MTV

I am – Hercules!!

Man, cartoons take a long time!

With live action, they announce the “Threat Matrix” series in May and it’s on the air the following September.

But we’ve been hearing about this new “Spider-Man” cartoon since 2001. “Daria” was still airing. The “Spider-Man” movie was still six months in the future. It’s been a long dang wait.

If you’re a fan of comic-book writer Brian Michael Bendis, you may enjoy this enterprise, which employs Bendis as a producer and seems to draw to some degree from Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man version of the hero. (Herc, for his part, finds Bendis the most overrated ubiquitous quack this side of Rob Liefeld. I was a colossal fan of Ultimate X-Men until Bendis replaced big-brained Mark Millar about two issues ago. Now Ultimate X-Men is every inch as mediocre as the monthly Superman titles. If I see Bendis at ComicCon I’m going to kick him in the nuts.)

Well, a lot I know. Entertainment Weekly gives “Spider-Man”) an “A-“ and says:

I had more fun watching this slippery-smooth Spidey than I did noting Tobey Maguire's strenuous exertions in the feature film.

VCR alert: Note that two episodes air back-to-back Friday night, starting at 10 p.m. And if you miss it? Don’t worry. MTV repeats every episode of everything a millionty zillion times: Spidey’s first two installments will air three times each on Saturday, twice on Sunday.

I am – Hercules!!

Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here. Just wanted to weigh in with a quick reaction to tonight's premiere. Both Sony and MTV ended up sending it to me to check out, and my reaction after seeing it a couple of times is... not bad. The cel-shaded look of the show is going to divide fans right off the bat, and doing computer animation for television is still going to turn out product closer to the REBOOT end of the scale than the Pixar end. Having said that, there's a lot to like for fans of the character.

Herc is a massive comic book fan. Just like he's got one whole wing of his house devoted to TVs and satellite equipment, he's also got another wing that is nothing but comic books. I'm a little surprised by his vehement hatred of all things Bendis. Personally, I'm the kind of comic reader who waits and picks up trade paperbacks of things, and I only recently got the first two collections of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN. I thought Bendis did a very good job of streamlining tons of Spidey history into a new package, and he actually got me to laugh out loud a few times at Spider-Man's wiseass comments, something that hasn't happened in a long time.

I think the writing in the comics is stronger than the writing in the show, and I'm trying to wrap my head around yet another continuity (it doesn't match up with the movie or with the current run of the comics). One of the great things about SPIDER-MAN and the core characters is that they're strongly enough etched archetypes to withstand the endless tinkering and refiguring that they've gone through. The basic relationships still work.

The best thing about the MTV show, based on this quick peek, is the action. There's some really fluid and persuasive action here, and if you're in the mood for some web-slinging, you'll get your fix. The violence in the show isn't gory, but it is surprisingly intense. I didn't expect a beheading in the first episode. Overall, it's the kind of show that goes down painless. You watch, you enjoy, and then you move on to whatever's next. Don't go into it expecting something that will redefine all you know about Spidey. This ain't that sort of project. Instead, it's a fun, slickly produced show that has the potential to turn out some great episodes and guest villain storylines, and it's just right for these summer rerun months.

Check it out. You might really dig it.

"Moriarty" out.