Marvel's Spider-Man "Horizon High, Parts 1-2" Series Premiere Talkback (Spoilers)

"Marvel's Spider-Man" - Rate and discuss the series premiere!

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  • Total voters
    10

RoyalRubble

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Catch the long-awaited premiere of the brand new Spider-Man animated series! Marvel's Spider-Man premieres today on Disney XD, with two episodes starting at 7:00AM ET!

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Marvel's Spider-Man "Horizon High, Part 1"
Episode Debut - August 19th, 2017
Written by - Kevin Shinick
Directed by - Philip Pignotti

Peter is accepted into Horizon High: a school for geniuses, where his best friend Harry Osborn was just suspended. Peter makes his debut as Spider-Man and must battle the Vulture.

Marvel's Spider-Man "Horizon High, Part 2"
Episode Debut - August 19th, 2017
Written by - Kevin Shinick
Directed by - Philip Pignotti

Spider-Man must work to stop the Scorpion from wreaking havoc at the museum.

Comments?

Mod Note: We appreciate and encourage discussion, but please keep your posts civil, relevant and insightful. Please do not post any improper or inflammatory material, as we will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. And remember to keep the discussion ON-TOPIC! Let's have fun and enjoy this Spider-Man premiere event!

Other relevant links:
Marvel's Spider-Man "Origin" Digital Shorts Talkback (Spoilers)
Watch "Horizon High, Part 1" on Disney XD's YouTube channel
(*The video might be region-locked)
 
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Rick Jones

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It's not perfect. Some of the dialogue feels a little goofy. A lot of times, it feels like something that was animated for the web due to the obvious digital artwork not meshing with the traditional animation all that well. Overall, I think the world they're building has some promise as a Spider-Man adaptation but only time will tell. I really wish the animation was better but hopefully that can improve in the future. It was nice seeing Spidey mainstays like Liz, Rand, or the Bugle (via truck), or even hearing Flash and Anna Watson referenced. It's no Night of the Lizard as far as Spidey pilots go but not bad. I'd probably put it above the other premiere episodes Marvel Animation Studios have done since 2012. I'm really curious to see how things build from here.

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SweetShop209

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This is definitely going pretty well so far. I'm loving Robbie Daymond's take on Peter, and the whole science thing helps bring the whole show alive, giving the characters some nice depth .

On two related side notes:

1. Kevin Manthei's music track is still top notch.

2. I think I saw two voice directors: Kris Zimmerman Salter and Colette Sunderman.
 

Mostezli

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The sound mixing is horrendous. Either it's overbearing during conversations or hard to hear during big moments.
It's quite funny how the Smythes feel more like the Osborns
and Alistair even comes across as this iteration's Flash Thompson.
I wasn't expecting the baddies to still be so hammy, but they are supposedly getting developed throughout the season. I'm definitely digging this supporting cast.
 

ToonJay723

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A good start to the series. I like the characters they introduced. I wonder what's going on with Harry, if he's working with his dad or if he's working alone.

One complaint, how did anyone look at that juice bar scene near the end of the first part and thought that was okay? The background music was either at the same pitch, or louder than Peter and Harry.

But overall, good start to the series. Looking forward to more.
 

Frontier

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I wouldn't say this was a strong a start as "Survival of the Fittest," or even looked as good as the USM two-part premiere, but I thought this was a solid and fun enough premiere for the new Spider-Man cartoon, and did a decent job of doing a fresh start and getting back to a more "classic" feel for Spidey in animation :).

If nothing else, I think this show's got potential, in-spite of a few issues I have with it ;).

Well, those police officers sure summed it up with how everything is about science now, especially when it comes to Spider-Man. Peter's whole characterization is now very science-centric, the majority of his supporting cast are now all science geeks, and now he attends a super-science high school :eek:.

I guess I understand all the emphasis on science given it's one of Peter's passions, but at the same time I feel like it's downplaying the relateableness of Peter and his world to some degree, just like the SHIELD Academy in USM did :sad:.

