Note: the following review may contain some mild spoilers.
Ultimate Spider-Man: "Great Power" & "Great Responsibility"
Rating:
Starring:
Drake Bell
Chi McBride
Tom Kenny
Clark Gregg
JK Simmons
Tara Strong
Matt Lanter
Stan Lee
Plot Summary:
Episode 1, "Great Power": After being Spider-Man for one year, a teenaged Peter Parker is confronted by Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who asks him if he'd like to train and become the Ultimate Spider-Man and join a team of superheroes that is being assembled. At first declining the offer, Peter soon realizes that he may need Fury's team of heroes to help fight the threats he faces when the Frightful Four (consisting of Wizard, Thundra, and Klaw) attacks Midtown High on Doctor Octopus and Norman Osborn's orders after Spider-Man defeats Frightful Four member Trapster.
Episode 2, "Great Responsibility": Spider-Man accepts Nick Fury's offer to become the Ultimate Spider-Man and meets his new allies of young heroes consisting of Nova, White Tiger, Power Man and Iron Fist. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn orders Doctor Octopus to send the Frightful Four to target Spider-Man. Spider-Man ends up having to get help from his new allies to fight off the Frightful Four.
A couple years ago, many fans were disappointed to hear the news that the animated series
The Spectacular Spider-Man was canceled in favor of a new Spider-Man series for Disney XD. While not perfect,
Spectacular was a great show, arguably the best Spidey show since the 90s series. At the same time, however, I was very interested in seeing how the
Ultimate Spider-Man series would fare (especially after hearing that Paul Dini would be involved). My excitement went down a bit after seeing the promos, which suggested that the show will be aimed at a younger audience. But after seeing the first two episodes yesterday, I can say that this will be a show that I’ll be watching.
First off, the animation is really good. The style and character designs are much better than in
Spectacular Spider-Man (and maybe even the 90s show), the overall feel of the production doesn‘t feel cheap at all. You can easily tell from the animation that it’s a Disney show. The style is also very different from that of fellow Marvel series
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes; that and other things strongly suggest that the two shows are not in the same universe.
The voice cast is good too. I was very hesitant about Drake Bell voicing Spider-Man, but he does a rather decent job (despite his voice not exactly what comes to mind when I think of Spidey). It’s always great to hear/see J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and introducing guest character Stan The Janitor (voiced by Stan “The Man” Lee) is an excellent move comic relief-wise. Matt Lanter is good as Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson and Klaw; Steven Weber was good as Norman Osborn, while Tara Strong was pretty good as Mary Jane Watson. Everyone else (from Chi McBride as Nick Fury to Tom Kenny as Curt Connors, Wizard and Doc Ock) all turned in solid performances as well. I’m glad they brought SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson (previously seen in most of Marvel Studios’ films) into the series, even having Clark Gregg reprising the role.
The storytelling was rather good too. While definitely less mature and campier than previous Spider-Man shows,
Ultimate Spider-Man is still good for what it is. A lot of the jokes/puns are actually funny (
“I’m off to see the Wizard!”), while others are quite corny (
“What is this, Shoot Spider-Man and win a Panda?!”). The chemistry between all the characters work well enough.
Concerning flaws, the first two episodes of
Ultimate Spider-Man definitely have quite a few (including the aforementioned flaws). The more campy tone gets rather cheesy at times, particularly in instances such as Aunt May beating Peter at a video game and the cliché devil and angel on Spidey’s shoulders scene. While most of the campiness is rather tolerable (it‘s not as cheesy as say,
Batman: The Brave & The Bold), I would personally prefer a more serious tone (I think the 90s Animated Series nailed the balance of serious and fun). Also, I’m not a fan of changing Luke Ca - er, Power Man, Iron Fist and Nova into teenagers. Spider-Man teaming up with fellow superheroes his age sounds intriguing, but making well-known adult heroes younger is just wrong. I could tell that the show is being aimed at a Disney audience, and even though it’s on Disney XD, it could be more like
Avengers: EMH (which isn’t very campy at all).
Complaints aside, I found
Ultimate Spider-Man’s premiere to be quite fun. The episodes are well-paced, the characters are interesting, and the animation is some of the best in a hand-drawn series that I’ve seen in a while. I’m looking forward to seeing more episodes in the future, and hopefully (if the rest of the season stays this fun) it’ll be renewed for another season or two in the near future. If you’re a fan of Spider-Man and shows that aren’t too serious in tone, I definitely recommend checking this show out.