Spider-Man: The Animated Series Season 4 Overview

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination. Hi, this is John Semper Jr., the

head writer and producer of Spider -Man the Animated

Series, and you are listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Hey, bug brain, over here. You

won't be so funny when I give you an acid shampoo!

I love it when a plan comes together. Thanks

for waiting till the last second. Timing is everything.

Let me do it. This takes muscle. You were right.

It did. Welcome to episode 73 of Tooncast Beyond.

We're continuing on with the Spider -Man 1994

animated series coverage. We've got season four

today. I'm of course TFJoneMike. Joining me is

Eduardo. Hello, sir. How are you? I'm doing fine.

I don't have to be all angsty and pissed because

my girlfriend got thrown into a dimensional portal.

Um, he wasn't that angsty and pissed and we didn't

really... Okay, yeah, she did get thrown into

a dimensional portal, but... Yeah. uh... when

i find absolutely hilarious and i wish i had

planned this out a little bit better so i could

have asked the guy and actually donated to it

but john separate junior uh... head writer producer

of spider -man animated series nineteen four

cartoon series last year or the year before at

some point in the last year and a half had done

a go fund me or an indy go -go it was an indy

go -go for his campaign more the rocket men for

this new series and part of the perks were if

you don't need a certain amount of money you

would get a final script of the fate of Mary

Jane Watson. And we'll talk about that next time

around, next week in episode 74, but I really

wish that I could have hopped on that at the

time and I just couldn't, because I would have

loved to have been able to bring that up in this

podcast, because that would have just been so

awesome. But yes. Spider -Man The Animated Series

Season 4. This season is friggin' weird, folks.

It really, really is to me. Season 3, we ended

up on Turning Point. After the Goblin War, where

Norman tries to use the transporting device to

find out Spider -Man's secret identity, and of

course this leads to the fateful confrontation

between Spider -Man and the Green Goblin that

will change the wall -crawler's life forever.

This is based on Amazing Spider -Man 39 and 121

121 and 122 Okay All right, and this this season

the subtitle or the the chapter prefix title

is partners in danger which I know it's a long

-ass title, Spider -Man the Animated Series,

Season 4, Episode 1, Partners in Danger, Guilty.

I get that's a long -ass title, but I like the

chapter prefixes because it lends itself to an

overall arc like they're writing a book or they're

telling a specific story. But this one starts

off with the episode Guilty, where we see Tombstone

again. And this goes back to the Richard Fisk

part of the storyline and and all that and setting

up Robbie and Starting the season like this for

season four. I The only word I can come up with

for it is friggin weird Yeah, I well it does

remind me of like this has happened in comics

where they'll set something up You know, you'll

have this big thing and then they'll kind of

leave it Alone for a while, but it'll be like

hanging in the background You know a character

dies, and it's like the next issue You know it

doesn't jump immediately after that, but the

hero is like still you know angsty about you

know I just lost so -and -so you know Yeah, absolutely

I Mean I enjoyed guilty. I thought it was a nice

way to show more of Robbie and everything else,

but again tombstone Not exactly a major Spider

-Man villain that we all know and love. No, but

this is based off of something that went through

the Spider -Man comics in like the late 80s,

where it was the same thing. It was the fact

that Robbie and Tombstone had a connection. Although

although in this particular case it ended a little

better because I know in the comics it ended

up with Robbie in prison and at one point he

and tombstone end up like you know kind of like

in those old Those old prison escape movies,

you know, they end up like escaping from prison

stuck together But you know, it was interesting

to see that that storyline and that particular

thread adapted for the TV series it was and I'm

glad they were able to fit it all in or condense

it enough to where it fit into one 21, 22 minute

episode without ads and all that and everything

else. So right before my birthday in 1997 and

right after Valentine's Day in 1997, we had the

cat and the black cat. I love this. I have been

waiting for this in season one. Oh, you and everybody

else who read the comics and knew about Felicia

Hardy's double life. And for me, what lends an

extra oomph to it is the fact that it's Jennifer

friggin' Hale doing the voice. You know, all

that. Because every time I read, like, when I

read Spider -Man Return of the Black Cat, which

was one of the amazing Spider -Man stories, 6

-something, 6 -26 to 6 -36, and it wasn't 10

issues, but I'm saying it's one of those. Yeah.

