So 2017 is almost over, and Spider-Man has starred in not only a new hit movie in Homecoming, but has also gotten a new animated cartoon series, simply titled Marvel's Spider-Man. Yet even still, there is a vocal contingent of fans who pine for what is arguably one of the best, if not THE best, animated adaptations of the iconic Marvel superhero--The Spectacular Spider-Man, which aired from 2008-2010. Taking inspiration from both the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko run of the comic and Brian Michael Bendis' run on Ultimate Spider-Man, the show proved to be a hit with fans, thanks in no small part to showrunner and creator Greg Weisman, creator of cult favorite series such as Gargoyles and W.I.T.C.H. Nearly everything about the show was well-received and well-thought out, and combined with Wolverine and the X-Men and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, it would've been part of a great Marvel Animated Universe of the same caliber as the fan-favorite DC Animated Universe. Alas, it was not to be.
But that doesn't stop one from dreaming now, does it?
While I've had an idea for how season three could be, I had it on the backburner until fellow CBR user @ILoveStargirl began a long and fruitful brainstorming session--and this fancast I present to you is the first effort of our collaboration. ILoveStargirl gave input on both casting, bios, and a few story beats, so I have to give credit where credit is due. So without further ado, ILoveStargirl and myself are proud to present: an idea for season three of
1. Primary Story Influences: the runs on The Amazing Spider-Man by Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, J.M. DeMatteis, Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie, and my favorite, Gerry Conway. Peter and friends are now in their junior year of high school.
2. Overarching Story Arcs: Front half--mostly standalone, with emphasis on the new crime families and villains, some returns of prior villains, and foreshadowing to future arcs with Alfred Hitchcock-esque cameos of the character Ezekiel Simms. Back half--based partly on "Maximum Carnage". The front half's key undercurrent arc is the new mayoral race, with candidates in the form of Martin Li and Joe Robertson, along with the near-buyout of the Daily Bugle by Dexter Bennett.
3. Of course, most of the voice cast returns.
4. Main beats:
-New crime organizations step in to fill in the vaccum left by the incarcerated Doctor Octopus, Silvermane and Tombstone, and the presumed dead Green Goblin, in the form of the Fortunatos; the Rose; Roderick Kingsley, who becomes the Hobgoblin; Mister Negative; Black Tarantula; and at the top of them all, the Kingpin. Each group has a mutual weapons supplier in Norman Osborn's alter-ego of Mr. Roman, through his two middlemen Mr. Brownstone and his brother Francis Klum. There's also a bit of a superhuman arms race among the criminal underworld, as each crime family brings superpowered agents into to their folds; some more 'independent' crooks continue to strike out on their own or in smaller groups, like the Sinister Six or the newly-formed Sinister Syndicate.
-An unfortunate consequence of this increase in mob activity is the arrival of the remorseless anti-hero known as the Punisher.
-Sable Manfredi finds out her true origins as heir to the mercenary team known as the Wild Pack, and that she's actually Silvermane's adoptive daughter; inspired by her biological father's last wishes in his will, she decides to take the reins of the team and help her birthplace of Symkaria.
-New faces appear on the law enforcement and academic fronts: the NYPD gets a new officer in Captain Yuri Watanabe, secretly the vigilante Wraith; and a new private eye emerges in Jessica Drew. At Midtown High, Peter and friends get a new teacher in Julia Carpenter, and a new classmate in her daughter Rachel.
-New faces join the Daily Bugle as well, in the form of seasoned reporter Ben Urich and interns Phil Urich (Ben's nephew) and Norah Winters. The Bugle nearly faces a buyout from unscrupulous businessman Dexter Bennett, only for him to be outbid by Thomas Fireheart, secretly the Puma.
-Spidey, thanks to Ben Urich, meets the vigilante Daredevil for the first time.
-Gwen continues to be there for Harry, since she and Harry's mother Emily are trying to keep him off the path of revenge against Spider-Man (who he blames for his father's death); he vents his anger to his therapist Bart Hamilton, who, while having Harry under hypnosis, learns the location of a small weapons cache, which he uses to briefly become the new Green Goblin.
