>>101909670I agree, but only to an extent. I can still drink Diet Coke, but I can't watch Diet SSM, because it's fucking retarded. It often brings up interesting elements like I actually kind of dig Norman opening school for geniusees to exploit them, I also like that they made Jackal Gwen's uncle making his ties to her much less creepy and giving a twisted parallel to Peter's relationship with Uncle Ben.
But none of it works because it's as subtle as Hammerhead. Like, ok, this is first time the Jackal has been introduced on TV (as the Jackal, excluding 90's version), kids literally have no idea who this character is, so... why not keep his identity a mystery for a little? Why not make him Peter's teacher for a while or something, or Harry's teacher, or hell, ANYTHING BUT WHAT THEY ENDED UP DOING. They worked out actually a decent dramatic angle that despite being a villain, Gwen learnt a lot of good things from him, but it doesn't fucking work because ALL WE EVER SAW HIM DOING IS PLOT VILLAINY BEHIND THE WALLS WITH NORMAN. It doesn't play with our expectations as people who know comics at all, but it doesn't build any mystery for kids at all either, it doesn't work either way. Every potentially creative twist gets sucker punched by absolute lack of subtlety and tension.
Marvel's Spider-man probably could've been a unique twist on Spider-man if Peter wasn't obnoxious and if writing, well, for the lack of better word, was more mature. A lot of times writing does feel like something you'd find in a comic for 10 cents, hell, if you put all of Peter's "le science rules!" monologues they'd probably fit couple of pages full of panels.
I'd rather rate SSM as Doctor Pepper, and Marvel's Spider-man is literally any of the knockoffs like Doctor Le Science-Man or something.
