New adventures of our favorite wall-crawler are now on DVD as Volume Five of The Spectacular Spider-Man comes home for your collection. Following the events of Season One, Peter has been searching for his lost friend, Eddie Brock, who was last seen sporting a very evil symbiotic costume. Pete feels that Eddie's situation is his fault and he wants to desperately save his friend…but it might be too late. This first volume, featuring the Master Planner story arc, introduces us to new incarnations of classic Spider-Man villains like Mysterio, Kraven The Hunter, The Master Planner and more!
Over the last year we have had the opportunity to speak with the team responsible for this new batch of episodes, now you can see what they have to say:
"Blueprints"- Mysterio, the self proclaimed Master of Illusion, has just entered Spider-Man's world in the exciting Season Premiere of the Spectacular Spider-Man. As if Peter didn't have enough to deal with, he must face off against this new foe as well as figuring out his strained social life. Can he fix his relationship with Gwen before he misses out on his chance? Writer Kevin Hopps gave us his take on this episode: "I liked the way the Mysterio episode turned out. The director on it was Jennifer Coyle and she brought in a lot of her own cool ideas. I'm always trying to keep in mind that some viewers will know a lot about the Spider-Man universe while some won't know all that much about it. So it's a constant struggle to try to please both factions. The goal with this Mysterio episode was to initially play him more as a master of the dark arts but also have it all make sense about his magic when the viewers find out who he really is. I hope I'm not being too vague but I don't want to give too much away in case some readers haven't seen the episode yet."
"Destructive Testing"- This episode introduces Kraven the Hunter to the animated series. We recently spoke with Director Kevin Altieri (Batman: The Animated Series) regarding this episode and the process of bringing this new hunter to life: "One of the things I liked about Spider-Man was that he is slippery. His Spider-Sense just gives him that ability to get out of the way of danger. While Kraven is shooting arrows at him he doesn’t even try to stop the arrows, he just avoids them. The writing is something that I also like about the entire series. I have to hand it to Greg because of how well he has handled the whole story arc and the whole adaptation of. He has done a great job of taking classic Spider-Man stories and updating them to the modern world and using stuff like cellphones that hadn’t existed before. He works the High School dynamics perfectly and if you read the original comics you know that that was what it was all about. It wasn’t about this guy and his supermodel girlfriend. It was about a kid in school dealing with his normal life and trying to save people and to show that you just go back to the beginning. I think that was something that we did with Batman as well…you go back and tell the Year One story."
"Reinforcement"- A brand new Sinister Six takes the stage as Spider-Man has to take on new and old foes. The last time he faced the Six he had an alien symbiote to help him out, but can he stop all of these villains on his own? And what does the mysterious Master Planner have in store for our hero? And when our hero is faced with a tough decision, who will he choose: Gwen or Liz?
"Shear Strength"- This episode is the climax of the "Master Planner" story. New Years Eve is here and the Master Planner has decided it's time to take over the world. Can our favorite wallcrawler stop the bad guy in time and save the girl? Handled by Writer Randy Jandt and Director Jen Coyle, "Shear Strength" proves to be one of the best episodes to date. With a reveal on the same level as the identity of the Big Man from season one, these two have handled our favorite characters with amazing skill.
Overall:
The Spectacular Spider-Man continues to be one of the most consistent, fun, and engaging shows on TV. Every episode exceeds all hopes and expectations that fans might have and leaves you wanting more. Currently, the second season is about to finish up its run on Disney XD, but the fans are still hoping for the continuation of these Spectacular Adventures in the form of a third season. Please make sure you tune in and watch the final second season episodes of The Spectacular Spider-Man, and support the show by telling your friends about the newest DVD releases.
ComicsOnline gives Volume 5 of the Spectacular Spider-Man 5 out of 5 amazing stories.
And thanks to our friends at Sony we have 5 copies of this title for giveaway! Be one of the first registered memebers to make a comment on this article to qualify! Winners will be notified via ComicsOnline profile messaging.