-Herman Schultz, the inventor of the suits used by the Enforcers, returns and takes back the suit given to Montana, becoming the Shocker as he intended for himself.
-Otto Octavius, on the run and in hiding, takes on a young protege by the name of Oliver Osnick (voiced by Scott McCafee), seeing much of himself in the young genius. Osnick later becomes the Steel Spider, out to prove he's a 'superior' Spider-Man.
-Peter and MJ grow closer, and eventually start dating. This is made all the easier after MJ reveals to Peter that she knows he's Spider-Man.
-Peter, at one point, saves the life of the precognitive mutant Madame Web, who informs him that great trials are ahead of him, hinting at the events of season four.
-John Jameson gets over his madness over losing the power he had as 'Captain Jupiter', and takes a job working security for Project Pegasus. During a botched robbery he tries to thwart, he comes into contact with an alien gem called the Godstone, turning him into the Man-Wolf.
-Miles Warren adopts the alter-ego of the Jackal, employing criminal agents to gather the materials and funding for his gene-splicing and cloning experiments. He also becomes the chief scientific consultant for the Hobgoblin and the Kingpin.
-Warren brings a new scientist onto his staff, Dr. Michael Morbius (voiced by Liam O'Brien), who accidentally turns himself into an artificial vampire. All of his activities are secretly being monitored by his assistant Debra Whitman (now voiced by Kimberly Brooks), herself an undercover SHIELD agent. (Morbius, you'll recall, appeared in my Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes season 3 post. This episode takes place before those events.)
-Peter faces off with the Jackal and two clones of himself--one heavily-scarred, the other not so much. After an explosion rocks the lab where they fought, the scarred clone takes the name Kaine and becomes an assasin-for-hire; while the not-scarred clone dyes his hair, takes the name "Ben Reilly", and becomes a bit of a drifter, wandering from city to city taking odd jobs. Both make prominent returns in season 4.
-A new mayoral race commences, and thanks to the positive reputation garnered by the F.E.A.S.T. Project, philanthropist Martin Li has better publicity than Wilson Fisk to the point he announces his plans to run for Mayor of New York. A very fretful Robbie Robertson joins the race for the City Hall in response. Since he and Robbie were at each other's throats since their pre-teens, Tombstone--freed by, and in debt to, Li's alter-ego Mister Negative--hires Massacre to kill Robbie, but he ends up injuring Robbie's son Randy instead.
-Eddie Brock becomes Venom again after traces of the symbiote hidden in his bloodstream reemerge; the symbiote also reproduces, with a red-and-black one emerging and bonding with Brock's fellow patient at Ravencroft Cletus Kasady, turning him into Carnage.
5. Notable episodes
-First Episode of Season 3
Continuing from a subplot of the "Operation: Rescue" episode of my proposed third season of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Peter is taken on a birthday dinner date by Jennifer Walters, an attorney he helped bring down a crime boss with who recently became She-Hulk, the newest Avenger. Their dinner winds up being interrupted by Jen's archrival Titania and her boyfriend the Absorbing Man, attempting to rob the patrons. The fight between the two sees Spidey constantly outmaneuvering Titania, to the point where her fruitless attempts at pounding him cause her to develop a form of arachniphobia when it comes to facing him.
Featuring the voices of:
*The story is inspired by both Spidey and Titania's fight in the 1984 Secret Wars comic, while the dinner date setting and fight with Titania and Absorbing Man is based on 1998's Heroes for Hire #17, with Spidey filling in for Luke Cage.*
**In a case of both irony and coincidence, Romano and Sullivan have their Kim Possible roles reversed--Romano now plays a heroic lady in green, while Sullivan now voices a redhead super-crook.**
-"Amazing Friends"
Peter's class is part of a tour of an indie video game company, with three students representing Xavier's School for the Gifted along for the ride: Bobby Drake, Kitty Pryde and Angelica Jones. Peter's classmate Francis Bytener is leading the tour, since he's an intern at the company, run by the mysterious Nimori Okumura, secretly the criminal mastermind known as the Gamer. Bytener is also an amateur videogame creator who's been working on a new superhero-themed side-scroller called "Pixelman"; he shows them experimental mo-cap tech (run by a powerful supercomputer) they use to bring the characters to life in the games, and plans to demonstrate one of them. While getting a mo-cap suit on, he overhears Okumura talking with someone in the next room--a someone who turns out to be Mysterio. Shocked at this discovery, Byte attempts to run to warn the others, but accidentally gives himself away. Mysterio's goons run after him, but Byte accidentally trips into the computer and causes it to overload. The accident winds up triggering Francis's latent X-Gene, causing Bobby's mini-Cerebro to go off. The activation of his X-Gene causes Francis's technopathic powers to activate, merging him with the suit and the game data stored in the computer, giving him the ability to turn into a real-life Pixelman.
