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kitewithfishJust watched the season finale for The Spectacular Spider-Man, and I am going to just marinate in my geekery here for a little. Feel free to skip. Oh, and
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS, ARG!
I overall like this series a lot: the animation is great, and the voices actors are really good. (Tangent: Though I grew up on the 1994 cartoon, I can't watch that anymore because of how squeeky and off some of the characters sound to me now- there was a real push to make them sound 'villainous' which really worked some of the more serious story angles, I think. ) As you may be able to tell by my icon, it's also revamped the minor crime boss character of Hammerhead, who I always previously thought was rather stupid. This show makes him believable and rather scary at times. I particularly like the addition of the knuckledusters that he always wears.
This episode: Venom got together with Eddie Brock for the first time at the end of last episode, and has spent the intervening time plotting his revenge on Spidey/Peter for being a crappy friend and making him lose his job. I really, really like what they are doing with this version of Eddie. There have been some new interpretations of Venom since his first appearance that give the writers here a whole palate of Venom-variations to choose from, and I think they combined a number of the better ones in this series as a whole.
1. Eddie and Peter as childhood friends, whose parents died together: this is something fairly new, from the Ultimate Spider-man version of Venom. I like it because it helps establish Eddie from the beginning of the cartoon series as a real character, a person and not just a villain-of-the-week. There's a relationship there between the two of them from the start. It works very well with the underlying grudge/ obsession aspect of the relationship. Venom is not a petty criminal that Spider-Man put away, and he's not being hired to take Spidey down: he hates him, the way you can only hate the people who you once truly loved.
2. Symbiote hitching a ride on the space shuttle: The comics origin of the symbiote have him latching onto Peter as a side-note in an intergalactic conflict with a huge crossover cast. As far as I can tell, Venom is the only important thing to ever come out of the huge Secret Wars thing, and I think that the '94 cartoon made a good call by giving the symbiote a new and more mysterious origin. It was lounging around in space and decided to hitch a ride to Earth on a shuttle. Pretty cool, no? Also, it unintentionally adds a new level of badass to the symbiote as a thing that can survive re-entry to earth's atmosphere strapped to the outer hull of a space ship. *applauds*
3. SPOILER FOR THE LATE 80'S. The best defeat ever: "I know you still love me, I was wrong to leave you, won't you please forgive me and take me back, my sweet symbiote?" The symbiote's "first love" (they said it, not me!) was Spider-Man, and no matter how hard it tries to get over him, it just can't. He was the man of its little symbiotic dreams, and honestly? Even in comics, after all the other hosts, all the years and all the hatred, if Spidey honestly asked the symbiote to come back? It would. It would come trotting back like a little lost puppy, because it still loves him best. Eddie is second best: dating your ex's best friend is just another form of revenge on your ex.
Witness the emotional Distress!
That was the defeat they pulled this time in the cartoons, and it just works so well. Spider-man is at his best when he plays his opponent's weaknesses against his own strengths. In this case, that means manipulating the relationships he's got with Eddie and with the symbiote. Peter's slid a needle into the cracks of Venom's armor- Eddie, with all his fears of being alone after his parents' deaths and being abandoned by his friends, will never be able to forget that, when it counts, the symbiote will be just like everyone else. It will leave him. They'll probably get back together, but it won't ever have the safe, honeymoon feel to it.
4. The voice: I can't recall the issue number, but when Mac Gargan got the symbiote, he had a fight with Spidey where Spidey noted the new Venom had that 'weird double-talk sound of when they speak through the symbiote', but that Gargan's voice was still recognizable. It's not something you hear in the '94 cartoon, so I never really thought about what Venom's voice would sound like, but after reading that description, I kept imagining how that would actually sound. (In the '94 cartoon, Eddie's voice is somehow distorted as Venom, but not that different from all the other villains' rather cheesey malevolent tones.) Spectacular Spider-man gives Venom a distinct echoey voice, like Eddie and the symbiote are both speaking at the same time. It's a cool idea, but I think that it didn't get carried off really well in the show. I like the I can still recognize Eddie's voice, but it gets more muddled in places than it ought to. It needs some work.
Am I thinking about this too much? You bet your sweet ass I am- I am in fact making a mix tape for Venom now. (It's disturbingly easy- anything with black and/or break-up songs are fair game.)
