Spider-Man (2017–2020)
4/10
Poorly Written & Dumbed Down
20 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Disney has crapped out a toy commercial in 'Marvel's Spider-Man'. Although, I know I'll be buying the Miles Morales Spider-Man when it becomes available. I don't like Spider-Man team ups. Ultimate Spider-Man and his "Web Warriors" was ridiculous with characters going to bed in full uniform. This 'Spider-Man' version is just filled with new action figures with simple story lines & poorly executed drama.

To start, we generally have to suspend disbelief with superhero stories, but I just watched Peter Parker's first outing as Spider-Man with "Horizon High Part 1& 2" aka 'New Beginnings'. This is the earliest Spider-Man wearing goggles & a hoodie; This Spider-man hasn't full control of his wall-crawling powers as he couldn't let go of a pigeon. He was also still calculating his untested web-shooters before diving off of a building. Peter then steers the criminals' get-away van into a skateboard park of teens, all in order to prevent anyone from getting hurt on the street. In other versions of Spider-Man the writer(s) at least show a quick montage of Spidey perfecting his skills before putting himself & others in danger. Peter goes up against the Vulture and comparing the vulture armor to the armor in Spider-Man Homecoming, it's a little disappointing.

'Part 2' begins with Spider-Man fighting the Scorpion. You start to recognize a lapse in costume design between the Vulture & Scorpion. It's that Disney minimalist style to help draw the animation faster. I also caught one goof where Spidey switches the track on a subway train to save himself ... In the next shot the train passes, but it's still on the same track as Spider-Man. That's says, "a rushed job" to me.

Art-wise, the show is fair. It's not great animation. Some of the black outlines for hands & faces are rather thick and there's not a lot of effort in the details. I do like the early look of Spider-Man wearing the jogging outfit, hoodie and ski-mask with goggles, because it actually makes more sense than Peter sewing together a costume from scratch.

The voice-overs were a bit off to me; Fred Tatasciore as Max Modell was the only voice-actor I recognized here. Robbie Daymond sounds like you'd expect Peter Parker to sound like, but he doesn't alter his voice when speaking as Spider-Man. Patton Oswalt as Uncle Ben was not the best choice. I've always known Uncle Ben as a stoic respectable figure and Patton Oswalt as a goofball comedian. Listening to Patton Oswalt do Uncle Ben's laugh was eye-rolling; It's like he phoned in his voice-overs with zero effort.

I'll continue to check on this series, because I do like the artwork and I know to expect the Miles Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen & Spider-Girl. They're all strong enough characters to have their own series, so I'm guessing this is a sort of testing stage for that. In my last opinion, it would have been a better idea to make the Miles Morales Spider-Man series instead. Although that tale deserves better writing than these disposable scripts.
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