Amph Spider-Man & SSU Films (Friendly Neighborhood, Spider-Noir, "S-M4", Beyond the Spider-Verse)

Happy Spider-Verse Earth day!



I believe that the filmmakers mentioned there were 5 Earths in the film. The four seen here and a top secret 5th Earth. C'mon 90s Spider-Man. (But the trailer does name drop Earth 199999 so maybe Tom Holland? Would he be live action?)

 

Kraven movie rated R! Across the Spider-Verse footage revealed with this rather heartbreaking line “In every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-man, and in every other universe, it doesn’t end well.”

(So if Green Goblin tries to throw Spider-Gwen off a bridge and would she just swing back up no problem?)

 

I'd ask "How do you even make an R rated Kraven the Hunter movie?" but I'd be skipping more important questions like "Why even make a Kraven the Hunter movie?" and "How did a bunch of people ostensibly concerned with profit miss the memo from Morbius?"

 

Well making Kraven Rated R could give it more kinetic kick and make it stand out as opposed to some sloppy generic forgettable mush that ended up in Moribus (and okay, most of the first Venom movie. I'll go down swinging for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, that movie rocks). If they're going with Kraven: Friend of the Animals and Guy who Beats Down Poachers might as well make the last bit messy. Apparently some Roadhouse style throat rips and nose biting and also the trailer

Spoiler

had Rhino in it, I mean if you're going to have Kraven fight a Spider-baddie animal person, Rhino would be the pick. Apparently Rhino is made Rhino by some sort of Serum Injection or whatever which makes him closer to the original comic version.

Now I'm not exactly clamoring for a return of the Rhinoceros Machine (although some more Paul Giamatti I would always dig) but I doubt they're bringing him back. If only right now in my head the Sony SpinOff Verse is the Amazing Spider-Man verse, makes more sense that way

Anyway back to Spider-Man: Unlimited for a moment (just watched 3rd episode, still weird), it seems like it's production was cursed from the start. (various wiki sources I know but seems legit). It was a contractual obligation so Fox Kids could keep airing Spider-Man TAS. It was originally going to be an adaptation of the first 25 issues of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man but Sony getting the film and TV rights for Spider-Man (and turning it into the Raimi movie and the CGI animated series) getting the rights to those stories basically means Unlimited had to turn into something else entirely. And Marvel said they wanted "Counter-Earth, the Knights of Wundagore, John Jameson, Deathlok, Venom" Also apparently it ends on an unresolved cliffhanger! Well whole lot of legwork for a character who is going to pop up for about 30 seconds in Across the Spider-Verse but I ain't complaining too much.

Speaking of Spiver-Verse, apparently Scarlet Spider is a top Secret Voice actor. ooooh! Mystery!

Santos, who just so happens to be a fan of Scarlet Spider, brought up this element in an interview with Total Film magazine. "I can't wait for people to hear who voices him. [The actor's identity] still hasn't been released, but I love our Scarlet Spider actor. Not even the actors know! Everyone is sworn to secrecy, and they record alone, so most of them are discovering with the public who is in the film they've been making. Their reactions have been pretty hilarious." In the comics, Ben Reilly is a clone of Peter Parker and has proven to be a fan-favorite iteration of the Wall-Crawler.

 

For loving SMTAS, I hated SMU, especially Venom being pure bad and working with Carnage, I also generally like the type and amount of sci fi that TAS had then it went way too far in SMU. And I really disliked Rino Romano as the voice of Spider-Man and yet he then did quite well voicing him in the Activision video game.

I wish we had gotten a Spider-Man 2099 series, WB was doing/had started Batman Beyond yes so what, embrace the competition.

 

I was just looking up the cast list of Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (NPH, Daniel Barnes and Josh Keaton) and it's a hell of a list of Spider-Men, almost makes me want to dig around and re-hook up the Wii (those Wiimotes are definitely broken/rotted from battery un-use, though). And also I remember Dan Slott worked on it and that's how we got the Spider-Verse comic event and eventually the movies



Anyway got a new poster and what stood out to me the most was Mangaverse Spider-Man in the top left corner (one with the backpack and neat kicks)



I'm definitely watching this twice opening weekend to catch all the Spider-Men hahaha

 

Tickets on sale now, already got mine but not 3d and the biggest screen is probably going to Fast X, booo

New ads, lots menace in one and great gag at the end of another

 

"Sorry, the only Italian I know is from Mario Kart."

