Spider-man as a movie took actually quite a long Journey of close to two decades before seeing light. Spidey had already had enjoyed a lot of small screen time going back to when he was created in late 1962. In fact the first animated spider-man cartoon called simply Spider-Man the '67 collection for those looking for it on DVD was comprised of cutouts of the comic book itself to use as animation it had 52 episodes and ran on ABC network I think? But the one thing it had going for it was it's theme: "Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can. Spins a web , any size. Catches thieves- just like flies. Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man! Is he strong? Listen, bud. He's got radioactvie blood. Can he swing from a thread? Take a look overhead. Hey there! There goes the Spider-Man! In the chill of the night, at the scene of a crime, Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time! Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Wealth and fame? He's ignored. Action is his reward. To him life is a great big bang-up, you'll find the Spider-Man!" Then in the later 70's Spidey had two live action shows.
Those two shows were in the latter 70's were when he was Spider-Man he would never talk it was just plain action, action, action, one of the shows was called The Electric Company which didn't originally start with spidey on the show but by season four (1974-75) there was a short spidey segment in comic fashion, but like I said he never spoke they used word balloons to carry the point across. I saw these after having that coloring book like I said in the first part of "Why do I love Spider-man over any other comicbook character" feel even more in love with the character because it aired on PBS right after Sesame street & Mister Rogers. Then a couple years later on the CBS network when Marvel was making live action TV shows about their characters they had "Captain America", "Doctor Strange", but the most successful one was "The Incredible Hulk" which became a series after it's pilot and ran from (1977-82). Which starred Bill Bixby & Lou Ferrigno (with me being a big fan of the hulk I also have that series as well on DVD of what's out so far....). "The Amazing Spider-Man" TV show ran two seasons but both were so short you'd think it was one. Marvel made a cartoon of Spider-Man in the early 80's called Spider-Man and his Amazing friends which had him teamed with (X-Men members Fire star(which looked a lot like Mary Jane from the comics) & Ice Man. The Amazing Spider-Man & his Amazing friends was narrated by Stan Lee. The show was paired with a cartoon version of The Incredible Hulk on NBC & aired after the Smurfs at 11:00 on Saturday mornings. So I had my weekends filled I'd watch the Incredible Hulk & The Dukes of Hazzard on Friday nights & have my Saturdays filled as well.
In 1985 it was announced in the "New York post" that come the following Christmas Spider-Man was going to be made into a motion picture by Cannon Films. This of course turned to be false. The idea of a Spider-movie may have started way back then, but a great many things kept occurring that put the webhead's movie debut on a continual hold: Marvel comics the company had been sold back & fourth many times in the late eighties, Movie companies that had the Spider-Man movie treatment or bible as any movie project is called before any script is made kept going into bankruptcy. At one time in the mid nineties James Cameron & his "Titanic" cast of Leonardo DiCaprio was to be Peter Parker & Kate Winslet Mary Jane, while this fell through because of how Cameron's script was so lacking in any "origin" included. Marvel productions on it own made one more Spidey toon around this time. It had great stories & stay true the history of what was established in the core comic book "The Amazing Spider-Man". With the success of "Blade" in '98 Marvel knew it finally had found that Hollywood could handle making movies of their properties with great care, but the movie that really punched through was Bryan Singer's X-Men in 1999. Marvel again wanted make Spider-Man movies but who would be a perfect director that knew Spidey's Origin & wouldn't screw it up Enter: Sam Raimi. Raimi had started making films in the late seventies, but like me he has had a great love for Spidey since he was a child. Raimi had made horror films the early 80's like "Evil Dead" & "Army of Darkness" but he'd also had super heroes foothold as well in 1990 for Universal pictures he directed his own creation of "DARKMAN."
In 2000, Sony Pictures & Marvel came to an agreement to make the webslinger's first movie. The movie starred Tobey Maguire, Kristen Dunst, & Willem Dafoe the movie had everything that a Spider-Man movie should have in it, especially a cool line from Aunt May that touches any comic fan(s) heart. "Your not Super- Man you know" she tells peter in the movie trailer. Speaking of the original "SpiderMan movie trailer", they pulled it just a week after letting it be trailered (I happen to be lucky enough to see it on Final Fantasy) the trailer included a scene where Spidey webs these bank robbers helicopter between the Twin Towers in New York city. A few days later 9/11 had happen, so they edited the whole scene out of the movie & reworked the trailer so it didn't have that in it, to play it safe the movie wasn't released till May 3rd 2002, (I'd happen to seen the movie Nine times in the theater is that dedication to my childhood hero or what?) TV Guide put out five Spider-Man movie covers when the movie was released each one was by a different comic artists.
In 2004 Spider-man 2 they had him face Doc Ock which is known as Doctor Octopus in the comics. This one also starred Tobey Maguire, Kristen Dunst again but instead of Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin they had Alfred Molina play Doc Ock. This movie was almost without it's star Maguire because while he was filming Spider-man 2 he was also filming Sea Biscuit where he had a scene where he was thrown pretty hard, so when we see him with renewed strenght & faith from Aunt May's words he falls while getting back into the websling & his line "Oh my Baaccck" is both funny in the movie but very painful for Maguire none the less. I also saw Spider-man 2 nine times at the theater too. In between Spider-man 1 & 2 Sony put a short cartoon on M-TV to bridge what happens between those two movies. Spiderman 2 opened June 30th.
In 2007 on May 4th Spiderman 3 opened this one had added two villains like the Batman films of the late ninties had done. The two villains were Raimi's favorite Sandman & comic fan boys favorite Venom, they also added more girl problems for Parker in the film by introducing Gwen Stacy. In this one Peter was going to ask Mary Jane to marry him as he did in the comics "pre ONE MORE DAY'S" slashing of spidey comic life which is just sick I believe, but also like in the comics he get a new costume which feeds on him & changes his personality till he gets rid of it. Stan Lee makes a cameo in each of the three Spider-man films as well.
Hey I figured while I been talking about Spider-Man movies you like to know where they rank as a possible quartet (Did I just say a fourth SPIDER-MAN movie is coming out, more on this in a quick minute). My favorite superhero movies are as follows Superman the movie, Spider-man, Iron Man, Dark Knight, X-Men2 better known as X-Men:united, the new Incredible Hulk movie & finally for the list right now any way the 1980's version of Flash Gordon that old Queen song gets me every time. I was looking in a old magazine of Time and earlier this week and saw that they had a section called Briefing in the September 22,2008 in the "predictable part" it says I quote "Tobey Maguire considering two more Spider-Man films, two more summerhouses" then later this past week on Fox news 9/30/08 I saw a sip nit of a Spider-Movie set to hit theaters in 2010 or 2011 with all on board as far as I know.
To be continued in "Why do I love Spider-man over any other comicbook character pt:5 of 5 "Spidey at a party & lots more"
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