*The whole episode is a big homage to Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, from the union of the three heroes to the use of a modern take on Videoman.
Kitty's inclusion is a nod to how prominent a member of Peter's supporting cast she became in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic. The Gamer is a combination pastiche of the Gamesman (a villain from Amazing Friends) and the Gamesmaster, the leader of the Upstarts from the X-Men comics. His real name is a play on two DC characters who had the Toyman mantle, Jack Nimball and Hiro Okumura. The episode also doubles as a light crossover with Wolverine and the X-Men.*
Featuring the voices of:
-Johnny Galecki as Francis Bytener/Pixelman
The end of the episode sees Spidey and co. approached by veteran SHIELD agent Robert "Buzz" Mason (voiced by Robert Forster) and his protege, the mutant Lightwave, who extend to Francis an offer to work with them on SHIELD's "Guardstar" project. (What happens afterwards occurs in my idea for season four.)
-"Unstoppable"
Spidey finds himself coming to the aid of the precognitive mutant Cassandra Webb, who becomes the target of a kidnapping attempt by the Juggernaut (voiced by Brad Garrett) and Black Tom Cassidy (Carlos Alazraqui).
*The episode is a near-adaptation of the classic 1983 Roger Stern story "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!" from The Amazing Spider-Man #229-230.*
-"Spiral, Parts 1-3"
Based on the Gerry Conway/Carlo Barberi story arc from The Amazing Spider-Man #16.1-20.1, during the gang war that erupts between the new crime families, Yuri Watanabe, as the Wraith, personally goes after Mister Negative, bent on revenge for the death of her mentor Teddy Rangel by his hands.
-"Maximum Carnage, Parts 1-4"
A near-adaptation of the original 1993 story, as Carnage gathers a group of like-minded villains to join him in a citywide rampage, which only Spider-Man and his band of allies--including, reluctantly, Venom--can stop.
*Spidey's group consists of Venom, Black Cat, Morbius, Firestar, Puma (filling in for Captain America), Cardiac (standing in for Nightwatch), Wraith (replacing Iron Fist), and Cloak and Dagger.*
6. New Voice Cast members/Guest Stars
#New Heroes and Allies
A tough-as-nails investigative reporter for the Daily Bugle, Peter is sent along with him on a few assignments, where he gets to know him more. Urich is instrumental in having Spider-Man and Daredevil meet, and in exposing the criminal activities of Mister Negative, costing his alter-ego Martin Li the mayoral election.
A new intern at the Daily Bugle alongside Ben Urich's nephew Phil, she's also a student at Midtown, and a reporter for the school paper. She has a funny personality that provides a stark contrast to her fellow students and her co-workers at the Bugle, helping to balance out the scathing belittling Phil dishes out to Peter.
A British-born PI formerly operating out of San Francisco, at one point she's hired by Aunt May when Peter goes missing (he's been kidnapped by Black Tarantula's men). She debuts as Spider-Woman in order to save him, and lets him know his secret's safe with her.
*As I've mentioned before, Marshall's mother, Joan Van Ark, voiced Spider-Woman in the character's 1979 cartoon series. Think of it as Marshall following in her mom's footsteps.*
A transplant from Denver, Colorado hired as a new chemistry teacher for Midtown High, where her daughter Rachel is enrolled.
A blind precognitive mutant, she appears when Spidey answers a call for help picked up by his Spider-Sense, and is protected by him when Juggernaut and Black Tom Cassidy try to abduct her. In the aftermath of the battle, Web informs Spider-Man that they'll meet again soon...
