Spider-Man

With ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ giving Spidey a fresh start at the box office, of course that means that Disney XD is kicking off a new animated series, which looks at least slightly inspired by the movie– Check out Spidey’s homemade “track suit” costume.  There seem to be other elements from the movie in the mix as well, such as Tony Stark’s presence as a mentor, but surprisingly, this series isn’t exactly like the movie.  ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ also pulls elements from various disparate comics as well.

Peter Parker’s movie best friend, Ned Leeds (who bore a closer resemblance to Ganke Lee from the Miles Morales comics), doesn’t appear (unless he’s one of the unnamed friends shown).  Instead, as in various past iterations, Harry Osborn is his best pal.  And Aunt May is once again shown as being an older woman, instead of the younger version depicted by Marisa Tomei.  Those two characters are depicted as they have been in most “classic” interpretations.

But a lot of characters and ideas are drawn from more recent comics.

Instead of a regular high school, Peter attends Horizon High, a special academy for super intelligent kids.  A few years ago, in the comics, Peter Parker became more of a tech mogul, like Tony Stark and set up Parker Industries.  He hired Max Modell, his former boss from Horizon Labs– to oversee a project which became Horizon University.  Horizon High is clearly based on that idea.

Max Modell on the animated series, serves as one of Peter’s professors.  In the comics, Max is gay and has a husband named Hector.  It’s unclear if the show will elude to that.

Perhaps the most intriguing twist is that this Peter Parker’s social circle includes characters who, in the comics, are alternate versions of Spider-Man or spin-off characters.  Miles Morales is shown as one of Peter’s friends AND in his Ultimate Spider-Man costume.  (Above)  Reportedly, Peter will act as a mentor of sorts to Miles.  Considering that this is a classic teenage depiction of Spidey, it’s curious how well he can serve in that role, since he himself is something of a novice.

Anya Corazon is also present.  In the comics, Anya debuted using the codename Araña but presently goes by Spider-Girl, although she is sometimes nicknamed Spider-Anya.  She is shown in the illustration above, second from the right.

Classic supporting character Gwen Stacy is in the mix as well and in regular continuity, she was simply Peter’s non-super girlfriend.  However a few years ago, comic readers were introduced to Spider-Gwen, a version of Gwen from a parallel universe who gained spider powers and goes by the name Spider-Gwen.  (Both Spider-Anya and Spider-Gwen seem like terrible names if you’re trying to maintain a secret identity.)  In the artwork above, you see both the regular version of Gwen on the far left beside Peter and Spider-Gwen on the right.

In the following video, some of the show’s creators and voice cast discuss the characters and how they interact.  The cast includes:

  • Robbie Daymond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
  • Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales/also Spider-Man?
  • Laura Bailey as Gwen Stacy/possibly Spider-Gwen?
  • Melanie Minichino as Anya Corazon/possibly Spider-Girl?
  • Max Mittleman as Harry Osborn
  • Fred Tatasciore as Max Modell

Although not featured in the clip, the voice cast also includes Nancy Linari as Aunt May, Patton Oswalt as Uncle Ben,  Josh Keaton as Norman Osborn, Scott Menville as Doc Ock, John DiMaggio as The Jackal, and Alastair Duncan as Vulture.  Marvel’s chief creative officer Joe Quesada is pulling a Stan Lee by appearing on the show as a coffee shop owner named– what else?– Joe.

This is clearly a take on Spider-Man that we’ve never seen before– taking elements from ‘Homecoming’, the classic comics plus more recent comics and mashing them together.

You can check out the new series this weekend.  ‘Marvel’s Spider-Man’ premiers 7 AM ET Saturday, August 19.

Check it out and see how it ranks among the various other versions of the wall-crawler!