Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon

[The Overlord]

What has a better take on a modernized Spider-Man mythos, Ultimate Spider-Man or the specular spider-man cartoon? Which one does a better job of handling Spidey his supporting cast, his villains, etc.

 

[SSJmole]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I prefer Ultimate Spider-man's take on almost everything. However he's what I think Spectacular spider-man did better:

1st Venom. While I've grown to like Ultimate Venom at first I hated him. I shouldn't have hated him. But it took the game to get him to grow on me. Spectacular spider-man build up Eddie from the start so it was much cooler when he turned. Plus he was closer to 616 one which is also great.


2nd The Lizard was handled very well on the cartoon. In ultimate spider-man he was just meh in Ultimate comics.

 

[The Overlord]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I prefer Ultimate Spider-man's take on almost everything. However he's what I think Spectacular spider-man did better:

1st Venom. While I've grown to like Ultimate Venom at first I hated him. I shouldn't have hated him. But it took the game to get him to grow on me. Spectacular spider-man build up Eddie from the start so it was much cooler when he turned. Plus he was closer to 616 one which is also great.


2nd The Lizard was handled very well on the cartoon. In ultimate spider-man he was just meh in Ultimate comics.

I gotta disagree, I kinda feel the opposite.

I feel the supporting cast and villains are way more fleshed out in Spectacular. Spectacular Electro is a way deeper character then Ultimate Electro, Spectacular Sandman actually shows up on a semi regular basis, which makes him better then Ultimate Sandman, who has been M.I.A for years. Ultimate vulture it isn't even a contest, Spectacular Vulture is a billion times more interesting then that joke. Plus Spectacular Shocker is actually somewhat threatening, compared to Ultimate Shocker.

Also I like the supporting cast way more too, I like the fact the Spectacular cast is more racial diverse, it makes sense in 2008, while it seems like in USM the entire cast white, like their still stuck in the 60s or something. Plus I think Spectacular Flash is more interesting a jerk with a few good impulses, while Ultimate Flash is just a jerk period.

The only thing that I think is on equal footing is the handling of Spidey himself, both projects do a good job at that.

 

[SSJmole]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I'll agree with Spectacular Vulture as Ultimate Vulture was a waste

 

[The Overlord]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I'll agree with Spectacular Vulture as Ultimate Vulture was a waste

Well we can agree on that. :wink:

Also I like Spectacular Carnage better then Ultimate Carnage, because Spectacular Carnage doesn't exist and likely never will (Greg Weisman doesn't like him) that's the best direction you can take for a character like Carnage.

 

[SSJmole]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

Well we can agree on that. :wink:

Also I like Spectacular Carnage better then Ultimate Carnage, because Spectacular Carnage doesn't exist and likely never will (Greg Weisman doesn't like him) that's the best direction you can take for a character like Carnage.

:lol:

I don't like 616 Carnage but Ultimate Carnage I thought the clone element plus killing Gwen then becoming Gwen and been Peter himself (game) was an interesting dynamic to add the character. I do like Ultimate Carnage.

 

[The Overlord]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

:lol:

I don't like 616 Carnage but Ultimate Carnage I thought the clone element plus killing Gwen then becoming Gwen and been Peter himself (game) was an interesting dynamic to add the character. I do like Ultimate Carnage.

I'm sorry I think he sucks, Gwen's death was lame, it was totally about shock value, it wasn't interesting at all. Plus Ultimate carnage is very boring, more a plot device then a character. Plus Carnage turning into Gwen is just lame and really weird. The carnage arc was the first dip quality in USM.

I don't blame Bendis for making Ultimate carnage suck, he always sucks, 616 Carnage sucks, Ultimate Carange sucks and animated Carnage sucks, its hard thinking of a version of the character that doesn't suck, everything Carnage touchs turns to crap. I blame Bendis for giving carnage his own arc (even though he doesn't like the character), when there were better characters and concepts that should have gotten an arc before him.

 

[Issued]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I will go character by character

--Peter/Spidey--
I love how Peter constantly keeps leaving his loved ones behind in the middle of something to go save the city in Spectacular.
I always felt that was the only thing missing in Ultimate Spidey, I dont remember any scene where he leaves Mary Jane in the middle of a shopping mall to fight some random villain in Ultimate.
But anything else related to Peter is surely 10 times better than Spectacular simply because it's not a cartoon made for 10 y-o kiddos.