They're also emphasizing how much of a rookie this version of Spider-Man is, compared to past incarnations, in that he goofs up a tad more in the field and isn't as experienced enough to know exactly what to do to stop the villains. I'm curious to see how that will be developed and if this version of Spidey will ever be capable enough to pull off something like fighting Tombstone, Doc Ock, and Silvermane at the same time solo :ack:.

So far I'd say the action sequences are nothing to write home about, but that they're generally okay to decent. Which is about how I'd also describe the animation as well :shrug:.

I feel like these flashbacks with Uncle Ben would've benefited the Origin Shorts quite a bit by showing Peter with Uncle Ben and learning about his famous mantra before the final short just basically threw all that out there. Still, they were nice moments to emphasize the importance of Uncle Ben in Peter's life and Patton Oswalt actually did a surprisingly good job as Ben Parker. He really conveyed the characters wisdom and old-timey charm quite well :anime:.

Aunt May is Aunt May. Really nothing much significantly different to notice other then she's got an...interesting fashion sense in this universe. I would also say Nancy Linari sounded like a composite of every cartoon version of Aunt May rolled into one, and on-top of May also seems to be voicing all the other old women who appear on this show :p.

Wow, Flash Thompson reduced to just a name-drop? That's definitely different :harley:.

I'd just like to remind everybody that Liz Allan is still partially responsible for Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man here, since she switched with him at OsCorp which gave him the opportunity to get bitten by the spider. And on-top of that, she's voiced by Natalie Lander, AKA Stargirl :anime:!

I liked the touch of Randy working on the Midtown High school website. It felt like a nice nod to Robbie's job with the Bugle, and I hope we see his dad at some point even if I'm dubious the Bugle will make a physical appearance here :(.

Jason Spisak as Alistair Smythe is perfect casting. He does a great job of conveying how much of an arrogant snob Smythe is while also showing how much he values his father. On-top of that we get to see his rivalry with Harry, some antagonism with the Vulture, and an enmity form between him and Peter, so it'll be interesting to see how that develops, especially if Smythe inevitably takes over from his father like he did in the comics and cartoons :evil:.

So if Max Modell is one of Peter's idols, I wonder what that'll make Norman and Dr. Connors? I guess we also have to throw Tony Stark in there :rolleyes:.

Does the Black Panther know Anya's developed a way to conveniently reproduce Vibranium? I'm not sure the King of Wakanda would appreciate his nation's biggest export and resource getting turned into an American science experiment that could be mass-produced. Maybe it's a good thing it got sabotaged :sweat:.

I thought this was a solid take on Vulture, and he was a decent starter-villain here. I'm not sure what they were doing with his design, which felt like a weird mix of Falcon's Gatchaman suit from Avengers Assemble and the Joaquin Torres Falcon from the comics, but I thought it worked alright here ;).

Alistair Duncan's performance was also decent, if not as memorable as I would've liked. I think he should've just dropped doing any kind of an American accent and just done a more sinister version of his Alfred voice from The Batman, though at times his performance did kind of sound like that :oops:.

I'm honestly kind of surprised they even bothered to confirm he's Adrian Toomes, on-top of once again making him a disgruntled employee turned Supervillain, only this time with Horizon instead of OsCorp :tweety:.

It's barely two episodes in and already Harry Osborn hates and distrusts Spider-Man for vaguely justifiable reasons. I think that's a new record :rolleyes2:.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of Peter Parker's traditional supporting cast in the first part kids, because now we're going to move to a new school where Peter will get to hang out with kids he's barely all that affiliated with in the comics :p.

What the heck was Bernie Sanders doing driving Harry Osborn to school :confused:?

I like that they kept the damage to Peter's homemade suit from the Vibranium device intact in the second part, only visibly sewed together. I appreciate small bits of continuity like that :).

It was cool to see Scorpion pop up and give Spidey a decent challenge, even if there wasn't anything more to him then just another costumed thug (does he have a grudge against Jameson? Is he stuck in that suit? Is he Mac Gargan?) and probably won't be since they just had Spisak double-up for Scorp rather then give him a unique VA :(.

I still don't really get what they're doing with Otto Octavius on this show. I mean, okay, he's a very short, overweight, teacher at Peter's school, I get that. But why does he need to be a teenage, Doogie Howser, type? His character design doesn't even look all that older from how he looked in Spectacular o_O.

