The Spider-Man series is the latest animated show, It was created by Jeff Trammell who was a writer and story editor for the Cartoon Network show, Craig of the Creek. The first episode has the clever title, “Amazing Fantasy”, the first title that introduced Spider-Man in issue #15 (1962) by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The episode is directed by Mel Zwyer and written by Trammell. Zwyer directed episodes of Star Wars: Rebels. The animation is by Polygon Pictures who worked on Tron: Uprising, and CGCG, Inc., who provided animation for Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. We push into the neighborhood of Queens in the massive font like in the MCU. This however is apart from that universe, there was an earlier version called Spider-Man: Sophomore Season tied to the MCU.
The door is knocked for Peter’s room by Aunt May (Kari Wahlgren) and he wakes up with an Amazing Adult Fantasy comic on his face, #14 (1962), the issue before Spidey’s intro, clever! Wahlgren provided voices for characters in the What If…? Animated show. Peter is voiced by Hudson Thames who also voiced Spider-Man in the “What If… Zombies?!” (2021) episode in season one of that series. He reaches for his glasses and finds out that he is late for the Midtown High orientation! We get split screens like comic panels of Peter awkwardly getting ready. He has blue jacket, yellow shirt, and backpack. May has given him a bag of his oatmeal breakfast. Peter gives May a quick hug before stumbling down the street, but misses the subway. The designs are very clean and the animation is a bit herky jerky. Peter opens his backpack to reveal - the oatmeal.
May has pulled up to drive him to school, an Iron Man ornament hangs from her rearview mirror!, he mentions that she will be late for work. He has been trying to get into Midtown because of its robotics program, I hope it is not to build Spider-Bots, I wonder if this will tied into the Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure ride. May stops at Midtown High and Peter says May has always been there since the loss of Ben. She wipes away a tear and gives him a hug. There is some real humanity in this show. Peter Parker is not just about being a superhero. He steps out of the car and gives himself a pep talk. Then, looks to the sky as a portal has opened! The students and May all look at the swirling, green portal. Out of it slamming into the street is a black Symbiote demon like Venom with spider fangs. May pulls Peter away and the demon is about to attack a student! Then, mystic Eldritch Whips tie around it. This is from Doctor Strange, frosted hair, and mystic symbol on his chest like the comics.
Doctor Strange (Robin Atkin Downes) restrains the symbiote, Peter sees him as a “wizard guy”, and Strange realizes that they are in a different world. Downes provides various voices for What If…? The symbiote slams him down and then uses its spikes to drive Strange back with his Shield of the Seraphim. It rams through the entrance of the school. Strange struggles with the symbiote as we see a tiny spider descend from the portal! I love this origin!, not a radioactive spider, it could be anything from another dimension! Strange has the symbiote pressed against his shield and then twists the floor of the school. A kid starts to fall and he sends his Cloak of Levitation to save him! He opens a portal to send the symbiote slamming down to a garbage truck outside. Doctor Strange checks on the student. sends his cloak to look for others, and then leaps through the portal!
The symbiote throws the truck and Strange shifts into his astral form as it crashes into the school! He tries to use his magic on the damaged school, but the symbiote slams him back! His cloak wraps around him, but he is rammed across the football field. Peter and May see the destruction and the student we know is Nico Minoru runs targeted by the symbiote! In Symbiote Vision we see Nico has fallen and it heads towards her! Peter rushes to help, the symbiote grabs Nico by the neck, and then it struck by a brick thrown by Peter! This is the true hero even without super powers. It stomps towards Peter and then the Eldritch Whips again restrain it. Strange also six arms, like a spider?, to throw the whips! He flies it into the portal and closing it, snaps the tiny spider’s web line sending it falling! As Peter helps Nico (Grace Song) up and the spider lands on his collar!
Song is in the romantic comedy, Paper Marriage (2024). Nico has dark hair with blue tips, black clothes, and a purple locket. She first appeared in the Runaways #1 (2003) and had blood magic using the Staff of One. Nico notes she is also a freshman. We get a split screen of the two characters as they make introductions and then the spider bites Peter’s neck! He starts to sway, nice pov, and then collapses. May rushes over to Peter, Nico tries to explain, and the spider crawls into the backpack before Peter goes unconscious! This is the end of the first segment which ends with comic panel credits and the song from the classic 1967 cartoon! This goes into the “Neighbor Like Me” song by The Math Club. The style feels like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
We pick up “A Few Months Later”, May again wakes him up, but we find Peter was hanging upside down! So he is used to his spider powers, learning to use them is in the prelude comic book, so there is a jump from Peter becoming Spider-Man. I would have liked to see the first use of his spider powers, his first adventure, and building his spider suit. Peter still slips through the crowd, but then gets hit by a car! Still too late for the subway, but he goes to open his backpack, this opens to his spider mask! On a rootop, Peter puts on his spider suit, blue and white striped jersey, red kneepads and blue and red athletic leggings. He turns the valve for a tank connecting pipes to his webshooters. Maybe pressurized to send out the webs? He leaps off the roof to web swing across the city, this is a thrilling scene even with all of the movies and cartoons!
He almost thinks he can be on time for school when he hears a cry for help! Harry Osbourne (Zeno Robinson) with green jacket and striped shirt, is threatened by bullies. Robinson provided voices for Spidey and His Amazing Friends. He falls into the street with an approaching truck! Harry is saved by Spider-Man who takes him to an alley. The head bully has his two buddies and is ready to take on what he thinks is a Spider-Man pretender. Stevie Sherman takes a video of the beating. One takes up a brick to hit Spider-Man who kicks away the brick, then web swings it into the back of his head! A four panel shot of others cringing at the pain! The leader, a redhead with glasses, goes to fight Spidey, but he dodges all of his swings, clinging to walls.
Five+ Webshooters out of Five!
#YourFriendlyNeighborhoodSpiderMan, #AmazingFantasy, #MelZwyer, #JeffTrammell, #HudsonThames, #GraceSong, #ZenoRobinson, #KariWahlgren, #RobinAtkinDownes
No comments:
Post a Comment