Spider-Man: TAS - I Really, Really Hate Clones

[Vardon]

It's funny with the play on the title, especially due to the infamy of the 'Clone Saga'.

I would say this probably has my favourite version of Venom, mainly due to the altered voice as Venom, it always sounded unsettling, both as a kid and as an adult.

The joke about Hobgoblin becoming a clown did make me laugh, obviously as a reference of Hamill playing both Joker & Hobgoblin.
Which begs a question, was Mark Hamill the first actor to play both a Marvel & DC character?

[Nevix]

I absolutely LOVE TAS, particularly thanks to it being my biggest introduction to the Spider-Man mythos as a kid. Surprised Chuck didn't bring up that this is the finale of the show yet - and how, in turn, it's really the culmination of not just the Secret Wars adaptation but the show overall - Peter's self-respect, laying to rest his guilt over Uncle Ben, so many villains of the show referenced, and of course the paths not taken with the alternate Spider-Men (mostly of course Spidey Warbucks and his universe where nothing ever went wrong for him ever, to the point where Gwen Stacy - not present in the regular series - is alive and his girlfriend). TAS' biggest issues are, of course, its censorship and budget, from the mentioned issues regarding mentioning blood (and guns only ever being lasers to the point of ridiculousness) to the REALLY choppy editing in later seasons, either with slowed-down or reused animation frames from earlier episodes. However, I feel what elevates TAS is its writing. It's just that damn good and helps illustrate what made so much of the Spider-Man melodrama stuff so compelling and interesting.

The worst part of the nineties spider man series was the fact that they played the neogenic nightmare saga for at least a year between the 1st season and the 2nd season.

The actual story line was about 14 or 15 episodes, but it got played at least 4 or 5 times, making it last way too long, just like the comic clone saga it was based on.

The only other big problem I had with the nineties spider man series was the fact that it ended in what seemed like the middle of a major plot line to recover the real Mary Jane. I wanted to see more of that, and it never arrived.

[SabreMau]

The joke about Hobgoblin becoming a clown did make me laugh, obviously as a reference of Hamill playing both Joker & Hobgoblin.
Which begs a question, was Mark Hamill the first actor to play both a Marvel & DC character?

Doesn't look like it. I haven't done an exhaustive search to see if she's the earliest, but Jessica Walter played a character in The Return of Wonder Woman (1977), followed by playing Morgan LeFay in a TV movie of Doctor Strange (1978).

However, I'm not entirely sure if her character in Wonder Woman was a TV-original or was a character made by DC first. John Vernon played several characters in 1966's The Marvel Super Heroes (including Iron Man and Sub-Mariner) before playing Rupert Thorne in Batman: TAS in 1992.


Ah, found one that completed the circuit even earlier. Irene Tedrow (1907-1995) played Martha Kent in the TV movie It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman! (1975) and then later Aunt May in an episode of The Amazing Spider-Man (1978).

[TrueMetis]

Oh shit, it's the silver spiderman costume that I thought I had dreamt up. I spent a lot of time searching for it at various points but never could seem to find it. Cool.

[Rodan56]

Honestly always rooted for Debra in the 90s show. Even if the show kinda treats her like shit. Like she's fine looking. She's into science like Peter. Which puts her ahead of MJ and Felicia who share little interests with Peter.

The thing is, Peter calls her the "Little sister I never had... or wanted" so... I don't know. I see what you're saying, but it feels a bit off after that's her introduction.

[RobbyB1982]

Oh shit, it's the silver spiderman costume that I thought I had dreamt up. I spent a lot of time searching for it at various points but never could seem to find it. Cool.

It originally only appeared in one issue, Web of Spiderman #100. (With a foil cover, natch) It was used to beat the gimmick villain group of the issue, then discarded and not used ever again after that... so its not surprising you never found it anywhere. It really was there *entirely* to have a foil cover on the book during the period that was a neat gimmick and it let them get away with a higher cover price.

Though it does show up from time to time in multiverse stories and DLCs.

[Scififan]

You know, it must suck to live in a universe where it's possible to destroy it and all of reality. You're just minding your own business, doing your own thing, when boom, some asshole 8 billion light years away and from a universe where the hive-minded lobster people evolved on your planet instead of the dolphin cephalapods decides to throw a tantrum and create a portal device that rips apart all of reality.

How many times has the Beyonder had to deal with shit like this?

"Okay, good, Cosmoscide has been stopped. The multiverse is now sa... oh for fuck's sake, now ^(*(GG$5 from dimension 398-#gHH2-2883 built the Ultimate Retrocontaminator, and just stabbed The One Above All, and it looks like Spider Carnage from dimension 5523-u&6g0-5731-D is just about to fire up his interdimensional portal device."

"It's like I just cleaned up in here".

[Aotrs Commander]

X-Men TAS was single-handedly responsible for getting me interested in superheroes, period. Before that, Adam West Batman (repeats) and the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon, plus Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends the Superman movies... All only had a very limited impact, compared to... Everything That Had (Or Was) a Vehicles.

