It's been about a year and a half since the confirmed demise of the much beloved Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, and since the news of its successor Ultimate Spider-Man was made public, but to an insanely hardcore Marvel Animation fan like myself, it's seemed more like an eternity. It's felt even longer when Marvel has only managed to release the barest of information. Still, I've been pretty excited to see how the new animated series will turn out.
Marking the fourth collaborative effort between Marvel and Film Roman (X-Men Evolution, The Super Hero Squad Show and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes preceded it), the new series is set to debut on Disney XD sometime in the upcoming year. It's been hard to tell how closely tied this will be to Brian Bendis' comic series but it's cool to see that it will definitely feature characters like Mary Jane, Nick Fury and Norman Osborn, who all had very important roles to play in that series.
Due to the show's apparent emphasis on team-ups, some online fans have expressed hesitation about the show's premise (who would have expected to see people complain about something on the internet ?). I can't say that I've had any problems with this myself. In fact, it seems pretty awesome. It's been practically a lifetime since we've seen the web-slinger interact with the wider Marvel universe in anything animated and I'd say we're about due for some really well done crossovers. How insane is it that we've never even had any good animated interactions between Spidey and the Human Torch in the numerous animated series of the the past 40 plus years ?
Besides being looked down on by some as "the show that killed Spectacular Spider-Man", another common criticism of the upcoming show's premise has been that it's "too similar to Young Justice and Teen Titans". I prefer to think of it in comparison to another show from Marvel's own catalog, the 80s fan favorite Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. As cheesy as it can seem while viewing it without rose colored glasses, it can't be denied that Amazing Friends was able to accomplish quite a bit as a gateway for kids to Marvel Comics. It was practically the first series to really introduce young viewers to the various characters ( X-Men, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, etc), locales ( Savage Land, Xavier's Mansion, Asgard, etc) and themes of the Marvel Universe while doing it's best to bring the tone and feel of those comics to life in a way that kids would enjoy. If they're able to do as much for the current generation of potential fans with the upcoming show, and introduce even more of the Marvel U that's been fairly unexplored by the mainstream, then I think that would be worth justifying the series' existence by itself.
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