Happy New Year, Spidey fans! It is my hope that this year will be even better for you than the last. With the MCU favoring quality of quantity, and Sony ending it’s spin-off movie universe, there’s been less content these days for our favorite Marvel characters, especially Spider-Man. While I’m heavily in favor of quality over quantity, I think there are other avenues to explore, particularly direct-to-video animated movies. DC has made some really great animated films for the DTV market since they ended their much-beloved DC Animated Universe, and even Marvel made a few animated DTV movies, the last of which was about 15 years ago. However, none of those DTV animated Marvel films focused on Spider-Man, unfortunately. That said, there is plenty of good comic material they could pull from to make a great DTV animated Spider-Man film. For this month’s Spider-Tracer article, let’s take a look at ten Spider-Man stories from the comics that would be perfect for DTV animated adaptations…
The Owl/ Octopus Gang War
Doc Ock and the Owl vying for control of a neutron bomb, with the city of New York at stake, and only Spider-Man and the Black Cat can stop them! That sounds like an epic tale that would be perfect for an animated film! The original storyline took place in “Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man” #s 73-79. While I’d be thrilled to see Doc Ock, the Owl, and their gangs battling, seeing Black Cat teaming up with Spider-Man would be just as fun to see, which is an important element from the comics that none of the live action films managed to deliver, sadly.
Return/Revenge of the Sinister Six
While I really enjoyed the Sinister Six’s first appearance in “The Amazing Spider-Man Annual” #1, I think seeing the team fight together, rather than separately, is the way to go. Besides, who wouldn’t enjoy seeing Doc Ock don his white Armani suit? “Return of the Sinister Six” took place in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #s 334-339, while “Revenge of the Sinister Six” took place in the adjectiveless “Spider-Man” #s 18-23. I feel that a strong animated adaptation would pull elements from both stories to make the strongest story possible.
Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut and The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man
One of my favorite Spider-Man stories of all time, “Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut” would make for an epic, action-packed adventure. As much as I love this story, however, I’m not sure if it could take up an entire one-and-a-half-hour animated film. I was reminded of “Batman: The Killing Joke”, and how that movie added a prologue to extend the film beyond what the main story could offer. While I hated that film’s prologue, I think “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man” would be a great epilogue; both stories being two of Roger Stern’s most famous Spider-Man stories would help tie them together nicely. On his way home from the construction site, I could see Spider-Man seeing a newspaper with Jake Conover’s story, and ol’ Web-Head decides to make one more stop… “Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut” occurred in issues 229-230 of “The Amazing Spider-Man”, while the short story, “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man” took place in issue # 248 of the same book.
The Death of Jean DeWolff
Both Marvel and DC’s DTV animated movies allowed more adult elements to be present, since they can avoid the stricter guidelines of network television, and a story like this needs to be darker than your average Spider-Man story. A gritty story like this would really work in this format (the story originally came out in “Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man” #s 107-110), and if we can’t get a Spidey and Daredevil team-up in the next live-action Spider-Man movie, this is certainly the next best option! As if that wasn’t enough, this story features Spidey in a cloth version of the black suit, which always had a really cool design. Y’know, this story would make for a nice trilogy of sorts, which they could follow up with…
Kraven’s Last Hunt
Honestly, if I could only pick one Spider-Man story for the DTV animated treatment, this is the film I’d go with! This dark, gripping story would really need to bypass television censorship, particularly thanks to the ending. One of Spidey’s best stories deserves not only to be made in this format, but with his experience in writing for animation, JM DeMatteis would be the perfect writer to help adapt his own story! As you’ll recall, I mentioned this and “The Death of Jean DeWolff” being perfect for a trilogy. If “Kraven’s Last Hunt” is the second film, I’d end things with…
Venom
If Spidey is going to wear a cloth version of his black suit for an entire trilogy, this is the perfect film to tie up that thread, literally! For this film, I’d adapt Venom’s shadowy cameo appearances in those early “Web of Spider-Man” issues, and “The Amazing Spider-Man” #s 298-300, as well as #s 315-317. While the 90’s animated series did a great job of adapting Venom (the build up was excellent), it’d be nice to see an unrestrained Venom battling his most hated foe, which is something that not even the live action films have been able to properly do. And while a trilogy like this would be great, there is another story they could follow up a Venom centric one with…
Maximum Carnage
Carnage forcing Spidey to team up with Venom usually makes for an enjoyable read in the comics, and I’d thus have to recommend pulling story elements not only from “Maximum Carnage” but his first storyline, which took place during “The Amazing Spider-Man” #s 361-363, to start the movie off right, and properly set up the sequel to the previous Venom film. Of course, you can’t do “Maximum Carnage” without tons of guest stars, so everyone from Captain America to Deathlok would have to show up, naturally.
The Death of Gwen Stacy
Another great trilogy (or, perhaps, another quadrilogy) would have to undoubtedly feature and begin with the Green Goblin’s heartless murder of Spider-Man’s love, Gwen Stacy, which occurred in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #s 121-122. I would probably add in the subplot of Harry’s drug addiction from those earlier issues (#s 96-98) to add some further depth and conflict to the story. The tragic loss of Peter’s girlfriend and Harry’s father would certainly make for an unforgettable animated story, but how would you follow up this story in a trilogy? Well…
The Clone Saga (both of them!)
You absolutely have to follow up “The Death of Gwen Stacy” with both the original, and 90’s Clone Sagas! Seeing the Jackal properly adapted would be so, so cool, as would seeing Ben Reilly as the Scarlet Spider, Kaine, and maybe even Punisher at the beginning of his war on crime! A lot of elements would have to be dropped, especially from the second Clone Saga (it’s such a long story!), but perhaps with writers from both Clone Sagas, like Gerry Conway (who’s also written for animation) and JM DeMatteis, we could get a couple of excellent animated movies out of it! Of course, if you wanted to break up both Clone Sagas, and slide another movie between them, might I recommend…
The Hobgoblin Saga
One of my favorite Spider-Man villains, is, without a doubt, the original Hobgoblin! Hobgoblin was always a fun villain, especially when Roger Stern was writing him, so I’d have to recommend pulling elements from both the 80’s comics, as well as Stern’s “Hobgoblin Lives”. Everyone loves a good mystery, and with some minor tweaking, this very well could end up as one of the best of the animated Spider-Man films…
And there you have it, Spidey fans; my top choices for DTV animated Spider-Man films. Which stories would you want to see get the spotlight? Did your choice(s) make the list? Sound off in the comments section below, and I’ll see you next month!
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