Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the premiere of The Spectacular Spider-Man. The two-season series lasted from March 8th, 2008 to March 18th, 2009 on Kids' WB and is the seventh to focus on Spider-Man while also being the first to feature the wallcrawler in high school. It was developed by Greg Weisman and Victor Cook, taking inspirations from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man film series, Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis, and even a few things from Spider-Man.
The series follows the adventures of Peter Parker's double life as the webslinging Spider-Man shortly after the death of Uncle Ben. By day he is a geeky student at Midtown Manhattan Magnet High School, best friends with Harry Osborn, and romantically interested in Gwen Stacy (in her first regular role), Mary Jane Watson, and Liz Allan. By night he saves New York City from the criminal threats of Sandman, Vulture, Tinkerer, Shocker, Mysterio, Lizard, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom. The first season focuses on the mysterious threat of the Big Man while the second features the Master Planner, all the while dealing with the overpowering Green Goblin.
The series featured the voices of Josh Keaton as Spider-Man, Deborah Strang as Aunt May, Lacey Chabert as Gwen Stacy, Vanessa Marshall as Mary Jane Watson, James Arnold Taylor as Harry Osborn, Alanna Ubach as Liz Allan, Alan Rachins as Norman Osborn, Steven Blum as Green Goblin, Benjamin Diskin as Venom and Eddie Brock, Edward Asner as Uncle Ben, and Stan Lee as Stan. It featured appearances by Robert Englund, Jane Lynch, Nikki Cox, Keith David, Thomas F. Wilson, Bill Fagerbakke, Danny Trejo, Miguel Ferrer, and Courtney B. Vance.
The series was very well received and has been cited as one of the best adaptations of the character. It has placed high in numerous rankings of animated series and the finale episode "Episode:Final Curtain" won an Annie Award nomination in Storyboarding in a Television Production. As a tribute to the series, Keaton played Ultimate Spider-Man in the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions alongside Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends's Dan Gilvezan, Spider-Man's Christopher Daniel Barnes, and Spider-Man: The New Animated Series's Neil Patrick Harris.
Unfortunately, the series ended due to legal issues. After The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment gave up the television rights to Spider-Man in order to maintain the film rights. This put the series into a limbo as Sony no longer had the rights to produce any series and Marvel did not have the rights to continue this series. Marvel eventually began production on their own unique series Ultimate Spider-Man which spun off into Avengers Assemble, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight!, and Hulk: Where Monsters Dwell.