I guess it could fuel his classic superiority complex, but even then it just seems really unnecessary to make him close to Peter's age. On-top of Scott Menville's performance, already an extremely out-of-the-box casting choice, and his general attitude here, he just doesn't really feel like the future Doctor Octopus. Though maybe that'll all change once he gets his tentacles grafted onto-him...

Gone are the days when cartoons showed high schooler's doing normal stuff like crushing on girls, cheer-leading, football, and the like. Now they build robots and mini-EMP guns :p.

Anya felt like a Latina Deb Whitman, what with her being a scientifically-minded girl who calls out Peter on all his weird stunts and doesn't think too highly of him academically. Of course, Anya seems to be a lot more spirited and active compared to Deb, which is probably going to play into her becoming a hero her self at some point (along with the other Spiders) :cool:.

I'm not really crazy about the show's take on Miles. His voice and personality just sound way too excitable for the character, and it just feels weird making him another science geek like Peter is o_O.

The show's already teasing Gwen Stacy, as the "princess of preperation," and from what Anya says it sounds like she's a bit of a science prima donna (or at least as competitive as Anya). So it'll be interesting to see what her characterization is like once we get to met her in-person. I'm also curious what kind of relationship she might have with Harry...

On-top of teasing significant Spider-Man ladies, we have Aunt May talking on the phone to Anna Watson. Obviously that indicates a future appearance by Mary Jane, though otherwise we so far haven't seen even a whiff of the most famous redhead in Spider-Man :eek:.

It was nice to see them address the classic Spidey money problems even if they provided Peter with a convenient means of solving that issue without having to involve the Bugle at all. Max Modell is almost basically "nice Jameson" now as Peter's main source of income, though he still gives him menial work :p.

Y'know for a CG robot in a Marvel cartoon, the Spider-Slayer didn't look half-bad. Almost kind of disappointing it got blown up by the end of the episode, though it's a Spider-Slayer, those always get rebuilt :tom:...

I don't know if it was the sub-par animation or the staging but the debut of the classic Spider-Man suit felt pretty underwhelming :sad:.

I kinda miss the days when the only tech Peter's Spider-Suit needed was web-shooters and a Spider-Signal, but at least it doesn't seem like the main suit will be as absurdly techy as the Homecoming Starksuit, and at least Peter made this one himself. Though that might change as we go forward :ack:...

It definitely seems like there's something going on with Harry. Generally he seems like a good guy, especially when it comes to his best friend, but his reaction to Spider-Man and his shadiness regarding his tech (which appear to be prototypes to the Green Goblin's Pumpkin Bombs) is a tad suspicious :mad:.

I'm glad, despite Anya coming in with her EMP-gun, that Spidey did 99% of the work in stopping the Spider-Slayer so she just gave him a brief break during the fight more or less. I hope that's more the case going forward and less of Spidey needing civilians to constantly save him ;).

So practically everyone but Harry recognizes Spider-Man's voice and he does a terrible (if funny) job of covering it up. Does Robbie Daymond do anything to differentiate his Peter from his Spider-Man? I guess the only thing I could really notice was that Spider-Man sounded a little more confident and stronger then Peter, but that was even more subtle then what Keaton did in Spectacular o_O.

Who needs J. Jonah Jameson when you've got Harry Osborn screaming to high heaven that Spider-Man's a menace? Of course, no one seems to be listening to him :rolleyes2:...

So the Smythes are actually working for someone else, someone who told them to hire the Vulture and use the Spider-Slayer to try and kidnap Harry and his tech. I wonder if it's the Jackal? Or Norman Osborn?

Though I doubt Norman would condone framing his own son to get him kicked out of school, unless he planned to develop his own high school with Harry at the center the whole time. With Norman you never know....

Is that pigeon going to be like the gargoyle Spidey always unloaded too in the 90's cartoon :p?
 
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Checkerboard

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Europe is getting the premiere next month. I'll wait for that. But, without spoiling much, can you tell me...

