BW Media Spotlight

This is one of those shows where I split off from “the group” as I just never got myself into this show. Granted, some of this is a personal lack of connection as it came at a bad time: my first hospital stays, thanks to Crohn’s Disease, that started the events that led to this website you’re reading now. However, it also features some of my personal issues with modern Spider-Man adaptations. It features teenage Peter Parker because they want to tell the origin story, but starts just after Uncle Ben’s passing AND uses the supporting cast Peter shouldn’t meet until college since they want their cake and eat it, too, even when it isn’t properly baked. It shows you that for all the talk about wanting Peter back in high school he didn’t truly peak as a hero until he graduated and went to college. Not that the comic was bad before that or Pete would never have made it to Empire State University, but that a lot of his villains and supporting cast came when he went to college.

It also altered a lot of the characters. Harry’s a dweeb and pining for Gwen Stacy, who is designed to be geekier than Peter and yet both Liz Allen (did they change her race because I don’t remember her skin being that dark…though it does make her look cute) and later Mary Jane are both into Peter, who is only interested in Gwen. Flash…is still Flash, but credit where it’s due. When this show did their version of the symbiote storyline Flash is actually the voice of reason. It may be the version with the most character growth without tossing out the usual cast, which is a credit to co-creators Greg Weisman and Victor Cook, but it also changed the characters quite a bit.

Still, I may not have watched a lot of this show, which interestingly came from Kids WB long before Disney bought Marvel and Fox, because of my situation and lack of connection, but this may be one of the better intros of this series, if not the best.

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