“Yesterday’s” Comic> Ultimate Spider-Man Cartoon Preview

And yet he’s scared of elevators.

Share Your Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Preview

This is not tied to the Ultimate universe but the Disney XD cartoon that only shares the name. I reviewed the pilot when it came out.

Marvel Comics (July, 2013)

ADAPTATION: Chris Eliopoulos, from a script by Paul Dini

EDITOR: Jordan D. White

I’d list the art team but they don’t list one, just a bunch of art directors and other jobs. I believe, and it’s been a while, they’re just using screencaps of the cartoon. That’s kind of lame, but better than doing a live-action photo comic.

Peter is distracted from getting Uncle Ben’s birthday cake (he and Aunt May still celebrate it even though it’s been a year since his passing and Peter becoming Spider-Man) by a robbery attempt by The Trapster. Spider-Man manages to defeat him, but with some collateral damage. Nick Fury gives Spider-Man a chance to join a superhero trainee program but Spidey isn’t ready. At school we meet his friends before the Frightful Four show up, following a tracker Trapster managed to slip onto Spidey. Harry gets hurt protecting MJ from Klaw while Spider-Man deals with him, Wizard, and Thundra. The only upside is getting to play a trick on Flash Thompson. Between all the collateral damage, Harry, and forgetting the cake, Peter decides maybe giving SHIELD’s superhero program a try is to his benefit.

As linked to earlier I’ve already reviewed this story. All that’s missing are the introduction of the teenaged Luke Cage, Iron Fist Danny Rand, and the Wundagore version of White Tiger, who are fellow trainees in the show. Otherwise, by nature it suffers the same strengths and weaknesses. The art style is good…but it’s just screencaps with lettering and no letter was credited. I couldn’t tell you which of the art directors gets the credit. The action is good and the characters are fine but they’re not good representations of the characters individually or their Ultimate Universe counterparts. MJ and Peter tried dating and it didn’t work out so they’re just friends, and MJ is a would-be reporter now, like in the recent PlayStation games. Flash is still teen Flash and Harry is about the same. Norman hiring the Frightful Four but getting upset when they attack his son’s school is in character. Doctor Octopus works for him but that’s all we know about that. Then there’s the fourth wall breaking, not limited to captions as the adaptation keeps some of the on-air parts where the world around Peter grays out while he speaks to the audience.

In other words the adaptation suffers the same strengths and weaknesses as the episode being adapted. This is both a good thing–if you want to understand how the show’s tone is and the general plot–and a bad thing–depending on how you view the show, which went for multiple seasons and took part in the comics’ “Web Warriors” event. So if you like the show, you’ll like the book. If you hate the show, you’ll hate the book. Me? It was okay but there’s a reason I stopped watching.