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Tag: Ultimate Spider-Man
Spider-Man: Web-Warriors Episode 7: Ultimate Spider-Man (Part 1)
The Spidey team is about to get the Ultimate upgrade! Ultimate Spider-Man swings into Web-Warriors ready to prove why he’s the best in the Spider-Verse! But not everyone seems to share this opinion…
Ultimate Spider-Man is an episode I’ve been waiting for because I thought it would be a fun challenge to capture the chaotic nature of the show. With the cutaways and the crazy noises, I really wanted this to feel like an episode of the 2012 TV show. Of course, that included throwing in a whole bunch of references!
Easter Eggs
The Spider-Cycle
After Ultimate Spidey lands on the bike in the Spider’s Nest, he says “I had one of these!” Fans will remember the Spider-Cycle that Spidey rode throughout most of the series. I, like a lot of fans, and even Spidey in the show, questioned why he needed a motorcycle to begin with. But wouldn’t you believe it, the dang bike grew on me as the show went on!
Fourth Wall Cutaways
Notice how Ultimate Spidey pauses the episode to talk to the audience. It’s something he did frequently in the TV show! It was a unique feature of this show, whilst every other Spidey show had Peter’s thoughts as an ethereal voice, this one tried something new. Spidey pausing the show to tell the audience what was going on really became one of the defining staples of Ultimate Spider-Man!
Spidey Teams
Of course you’ll all remember Spider-Man’s main team in the show, Power-Man, Iron Fist, White Tiger and, ugh, Nova. But one thing I loved about this show is that they put Spider-Man in several leadership roles, including the New Warriors, the Web-Warriors, and yes, even a crossover episode with the kids from the Disney Channel show Jessie!
Doom Demands a Banana Split
Spider-Man and his team tackled Dr. Doom early in the show, as he mentions in the episode. It turned out to be a trap, as Doom used them to infiltrate the Helicarrier, which I kind of drew from for Beetle’s attack. The banana split line was just a quite hilarious cutaway gag.
Nova
Spider-Man and Nova had a pretty contentious relationship throughout the show. At the end of the day, they respected each other as heroes and teammates, but that didn’t mean they didn’t throw jabs at each other. Bucket-head, get your webs out of a bunch, all things they’ve said to and called each other. Of course, I tapped my buddy Xavier Hernandez to voice Nova, not only because he’s a fan of Sam Alexander, but our relationship is kind of similar, always ribbing each other.
Fun fact: When Nova says “Work on your material”, that was Xavier talking to me. Because the original line, in hindsight, was super cheesy, even for an episode imitating the Ultimate Spider-Man TV show! Recording this with him was super fun, even if it took us a while because we kept messing around. Make sure to check out more of Xavier on his Instagram @shatter24wolf!
Wall of Shame
Nova mentions Spidey said he’d end up on the Wall of Shame for dying 5 minutes after joining S.H.I.E.L.D. That was a direct gag from Episode 2, and probably my favorite joke in the entire show. I don’t know why, I just thought it was hilarious.
Chibi-Spidey
One of the cutaway gags used often in the show was a little scene acted out with chibi versions of the characters. I simply couldn’t do an Ultimate Spider-Man Web-Warriors episode without including some Chibi-Spidey!
Character Cards
Another unique feature of the show were title cards they used to introduce villains or new characters. I definitely wanted to pay homage to that when I showed Beetle for the first time!
VS!
Along with the title cards for the villains, sometimes when a confrontation took place, they put the opponents on either side of the screen and threw up a giant “VS!” with an announcer shouting it to hammer the point home! Real fighting game vibes.
That’s it for this one guys. What’s that? Oooh, you wanna know about the Symbiote-suited Spidey claiming to be the real Ultimate Spider-Man? Well, friends, that is going to have to wait for Part 2 of this Web-Warriors episode! That’s right, the first Web-Warriors 2-parter! Because how am I going to do one version of Ultimate Spider-Man without doing the other? The one who, mind you, was the original from the comics! Clearly he’s not too happy about the TV show version running around calling himself the Ultimate Spider-Man!
So keep your eyes peeled for Episode 8, coming soon! Until then, thank you so much for watching. Truly, you guys are what makes all this hard work worth it! Face Front True Believers, and I’ll see you in the Multiverse!
Ultimate End: Brian Michael Bendis No More
This is a game changer. Brian Michael Bendis is leaving Marvel! And not only that, but he’s going to DC!!! Now, we’re all (presumably) adults here, so we’re not gonna chastise him or call him a traitor, but I just can’t help but wonder what led to this? Brian Bendis is Marvel’s dude! He’s the go-to guy. It seems like every other Marvel event has been written by Bendis. The Ultimate Universe exists (well… existed) because of Bendis! Miles Morales, Jessica Jones, the reason Samuel L. Jackson is currently Nick Fury, it’s all due to Brian Michael Bendis! So what happened?
Granted, he’s had some missteps, Civil War II gets grilled a lot, and I have to say Disassembled was a bit of a mess. But everyone has a bad day at the office. And when you look at just the sheer contributions Bendis has made to the Marvel Universe over 17 years, it’s unprecedented. Secret Invasion, AvX, Age of Ultron, so, so many more. The movies borrow so much from the Ultimate comics, especially Spider-Man movies. Ultimate Spider-Man lasted an entire run, from 2000 to present, had a very popular video game, and a TV show! This guy literally belongs in the same conversation as Stan Lee.
My theory as to why he left dates back to when Miles took off, then all of sudden they wanted him in everything. Miles legitimately got in, like, three big adventures before Secret Wars (2015) assimilated him into 616. Like, he’d probably be writing Miles, then Nick Lowe or someone bursts in and goes “Brian! Get this: Spider, wait for it, Men!” Then he had stop and do Spider-Men. So then he goes back to the adventures of Miles, then Lowe, or maybe Quesada, bursts in and goes “Brian! Galactus comes to the Ultimate Universe!” Then Brian has to stop and take out half the Ultimate Universe in Cataclysm. Then when he finally goes back to Miles they say “Brian! Guess what? Ultimate Universe: Gone! Secret Wars!” Then he literally has to destroy the entire universe he created and squeeze Miles into 616. I can see how that’d be jarring from a storytelling point of view, and with Marvel doing big events every 30 seconds, and recruiting Bendis to do half of them, maybe he’s overwhelmed?
I don’t know the full story, no one but Bendis does. All I can say is, he was one of the first names I learned in comics, and he’s done a bang up job at Marvel. Whether he’s feeling oversaturated, or maybe he just wants a change of scenery after 17 years, we’ll never know. I’d personally like to know what DC put on the table for him, someone so ingrained in the Marvel Universe, to turncoat. But, for now, I guess all we can say is Face Front Brian Michael Bendis, I hope you find what you’re looking for.
P.S. If Marvel needs someone to write Miles, I’ll gladly do it!