Ultimate Spider-Man

Overview

Animated adaptation of the Marvel comic series created by Brian Michael Bendis. The story will follow a teenage Peter Parker as he deals with his newfound abilities, his parents' legacy, and supervillains arriving in New York. It will also feature other heroes like the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and The Avengers.

Synopsis

Peter Parker has been fighting crime as Spider-Man for one year, he's saved lives and fought supervillains but is still learning how to be a hero and how to get respect from the superhero community. He is offered a chance to become a better hero by Nick Fury and become the "Ultimate Spider-Man'. However before he can star training, he msut learn to deal with a team of fellow teenage heroes.

Production

Brian Micahel Bendis, the creator of the Ultimate Spider-Man comics and Paul Dini, the writer for Batman: The Animated Series are serving as writers and producers for the show. The group Man of Action, the creators of Ben 10 will also write and serve as Supervising Producers. A total of 26 episodes for Season One have been ordered. Paul Dini stated the series is going to feature " a redefined Peter Parker". He also said the show will feature Spider-Man guest starring with other heroes and that it will be partially based on Bendis' comic and the rest will be original material. Actor J.K. Simmons confirmed he would be reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Spider-Man will also team up with The Avengers, with most of the cast from Earth's Mightiest Heroes reprising their roles except Eric Loomis as Iron Man. Iron Man will be voiced by Adrian Pasdar instead.

Ultimate Spider-man takes a very light-hearted and kid-oriented approach to the material, with the intended audience being boys from the ages of 5-12.

The plan was for Ultimate Spider-man to tie into the success of the Avengers shows (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the Avengers universe). For example, Agent Phil Coulson was a regular character on Ultimate Spider-man; that character first appeared in the movie Iron Man (in 2008), and only showed up in comics in 2010. Ultimate Spider-man was followed by the show Hulk and the Agents of Smash, which was similar in tone and in the same continuity. Ultimate Spider-man was very poorly received by fans, who felt it was meant only for small children, it maintained decent ratings, though, and got significantly more viewers than its predecessor, The Spectacular Spider-man (though many from a different demographic). The plan was for Ultimate Spider-man to be a lead in to a new Avengers show meant to replace Earth's Mightiest Heroes, called Avengers Assemble. However, after the fan outcry over Ultimate Spider-man, Marvel decided to distance Avengers Assemble from Ultimate Spider-man.

Future and Marvel's Concern

The second season of Ultimate Spider-man was ordered by the network before the first season's first episode debuted.

Marvel, which has a very heavy hand in the show, is uncertain of the prospect of a third season. On the one hand, the show accomplished the objective of getting significantly more viewers than its predecessor, The Spectacular Spider-man. Also, it got children more interested in the Avengers. However, most comic fans hated the show and its very kid-oriented approach. Therefore, Marvel fears they might have lost viewers. Marvel wants to appeal to older fans with Avengers Assemble. That show was supposed to be in the same universe as Ultimate Spider-man, but Marvel decided this was a mistake. Marvel is concerned that by having Ultimate Spider-man, and its companion piece Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., out there, it will drive off older fans and hurt the ratings of Avengers Assemble. They also would like to get more older viewers by rebooting the show. That said, Ultimate Spider-man's younger audience does bring good ratings, and Marvel does not want to lose that following. The network does not want the show cancelled, but they do not have complete control over that matter.