Spider-Man: The Animated Series Producer Talks About the Venom Saga

Following up on yesterday’s release of Spider-Man: The Animated Series costume designs, John Semper Jr., Producer and Head Writer for Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994 to 1998), took some time out to talk specifically about Venom.

The fan-favorite Spider-villain and antihero played a major role in the series, and was the subject of one of the direct-to-DVD feature-length animations released from the show.

You can see the entry below, and below that we’ve copied both the gallery and the caption from the original post (broken up for clarity).

The most popular characters in the Spider-Man comics in the early nineties were VENOM and CARNAGE, so we knew that fans were expecting them to appear on “SPIDER-MAN:THE ANIMATED SERIES.”

I had originally intended to start off with Venom in the pilot episode, but it was ultimately decided that we should build up to his appearance. That’s when I came up with the idea of creating a rivalry between Eddie Brock and Peter Parker in the first few episodes leading up to Venom’s creation.

By what I can only assume was sheer luck of the draw, the episode that introduced the alien symbiote, Part One of the Venom Saga, was animated by one of the best units at Tokyo Movie Shinsha, the overseas studio that did all of our animation. Consequently, it had elaborate, feature-film-quality animation.

The Venom Saga was originally conceived as two parts. Part One (arrival of the symbiote) and what eventually became Part Three (creation of Venom) were written first. I argued that we really needed to do the middle “black Spider-Man suit” part of the story because the fans were clamoring for it. I won that argument, and I was allowed to move forward with a new episode featuring the black suit which we inserted between the two parts that had already been written. I think that if you join all three episodes together, it makes a really exciting 66-minute animated movie, especially with the first part looking so good.

When writing Venom’s character, it was always hard to remember that he never spoke in the singular. He only spoke in the plural. The first thing I noticed in that flawed “Spider-Man Unlimited” series that followed ours was that they had Venom and Carnage in the first episode, and both were speaking in the singular. That’s how I knew right away that the writers of that short-lived series hadn’t done their homework. (And let me state for the record, that my series and that “Unlimited” series are NOT connected in any way, shape or form).

If you’re not already following John Semper’s page, do so by clicking here. No fan of the Spider-Man Animated Series can miss out on some of the great behind the scenes tidbits he’s posting.

So ComicBook.com readers, what was your favorite part of this show? Let us know below!