*Jessica Drew and Julia Carpenter are revealed to be two of Web's disciples.*
**Her look is based off the Ultimate Marvel version (pictured here). A more classic Madame Web, and a separate entity, appears in season 4.**
***Her voice actress, Marina Sirtis (another alum of Weisman shows), would also voice Harry's mother Emily Osborn as intended for season 3 had it come about.***
The Punisher (Frank Castle) - Alex O'Loughlin
*As The Man once said: 'Nuff said.*
An police captain who was Jean DeWolff's best friend throughout their time in the police academy. During her days as a cadet, her mentor Teddy Rangel was killed by the man who would become Mister Negative, causing her to swear revenge against him. She secretly acts as the vigilante known as the Wraith, having been given the mantle by the long-retired original bearer and employing items taken from the evidence locker, including discarded Mysterio equipment and fear gas from the Daredevil foe Mr. Fear. An encounter with Massacre in her civillian life reaffirms her drive to up her game to better contend with more dangerous criminals.
*Jean DeWolff, at one point, approaches Spidey to give him insight into the Wraith, revealing that her father Phillip was the original Wraith during the 1970's.*
Thomas Fireheart was endowed by the elders of his tribe with a set of mystical powers to compliment his considerable physical abilities. He is also the owner of a lucrative business, a chain of martial arts studios, one of which Peter decides to enroll in so he could learn to be a better fighter should his spider-sense fail him. On the side, Fireheart became a mercenary, at one point hired by the Rose to kill Spider-Man. During the fight, he recognizes Spidey's fighting stances as those taught at his studio, causing him to switch sides. He then becomes a good ally of the wall-crawler, even helping to clear his name on a crime he was falsely accused of. He even saves the Daily Bugle from a buyout by Dexter Bennett, placing J. Jonah Jameson as publisher in the process.
Two runaways Peter befriends while all three wait at a bus stop together, who wind up abducted by Mister Negative's chief scientist Doctor Tramma, whose experiments give them their respective abilities. The two manage to escape after Spider-Man frees them, and they become self-appointed protectors of NY's street kids.
An overworked scientist under Edward Lansky who's caught in an accident that gives him the ability to control his molecular structure, making him ripe for manipulation by Lansky and the Kingpin, until Spider-Man brings him to his senses.
A classmate of Peter's dealing with stress issues, she volunteers for her brother Cedric's experiment hoping it will do something about the physical toll it takes on her. The experiment is successful, but causes her body to physically destabilize at different intervals. Combined with a bio-implant that keeps her in line, she's forced to 'audition' as an operative for her brother's employer the Kingpin. Spider-Man manages to help her destroy the implant during their fight, and her brother is taken into custody. He then brings her to Reed Richards and Hank Pym for help with her condition, and to possibly stabilize her powers.
While a young scientific prodigy, Robert Farrell (a classmate of Peter's) was forced to work for Tombstone on the side to help his family. He of course has a change of heart and helps Spidey against Headsman.
The daughter of Edward Lansky (Lightmaster) who sets out to stop her father's crimes with a suit and weapons of her own design, taking up the mantle of a Golden Age hero she greatly admired--Mary Mitchell, the original Sun Girl.
Elias Wirtham is a physician and surgeon, and one of the administrators of the biological research firm Fisk Medical. He is also a former student of Aunt May's physician Dr. Bromwell. Wirtham is driven by his brother's death to research life-saving medical practices, since his brother Joshua's death was the result of Fisk Medical's greed, who had a cure for his condition ready, but did not distribute the medicine due to it not being a "profitable" time for them, hence his motivation against 'big pharma' in general.
Peter's sleepy classmate who has a unique symbiosis with the otherworldly being Sleepwalker, who aids Spidey in his fight against 8-Ball.
*8-Ball was a recurring foe of Sleepwalker's in the character's ongoing series.*
#Minor Antagonist
A long time archrival to J. Jonah Jameson since their days in journalism school, Bennett's a rumor monger and scandal rag-printer. When Jameson suffers a near-fatal heart attack, Bennett sees this as an opportunity to buy out the Bugle. He almost succeeds in his efforts, until he's outbid by Thomas Fireheart.
