The Amazing Spider-Man Comes to CW's Kids' WB

[GrnMarvl14]

Original source.

Another Marvel hero is returning to the animated frontier. The Kids WB announced it has struck a deal with producer Culver Entertainment to bring everyone’s favorite webslinger back to Saturday mornings.

The series is tentatively titled The Amazing Spider-Man. Greg Weisman (Gargoyles, The Batman) is supervising producer, Victor Cook (Hellboy: Blood and Iron, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) is producer/supervising director.

“The addition of Spider-Man bolsters a lineup that has proved to be the Saturday morning destination for kids seeking action and adventure in the most amped-up ways,” Betsy McGowen, Kids WB SVP and General Manager said. “We’re ecstatic to welcome Spider-Man to our popular cavalcade of super heroes.”

"Spider-Man is such an important brand for Sony Pictures and we're thrilled to keep the momentum going by taking it back to television with an animated series on Kids’ WB!," Zack Van Amburg, Sony Picture Television Co-President added. "It's also an excellent way to launch Culver Entertainment, our newest television company."

The new animated series picks up the original web-slinger’s mythology at the beginning of his hero’s journey…as a not-so-typical 16-year-old entering his junior year of high school. Having spent the summer engaging common criminals with his new-found powers, Peter Parker must conceal his secret identity while engaging a new level of terror – the multi-leveled pressures of teenage life at home and school while combating bigger, badder super-villains in the real world.

“Our goal is to reinterpret these great characters and concepts for our millennium,” Weisman said. “We’ll have plenty of resonant material for the Spider-Man fan, while engaging the Spider-Man novice with the same thrills we experienced when we were first exposed to the character. Our stories will appeal on multiple levels with plenty of eye-candy, action, humor and colorful characters for the youngest demographic balanced with extensive character development for ‘tweens, teens and adults.”

No announcement has been made regarding voice cast or what type of animation will be employed. Expect more on this story as it breaks.

So, basically, it's...The Spider-Man. With Amazing thrown in. I guess Eddie Brock will be his high school friend, get kidnapped by Green Goblin, and somehow gain the symbiote which will slowly make him go crazy. Or they'll follow the comics and change Eddie to Harry and symbiote to whacky gas.

 

[Zeta]

Predicted Changes:

* The Green Goblin is now an actual Green Goblin from a magical parallel midevial world.

* Venom is Spiderman's evil twin, seperated at birth.

* Doctor Octopus is literally an octopus who gained superintelligence.

* Kraven the Hunter is a poor Steve Irwin parody.

* New Character: Spiderpuppy. Peter Parker's adorable super-powered dog.

Of course, none of these changes are as bad as what JMS did with Spiderman's origins and powers, so who cares . . . ?

 

[XD375]

I thought he had a fairly new animated series on Disney, didn't he?

 

[GrnMarvl14]

I thought he had a fairly new animated series on Disney, didn't he?

Nope. He had one a couple of years ago on MTV or MTV2. There's was talk of releasing a new one straight to DVD, but as far as I'm aware, no comic creation has ever made it to Disney. Plenty of the reverse, though. Marvel handled the publishing of some of it. New Gargoyles comic, though. Can't remember who's publishing it, or if it's even still being published. And ABC Family was airing the old Fox cartoon and the old Spidey and His Amazing Friends not too long ago.

 

[Doctor Oak]

So, basically, it's a bit of the 616 Spidey, a bit of the movie Spidey and the setting of Ultimate Spidey all thrown together?

Sounds a bit closer to Ulitmate to me from the description, and I have to say I wouldn't object to it being closely based on UltiSpidey. Especially if it included Kong.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

So, basically, it's a bit of the 616 Spidey, a bit of the movie Spidey and the setting of Ultimate Spidey all thrown together?

Sounds a bit closer to Ulitmate to me from the description, and I have to say I wouldn't object to it being closely based on UltiSpidey. Especially if it included Kong.

Most of the new stuff is more Ultimate than 616. Ultimately, it falls within its own reality, though. Just inspired more by the Ultimate stuff (less history/less baggage).

Here you'll find basically the same article, but it points out that the series is coming in "early 2008."

 

[Trainer-c]

“Our goal is to reinterpret these great characters and concepts for our millennium,” Weisman said. “We’ll have plenty of resonant material for the Spider-Man fan, while engaging the Spider-Man novice with the same thrills we experienced when we were first exposed to the character. Our stories will appeal on multiple levels with plenty of eye-candy, action, humor and colorful characters for the youngest demographic balanced with extensive character development for ‘tweens, teens and adults.”

This registers a 7 on my spidey sense.

I suppose I can hope that this turns out better than it's sounding right now.

 

[Doctor Oak]

I don't really get the problem... it sounds almost exactly like the pitch for Ultimate Spider-Man - and that's done fantastically well.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

I don't really get the problem... it sounds almost exactly like the pitch for Ultimate Spider-Man - and that's done fantastically well.

Seems more like what would have been the pitch for The Batman. Keep in mind, Ultimate Spider-Man was aimed at an older audience than Kids WB usually gets. I'm more than willing to give it a shot (just like I gave Fantastic Four a shot, and was...sorta happy about), but I'm wary. For every good credential these producers have, they seem to have an equally bad credential. With any luck, they'll get good writers. Maybe even someone who's written Spidey in the comics, like how Teen Titans got Marv Wolfman.