That's all I can hear is Jennifer Hale's voice

in my head when I read Black Cat in comics anymore.

It's always been that way. I love the cat and

the black cat episodes. Technically they're each

other's two -parter. We basically get introduced

to Felicia's father and we find out that he was

a jewel thief and we found out that he knew about

the the super soldier serum and everything else

and in the part two black cat you know Kingpin

forces her to take the serum and turns Felicia

from herself I mean she's still herself but it

turns her into the black cat and just absolutely

love these two episodes these out of this season

I can safely say these are my two favorite episodes

yeah yeah although it's strange cuz like I don't

know I've always been kind of hot and cold about

the idea of black cat getting tied into the super

soldier serum I mean, I guess it's a way to foreshadow

that we'd be getting Cap at some point or another.

But I mean, sometimes I'm like, I would have

liked to have seen the Black Cat kind of debut

without having to give her, you know, having

to make it like a transformation. But on the

other hand, it's like I know enough of history

that there have been points in the comics where

Black Cat had actual superpowers. Right. Although

there was even a point where she used artificial

means to duplicate her powers after she lost

them, but... Yeah. Well, the thing with this

is, and the funny thing I noticed, and we'll

talk about this next week when we talk about

season five is, in season five, when Cap's whole

story is, again, retold, they basically reuse,

I think they reuse the animation for several

frames, like, oh, Steve, walking into the vat,

walking out of the vat, putting the t -shirt

on... That's a friggin' t -shirt. that's not

you know and they show the guy that's going to

destroy the thing and and whatever else so i

don't quite mind it here um again it was an interesting

way to show how her dad you know that he has

a photographic memory and everything else and

then you also have shield in this too you know

because of all that and everything else because

hardesky is is actually in the helicarrier jail.

Absolutely love that episode. I thought as a

nice kind of send -off, Return of Craven was

a really cool episode. Kind of giving Craven

the Hunter and Mariah Crawford a happy ending

in just one 30 minute thing. And then as I said,

this season, because it's only 11 episodes and

it... It gets kinda weird how these go. Okay,

so you got... Like I said, you got Guilty Cat,

Black Cat, Return of the Craven, then you got

Partners, Awakening, Vampire Queen, Return of

the Green Goblin, Haunting of Mary Jane Watson,

Lizard King, and Prowler. The Awakening and Vampire

Queen stuff, I don't mind because it ties back

into Black Cat, because obviously she was in

love with Michael and everything else. Yeah.

And then obviously the Green Goblin stuff is

fine. Haunting of Mary Jane is fine. The Lizard

King and the Prowler, the final two episodes

of the season, they're just weird. Look, I love

this series, folks. I'm not trying to be negative

about this, but these episodes are just weird.

I felt watching the Lizard King that John Semper

Jr. and his writing team just felt like they

needed to throw something in here. Like they

needed something for Kurt Connors to do and we

don't ever really see him Get his happily ever

after I don't ever see him get his arm back or

anything like that We don't see him get a cure

because he comes up later in season 5 And they

and they do work around getting rid of the lizard

part of his brain and things like that but Again,

I thought the whole point of that character was

for him to find a cure or find a way to reverse

his neogenic explosion thingamajig. Out of the

11 episodes, which ones did or didn't you like

for this season? Well, I like the return of the

Green Goblin for a couple of reasons. Reason

one, it was kind of cool seeing the the cartoon

pick up again where the comics also ran, which

is Harry inheriting his dad's madness. And then,

of course, there's also the fact that we have

the Punisher back. And I thought it was interesting

that we get a nice little twist where instead

of Spider -Man being the one that the Punisher's

after, it's Peter Parker. And then, of course,

the fact that at the end of the episode, we have

the return of Mary Jane. So it's like... You

know, check it out. Mary Jane is back. You can

be happy now, Spider -Man. Something went your

way. She gives new meaning to being all wet,

though. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no. Come on. No, save it for later. Yeah,