--Aunt May--
Of course Ultimate Aunt May rules! She always felt like a woman that could actually exist until the very moment she put a magnum on Brock's head. Spectacular May is just a variant of 616 May, which has no speciality... just an old and sweet lady.

--MJ--
Ultimate MJ is probably better than spectacular, at least she doesn't date every single male teenager who exists on the main story...
On the other hand she turns into a huge red hairy monster!
I changed my mind, spectacular MJ is far better.

--Gwen--
I fell in love with the over-confident psychotic Gwen of Ultimate, and the nerdy Gwen of Spectacular gets nowhere close to that.

--Harry--
Harry is probably the only character I felt like Spectacular handled better than Ultimate, Ultimate Harry never felt like that-big-a-part in Peter's life eventhough he was supposed to be his best friend
Spectacular beats

--Norman Osborn--
No need to argue this one.Ultimate Norman rocks!

--Brock/Venom--
Spectacular Brock is slightly better, because the character has an actual build-up
On the other hand Ultimate Venom is definetly better than Spectacular, simply because he actually starts off as a brainless monstrousity and evolves... rather than I am suddenly able to do anything spidey can venom...

 

[Ultimate Houde]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

I haven't read any posts in here.

I simply want to state that Spectacular (Which is spelled incorrectly in the title, a mod should fix that) Spider-man the cartoon, while good, blew it's load too early. They hit a huge number villains in the first arc, so I have no idea where the creative team is going to go from here.

 

[Gothamite]

I'd say Ultimate Spider-Man probably beats it, but not by a whole lot. Bear in mind, I've only read Volumes 1-4 of Ultimate Spider-Man, so it's still very good at this point. I understand that it hit the stinker-point soon after that.

 

[vmenge]

Re: Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Specular Spider-Man cartoon

Also I like the supporting cast way more too, I like the fact the Spectacular cast is more racial diverse, it makes sense in 2008, while it seems like in USM the entire cast white, like their still stuck in the 60s or something. Plus I think Spectacular Flash is more interesting a jerk with a few good impulses, while Ultimate Flash is just a jerk period.

i'm not really bothered by the lack of racial diversity, it doesn't take any of the realism away, neither does it make the supporting cast boring or uninteresting.
actually, usm does have some racial diversity, and even though it's just like 3 or 4 characters, i don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[ourchair]

I like the fact the Spectacular cast is more racial diverse, it makes sense in 2008

Because America was LESS racially diverse before.

 

[The Overlord]

Because America was LESS racially diverse before.

Ah yes it was, there were far less non white immigrants in the 60s in America and with civil rights struggle still going on, it was less likely to see white and black students in the same highschool.

USM was created in 2000, when things were more diverse, so why is almost everyone still white?

i'm not really bothered by the lack of racial diversity, it doesn't take any of the realism away, neither does it make the supporting cast boring or uninteresting.
actually, usm does have some racial diversity, and even though it's just like 3 or 4 characters, i don't see anything wrong with that.

Like who? How many non white students are there in USM?

I haven't read any posts in here.

I simply want to state that Spectacular (Which is spelled incorrectly in the title, a mod should fix that) Spider-man the cartoon, while good, blew it's load too early. They hit a huge number villains in the first arc, so I have no idea where the creative team is going to go from here.

Not really, all they did was introduce these villains, they didn't throw them away, there are still tons of stories that can be done with villains now that they have been introduced, they do have 40 years worth of stories to work with here. In the second season, we will see the Master Planer saga and more revealations on the true nature of the Green Goblin.

 

[SSJmole]

The racial diversity thing though has one problem. 616. Let me explain or try to. The ultimate universe is still a universe based on already created characters. You change too many races and people complain, they always do. Don't change any and people complain.

So the Ultimate Universe did something in the middle. Because while you could have say a black Peter Parker or a Mexican Wolverine some characters that they could change they did. One of which been Nick Fury. They changed his race but the fact his such a big part of the Ultimate universe helps the diversity claims.

