As Peter is leaving the house, he overhears Aunt May tell a friend that their financial situation is not good. Peter wants to be able to help out, but he's not sure what to do.

Peter puts his worries about money aside once he gets to school. He's determined to change his geeky image. First up, he decides to ask a beautiful and popular girl out on a date. When she shoots him down publicly, Peter realizes that developing that new image isn't going to be as easy as he hoped.

One good thing does pop up at school. Peter and his gal pal, Gwen (Chabert), are offered science internships working in a lab. At first Peter believes the work might help him pay the bills, but he quickly learns it's a nonpaying gig. As he's fretting over how to help out at home, inspiration literally strikes, and Peter is off to see whether he can break into photojournalism by way of taking pictures of himself as Spider-Man. Nothing goes quite as planned.

In fact, while Peter's at his best friend Harry Osborn's house they witness Harry's father, Norman, get abducted by a winged super-weirdo called the Vulture (Englund). As Harry (Taylor) runs off to call the police, Peter leaps into action as Spider-Man. But battling the Vulture isn't as easy as taking care of the city's crooks. Especially since Spidey also has some rough fellows called the Enforcers on his tail. It all adds up to one strange, long day for both Spider-Man and Peter Parker.

A fresh direction for Spidey

Yep, Spidey's back, and he's only 16 in The Spectacular Spider-Man, a new animated series that premieres on Kids' WB! on The CW. The enduring superhero, who found a new generation of fans thanks to the Tobey Maguire live-action films, gets a chance to go back to his roots and embrace an energetic and innocent time before Spider-Man ended up with the weight of the world on his shoulders. It's a clever place to set this series.

While the animation is drawn simply, it's serviceable, and the lack of detail allows the characters to move quickly through the scenes. This Spider-Man moves very much like the Spider-Man in the live-action films, giving the action a genuine feel.

As for the story, the pilot episode, "Survival of the Fittest," brings us into Peter Parker's world while nicely introducing the characters. Peter's enthusiastic acceptance of his powers instantly takes us away from previous Spider-Man incarnations. And while this is a younger, happier Spider-Man, we still have the patented clever quips that make Spidey such an entertaining superhero to watch.

Experienced voice-over actor and musician Josh Keaton provides the voice of Peter Parker, leading the way for an exceptional voice cast. Lacey Chabert voices Gwen, James Arnold Taylor is Harry, and Robert Englund is guest supervillain Vulture. Other voice actors who will pop up on the series include L.A. Law's Alan Rachins as Norman Osborn, NUMB3RS' Peter MacNicol as Doc Ock, Highlander's Clancy Brown as George Stacy/Rhino and well-known voice-over actor Crisin Freeman as Electro. Even Battlestar Galatica's sexy Number Six, Tricia Helfer, will guest-star later this season.

According to director Vic Cook, viewers will want to watch this first episode carefully because it sets up many of the supervillains to come. There's also the promise that, while each episode will have an enclosed story, there will be ongoing story arcs that will run at least three episodes each. The series will open with back-to-back episodes for the premiere and then run for 12 consecutive weeks. It all adds up to a fresh new take on our most beloved superhero.