Loeb, Quesada & Levine On "Ultimate Spider-Man" Swinging Onto Disney XD

[CBR News]

Jeph Loeb, Joe Quesada and Disney XD Vice President David Levine speak about XD's Marvel Universe block and the animated "Ultimate Spider-Man" show.


Full article here.

[Elflore]

"Having Marvel on our platform is very important, as we are going to be a great way for the Walt Disney Company to bring Marvel as a brand and the Marvel characters to the kids demo," Levine continued. "We're going to be the place, week-in, week-outm where boys can experience Spider-Man, can experience the Marvel brand, can experience the Marvel Universe."

Why just boys?

Ugh.

[PatheticNewGuy]

This can't get on the air fast enough!

[jloder24]

if this show is half as good as Spectacular Spiderman, they'll be lucky. That 'toon was awesome on every level, and ended way too soon, esp if it was canceled for this wannabe Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. At least Avengers is back, another great show. Anyone know if there will be new Iron Man episodes?

[GamerSlyRatchet]

if this show is half as good as Spectacular Spiderman, they'll be lucky. That 'toon was awesome on every level, and ended way too soon, esp if it was canceled for this wannabe Spiderman and his Amazing Friends. At least Avengers is back, another great show. Anyone know if there will be new Iron Man episodes?

Iron Man? Armored Adventures? New episodes started a few weeks back on Wednesday nights.

[KurtW95]

Anyone know if there will be new Iron Man episodes?

Four new episodes have aired. They introduced Extremis, Jean Grey, Magneto, and Professor X.

[frostfalls]

"Having Marvel on our platform is very important, as we are going to be a great way for the Walt Disney Company to bring Marvel as a brand and the Marvel characters to the kids demo," Levine continued. "We're going to be the place, week-in, week-outm where boys can experience Spider-Man, can experience the Marvel brand, can experience the Marvel Universe."

Why just boys?

Ugh.

That was my reaction exactly. I'm extremely excited about the programming, but that attitude is just disappointing.

[Dr.wonderful]

"Having Marvel on our platform is very important, as we are going to be a great way for the Walt Disney Company to bring Marvel as a brand and the Marvel characters to the kids demo," Levine continued. "We're going to be the place, week-in, week-outm where boys can experience Spider-Man, can experience the Marvel brand, can experience the Marvel Universe."

Why just boys?

Ugh.

Well what do you expect? I mean, look at Disney XD and Look at Disney Channel and Honersty compare the two: One is Action pack and feature Testerone posioning, the other is much, how do I say? Well, Lighter and feature more emotional content compared to XD. And I highly doubt that excutives would care about the few opposite gender children who would watch the network. It's about Money, and the best way to gain it.

[frostfalls]

Well what do you expect? I mean, look at Disney XD and Look at Disney Channel and Honersty compare the two: One is Action pack and feature Testerone posioning, the other is much, how do I say? Well, Lighter and feature more emotional content compared to XD. And I highly doubt that excutives would care about the few opposite gender children who would watch the network. It's about Money, and the best way to gain it.

I'm not suggesting that the content be changed, just that it not be explicitly positioned as something "for boys". Plenty of girls choose to tune in to shows on Disney XD (stuff like Phineas and Ferb, Zack & Cody and cartoon reruns tend to appeal to a wide range of viewers), and even if they didn't, plenty of sisters are going to grow up watching what their brothers watch. Superheroics and action adventure are something that appeals to kids, regardless of gender. Taking advantage of the broader audience, particularly with the idea that these kids could grow up to be comic book readers and viewers of the Marvel cinematic universe, will make them more money. It's silly to do anything to possibly alienate a new audience that often proves to have a lot of purchasing power when a little older. The product itself - superheroes (and particularly the cartoons), is gender neutral. The marketing and attitudes of TPTB should be too. I don't even want to accuse the producers or the channel of doing this yet in this case or anything, but the attitude is frustrating. It just makes no sense to me.

[Blade X]

"As we saw Marvel Studios start to make our movies, the thing we kept hearing back from the hardcore fan, the casual fan, was that these movies had a distinctive Marvel feel that they hadn't felt before in previous incarnations, in previous movies," Quesada said. "Jeph was so instrumental in this, saying, 'We're going to get Marvel people to make Marvel shows.' I think 'Ultimate Spider-Man' is really the first one that is going to exhibit that Marvel DNA all the way through."

They act like this is the first Marvel cartoon that felt like an actual Marvel comic and/or was worked on by people who worked on the comics. This, of course, is completely untrue. That all being said, I'm looking forward to this new Spidey cartoon.

[Hypestyle]

Besides "Ultimate Spider-Man" and "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes," Disney is rounding out its Marvel programming block with a series of short form programs: "Fury Files," an animated segment which features different Marvel characters and art styles, and "Marvel Mash-Up," which repurposes old footage of Marvel television shows, in addition to three more short-form, live-action segments hosted by Radio Disney's Morgan Tompkins. "Animated Reality" and "What Would It Take" will show, respectively, stunt men and scientists/tech geeks demonstrating moves and gadgets used by the Marvel heroes, while in "Master Class," Quesada takes viewers behind the scenes at Marvel Comics

Curious. I wonder what the Fury Files will feature in characters. Also, the "Mash-Up", I wonder will this mean shows from the 1960s forward getting featured again (only cut up for comedic effect? we'll see..)

[StoneGold]

"Having Marvel on our platform is very important, as we are going to be a great way for the Walt Disney Company to bring Marvel as a brand and the Marvel characters to the kids demo," Levine continued. "We're going to be the place, week-in, week-outm where boys can experience Spider-Man, can experience the Marvel brand, can experience the Marvel Universe."

Why just boys?

Ugh.

Tomboys and arrested development adults are implied.

[JoeyConQueso]

Curious. I wonder what the Fury Files will feature in characters. Also, the "Mash-Up", I wonder will this mean shows from the 1960s forward getting featured again (only cut up for comedic effect? we'll see..)

Fury Files will be a mix of motion comic and clips from the animated series that highlights specific characters, most likely the big ones featured in the shows (Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Doom, etc).

Marvel Mash Up is clips from the old series (so far Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Incredible Hulk 1982, and The New Fantastic Four aka the one without the Torch) that are redubbed for comedic effect.

I think it's a little surprising that they're not automatically trying 60s Spidey after considering how big of a hit the meme was but oh well...

[jediracer]

Show of hands: who doesn't get this channel??

*raises hand*

[JoeyConQueso]

They said that new episodes should be on Netflix shortly after airing. I think that's been the case with most of Disney's current shows. Marvel and Disney are also supposed to be putting episodes on their websites for a while, like they were doing with Avengers S1.