Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known for his prolific runs on The Incredible Hulk,
Supergirl and Star Trek comics and novels, and as the co-creator of
Spider-Man 2099 and the evil Hulk, the Maestro. Characters he co-created, such
as The Nasty Boys and a version of X-Factor, appeared on X-Men: The Animated
Series. He also wrote several episodes of Young Justice, a comic series
he previously wrote for DC Comics. Spider-Man Unlimited, in its early
planning stages, was originally going to based on Spider-Man 2099.
He played Poodle’s owner in Madeline; Bigfoot, Dragon and an
Astronaut in Darkstalkers; Duke Freid in The Vision of Escaflowne;
Welman Matrix, Faux Megabyte and Starship Alcatraz Computer in ReBoot; Akuma,
computer, and Incan #3 in Street Fighter: The Animated Series; Vulcan in
Monster Rancher; Duck Dunaka and Mike Hauger in NASCAR Racers;
Machine Men, X-51, Electro and additional voices in Spider-Man Unlimited;
Clow Reed in Cardcaptors; Gus Bonner in Stargate: Infinity;
Principal Edward Kelly in X-Men: Evolution; and Java in Martin
Mystery. He also provided additional voices for Camp Candy, Sherlock
Holmes in the 22nd Century, Alienators: Evolution Continues,
Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!, Gadget and the Gadgetinis,
Best known for his humorous take on the Justice League for DC Comics, he
was the co-creator of characters such as Lobo, Catherine Cobert and one of the
Queen Bees which were featured in various DC-based shows such as Superman:
The Animated Series, Young Justice and Justice League Action. Additionally,
he wrote for The Real Ghostbusters and did storyboards for Spider-Man
Unlimited, Batman Beyond and Static Shock.
He wrote for The Secrets of Isis, Shazam!, The New Archie/Sabrina Hour,
Space Sentinels, Tarzan and the Super 7, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, The New
Shmoo, Space Stars, Blackstar, The New Adventures of Flash Gordon, The Smurfs (1981),
The Incredible Hulk (1982), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The
Biskitts, Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince, Pole Position (which he also
developed), The Mighty Orbots (also story editor), CBS Storybreak,
Dungeons & Dragons, The Littles, Challenge of the GoBots, Star Wars:
Droids, Star Wars: Ewoks, The Real Ghostbusters, Teen Wolf: The Animated
Series, Jem, Superman (1988), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), Dink
the Little Dinosaur, Tiny Toon Adventures, Peter Pan and the Pirates (also
story editor), Batman: The Animated Series and two of its movies (also story editor), Cadillacs and
Dinosaurs, Conan and the Young Warriors (also
story editor), Gargoyles (also
story editor), Young Hercules, Godzilla: The Series, Spider-Man Unlimited (also developer and story editor), Beast
Machines: Transformers and Max Steel (2000). He also wrote an issue of Batman Adventures and three issues of Superman
Adventures.
Venom is one of Spider-Man’s
greatest and scariest enemies. He possesses all of Spidey’s powers, and none of
the responsibility. With Sony’s Venomhitting
theaters this weekend (and it being Halloween month), we’re going to take a
look at one of Spidey’s scarier rogues.
Note to self: avoid self-making costumes.
Venom has a
very intricate backstory. The look that Venom traditionally sports was actually
intended as a new costume for Spidey, making its debut in The
Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 #252
(1984). However, chronologically, it first appeared in the pages of Marvel
Super Heroes Secret Wars #8
(1984). Secret Wars was the first large-scale crossover in comics that saw a
group of various heroes and villains whisked away to an alien planet to do
battle. There, Spidey, using what he thought was a costume-repairing machine, actually
housed a living entity known as a Symbiote. It bonded
with Spidey and created his new black costume designed by artist Mike Zeck.
Out! Out, damn spot!