Will I like this if the 90s Spider-Man shows are my favorite - or will I like it at least more than Ultimate and Spectacular?
Does the animation overall look at least appealing and better than in the promos?
Any throwbacks or surprising/whoa moments?
 

Frontier

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..
Will I like this if the 90s Spider-Man shows are my favorite - or will I like it at least more than Ultimate and Spectacular?
Does the animation overall look at least appealing and better than in the promos?
Any throwbacks or surprising/whoa moments?
I'm not sure if this will remind you of the 90's show, but I will say it's a little more traditional Spider-Man compared to Ultimate :).

The animation...well, I think it's a little step-up from Assemble but not as impressive or good-looking as it could be :(.

I'm not sure if there are any major throwbacks or surprise moments but then again I'd already read some reviews of the premiere going into it :sweat:.
 
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Mostezli

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The second ep is probably where the show found its groove, albeit needs a bit of work with fine-tuning the editing or the animation given it's the same exact Scorpion clip. I genuinely loved the running gag of people already noticing he sounds familiar, except Harry ofc. I'm surprised no one else picked up that he had exploding devices in his bag. Sure hope that secret is well worth the wait.
 

Dudley

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Definitely want to see more. And wasn't the least bit cringeworthy, like Ultimate.

Gonna miss Ultimate Aunt May, though.

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PapaGreg

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Okay episodes but why do modern Marvel shows have bad animation and backgrounds, you think being owned by Disney would allow them to make their shows look somewhat aesthetically pleasing. Its sad when a show about ducks going on adventures and a girl with a magical wand has better action scenes than a superhero show

@Dudley
You and me both pal
 
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Greg91

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I thought the premiere was pretty good, but it didn't completely click with me. I enjoyed it enough and it has plenty of potential. The character faces (as well as the animation) are going to take some getting used to. Only a few characters seemed to clearly look like their comic counterparts if I didn't know anything about the characters like Peter Parker and Max Modell.

Peter seems like a pretty enjoyable protagonist with a big focus on science. Max Modell, Harry Obsorn, Liz Allan, Randy Robertson, Aunt May, Anya Corazon and Miles Morales were a pretty strong support cast. Unless they're saving her for later, it feels like Mary Jane Watson won't have much if any role in the show. After her absence in the recent Spider-Man movies and her limited role in Ultimate Spider-Man, I do miss her outside of the comics.

I did like seeing Cup O' Joe with the Joe Quesada logo though. The Uncle Ben flashbacks were nice to see and Patton Oswalt's voice fit better than I thought it would. All of the voice actors sounded great to me, actually.

Vulture and Scorpion's designs aren't quite my favorite, but the Spider-Slayer looked nice. Vulture also came off as a typical villain in lieu of Spider-Man: Homecoming's take on the character. It also invited comparison to The Spectacular Spider-Man's first episode which also featured Vulture. Spencer and Alistair Smythe seem like they'll clearly be jerks causing trouble throughout the show and I wish they seemed less one dimensional. Perhaps they'll improve with time.

Overall, it was solid, but I'm still not quite as sold. My interest in this show isn't as high as some people and a Marvel animated premiere hasn't hooked me since The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but I'll keep checking out this show by God's grace. I'm just glad Canada aired the episode alongside America. :D
 

RoyalRubble

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This was a pretty good way to start the new show. You can tell from the start this is set in Peter's early days of crime-fighting, and the addition of an actual supporting cast in his classmates makes it feel more like a traditional Spider-Man show than the previous attempt. It was nice seeing some classic characters like Harry Osborn, Liz Allan and Randy Robertson, or the father and son team of Spencer and Alistair Smythe. Hopefully not all of them will be ignored once Peter starts attending Horizon High - even if the other supporting cast is pretty cool as well (Anya Corazon, Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, though she hasn't appeared yet), it would be nice to see some of Peter's friends who might not develop super-powers as the story progresses.

The story with Harry Osborn is intriguing. I'm pretty sure there's more to it, so hopefully later developments won't disappoint. It was kind of surprising how he started to blame Spidey and claim he's a menace so early on. But I liked how Harry interacted with Peter throughout these episodes. I'm looking forward to his father's inevitable debut on the show. That will probably make things even more interesting.

