List of The Spectacular Spider-Man characters
The animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man features an extensive cast of characters originally created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and other comic book creators.
The main protagonist of the series is Peter Parker, a young teenager who attends midtown high school and is an extremely bright honors student.
[5] Peter Parker soon finds himself getting a job at the Daily Bugle as a freelance photographer working with characters such as J. Jonah Jameson, Robbie Robertson, Betty Brant, Ned Lee and Frederick Foswell.
Season one introduces villains such as Vulture, Electro, Lizard, Shocker, Sandman, Rhino, Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Hammerhead, and Tombstone.
He then re-read them and took copious notes and tried to get the voice of those early stories, put his own spin on some of the origins and the costume designs and wanted to create something that was coherent, cohesive, contemporary and classic.
The creators didn't want to wait several seasons to introduce Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson, all of whom met Peter when he was in college in the comics.
[6] The main characters featured in the opening credits: Peter Parker / Spider-Man (voiced by Josh Keaton[7][8]) is the titular protagonist of the series.
One day, Peter donned a spider costume and sought to fight crime after allowing a burglar to escape, only for that same criminal to kill his Uncle Ben in a mugging.
The series focuses on the character's struggles while leading a double life as Parker in Midtown High, maintaining a job at the Daily Bugle, and as the superhero Spider-Man, with his friendships often being damaged by his business.
Although, Peter's shyness and scholastic interest, especially in science, often make him a social outcast and he is often bullied and called names like "Puny Parker" by his shallow popular peers.
Gwen is the daughter of police captain George Stacy, and is one of Peter Parker's best friends and intellectual equal; they are both recommended by their teacher to work in the lab of Doctor Connors.
Although initially strong willed, kind, harboring deep feelings for her best friend Peter and unconcerned with her appearance, she gradually evolves into a more confident and attractive character more closely resembling and truly faithful to her comic book counterpart.
While being true to his comic counterpart, he constantly lives in his father's shadow and considers Peter a good friend, though at times also resents him for earning Norman's approval, which Harry has never been able to do.
Showing excessive pride in his son John Jameson, he is obsessed with exposing fraudulent claims to heroism, and is therefore always demanding pictures of Spider-Man so that he can continue his smear campaign against the vigilante that has, at least temporarily, turned much of the gullible city against the hero.
Marshall states "I always make sure my choices for Mary Jane are that of an independent thinker, that she's not concerned with what the people around her think, which is an uncommon trait in teenage girls, there's a distinct confidence about her that I try to emulate".
While he idolizes Spider-Man, he frequently bullies and harasses the high school bookworm Peter Parker, believing him to be a "stuck-up egghead",[15] despite the fact that they had originally been friends when they were much younger.
So when the (Spider-Man) show gives me the opportunity to represent his other sides, like this week when you see Flash's compassion rather than just all that testosterone, I really enjoy showcasing that part of his character because I can relate to his situation".
[23][24] Norman Osborn / Green Goblin (voiced by Alan Rachins and Steve Blum, respectively) is the main antagonist of the series and the archenemy of Spider-Man, having clandestinely manipulated many of the show's events since its inception.
Introduced as Harry Osborn's father and the ruthless head of OsCorp Industries who stubbornly believes he is incapable of failure and never apologizes (even to his son), Norman is hired by Tombstone to create several supervillains to distract Spider-Man from interfering with his criminal operations.
To seize control of the criminal underworld from Tombstone, Norman exposes himself to a performance-enhancing formula and uses advanced weapons and equipment to become the Green Goblin.
Norman later orchestrates a gang war between Tombstone, Doctor Octopus, and Silvermane to eliminate his opposition, allowing him to resurface as the Green Goblin and become New York City's reigning crime lord.
[30] Goldman gave a mixed response about Green Goblin — noting that he is "perhaps a bit hyper sensitive on how he's portrayed" — considering the design, while similar to the comics, be more of an exact version of it; Goldman considered the character's personality was "a bit too evocative of the Joker," the iconic villain from DC's Batman comics, but believed that his "malice side" worked.
When talking about the change of Shocker's secret identity, he quoted that it "saves the writers from having to come up with a completely different origin for a character that pretty much is a second tier villain anyways.
"[36] Rob M. Worley of Mania described Doctor Octopus' introduction as "explosive," while praising Peter MacNicol for balancing such a heavy workload between both the episode and other series.
