J. Jonah Jameson In Animation: A Retrospective

https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/j-jonah-jameson-in-animation-a-retrospective.5792791/post-87822149

Jameson would feature very heavily in the first season, which had the tightest scripts and didn’t suffer with the pacing/editing issues of later seasons. It’s worth adding that this season is utterly gorgeous to look at, with TMS doing lush animation here. Even with the tight censorship that was inflicted on the show, it was staged well enough, animated superbly and directed creatively enough to help mask all of these issues… this would not be the case in later seasons, but season one of Spider-Man: The Animated Series stands up as one of the best superhero shows of any era.

Jameson’s character model looks as one would expect it to, but slightly dressed up from the comic books, as he is of course, now a television presenter. The true highlight of this version of the character comes from its casting, as Jameson is portrayed by the late, great Ed Asner. Utterly superb in every situation, Asner has the wit, (occasional) empathy and most importantly, the fire and rage that Jonah needed. He gets great lines throughout the shows 65 episode run as Asner never failed to deliver them. Asner also had tremendous chemistry with Rodney Saulsberry’s Robbie Robertson and the lead in Chris Barne’s Parker/Spider-Man. His traditional secretary Betty Brant is missing from the series but Glory Grant appears on a handful of occasions throughout the series. Asner had a long, treasured career in Hollywood and was widely recognised as one of the legitimate all time greats of the big and small screen. While I am naturally biased, I personally like this role as his finest voiceover work, but he was also critically appalled for his work as Hudson on Gargoyles, Ronald Daggot on Batman: The Animated Series, and curiously, but undoubtedly darkly delightful as Granny Goodness in the DCAU shows Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited. Asner was a true class act for entire generations of viewers and will be terribly missed. He truly was one of the greats… not enough can be said for how class an act Ed Asner was.

Back to Jonah, in a more interesting twist than his comic book counterpart, Jameson actually has a reason for hating Spider-Man beyond the once referenced jealousy. He funds the experiment that turns Mac Gargan into the Scorpion, hoping to create a superhero who could defeat Spider-Man. Naturally this goes belly up and when Scorpion begins tearing apart the city to find radiation to reverse his mutation, he reveals to Robbie that years ago, he was blackmailed by a crime boss to drop a crime story. The boss refused and sent a masked assassin to kill his wife, Julia. Since then, he has harbored a deep hatred for those who wear masks and think themselves above the law. I appreciated this touch, I thought it added a deeper layer to Jameson’s character not found in other versions.

Later episodes in this season see Jameson and Spider-Man tied together with a bomb (which is sadly underutilised) for their part in the apparent murder of Spencer Smythe, as his son Alistair hatches a revenge scheme against those he feels responsible for his Father’s death. The Spider Slayers storyline did a tremendous job of introducing and developing multiple characters with Jameson being a key figure in it all. It’s he who hires Parker to act as the photographer for the Charity ball he is hosting, which Felicia Hardy and her Mother are sponsoring (look for an amusing line in which Jonah feels his very soul being crushed as he introduces Parker as his ‘very best’ photographer). The episode also sees Brock attempt to unmask Spider-Man on National TV to repay a debt Norman Osborn owes to Wilson Fisk, friends of Jonah who would go onto become big time Spidey villains. Jameson gets one of the shows funniest lines in Part One, after Brock has unmasked a cosplaying Flash Thompson on Jameson’s network and nearly got him killed by a Spider Slayer

“The other networks are laughing at me Brock, even Fox! Can you imagine the humiliation?!”

Bigger things occur in the superlative The Alien Costume storyline, which sees Spider-Man framed for stealing Promethean X and when his son is injured in the shuttle crash, he offers a $1 Million reward for Spider-Man’s capture. I was further impressed with the added wrinkle that when his star reporter Eddie Brock reveals he withheld The Rhino’s involvement in the theft, he immediately dismisses him, not letting his hated for Spider-Man get in the way of his duties as a reporter;

“I can’t have someone who works for me, colouring the truth and leaving out facts! It’s against everything I stand for! You’re history Brock! Outta here! Fired!”