In the first episode, "Survival of the Fittest," Peter Parker enters the world of crime-fighting when he faces off with his first real super-villain, the Vulture.

Spider Senses Tingling
The approach seems to be working. On March 13, 2008, Nielsen Research Media reported that The Spectacular Spider-Man "swung to new heights for Kids' WB! on The CW for Saturday, March 8, scoring season-high household numbers."

According to Neilson, the premiere of The Spectacular Spider-Man helped the Kids' WB! Saturday morning lineup tally its highest household rating (1.1/3) of the 2007-2008 season. The premiere episode, "Survival of the Fittest," registered a 1.2/3 household rating, which garnered the top mark for Kids' WB! in the 10 am time slot during the 2007-2008 season. The numbers held and improved for "Interactions," the series' second episode.

Those first two episodes set the tone for The Spectacular Spider-Man series. In "Survival of the Fittest," summer is over for Peter Parker and school is ready to start -- both literally (in the classroom) and in the "real" world of crime-fighting -- as Spider-Man faces his first real challenge (The Enforcers) and his first real super-villain (the Vulture). In "Interactions," Peter and Spider-Man both try to make connections. Nerdy Pete attempts to tutor the popular Liz Allan, while Spidey reaches out to stop the menace of Electro.

And in the new series, Spidey is designed for action. "From Day One, our primary job was to make sure we had a Spider-Man that moves," says Weisman. "With that in mind, we chose a style and designer that would give us clean and simple, yet iconic designs that would allow the animators to really go to town."

Supervising Producer/Director Vic Cook.

"We have a great character designer, Sean [Cheeks] Galloway, who has infused his own unique design sense on our series," Cook adds. "We wanted a traditional, animated Spidey that could move as well as Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. The streamlined designs allow us to push the envelope on the animation on our TV production schedule. Our backgrounds, which were designed by Vince Toyama and Kenny McGill, also allow for dimensional camera moves which help the Spidey action look even more dynamic.

"Also, we have approached the action choreography with kind of a Hong Kong flair -- over the top, dynamic and with a dash of humor when needed. We have fantastic animators at Hanho, Moi and Dong Woo studios who are able to implement what we are asking for on the storyboards. This Spidey has some of the best action sequences animated for TV.

"As far as the visual storytelling, we have put a lot of Ditko-inspired visual touches into the show -- the spidey tingle lines for Spidey sense, the half-spidey mask and the spidey eyes in the sky at the end of our episodes. From a story point of view, it is very much Lee/Ditko, but contemporized. Spidey still has a sense of humor, quipping away during battles as he did in the Lee/Ditko comics."

Here Comes The Spider-Man
Lead designer Galloway provided artwork in synch with the vision for the series. "My influences do go back to the classic designs," he says. "I had to keep those styles from the Ditko/Romita era in mind throughout the process. But as much as we tried to maintain those styles, as we know the fans love the Ditko/Romita designs, we also wanted to make sure we gave it more of a modern twist.

Rhino, voiced by Clancy Brown, is one of the many villains the new Spidey must face.

"They gave me five options to design on the initial test -- Mary Jane, Gwen, Peter and Spider-Man -- as well as whichever villain I wanted to do. Peter was my first design. He's the soul character of that universe, and I can relate to Peter better than any of the others because he's a guy who experiences everyday life, everyday dilemmas, and I can understand how he handles it. He doesn't let that get him down. So I knew if I could tackle Peter, then it would set the tone for drawing the rest of the characters.

"The villain I chose was Sandman because I wanted to produce a design that would set me apart from my competition. Because his body changes the way sand forms, I felt that would be a cool challenge and an opportunity to really push the edges -- and show that I could be the right person for the job. So I purposely chose Sandman because I thought he'd be harder than some of the other villains. The challenge was taking that character -- striped shirt and all -- and to try to make him modern and cool in today's world."