If the Spectacular Spider-Man continued...

If anything, the Clone Saga would benefit from the same meta that the Goblin's identity did - we'd have no idea whether Warren himself was the mastermind, or Doctor Octopus, or Norman Osborn.

If they weren't going to go down the Clone Saga road, then why introduce Miles Warren as such a major character? Why Miles Warren specifically? There are plenty of "evil scientist" figures it could have been.

Cletus Kasady was a minor, hilarious cameo. He never has to be Carnage, because he's just a quick reference for the fans. They can go either way on that, if they ever decided on a way to portray Carnage or if they didn't. But Miles Warren has a huge, steadily increasing antagonistic role. They wouldn't have used him if they weren't going for full Jackal hijinx in their endgame.

edited 11th Jul '13 8:46:05 AM by TobiasDrake

Yeah, I definitely think some kind of Clone Saga might have happened given the foreshadowing with Warren. Also think Warren might have ended up mutated into the Jackal, as a sort of Hoist by His Own Petard thing.

I know Weisman had said Silver Sable would due a Heel–Face Turn if the series continued. Maybe she and Sandman (and Molten Man?) would end up on the same side as a "heroes for hire" kind of thing?

One other thought- toward the end of the show, Venom had tried to expose Peter as Spider-Man, and while it was sort of prevented from working, I'd figure the villains would definitely be more interested from that point onward in attacking Peter as a way of getting to Spider-Man.

So, you might find some of those plots happening wherein Mysterio or the Chameleon impersonated Peter or otherwise messed with his life (didn't one of them pose as a psychologist/Mind Rape Spider-Man in a way similar to that one BTAS episode?).

edited 14th Jul '13 5:00:55 PM by Hodor

I have a feeling we wouldn't have seen much of the first two seasons' villains in future episodes. It seemed that most of their stories were pretty tied up, even though Chameleon and Mysterio were still at large - one more appearance from each, I would estimate.

Hence, the foreshadowing laid out for Jackal, Hobgoblin, Scorpion, and Carnage would probably have provided the main action of the rest of the series (as those are all, with the possible exception of Scorpion, major villains in the canon). There might have also been an additional Big Man twist with Foswell to fill out the run - too many moments around Foswell and Tombstone pointed to a The Dog Was the Mastermind reveal around them.

Hmmm... but if Foswell was the actual Big Man, why would he report on so many of their activities?

If the show had gone on, I would have liked to see more well-executed twists with canon. I would have loved an episode or two of 'Gwen Stacy as Carnage', or something that in retrospect makes sense but comes as a complete surprise.

I know that due to rights issues these ideas never could have happened, but seeing Liz as Firestar would have been cool, or Ben Urich being a reporter.

As for extremely plausible future story ideas- if Scorpion happened, I could see Jameson on trial/being questioned for the creation of Scorpion. Jameson doesn't seem to have the immunity he does in most canons for doing such things, and it would have been interesting to see played out. Maybe Mr. Robertson having to head the Bugle for a bit, perhaps dealing with blackmail or something of the like.

Greg has clarified on Ask Greg (I think?) that Foswell was NEVER the Big Man, just a temporary Red Herring prior to Tombstone's reveal and had his own role as Patch.

As far as returning villains go, judging from the Radio Play, we would have seen (spoilers for the Radio Play) Lizard and Kraven return in a Spring Break arc in Florida. Not to mention a plotline involving a "fake" Green Goblin running around and Norman's last message to Harry that probably would have tied in to Hobgoblin.

I also thought that Hydro-Man would have showed up quickly in season three, considering he got a meaty cameo and a voice actor.

Yeah, both Tombstone and Foswell referring to The Big Man in the third person, as if unconnected to Lincoln, threw me. Maybe they could've done a focus episode of Foswell that showed he used to be a major crime boss before making a Heel–Face Turn, kind of like what they did with him in the comics.

Man, so many of Peter's classmates had interesting possible futures. Molten Man having his Heel–Face Turn. Hobie becoming the Prowler. It might've been interesting to see Sally get some character development and/or maybe don the Bluebird costume for kicks (though without the fatal results, of course). They could have even brought in the Legion of Light for Sha Shan.

I too thought it would be an interesting twist on the "Gwen dies" thing if they had instead had Gwen be taken over by Carnage for a while or something.

Weisman had a real knack with writing those characters and making the viewer really interested in seeing what happens to them, and he really made the Destined Bystander element of Spider Man come alive in a way I don't think any other adaptation has. Every time he introduced a new character, I couldn't wait to see what would become of them, if anything.

edited 14th Jul '13 7:12:38 PM by KnownUnknown

I loved how the show could make situations where there is no one right answer and nobody is clearly right/correct (the Harry/Gwen/Peter thing at the finale sticking out in my mind), and would have loved to show those gray situations a bit more (although not all the time; but a decent representation is always great to watch).

