SPIDER-MAN ANIMATED UPDATE
Audu Paden, executive producer of MTV's Spider-Man animated series, told The Continuum that current Spider-Man artists John Romita Jr. and Mark Bagley were influences on how the character looks in the show.
"I love Romita Jr.'s character drawings. He just does great design," Paden said. "And Bagley's attitudes, and his Spider-Man in motion - you have him poised in mid-air in extreme poses and limbs stretched to the point where real human ligaments would be under great strain - so we're really going to Bagley for the way we're moving our Spider-Man.
"We're looking to them for the way the characters are crafted."
Spider-Man's body type is similar to that of Ultimate Spider-Man's. "We want to be able utilize the Spider-Man body as the Peter body," Paden said.
One of the tested looks early on that stuck was to have the white part of Spider-Man's eyepieces change size - an approach occasionally used in the comics. Paden said it gives the character more range of emotion.
Spider-Man's costume features the raised webbing, a la the feature film.
"It's good because it helps with the branding of this Spider-Man as being related to the feature film, and that's where were coming from," Paden said.
The show also uses the film's logo.
Spider-Man will premiere with two half-hour episodes beginning Friday at 10 p.m. (ET). The episodes will air again Saturday, July 12 at 2 a.m. and at 8:30 p.m.; and Sunday, July 13 at 4 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Click on the thumbnails for larger images from the show, and look for more Spider-Man news next week here in The Continuum.