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WEISMANSWERS 2009-08 (Aug)

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rapscallion writes...

Love what you've done with Spectacular Spider-Man. Pure genius. Not just one of the best animated Series since BTAS, but probably one of the smartest shows on TV right now.

*SPOILERS FOLLOWING!*

When it comes to Gwen, I can easily figure why you made her Peter's friend and secret crush and all, due to her role in the comics, but why did you decide to make her a "nerd"? I remember her being, well, "Gorgeous Gwendolyn" in the comics. I realize she had a "make-over" in season 2, but the question is still there in my head.

Emily Osborn. What's up with her? Except in Ultimate, where Norman did some "bad things" to her, Norman was always a widower. So why did you keep her? Especially since, well, she's got the personality of a spoon? I feel like there's a message there but I can't quite get it.

One moment specifically, was when in the episode Blueprints, Martha Connor is getting pressure from Norman, Aaron Warren, Miles Warren, and her husband, to reinstate Peter despite her mistrust and for some reason she looks to Emily Osborn and then relents to it. Was there some message there?

What's with the mole on Peter's cheek? I heard it was some in-joke or something, but to what end?

Why did you make Kraven a "Cat-mutant"? I think it ended up working and I personally like it, but it's a very different take. Was it just to make him more modern? To avoid mention of his "voodoo potions"? Why?

I like how you're taking a realistic time-frame with the seasons and Peter's school year, but hypothetically, if you got a fourth season, would that be during the summer, or would you skip over it and get started in November of Peter's senior year? Also, will you include his college years in the show or would that be saved for DT-DVDs?

Did the title at the end of the theme song get an upgrade? In Season 2, it looked... shinier and bulkier. Generally cooler. Did you guys just change it due to Season 1 doing so well or was that always a plan to upgrade it or something?

Lastly, this isn't a question, but a request. I love what you've done with Miles Warren and I like how he's malicious without being "Bwa-ha-ha! evil, but if you ever do clones... you'll make me cry. You will make a grown man cry. Do you want that on your conscious? NO CLONES PLEASE!

You are a genius.

Greg responds...

SPIDEY SPOILERS!!!

I'll take your questions, paragraph by paragraph...

Gwen was ALWAYS a brain in the comics. This is often forgotten, but one of the reasons she was so interesting to both Peter and Miles Warren was because she was beautiful AND smart. We just figured that in high school, she'd be smart but not necessarily (in her junior year) already the knockout that she will be in college. But as you've seen, the transformation has already begun.

There's no message. Tthe main reason she was included was because we felt we had too many teens with single parent families. Pete and Aunt May. Gwen and Captain Stacy. Both of those pairings seemed essential to the four characters. Making the third member of the Pete-Gwen-Harry three musketeers ALSO from a single parent family seemed a bit much. And, we have plans for Emily that we will get to in Season Three if there is a Season Three.

Martha was looking for a little back-up from SOMEONE, anyone. Aaron Warren wanted Pete back at the lab. Norman encouraged it. Miles voted with Norman. And Curt basically folded. So she looked to the only person left at the table. But Emily had no opinion on the subject.

There's no "end". Sean "Cheeks" Galloway, our character designer, has a similar mole and he puts it on the cheek of all his lead characters.

The mutated Kraven idea was borrowed/adapted from Ultimate Spider-Man. The short answer is that we thought it was a pretty cool idea and visual. Plus we have long term plans for Kraven that I won't get into now.

No decision's been made on Season Three, so I'm not prepared to answer questions about Season Four. But one way or another, we'd cover the summer months. As for college, let me get through high school first.

Vic changed the logo. He liked the new version better.

No comment.

Thanks.

Response recorded on August 04, 2009

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Diminuendo writes...

I was wondering if Osborns death being fake was decision of your own or influenced by Kids' WB dislike of characters dying

Also could we get an update on season 3?

thanks

Greg responds...

SPIDEY SPOILERS!!!!

My decision.

And no, cuz I have no update to give.

Response recorded on August 04, 2009

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gipdac writes...

