For the 1990s Fox Kids would take up the adventures of the wall-crawler, and it may be the best interpretation of Spider-Man, and certainly the last one to properly adapt the comics. If anything, Spider-Man: The Animated Series (titled on-screen as simply Spider-Man) did something that Batman: The Animated Series did with Mr. Freeze and alter the comics with Venom’s influence on Peter. I’ll do tomorrow what I should have done today and make the next Daily Video go into that with Casually Comics, because we’re here to discuss intros and only gloss over a review of the series it comes from.
One think you’ll notice immediately is that the theme song is a remake of the original 1970s theme song, which by then had become iconic enough to show up in the first Sam Rami movie. Thankfully the show came before the movie, but I believe this was near the time when James Cameron was attempting to make his Spider-Man movie, which for various reasons never came to pass. You can also partly blame this series for Toy Biz’s eventual takeover of Marvel Comics as they were already making the toys. Avi Arad, a man who claimed to be a huge Marvel fan as well as someone who understands toys, had a big part in this show, which is reflected in some of the new designs. Peter’s kind of buff…but oddly looks more like Nicholas Hammond from the live-action US series than the guy in the comics. Still, it’s really a good show and worth checking out. It’s not the only Fox Kids show featuring Spider-Man and we’ll get that one in here as well, but there’s a reason this show lasted five seasons.
BW Media Spotlight 
BW Vs Variety> The Fall Of The Comic Book Movie Is Preventable
Here we go again. There are times I almost feel repetitive, bringing the same horse back for another post-mortem beating, but the problem is there’s always some new voice between me and the glue factory. Speaking of beatings, check out that metaphor!
Our latest voice in the “superhero fatigue” movement is Variety contributor Owen Gleiberman and his article, “Why The Fall Of Comic Book Movie Culture Is Inevitable“. The URL drops the names Superman, Batman, and Deadpool for the search engines. I just stick with the title and put names in tags, but they’re the big name website and industry trade publication and I’m the blogger. What do I know? I know he’s wrong in some of his theories in this article, that’s what I know. Variety is part of the Hollywood machine and the elitists still look down on geek culture even while the businessmen see dollar signs because untapped markets equal money. There are those in the entertainment machine who look down on superheroes and comic books…and sadly too many of them are currently making superhero movies.
Admittedly, I actually do think Gleiberman makes some good points or I wouldn’t even bother doing another of these. At this point I’ve gotten sick of trying to explain why a bunch of elitist snobs are wrong about superheroes and totally ignoring their own biases against superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, and other things people like me enjoy–but I’ll totally admit my own biases. I just posted a Christmas superhero minicomic for kids and today I reviewed a comic featuring genetically altered amphibians who are really good at martial arts. Pretty sure I can’t hide that bias, but I’m willing to admit it while still being objective enough that I can tell a lot of this is the “cool kids” trying to speak the end of superheroes into existence. Gleiberman doesn’t come off as that far, but he is part of the Hollywood system, so he’s not without suspicion. Still, let’s see what he actually says, what he got right, and what he got wrong. That’s what I do around here.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on January 2, 2024 in DC Spotlight, Marvel Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged BW versus, commentary, DC Extended Universe, DC Universe, Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies, Variety.
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