#Villains
+The New Crime Families
1. The Fortunatos
Don Vincente Fortunato has the bad luck of being a classic mob boss in a new age of choatic and flamboyant rogues and miscreants. His son Giacomo has no such honor and respect for what he sees as archaic traditions and 'does away with him' to take over the crime family.
Vincente Fortunato - Hector Elizondo
A student at Midtown who Peter tries to help come out of his shell. Wanting to prove that he has what it takes to take over the family business at some point, Angelo steals a sample of the Venom symbiote (found at the scene of Spidey's last battle with Venom) that was going to be auctioned off, and bonds with it, temporarily becoming the new Venom. When the symbiote is removed from him and destroyed, Angelo is left traumatized by the whole ordeal.
*To use movie gangster metaphors, he starts out like Fredo Coreleone, but once bonded with the symbiote sample, acts more like Sonny Coreleone.*
"Man-Mountain" Marconi - Diedrich Bader (riffing on John Travolta as Vincent Vega)
Top enforcer for the Fortunatos.
*Why Marconi instead of Marko? Mainly to avoid confusion with either Juggernaut or Sandman.*
2. The Kingpin's Group
On the surface, like Lex Luthor, Wilson Fisk is seen as a well-known, well-connected businessman and philanthropist whose Fisk Enterprises has reach into a number of fields, including medicine.
Secretly out to undermine his father and take over the whole organization, Richard uses his guise of the Rose to start a separate group.
3. The Black Tarantula Clan
Black Tarantula is a Peruvian crime boss who thinks that criminals in New York are pathetic and disorganized, and believes that the Moche god Ai Apaec could only have sent him to New York to turn things around with him as the one true kingpin. In Season 4, he will reveal his true colors as a sadistic Ai Apaec cultist working with The Queen (Charlotte Witter) to turn New York into a nightmarish Spider-Island.
Eduardo and Esmerelda Lobo are Black Tarantula's top hitmen. Akin to G.I. Joe's Tomax and Xamot--or even HYDRA's Andrea and Andreas Von Strucker--the siblings are always seen together, as if they have some sort of psychic link, finishing each other's sentences and letting their brutality do the talking. In Season 4, they will turn into spider-powered werewolves.
4. Mister Negative's Group
Originally a smuggler from Hong Kong, he made his way to the US using the name and papers of a passenger who fell overboard from the ship they travelled on. As Martin Li, he found himself a test subject by the scientists of a local AIM cell, who gave him control over a mysterious black electrical energy, but split his personality in two--the kindhearted Martin Li and the sadistic Mister Negative. Unfortunately he has no control over when the change happens. Escaping the AIM cell, as Negative he seizes control of the Chinatown gangs and forms his own empire. As a front, Martin Li acts as a rich philanthropist who founds the FEAST Project, an organization dedicating to helping the homeless. At one point, Li makes a bid for mayor of NYC, going up against incumbent Georgia Waters and Joe Robertson.
Originally a freelance spy with a scientific bent, she acts as Mister Negative's chief scientific mind. Among other things, she helps 'upgrade' Hammerhead and the Rhino after Negative convinces them to work for him.
5. Roderick Kingsley's Group
Kinglsey's men discover a hidden cache of Norman Osborn's Goblin gear, and has the Tinkerer modify it (while the Jackal modifies the Goblin serum found there) for his own use.
*In casting Epcar, I was inspired by his Joker from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.*
Phil Urich is Ben Urich's 20-something nephew. He disrespects his uncle Ben and thinks he's above the menial tasks a Daily Bugle intern ends up doing because his uncle is a famous investigative reporter. Also he treats Peter like dirt and likes every minute of it. Little do Peter and Ben know that Phil moonlights as Goblin Knight, Hobgoblin's eyes-and-ears in the Daily Bugle. When Ben learns the truth about his nephew, he'll feel devastated. Phil? Not so much.
+Secondary Villains
A former police detective booted from the force for corruption, he's hired by Spencer Smythe at the Kingpin's behest and is given both genetic (from the Jackal) and technological (from Smythe) enhancements that turn him into the Scorpion.
