The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man
Premiere	March 8, 2008
Finale	November 18, 2009
Based on	comics by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
Developed by	Victor Cook, Greg Weisman
Network/Provider	USA: The CW (season 1), Disney XD (season 2) Canada: Teletoon
Style	30-minute animated superhero action
Company	Marvel Television, Culver Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television
Seasons	2
Episodes	26
Origin	USA

The Spectacular Spider-Man is an animated superhero action series that initially aired on the Kids' WB and CW4Kids programming blocks and later on Disney XD. It is the eighth US TV series (and seventh animated series) to be based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. Unlike the previous Spider-Man series, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, this series doesn't follow the Spider-Man film series continuity. Instead, supervising producer Greg Weisman decided that the series follows the direction and attitude originally established by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

The show begins with Peter Parker starting his junior year at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School (referred to as M³), having just recently been bitten by a radioactive spider which turned him into Spider-Man. As a superhero, he protects New York City from a whole rogues gallery, including such villains as Vulture, Electro and Dr. Octopus. As Peter Parker, he is trying to lead a normal high schooler's life by hanging out with friends, such as Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy, and having varying degrees of success with girls, such as Mary Jane Watson, Liz Allan and Betty Brant. He lives with his Aunt May, who is Peter's caretaker after his parents died, and he helps pay the bills by working at the Daily Bugle as a photographer, where he mainly gets pictures of Spider-Man in action.

Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale				#
The CW
Season One	March 8, 2008	June 14, 2008				13
Disney XD
Season Two	June 22, 2009	November 18, 2009				13

In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series
• Characters: A listing of characters in the series

DVD and Blu-ray Releases

History

Originally, the plan was to release each arc, made up of 3 or 4 episodes, on DVD edited together as a "full length adventure", featuring some footage not shown on TV. The first release, Attack of the Lizard, followed this format, featuring the first three episodes of the show edited together, and also included a bonus feature in the way of a music video of the theme song. The next two releases were announced, titled Rise of the Super-Villains and The Goblin Strikes, which were also expected to follow that format. However, when they were released, they were actually titled Volume Two and Volume Three, and featured the individual episodes as-aired. Volume Four soon followed, as did a re-release of the first three episodes, this time titled Volume One and featured the as-aired episodes. It is believed that extra footage was created for the full-length versions of volumes two through four, but this footage has never been released.

Following the release of all of the episodes of the first season released on volumes, The Complete First Season was released, featuring every episode of the first season, along with a couple short featurettes, but missing the extra footage from the full-length versions, and also missing the music video from the Attack of the Lizard/Volume One release.. The second season was then released across volumes five, six, seven and eight. It was assumed a complete second season would then be released, to match the release history of the first season, but one never came about.

Five years after the show ended, and almost four years to the day after the last DVD release, the show was surprisingly released on Blu-ray, apparently in promotion of the theatrical release of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The Complete Series features all 26 episodes of the show, as well as all previously released bonus features. Alas, it does not include any of the extra footage for the full-length versions.

DVD

Title			Release			Discs
Complete Series
The Complete Series			October 18, 2016	purchase		8
Season Sets
The Complete First Season			July 28, 2009	purchase		2
Episodes Edited Into Movie
Attack of the Lizard First three episodes			September 9, 2008	purchase		1
Episode Collections
Volume One First quarter of season one			May 5, 2009	purchase		1
Volume Two Second quarter of season one			March 17, 2009	purchase		1
Volume Three Third quarter of season one			March 17, 2009	purchase		1
Volume Four Fourth quarter of season one			April 28, 2009	purchase		1
Volume Five First quarter of season two			November 17, 2009	purchase		1
Volume Six Second quarter of season two			February 16, 2010	purchase		1
Volume Seven Third quarter of season two			February 16, 2010	purchase		1
Volume Eight Fourth quarter of season two			April 27, 2010	purchase		1

Blu-ray

Title			Release			Discs
Complete Series
The Complete Series			April 22, 2014	purchase		4

External Sites

• Official website for The Spectacular Spider-Man
• Official Disney XD website for The Spectacular Spider-Man
• Official Marvel website for The Spectacular Spider-Man
• The Spectacular Spider-Man Episodes, TV Listings, News, Photos and More at TVGuide.com