Spider-Man (2017 TV series)


Spider-Man is an American animated television series that is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. A replacement for the previous series Ultimate Spider-Man, the first season premiered on August 19, 2017 on Disney XD. The show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 18, 2018. The show was retitled Spider-Man: Maximum Venom for its third season, which premiered on April 19, 2020.

Plot

Season 1

Gifted teenager Peter Parker is given super powers when he is bitten by a radioactive spider during a school field trip to Oscorp Industries. After the death of his Uncle Ben by a burglar that he hesitated to stop at a wrestling arena, Peter comes to his own terms of being the superhero Spider-Man. Some time later, Peter begins learning how to balance his crime-fighting career with his new enrollment at Horizon High, a school for students with genius-level intellect run by headmaster Max Modell. Joining Peter in his ordeals against Jackal, Doctor Octopus, Vulture, Rhino, the Smythes, and numerous other villains are his classmates Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, and Anya Corazon, as well as his best friend Harry Osborn.
Over the course of the school year, Peter merges with and removes a parasitic alien dubbed the V-252 and trains Miles on how to use his own Spider Powers as an "Ultimate Spider-Man" after he ends up bitten by a genetically-modified spider as well. Peter and his friends eventually discover that Jackal created the spiders that gave them their Spider Powers for the purpose of turning everyone in New York into an army of spider-like monsters dubbed "Man-Spiders", but Raymond's scheme is thwarted by the teamwork of Peter, Miles, Anya and Harry. During this period, Gwen and Anya develop Spider Powers of their own with the former assuming the "Spider-Gwen" alias and Harry also learns that Peter is Spider-Man.
With Osborn Academy destroyed at the climax of the "Spider-Island" crisis, Harry dons the OsCorp technology and discovers that his father Norman Osborn had orchestrated his expulsion from Horizon High at the school year's beginning as part of his vision of making his son execute Super-Man and be New York's definite hero. Ultimately, Harry chooses to side with Peter instead of his father, and Norman apparently dies in an explosion. As summer vacation begins, Harry takes over his father's business and discovers a hidden chamber filled with Norman's Goblin technology while Max creates a monument of Spider-Man at Horizon High as the school's unofficial mascot.

Season 2

Peter navigates through both his sophomore year and his career at the Daily Bugle while finding that he must once again contend with Doctor Octopus as well as the V-252 Symbiote, which has now assumed the name of "Venom" after it merges itself with his jealous co-worker Eddie Brock. While Peter uncovers a bounty that has been seemingly placed on him by Chameleon, Anya adopts the "Spider-Girl" alias when her Spider Powers from the "Spider-Island" incident resurface and forms a "Spider Team" with Miles and Gwen. Doctor Octopus is revealed to be the true mastermind behind the bounty and successfully manages to swap bodies with Spider-Man, becoming the Superior Spider-Man. Around the same time, Gwen acquires old and new Spider Powers thanks to the Blood Gem relic and begins working alongside Miles and Anya under the "Ghost-Spider" alias.
After being swayed by Peter's memories of Uncle Ben into becoming a hero, