as it should have), but every once in a while, I’m expecting villains to be, uhm, killed off. Now I’m wondering if characters in animated shows for kids do get killed off, because I can’t imagine that death is ever going to be a topic for the series. Alternatively, the writers could have employed the “We won’t use them ever again” tactic when getting rid of characters permanently, by retiring them without necessarily having to kill them off.
 |
| Can women handle the big guns? |
But all in all, I can see after only one episode why this show is considered to be one of the better-animated shows of the 1990s. While the action sequences were targeted toward kids, they have a slightly realistic tone to them, and Peter’s voiceover commentary of the events and his feelings about what is happening gives the show something of a mature touch, turning this show away from a predictable coming-of-age story. Peter is looking like a 40-year-old virgin in this animation though, and with him seemingly being in college (or just after graduation) during this episode, I got a little confused as to how old the guy is and where he stands in life.
I was thinking the show would follow Peter through high school first,
but apparently, the writers didn’t think so and made him an adult
character instead, which kind of is a premise getting into a conflict
with what the targeted audience (7-year-old boys) should expect
regarding storytelling. Then again, Peter in college could be an
interesting premise because which animated TV show on a weekend morning
schedule focused on the characters in a particular setting in the first place?