As for Peter/Spidey - it's a pretty good take on the character, from what I can tell after only two episodes (well, and the "Origin" animated shorts). His constant talk about science can get a little annoying at times but other than that I can't really complain. The scenes with Peter and Aunt May were good. Same goes for the flashbacks featuring Uncle Ben, which were surprisingly touching.

The villains were decent. It's kind of funny, Vulture was a little more developed than Scorpion, but I thought Spidey's fight with Scorpion was more entertaining. The action scenes aren't all that great but they seem fine and there might be a remote chance the animation could improve along the way. I wasn't expecting the Spider Slayer this early either, but it also served as a pretty good opponent and lead to some decent fight scenes.

One more thing, if Doc Ock's design and background wasn't announced beforehand, I'm guessing the viewers would have been just as surprised, if not more than Peter when they realized who he was talking to. :p

I don't really have much else to add. It's not perfect but works pretty well as an introduction to a new take on the Spider-Man mythos. The animation isn't that great but it's still watchable. I will check out more episodes and while I kind of doubt I'll ever enjoy it as much as other Spidey cartoons, it could still be a fun and interesting show.
 

Troy Troodon

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So, the long awaited new animated Spider-Man show finally makes it's debut; and so far I think it's pretty good, the writing is good, the animation is good, the voice acting is great... but it still has some minor problems; one being the characterization of Harry Osborn.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad portrayal of Harry for the most part, but I can't help but feel that their setting up him as a villain way too early on, kind'a gives me flashbacks to Amazing Spider-Man to and not in a good way. It's been two episodes and already he has this venomous spite towards Spider-Man for vaguely justifiable reasons, and the fact he's being shady with his "project' seems to back up that his grudge with The Spider is skin deep; and I also feel Anya is a bit callous to Peter, even though he saved people during an incident with a sabotaged experiment SHE witnessed herself!

And while the animation is a step up from the previous Marvel shows in the past few years, it still needs some refining in it's tones and color palette; and sometimes the audio tends to fade in and out.

But for the most part though it's actually a pretty decent start, especially since it tackles one of the challenges of Peter Parker, his life as a teenager, moving to a new school, struggling to fit in, and still getting used to his identity; and of course the struggle between the man and mask; idly much like Spectacular Spider-Man. And you wanna the best thing about this show, particularly when compared to Avengers Assemble or Guardians of the Galaxy...?

NOBODY IS STUPID!

Seriously, unlike the more recent cartoons before it, the characters for the most part behave like how actual humans beings with even just half a brain would react and comprehend to certain circumstances like the ones our Hero is struggling with, and the ulterior motives behind the actual villains. We haven't seen a show like this since Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, this is how you do a Marvel cartoon that can be fun, while still treating it's audience with respect for how they think when watching the story play out, so there is no dumbing down just because it's a kid's show.

Is it a great start, maybe not but so far it does show it's true potential.
 

Frontier

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I guess another thing I'll mention is that I thought the intro was okay.

I'm glad they added more to it then just the title and theme music, though Spidey just swinging by isn't the same as a proper intro sequence :sad:.

I just don't know why Marvel Animation is so averse to doing more involved openings or intro sequences for their shows now :(.
 

Rick Jones

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I guess another thing I'll mention is that I thought the intro was okay.

I'm glad they added more to it then just the title and theme music, though Spidey just swinging by isn't the same as a proper intro sequence :sad:.

I just don't know why Marvel Animation is so averse to doing more involved openings or intro sequences for their shows now :(.
Yeah, the title sequence is nice and unlike everything made from Ultimate Spider-Man up to When Monsters Call, we actually get a little bit of something being done during the title card display but it sure would have been nice to see a 15 to 30 opening. We'll probably never see them trying anything like all the minute long intros with catchy songs they were doing before Ultimate Spider-Man but even something as short as what's done for any of DC's recent shows would be preferable to seeing the same old sequence for everything they produce. It's funny when looking at any of Disney's cartoons, as they sure aren't skimping on the opening credits and have some very catchy theme songs paired with some very well done visual sequences.

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