The Spectacular Spider-Man (TV series)

The Spectacular Spider-Man is a animated series and the latest animated version of. The show is targeted at both young, new viewers, as well as an older, more sophisticated audience that enjoyed the other previous series. The series is based primarily on the original stories by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, with a similar balance of action, drama, and comedy as well as a high school setting. Though, it also tends to utilize material from all eras of the comic's run and other sources such as the film series and the Ultimate Spider-Man comics.

The show premiered on March 8, 2008 during the Kids' WB! programming block of The CW, and received critical acclaim. The series aired its second season on Marvel's sister network, Disney XD in the United States and ended its run on November 18, 2009, also receiving positive critical attention. Although a third season was planned, the series was cancelled before production could begin.

Premise
Like Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man follows the adventures of Peter Parker as he deals with his social life while being a costumed superhero. However, unlike the Marvel Animated Universe version this Peter Parker is still in high school. The show deals with typical teenage angst while the MAU version dealt more with early adulthood problems.

The series will use the comics' storylines but condensed to include the classic storylines and characters.

Season two came out in March 2009. Then after a few months Sony annouced that they will end The Spectacular Spider-man series and create a new series called Ultimate Spider-Man.

Production
The Spectacular Spider-Man was announced by Kids' WB Senior Vice President and General Manager Betsy McGowen and Sony Pictures Television Co-President Zack Van Amburg in March 2007. The series was produced by Sony Pictures' direct-to-video label Culver Entertainment and its television animation studio, Adelaide Productions (due to Sony's holding of the Spider-Man film franchise rights).

The series was developed by supervising producers Victor Cook and Greg Weisman; Cook as supervising director and Weisman as story editor. The lead character designer for the series is Sean Galloway. The art style of the series is more simplified than in previous incarnations but retain their iconic elements. This choice was made to ensure Spider-Man would move as he should and replicate the fluidity from Sam Raimi's movie incarnation.

The title sequence for the show was directed by Victor Cook with the theme song written and performed by The Tender Box.

Cancellation
The show's creators were striving to reach 65 episodes. 26 episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man were produced in total.

The series stopped production with a renewal dependent upon the ratings for season 2 on the U.S. Disney XD channel and the sales of the DVDs. If the third season were to have gone ahead, producer Greg Weisman stated that Scorpion and Hobgoblin would have made their appearances. On September 1, 2009, the television rights for Spider-Man were returned to Marvel by Sony. The effect this had on The Spectacular Spider-Man's future was unknown. At the time, President of Marvel Animation Eric Rollman further stated that "no decisions have been made either way" regarding the fate of the series. Newsarama reported that the series' cancellation occurred just after The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment in December 2009.

With many months of near-silence on the subject, it hadn't been looking good for the series. On April 13, 2010, Marvel Comic's Tom Brevoort was asked about Spectacular on formspring, and simply said, "That was a wonderful cartoon, but finished now." Though asked for clarification, he added, "I'm not officially connected to the show, so I can't tell you anything officially; the people connected with it will have to do that." This came along with the announcement of a new Spider-Man series eventually called Ultimate Spider-Man.

Reception
The show was met with high critical acclaim. Early in the series' run, Alan Kistler of ComicMix called the series "one of the best superhero adaptations I’ve ever seen (and trust me, I've watched more than anyone will probably consider reasonable). It’s fun, it’s smart, it's mature, it’s witty and every episode leaves me wanting more."

In January 2009, IGN dubbed The Spectacular Spider-Man the 30th best animated television series. It beat Spider-Man at 84 and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends at 59. X-Men is the only Marvel series to beat this series at 13. 

The episode Final Curtain received an Annie Award nomination in Storyboarding in a Television Production.