Spectacular Spider-Man news from Gargoyles Convention

Our friend Gregxb from the Crawl Space MB recently attended  the “Gathering of the Gargoyles” convention and learned some Spec. Spidey news. As you may remember, Greg Weisman who is the current producer on Spec. Spidey was also the producer of the 1990s Disney Gargoyles series. Here’s Gregxb’s notes.

– Season 2 is being animated, but Greg isn’t sure when they’re airing. Season 3 is hoped for but not confirmed.
– The basis of the series is the classic Lee-Ditko-Romita stories, although they are also using elements from other canon.
– Although Greg first interviewed to work on the series in February 2006, Greg only learned he had the job – more or less accidentally – in December 2006 (he’d assumed a fellow named Chris won it). He started in January 2007, and brought Vic Cook in to help.
– Greg’s goal for the series was to make a Spider-Man series as definitive for the character as Batman: The Animated Series was for Batman.
– The staff followed four C’s when making the show: Contemporary, Cohesive, Coherent, and Classic (Iconic). The overall theme was “The Education of Peter Parker.”
– Season 1 takes place in September to November of Peter’s junior year. Season 2 takes place in December to March of his junior year.
– When using characters who appeared later than Peter’s high school years in the comic (such as Gwen), the staff tried to extrapolate them backwards to what they would have been like in high school.
– The chauffeur story Harry Osborn was telling in (I believe) the episode “Competition” was a reference to an incident with Greg W. and Greg B. following the 2003 Gathering.
– There are DVDs of the first season on the way, but each of the four blocks of episodes will be edited together into sort-of movies. The upside is that each “movie” will contain footage not aired on TV. Greg and Vic Cook want to record a commentary track, but they haven’t. If a proper season set is released, it’s unclear if the additional footage will be included.
– The opening theme was originally intended to be an update to the 1960s cartoon’s theme, but the rights were too expensive. So a theme song with the same sort of energy was sought out instead. Greg sent out potential lyrics to all the prospective musicians, but the final musicians didn’t use them. There were actually four finalists, and they wanted to put the ones that didn’t win on the DVDs, but they weren’t allowed.
– Greg would have liked Keith David to stay on as the Big Man, but he had a play to do instead (A Midsummer Night’s Dream – he played Oberon).
– Season 2 will be 13 episodes long. There have been some issues with story length in this season. Black Cat will return in Season 2, as will Harry Osborn. One episode will deal with questions about how Peter gets his photos. The Tinkerer (played by Thom Adcox) will appear in episode #14.
– Greg and company can use anything from the Spider-Man corner of the Marvel Universe, but nothing outside it. This is why Kingpin wasn’t used in Season 1. Although Greg would like to use the Kingpin, he can’t really complain about getting an interesting character out of the Big Man.
– The new Eddie Brock was constructed as a dark mirror of Peter Parker, as Venom is a dark mirror of Spider-Man. So, Eddie lost his parents in the same way as Peter, but had no Aunt May or Uncle Ben; while Peter learned to appreciate life, Eddie learned to appreciate death. Eddie is reckless and flirts with death; the scene in “Group Therapy” where he appeared to be threatening Mary Jane was intended to show this recklessness (as well as his anger towards Peter), and not intended as Eddie being vicious towards her.
– Greg hasn’t heard any confirmation of Season 3, and he’s worried he might have to move on to another job before they decide to make it. (He’d happily do another decade’s worth of seasons.) Season 3 would include Hobgoblin.
– Greg thinks J. Jonah Jameson was once like Peter, which is why JJJ can be nice (more or less) towards him at times.
– Greg first saw the voice actress for Aunt May when she played the nurse in Romeo and Juliet.