I've been watching random episodes of Ultimate Spider-man recently, and I can't say for sure that I love or hate it. So consider this a somewhat honest review of the show coming from a fairly non-spidey fan.
The show basically tries to balance between Spider-man's serious, 'with great power comes great responsibility' and wackier sides in his heroics; or so it seems, considering there are points throughout where the dichotomy simply collapses, as the picture would suggest. Apparently, SHIELD's been busy in the show, with Nick Fury being reduced to the babysitter of all superheroes under the age of twenty. Not only is Spider-man acting as one of the agency's many operatives, so are Luke Cage aka Power Man, Danny Rand aka Iron Fist and Ava Ayala aka White Tiger, Sam Alexander, aka Nova, and yes, all three went to the same school as Peter Parker, aka Spider-man, which I'm sure you already know. Not sure whether they named their little super-powered team, though.
All five superheroes getting a teenage redesign, facing usual teen issues, school, friends, beating up supervillains almost on a daily basis. 'Fury's lapdogs' isn't the right phrase, though it's the first that comes to mind. From the few episodes that I've had the chance to watch, there are a few things I like, such as the fact that the show introduces characters rarely seen on the screen, let alone on the same one as Spider-man, namely Taskmaster (whom I totally adore, handing both Spidey and White Tiger their own butts once, and whoever voice-acted him must be totally sexy in real-life... did I say that out loud?), Nightmare (not so much) and Batroc the Leaper (Eh).
What I hate about the show is that the show would tend to go overboard, weighing more on utter wackiness to the point of being extremely infantile, and not in a side-splitting manner. I can't quite bear with the regular fourth-wall breaking, which I have always attributed to be a thing of Deadpool's...
What I hate about the show is that the show would tend to go overboard, weighing more on utter wackiness to the point of being extremely infantile, and not in a side-splitting manner. I can't quite bear with the regular fourth-wall breaking, which I have always attributed to be a thing of Deadpool's...
...not that Spidey's not entirely good at it, every fourth-wall breaking moment in the show simply seems dramatized, hence my using the word 'infantile'. 'Course, that's what being a teenager's all about: adding drama to just about everything.
I'll be watching Ultimate Spidey maybe till the end of the season as an alternative for entertainment since the unjust cancellation of The Avengers: EMH, looking forward only to any future team-ups with Spider-man and future confrontations with Taskmaster, who I agree with Deadpool should seriously consider a name change. Speaking of which, a question to the producers : was the design of Doctor Strange supposed to be a homage to Criss Angel, or was the resemblance simply coincidental? Oh, and what exactly was the reason behind the lack of wrinkles on two specific seniors in the show? 'Cause Aunt May looks like Martha Stewart with hair dyed white. The Dr Animaux look given to Doc Ock? Yeah, saw what you did there.
Sorry if it ended a bit... rant-y.
I'll be watching Ultimate Spidey maybe till the end of the season as an alternative for entertainment since the unjust cancellation of The Avengers: EMH, looking forward only to any future team-ups with Spider-man and future confrontations with Taskmaster, who I agree with Deadpool should seriously consider a name change. Speaking of which, a question to the producers : was the design of Doctor Strange supposed to be a homage to Criss Angel, or was the resemblance simply coincidental? Oh, and what exactly was the reason behind the lack of wrinkles on two specific seniors in the show? 'Cause Aunt May looks like Martha Stewart with hair dyed white. The Dr Animaux look given to Doc Ock? Yeah, saw what you did there.
Sorry if it ended a bit... rant-y.