Marvel Animation Spider-Man: Freshman Year

[Venom 1988]

I wouldn't say this show is useless or it doesn't deserve to exist, but I do question creative process behind it. It seems that when the show was first announced, the intention was for it to be firmly in the main MCU but obviously at some point during production (I would guess between it's annoucement and the following year's SDCC panel), they decided to shift gears and make this an alternate MCU branch timeline. Going from being a prequel show where they are limited on what they can do to essentially a What If spinoff where everything available on the table is a big change. And I'm kinda afraid that leap in direction mid production might hamper the quality of the show. It also makes me wonder if the direction change came from higher up but who is to say.


X-Men '97 knew what it was going to be from the getgo. It was a revival/sequel to the TAS and the love for the original show and the X-Men in general shows it the final product. For me personally, it kind of killed my hype for the show. I'm still going to watch it and give it a chance, but I'm not exactly excited for it either (maybe a trailer will change my mind). The tweets from the writers and staff getting laid off after finishing season 1 doesn't bode well either. But I hope it's not bad though. In fact I hope it does prove it wrong and it turns out to be a good and entertaining show. I really dig the Ditko art sytle they chose for it. They have had several years to work on it so hopefully it turns out great.

In slightly related news though, it seems Liza Singer (the director for this show and who also previously worked on Harley Quinn), just tweeted the other day that she has been hired to work on another Marvel show. She doesn't say if its animated but I assume it will be.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I wouldn't say this show is useless or it doesn't deserve to exist, but I do question creative process behind it. It seems that when the show was first announced, the intention was for it to be firmly in the main MCU but obviously at some point during production (I would guess between it's annoucement and the following year's SDCC panel), they decided to shift gears and make this an alternate MCU branch timeline. Going from being a prequel show where they are limited on what they can do to essentially a What If spinoff where everything available on the table is a big change. And I'm kinda afraid that leap in direction mid production might hamper the quality of the show. It also makes me wonder if the direction change came from higher up but who is to say.


X-Men '97 knew what it was going to be from the getgo. It was a revival/sequel to the TAS and the love for the original show and the X-Men in general shows it the final product. For me personally, it kind of killed my hype for the show. I'm still going to watch it and give it a chance, but I'm not exactly excited for it either (maybe a trailer will change my mind). The tweets from the writers and staff getting laid off after finishing season 1 doesn't bode well either. But I hope it's not bad though. In fact I hope it does prove it wrong and it turns out to be a good and entertaining show. I really dig the Ditko art sytle they chose for it. They have had several years to work on it so hopefully it turns out great.

In slightly related news though, it seems Liza Singer (the director for this show and who also previously worked on Harley Queen), just tweeted the other day that she has been hired to work on another Marvel show. She doesn't say if its animated but I assume it will be.

Like with the Sony deal, I have no way of knowing this....but it being an alternate universe I think is part of the limits on the license deal for the Holland Spider-Man films. Much like it appears to me Sony cannot make Spider-Man live action movies to compete against the MCU ones, I think Marvel Studios likewise would have to approve a series involving the Spider-Man featured in their movies, which Disney likely doesn't want to pay Sony for. So what we get is this "It resembles but is legally distinct" version of Spider-Man that's off in his own little world. I am betting that's why there is all this....weirdness

 

[Lip]

I mean, when they first announced it, I didn't really care about it. I just loved the art style.

But I really hated the idea of reviving X-Men 90s cartoon instead of coming up with an original idea. And here I am thinking X-Men '97 is the best X-Men adaptation done so far.

So I'm just going to hope this is as good as '97.

 

[Venom 1988]

Like with the Sony deal, I have no way of knowing this....but it being an alternate universe I think is part of the limits on the license deal for the Holland Spider-Man films. Much like it appears to me Sony cannot make Spider-Man live action movies to compete against the MCU ones, I think Marvel Studios likewise would have to approve a series involving the Spider-Man featured in their movies, which Disney likely doesn't want to pay Sony for. So what we get is this "It resembles but is legally distinct" version of Spider-Man that's off in his own little world. I am betting that's why there is all this....weirdness

Yea I can could see something like that being the case. It such a weird move to make mid-production.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Yea I can could see something like that being the case. It such a weird move to make mid-production.