you know, you have to save it for later And I

did I also I mean I got I loved the haunting

of Mary Jane because it was cool to see not only

seeing them together Not only getting like a

happy spider -man But also that Mary Jane got

to do something other than be the damsel in distress

that she tried to she tried to figure this out

on her own You know, she tried to kind of take

although I gotta say Trying to get your trying

to get your boyfriend to prove his love for you

by jumping off a building Probably not the smartest

thing in the world. I mean, yeah, he caught her

but I Mean you could have come up with something

else Yeah, something not as drastic. Yeah, very

true. Well, it's not like, you know, the Sandman

had her trapped or anything But what I think

is so cool about the cat and the Black Cat episodes

is that even though the story was done by John

Semper Jr., the writing on the Black Cat, Marty

Eisenberg, Robert Enskeer, that's all I gotta

say. Also, Sean Catherine Derrick is on that

one as well. But I mean, as soon as I saw those

names on there after, I guess I've seen the cat

and the Black Cat, Marty and... robert only money

involved in the black cat of the so that and

i've seen these episodes a million times but

what you know doing you know looking them up

for the show today and salami yeah i know those

guys i've seen a lot of other work and they're

amazing so no wonder that it was so so good uh...

Characters that return in this Like I said, dr.

Kirk Connors is kind of throughout Mary Jane

obviously comes back Harry turns into the Green

Goblin. We still have Norman as the Green Goblin

in the alternate dimension thing of a jig Morbius

the vampire which then introduces or reintroduces

blade and Whistler and all that and everything

else Like we like I've already gushed a black

cat and then we get tombstone and Robbie and

and Craven What character really caught your

attention this season throughout besides, obviously,

Spidey? Well, again, I liked Harry kind of taking

up the goblin mantle and going completely nuts.

I mean, I still have stuck in my head when, you

know, at the end of that episode where he's all

tied up and, you know, Mary Jane shows up and

he's like, it's Mary Jane! She's back! See? Everything's

better now! Just, you know, totally... gone bonkers

uh i actually liked the prowler and i liked the

the celeb that they got for his voice uh they

got tim rust from uh star trek voyager i thought

it worked yeah okay the the prowler does work

as an episode of spider -man it really does the

way that it was told the way that it the story

did progress but the prowler is not season finale

episode it just isn't now if you switched the

prowl no you couldn't switch you take okay you

take return of the Green Goblin and the haunting

of Mary Jane Watson take those drag them down

below the prowler okay And that works for me,

having Return of the Green Goblin and The Haunting

of Mary Jane Watson be the final two episodes.

So basically just take The Lizard King and The

Prowler and move them up. Because The Prowler,

it doesn't, like, I thought I was still in season

four when the wedding started. No, seriously!

I'm like, oh, and I exited out of my, because

I used the Hulu desktop app on my Windows 10

machine, so. Exited out and I'm like, oh, I'm

already on season. Oh, that's right. Season four

is only 11 episodes That's very very weird. Okay,

then I you know what? Don't worry about it because

I thought I had thought that the wedding was

in season four as well Yeah, so, you know, yeah

when I saw that that actually started season

five. I'm like Okay Wow, huh? Yeah The way that

season four and season five fall, and I know

we're not going to talk about season five until

next week, but just the way they fall is just

too weird to me. The wedding is the beginning

of season five, and then the five parts for Six

Forgotten Warriors. That's fine. But then you

have the return of the high return of hydro man,

which is fine. But again, I think you should

have somehow moved those of like have that have

the wedding then have that two -parter and then

the five part six or four part six forgotten

warriors thing and Then have that lead into secret

wars because I don't know it just I mean, I guess

I guess with The Return of Hydra Man butting

up against The Secret Wars it does work because

it does work continuity -wise but maybe it's

just the way that I'm looking at it here and

just kind of overanalyzing it a little bit and

I admit to that but I don't know it just as I

was watching it I was fine but just looking at

it on paper it just seems like it's out of order

even though it really isn't. And I think it's

all season four's fault, because season four,

as I said, has episodes that I feel. And again,

if John's listening, I doubt he is. But if he

is, I'm not trying to offend you, sir, at all.

