Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Spectacular Spider-Man season 1 ::
by William the Bloody
Peter Parker was your average high school brain and all around science nerd until one day... he got bit by an enhanced spider, got super powers, his uncle got killed and riddled with guilt over his uncle's death which he could have prevented, started to fight crime as the Spectacular Spider-Man. Hopefully, you knew all that. In this animated take of the Marvel Comics classic character, Peter is still in high school, but picks up a university unpaid internship under Dr. Kurt Conners because he is one smart kid. Also interning are his old friend (now attending the university) Eddie Brock and high school classmate and fellow science nerd Gwen Stacy. Peter lives with his widowed Aunt May out in Queens next door to her best friend Anna Watson, and the two of them keep trying to fix up Pete with Anna's niece who has a "terrific personality." Peter's best friend is Harry Osborn who is filthy rich, but unfortunately he fails to impress his industrialist father no matter what he does. High school probably wouldn't be so bad for Pete if he weren't being constantly picked on by football jock Flash Thompson, but them's the breaks. Peter has to balance out this "normal" life he has going with that of his costumed hero alter ego and be home in time for his 10pm curfew.
The Good: Um... how about almost everything? I'm a fellow who likes his Spider-Man, okay? I've read many incarnations of the character in comic book and novel form, seen movies and various other animated versions. I have to say, with this one they really got a great balance of classic Spidey as well as their own take. For example, the inclusion of Gwen and Eddie right from the start as important characters would sometimes bother me (since in comics continuity they were not brought in until a little later), but here they made it work. I really enjoy their method of storytelling and continuity. They are taking their time and properly introducing characters, sometimes over the course of several episodes, before having them hit their classic Spider-verse turning point. Example: Cain Marko is introduced as a bank robber for several episodes as a regular thug, then down the line he is offered and opportunity at enhancement and becomes the super powered Sandman. Also, so many versions are in such a hurry to bring in the Green Goblin since he's Spidey's trademark arch nemesis and all, but here they didn't bring him in until down the line a spell and what they did with him was absolutely marvelous. Seriously, they did so many things with their stories nearly exactly as I would have done them if given the opportunity to produce a program like this; the stuff with the Goblin, how they introduced Mary Jane (she said IT!), and so on were practically right out of my head!! The fight scenes are really well choreographed to boot! Their Sinister Six fight scenes were really well done! I mean, I've seen some cartoons that have no idea how to stage a fight with so many participants (I'm looking at YOU Teen Titans!), but here they bloody nailed it! The look of the show is pretty slick, too. The animation has some nice clean lines and the quality is consistently good. Sometimes it's pretty obvious when they swap out animation teams between scenes, but not here. The voice acting is pretty keen. The only voice I don't like is Harry Osborn's. I don't know, it's kinda high and/or fake sounding. There were some great celebrity voice casting such as Peter MacNicol as Dr. Otto Octavius and Clancy Brown as the Rhino. But then, what else should I expect from Greg Weisman, the guy who gave us another great cartoon: Gargoyles?
The Bad: Er... Nothing? Oh! You know how this is a half hour cartoon show and yet they only put like three episodes on each DVD? I hate when they do that!
I freaking love this cartoon. I would make it my wife if it were not against the laws of god and man. It is very rare that a cartoon comes along that is so well thought out that you know it is a labour of love for a classic character. It has the perfect balance of fun, funny, teen drama, and action. I swear I could sit and watch episodes of this series back to back for hours. And it's appropriate for Spidey fans of all ages!
A+
