Marvel's new Spider-Man animated series

[Frontier]

How about we don't give MJ powers and just have her be an awesome and capable civilian character ?

[GamerSlyRatchet]

How about we don't give MJ powers and just have her be an awesome and capable civilian character ?

Pretty much my preference. The show already dragged its feel giving powers to the characters that were actually meant to have powers. Just let MJ be MJ.

There's still so much ground to cover anyway. All the guest heroes, Mania/Scorn/Scream, the other heroes being possessed by symbiotes, Connors's treachery, Harry's return, the symbiotes' backstory, MAYBE Knull, etc.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, and only 10 half hours to cover it in (the 6 episodes in this season are designed so they can be split in two, which would better suit foreign TV channels).

[Ursalink]

How about we don't give MJ powers and just have her be an awesome and capable civilian character ?

I get your point, pal. But then again, it's quite tipycal that the superhero's love interest ends up having powers of her own at some point:
+ Superman: Lois Lane becomes Superwoman (in several ocassions).
+ Iron Man: Pepper Potts becomes Iron Woman/Rescue.
+ Thor: Jane Forster becomes worthy of Mjolnit and becomes Thor.
+ Hulk: His cousin became She-Hulk, and later, Betty Ross became Red She-Hulk.
+ Spider-Man: In Renew Your Vows, Mary Jane becomes Spinneret.

Besides, to use MJ as a awesome and capable character, wait they had to do wait until the very last season for it? It's similar to what they did in "Ultimate Spider-Man", Mary Jane became Spider-Woman in the last episodes, leaving not much time for her to shine. (Her Spider-Persona was clearly based on her alternative future daughter, Mayday Parker).

Pretty much my preference. The show already dragged its feel giving powers to the characters that were actually meant to have powers. Just let MJ be MJ.

There's still so much ground to cover anyway. All the guest heroes, Mania/Scorn/Scream, the other heroes being possessed by symbiotes, Connors's treachery, Harry's return, the symbiotes' backstory, MAYBE Knull, etc.

I don't think we will have such luck, pals. If they wanted to use MJ as just a civil character, why the webs had to wait until the very last season to introduce her? It's quite similar to what they did in the last season of "Ultimate Spider-Man". I'm pretty sure they are going to find a way to cover an MJ with powers, as today's episode with Mordoc and AIM could have been filler plots.

Besides, you mentioned Mania, Scorn and Scream; but you should ask... WHO are going to be their "hosts"? I mean, you could say the symbiotes wil use the voices of their hosts, just like Venom used Flash's voice first, and then he used Brock, even when he no longer needed Brock. So, we can assume the symbiotes will have their own voices, but they will still need hosts. Who will be used by these symbiotes? Well, we don't have many females, actually: Gwen, Anya, Liz Allan?, Black Cat and now, Mary Jane Watson.

The point here is that, based on comics, all these "symbiote's sister" have potential to bond with Mary Jane and turn her into another spider; one way or another.
+ Mania is a "clone" of Venom, so bonding with Venom would make MJ look like in "Renew Your Vows", when she bonded with venom.
+ Scorn is a symbiote/machine hybrid, and she could bond with the Iron Spider's armour (in case it appears) and bonds with MJ too, as she used the armour once.
+ Scream's original host was Donna Diego, a redhaired that actually looked quite much like Mary Jane herself.

And after seeing their first "face to face" wasted, I believe the "Face it, Tiger" scene will be like in "Ultimate Spider-Man", when Mary Jane bonds to a symbiote and becomes another spider.

[Digifiend]

It'd be weird if Andi Benton wasn't introduced. She was Mania, and is now Scream, so she's used two of the three symbiote sisters!

[GamerSlyRatchet]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they just made them symbiotes without hosts, like Venom is at this point.

[Ursalink]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they just made them symbiotes without hosts, like Venom is at this point.

Maybe, but where would be the fun in that? I mean, with a host, symbiotes have a host in several ways. I mean, they stay alive and they keep someone hostage. Just imagine if a symbiote takes control of Aunt May and forces Spider-Man to fight her. That would be cruel, don't you think?

[Frontier]

So Miles is back. I figured he and the girls would be back in the plot sooner then later, but not this quick. They even act like he's been gone longer then it feels like in the show. Which I guess isn't a bad thing, because Miles could definitely use as much spotlight on this show as he can get.

MJ finally makes her long-awaited debut...only to end up being in the special for five minutes. Pretty much all of her lines and scenes were featured in promotional material for the special, and while I'm sure she'll play more of a role in the plot moving forward, it's a little disappointing to not see her get to do much or interact with Peter for more then a few seconds after spending so long being kept out of the show .

(And they totally retcon out that Peter and MJ apparently knew each other in season 1).

Y'know, it's kind of weird to see Peter immediately blushing over a girl after two seasons of him not being interested in girls or romance at all (beyond some teasing with Ms. Marvel). It's like the producers finally got permission to do some romance, only have 12 episodes to do it, and need to hit the ground running. In-universe I have to wonder if MJ is just that cute (compared to Gwen or Anya) or if Peter has a thing for green-eyed redheads ?

"Avenger Internships?" Is that this show's equivalent to "Avenger sidekicks?" Has Ms. Marvel retroactively been an intern this whole time? Who else is an intern?

"I don't have a lot of friends without powers." The show actually brings it up! Isn't that a weird thing for Peter Parker to say? That list gets even shorter if you try and list all his friends who aren't scientists. No wonder MJ barely got any screentime in this episode.