I've already interviewed you once a few years

ago. And I do love this series. It doesn't really

matter to me. But at the same point, for me to

have a discussion with my friend here, I have

to, you know... Have to poke some holes in it

somewhere. Don't I it's not like I'm hating on

the series It's not like I it's not like I'm

some of these animation snobs where it's like

oh my god The red is bleeding the colors are

bleeding all over the place Don't hold back Mike

tell us I You know what everyone has always said

oh, but the red bleeds in that series I I notice

it at certain points But it's not as bad as everybody

on the friggin internet makes it out to be and

again at this point this series is You know 23

years old. Yeah, you know, so it's like and You

got to think like we mentioned in season 2 and

season 3 they were mixing 2d and 3d animation

so some of the colors and some of the way that

it was going to quote -unquote bleed through

and change and invariance it's fine I have no

problem with that because the anime the animation

to me in season four was absolutely amazing yeah

I just thought it was really really well done

I love all the voice cast as always you know

the way that the Mary Jane voice actress, because

I don't have that in front of me or off the top

of my head, but it's just one of those things

where the way that she is able to morph into

the character of Mary Jane and do all of that

and bring us Mary Jane to life, it was Sarah

Sarah Ballantine? Ballantine, yeah, there we

go. And again, I mean, Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson.

Perfect, perfect. Oh, absolutely. Nick Fury,

because like I said, S .H .I .E .L .D. is in

here. And it's always kind of interesting seeing

Nick. He was voiced by Philip Abbott in Day of

the Chameleon and then Jack Angel in later episodes.

Oh my god, you've got Astro Train from Transformers.

Yep. If I recall correctly, I think Angel also

voiced Nick Fury for a couple of appearances

in Iron Man. Possibly, yeah. You've got Greg

Berger, you know Grimlock as Craven So he was

Craven and Mysterio both so that's that's nice

for that's awesome for him. So we had a twofer.

Yep Let's see who else is in this season obviously

Christopher Daniel Barnes is Peter slash Spidey

Matt Murdock was voiced by Edward Albert or Albert

probably Albert there we go Dr. Strange was voiced

by John Vernon Dean Wormer oh my god Unicron

and we'll gush and probably cry and whatever

next week but oh my god I've said this before

in the last three episodes of this that we've

been doing this Joan Lee, Stan Lee's wife is

Madame Webb. It just doesn't get any better than

that. Yep. It doesn't get any better where your

creator, the person that made Spidey, okay, Lee

and Kirby and Ditko, just to give credit where

credit is due, but to this series specifically,

they pretty much say Stan, for the most part,

just to have her as Spidey's guide. And, you

know, we'll get to all the gushy Madame Webb

moments next episode, next season. Did you know

that Whistler was voiced by Malcolm McDowell

of all people? Yeah, I think in Blade's first

appearance, Whistler was Malcolm McDowell. Yeah,

it was the first two appearances and then Oliver

in the ear, head. Yeah, somebody else. Although,

yeah, I thought it was cool having Malcolm McDowell

as Whistler. Yeah, that was awesome. Kind of

sorry they couldn't do it for the live -action

blade Yeah, well, I think Chris Christopherson

pulled it off fairly. Well. Yeah, you know he

wasn't bad Oh my god, I for well we'll get to

that next next The snake folks the snake oh I

forgot about that. I didn't even recognize that

You know and as we said before the X -Men and

and all that and what we'll get to Fantastic

Four later for villains, you know Carnage and

chameleon and dr. Doom dr. Doom voiced by Tom

Kane You know, obviously kingpin we've we've

mentioned him at length Neil Ross's Green Goblin

Yeah, Gary Imoff did Harry, but he also did Green

Goblin, too. Landon, as we said, was basically

Ra's Al Ghul, David Warner. When you put that

in perspective, though, David Warner was Sark

in Tron, he was Herbert Landon in this, and he

was Ra's Al Ghul in Batman and the Animist series,

but he's also Professor Jordan Perry in The Secret

of the... Also, he was the evil butler in Titanic

With with and yeah, they never I don't know if

they ever said his name out loud But in the credits

his character is called Spicer lovejoy and I'm

just like like I want to sit Cameron down and

go really man Really? Seriously that that that's

his name What what the what the hell man what?