The Kingpin's top roboticist. A man of sceince with no regard for family and ethics. He creates a team of robots called the Spider-Slayers (made up of Goliath Spider, Blood Spider, Ghost Spider and Bone Spider) to kill Spider-Man; they can also combine into a robotic behemoth known as Spidercide.
Alistair was frequently ignored by Spencer in favour of his growing obsession with Spider-Man. Like his father, Alistair also had an aptitude for robotics and cybernetics. When his father's Spidercide was blown to bits, his obsession reached his apex, and he transforms his son into the Ultimate Slayer without his consent. Enraged by what was done to him, Spencer was Alistair's first victim. Now he wants to finish what his father started as as independent operator, rather than being just his father's science project or the Kingpin's lackey.
A psychiatrist Harry sees in the wake of his father Norman's 'death'. While having Harry under hypnosis, the delusional Hamilton learns of a secret cache of Goblin gear. Visiting it to verify Harry's claim, Hamilton is overwhelmed by the sense of power all the tech gives, though lacks the Globulin Green formula to complete the package. Hamilton, as the new Green Goblin, briefly tries to take over the mobs, only for them to offer him leadership if he manages to kill Spider-Man. Harry, realizing what's happening, helps Spidey in the nick of time by utilizing the voice command override found in the Goblin Glider's programming. A babbling Hamilton is then carted off to Ravencroft.
Frank Oliver was a interior designer who quit his stable job to study kangaroos in his native Australia, to the point of developing a leaping ability that rivaled the animals he studied. Seeing an opportunity to make money, Oliver decided to parlay his new-found leaping abilities into a vale tudo (a precursor to MMA) career. His superior speed and agility allowed him to best opponents time and again. During one match, Oliver jump-kicked one opponent in the face, severely injuring his opponent. Frank was banned for life from the sport, with his titles stripped. Inspired by the animal themed Spider-Man villain he saw on TV, he travelled to the US and was approached by Silvermane's top scientist Edward Lansky, who outfitted Frank with air jet-enhanced leaping and punching devices to become Silvermane's new muscle the Kangaroo, accomplishing his dream to get a new lease on life working as a Spider-Man villain.
Experimented on with the same tech that turned Mac Gargan into the Scorpion; becomes an enforcer for the Fortunatos. Jimmy Natale was the guy whose nickname was Red Vulture due to his red hair and his habit of doing the most disgusting jobs for the Fortunato Crime Family, and his even more disgusting attitude.
Headsman is Tombstone's new top enforcer, hired on after he got fed up with the Enforcers' incompetence.
Younger, meek brother of Mr. Brownstone, and a mutant teleporter. Constantly the butt of his brother's jokes and abuse, he at one point finally lashes out and seeks out his idol, Mysterio, who takes him under his wing. He later adopts the alias 'Conundrum'.
*In the comics, Francis is better known as the second Mysterio.*
**This casting sort of anticipates Dastmalchian's later portrayal of Abra Kadabra on The Flash.**
An arms smuggler and middleman for Norman Osborn's Mr. Roman alias, and a mutant who can manipulate gunpowder. As a front for his activities, he runs a nightclub. He's a world-class slimeball who is abusive towards his younger brother.
*I'd liken his character to Bruce Willis' guest role in the Miami Vice episode "No Way Out".*
**Funnily enough, Brownstone's voice actor David Faustino actually owns a nightclub in real life.**
Brownstone's girlfriend who's a skilled fighter with an obsession with Lewis Carroll's works. Her costume would be based on the one she wore in the miniseries Wolverine and the Black Cat: Claws. She develops a bit of a heated rivalry with Black Cat when she tries to steal from Brownstone during a deal he's overseeing.
*Her voice actor, ironically, played Black Cat in the video game based on Spider-Man 2.*
A low-level goon brought into Mister Negative's fold, he is experimented on by Dr. Tramma and given a suit to compliment his new abilities, taking the name Musca (Greek for fly).
