By Chris Ryall
July 7, 2003
Some days you come home and have pleasant surprises waiting for you on the porch. This was one of those times -- I'm not even sure who I've ever talked to at MTV or who there has my address, but I came home to find a Fed Ex'd copy of MTV's new SPIDER-MAN show waiting for me.
The show's been a while in coming...it was announced over a year ago and then its launch was delayed for whatever reasons (you hear things, but really, it doesn't matter at this point). The show's launch is finally upon us -- back-to-back episodes of the digitally animated cartoon start airing this Friday, July 11 at 10 PM.
What was known before: Neil Patrick Doogie Howser Harris is the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Songstress Lisa Loeb is Mary Jane, and Ian "Steve Sanders" Ziering is the voice of Peter's best friend, Harry Osborne.
The press release states that the show is based on the "legendary Marvel comic book," but that's not quite true -- it seems more based on the recent SPIDER-MAN movie, mixed with some of the recent ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic's influences: Harry Osborne isn't the shy, twitchy kid from the old comics, he's the rich, cocky version from the ULTIMATE titles. His place looks like it did in the movie (although rendered by 3-D imaging). The press release states that Peter, who's now in college, works for the Daily Bugle as well as selling video footage to Empire 1 News, but we saw none of that in this pilot.
The show is exec-produced by Morgan Gendel and Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis, who currently writes the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic, is credited in print as writing the pilot, but the show I watched only listed him as the "co-executive producer." The ever-present Avi Arad also serves as an executive producer, along with Stan Lee and Rick Ungar, all of whom represent Marvel Studios.
But is it any good? All indications were that this show was a bit troubled from the outset -- Brian Bendis, who was originally slated to be much more involved with the show than he seems to be now, stated before on his message board that MTV had changed the show's focus a bit. Rather than stemming from the movie, which featured people of all ages (as does, you know, life), MTV wanted a show where everyone was young. Which, for anyone who knows the story, or, in fact, any good story outside of maybe CHARLIE BROWN, wasn't going to work without adults. Pete's Aunt May couldn't very well be a student at his school. J. Jonah Jameson, his crusty newspaper employer, couldn't be a cigar-chomping college freshmen. So you had to wonder what this show would be like if that was indeed the mandate.
It didn't seem to be the case in the show I watched, which was, I think, technically the 11th episode of the 13-ep season. There were actual adults in this episode. (Do kids or whoever this show's targeted to really hate adults that much that MTV thought they shouldn't show any? Is CHILDREN OF THE CORN a true story?) The episode, titled "Sword of Shikata," involved a rich guy hiring a tracking expert to bring him the head of Spider-Man (who had to be more spider than man, the guy said, although it's clear to the rest of us that it's just some kid in a cloth costume). But, cool! We're getting a Kraven the Hunter episode, right? Uh, no.
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The show's being created in a unique computer-animated style, called "CG neon noire," which is CG imaging processed in a classic feature animation style. All of which means, according to the release, that it "combines bright, lively abstract colors...and a seemingly realistic neon-lit city of the immediate future." What does that mean to us viewers? It means the first few minutes are a bit jarring. The animation looks kind of like animatics, which is basically unfinished animation that's used in place of storyboards today in some movies, to help block out a character's movement (I'm sure there's a better definition...).
The show opens with a bus careening down a city street, and immediately, I was taken aback by the fact that the city is so pastel-colored and lacking detail. It was like a Rob Liefeld comic in places, with the lack of background detail. The movements of the characters were also a little jarring, more herky-jerky than traditional animation. And I was just fixating on the fact that really nothing in the city, people or buildings or cars, had much detail or texture. It looked a bit like the backgrounds in VICE CITY. All of which sounds bad...however, after a few minutes, I started getting used to the style and liking it. The CG really gives the animation more depth than traditional cartoons, and the shading is really well done. It's not flawless, but for a cartoon on TV, it got more and more impressive as the show went on. It's maybe better suited to a show like Batman, with lots of deep, shadowy night scenes, but overall, it's pretty effective, moreso than the trailers for the show would imply.