X-Men introduced me to superheroes that were not, basically, silver/golden age and it was the idea the X-Men weren't lantern-jawed heroes that appealed to teenage me[1].

That novelty rapidly wore off, and frankly, these days. I'd rather watch the silly lantern-jawed heroes and (to very appropriately quote a Spider-Man/X-Men crossover comic from the period) where "a bit of moderate punching and hitting and all's well with the world," over grim melodrama or deconstructions. (I appeciate Adam West Batman WAAAAY more now than as a child, since I can appreciate the silliness; then it was... just stuff happening that I took at face value.)

Filmation's The New Adventures of Flash Gordon (1979) had a general overall arc to season one, but you kids probably never saw that show. I never saw it in syndication much and it wasn't a big DVD release.

There was also Mysterious Cities of Gold, Pirates of Darkwater, Ulysses 31, Dungeons and Dragons, Jacye and the Wheeled Warriors, Around the World with Willy Fogg, Bobobobs (man, who else remembers Bobobobs?) and I'm sure I am forgetting a few. They all had season arcs and through stories, admittedly Dungeons and Dragons was a bit ropey at times, so it wasn't that uncommon.

Jayce did not have any season arcs. I, throw the foggy reminicences of nostagilia, have the show on DVD[2] and watched it only a year or few ago. It is, honestly, kind of awful (though not as bad as MASK). It COULD, with a modern treatment, be amazing. The most apinful mpart of Jayce was the potential that the show (by dint of even stricter content rules and episodic formula) had, buried in the murk.

No, the closest Jayce had to an arc was the one five-part "story" they told and I say "story" in inverted commas since it was a rancid mess of a plot barely functional. As/when the giant in the playground forums return, I could recount with a little more confidence.

I can tell you I DID blow my top, though, when, after only ever having seen on endless repeat on UK telly the first dozen or so episodes, when I FINALLY got to the end of the series for it to be a complete non-ending.


Pirates of Darkwater was later (90s, rather than 80s). Not sure if I ever saw all of it (UK telly being generally "only show the first season and repeat ad finitum," something it has only rally expanded to "show in bits and pieces in nominal order once, then randomly repeat ad finitum until the final season, then stop showing at all." If I want to watch something all-proper like, I have to buy the DVD or Go To The Internet...

You mention Mysterious Cities of Gold but forget Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea?

Quite possible that they never made this (UK) side of the pond, since I (being a little bit of a cartoon person) can't say as I've heard of them.



[1]Also Jubilee, because Jubilee is Best Character (and the only reason she won't blow you face off with xplosive is you don't agree is that she's too good of a person...)

[2]I have done this with many of the old 1980s cartoons, or at least the ones I had any truck with. (Notably exceptions, the aforementioned Mysterious Cities of Gold (never was that bothered about it, and notably soured after the one time I had nightmares about it), Ulysesses 31, Dungeons & Dragons and TMNT, which I never cared for. It was a bit surprising how they came out. MASK was bottom of the pack, being so very forumalic and lacking in any degree or threat. He-Man and She-Ra were very much a product of their time and budget, but with some flashes. Jayce was... yeah. Thundercats I've only got part-way through, since it was... Not good, at least in the early episodes, full of "this happens because the plot says so." Transformers is as Chuck has shown one of the best, actually, in hat it did (GI Joe/Action Force never got much if any of a release outside the movie over here) and Centurions actually stole the crown for being BETTER than I remembered, probably because while no-one could accuse it of deep and meaningful character work, approached being a big dumb action movie with surprisingly subtle cleverness and attention to small details.

[MerelyAFan]

And it finishes with Farewell Spider-Man:

https://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/spiderman2.php

It was a fitting conclusion for the character. Throughout the show he had gone back and forth between a genuine love of being Spider-Man and lamenting what that role had done to the life of Peter Parker. Here however he gets validation not just from an Uncle Ben demonstrating his pride in him, but also from the realization that his struggles and deeds made him a cherished hero to people. Even with every bad card he's been dealt, he is able to recognize the positives of what he has and that he's better than who he was.

His growth is most apparent in comparison with Spidey Warbucks, someone who's never needed to improve because he's never truly been challenged by life, and Spider-Carnage, who has become defined by the tragedy and hardship of his existence to the point of sheer nihilism. Peter's strength ultimately is that he evolves as a person to become more than what he was, while still at his heart being your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

[Wargriffin]

Peter Parker looks kind of wrong as a big beefy guy. Though it looks like every male character is has the body of a linebacker.

The thing is TAS Peter is suppose to have been Spidey for a while hence why he is in College instead of his usually starting point of middle school

So after a few months/ years of super heroics Pete would start to bulk up due to the increase in Physical activity


____

I mean the story ends on one of the usual heroic standards Spidey meets his creator and gains clarity on his life.

I think oddly enough I didn't mind it being a cliffhanger... Star trek 3 is how I think alot of series should end

"And the Adventure Continues"