The idea
for Spidey’s new look came from reader Randy
Scheuller, who had submitted it as part of a competition for aspiring
writers and artists. Then-editor-in-chief Jim
Shooter liked the idea and bought it from Randy for $220. The idea for the
suit to be a biological material that could self-heal was one abandoned by John Byrne during his run on Iron Fist, but
used by Roger Stern when
he plotted Amazing #252. After Stern
left the book, writer Tom
DeFalco and artist Ron
Frenz were the ones who established it as a sentient being vulnerable to fire
and high sonic energy. Learning the nature of his costume, Spidey used a church
bell to remove it from his body in Web of
Spider-Man vol. 1 #1 (1985).
Mary Jane gets an unwelcome guest.
That wasn’t
the end of the story. Over the next year, Spidey would find himself the target
of a stalker that wouldn’t set off his spider-sense. The creature that would
become known as Venom would make a cameo in The Amazing
Spider-Man vol. 1 #299 (1988)
terrorizing Spidey’s wife, Mary Jane Watson,
before making his first full appearance in #300 by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. It turned out that reporter
Eddie Brock had misreported the identity of serial-killer Sin-Eater
on the word of a chronic confessor, resulting in his disgrace in the industry
and being banished to the pages of the tabloids after Spidey captured the real
one. His depression took him to the very church where Spidey freed himself of
the Symbiote, causing it to be drawn by their mutual hatred of Spidey and
bonding together. Because of the Symbiote’s earlier bond to Spidey, Brock had
gained access to all of Spidey’s memories, all of his powers, and the ability
to evade detection by his spider-sense.
The
character proved immensely popular, appearing several more times as a villain
in Spidey comics before turning into an anti-hero and getting a number of books
of his own. Over the years, the Venom symbiote has changed hands. For a time,
former Scorpion Mac Gargan
became the new Venom. Later, the Symbiote was bonded with Spidey friend Flash Thompson,
turning him into Agent Venom. The Symbiote was also briefly joined with gang member
Lee Price
before ultimately returning to Brock and resuming his career as an anti-hero
with villainous tendencies.
Dance, puppet, dance!
While Venom
had appeared in toys and video games since his creation, his first time being
adapted to other media was in Spider-Man:
The Animated Series. After Spidey (Christopher Daniel Barnes)
rescued John
Jameson (Michael Horton) and his crew from a downed space shuttle, he found
himself covered in a black goo that turned out to be the Symbiote. In this
version, Eddie Brock’s (Hank
Azaria) fall from grace came when he teamed-up with Norman
Osborn (Neil Ross) and Spencer Smythe
(Edward Mulhare) to capture
and unmask Spidey, but ended up with Flash Thompson who was pulling a prank in
a Spidey costume instead. Brock’s second fall from grace came when he attempted
to accuse Spidey of robbing the space shuttle, leaving out the involvement of Rhino
(Don Stark). After Spidey rejected the Symbiote, it found Brock and they became
Venom in order to achieve mutual vengeance against him.
Ain't no wall high enough...
His next
appearance was in Spider-Man
Unlimited. Venom (Brian
Drummond) and his adversarial offspring, Carnage (Michael Donovan), hitched a ride
on John Jameson’s (John Payne)
space shuttle to follow a compulsion to journey to Counter-Earth: an exact
duplicate of Earth on the other side of the son. Fully bonded to their
respective Symbiotes, the pair attempt to help conquer that world for the
Synoptic, a hive-minded legion of Symbiotes.
One can never have too many mouths.
The Spectacular Spider-Man had Eddie
Brock (Benjamin Diskin) be
deeply connected to Peter Parker (Josh
Keaton). Both orphaned, the boys grew up together but Brock was secretly
jealous that Peter had his relatives to look after him. A series of
misunderstandings causes a rift to grow between the boys, but the final straw
came when Spidey bonded with the Symbiote being studied by Dr. Curt Connors
(Dee Bradley Baker). Without the
Symbiote, the lab lost its funding and Brock his job. When Spidey tried to get
free of and destroy the Symbiote, it unleashed Brock’s animosity towards both
Spidey and Peter and drew the Symbiote to bond with him and become Venom.
Grabby grabby.
