Ranger

Tonight at 8pm ET. I'll be watching this. Anyone else?

Deftones

Tonight? it aired this morning already. 2 episodes. pretty good, although I don't like the idea of Spidey teaming up with others. Liked all the voice case (Steven Weber, J.K. Simmons, Chi McBride, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson). Spidey was a little whiny, but I liked all the side gags and stuff they used to explain things. I also enjoyed the Fury Files at the end, where it took a character and went through their powers/who they are, etc. Cool stuff.

PhantomStranger

Spider-Man's costume was perfect, the design did not pander to modern trends or cool Hollywood elements. It is straight from the classic 60's design with the pure red and blue colors. I still hate how Marvel injects Nick Fury into every multimedia production they handle. It has to be a mandate now when working on a Marvel show or movie, you have to include the Samuel Jackson version of Fury into everything. I am also not a huge fan of the younger Aunt May, that takes away too many classic Spidey story possibilities. I realize that is true to the Ultimate version of the character but that could have been tweaked.

kgrogers1979

Well, Sam Jackson's Nick Fury and SHIELD in general are a huge part of Ultimate Spider-man's life in the comic book, so it makes sense for them to be in the cartoon as well.

I'm not sure how a younger Aunt May takes away from possibilities other than she can't suffer from cliched heart attack #128. That's pretty much all Aunt May in 616 was ever good for. I like Ultimate May in the comic books a whole lot better because she is much more involved in Peter's life.

I wonder if Miles Morales will ever show up in the cartoon...

ytrez

What the hell was that?!

Ranger

I liked the voices and animation, but overall, I was disappointed. The pacing is just too fast / distracting for me.

kgrogers1979

I just watched the first two episodes on Disney's website. They were decent but nothing great. The Spectacular Spider-man series from a few years ago was much better.

This show has made some weird choices.

Iron Fist, Power Man, and White Tiger are all Daredevil's supporting cast, not Spider-man's. It actually makes me kind of wonder if this didn't initially start out as a Daredevil cartoon.

Nova is a cosmic level hero so throwing him in with the rest of the street level heroes is a bit odd.

Making them all teenagers is also really weird. Why not use actual teenage heroes that Spidey is friends with in the comic, like Human Torch and Iceman?

Spidey's first opponent(s) are the Frightful Four? Seriously? That's a Fantastic Four enemy. Why not use a classic Spidey enemy in the pilot episodes, it would make much more sense.

Stan Lee as the school's janitor was a neat cameo. Although I wonder if he will be a regular since he was in both episodes.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly care for it either.

Thrush

Precisely what I was thinking when I saw Aunt May doing the Cabbage Patch and singing "its your birthday".

Its trying really hard to be funny but failing miserably.

kgrogers1979

That's the way Ultimate Aunt May is in the comics. She's much younger and more "hip" than the main universe Aunt May. Ultimate May is 45-50 years old while main May is 70-80 years old.

Ultimate May was young in the 1960s and 70s, so she and Ben literally were hippies. Ben was even still sporting a ponytail in his "old age." May is like the typical parent who tries to act cool and hip around her kids, but more often than not fails with outdated references to when she was a kid herself.

The main universe May is more like a grandmother in comparison. Considering Peter was 15 years old in the original comics and Ben is the brother of Peter's dad, Ben and May were actually too old. If Ben and May were ~70 when Peter was 15, that means Peter was born when his parents were in their 50s.

In my opinion, Ultimate May is a much better character. At least she is more like an actual aunt and not a grandmother whose only purpose is to have another heart attack to add tension to the comics. (Seriously, Aunt May having yet another heart attack was becoming a running gag even while Stan Lee was still writing the comics.)

boredsilly

Not that Ultimate Spider-man can't grow into something great, but the bar has been set ridiculously high when it comes to super hero animation. You have the classic Bruce Timm stuff that has been the measuring stick for however long, but now we're knee deep in a modern renaissance of action/adventure cartoons. Young Justice, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Thundercats spring to mind. Not to mention the last Spidey cartoon, The Spectacular Spider-man that you mentioned, was fantastic. Ultimate Spidey just felt less than and corny to me.

Deftones

FWIW, Paul Dini, who has been involved in quite a bit of the classic DC stuff, is involved in this.

celmendo

I was disappointed too. It seemed like it was geared way more for the 10yr old crowd and more like (correction) Teen Titans. Nothing wrong with that but compared to Young Justice and even the new Green Lantern, that I'm still on the fence about, it was not great. I'm gonna give it a real chance but...meh.

resinrats

They should have had Iceman and Firestar to pretty much have Spiderman & his Amazing Frinds over. They could probably mine the fact that Firestar is a redhead just like Mary Jane for some subplots.

I always just assumed that Peter's dad and Ben had a huge age gap between them. Maybe Ben was amost out of High School when Peter's dad was born. May might have been older then Ben also.

whotony

Power Mand and Iron Fist aren't connected to anyone in the Marvel Verse not even Daredevil.
They may be in his books but they have been a seperate entity.

I like the new show. Not big on these other heroes being teenagers too.

kgrogers1979

Iron Fist and Power Man are the "Heroes For Hire" in the comics and yes have had their own comic series a few times. While its true they aren't completely supporting cast characters like this cartoon shows, in the comics they were much more Daredevil support than Spider-man support. They have only ever teamed up with Spidey a few times, but they frequently are seen with Daredevil. Especially in the Bendis and Brubaker Daredevil runs during the late 90s through late 2000s, they were guest stars in Daredevil in practically every other storyarc. Iron Fist even put on Daredevil's suit and became Daredevil while Matt Murdock was in prison at the beginning of Brubaker's run.


In the Ultimate universe, its Human Torch and Iceman that serve as the "amazing friends." Also sometimes Kitty Pryde since she and Peter dated for awhile in the Ultimate universe. Johnny and Bobby even moved into May's house after the whole Ultimatum event.

So really this cartoon should have had Human Torch, Iceman, and Kitty as the supporting cast. Not Iron Fist, Power Man, and White Tiger.

PhantomStranger

I did get the impression the show is targeting the young teen audience. It is not as sophisticated as something like Young Justice.

boredsilly

I would say pre-teen, because Young Justice is sophisticated (for something on cartoon network) that feels like a show for smart 12 year olds that adults can enjoy as well. Spidey feels more like it's aimed at the 8 to 10 yr old set. That's cool, it just doesn't have that same all ages appeal. It's not complex enough to be satisfying to my adult sensibilities, nor charming enough (like Batman: Brave and the Bold).

ardathbey

Did this airing on Disney XD not tip folks off that it might be aimed at the younger kids?