How would you launch a new Spider-Man cartoon series?

[CrimsonEchidna]

Spider-Man in the animated department has been a rather contentious subject ever since the abrupt cancellation of Spectacular Spider-Man 14 years ago. Ultimate Spider-Man went the Teen Titans route of being a teen superhero team before becoming about the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man 2017...sort of did the exact same thing just cutting the middle man out of the other teen heroes and just being a Spider-Team series.

And the upcoming Disney+ series, even though the creators have been intentional vague about it, is pretty blatantly going to be an alternate universe take on the Tom Holland Peter Parker.

So if you had the keys to the kingdom to launch a new animated series, how would you go about it?

[Jman27]

probably similar to the 94 show. single episode with the villain of the week with the end of the season being the 2-3 part. Have team up episodes with other marvel characters. introduce Miles as Spider man in season 2. Season 1 finale villain will be the sinister 6. Season 2 Green Goblin season 3 Venom season 4 Avengers and season 5 with is the series finale can end with Peter vs Norman one last time. 13 to 20 episodes per season.

[CaptainUniverse]

I think I would go for a Sony Spider-Verse animated spin-off series about Peter B., MJ and Mayday. Infuse it with plenty of humor, drama and action. All the things that made ITSV good. It would be about Peter B. balancing his responsibilities as a husband, a father and Spider-Man...oh, and also a teacher. I think I would draw heavily from the JMS run while sprinkling in elements from elsewhere across Spider-Man's 60 year history. Maybe have a couple flashback stories so we can adapt tales like Kraven's Last Hunt, The Night Gwen Stacy Died and The Death of Harry Osborn. Really go all out in fleshing out the world of Sony's E-616.

[Frontier]

My criteria for a Spider-Man cartoon:

- If you're going to start him in high school, show him chronologically aging through high school rather than be a perpetual teenager. Otherwise just start him as an adult either in college or not.

- Have the Daily Bugle be actually relevant.

- Don't try to replace Spidey's supporting cast with a bunch of random teen heroes or Spider-People.

- No other Spider-People or Spider-Teams. If you do have other Spiders, they're not main characters because the story should be about Peter and his double life and not about Peter teaming-up or forming teams with other heroes.

- A supporting cast that is actually relevant, likeable, and compelling.

- Make the villains interesting, investing, and dangerous.

- Don't try to avoid the romance portion of Spider-Man until the last minute because "kids/boys don't like romance" or any other kind of outdated mandate about cartoons.

- Rhino is a guy in a suit and not a mutated Rhino man.

- Stop de-aging villains so they can go to high school with Peter.

- Good animation and fight scenes. None of that random slo-mo that was in Marvel's Spider-Man.

- If you're going to make a change to canon, make it one that makes sense or is believable and doesn't fly in the face of the characters or the property. Or something you can actually sell to the audience.

- NO FOURTH WALL BREAKS.

- Actually focus on the Peter Parker side and actually give him a relevant civilian life.

- Don't make MJ a reporter.

- Limit team-ups to maybe 2-3 times a season.

[Chris0013]

Start it with Peter as a sophomore in high school at 15 years old and each season is a year of his life. So the end of the 3rd season he graduates high school and beginning of 4th he starts college.

[PCN24454]

Absolutely no greater Marvel characters. The series would be completely Spider-Man.

In Season 5 or so, he would get Miles as a sidekick.

[Mister Mets]

I would insist that the show allow PG-13 material. This would distinguish it from most animated takes on the character and mean that kids are less likely to grow out of being fans.

It would start with Peter as a sophomore in high school. Each year of the show is roughly equivalent to one year for Peter Parker.

I would aim to have an arc and 'big bad" for each season. So it could be that Doctor Octopus is the main villain of year one, the Norman Osborn Green Goblin is the main villain of year two and the alien costume saga is the big story for year three.

I haven't seen much of it but the show that may be most similar in terms of tone and ambition would be the CW version of The Flash.

[Chris0013]

Absolutely no greater Marvel characters. The series would be completely Spider-Man.

In Season 5 or so, he would get Miles as a sidekick.

I would be fine with 2-3 team ups per season.

[Mister Mets]

Start it with Peter as a sophomore in high school at 15 years old and each season is a year of his life. So the end of the 3rd season he graduates high school and beginning of 4th he starts college.

I didn't realize we had the same idea.

My criteria for a Spider-Man cartoon:

- If you're going to start him in high school, show him chronologically aging through high school rather than be a perpetual teenager. Otherwise just start him as an adult either in college or not.

- Have the Daily Bugle be actually relevant.

- Don't try to replace Spidey's supporting cast with a bunch of random teen heroes or Spider-People.

