Sometimes corporations are stupid. Disney just bought Marvel, right? Well, there was some stuff leading up to that already; the Disney XD channel had a lot of Marvel programming. One of their biggest hits was the show Spectacular Spiderman. Not only was this show a commercial success, it was a critical one, and Spidey fans everywhere (including me) found it to be one of the very best incarnations of the character(s) ever done, in any media.
On April 13, two days ago, Marvel issued a press release that they're developing a new show called Ultimate Spiderman (based at least in part on the comic book of the same name, and featuring a lot of team-up action) to debut in 2011. That begged the question of what would happen with the pending Spectacular Spiderman which was done with season 2 and waiting on word whether it would be picked up again for season 3 (while simultaneously being a bad sign for said season 3.)
Sure enough, yesterday, April 14th, the situation was clarified; Spectacular was done. Now; this Ultimate Spiderman sounds like a decent show. But did we really need to cancel a show that was a known success in order to do that? Why cancel a good thing and then hope you can be as successful again with another venture that treads the same territory?
Anyway... I'm highly disappointed. I started watching the show because I have little boys, who love superheroes, and stuck with it because it was just spectacularly (if you'll forgive me for saying so) well done. Better than the Sam Raimi movies. At least as good as the Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Spiderman books. Better by far than the prior TV efforts in the 60s, 80s and 90s. Better than the original run of the comics. Really; the best Spiderman I'd ever seen. I was really excited to see a season 3, expanding the Spectacularverse with more of the iconic Spidey villains: Kingpin, Scorpion, Hobgoblin, Carnage, and more.
But now that'll never happen.
Rest in Peace, Spectacular Spiderman. You'll be sorely missed. And now I'm ready to go into the Ultimate show already ticked off at Marvel from the get-go.
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