If you aren’t watching the newest version of Spider-Man in cartoon form, you should be. The latest series, The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series, combines elements from Ultimate Spider-Man, the Spider-Man movies, and of course the classics to create it’s own unique, yet recognizeable spideyverse. The animation is simple, different, and works well for the show, and the new theme song by The Tender Box is actually pretty cool and catchy and you can check it out here: Spectacular Theme Song.

The series just completed it’s first season in which they introduced all the classic characters such as J.J.J., Gwen, Mary Jane, Harry, Flash, Aunt May, etc. Along with a ton of villains, including Vulture, the Enforcers, Electro, Lizard, Sandman, Rhino, Hammerhead, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Black Cat, Chameleon, and of course, Venom. I know it sounds like a lot of ground to cover in just a 13 episode first season, but it was very well put together in seperate story arcs all heading down the same path.

The stories are great, there is enough humor in them to keep the younger kids entertained, and enough drama and excitement to keep us older kids watching. The first season, which spans on semester for Peter, has four seperate story arcs, the first being with Doc Connors and the Lizard, the second being Norman Osborn creating super villain after super villain for “The Big Man”, the third follows the Green Goblin, and then the last one is the symbiote arc in which Peter gets his black threads and of course Venom is born. Along with this series borrowing from several genres and versions of Spider-Man, they also add their own twists to a lot of things, some work, some don’t, here are just a few:

• Harry, not Norman is the first Green Goblin.
• Gwen is not the beautiful blonde she’s been before, she’s a fellow nerd with Pete. But I have a feeling those glasses are going to come off eventually and she’ll let that hair down.
• Norman actually creates almost all super villains as comissioned by “The Big Man”
• The main mastermind/villain of the story is “The Big Man”, aka Tombstone

Overall, this is a welcome addition to the Spider-Man animated series and if you like Spidey, you should definately check it out. The first season just wrapped up about 2 weeks ago, but you can catch repeats Saturday mornings on the CW For Kids! and watch for the first season to be released on DVD by story arc starting with “Attack of the Lizard”, set to be released on September 9th.