Solo represents the fact that the Punisher started as a Spider-Man villain. He is an unbalanced gun-toting maniac whose motto is "While I live, terror dies!" and also can teleport himself. His goal to kill the Kingpin, but seeing as it would cause more harm than good, it's the reason that Spider-Man and Daredevil reluctantly team-up with the Punisher, whom they convinced to use non-lethal force THIS TIME. But non-lethal force doesn't mean gentle force.
Gerald Stone was an idealistic scientist who wanted to find a cure for cancer. He conducted an illegal experiment on a homeless person named Jacob Eishorn. The experiment failed and Eishorn became a living cancer, who needed to drain human life energy to survive. Now calling himself "Styx", Eishorn enjoyed the feeling of relief that came from driving people to near-death. Feeling responsible for Styx, Stone acquired high-tech weaponry for himself from the Tinkerer and turned the two of them into a mercenary duo. Stone hoped that as mercenaries, Styx wouldn't kill innocents, but by now Stone was willing to kill anybody to protect Styx. He planned on using the money they earned as mercenaries to find a cure for Styx.
8-Ball is a Fisk Entreprises engineer turned super criminal. Originally a defense contractor who took to playing pool to blow off steam from his job, he incurred a large debt at a casino owned through a Fisk Enterprises shell company. He uses the 8-Ball motif so people let their guard down due to his superficially goofy apperance, while he actually he is a competent and strategic super criminal.
Claiming to be the world's first 'live-streaming super-crook', Screwball is in reality Danica 'Danni' Todd, a new transfer student at Midtown High who immediately sets out to be the 'ultimate class clown'. She sees herself as an aspiring comedian, and her Screwball persona is her way of trying to make it big--by cutting down some of NY's notables to size. Her antics include goofing up a prominent Daily Bugle billboard by drawing all over J. Jonah Jameson's face; hacking into the sign on the NY Stock Exchange; and of course getting Spider-Man steamed up at every turn, vowing to out-do who she sees as king of one-liners.
*Her real name is a portmanteau of two comic creators who've worked on her--Dan Slott, her co-creator, and Todd Nauck, who drew the comic these two pics come from.*
**FINALLY, I've used every member of the main crew from Leverage in a fancast!**
Stilt-Man is nothing but a perpetually belittled mook for the Fortunato crime family with a knack for engineering, and when he becomes a total laughingstock after presenting his Stilt-Man suit--boasting that stilts are the future of crime--he decides to plan to kill Spider-Man to earn some street cred. During the fight, Spider-Man saves him from a laser beam which accidentally knocks him out. Stilt Man realizes that they are alone and Spider-Man is defenseless. He just could murder him and claim he killed him in a fair fight, and nobody would ever know the truth...nobody but him, that is. So he doesn't go through with it. Sadly it all happened during a slow news day, and Stilt-Man becomes an even bigger laughingstock. His ill-tempered wife, seeing the news, dusts off her Lady Stilt-Man suit (given to her as a last-minute anniversary gift) to correct her inept husband's mistake, and turns out to be even more pathetic than him when Spider-Man dodged her attacks, which eventually forced her robotic stilt into a high heel ornament on a truck. Spider-Man then removes a sewer cap, and after Lady Stilt-Man lost her balance, she stuck her stilt inside the sewer. She fell to the ground, defeated. Winding up in the same cell as her husband, she declares that starting from now, he is forever exiled to the couch.
*Yep, we basically cast Filburt and Dr. Hutchison from Rocko's Modern Life. This is meant to be one of the 'funny' episodes of the show, along with the Screwball one and a later one featuring everyone's favorite villain, the Hypno-Hustler.*
Dr. Edward Lansky was the former vice chancellor of Empire State University, who was fired after objecting to budget cuts that he felt would have seriously impacted his work. He becomes the chief scientist of the newly-released Silvermane, demonstrating his intellect by technologically upgrading his men, including new enforcer Kangaroo. Using his knowledge and resources stolen from the University laboratory, he then creates a suit that gives him the ability to manipulate light and create solid-light constructs [akin to Green Lantern].
A South American assassin-for-hire brought to the US by the Jackal, who later uses a serum that grants him four more arms (a nod to his Ultimate Universe counterpart). His presence earns him the ire of Black Tarantula, who coyly states that 'this town's not big enough for two tarantulas'.