- No other Spider-People or Spider-Teams. If you do have other Spiders, they're not main characters because the story should be about Peter and his double life and not about Peter teaming-up or forming teams with other heroes.

- A supporting cast that is actually relevant, likeable, and compelling.

- Make the villains interesting, investing, and dangerous.

- Don't try to avoid the romance portion of Spider-Man until the last minute because "kids/boys don't like romance" or any other kind of outdated mandate about cartoons.

- Rhino is a guy in a suit and not a mutated Rhino man.

- Stop de-aging villains so they can go to high school with Peter.

- Good animation and fight scenes. None of that random slo-mo that was in Marvel's Spider-Man.

- If you're going to make a change to canon, make it one that makes sense or is believable and doesn't fly in the face of the characters or the property. Or something you can actually sell to the audience.

- NO FOURTH WALL BREAKS.

- Actually focus on the Peter Parker side and actually give him a relevant civilian life.

- Don't make MJ a reporter.

- Limit team-ups to maybe 2-3 times a season.

I mostly agree here.

The supporting cast makes him seem normal. That works better if they're not superheroes or spider-people.

The ship has probably sailed when it comes to other spiders, although there is the question of how and when to introduce them. Miles is supposed to be younger than Peter. Spider-Gwen works because Peter lost Gwen. It might make sense to introduce a future version of Miles.

I definitely agree that they should keep the romance. It worked for the movies.

I also agree that they shouldn't de-age bad guys. If they want to use teen villains, they can use existing ones. But a part of the appeal of the series is the kid out of his league against adult enemies.

[Frontier]

I didn't realize we had the same idea.

I mostly agree here.

The supporting cast makes him seem normal. That works better if they're not superheroes or spider-people.

The ship has probably sailed when it comes to other spiders, although there is the question of how and when to introduce them. Miles is supposed to be younger than Peter. Spider-Gwen works because Peter lost Gwen. It might make sense to introduce a future version of Miles.

I definitely agree that they should keep the romance. It worked for the movies.

I also agree that they shouldn't de-age bad guys. If they want to use teen villains, they can use existing ones. But a part of the appeal of the series is the kid out of his league against adult enemies.

I have never seen Miles integrated well into a Peter cartoon outside the Amazing Friends cartoon but that's for preschoolers. They need to stop making Miles and Peter close in age in adaptions.

I would say the appeal is less him being out of his league against adults but more overcoming and besting them despite his age and the experience gap.

[Iclifton]

A Spider-man TAS sequel centered on Miles Morales. We have seen pretty much every version of Peter get a series. TAS featured the OG classic villains, side characters and status quo. Spectacular did the same thing except with a modernized twist focusing on High School Peter. Then we got a bunch of stuff in between.

I want a series focused on Mile`s world. Maybe feature a retired Peter mentoring Miles. But no other Spider people. Ever since Miles came over to 616 he has kind of just existed in Peters ecosystem. He was a much more interesting character when he was the sole Spider-man in the Ultimate U. As much as I love Into The Spiderverse, it focuses on the multiverse and uses Miles as the audience stand in.

I want something centered on developing Miles world, his villains and his side cast. A series like this would feel fresh and full of potential. I am also not a fan of Peter and Miles being close in age. Miles should still be in the "underdog" or learning phase of his career.

[Huntsman Spider]

As I've said before in other threads, I'd do a spiritual adaptation of Spider-Man: Life Story, with each season adapting stories from each decade of Spider-Man's published existence.

Season 1 would be the 1960s, dealing with Peter graduating from Midtown High School and about to start college at Empire State University while struggling to balance that with his work for The Daily Bugle to financially support his Aunt May and his heroic responsibilities as Spider-Man, building up in the first half to a confrontation with the Sinister Six, then in the second half, to a confrontation with the masked would-be crime lord known as the Green Goblin in the finale, ending on an epilogue that'll really shake up his social life as Peter Parker.

Season 2 would be the 1970s, dealing with Peter and his social circle in college, consisting of classmates Harry Osborn, Randy Robertson, Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy . . . and Mary Jane Watson, and how much being Spider-Man strains his friendships and his burgeoning love life, only to culminate in an adaptation of The Death of Gwen Stacy, followed by the original Clone Saga as the finale of that season.

Season 3 would be the 1980s, dealing with Peter struggling even more than usual, with the Black Cat offering a salving distraction for him in his Spider-Man alter ego, at least compared to how much of a challenge being Peter Parker has become. An adaptation of Secret Wars would be a major arc, too, with Spider-Man coming back in a snazzy new black alien costume, only to find that he really should have looked that gift horse in the mouth, and eventually the debut of Venom, as well as Peter and Mary Jane finally clearing the air and becoming much closer to each other than before.