1. When was Mary (Tom's mother) born?
2. Where was Mary (Tom's mother) born?
3. When was Finella born?
4. Where was Finella born?

Greg responds...

1. 966.

2. Somewhere within a mile or two of Wyvern, Scotland.

3. 972.

4. Not sure. Scotland, of course, though.

Response recorded on August 04, 2009

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gipdac writes...

As of December 31th, 1996 does Constance ("Coco") have a mate or at least a romantic interest?

Greg responds...

No comment.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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David Sky writes...

Carnage?

Greg responds...

Pickles?

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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David Sky writes...

I must second the suggestion of other superheroes being mentioned in speculator spiderman. In ultimate spidey tony stark is often mentioned alongside other scientists, and sometimes the question is raised if peter is a mutant. but yeah, it wouldn't hurt if in conversation daredevil or frank castle come up in conversation since they are in fact right in peter's backyard.

Greg responds...

AGAIN... we're NOT allowed to do that. PERIOD. That may change someday, but if we're talking about the first 26 episodes we weren't even allowed to put STARK INDUSTRIES on a sign in the background.

And for the record, in our continuity, Daredevil doesn't exist yet and Frank Castle's family is still alive.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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Beoc writes...

Is Gwen's fate in Spectacular down the road going to match what happened in the comics? Would you even be permitted to go down that road if you wanted to since SSM is a kids show?

Greg responds...

Asked and answered before. Check the archives.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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nygma619 writes...

A couple of statements on the outcomes of Gangland in the Spidey-Tombstone battle.

I felt alot of the success to Tombstone's character was the fact that he was nearly invulnerable (IMO it seperated him from Kingpin being in this role). We had this big crime boss who controlled most of NYC's crime, who could seemingly crush Spidey anytime he wanted (he took Spidey down in 5 measely seconds in his debut), add that he was cool, calculating, incredibly competent, and kept his criminal activities private, not only that but he could turn the law on Spidey if he wanted to (an angle I don't think was used to it's fullest potential). Spidey getting a physical victory over him in their second physical encounter, (after getting bulldozed in less than 5 seconds in their first) felt like a clumsy transition.

Now that Spidey has established that he can beat Tombstone clean, it diminshes his preseance greatly, when they meet again, the question of whether Spidey can beat Tombstone or not won't be there to add to the drama, IMO I thought it wasn't handled very well here. As it's one of those things that seperated him from the rest of the villains on this show.
And it's not like his fight with Tombes was one of his most hard fought victories to date. Kraven left a shiner on Pete's face in their second battle, even though Kraven lost, the black eye signified how hard a battle Spidey fought the second time. Also Pete was left sore and bruised after his 2nd alleged battle against the sinister six in group therapy, and he had a sprained arm after his victory over the Lizard in Natural Selection. All these battles he had won but not without being taken to the limit physically or the battle taking its toll on him. Sometimes a little subtlety goes a long, long, long way; (though I don't think I need to tell you that). And Tombstone being invulnerable was one of those subtleties that I think people might of taken for granted. I mean I can live with the Goblin outwitting Tombstone to get to power (it wouldn't be the 1st time the goblin sort of outwitted him), but there were ways to bring GG to power while also keeping Tombstone's invulnerability intact.

There's been some excuses made for this:
-One is Tombstone being exhausted from the battle before him and Spidey. Which I don't buy. Because Spidey was there nearly through as much of the battle as well. And none of the hits seemed like they slowed Tombs down that much, if at all. At least he didn't show very much fatigue from what I saw.
-Also other people are excusing it because Spidey flung a piece of machinary at Tombs and that Spidey wouldn't had beat him had he stuck to hand to hand combat. My comment on that, Well flinging a piece of machinary is practically clean for Spidey at this point. If he gets beat just because of a foreign object, well that still doesn't do Tombstone any favors, since Spidey practically beats foes with foreign objects most of the time. He beat people like Sandman, with certain foreign objects (i.e. cement) and no one was talking about how tough Sandman was, were they?
Heck when David beat Goliath with a slingshot, people weren't saying, "Man that Goliath is some hoss, it took a slingshot for David to beat him." They were talking about how David beat Goliath, period. They weren't talking about the foreign object.