I never thought about the fact that Peter and Riri both have dead parents as part of their backstory. I guess that's the kind of thing that's interesting to see when character cross generations in an adaption like this.

Amadeus Cho turning up as the Totally Awesome Hulk felt kind of random. Like, I get promoting Ironheart, but Cho hasn't been a Hulk in the comics for a while now, and it would probably be jarring for anyone watching Ultimate Spider-Man to see him go from Iron Spider to a Hulk without any real background or setup (and that's the most exposure the general audience is likely to have of him prior to this).

So Peter gets to pal around with Miles' friends, while Miles gets to be the one who really interacts with Dr. Strange, who is usually more associated with Peter? I guess that's fair?

Wait, The Avengers are in space? Where the Symbiote Invasion is coming from? Don't tell me The Avengers are going to return to Earth infected and it'll be up to Spidey, the Spiders, and the Interns to stop them ?

I get your point, pal. But then again, it's quite tipycal that the superhero's love interest ends up having powers of her own at some point:
+ Superman: Lois Lane becomes Superwoman (in several ocassions).
+ Iron Man: Pepper Potts becomes Iron Woman/Rescue.
+ Thor: Jane Forster becomes worthy of Mjolnit and becomes Thor.
+ Hulk: His cousin became She-Hulk, and later, Betty Ross became Red She-Hulk.
+ Spider-Man: In Renew Your Vows, Mary Jane becomes Spinneret.

Besides, to use MJ as a awesome and capable character, wait they had to do wait until the very last season for it? It's similar to what they did in "Ultimate Spider-Man", Mary Jane became Spider-Woman in the last episodes, leaving not much time for her to shine. (Her Spider-Persona was clearly based on her alternative future daughter, Mayday Parker).

I'm not seeing any of this as necessarily a good thing. It's an overused gimmick.

I don't think we will have such luck, pals. If they wanted to use MJ as just a civil character, why the webs had to wait until the very last season to introduce her? It's quite similar to what they did in the last season of "Ultimate Spider-Man". I'm pretty sure they are going to find a way to cover an MJ with powers, as today's episode with Mordoc and AIM could have been filler plots.

I assume because they were adapting from Dan Slott's run for the past two seasons.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they just made them symbiotes without hosts, like Venom is at this point.

Considering they all have individual VA's, I'm guessing they latch onto and possess three random girls to have voices. Venom didn't have a voice until it was bonded to Brock long enough (which I have my own problems with, but that's another thing).

[Digifiend]

The Avengers do return infected, we've already seen concept art.

The Ms. Marvel we've seen is supposed to be the same one from Avengers: Secret Wars, so she was meant to be the rookie member of the team (only Thunderstrike, the show's version of Jane Foster Thor, is more inexperienced, as she only got her powers at the end of the season) - but not an intern. Maybe they combined the Champions with the Avengers Initiative/Academy, using members from the former and the concept of the latter?

[Frontier]

The Avengers do return infected, we've already seen concept art.

Yeah, but this provides context for how it happens.

Maybe they combined the Champions with the Avengers Initiative/Academy, using members from the former and the concept of the latter?

That would make sense.

[Mistah K88]

...Have there been an abundance of dropped storylines in this show or is it just me? I admit I haven't watched the show much but there are a few things I'm wondering about that I'm not sure if anything has followed up on the initial premise. What happened to Osborn Academy? I know that the voice of Shocker passed away, so I understand the reasoning of never using the character.

[Pattern_Maker]

...Have there been an abundance of dropped storylines in this show or is it just me? I admit I haven't watched the show much but there are a few things I'm wondering about that I'm not sure if anything has followed up on the initial premise. What happened to Osborn Academy? I know that the voice of Shocker passed away, so I understand the reasoning of never using the character.

This probably happened because Kevin Shinick was the supervising producer of season one and then Kevin Burke and Chris "Doc" Wyatt took over starting with season two. The Jackal is a major storyline from season one that's been forgotten since he has made an appearance since the end of Spider-Island. I'd headcanon that the Spider-Island virus somehow depowered him and he had no resources to recreate any of his animal formulas. But that's too much plot convenience. Another storyline is those lunar crystals that turned John Jameson and those Horizon students into Gamma-Wolves, but I never considered that major.

During the last two episodes of season one, Norman didn't care about Osborn Academy being destroyed. He just wanted all of Harry's projects to be under Oscorp property and to not be part of Horizon High. That's probably why Harry never bothered to reopen the school in season two. As for the students they probably went off to other schools.

[Digifiend]

Hmm, that producer change may well explain why they apparently forgot the mascot in that one season 1 episode was meant to be MJ.

[Frontier]

Yeah, I had to write off The Jackal as some kind of off-screen arc that happened because everyone treats him like he was dealt with when that was very obviously not what originally happened.

They never did explain who the guy in the Stealth Spider suit was.

[GamerSlyRatchet]

As for the students they probably went off to other schools.

We saw that as Alistair went to Horizon. But yeah, the change in showrunners probably meant the end of the school rivalries and the heavy focus on science. I can't say I mind, frankly.

They never did explain who the guy in the Stealth Spider suit was.

This is never outright confirmed in the episode itself, but the credits do include Josh Keaton as "Norman Osborn/Monster Norman". It's really baffling since that plot point is dropped once Norman is cured.