Season 4 would be the 1990s, with Peter's relationship with Mary Jane as a throughline amidst ongoing challenges like the return of Venom, the debut of Venom's more murderous and depraved symbiotic offspring Carnage, the rebirth of the Green Goblin, and even a cluster**** of Spider-Clones, as per the mysteriously revived mastermind of the Clone Saga from Season 2's finale . . . only to culminate in the reveal of the mastermind behind the mastermind --- the one and only Green Goblin. Don't worry; there is a happy ending despite all these dire-sounding challenges.

Season 5 would be the 2000s, with a mysterious multibillionaire named Ezekiel revealing to Spider-Man (what he thinks is) the true nature of his spider-powers, as well as that he himself possesses nearly identical abilities, placing them both on the radar of an equally mysterious and implacable predator named Morlun who will stop at nothing to kill Spider-Man. Meanwhile, a national tragedy inexorably draws the wider, albeit somewhat loose, network of superheroes in New York City (and elsewhere) into confrontation with each other, which also forces Peter Parker to decide where he stands, putting him in conflict with heroic idols like Captain America and Iron Man --- once co-leaders of the Avengers, now violently at odds with one another, leading separate factions of heroes based on their divergent responses to that national tragedy. In the end . . . who will be left standing?

Season 6 would be the 2010s, dealing with the fallout of the so-called "superhero Civil War" from Peter Parker's perspective, as one of his worst enemies has once again risen to take advantage of the fissures and disarray amongst the superheroes for his own gain and dark ambitions, ambitions that involve inflicting yet more suffering upon the web-slinger. However, that won't be his only or his biggest problem, as he's drawn into a conflict crisscrossing multiple dimensions and realities, realizing by the end that his best friend --- as well as his worst enemy --- is and has always been . . . himself.

Season 7 would be the final season, adapting the 2020s comics, with Spider-Man's past coming back to haunt him in more ways than one, which causes him to wonder what his legacy will ultimately be, especially given the growing omnipresence of a mysterious megacorporation known as the Beyond Corporation aiming to coopt his name, interspersed with flashforwards to the year 2099, a future overrun by even more massive, even more unscrupulous megacorporations that have come to dominate so much of the world and society, though even in such an era . . . a hero will arise anew. When those threads of the present and the future intertwine, however, it may very well answer all of Spider-Man's questions about his legacy, including the ones he's most afraid to ask. (Don't worry, as dire as all this sounds . . . there is a happy ending here.)

[PCN24454]

I have never seen Miles integrated well into a Peter cartoon outside the Amazing Friends cartoon but that's for preschoolers. They need to stop making Miles and Peter close in age in adaptions.

I would say the appeal is less him being out of his league against adults but more overcoming and besting them despite his age and the experience gap.

What experience gap? They all got their powers around the same time.

[PCN24454]

A Spider-man TAS sequel centered on Miles Morales. We have seen pretty much every version of Peter get a series. TAS featured the OG classic villains, side characters and status quo. Spectacular did the same thing except with a modernized twist focusing on High School Peter. Then we got a bunch of stuff in between.

I want a series focused on Mile`s world. Maybe feature a retired Peter mentoring Miles. But no other Spider people. Ever since Miles came over to 616 he has kind of just existed in Peters ecosystem. He was a much more interesting character when he was the sole Spider-man in the Ultimate U. As much as I love Into The Spiderverse, it focuses on the multiverse and uses Miles as the audience stand in.

I want something centered on developing Miles world, his villains and his side cast. A series like this would feel fresh and full of potential. I am also not a fan of Peter and Miles being close in age. Miles should still be in the "underdog" or learning phase of his career.

I don’t know why people are so allergic to other Spider people are so quick to put non-Spider-Man characters in the story.

Plus, Rhino was best when he was a Rhino mutant. He really fit into Peter’s world that way.

[Blanks]

A Spider-man TAS sequel centered on Miles Morales. We have seen pretty much every version of Peter get a series. TAS featured the OG classic villains, side characters and status quo. Spectacular did the same thing except with a modernized twist focusing on High School Peter. Then we got a bunch of stuff in between.

I want a series focused on Mile`s world. Maybe feature a retired Peter mentoring Miles. But no other Spider people. Ever since Miles came over to 616 he has kind of just existed in Peters ecosystem. He was a much more interesting character when he was the sole Spider-man in the Ultimate U. As much as I love Into The Spiderverse, it focuses on the multiverse and uses Miles as the audience stand in.

I want something centered on developing Miles world, his villains and his side cast. A series like this would feel fresh and full of potential. I am also not a fan of Peter and Miles being close in age. Miles should still be in the "underdog" or learning phase of his career.

All this… but I want Ben Reilly involved somehow.