Spidey Interviews and Articles

SPIDEY WRITER IS SEMPER FI!

By Rob Allstetter

He's written or edited almost as many Spider-Man stories as anybody. And perhaps as many people have thrilled to his Spidey adventures as anyone else's.

Who are we talking about? Stan Lee? Gerry Conway? Roger Stern? Tom DeFalco?

Nope. Nope. Nope. And nope.

We're talking about John Semper, who has been the story editor and producer of the SPIDER-MAN animated series, which currently airs Monday-Thursday afternoons on Fox. The show, a mainstay on Fox since its Nov. 14, 1994 debut, has helped introduce Spidey to a new generation of fans and spawn numerous Spider-toys.

"The show has always been a hit," Semper says proudly.

One critical reason behind the show's success is that this animated version of Spider-Man was closer to the comic book than any previous versions.

"I've been a Spider-Man fan for years. He's my favorite comic-book character of all time," Semper says. "I watched the first series, and, as great fun as it was, I always wondered why they didn't do the comic-book stuff. I thought, 'In my show, we're going to do the comic-book stuff.'"

One of the highlights for Semper was the five-part "Six Forgotten Warriors" that he wrote for the final season. The story takes place in the present but features a series of flashbacks, as Spidey tracks down six World War II heroes -- including Captain America and The Whizzer -- to solve a web of intrigue that includes the Red Skull.

Semper spent a lot of time researching old Timely Comics (an earlier name for the company that is now known as Marvel) for the story. He noted that the episodes would work ideally packaged as a video movie release.

"You can have a five-parter that you can join thematically, but pacing wise they don't really work as a feature," Semper says. "This, however, was written top to bottom as a feature."

SPIDER-MAN featured a lot of guest-stars, including the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Punisher, Blade, Black Cat, Morbius, Daredevil, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Prowler, Madame Web and Captain America. The many villains included Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom, Vulture, Scorpion, Lizard, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin, Red Skull, Mysterio, Kraven, Venom, Carnage and the chief nemesis, the Kingpin.

But Semper says he never forgot who was the star.

"The comics stories were always about Peter, and then some character would come in at a pivotal time in Peter's life, causing grief and aggravation," he says. "That was what I wanted to do with the series."

The series' run of new episodes ended in late January with a two-parter under the "Spider-Wars" umbrella as Spidey finally found out what the ultimate mission Madame Web had been preparing him for was. The finale, "Farewell to Spider-Man," even had Spidey meeting his creator, an animated Stan Lee.

"The person who was the biggest supporter in so many ways was Stan Lee," Semper says. "I would not have been able to do the show without Stan Lee. Stan was the person who brought me on to the show. Stan also had the philosophy, that in terms of creative stuff, hire the best person to do the job and leave them alone."

Semper, who wrote two episodes of the second season of UPN's THE INCREDIBLE HULK, also praised his primary writing staff, which included Stan Berkowitz, Jim Krieg, Meg McLaughlin, Mark Hoffmeier and Sean Derek.

Even though production has wrapped on SPIDER-MAN after 65 episodes, the series continues to draw strong ratings on the Fox network and figures to have a long shelf life. Next fall, SPIDER-MAN moves to UPN, where it joins X-MEN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK & FRIENDS on Sunday mornings.

"I'm the happiest man in the world," Semper says. "I got to handle my favorite comic-book character."

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THE HOBGOBLIN/SKYWALKER CONNECTION

By Rob Allstetter

Don't believe anything you've read over the years. The real, true identity of the Hobgoblin can finally be revealed.

It's ... Mark Hamill?!?!?!

Actually, Hamill, forever linked as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, does the voice of Hobgoblin on Fox's SPIDER-MAN animated series, which moves back to Saturday mornings with SPIDER-MAN'S WEB FILES in June.

The show will also continue to air on weekdays. The Hobgoblin is one of three Marvel villains Hamill is voicing these days. The others are Gargoyle on UPN's THE INCREDIBLE HULK and Maximus on the syndicated FANTASTIC FOUR.

And there are many other animated characters that Hamill provides voices for, including Joker on Batman and Threshold in the upcoming Gen13 movie. Ironically, most of the characters Hamill portrays in animation are bad guys, a far cry from squeaky clean Luke Skywalker.

"You are completely liberated from how you look and that gives you a freedom you don't have in live-action, where people can see you," Hamill says. "People would never guess it's me in some of these roles."

Hamill says he has a lot of fun playing the pint-sized Gargoyle, who's always muttering about how he's mistreated by the Leader, who is voiced by Matt Frewer.

"I find something I like about him. In every character you do, you find something that resonates for you," Hamill says. "None of the villains I play think of themselves as villains. Even the Joker is this genius who is frustrated by the fact that no one recognizes his great genius.

"With Gargoyle, here is a brilliant, brilliant scientist who is trapped in a Quasimodo-like body. There's a poignancy there. It mirrors the story line of Bruce Banner being mutated."

Hamill is a long-time fan of comic books, well versed in the history of the genre. He recently wrote his own comic-book series, The Black Pearl, which he hopes to develop as a live-action movie.

"Anything in pop culture is exciting to me," Hamill says. "It's probably embarrassing if you knew how exciting it was for me to become an action figure. I don't want to let on because that's not cool. But I was like major thrilled (about the comic) -- just to work in a realm I love very much."

Hamill hopes to direct his Black Pearl movie -- and there will definitely be more voice animation work in his future. It's part of an eclectic career since he hung up his light sabre.

"There's nothing more invigorating and exciting to me than trying things that you've never tried before," Hamill says. "People don't really understand that. They want to know why you wouldn't rather be on a TV series about a detective with a talking dog."