Spider-Man's Return to the Fox Line-up

Fox Kids' original Spider-Man series rejoins the network's lineup this Saturday, May 26, at 10 a.m. (ET) with the episode "Mutant Agenda," featuring Marvel's mutant heroes.

"Mutant Agenda" was part of the "Neogenic Nightmare" story arc during the second season of Spider-Man, which ran from 1993 to 1999. In the episode, Spider-Man's neogenic mutation makes him so ill he seeks the aid of Charles Xavier, who is known to help mutants. But Xavier has no "cure" for Spider-Man's condition, which ultimately will transform him into the Man-Spider.

A frustrated wall-crawler bolts, and the Beast pursues; he tells Spider-Man about Harold Landon and his mutant research. But Landon captures the Beast, and Wolverine tracks him down.

The episode is based on a story by John Semper and comics writer J.M. DeMatteis, with a teleplay by Michael Edens.

"We're dealing with Spider-Man really meeting the X-Men for the first time," says Semper, who was story editor of the series. "The X-Men two-parter was by far one of our most expensive endeavors. We didn't shortchange anything. It's like (executive producer) Avi Arad told me: 'These are the family jewels.' We are not going to cut any corners."

All the voices from Fox Kids' X-Men series were used for the Spider-Man episode: Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Alyson Court as Jubilee, Alison Sealy Smith as Storm, Lenore Zann as Rogue, Norm Spencer as Cyclops, Chris Potter as Gambit, Catherine Disher as Jean Grey, Cedric Smith as Professor Xavier and George Buza as the Beast. While Spider-Man was recorded in Los Angeles, the X-Men voices were performed at Sounds Interchange in Toronto.

"Logistically, it was very difficult," Semper says. The story also features Hobgoblin, played by Mark Hamill. David Warner provides the voice of Landon. The Spider-Man creators had access to model sheets and artwork from the X-Men series to make sure the mutants looked true to their Fox Kids show. The big difference, though, was that Spider-Man was animated at TMS -- one of the best overseas animation houses -- so the X-Men have a slightly different feel.

"It looks like a movie; it holds up on a big screen that well," Semper says. "And we have this lush, 60-piece orchestration. It has amazingly great production values." "Mutant Agenda" also was told in the Spider-Man newspaper strip by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, and in a comic-book mini-series by Steven Grant and Scott Kolins. The animated episode credits Grant.

The episode premiered Sept. 29, 1995, on Fox Kids. The second part of the story, "Mutants' Revenge," likely will air Saturday, June 2.

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