Then some others have had race chanced. But they couldn't change everyone's race and people need to remember while say "Ultimate Fantasic four" maybe "Ultimate universe" it also equally "Fantastic four" so they have to keep as many races the same as 616 as they can but change just a few to keep people happy.



Now Spectacular spider-man while based on Spider-man is a TV show. TV shows need racial diversity and more each generation. My example of this would be Ghostbusters.

The real ghostbusters (1986 - 1991) = 3 white guys and one token Black (sorry if that's offence but that's what it was.)

Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) - Goth girl , A handicapped man , a black guy and a Mexican guy

So in just 6 years it went from 1 minority to pretty much 3 minorities (4 if you want to include the goth chick) So comparing the two on races is a little unfair as they both have different reasons for why they have the races the way they do.

I know I'm most likely explaining this wrong. But hopefully someone gets what I was trying to say.

 

[The Overlord]

The racial diversity thing though has one problem. 616. Let me explain or try to. The ultimate universe is still a universe based on already created characters. You change too many races and people complain, they always do. Don't change any and people complain.

So the Ultimate Universe did something in the middle. Because while you could have say a black Peter Parker or a Mexican Wolverine some characters that they could change they did. One of which been Nick Fury. They changed his race but the fact his such a big part of the Ultimate universe helps the diversity claims.

Then some others have had race chanced. But they couldn't change everyone's race and people need to remember while say "Ultimate Fantasic four" maybe "Ultimate universe" it also equally "Fantastic four" so they have to keep as many races the same as 616 as they can but change just a few to keep people happy.



Now Spectacular spider-man while based on Spider-man is a TV show. TV shows need racial diversity and more each generation. My example of this would be Ghostbusters.

The real ghostbusters (1986 - 1991) = 3 white guys and one token Black (sorry if that's offence but that's what it was.)

Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) - Goth girl , A handicapped man , a black guy and a Mexican guy

So in just 6 years it went from 1 minority to pretty much 3 minorities (4 if you want to include the goth chick) So comparing the two on races is a little unfair as they both have different reasons for why they have the races the way they do.

I know I'm most likely explaining this wrong. But hopefully someone gets what I was trying to say.

I'm talking about USM, Nick Fury is a supporting character of the Ultimates, he merely guest stars in USM.

I think your missing a point here, in the Spectacular cartoon, they didn't change Peter Parker's race, because at this point everyone is familar with him as a white character, so they aren't going to change the race of his character, likwise they won't change MJ's or JJJ's race either. However they did change Liz Allen's race, so not all the students were white, lus they made Randy Robertson. They didn't change the race of a major character, but they did with a more minor character to order to update things and not have everyone be white.

 

[vmenge]

Like who? How many non white students are there in USM?

i never said anything about students.
nick fury is black (he guest stars [or at least used to] way too much to be just a guest star), robbie is black, shang-chi is asian, and that makes 3 i think. lol
and really? i used to study live in the US, i knew some non white people, but the group i hung out with was all made of white people (no particular reason), except me of course, since i'm brazilian, so i see no problem in pete's social group being made of only white people, i mean, it happened to me right? lol

 

[ourchair]

The racial diversity thing though has one problem. 616. Let me explain or try to. The ultimate universe is still a universe based on already created characters.

*cough*Langsta*cough*

 

[SSJmole]

*cough*Langsta*cough*

:x grrr

 

[Gemini]

you wanna diversify create a new ****ing character.

It's quite simple

 

[The Overlord]

i never said anything about students.
nick fury is black (he guest stars [or at least used to] way too much to be just a guest star), robbie is black, shang-chi is asian, and that makes 3 i think. lol
and really? i used to study live in the US, i knew some non white people, but the group i hung out with was all made of white people (no particular reason), except me of course, since i'm brazilian, so i see no problem in pete's social group being made of only white people, i mean, it happened to me right? lol

Well I am. All that is irrelevant, Robbie was black back 60s, Shang is a guest star, not a supporting cast member, ditto with Fury, let leaves Robbie as the only legit example and that was the case back in the 60s.

How many non students in general have we seen in Mid-Town High?

you wanna diversify create a new ****ing character.

It's quite simple

Well why wasn't done in USM in the first place?