 

Gwen and Miles going for a swung

Ad with the "In every other universe Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-man and in every other universe it doesn't end well" heartbreaking line


Also? Car ad! Why is Gwen driving? Shouldn't she be swinging? Aside from the Spider-Buggy Spider-People don't really drive. Also is Gwen's license valid in this universe? And does she ever tell Miles what the song is?

 

Here's the full clip of that Gwen line that just breaks me, great character animation and vocal performance by Stienfeld


In other personal Spider-Verse watching, I'm on Season 4 of 90s TAS which is one I've seen the least. Lots of Black Cat in this season which is good but I'm not a big fan of the whole she has super solider serum that also causes her to morph at will between normal Felica and jacked up Felicia. Also this season it seems in a cost saving measure about 5 minutes per episode its just previous season footage and flashbacks. The show has this in the first 3 seasons too but it was like 30 seconds and there's a lot of flashbacks continuity to cover. But there's a lot more usage of previous episode footage in this season, comparatively

 

Ah the 90s Spider-Man.
So much greatness that it introduced to us (first time we heard the term symbiote, its depiction of the origin of Venom is pretty much the standard movie one now) but also so much dodgy animation and a Peter Parker who looks and sounds about 30 despite the fact he's only meant to be 19 and attending his first year of University.
That version of Madame Web is what i want to see in the upcoming movie

 

It's not completely clear but I think it's pretty indicated, and I interpret, that the show takes place in approximately real time, so overall takes place over about 3 years.

 

I had zero interest in the Kraven movie until I found out J.C. Chandor was directing it. I mean, that's not a slam dunk or anything, but I've liked all of his movies and consider him a very underrated director overall.

 

Finished my 3rd watch of The Spectacular Spider-Man, still my favourite animated series (even a notch above the 90s series, that one is fun for a tour of the Marvel Universe via Spider-Man but this one is more Spider-Man centric). It is on Disney Plus if no one has seen it (last episode is out of order though, supposed to be episode 16 or 17). It's a Sony show that got turfed when the Spider-Man rights for everything except movies returned to Disney/Marvel. Damn shame they didn't keep it going, it was so good but never had a chance to get bad (and Spectacular is in Across the Spider-Verse somewhere). Anyway, the best episode is Intervention Episode 12 which is sort of a flashback to Spider-Man's origins (with a heavy dose of the Raimi film influence) but being guided and distorted by the Symbiote and it's pretty good twist on the origin flashback. I let my bitterness against it being cancelled I didn't watch Ultimate Spider-Man or Marvel's Spider-Man but I did a quick google so apparently Ultimate Spider-Man is the better one so I'll probably try to check that out next.

There is so much clips from Across the Spider-Verse out now, even Miles running from the Spider-society is out there, often Sony goes overboard on clips. I'm good, that last clip with Miles and Gwen is good enough for me. Just over a week to go.

But in non-animation Spider-Man news, the latest trailer (12 min Gameplay trailer) for Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 just hit and hollllly heck. It's Amazing!

Really swinging big there with Symbiote Spider-Man, Kraven, Lizard, Miles all in there (but there were a ton of characters across the last two Insomniac games). I love the detail that Pete's Symbiote suit actually does sort of look like a new suit but then it gets all Venom-y, especially in the closing moments where the eyes go momentarily Venom. "He has big teeth!" "So do I." If I had to guess, the post-credit teasers in the last two games had Harry in a symbiote vat (and this clips mentions Harry is in mortal danger), so I would guess they're using the Ultimate Comics Venom-cure-for-cancer origin. But it'll probably be an alien anyway.

 

I watched the entire video. Did not expect to do that.

That was phenomenal.

Visually what can be done with Spider-Man is exciting and cinematic. Something like this wouldn’t work with Superman. And Batman and Robin can not work in the same way Miles and Peter do sharing the same set of super powers.

The dynamic between Peter and Miles in the first game works so well. I really like how it works in the comic book too. Peter in the comics has been an adult for decades at this point and introducing Miles was a way to reintroduce the original teenage Spide-Man back to the main comics while also not losing original Spider-Man’s story. And Miles is his own character enough that he is facing problems uniquely his.

I’ve always liked the symbiont costume more as a concept than in its execution. From what I know of the comic run - that’s where it worked the best because Spider-Man was wearing it as his regular costume for four years of issues. Its negative effects aren’t fully formed in a weekend. In their ‘last’ confrontation after Peter Parker had gotten rid of the symbiont and it comes back to take control in a final showdown, their fight is interrupt by other foes. In the end the symbiont gives its own life saving Peter’s. (Or so it seems). The comic has Spider-Man in a long term codependent relationship with his costume. It’s such a weird and interesting twist and a bizarre origin for Venom.