Spider-Man swings into the scene (looking very much like the lithe, ULTIMATE Mark Bagley version), tracking the bus down and stopping it. In the background, a character charts his progress and calls it in. He zips off to avert two more disasters and, each time, someone is there to monitor his strength levels (he exhibited a top speed of 72 mph and lifted 10,000 pounds like it was nothing).
After that brief scene, we got the opening credits. The credits promise future appearances by, among others, Silver Sable, Kingpin, the Lizard (or maybe Stegron?) and yes, Kraven the Hunter. Maybe Venom, too, but it was hard to tell.
From there, the scene shifted to Mary Jane, who's evidently friends with Pete and Harry but not romantically involved with either. She's auditioning for a movie that's being financed by one Richard Damien (with that name, and the fact that he's uber-rich, you just know he's the bad guy). Later, Richard, surrounded in his place by cages of all kinds of wild animals and one man-sized cage that sits empty, is hiring someone to track down Spider-Man (the cage already has a placard saying "Spider-Man" on it. Did the spot over his mantle have a card saying "rhino" before he bagged one of those, I wonder?)
The very un-Kraven person he hires is a woman, Shikata (voiced by Gina Gershon), who totes a magic katana that can deflect bullets and heal her wounds. She accepts the bounty. A trap is laid for Spider-Man, one he gets out of, but she develops an even stronger drive to take him down. When Spidey is fighting, he lets loose a couple wisecracks but not as many as you'd expect. Hopefully the writing loosens up a bit and Doogie can really deliver the puns. Looking at the voice-over quality overall, Harris does a great job with Spider-Man, as does Ziering as the cocky Harry Osborne (the traditionalist in me would still rather see the meek, corn-rowed Harry and not this rich, good-looking version). Lisa Loeb gets a bit shrill in places, but since she's not a seasoned actor, I assume that will calm down a bit. Her Mary Jane isn't exactly the victim type, so it'd be nice if her voice wasn't so...frantic.
Shikata reports back to Damien that she no longer wants his money to hunt Spider-Man, that now she and this noble creature must instead fight to the death. That doesn't sit so well with Damien, who sets his henchman (voiced by a lively Clancy Brown) after her. He ends up minus a finger, which drops to the floor still resting on the trigger of his gun. The show features a few instances of violence along those lines (an off-panel beheading happens a bit later, too), so it's clear that the show's aimed more for the teen than the tween crowd (the time of night it airs implies as much, too).
Shikata, who uses other tricks that show her to be equal parts ninja and samurai (a contradiction in terms, I know), as well as a sword that seems taken from CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. In fact, that movie, along with John Woo flicks and THE MATRIX, of course, informs most of the fight scenes. Scenes slow to bullet-time in places, and while it might not really add anything to the show to use that sort of effect, it at least links this show with the sensibilities of those fan-favorites in the viewers mind.
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Again, the CG animation handles most of these scenes nicely. In fact, the 3-D animation used here looks more like traditional animation rendered in 3-D (that'll make sense when you see it). The only real weaknesses I can see, other than a lack of textures that seems deliberate, is in scenes where there's direct interaction between characters. Hugs look more like images overlaid on one another--there's a lack of weight in those moments. But like I say, the interesting depth and shadows of the characters still makes it work.
After the final fight with Spider-Man and Shikata is resolved (don't grow too attached to her, kids, unless she's even more mystical than she appears), Spider-Man, who was assisted by Mary Jane during the fight, then lays a big kiss on her in an alley. It seems partly a nod to the movie's big kiss scene, of course, but also...well, it's a bit odd. Are these two together? This wasn't a "thank-you" kiss, it was a "If I was a trapdoor spider, I'd jump on you right here" kiss. But if this episode is the 11th in the season, maybe they're together or something.
Still, the show has some definite promise, and the voice talents, which I saw mocked on message boards when first announced, work out nicely. Future guest-voices include Michael Clarke Duncan (the Kingpin?), Rob Zombie and Keith Carradine. All in all, a very respectable effort on all levels.
SPIDER-MAN debuts this Friday, July 11, at 10 PM on MTV. Two back-to-back episodes will air every Friday at 10 PM.
Tomorrow: CBS's JOAN OF ARCADIA
E-MAIL CHRIS RYALL | ARCHIVES
