‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ (2012), part of Disney XD’s Marvel Universe animation block, continued Sunday, April 15, 2012 with its fourth episode, “Venom.” However, after watching the episode, I feel as though I’m the one who has been poisoned.

The episode begins with Spider-Man (Drake Bell) speeding down subway tracks trying to escape a tentacle-wielding robot. He doesn’t know the origin of the mysterious attacker but he can tell it wants to capture him. After a high-speed chase, “Spidey” manages to outmaneuver the robot and it gets hit by a train, but not before getting a bit of his DNA unbeknownst to him.

The robot reports back to Doctor Otto Octavius (Tom Kenny), also known as Doctor Octopus, who is working for Norman Osborn to isolate the irradiated spider elements in Spider-Man’s blood to make the perfect weapon. However, the substance he isolates from Spider-Man’s blood is sentient and escapes, looking for its original host.

Meanwhile, Peter narrowly escapes being late for homeroom with the help of Harry Osborn (Matt Lanter), his best friend. Harry asks Peter if he wants to go watch a movie with Mary Jane (Tara Strong) later that afternoon, but Peter’s teammates, Nova, White Tiger, Power Man, and Iron Fist, who also attend his high school as students, show up to talk about their next mission.

Since Harry doesn’t know Peter is Spider-Man, he thinks Peter is blowing him off and gets angry. After ditching his team, Peter consults Mary Jane, who suggests taking his friends to Harry’s place for the movie to help them get along; however, Harry is mad and changes the movie night to a full-blown party, inviting the entire school.

After Peter and company arrive at the party, the symbiote finds them and starts attacking people. Peter and his team suit up and find that the symbiote can possess any one of them and use their powers, but it really just wants to reunite with Peter. After a long difficult fight, they manage to electrocute it and it disappears.

Thus far, this is the worst episode of the bunch. First, Spider-Man overdoses on jokes during the first fight sequence with the robot and during the second fight the symbiote jumps from host to host. As usual, the audience is left to assume this is because he’s just a hyperactive teenager, but the fact that he doesn’t seem to care that this violent sentient goo is forcing his friends to fight each other makes him seem like an unthoughtful jerk.

Second, the origin of Venom is changed completely and does not seem to follow the comic book continuity from ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ or ‘the Amazing Spider-Man’. In ‘the Amazing Spider-Man’, the symbiote is an extraterrestrial being. In ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’, it is a genetically designed suit made by Eddie Brock and Peter Parker’s parents as a cure for cancer that just went wrong.

In the show, the symbiote is a purified version of Spider-Man’s DNA and it just feels like a completely unnecessary change that has nothing to do with Eddie Brock. To add insult to injury, when the symbiote takes over Peter, it calls itself “Venom.” It’s just wrong on so many levels for Venom to not be Eddie Brock. Brock has been a formidable villain in the comic books and cartoons in which he has starred, so to be completely left out of the symbiote’s origin is an unlikable change.

Third, the continued focus on Spider-Man’s teammates rather than Harry and Mary Jane, his best friends, is grating. The show feels less like ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ and more like ‘Spider-Man and his Irritating Friends.’ None of his teammates have developed past the first stage of their introductions. The only one with an outstanding feature is Sam, aka Nova, who is the obnoxious loud-mouthed hothead of the group as well as the most annoying character on the show thus far.

The team’s continued interruption in Peter’s life drains all enjoyment out of the show, which is odd considering one of the writers for the show is Paul Dini—an excellent ensemble character writer who most recognize for helping build the DCAU (DC Animated Universe).

Overall, this is an extremely weak episode with a distasteful take on the Venom mythos. Hopefully, it is just a bad apple in the cart, but there is no telling what lies on the horizon from our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Keep your fingers crossed.

Grade: 2/5

The article ‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ Episode 4 Review appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and directed by Marc Webb, swings into theaters July 3, 2012 and recently released another full-length trailer online. The franchise reboot offers substantial departures from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, but are these changes improvements or downgrades? Let’s take a look at the three main differences between the two.

First, we have our leading men: Andrew Garfield vs. Tobey Maguire. Tobey Maguire first donned the Spidey mask in 2002 at 27 years of age and played a relatively believable high school nerd. His portrayal of Peter Parker focused on the shy, sweeter side of the character rather than the sarcastic side, which rubbed a portion of the comic book fans the wrong way.

However, Maguire appealed to many audience members who knew Parker by name only and were not avid comic book readers, because he was soft-spoken, timid, and easy to relate to. They did not mind the lack of one-liners because Raimi’s script provided many funny moments besides Spider-Man himself.

Based on the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, age 29, seems to be leaning towards the more snarky, misunderstood side of Peter Parker. We get a few pretty good one-liners from him in the trailer, indicating that his Peter Parker will be closer to the duality shown in the comic books.

Peter Parker is the penultimate mild-mannered guy akin to Clark Kent while Spider-Man is the wisecracking crime fighter. While this appears to be an improvement, it also begs the question if Garfield will be able to show Peter’s kind heart as well.

Second, we have our leading ladies: Emma Stone vs. Kirsten Dunst. Kirsten Dunst is probably the largest complaint about Raimi’s Spider-Man from comic book fans besides Spidey’s lack of one-liners. While she is a lovely actress, Dunst often failed to emit the sharp tongue and fierce independence that Mary Jane Watson has in the comic books.

She played her much softer in the first film and she wasn’t able to participate in any roles other than the love interest, the damsel in distress, and the supportive but troubled girlfriend. Furthermore, Mary Jane was not written up to standards in the widely disliked ‘Spider-Man 3’ (2007) because her complaining about Peter’s success made her seem petty and unlikable.

Emma Stone, however, is a rising star due to her work in comedies like ‘Superbad‘ (2007), ‘Zombieland‘ (2009), and ‘Easy A‘ (2010) where she is incarnates a sarcastic, tough female lead. This has also drawn criticism from Spidey fans because Stone looks like the perfect Mary Jane but director Marc Webb decided to go with the character of Gwen Stacy instead: who is less known to general public and not nearly as strong a personality as Mary Jane Watson.

Thus, casting Emma Stone is an improvement over Kirsten Dunst, but casting her as Gwen Stacy might be a bit of a miscalculation. Third, we have our villains: Willem Dafoe vs. Rhys Ifans. Willem Dafoe’s portrayal of Green Goblin is very well-known and mostly enjoyed by the fans because he showed the slow spiral of the character from a cold, slimy business man to a maniacal super villain.

He showed some hints of sympathy here and there, but for the most part, he was the hardcore bad guy who gave Spider-Man a serious run for his money.

The Amazing Spider-Man has chosen Dr. Curt Connors, aka the Lizard, for its first villain. The choice is very interesting and wise because the Lizard is generally a sympathetic character because he and Peter Parker were friends before the life-changing accident that turned him into a walking reptile.

Dafoe will be a hard act to follow, but the new trailer shows some great potential for action sequences by having the Lizard claw his way through the roofs of cars and sling poor Spidey around with his monstrous tail. However, Rhys Ifans is not as well-known as Willem Dafoe and has not worked on many action films so it will be interesting to see how he handles the role.

Time will show which Spider-Man will ring true with the general public. There are fans on both sides of the fence and some who straddle it, waiting for July to roll around and give them a definite answer. All that can be said is that these two films take different approaches to the beloved web-slinging hero and that no matter who portrays him, Spider-Man fans want a respectful adaptation and plenty of fun along the way.

Image Courtesy of  https://www.facebook.com/theamazingspiderman

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