Debuted on April 1st, The Ultimate spider-man TV series was met with a negative to mixed reception. The show revolves around Spider-man who is offered, by Nick Fury, to be a part of a SHIELD team of young super heroes consisting of Nova, Iron Fist, Power Man, and White tiger (who are all turned into a teenage version of themselves). Unlike previous Spidey shows, this one was made almost 100% by Marvel,and has a multitude of industry writers and producers, ranging from Paul Dini to Michael Bendis, giving fans such high hopes for the series.
After 4 episodes now, the show has still not found a solid ground, and with many flaws, more and more viewers are dropping the show. To sum up the things that are wrong with Ultimate Spider-man, i made a list of what i think is wrong with the currently airing series:
1- Too many breaking the 4th wall jokes: A characteristic that is more associated with the character Deadpool, and while it can be accepted for Spider-man as well, the constant over-use of such jokes is killing the action. In fact, so many times these wall-breaking jokes are forced within action-heavy sequences, thus killing the momentum of one of the few things that work in Ultimate Spider-man.
2- WAY TOO MANY humor: Humor and Spidey go along very well. However, when most of the jokes are juvenile and not funny, the humor ends up making the show intolerable, especially that it feels forced and, most of the time, out of its place.
3- The Spider-Cycle and SHIELD gadgets: Spider-man has a SHIELD built super Motorcycle, that sticks to wall and shoots web. Need i say more? A motor cycle works for Batman, Captain America or even wolverine, but for Spider-man, a hero who can shoots web and web swing through the city, giving him a "high tech" Motor cycle just feels out of place and weak. We understand this was done in order to sell Toys but it is just one unnecessary, out of context accessory. It also seems Spider-man will be using gadgets given to him by SHIELD, as seen currently, where he uses the SHIELD high tech web shooters, instead of his, home made, classic shooters. Again, this kind of changes takes away from who Spider-man is.
4- Spidey in a team of teeangers before he even fight any real spidey villain: At the beginning of the show, it has been explained that Peter Parker has been Spider-man for a year, before he joins the SHIELD teen heroes. However it was later shown that Spidey has yet to even fight any villain from his rogue gallery. And being the first Spider-man show made entirely by Marvel, fans really expected a series that will focus solely on Spider-man and Peter Parker as he grows up and learns from his mistakes and learns about power and responsibility, not been a part of teenage Avangers wannabes. Having these teenage heroes as guest characters would have worked way better for the show.
5- Nova is SO OBNOXIOUS: The teen version of Nova is really annoying, poorly written, and made a jerk. If Marvel is trying to promote Sam Alexander's Nova this way, then i will not be surprised if people will drop the Nova comics as well.
6- There is almost no drama at all in this show: Why i can tolerate most of the silliness and unfunny jokes, one thing that is holding this show from been a good series is its lack of Drama. Ultimate Spider-man does not have any! How are we supposed to feel attached to these characters if all they do is make unfunny jokes(Spider-man), act like a jerk(Nova), say the same sexist remarks over and over again(White Tiger), or Just not do anything and just stand there(Luke Cage).
7- The show has almost No continuity: Each episode is a single story, you can watch everything out of order and still get the show. While this might not be a big issue for some viewers, i believe what makes a show or even a comics series succeed is some continuity. Seeing the characters evolve and grow up through the episodes is what makes the viewers feel attached to a show. Granted some shows were great without a heavy continuity(I am looking at you Bat-Man The Animated Series) however most fan-favorites shows have some continuity in them (The 90's version of X-men and Spider-man cartoons, the spectacular spider-man, the current Young Justice and others)
8- Too much explaining: Peter needs to take us from our hands and over-explain every single detail. While this usually is okay during the first 1 or 2 episodes, it is just getting repetitive and kills the show's momentum (when there is one)
9- Making old heroes teenagers: De-aging popular characters was something i always hated. First of all it never feels right. Second it changes the character beyond recognition, removing important part of the hero's identity (Luke cage for example). And also, are you telling me the nova corps chose this obnoxious punk to be the new nova?
10- Not only are those teenage heroes been forced on us when pete is spidey, they had to cram them into his school life as well. So now, somehow these 4 kids are in the same school as Spidey, and i must add that everyone knows(Thanks to the frightful four in episode 1) that Spidey goes to midtown High, and now just after these 4, out of nowhere, kids showed up, Spidey is now shown with 4 new other heroes. Yeah, i am pretty sure High school kids are pretty smart to deduce that these 4 new teenagers are the new superheroes that now fight alongside the web-head.
While the article gives the impression that i hate this show, the fact of the matter is i don't(Not entirely at least). I want this show to succeed but there are so many things that are keeping it from being a good series. every step into the right direction is followed by 5 steps in the wrong one.
Granted, the show has some good things such as the fluid animation, that character design and most of the voice actors are spot on. And with Season 2 now ordered and in the works, i am hoping that the show runners fix these mistakes and make this show what it should have been, an Ultimate spider-man series.