'In recent years, a trend in comics has emerged in the form of continuing fan-favorite TV shows as comic books, with the case of Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8 (and 9), Angel, and the upcoming X-Files Season 10. Then there are also comics that are designed to continue a run by a fan-favorite writer, one that would allow said writer to finish off any story ideas he or she had in the works before leaving the title for various reasons. The prominent examples of this are X-Men Forever (which told the stories Chris Claremont wanted to tell before leaving the title in 1991), G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero's current volume (continuing the Marvel run at IDW with Larry Hama at the helm), and the most recent of the three, Transformers: ReGeneration One (continuing the Marvel run at IDW with original series writer Simon Furman and artist Andrew Wildman at the helm).
In my time on the site Comicvine.com, my favorite recurring blog postings were user cbishop's "Would U Buy It" pieces, where he proposes ideas for TPB's of various little-known story arcs in various comic books. Sadly, since the site got upgraded, he hasn't found the time to continue the series, which ended ironically enough with a guest post I did. I've decided to fill the void with my own series of articles, but with a different focus. Thus, I bring you "Bringing Closure", where I take a short-lived TV series, comic book-based or not, and give good reason why it should get the finale it deserved in comic book form, along with who I deem best to be the creative team for such a comic series.'
Today's subject is a television series that I (and I'm sure many of you here) grew up with:
BACKGROUND:
Spider-Man (or Spider-Man: The Animated Series) was the second entry in what can be called the Marvel Animated Universe (which began with 1992's X-Men animated cartoon series). The show aired from 1994 to 1998 for five seasons, with two awards (an Annie and an Image Award) under its belt. In its time, it was one of the most popular shows on Fox Kids, right alongside Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Batman: The Animated Series, and the aforementioned X-Men. It also created one of the biggest merchandising booms for the character, which included an action figure series from Toy Biz:
And a tie-in comic book series published by the company Spidey became the face of:
It's even ranked by IGN as the 84th best animated series ever made. Yet the show's current owners, Disney, who for a number of years aired reruns of the show on Jetix and Disney XD, still haven't given it the full season boxed-set treatment (unless the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man convinces them otherwise...).
HOW THE SHOW ENDED (*Spoiler Alert*)
In the show's two-part finale from 1998, Spider-Man is brought by Madame Web and the Beyonder--after being tested in a series of battles on another planet called the Secret Wars--to fight a true threat to all realities and dimensions: his unstable counterpart Spider-Carnage. Together with the help of his other dopplegangers, Spider-Man manages to stop the menace for good.
With that, after making a detour where Spidey literally meets his (co-)maker Stan Lee, Madame Web tells him that they are now going to go search for the missing Mary-Jane Watson (who had been out of the picture since the events of the season 3 finale "Turning Point").
WHAT WAS UNRESOLVED?
In an interview with the series' original story editor and producer John Semper, a conclusion to the search for MJ was in the pipeline, but the show was cancelled due to disagreements between Avi Arad and Margaret Loesch. According to Semper, Spider-Man and Madame Web would've found Mary-Jane in Victorian-era London, and learn that she didn't land there alone--Carnage had also arrived, and had been posing as Jack the Ripper. Other stories that Semper had in mind would have included a team-up between Spidey and Ghost Rider against Mysterio and Dr. Strange villain Dormammu (nixed due to GR appearing on two UPN Marvel cartoons, Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk), and an appearance by the sometimes-villain, sometimes-ally of Spidey known as the Puma.
(More can be found here: http://marvel.toonzone.net/spideytas/interviews/semper2/)
THE SOLUTION
In an age where fan-favorite TV shows can return (and sometimes be concluded) as comic books, delivering the finale to Spider-Man: The Animated Series would be a boon to Marvel and Disney. It could be done either as a digital-first series or print, but either way, it would give them a chance to close the book on one of Spidey's greatest animated sagas. I would picture the comic being done as a mini-series, done not only to conclude the story within the original show, but also act as the lead-up to the series's 1999 sequel, "Spider-Man: Unlimited". If there is any one creative team who would be good enough for the job, it should fall to these three:
On writing duties would be none other than...
Since Semper was the original story editor on the series, it's only fitting that he be able to bring his original proposals to life on the four-color page.
On art duties, I can only think of two people qualified enough:
Rick Burchett and Ty Templeton
The two of them putting their heads together should be enough to approximate the style of the original show, but also allow the characters to be a bit more expressive in their faces.
I would title a mini-series such as this something along the lines of "Spider-Man: The Animated Adventures". Or if you wanted to be technical here, simply call it "Spider-Man Adventures" volume 2.
That's all for today's first "Bringing Closure". Tune in next time when I tackle one of the last three entries in the Marvel Animated Universe, 1998's "Silver Surfer". I'm FlixMentallo21, and thanks for hanging with me--literally: