It would be hard to argue that any comic book superhero has enjoyed a more sustained popularity over the last five decades than Spider-Man. The Marvel Comics character, the mainstay of that company's flagship publication The Amazing Spider-Man, has been spun off (no pun intended) into numerous other venues, from cartoon and live action television shows to a rock album, a series of wildly popular theatrical movies, and even a recurring part in the old PBS series The Electric Company.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is a current incarnation of this comics legend that takes its name from a now-defunct spin-off comic book title. It's a half-hour cartoon series, aimed primarily at kids but with some postmodern nods to adults, and basically offers an early 21st century update of the original Spider-Man comic books. Here, Peter Parker (voiced by Josh Keaton) attends high school with traditional supporting characters Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, and Gwen Stacey. Parker's future wife Mary Jane Watson is also around. Parker lives at home with his Aunt May, and moonlights as the crimefighting Spider-Man whenever he can. As he battles colorful super-villains, he's taking snapshots of himself for the newspaper The Daily Bugle.

The series is light and fun, with a nice sense of humor. As such, it captures the essence of Spider-Man fairly well. Each episode is relatively self-contained, although certain plot points connect the episodes into a larger whole. The animation strikes me as bright and colorful - and certainly competent for a weekly television program. The characters are presented with some awkward angularity at times (Aunt May, especially, looks thoroughly horrendous), but at least it's consistent and uniform in presentation. As an old comics fan, I enjoyed this updating of the Spider-Man mythos, and I certainly imagine that it will entertain its core audience: adolescents.

Volume Six of The Spectacular Spider-Man contains episodes 18 - 20 of the hit cartoon series. They are . . .

First Steps - The episode's primary focus is upon Spider-Man's several run-ins with vintage supervillain The Sandman, who, similar to the old comic book stories, begins flirting with the notion of becoming a superhero. A secondary plot involving Flash Thompson's birthday party is creatively handled through a series of monologues by various supporting characters to a video camera at the festivities.

Growing Pains - Episode 19 sports the aggressive return of Venom. J. Jonah Jameson is also back - and as funny as always. A lot of humor is in this episode, and a series of monologues - this time in the form of auditions for a school play - effectively involves various supporting characters. This episode ends with one of the best cliffhangers of the series so far.

Identity Crisis - The third and final episode on this DVD satisfactorily resolves the cliffhanger from Growing Pains involving Venom. For the third episode in a row, supporting characters are used effectively in an ongoing secondary plot, this time involving a reporter interviewing them regarding Spider-Man's identity.

The quality of this cartoon series is consistently good, and I don't hesitate to continue recommending it. The only caveat is that the first season of The Spectacular Spider-Man was eventually released as a 2 DVD set after four individual discs of the same episodes were previously made available. I see no reason why this wouldn't happen again with these second season episodes, so fans of the series may want to hold off on this single-disc release.

The DVD

Video:

Sony gives these episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man an anamorphic widescreen presentation in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio that likely represents its original television broadcast. Overall, the programs look great: colors are bright and details are strong. There are some artifacts present with lines during quick action sequences, but it's only a minor fault.

Sound:

Sound options are the same as previous home video releases of this animated series. Two audio tracks are available for each episode: an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 and a French language Dolby Digital 2.0. The English language track is the default and sounds very nice, with always clear dialogue and a fairly dynamic mix.

No subtitle options are made available.

Extras:

An advertisement for previous editions of The Spectacular Spider-Man precedes the main menu. It's also available in a Previews option, along with trailers and ads for Sony Wonder Backstage Pass, Planet 51, Hachi: A Dog's Tale, Astro Boy, Open Season, Open Season 2, Monster House, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Surf's Up, The Mr. Men Show, and Playmobil: The Secret of Pirate Island. Aside from this, there are no extras on the disc.

Final Thoughts:

Volume Six of The Spectacular Spider-Man offers three more episodes of this fun and energetic cartoon take on the classic Marvel superhero. Based upon content, I'm recommending this disc. However, keep in mind that there are only 68 minutes of cartoons on this disc (with no significant extras), and a Season Two box set is very likely on the horizon - so fans may want to wait for that to arrive.

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