Venom
continued to appear in various forms throughout subsequent animated Marvel
shows, but returned to Saturdays with Marvel’s
Spider-Man. The show found the Symbiote being an unknown substance labeled
V-252 from the space program that was donated to Horizon High for study. Using
it in a project sees Spidey (Robbie
Daymond) become bonded to the substance, making him more powerful. However,
upon realizing it also made him more aggressive, he separated himself from it
and the V-252 eventually wound up in the “safe” hands of the Avengers’ lab. The
V-252 escaped and bonded with Flash Thompson (Diskin), before eventually
finding its way to Eddie Brock (Ben
Pronsky), who was jealous of Peter outdoing him in obtaining footage of
Spidey’s latest battle.
Ditko was an artist and writer that worked in comics. He was one of the architects for the original Marvel Comics universe, co-creating Spider-Man and Dr. Strange and their worlds, as well as the Hulk's Glenn Talbot. He also created The Creeper and Shade the Changing Man for rival DC Comics. Many of these characters would be used in various media adaptations over the years, especially on Saturday mornings. Ditko's later career involved a lot of licensed work, amongst which included several issues of Marvel's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comic.
For the history of Spider-Man, check out the post here.
Fox Kids loved Spider-Man—they
just didn’t want to pay for him.
Although Spider-Man: The Animated Serieshad come to an end, FOX was under a contractual obligation to produce
another season in order to continue airing reruns of Spider-Man for an unspecified amount of time. Because of animosity
between Fox Kids head Margaret
Loesch and producer Avi Arad,
and because continuing the show would have put a damper on their rerun plans,
FOX opted to create a new show instead. FOX wanted to make the show as cheaply
as possible and considered having Saban Entertainment
re-present the very first 26 issues of The Amazing Spider-Mancomic series with limited animation;
similar to 1966’s The Marvel Super Heroesor today’s motion comics. Unfortunately,
those plans were complicated when Marvel
Entertainment entered into a deal with Sony
Pictures that would eventually lead to the highly-successful Sam RaimiSpider-Man film trilogy, as well as MTV’s
Spider-Man: The New Animated Series in 2003.Because of this, FOX and Saban suddenly
had lost all access to Spidey’s classic library, his costume, and most of his
supporting cast.
Spider-Man 2099.
Producers Will Meugniot and Michael Reaves toyed with the
idea of producing a series around the futuristic Spider-Man 2099comic;
however, they came to feel that Batman Beyond—which had debuted that January—already covered any territory they
would have visited. They looked over the “shopping list” of characters Marvel
wanted to see utilized and decided that Counter-Earth
would allow them optimal storytelling opportunities while explaining away the
absence of recognizable Spidey characters. Counter-Earth was an extra planet in
the Marvel solar system that was an exact duplicate of Earth. By this time in
the comics, three versions had been featured, each with a different creator
(2006 would yield a fourth). Meugniot and Reaves decided to use the first
version created by the mad geneticist The High Evolutionary as a means to
conduct his experiments in an almost god-like fashion.
Spidey's new duds.
The original plan was to feature an Uncle Ben who
didn’t die, resulting in that Peter Parker never learning the valuable lesson
of power and responsibility and denying him the will to resist bonding with the
alien Venom symbiote. The Spidey we all knew would somehow wind up on
Counter-Earth and come into conflict with this alternate Peter while trying to
find a way back home. Production began on the show until Marvel nixed the whole
double Peter idea. The company was still feeling the effects of a particularly
disastrous time in Spidey comics known as “The Clone Saga”; a
decades-later sequel to Amazing Spider-Man #149 wherein the
clone Spidey once battled returned and eventually replaced Peter in the webs
while also establishing that Peter was
the actual clone the whole time. Naturally, they were eager to avoid any
association to that and forbade having two Peter Parkers present. Interestingly
enough, the previous show ended with a truncated version of the saga using
alternate reality duplicates; a precursor to the Spider-Verse event that
would hit the comics in 2014 and cinema in 2018.
Carnage and Venom sporting a very different look.