A single movie or cartoon series telling the entire story of the symbiotic over a three part episode never gave it enough weight.

The Symbiot as depicted here worked extremely well with the Miles and Peter duo dynamic. That its effecting Peter is demonstrated naturally in his working with miles. It doesn’t require inner monologue spoken aloud. Peter as a toxic mentor is crushing.

I also like how the symbiont moves here. It leaves Peter sometimes to show his red spider suit. It’s very much a creature of its own working with Spider-Man.

Thanks for posting the video!

 

I came here to post this. I'm so excited, didn't think I'd watch the whole 12 minutes either, but I did.
The first game was phenomenal, especially how the story wove so many characters together organically. It already feels like this will do the same.

This video game series might turn out to be one of the best adaptations of Spider-Man in any medium, hands down.

 

I wonder how much game will be Symbiote Spider-Man because they've shown Venom already so maybe it will be a crazy mid game section. Free roaming while as Symbiote Spider-Man could be a hoot

 

I hope Spider-Man has the symbiont suite long enough for the drama of him trying to lose it feels earned.

Also how does Miles being around change the dynamic between Peter and symbiont? Miles would make for a very easy rebound for a Symbiot suite feeling betrayed by is wearer.

 

I haven't seen any indication that Eddie Brock is in the game, but Venom is. Venom has merged with various other hosts, that just hasn't been used outside of the comics. Heck maybe it's Harry Osborn.

Anyway some Across the Spider-Verse reactions are in, Variety headline says "‘Actual Work of Art,’ ‘Darker and Sadder’ Than Expected"

 

Going in a few hours, in Digital Imax 2D. There's not 3D version of this movie which is a shame because Into the Spider-Verse was one of the best 3D experiences I've ever seen but, oh well. Not sure why Mario got a 3D release but Spider-Verse didn't.

Anyway I reposted on my website my '18 Into the Spider-Verse review and an entirely too long blog post Trippin 'round the Spider-Verse about various Spider-Man animation have been going through the last while. Both Spectacular and Unlimited are in Across the Spider-Verse and, hey, everything is canon in an infinite Spider-Verse. Some excerpts:

Spider-Man (1967 series): Spider-Man from Earth 67 pops up in the post-credit scene of Into the Spider-Verse where he gets into an argument with Spider-Man 2099 about who pointed first. Probably one of the best post-credit scenes ever, it’s so gold. The ‘67 Spider-Man series is inexplicably not on Disney Plus, probably a rights or contract issue. But it is weird because the credits for Into the Spider-Verse say Spider-Man ’67 is courtesy of Marvel TV (Disney owned) and the DVD set (Which currently goes for about 200 bucks or more on Amazon resale, probably because nobody can find it) is from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, which is another name for Disney and it has the freakin Disney Castle logo on the box art and DVD set. So, no idea why it isn’t available there. But the show itself may lean way way too hard to reused stock footage (it is an over 50 year old show) but it has a certain rudimentary charm. The iconic meme pointing episode is from Double Identity, and some bad guy takes on certain personas and eventually poses as Spider-Man leading the pointing scene. There’s actually only two Spider-Mans in there but the internet just made it three Spider-Man’s pointing which has taken on a life of it’s own of references. Anyway, the theme song for the show is iconic, the character animation and poses look very much like Steve Ditko art, and it’ll always be worth checking out as a curiosity. Just don’t expect to find it anywhere else you own the DVD set.

Spider-Man (1994 series, commonly abbreviated as TAS): This is one of most influential Spider-Man shows for me (as it landed when I was a teenager and got me into regular Spider-Man comic reading) but its influence is still long-standing. Especially in the Sam Raimi movies, the symbiote landing and Peter waking up upside down in the suit is straight from this show. Also in the very awesome Season finale there’s a lot of Beta-version Norman Osborn stuff that showed up in the Raimi flick. Like this scene here:



It’s Norman Osborn talking to his own reflection in the mirror of the Goblin, which was done so perfectly by Dafoe later on.



