Spider-Man makes an animated comeback

Good news from over at Newsarama for Spidey fans. Kids WB! recently announced that it has struck a deal with Sony Picture Television's new studio, Culver Entertainment to produce a new animated series set to premiere on the channel in 2008. The series is tentatively titled "The Amazing Spider-Man".

The new animated series picks up the original web-slinger’s mythology at the beginning of his hero’s journey…as a not-so-typical 16-year-old entering his junior year of high school. Having spent the summer engaging common criminals with his new-found powers, Peter Parker must conceal his secret identity while engaging a new level of terror – the multi-leveled pressures of teenage life at home and school while combating bigger, badder super-villains in the real world.

This is awesome news for those of us who cried through every single episode of MTV's CGI-whoring Spider-Man series based on the movies. Also, I know several people will disagree with me on this, but while I loved Fox's Spider-Man: The Animated Series, I felt it lacked depth and that Marvel didn't fully exploit the potential of the character and the 40+ years of Spidey stories that fans have read and enjoyed for so long. Their take on the Secret Wars was pathetic and tying that in with the Clone Saga (and ending the show on that note) was an even worse idea. Oh, and don't even get me started on Spider-Man Unlimited.

That said, I think that was the best, most loyal representation of Spider-Man I've seen on T.V. to date and I really hope this new series will surpass it and make the wet dreams of us longtime Spidey fans a reality.