Spectacular Spider-Man to weave his web on Disney XD
Longtime Spider-Man fan Josh Keaton got the role of a lifetime when the actor was selected to voice Peter Parker and his alter ego in “Spectacular Spider-Man.” The series returns for a second season at 6 p.m. Monday on Disney XD.
After playing Spider-Man’s friend Harry Osborn in “Spider-Man” video games, Keaton was excited to get the nod to play Spidey himself.
“I actually auditioned for Harry Osborn, and for Eddie Brock and Venom,” Keaton said in a phone interview. “I’m quite happy I got picked as Spider-Man. I love the other characters, but I mean, it’s Spider-Man!”
As a fan, Keaton appreciates the feel of “Spectacular Spider-Man,” which often harks back to the earliest 
stories by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, who created the character.
“Those are the stories that pretty much defined who Spider-Man was going to be,” Keaton said. “Granted, there’s some great stories that came later on, but they were all taken from that source material. They were all a twist that were given to the original story.”
“Spectacular Spider-Man” has been credited for developing the humorous side of the Spider-Man mythos. In the original stories, Spider-Man often taunted his villains with wisecracks as he was defeating them.
“That’s what I really wanted to do my best to bring back to Spidey, was the
wisecracks and the humor,” Keaton said. “I know there’s a trend to get really dark and brooding, and there’s a time and place for that; however, it can’t be forgotten that one of the big things that defines Spidey is his sense of humor.”
Keaton also likes some of Spider-Man’s serious story lines, including the “Master Planner” plot that will be part of Season 2. Could something such as “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” which featured a despondent supervillain capturing Spider-Man, eventually become part of “Spectacular Spider-Man” lore?
“I’m really hopeful that we’ll get five seasons, and after that start doing some direct-to-DVD movies where we’ll explore some of the more mature-themed Spidey stories,” Keaton said.
Another bonus of becoming Spider-Man is to have action figures based on your performances.
“I have all of the toys. I’m actually looking at them right now,” Keaton said. “I have all of the Spider-Man toys from McDonalds, and they’re sitting next to my 12-inch wisecracking Spider-Man talking doll that does this,” Keaton said, and then a doll with his voice said: “Oh, what’s a poor Web-head to do?”
Laughing, Keaton said, “I’m a huge geek. I love this stuff.”
- By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[...] the rest here: Spectacular Spider-Man to weave his web on Disney XD | Nerdage AKPC_IDS += “193,”;Popularity: unranked [?] > Spiderman News — admin @ 3:41 [...]