With the core of their show gone, producers scrambled to salvage the work
they had already done while adhering to Marvel’s restrictions. The result
became Spider-Man Unlimited, which
shared its name (and nothing else) with the double-sized quarterly anthology series
that ran from 1993-98. In the show, John Jameson (John Payne III), son of Daily Buglepublisher J. Jonah Jameson (Richard Newman), embarked on a mission
to Counter-Earth, but Venom (Brian Drummond) and Carnage (Michael Donovan) were
compelled by their symbiotes to hitch a ride on his ship in order to connect
with a hive-mind known as the Synoptic; which wanted to spread symbiotes across
Counter-Earth and eliminate all the human life there. Failing to stop them and
vilified by the elder Jameson because of it, Spider-Man (Rino Romano) faked his
death and briefly contemplated retirement. However, a message from John
prompted him to “borrow” nanotechnology from Mr. Fantastic to create
a new suit (utilizing elements of Spidey 2099’s
costume in FOX’s attempt to emulate the success of Batman Beyond) and pursue the symbiotes on another mission launch.
Spider-Man squares off against the Knights of Wundagore.
Spider-Man found Counter-Earth was ruled by the High Evolutionary (Newman)
and his Beastials; hybrids
of animals and humans that he created. Apart from the average citizens were
Evolutionary’s personal attack squad: The Knights of Wundagore
(named for the
mountain that served as their base in the comics). Jameson had fallen in
league with human freedom fighters that were against the Evolutionary and his
forces and refused to leave until they were free. Unwilling to return home without
Jameson, Peter set himself up as a photographer for The Daily Byte under publisher Mr. Meugniot (originally named
“Mineo” but changed to resemble the show’s producer during
a spat between him and Arad where he feared he might lose screen credit, voiced by Garry Chalk), rented a room from single mother Dr.
Naoko Yamada-Jones (Akiko Morison) and her son, Shane (Rhys Huber),and aided the freedom fighters as
Spider-Man. Along the way, he encountered Counter-Earth versions of familiar
Marvel characters, including heroic versions of the Green Goblin (Romano) and Vulture (Scott McNeil), an electric eel
Beastial named Electro (Dale Wilson), a Kraven the Hunter-like
mercenary called The Hunter (Paul
Dobson), and X-51 (Wilson), one of the Evolutionary’s android law-enforcers
that gained sentience and joined the rebels.
Spidey with Karen O'Malley.
Spider-Man Unlimited debuted on
October 2, 1999. While not intended as a direct continuation of the prior show,
Unlimited did attempt some connection
to it; particularly by the inclusion of a snippet of Joe Perry’s theme when Spidey first appeared in
the first episode. It also shared at least one cast member in Jennifer Hale,
who voiced Mary Jane in her only appearance as well as Lady Vermin, another
animal-themed character who developed an infatuation with Spidey. It’s notable
that this was the first animated series to feature the underarm webbing on
Spidey’s regular costume often seen in the comics.
The series was written by Meugniot and Reaves along with Steve Perry, Brynne Chandler Reaves, Diane Duane, Peter
Morwood, Robert Gregory Browne
and Mark Hoffmeier, as well
as comic book writer Roger
Slifer and creative consultant Larry Brody.
The show was animated by Koko Enterprises Co., Ltd.
An attempt was made to give the show a more comic-like appearance with the use
of dark shadows and picture-in-picture to simulate comic panels, not to mention
comic book-like captions. Spidey’s spider-sense was toned down from the
previous series to be a sound with some accompanying flashes on the screen. The
theme’s composers were Jeremy
Sweet and Ian Nickus, who
also composed the rest of the show’s music with Shuki Levy, Haim
Saban (under the alias Kussa
Mahchi) and Ron Kenan.