What are you smoking and can I have some? Yep,

and we'll talk about this next week, and we'll

gush about it next week. But Miriam, who is Blade's

mother, is voiced by the original Lieutenant

Uhura, Nichelle Nichols. Dr. Octopus really surprised

me. I only noticed it now and I didn't even really

notice it until I actually looked it up until

after I watched the seasons, but because I just

thought it was a standard, you know, accented

voice. It's friggin Alfred. It's from Zimblus

Jr. as Dr. Octopus. Yep. And obviously, you know,

Mark Hamill is the Hobgoblin, but... Yep. Pretty

much. Pretty much doing a much more aggressive

Joker voice. Yeah. Yep. Oh my god. Martin Landau

was the original Scorpion in seasons one and

two, and then Bull from Night Court, Richard

Moll took over in seasons four and five! This

this cast is just amazingly well done. The only

thing we never got is We never got a conclusion

to Spencer and an Alistair story like whatever

happened to Spencer. He's still in that that

that that Hyper sleep thingamajig I Think I mean

I have my own idea I have my own thoughts on

like a lot of the stories that we didn't get

we get to see completed but i think i'll save

that until next time absolutely season four absolutely

done so well even though i have complained a

little bit about it because of just looking at

it on paper it just seems like it's disjointed

it really isn't it does tell a full story absolutely

love it No, Ned leads was voiced by porky pig

Bob Bergen And hey at least at least Ned didn't

get the same fate that befell that That happened

to him in the comics So anything else you want

to bring up anything else you have opinions for

For season four No, no, I mean I kind of see

what you're saying that yeah, if you look at

it if you kind of look at it from a different

perspective it looks a little weird a little

disjointed, but There's some you know. There's

some good stuff in there I think I think maybe

if it had had a bit more of a bit more of a punchy

finale you know something with a bit of umph

then we you know then it would be easier to look

back on it with fondness, but You know but still

not bad. I mean not bad at all And I remember,

I think it was either our season two episode

or our season three episode where we were questioning

the whole Linda, Gary, Julie, Bennett thing.

Linda was on May for the first three seasons

and then Julie took over in season four and five.

So that question is answered. I almost didn't

even really recognize the voice change. When

done well, you don't recognize that there was

a changeover. If it's done pretty good, you kind

of recognize there's a difference, but it still

works. And then you have cases where they just

completely change the voice and it's like night

and day. Kind of like when Ephraim Zimbalist

Jr. wouldn't be available for Batman and they

got somebody else. Because it was obvious that

it was a different voice. absolutely yeah I mean

season four very absolute like I said very well

done absolutely dig season four specifically

for the black cat but that's folks the black

cat gushing from my end is not gonna stop especially

once we get to season five because oh my god

does she tear his head off Quite literally. Yeah,

I think I should probably jump on Twitter, see

if Jennifer Hale says anything about my ears

are burning as somebody talking about me. That

would be an interview I would kill for. But obviously

you'd have to be professional and you know. I

don't think she'd appreciate any casualties in

her name. Well, it's more so about the character

with her voice behind it, but, you know, I mean,

heck, in that one War of the Rocket Men promo,

she even brought up the sexy black cat voice,

so, you know. Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, exactly.