I think a lot of the legal particulars got worked out sometime after Morbius was filmed and before No Way Home was finished. Cause clearly Sony was trying to connect their movies to the MCU and Morbius clearly at one point had Morbius in the same jail as Vulture. So sometime during its many delays, all those scenes got reworked and they had to make it clear it wasn't the MCU. I can easily see Sony once all that was going down "oh yeah, well we don't consent to your cartoon" and then Marvel having to pivot

 

[TheVileOne]

I will give the show a shot. Not everything has to be X-Men '97. X-Men: Evolution back in the day was an adjustment as well, but it turned out to be a very good series, and we got 52 episodes out of it.

People worship Spectacular Spider-Man, but I never thought it was anywhere near as good as Spider-Man: TAS, and that's fine. Spider-Man shows will continue getting made for years because it's Spider-Man. And they will all be different.

Just like The Batman never really measured up to Batman: TAS but The Batman still kind of ended up doing some cool stuff and had a solid run.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Slick]

UPDATE: Bleeding Cool was contacted by the originator of the report, clarifying that no premiere date has been set and that Marvel Studios has not released a premiere date. The information has been edited out of the report below:

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Not Set for November (UPDATE)

Report: Jeff Trammell's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man hits Disney+ this November, Charlie Cox & Vincent D'Onofrio aboard, and more.

bleedingcool.com

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Not Set for November (UPDATE)

Report: Jeff Trammell's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man hits Disney+ this November, Charlie Cox & Vincent D'Onofrio aboard, and more.

bleedingcool.com

Wow, so it was...

 

[Venom 1988]

Well that's weird lol. I'm guessing the November 2nd date was just pulled from the copyright filing from last year. Which could still be true, but they aren't ready to reveal anything yet.

 

[Albright]

thought we gotta see something today…
Maybe have towait for D23

 

[Venom 1988]

thought we gotta see something today…
Maybe have towait for D23

From various reports it seems they are only focusing on movies for SDCC and leaving shows for D23.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[lenz]

This feels like a quick one and done season. Marvel Studios clearly hates aspects of this character, for whatever reason, because they always feel the need to change something that's completely unnecessary, to varying degrees. Do they not get that most fans hated the Tony mentorship in the movies, so they double down with this? So is Doctor Strange going to ultimately be the positive counter balance to Norman's influence?

Even the suit designs look like trash.

Get the #Spiderman98 warmed up.

 

[Spidey_62]

The Leonardo Romero designs are excellent to be sure and the retro feel is something I wanted out of a Spidey cartoon for ages but I still remain very skeptical especially after reading descriptions.

Doctor Strange fighting a symbiote creature leading to a spider coming out of a portal and biting Peter? Why mess with the origin so much? I watched Batman: Caped Crusader and they don't mess with Batman's origin - it's the same basic foundation it always is. I hate that the MCU made even debating Uncle Ben's existence a thing as a part of that foundation, but if we see Peter's origin from spider-bite day one I'm not seeing any Uncle Ben in the cast image.

People who saw the footage described it as similar to the 2005 Ultimate Spider-Man video game and that mileage may vary for people. That is to say, it's apparently cel-shaded CGI like we thought since we heard Polygon Pictures is animating it. Their Pacific Rim cartoon didn't look too great imo.

 

[Venom 1988]

I still wish they kept the original premise

 

[Spidey_62]

I've seen some speculation that the thing involved with the origin isn't a symbiote and it could be Shathra from the JMS run, and if that's the case that would be easier to digest for me at least. I could see maybe if they wanna go more in the magical direction posited in that run, that isn't something that's really been explored outside the comics yet. I dunno, the thing I liked about it there was his origin could still be taken how it was originally from science but you could also interpret it that maybe there was more to it / magic if you wanted to interpret it that way, part of the fun was the subtlety. But still, make sure Uncle Ben's there to get shot at some point!

 

[Arachnerd]

...why did they have to mess with the origin in such a ridiculous way? What's the purpose?

