MASTER OF THE SPIDER-VERSE
In the first of a 2-part feature Pat Jankiewicz reveals how John Semper saved Spider-Man with his animated series, vampirized Blade, created The Spider-Verse and got no credit… Just like Spidey!
In the mid ‘90s, things were looking grim for Spider-Man. His Friendly Neighbourhood wasn’t so friendly. Marvel Comics was sliding into bankruptcy, James Cameron’s highly anticipated Spider-Man movie was ensnared in a web of lawsuits, his comic book sales were in the toilet, and hadn’t had a hit TV show since Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends 13 years earlier.
Marvel hoped to change that with a new TV cartoon, after Batman The Animated Series made cartoon crusaders cool again. But Batman writer Martin Pasko’s attempts to launch a new animated Spider-Man series for Marvel resulted in his firing, and the project went back to Square One.
Spidey could really use a friend. Luckily, he found an amazing one in John Semper. A power struggle erupted between producers and creatives, over who would get the show. Spider-Man’s co-creator, Stan Lee, ended the fighting by backing Semper.
While it’s known on the IMDB as Spider-Man The Animated Series, Marvel Comics refers to it as Spider-Man ’94, but fans of the show call it what it is: The John Semper Spider-Man. The likable Semper wore three hats on the show; Producer, Story Editor, Head Writer.
“I wanted to do a show that took all of the comic book elements, scrambled them up and kept it relatively the same, but different,” he states.
Semper’s Spider-Man skipped the origin (which is covered in the opening credits), choosing to focus on Peter Parker’s daily struggle to balance a normal life with his secret identity. This frequently results in him letting his beloved Aunt May and friends down.
“Our Peter Parker is a teenager who is already Spider-Man. He’s only had his spider powers a few years,” he notes. “I had nothing to do with the look of the show, but in my head, we’re doing the classic Stan Lee/John Romita, SR. Spider-Man.
“I told my writers, ‘This is not The Spider-Man Show, this is The Peter Parker Show and Spider-Man is a complication in his life.” The Semper Spider-Man is both an agile superhero and a stressed college student, with a messy love life.
Semper plucked from every era of the Spidey comic, compressing decades of stories. Peter Parker grew six arms, met The Black Cat, Venom, Vulture and became a monstrous Man-Spider, wore a living costume, fought in The Secret Wars and even married his long-time love, Mary Jane Watson. Tragically, she turned out to be a clone… But these things happen in the Marvel Universe!
Besides bringing Spider-Man to TV with integrity, Semper also had to answer to Marvel’s parent company, Toy Biz, represented by his show’s Executive Producer, Avi Arad. Because Marvel Studios was owned by a toy company, the show needed toys!
“Avi would say to me, ‘We need to do Spider Slayers!’ (robots out to destroy Spider-Man). He wanted to do toys of them for Toy Biz, so I said, ‘Great, we’ll do Spider Slayers on the show!