Cuz I remember that promo she's like because

she blows a kiss or kisses Stan on the cheek

in the and it's just an audio promo folks So

we only hear the audio and it's got pictures

going by but in Stan faints and oh the kiss must

have done him in You know Not a bad way to go

at all if we And I know animation has progressed

and I know they're currently doing Ultimate Spider

-Man or whatever it's called now, Ultimate Spider

-Man and His Web Warriors, whatever the series...

because this series has started out, the current

series started out as Ultimate Spider -Man and

then it morphed into, you know, seasons change

and series title change. But if we could go back

and have more of this animation style and more

stories with the same voice cast... obviously

some are not with us anymore but most you know

most of the core cast come back oh I would love

that so much I know it'll never happen but but

yeah alright folks we're gonna get the heck out

of here next week is our spider -man grand finale

as we enter the spider wars and the and the no

the secret wars and the spider wars so There's

that, and there's a few other episodes in Season

5. You got anything you want to promote? Um,

no, still, well, hey, uh, you know, I'm still,

Keeping It Reels is still going on, so, you know,

uh, go, you know, go to Blog Talk Radio, type

in Keeping It Reels, and give us a listen. We're,

we're, uh, you know, we try to be live every,

uh, Saturday at, um, at, uh, 6 p .m pacific uh

9 p .m eastern you know we um we've been we've

talked pixar we've talked uh anime we've talked

like top 10 movies of 2016 um as we record this

we're going to be talking about like comic book

movies and how they compare to the source material

so you know give it a listen it's it's a cool

show and you know it's just like just like hanging

out with your buddies at the bar and just you

know shooting the breeze Absolutely. Alright

folks, you can find me on Twitter at TF2 and

Mike, you can follow at GeekCastRadio for all

of your network updates, you can follow at TooncastBeyond

for those updates as well. What is your Twitter?

Yeah, my handle is, it's pronounced White Balloon

King, but it's spelled W -H -T -B -L -L -N -K

-I -N -G because, well, Twitter wouldn't let

me spell out the entire word, so I had to ditch

some of the vowels. Oh Twitter So funny, that's

why I'm glad I found my personality way early

in the days of Twitter. So I didn't worry about

it That's one thing I never understood like I

don't mind if people change like their first

names and things like that But actually changing

the Twitter handle it just I think I changed

it once originally It was TFG one podcast because

that was the only podcast I had but then I changed

it to TFG one Mike and I've just never looked

back and oh my god next year I will have been

on Twitter for ten years. Oh my god Do they send

you a t -shirt or something? Happy anniversary

T -shirt a pin the cap. I don't know Some sort

of maybe some sort of miniature plaque, you know,

come on just you know So join us next week folks

because we really really really hate clones.

Oh Yeah, especially if they attack No get that

Star Wars love story out of my Spider -Man. I've

driven him crazy. I've accomplished my mission.

On that note, folks, here's a message from the

Black Cat. Remember when we did Spider -Man,

the animated series? Of course. You played Harry

Osborn in the Green Goblin. I played Felicia

Hardy, and later I became the Black Cat. You

are unforgettable. Oh, thank you. Well, a whole

generation of viewers fell in love with my sexy

black cat voice. You know, when I would turn

to you and say, come here, spider. I want to

kiss you. Whatever you say, Felicia. Huh? What?

What just happened to me? It's the voice. It's

mesmerizing. It makes people want to do whatever

I ask them to. So I simply asked for those tickets

in my black cat voice and I got them. This is

unbelievable. And that works every time. Every

time. Oh, that's probably Stan Lee. Stan Lee?

What's he here for? I asked him to come over.

I need him to move my couch. Wait, what? Jennifer,

you expect a 92 -year -old man to move your couch?

That thing is huge and heavy. You've got to be

kidding. Watch this. Hi, Stan. I need you to

move my couch from the living room to the den.

Could you do that for me, please? Pretty, please?

I don't believe it! Stan Lee is actually picking

up your couch and putting it on his back! He's

moving it! Yeah. And now he's moving your refrigerator?

Yeah. 92 year old Stanley is lifting up and moving

your heavy refrigerator. I know. Incredible!

Thanks, Stan. You sexy hunk of manhood, you.

He just fainted. The kiss must have been too

much for him. Excelsior indeed! This is starting

to sound like a bad comic book plot.