Also, Calypso coming back. She was more of a supporting role villain, barely there, but it would have been interesting to see how Spidey dealt with actual magic, and the implications of that.

Also, Morbius. (Man I love how Spidey history in and of itself is so rich)

...I thought Harry's manipulations were pretty flat-out evil.

Re: Foswell, my guess was that he might have been reporting crime in order to undermine his rivals.

Another villain - Smythe! The series' penchant for three-episode arcs would have worked fantastically with a Spider-Slayer arc (one robot Spider-Slayer, Smythe either in armor or with genetic enhancements, and Scorpion).

Foswell reporting on the Big Man's operations keeps another reporter from being assigned to do it, allowing him to control the flow of information. At the same time, Foswell humiliating himself with the story makes a joke out of the Big Man rumor, discouraging other papers from doing the same.

Foswell himself takes a fall with his reputation, but it allows him to very effectively conceal the existence of the Big Man by actually reporting on it and doing it poorly.

edited 15th Jul '13 12:57:45 PM by TobiasDrake

But again, Word of God flat out states that Foswell is not the Big Man and is not a villain period. Out of all the possible future villains, story lines, and twists, Foswell isn't one of them.

That reminds me: how was Sin-Eater going to work in the show if Eddie already became Venom and is independent from him?

@Dr Evil Bolty- Not denying that Harry manipulating Gwen was not right. But nobody in that situation was in the right- Gwen dated Harry to make Peter jealous (every time she makes a big romantic move with Harry, she glances at Peter and Liz first before deciding to go through with it), Peter tried to kiss his best friend's girlfriend right after said best friend confessed to having a bunch of issues. Most people, in Harry's position, would have punched or had a fight with their best friend.

Sin Eater is associated with Venom? Hmm, never thought that was the case. But it did seem like Stan would have a story with him, based on Carter and De Wolfe's banter.

According to Wikipedia:

Ah. But seeing as they didn't go that route for Venom, it's unlikely that part of the story would come up. And it's not a connection that is direct enough to ever really need to be adapted.

So... who do you think Sin Eater would have gone after?

Wasn't the cop who becomes Sin-Eater making some sinister remarks that Spider-Man doesn't go far enough in his pursuit of criminals? So, I imagine he'd start by going after the criminals himself, in a lethal fashion, and it would eventually result in him killing his partner.

Somehow I doubt he would go after De Wolfe on purpose. I can see him working his way up from two-bit criminals to those imprisoned, then maybe De Wolfe or Captain Stacy catching on and it coming to blows.

Y'know watching certain scenes in this show after other scenes is really something special. Like, Uncertainty Principle isn't just more interesting because of the reveal, but lots of other stuff - like Jonah's anxiety (and later relief) about his son surviving being a lot more heartbreaking when you know what happens next.

And I was just watching the scene where "Norman" is at Oscorp and the Goblin attacks, and noticed that when he asks "what'd he steal," he emphasizes it as "what'd he steal" - as if there were another thief already stealing at the time...

I love little bits of delivery like that: it's something I liked about Alan Tudyk in Wreck It Ralph, too.

Also, I love how the narrative itself misdirects our suspicions towards Harry, even in little ways.

edited 31st Jul '13 2:53:45 PM by KnownUnknown

From what I've heard, Word of God said that eventually they would have introduced the Hobgoblin and Scorpion to Spider-Man's rouges gallery, which is why Roderick Kingsley and Mac Gargan cameoed. Separating Eddie from the Venom symbiote and sending him to the asylum, where Cletus Kasady cameoed, is obvious foreshadowing for the appearance of Carnage. And before you say "Carnage can't be done well in a kids show", the version seen in the Animated Series was actually quite popular despite not killing anyone.

A female comics villain, like Shriek, would have been nice. Besides Calypso (who was only evil in one episode of the 1990s cartoon) and pre-Heel–Face Turn Silver Sable, I think that all the supervillainesses in the various Spidey adaptations have been Canon Foreigners.

Hmm. If Spectacular continued, Greg could have pulled other villains/villainesses in, and although he defaulted to the Lee/Ditko era, he showed interest in Mr. Negative and he could have brought in Bombshell from Ultimate comics.

And although it would have been extremely unlikely, I would have liked a Carnage!Gwen episode.

I always figured a Carnage! Gwen arc would have been a great way to pull off the "something horrible happens to Gwen" bit that everyone was expecting without her actually dying. Like, have her be lost to the Carnage symbiote (which would be even worse for the psyche than the Venom symbiote) for the length of an entire arc or something - they could pull another fakeout (but this time be genuine about it) between Cassidy and Gwen, too.

Heck, a Carnage!Gwen arc could even have a touching Peter/Gwen moment for them to finally get together in a touching display, and huge character development from a lot of the supporting cast, and be a possible lead in to a clone saga story.

...Damn it, there needs to be a good fanfic of that happening.

If Spider Man Unlimited continued...

Huh? I never watched Unlimited, so I don't get that reference.

Did it get cancelled or something?