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS, ARG!
I overall like this series a lot: the animation is great, and the voices actors are really good. (Tangent: Though I grew up on the 1994 cartoon, I can't watch that anymore because of how squeeky and off some of the characters sound to me now- there was a real push to make them sound 'villainous' which really worked some of the more serious story angles, I think. ) As you may be able to tell by my icon, it's also revamped the minor crime boss character of Hammerhead, who I always previously thought was rather stupid. This show makes him believable and rather scary at times. I particularly like the addition of the knuckledusters that he always wears.
This episode: Venom got together with Eddie Brock for the first time at the end of last episode, and has spent the intervening time plotting his revenge on Spidey/Peter for being a crappy friend and making him lose his job. I really, really like what they are doing with this version of Eddie. There have been some new interpretations of Venom since his first appearance that give the writers here a whole palate of Venom-variations to choose from, and I think they combined a number of the better ones in this series as a whole.
1. Eddie and Peter as childhood friends, whose parents died together: this is something fairly new, from the Ultimate Spider-man version of Venom. I like it because it helps establish Eddie from the beginning of the cartoon series as a real character, a person and not just a villain-of-the-week. There's a relationship there between the two of them from the start. It works very well with the underlying grudge/ obsession aspect of the relationship. Venom is not a petty criminal that Spider-Man put away, and he's not being hired to take Spidey down: he hates him, the way you can only hate the people who you once truly loved.
2. Symbiote hitching a ride on the space shuttle: The comics origin of the symbiote have him latching onto Peter as a side-note in an intergalactic conflict with a huge crossover cast. As far as I can tell, Venom is the only important thing to ever come out of the huge Secret Wars thing, and I think that the '94 cartoon made a good call by giving the symbiote a new and more mysterious origin. It was lounging around in space and decided to hitch a ride to Earth on a shuttle. Pretty cool, no? Also, it unintentionally adds a new level of badass to the symbiote as a thing that can survive re-entry to earth's atmosphere strapped to the outer hull of a space ship. *applauds*
3. SPOILER FOR THE LATE 80'S. The best defeat ever: "I know you still love me, I was wrong to leave you, won't you please forgive me and take me back, my sweet symbiote?" The symbiote's "first love" (they said it, not me!) was Spider-Man, and no matter how hard it tries to get over him, it just can't. He was the man of its little symbiotic dreams, and honestly? Even in comics, after all the other hosts, all the years and all the hatred, if Spidey honestly asked the symbiote to come back? It would. It would come trotting back like a little lost puppy, because it still loves him best. Eddie is second best: dating your ex's best friend is just another form of revenge on your ex.
Witness the emotional Distress!
That was the defeat they pulled this time in the cartoons, and it just works so well. Spider-man is at his best when he plays his opponent's weaknesses against his own strengths. In this case, that means manipulating the relationships he's got with Eddie and with the symbiote. Peter's slid a needle into the cracks of Venom's armor- Eddie, with all his fears of being alone after his parents' deaths and being abandoned by his friends, will never be able to forget that, when it counts, the symbiote will be just like everyone else. It will leave him. They'll probably get back together, but it won't ever have the safe, honeymoon feel to it.
4. The voice: I can't recall the issue number, but when Mac Gargan got the symbiote, he had a fight with Spidey where Spidey noted the new Venom had that 'weird double-talk sound of when they speak through the symbiote', but that Gargan's voice was still recognizable. It's not something you hear in the '94 cartoon, so I never really thought about what Venom's voice would sound like, but after reading that description, I kept imagining how that would actually sound. (In the '94 cartoon, Eddie's voice is somehow distorted as Venom, but not that different from all the other villains' rather cheesey malevolent tones.) Spectacular Spider-man gives Venom a distinct echoey voice, like Eddie and the symbiote are both speaking at the same time. It's a cool idea, but I think that it didn't get carried off really well in the show. I like the I can still recognize Eddie's voice, but it gets more muddled in places than it ought to. It needs some work.
Am I thinking about this too much? You bet your sweet ass I am- I am in fact making a mix tape for Venom now. (It's disturbingly easy- anything with black and/or break-up songs are fair game.)
