Ultimate Spider-Man Season 1

By now you all know the story of nerdy high school kid Peter Parker, who is bitten by a radioactive spider and given the proportionate strength, speed and agility of a spider. When the first series of Ultimate Spider-Man begins, we are already a year into Peters life as Spider-Man (sparing the kiddies from the death of Uncle Ben, I’m assuming). When Peter is recruited by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., he begins to undergo rigorous training and learning valuable lessons, on his way to becoming the Ultimate Spider-Man! 

Being a huge fan of Spider-Man since I was a young boy, I’m always interested to see how my favourite stories, situations and characters are taken and given new life and new interpretations. In that instance, Ultimate Spider-Man walks a fine line. Diehard fans may find the newer interpretations of these characters a little lacklustre, with Doctor Octopus and Sandman (as examples) falling a little short of the mark. But it’s not a comparison of new and old we’re looking at here today - it’s the look at the new.  

The humour in the show is good (sometimes great!) and the animation is a cut above most other animated shows out there right now and it is littered with many characters from the established Marvel Universe (including Hulk, Nick Fury, Nova, Beetle, Sandman, The Wrecking Crew, Doctor Octopus, Iron Fist, J. Jonah Jameson and Norman Osborn) and an outstanding turn from Marvel bringing in Marvel Cinematic Universe regular, Clark Gregg into the show as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson! 

With only 7 episodes to sample on this disc, the selection is pretty good across the board, giving you a good taste, but I’d be interested myself to see a few more and for a better look into this new take on our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!