I AM THE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN!
by Kroze Kresky, Media Editor, and Matt Sernaker, Managing Editor
Spider-Man returns to TV with a brand new animated series: Ultimate Spider-Man, premiering on April 1st during the Marvel Universe Animation Block on Disney XD! How does this new series stack up against the previous incarnations? Well…let’s just say that it is no Spectacular Spider-Man.
Taking place about a year after Peter has gotten his powers, this would give the writers the opportunity to skip all the need to explain everything that has happened in Peter’s life thus far and jump right into the action, RIGHT? Sadly no. The series believes that its audience has never seen nor heard of Spider-Man before, or knows anything about its world… therefore, every five minutes Peter stops everything to explain to the audience what is happening and why. The constant fourth wall breakage quickly gets old. Drake Bell sounds like he is trying to imitate Josh “Spectacular Spider-Man” Keaton’s take on the ol’ webhead but he cannot pull it off without just coming off as annoying. Half the episode goes into this weird over exaggerated cartoony style, while the rest is very anime like. The two styles conflict and don’t work together well at all in this writer’s opinion.
The biggest issue that this series has going against it, is that the entire episode was one big product placement. Sure, we all know cartoons are meant for kids, and meant to sell toys based on the show…but really? We have seen glimpses of upcoming episodes, and the entire thing just feels like a big cash grab. Tons of different costumes for Spider-Man, the new enhanced S.H.I.E.L.D. web shooter, the Spidey-Cycle (yes it shoots webs)…it is just too much. If it was integrated into the show with a bit more fluidity, that would be one thing, from what we have already seen, it’s too forced.
“You are only as good as your last piece of work” and in this case, Ultimate Spider-Man has yet to impress in the way that Spectacular Spider-Man did right off the bat. In a 20 minute pilot, Spectacular introduced enough well planned out plot lines to fill a season. The writing was smart, the animation was crisp and consistent, and the audience was treated with respect. With Ultimate Spider-Man, everything just feels so dumbed down that it hurts to watch. You might say, “it’s a cartoon for kids”, but let’s face it…we all know it really isn’t just for kids. The creative team has said that it has something for new viewers and fans a like…and that is true. Ultimate Spider-Man does have some fantastic moments, channeling Peter Parker and his unique style of humor…but there needs to be more of a balance, or it will just get very old, very fast.
Overall, the Ultimate Spider-Man pilot felt painful to watch and I grimaced at almost every single line that was trying to be funny. I hope that Part 2 fixes the problems listed above, but I am not holding out hope…
ComicsOnline gives Ultimate Spider-Man “Pilot” Part 1– 2 out of 5 Spider-Men.
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