Also there’s a bit of Norman finding out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and getting all twitchy as a dinner as he tries to reveal it. But Raimi film influences aside, it’s a great show that works as a tour of the Marvel Universe (there’s a whole lot of different non-Spider-Man characters popping up in here for guest stars) and also being a solid Spider-Man show on its own. The later seasons seem to fall back on reusing flashback footage, possibly to save money and because the show had taken on so much continuity that it needed to constantly reference it. Another interesting thing about this series it that was loosely supposed to be a sequel to the never made James Cameron Spider-Man movie (that’s where the organic webshooters came from James Cameron’s scriptment) so therefore they ended up with a Doctor Octopus who sort of looks and sounds like Cameron’s potential Doc Ock, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Spider-Man (2003 series, sometimes called MTV’s Spider-Man): Really janky animation here, probably too early CGI attempt to do a TV series. It sort of nebulously is in the same continuity as the Raimi films, same suit, same logo, Norman is dead and Peter is in college with Harry, but also totally not. Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Spider-Man is the best thing about it, great vocal performance. There’s a lot of cool voice actors here, even Michael Dorn (aka Worf from Star Trek) as Kraven. And it totally ended on a Spider-Man No More cliff-hanger (Spider-Man basically accidentally crippled Peter’s new girlfriend!). Interesting curiosity if one can get past the sometimes distractingly bad animation.
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2012 series): This was Disney’s replacement for Spectacular Spider-Man, I avoided it out of bitterness to Spectacular being cancelled. But after my 3rd watch of Spectacular I figured I would give this a shot (mostly due to a google search if Marvel’s Spider-Man or Ultimate Spider-Man was better). The tonal shift to random anime and Simpsons/Family Guy style cutaway gags in the first three episodes is super-jarring. But they’re okay, if kind of over the top. The story is pretty neat, it opens up with baddies invading Peter Parker’s high school which is very similar to the Ultimate Spider-Man comic (and the first Amazing Spider-Man film) which leads to Spider-Man joining S.H.I.E.L.D. He teams up with a group of heroes and goes to learn the ropes to be the Ultimate Spider-Man. The deep dive into the Marvel universe is appreciated (in the 3rd episode the crew of young heroes try to take out Doctor Doom with disastrous results) with some returning live action Marvel veterans like Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson and JK Simmons as J Jonah Jameson.
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Spider-Woman (1979 series): This one is really damn strange, focusing on Jessica Drew the Spider-Woman, ace reporter by day, Spider-Woman in other times of the day. Spider-Man shows up in the pilot episode where people are menaced by alien Mummies. There’s also an episode where Kingpin shows up but he has an invisible ray so the only way the audience can see Kingpin is when he’s eating, so there’s scenes where floating turkey legs and floating cherry pies are saying menacing things about Spider-Woman. Kingpin also reveals Jessica’s ID to the public but then she fixes it at the end by using a robot. The final episode is about a robot alien lady that is putting people to sleep. Throughout the show Jessica keeps saying “Spider-Something” every other moment but actress Joan Van Ark voices Jessica with some perky conviction. Interesting oddity to check out, though. This Marvel compilation video sells the wackiness to expect

Spider-Man (1981 series): This show sort of looks like they grabbed a bunch of animation cells from the 1967 show and repurposed it. Lots of different Marvel characters, you wouldn’t think Doctor Doom would be in a Spider-Man show but he’s all over it. Also he sounds surprisingly like Darth Vader (which is fair, Darth Vader owes a lot to Doctor Doom anyway) There’s a Magneto episode that is interesting to see Magneto do his thing in a Spider-Man setting. This show is on Disney Plus which when you browse over it you get tricked into thinking it’s the Spider-Man ’67 show but it ain’t.

Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981 series): The other 1981 Spider-Man cartoon series, this one has more zip to it. First off, the theme song is just aces, really funky. Also it has an interesting hook where it’s sort of a Three’s Company version of Spider-Man with his roommates and superfriends Bobby Drake aka the Mutant Iceman and the flame throwing Firestar. Once again this sort of jets around the Marvel Universe, with an episode dedicated to Loki (rechristened the God of Evil here not the Trickster God but whatever) and Thor. There’s yet another Spider-Man origin flashback episode but it’s always fun to see the Lee/Ditko classic story. The Amazing Friends get a team up origin episode (it involves saving Tony Stark while Firestar and Iceman torment Peter Parker with extreme hot and cold), narrated by Stan Lee! And there’s an entire X-Men episode which is fun to see the late 70s team reproduced here, although it’s a bit weird at the end where Firestar basically murders her old college boyfriend turned killer half-robot to save the day. But worth checking out for its groovy late 70s/early 80s vibes.

So, there are quite a lot of Spider-Man animated cartoons out there overall. A lot of them have off kilter vibes, but if anyone can flip around the Spider-Verse with different versions of themselves, it’s clearly Spider-Man. Which is weird because he’s primarily a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man but seeing the different ways to make each one distinct makes the whole concept of lots of Spider-Powered folks seem comfortingly familiar, even when it goes into extreme differences. Or space, or Counter-Earth, or fights aliens or across the multiverse.