To promote the series, Marvel Comics
began publication of a new short-lived volume of Spider-Man Unlimitedin December of 1999. The first two
issues, including the special #1/2 issue
released through Wizard Magazine, recounted the first
three episodes of the series, with the final three issues featuring original
stories before the book was cancelled. All of the issues were written by Eric Stephenson
with Andy Kuhn as the regular artist;
however, Min Sung Ku
drew #1/2 with Ty Templeton
providing the cover, an homage to Spidey’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. Marvel also
attempted to integrate Unlimited into
their regular comics by featuring the suit in issues 13
and 14
of the anthology series Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man. A
version of Unlimited’s world appeared in the
cross-dimensional storyline Spider-Verseas one
of the obliterated alternate dimensions. A surviving Spidey in the Unlimited
suit later showed up in the 2018 follow-up, Spider-Geddon. While there was never
a dedicated toyline, the Unlimited suit’s design was used by Toy Biz for the action figures
Air
Strike Spider-Man in the Spider-Man
2000 line and the Wild
Water Action multi-pack, and Spin
‘N Trap Spider-Man with a spring-loaded web projectile and included Venom
target.
The DVD.
Liberaton
Entertainment UK acquired the rights to release the show on DVD in 2009,
but went bankrupt before they could proceed with their plans. Clear Vision Ltd.
gained the rights and released the complete
series in 2010. No American home releases have been announced or planned,
however the show was made available
for streaming on Amazon. In 2019, it became one of the launch titles for
the streaming service Disney+.
The mainstream appearance of the Unlimited suit.
Arad had planned for Unlimited to
launch a series of Spidey mini-series, the first one to be called Spider-Man 2001. The failure of the show
squashed those plans, but Romano was kept on as the official voice of Spidey in
the years following; voicing him in the video games Spider-Man(2001), Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro(both games also featured the Unlimited suit as an alternate costume),X-Men: Mutant Academy 2and
a deleted scene in X2: Wolverine’s Revenge. Hale
would also reprise her role of Mary Jane in the Spider-Man game alongside her role of Black Cat from the prior
series. In 2023, Unlimited Spidey made an appearance in both the advertising
and the actual film Spider-Man:
Across the Spider-Verse as one of the plethora of featured alternate
Spider-Men. In 2025, Hasbro released an Unlimited
figure as part of their Marvel
Legends Spider-Man: Retro line.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Worlds Apart, Part One” (10/2/99) – Spider-Man fakes his death in
order to develop a new costume and find a way to rescue John Jameson from
Counter-Earth.
“Worlds Apart, Part Two” (10/9/99) – Spider-Man discovers Jameson has
joined the rebellion against the High Evolutionary and sets up a new life for
himself.
“Where Evil Nests” (10/16/99) – The heroic Green Goblin believes
Spider-Man to be a villain before the two team-up to rescue Dr. Yamada-Jones
from Venom and Carnage.
“Deadly Choices” (12/23/00) – The rebellion and Beastials are forced
to team-up to stop a freedom fighter from destroying New York.
“Steel Cold Heart” (1/13/01) – X-51, a machine man and one of
Evolutionary’s operatives, refuses to hurt innocent people and defects to the
rebellion.
“Enter the Hunter!” (2/3/01) – Sir Ram hires an assassin named The
Hunter to kill Spider-Man.
“Cry Vulture” (2/10/01) – Another heroic version of his foes, the
Vulture, joins Spider-Man in stopping Firedrake.
“Ill-Met by Moonlight” (2/17/01) – Spider-Man breaks into
Evolutionary’s plant to find a cure for Jameson, who has been turned into a
Man-Wolf.
“Sustenance” (3/3/01) – Green Goblin figures out Spider-Man is Peter
Parker before they’re both kidnapped by the failed Beastials known as Rejects.
“Matters of the Heart” (3/10/01) – Spider-Man agrees to help a freedom
fighter locate his lost brother.
“One is the Loneliest Number” (3/17/01) – Eddie Brock becomes
separated from his symbiote and Spider-Man must retrieve it before he dies.
“Sins of the Fathers” (3/24/01) – Spider-Man and X-51 attempt to
rescue Karen O’Malley from Evolutionary’s machine men.
“Destiny Unleashed” (3/31/01) – The rebellion stop Evolutionary, but
the Synoptic unleashes its plan to populate the world with symbiotes and
eliminate all human life.
