The Spectacular Spider-Man

I was never much of a Marvel or DC fan growing up, as I never understood the hype for all those superhero action shows. But this particular series caught my eye while growing up because of the beautiful character designs and catchy theme song. I decided to re-watch this series for nostalgic purposes since I haven't watched this show since I was 14, and after re-watching it I hadn't realized just how intense this series is. This series focuses on our main protagonist Peter Parker as he juggles living a double life as a high school student trying to maintain a social life, and protecting the city from criminals by playing the city's favourite hero, Spider-Man. This series is full of action, a lot of violence and a bit of romance. This series focuses mostly on the male characters and plays on a bunch of stereotypes, like the typical rough and mean jocks, stuck up and superficial cheerleaders, nerds getting bullied for being 'too smart' and of course, pretty female characters that exist mainly as a love interest to one of the main characters. This show is 90% violence, 5% romance and 5% teens trying to make it through high school. It's a shame they ended this series on a bit of a cliffhanger.

This show is absolutely fantastic for any kid who’s a fan of Spider-Man!!! Both of our main characters lives are equally interesting, as both Spider-Man and Peter have well written and fleshed out stories to tell. The exciting Spidey life of web swinging, bashing villains, and saving lives is awesome, as every action scene is fast paced and well animated, and the Wall-Crawler’s quips are cheesy and humorous. Peter Parker himself and all the other characters are able to learn and develop as people. All of the classics from Spidey’s rogues gallery, like Dr. Octopus, Electro, Rhino, and Venom show up, as do some of the Web-Swinger’s lesser known villains, like Tombstone and Silvermane. Spider-Man fights both super villains and common thugs (which makes for some great world building, by the way). This show also tells my personal favorite versions of Spider-Man’s origin and The Symbiote saga, and there’s also great music too! This show has the look of a lot of 2000’s action cartoons, like Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and The Batman, meaning the characters have more simplistic designs than most comic book based cartoons, so they’re more animation friendly. This gives villains like Electro, Dr. Octopus, and The Vulture have sleeker designs than a lot of other Spider-Man cartoons. It’s truly a shame that this show only had two seasons!!