Ultimate Spider-Man Season 2 Episode 2 Electro Previewthat I have never wanted to STOP watching a Spider-Man
cartoon before in my life... until now.
I have been a big fan of the Spider-Man comic series for many years and have liked almost all of the cartoon iterations of him, but this one just hurts to watch. I understand that Spider-Man is supposed to be a smart-mouthed teen who likes to make jokes while fighting crime, which is my favorite part about the character, but this show just takes it to an extreme. The show feels like a very awkward mix of Family Guy, Teen Titans and The Emperors New Groove... NONE of them in a good way.
I think one of the biggest problems for me was how much the story was broken up by all of the "cut away" scenes. There would be an action scene going on, or a scene with meaningful dialog and it felt like every 5 seconds, they were shoe-horning a stupid "this is almost as bad as the time I..." joke, much like in Family Guy; The problem with this is that it broke up EVERYTHING that was happening in the show. The reason that Family Guy is able to get away with doing "cut away" scenes every few seconds is because that is what the show is all about. You don't watch Family Guy for the story or the action, you watch it to laugh at the jokes, which can actually be funny because they aren't being aimed at children. I understand that Spider-Man is a show made for children and I get that the characters aren't going to be nearly as serious as they are in the comics, but I feel like this was just too far from the source material for me to enjoy it.
Another thing that bothered me was how just a few years ago we had, in my opinion, one of the best Spider-Man shows to date, Spectacular Spider-Man, and it was canceled in only it's second season. I had really high hopes for Ultimate Spider-Man to fill the void that Spectacular Spider-Man left, but it just didn't deliver at all.
I have been a big fan of the Spider-Man comic series for many years and have liked almost all of the cartoon iterations of him, but this one just hurts to watch. I understand that Spider-Man is supposed to be a smart-mouthed teen who likes to make jokes while fighting crime, which is my favorite part about the character, but this show just takes it to an extreme. The show feels like a very awkward mix of Family Guy, Teen Titans and The Emperors New Groove... NONE of them in a good way.
I think one of the biggest problems for me was how much the story was broken up by all of the "cut away" scenes. There would be an action scene going on, or a scene with meaningful dialog and it felt like every 5 seconds, they were shoe-horning a stupid "this is almost as bad as the time I..." joke, much like in Family Guy; The problem with this is that it broke up EVERYTHING that was happening in the show. The reason that Family Guy is able to get away with doing "cut away" scenes every few seconds is because that is what the show is all about. You don't watch Family Guy for the story or the action, you watch it to laugh at the jokes, which can actually be funny because they aren't being aimed at children. I understand that Spider-Man is a show made for children and I get that the characters aren't going to be nearly as serious as they are in the comics, but I feel like this was just too far from the source material for me to enjoy it.
Another thing that bothered me was how just a few years ago we had, in my opinion, one of the best Spider-Man shows to date, Spectacular Spider-Man, and it was canceled in only it's second season. I had really high hopes for Ultimate Spider-Man to fill the void that Spectacular Spider-Man left, but it just didn't deliver at all.