Electro's own "Harley Quinn" who admires Max Dillon because despite being a crook, he never went after the common man. She and Electro decide to wage war against the "corporate fat cats" in order give back the power to the people in their own twisted way. A botched attempt to save Francine from being tazed causes Max to impart some of his own power to her; she joins him 'in uniform' as Aftershock.
The unscrupulous older brother of Dagny Forrester, he becomes the Kingpin's new chief scientist after Spencer Smythe's death and Alistair's disappearance. He convinces Dagny to allow herself to be his test subject for an experiment that gives her matter transmutation powers. He also implants a bio-monitor to keep her body chemistry stable, with a remote-control feedback loop that stimulates the pain centers of her brain, lest she does what she's told. He offers her use as a superpowered enforcer for the Kingpin, until his ambitions are thwarted by Spidey helping Dagny out of her jam.
+The Sinister Syndicate
A lawyer by day who took up the Beetle mantle after Abner Jenkins became Mach-1 of the Thunderbolts, she is the daughter of Tombstone who uses a professional and poised voice while in her day job and an angry Brooklyn accent as the Beetle. Her vendetta against Spider-Man stems from him sending her father to the slammer. She manages to get him released by acting as his attorney (using her mother's maiden name as a cover).
While transporting hazardous material from an Oscorp warehouse at the docks, Bench accidentally falls into the water below when one of the chemical containers falls through the old floorboards. The leaking container reacts with the water around Bench, turning him into a hydrokinetic and giving him the ability to turn into liquid. He blames Spider-Man for his accident (having arrived too late to try and save him).
Evil version of the Squadron Supreme member Whizzer. His origin is unknown.
*A fitting casting considering his previous portrayals of the DC hero Speed Demon is based on (the Flash).*
*Returning from my "Rise of the Thunderbolts" fancast.*
*Sandman and Shocker join up, while Scorpion fills the empty spot in the Sinister Six.
+The Carnage 'Family'
*For his portrayal, I'd have Kenny channel a couple of Jack Nicholson's characters. When we first meet Kasady pre-symbiote, he's akin to R.P. McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--a straight-up sociopath; when bonded with the Carnage symbiote, he'd be more akin to the Joker from the 1989 Batman film to differentiate this take on Carnage from the only other two cartoon versions (both from the 90's).*
A former rock groupie and one of Mr. Brownstone's aides by profession, unexpected exposure to a Darkforce-powered weapon during an auction held by Brownstone activated her latent mutant sound-manipulation powers, but also caused her pent-up rage and frustration (bottled up since her bleak childhood) to surface as total insanity.
Marcus Lightman and his wife Judith were accidentally caught in the fracas of an attack on his Wall Street trading company, caused by a "Power to the People" movement led by Electro and his new partner-in-crime Aftershock. Marcus survived, but his wife did not. Shrapnel was fixed within his brain, causing him to feel virtually no human connection whatsoever. With his new lease on life, he escaped an institution and began to go on a rampage. He thinks criminals are getting too organized for their own good and adopts a more anarchic approach because he answers to no one but himself.
Vermin (replacing Doppleganger) - Charlie Adler
Daniel Kingsley is Roderick Kingsley's twin brother. Always a law-abiding priest, perpetually struggling to getting by while his corrupt twin brother lives like a king--he resented every minute of it. After a near-death experience during a fight between Spidey and Roderick's alter-ego the Hobgoblin, he comes to the conclusion that there is no afterlife, just a void full of nothingness. He decides to cut loose and rejoice on all the sins he previously abhorred as the Demogoblin.
And that's a wrap, folks--but this isn't the end of it by a longshot! Stay tuned for future installments, such as:
1. The Spectacular Spider-Man Season Four, featuring stories based on "Spider-Island" and "Spider-Verse".
2. Two crossovers with the world of Young Justice, adapted from 1978's Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and 1997's Batman And Spider-Man: New Age Dawning.
3. Wolverine and the X-Men Season Two
4. Marvel Superheroes: Ultimate Alliance, based on the 2006 Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game.
5. Marvel Superheroes: The Infinity Gauntlet, the conclusion to my version of the NuMAU.
Till then--happy new year!