It is a much debated point whether this or the Spectacular Spiderman from the 2000s is the better version, I would personally say that Spectacular is by a short head but both versions fail to live up to expectations.
Each season is conceived as a single story line divided in chapters. While this adds to the sense of continuity in places, it can also become strained as the writers try to force their ideas into these strait jackets. Generally the writing becomes more convoluted and less convincing as the series progresses.
The art is good but hardly the equal of the wonderfully stylish DC animations of the same period. The stories are largely 'adapted' from various comic books. I should really say 'cobbled together' rather than 'adapted' since these cartoons do not do justice to their source material. Different story arcs which take place in the comic books many years apart are here unconvincingly stuck together with details and characters changed. These changes are never an improvement and often seem to be merely watered down versions of the original.
The most striking example is when the Green Goblin learns Spider Man's secret identity and throws Mary Jane off a New York bridge. This is 'adapted' from a celebrated couple of story lines from Spider man 39 and 121, many years apart. In the original, Spider Man's then girlfriend Gwen Stacey is actually killed in perhaps the most famous of all Spider man stories. Here MJ is merely transferred to some sort of parallel dimension, one which is poorly explained (how can the Green Goblin survive there for months without food and drink for example?) To make matters worse, while MJ is missing for months, not only does Spider man NOT make any real effort to find her, he has a fling with another woman, namely the Black Cat. And then MJ comes back in a poorly conceived story line.
The writing throughout is mediocre but this particular story arc is very shoddy. The Black Cat goes off to Europe to find a cure for her (other) lover then, with no explanation given, turns up at the wedding of Parker and MJ. The Punisher, in another poorly motivated strand, gets involved in the search for MJ. He just happens to be at the graveyard when MJ's mother is there, and she invites him, a man wearing a skull on his shirt and a bandanna, back to her home for a cup of tea? Numerous other examples of the silly writing could be cited, all designed to cobble together these different source materials.
As in the comics, Gwen Stacey is cloned after her death, here MJ after her (death? disappearance? who knows?) is cloned too in a much less convincing way. Then we have the mad dash for the end with a routine adaptation of Secret Wars and a nod to the then-contemporary "clone saga". In the end, a lot of plot threads are just left dangling. What happened to MJ? Or indeed the Green Goblin? Why should Uncle Ben be alive in a universe where spiderman exists? What about the Morbius and Blade story?
Each season is conceived as a single story line divided in chapters. While this adds to the sense of continuity in places, it can also become strained as the writers try to force their ideas into these strait jackets. Generally the writing becomes more convoluted and less convincing as the series progresses.
The art is good but hardly the equal of the wonderfully stylish DC animations of the same period. The stories are largely 'adapted' from various comic books. I should really say 'cobbled together' rather than 'adapted' since these cartoons do not do justice to their source material. Different story arcs which take place in the comic books many years apart are here unconvincingly stuck together with details and characters changed. These changes are never an improvement and often seem to be merely watered down versions of the original.
The most striking example is when the Green Goblin learns Spider Man's secret identity and throws Mary Jane off a New York bridge. This is 'adapted' from a celebrated couple of story lines from Spider man 39 and 121, many years apart. In the original, Spider Man's then girlfriend Gwen Stacey is actually killed in perhaps the most famous of all Spider man stories. Here MJ is merely transferred to some sort of parallel dimension, one which is poorly explained (how can the Green Goblin survive there for months without food and drink for example?) To make matters worse, while MJ is missing for months, not only does Spider man NOT make any real effort to find her, he has a fling with another woman, namely the Black Cat. And then MJ comes back in a poorly conceived story line.
The writing throughout is mediocre but this particular story arc is very shoddy. The Black Cat goes off to Europe to find a cure for her (other) lover then, with no explanation given, turns up at the wedding of Parker and MJ. The Punisher, in another poorly motivated strand, gets involved in the search for MJ. He just happens to be at the graveyard when MJ's mother is there, and she invites him, a man wearing a skull on his shirt and a bandanna, back to her home for a cup of tea? Numerous other examples of the silly writing could be cited, all designed to cobble together these different source materials.
As in the comics, Gwen Stacey is cloned after her death, here MJ after her (death? disappearance? who knows?) is cloned too in a much less convincing way. Then we have the mad dash for the end with a routine adaptation of Secret Wars and a nod to the then-contemporary "clone saga". In the end, a lot of plot threads are just left dangling. What happened to MJ? Or indeed the Green Goblin? Why should Uncle Ben be alive in a universe where spiderman exists? What about the Morbius and Blade story?