Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5842036-20121208032753/@comment-1895174-20121212215236

99spidey99 wrote: All the heros are kids and the stories are written that way See, I don't have a problem with that. This show actually worked best when it stopped pretending to be a Spider-Man cartoon and instead was a Marvel comics version of Teen Titans.

Actually, we might view this show more positively if we stop calling it "Ultimate Spider-Man" and instead call it "Young Avengers" or something like that. With a different title, the show wouldn't really be seen as a Spider-Man cartoon, which it really isn't. For whatever reason (I suspect it has something to do with how Spectacular Spider-Man came to an end), the show has pretty much avoided Spider-Man's traditional rogues gallery. This is a really odd decision. As me and ADour had it out on one of the blog posts, Spider-Man's rogues gallery is the best known rogues gallery in all of Marvel comics. Without them, it feels just doesn't feel like a Spider-Man cartoon.

Rather, they use a bunch of guest appearances from other Marvel Heroes and then make the villain of the episode one that is usually associated with that guest, even when a Spider-Man villain may have made more sense. So when the guest of the week was Wolverine, the villains of the week were Sabretooth and Mesmero, even when those two could have easily been replaced by Kraven and Mysterio. When Iron Man was the guest, the villain was the Living Laser, and when the Hulk was the guest the villain was Zzzax, even when either of those could have just as easily been Electro. Sometimes, there wasn't even a guest hero, like the episode with Juggernaut as its villain (as opposed to Rhino).

To put it in a different context, consider that this show is currently has the exact same episode count as Spectacular. That show managed to fit almost all of Spider-Man's major rogues, the only exceptions being Scorpion, Hobgoblin, and Carnage, and even they were set up to be introduced in the unproduced third season of that show by having Mac Gargan, Roderick Kingsley, and Cletus Kasady all given cameo appearances in the second season. And on top of that it included a great deal of Spider-Man's supporting cast. Ultimate on the other hand, has only used 5 Spider-Man villains: Doc Ock, Venom (who isn't Eddie Brock), Beetle, Sandman, and Green Goblin (who didn't appear until the season finale), and only a small handful of the support cast. Other than that, all of the characters are drawn from the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other Marvel properties. Of the villains he's fought, I think Doctor Doom and the Trapster have the most appearances.

This simply is not a Spider-Man cartoon. It's Marvel's version of Teen Titans.

And while I'm at it:
 * Spider-Man = Robin (team leader, most well known character)
 * Power Man = Cyborg (large African-American hero voiced by Khary Payton)
 * Nova = Starfire (similar abilities, alien origins, closest emotional connection to team leader albeit in opposite ways)
 * Iron Fist = Raven (mystical, most grim/serious character)
 * White Tiger = Beast Boy (Animal-based character)