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

The Leonardo Romero designs are excellent to be sure and the retro feel is something I wanted out of a Spidey cartoon for ages but I still remain very skeptical especially after reading descriptions.

Doctor Strange fighting a symbiote creature leading to a spider coming out of a portal and biting Peter? Why mess with the origin so much? I watched Batman: Caped Crusader and they don't mess with Batman's origin - it's the same basic foundation it always is. I hate that the MCU made even debating Uncle Ben's existence a thing as a part of that foundation, but if we see Peter's origin from spider-bite day one I'm not seeing any Uncle Ben in the cast image.

People who saw the footage described it as similar to the 2005 Ultimate Spider-Man video game and that mileage may vary for people. That is to say, it's apparently cel-shaded CGI like we thought since we heard Polygon Pictures is animating it. Their Pacific Rim cartoon didn't look too great imo.

Oh? I love that game. Won't go on a diatribe as to why, but I did like the art style of it, as it really did feel like playing a comic book, so this show potentially having that sort of vibe is a small plus for me.

 

[Venom 1988]

I've seen some speculation that the thing involved with the origin isn't a symbiote and it could be Shathra from the JMS run, and if that's the case that would be easier to digest for me at least. I could see maybe if they wanna go more in the magical direction posited in that run, that isn't something that's really been explored outside the comics yet. I dunno, the thing I liked about it there was his origin could still be taken how it was originally from science but you could also interpret it that maybe there was more to it / magic if you wanted to interpret it that way, part of the fun was the subtlety. But still, make sure Uncle Ben's there to get shot at some point!

Right, JMS still kept the original origin intact. The only thing he added was that this ambious extra layer that the spider was always meant to bite him and there was never a clear answer for it (at least not that I can remember anyway). Here it seems they are flat out making either the spider come from another dimension or it get's affected from magic during this fight instead. It's a bit weird imo.

When this project was original the MCU Spidey origin, it seemed it interesting because they were gonna go back in time and cover Holland's early days before meeting Tony. Fill in gaps that we as fans wondered about and potentially spotlight normal (or rather not as super) villains that wouldn't be in the movies. But now, it's just another show about the origin of a teenage Spidey but the twist now is it's magic related. I dunno. I've said before I'll still give it a show but I have zero hype about it. The Coleman casting is cool though, I'm just afraid he's gonna be wasted here and it's not going to lead into anything else. But we'll see.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[blueharvest]

 

[TheVileOne]

...why did they have to mess with the origin in such a ridiculous way? What's the purpose?

This makes it easier to incorporate the Spider Totem elements such as Ezekiel, the Spider Avatars, and The Other.

 

[TheVileOne]

Right, JMS still kept the original origin intact. The only thing he added was that this ambious extra layer that the spider was always meant to bite him and there was never a clear answer for it (at least not that I can remember anyway). Here it seems they are flat out making either the spider come from another dimension or it get's affected from magic during this fight instead. It's a bit weird imo.

When this project was original the MCU Spidey origin, it seemed it interesting because they were gonna go back in time and cover Holland's early days before meeting Tony. Fill in gaps that we as fans wondered about and potentially spotlight normal (or rather not as super) villains that wouldn't be in the movies. But now, it's just another show about the origin of a teenage Spidey but the twist now is it's magic related. I dunno. I've said before I'll still give it a show but I have zero hype about it. The Coleman casting is cool though, I'm just afraid he's gonna be wasted here and it's not going to lead into anything else. But we'll see.

Making this a prequel to the MCU Spider-Man would've been a dead-end to this series and wouldn't work. It also means Peter would be stuck in his prototype costume the whole time. Trying to connect it to the MCU would've been too difficult and confining.

 

[Venom 1988]

Making this a prequel to the MCU Spider-Man would've been a dead-end to this series and wouldn't work. It also means Peter would be stuck in his prototype costume the whole time. Trying to connect it to the MCU would've been too difficult and confining.

I disagree, I think it could very easily work. For reasons I've already listed multiple times in this thread. I wouldn't expect it to be a long running series, rather just a mini series. And yea I got no problem with him wearing only the prototype suit.