So for Spider-Man to get a clean physical victory (no contrivances, no dumb luck, CLEAN) over Tombs at this stage in the game, felt far too villain of the weekish for my liking, and really took away from Tombstone's character.
I'm willing to give this storyline a chance, but IMO there was far too much potential thrown away where Tombstone could turn the law on & still physically man handle Spider-Man. It feels like part of the fun in Tombstone (his ability to crush Spider-Man/push him to his limits) has been taken away and he doesn't feel as fun as he once was. Not that he's a bad character right now, but there's a difference between being a good character, and being "the balls". Up till Gangland, Tombstone felt like the latter.

My other problems with Tombstone being outed: Spidey trying to out Tombstone's secret identity lacked any real logic. Sure Foswell would end up reporting what he heard (does that even hold up as evidence unless he has a tape recorder? If not, what's it doing in the papers?) but Spidey had no idea that he knew this or would tell anyone. Not to mention how anti climatic it was.
And does what Foswell said really constitute 16 government agencies looking after him? And if they really are serious about that statement how does Green Goblin get into Lincoln's office without any government agencies noticing? Some government agencies.

I realize that this show has an ever changing status quo all the time, with many different outcomes, and thats one of the reasons I dig the show. However Spider-Man's physical victory over Tombstone was still disappointing because it didn't feel like a battle that put Spidey's body through hellfire and brimstone(thank you Jim Ross) just to beat him.

Greg responds...

SPIDEY SPOILERS!!!!!!

Well, obviously, I don't agree with you.

For example, the black eye only signified that Kraven got in a lucky shot to Pete's eye. Not that the Kraven battle was easy, but I think you're over-emphasizing the symbolism. Though, of course, that's your right. I just wanted to make it clear that wasn't our intent. On the other hand, the Lizard battle was supposed to be one of his toughest. The fact that you're disappointed that Tombstone isn't physically tougher than Lizard... well, I don't think he is. But he has other attributes that make him scarier in other ways.

Tombstone did take Spidey down in five seconds flat the first time (or something like that), but he was aided by Spidey's ridiculous over-confidence. We never said or claimed that Tombie was invulnerable. Hell, we never said or claimed he had any super-powers at all. We've intentionally left it open to interpretation. You've chosen to interpret it to one extreme. I know other posters have gone to the other extreme. I'm probably somewhere in the middle.

As for this second battle it was neither a clean or easy win for Spidey. Yes, we've leveled the playing field between these two a bit. But only that. Personally, that fight is one of my favorite of the series, but that's just my opinion.

And Spidey's been trying to "out" Tombstone since he met him. Why he'd suddenly stop now makes no sense to me. So I don't really get that objection.

But Tombstone is far from down for the count... at least he's not if we get a third season.

In any case, I'm sorry it didn't work for you. But it worked for us -- and still works for me -- and you weren't there when we were making the show to warn us. So we were stuck going with our own instincts on the thing. I'm afraid that's what you're stuck with. There are no lessons learned here from my point of view. I'm sorry if that sounds arrogant, as that's not my intent. But we just disagree. And ultimately, I have to trust my instincts and those of my partners in crime on the series. If we start second guessing ourselves, no one's going to be happy.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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Bazell writes...

How do you come up with your character names? (though the Manhatten's names' origins can be easily deduced)

Greg responds...

Different ways. And I didn't come up with all of them. Some came from other writers and story editors, such as Cary Bates and Michael Reaves. Others come from mythology or legend, etc. We try to make the names believable but have resonance.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009

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lambert writes...

hi, greg. don't know if you saw this yet. pretty nifty. http://vimeo.com/4947207

p.s. can't wait for the 2nd season of spidey!

Greg responds...

I had seen that, but thanks.

Response recorded on August 03, 2009


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