Monday 5 May 2008

SOLO SPIDER-MAN ANIMATED SERIES: 1981

This show is clearly one of my many favorite Marvel animated shows, especially in the Spider-Man buisness. It's called cheesy but it got close enough to the comics with adding a few outer villains (5 actually: Gadgeteer, StuntMan, Professor Gizmo(sort of a Mindell Stromm ripoff, why didn't they use Mindell Stromm? Who wants vengeance in a cartoon in the era when cartoons are meant to be fun), a cowboy titled as SideWinder & Nephilia(who isn't actually a villain, but Penny is who pretended to love him)).

Art style is based on the fantastic art of the legendary "John Romita sr." and the animation is actually quite well done, though the characters run in a funny way and sometimes Spider-Man crawls wall in a funny way.

The most significant villain in this show isn't the "Green Goblin" nor "Doc Ock", actually the arch nemesis of Spider-Man in this show is "Victor Von Dom"/"Dr.Doom". Doctor Doom had the most memorable animated appearance in this animated series especially in his arc titled "Doctor Doom: Master of the world". The story of the good doctor was supposed to be a movie then was decided to be a mini series shown in Europe according to writer "Larry Parr".

The reasons for me to adore this show are as following:
1. I'm a big fan of Spider-Man.
2. I love the fantastic art of "The Amazing John Romita sr."
3. 80's American animated series are great, they have very great stories and art
4. Through this animated series alongside "Spider-Man & his Amazing Friends" I recognised and loved Spider-Man.
5. The more I read about Spider-Man the more connection I find between this Peter Parker and Marvel Comics Peter Parker, so I grow more fond of it.
6. Some people go against this reason, but I have to say it: Not so much romance complicating stuff beside the thing with Peter's first love interest "Betty Brant"

Before knowing about MJ in the comics and the movie I used to think: "Why does she exist?" but I really grew fond of her character and her role as a supporting cast member, yet I'm very pleased to see that show free from her.

Some people think that the villains here were actually lowered down, I say after going deep in the comics: Only "The Lizard" and 'Magneto" weren't that loyal to the comics, though the Lizard was actually very close except the fact that he doesn't have his alter ego "Dr. Curtis Connors".