For those who like Spider-Man, yet don't want to read four separate reviews to get the gist of what to expect in the 2-Disc Collector's Set of Marvel's The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Complete First Season, I'll break it down for you. The Spectacular Spider-Man presents a version of Spider-Man that, while not being completely true to the original story, stays more faithful than certain recent movies that will go unnamed. The artwork is drawn in a unique way, that would probably be closest to Teen Titans, but with a more realistic look. The environments are modeled in 3D as reference, but all of the final artwork is hand-drawn. Our hero, Peter Parker / Spider-Man (Josh Keaton) is still a student at Midvale High, trying to deal with his newly-found powers and responsibility (because, of course, with great power comes great responsibilty), along with trying to keep his grades up, get along with the other kids at school, and help his Aunt May (Deborah Strang) pay the rent by working as a freelance photographer, and selling photos to the Daily Bugle. Aren't the teenage years a... challenging time.
In the course of trying to keep everything together, everyone's favorite neighborhood Spider-Man will have to deal with a peanut gallery of everyone's favorite fiendish foes, including: Venom (Ben Diskin), Electro (Crispin Freeman), Dr. Octopus (Peter MacNichol), Sandman (John Di Maggio), Rhino (Clancy Brown), Shocker (Jeff Bennett), The Vulture (Robert Englund), Hammerhead (John Di Maggio), Green Goblin (Steve Blum), Tombstone (Kevin Michael Richardson), The Lizard (Dee Bradley Baker), Mysterio (Xander Berkeley) and, of course, Black Cat (Tricia Helfer). As you can tell from the above line-up, there's plenty of action to keep you entertained. Also, Season One features The Spectacular Spider-Man's version of Mary Jane (Vanessa Marshall) Watson's, "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot" scene.
I am a fan of the original Spider-Man storyline and was more than a little aggravated by the liberties that were taken in the recent cinematic versions. However, The Spectacular Spider-Man features web-shooters, rather than organic webbing, making it easier for old-school web-heads like myself to enjoy.
Of the original 4 volumes, only the first one had a special feature. It had the Spectacular Spider-Man Music Video for the new Spider-Man theme song. For some unknown reason, this video isn't present in the 2-Disc Collector's Set. You do get two different special features that weren't featured on any of the volume discs, however. Stylizing Spidey is a featurette which shows how the artists work to create the unique style that is presented in The Spectacular Spider-Man. Spider-Man: Re-Animated explains how the show is developed and produce, with comments from the various voice talent, writers and artists. Both of these featurettes are informative and entertaining, although I do wish there were more special features, but that's just me. I don't, however, understand why the music video didn't make it to the Complete First Season.
At any rate, I would suggest the 2-Disc Collector's Set to anyone who hasn't picked up the volumes of The Spectacular Spider-Man; You get all of the episodes, two great special features, and all in 2 discs that come in a single, normal-sized DVD case. If you are building a DVD collection, the 2-Disc Collector's Set will save you space for three additional DVDs, and you can watch the entire series "marathon-style," only having to switch discs once. 'Nuff said.
