User blog:LoveWaffle/Well This Is Somewhat Hopeful

As anyone who's seen the show could tell you, the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon is not very good. Actually, it's pretty terrible, and I've made my criticism of the show pretty clear. However, the recent press release about the second season of the show is somewhat promising.

Here's the good: 1) Actual Spider-Man villains. As you can see from the image I have provided, Doc Connors will be turning into the Lizard this season.  And the press release also specifies that Electro will be showing up (probably thanks to The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and that the two will at some point be joining the Sinister Six.  Assuming Doc Ock is also a member of that organization, that means two more Spider-Man villains will be appearing this season.  While it's possible the other two are just Beetle and Sandman, I'll have faith that they're going to use Rhino, Shocker, Vulture, etc.

One of my biggest complaints about the first season of the show so far has been the show's reluctance to use actual Spider-Man villains, particularly when one could have very easily been used. For example, why was Juggernaut featured in "Awesome" when his role could have easily been filled by Rhino? Or why was the Living Laser used in "Flight of the Iron Spider" instead of Electro? In all, this show has only used 5 Spider-Man villains so far - Sandman, Beetle, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Venom (and not even a Venom from the comics) - in its 26 episode run. Compare this to The Spectacular Spider-Man, which, as of today, has the same episode count as Ultimate Spider-Man, yet managed to fit in nearly every major Spider-Man villain, and at least laid the groundwork for a few more to be introduced in the cancelled third season of the show.

Spider-Man has the most notable rogues gallery of any Marvel hero, and probably has the most notable one of any hero other than Batman. For this show to ignore them is a glaring flaw.

2) Finally some character development. The press release confirms that we'll be learning a bit about Spider-Man's teammates, Iron Fist, Nova, Power Man, and White Tiger.  I've always felt the show worked best when it worked as less of a Spider-Man cartoon and more of a "Young Avengers", like a Marvel version of Teen Titans.  Unfortunately, in the first season, we didn't really get that; these heroes had virtually no character development and, by the end of the season, we knew about as much about them as we did when they were first introduced.  Heck, about half the episodes prominently featuring them started off with a gaudy roll-call, as if to remind the audience that they were characters on the show.

This is a very welcome addition to the show. Not only does it finally allow for those characters to get their day in the spotlight, but...well, I'll just provide an example. Iron Fist was given a bit a backstory in one episode last season. In this episode, Nightmare put all of New York under a spell, and it was up to Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and Doctor Strange to stop him. Nightmare's plan to defeat these heroes was to have them each face their greatest fear. For Iron Fist, he was taken back to his days in K'un-Lun and when he faced the dragon Shou-Lao, so he could face his own self-perceived inadequacies over being "worthy enough" of his powers. This was done well, and, as a result, remains one of the stand-out episodes of the season. If Spider-Man's other teammates were given the same treatment, we might actually have a good show on our hands.

But now, for the bad:

3) The Avengers crossover. While characters typically associated with the Avengers are nothing new to this show, with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk all appearing at some point or another over the course of the first season.  This planned crossover will feature all of those characters with Hawkeye to boot.

But wait, why am I calling this a crossover?

Simply because it is. This isn't just those characters appearing together as the Avengers on the show. This is being described as a crossover event with the upcoming show Avengers Assemble. This is the long-awaited, long-dreaded, and overly-expected confirmation that this upcoming show is in fact an Avengers cartoon that is in the same continuity as Ultimate Spider-Man, as opposed to a continuation of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes as has been previously stated. While it's still probable that A:EMH was cancelled due to it reaching the 52-episode threshhold, this is definately a blow to any fan of that show.

So, what do you all think? Will you give this show a second chance when it comes back in January? Or is this beyond redemption? I look forward to hearing what you all have to say!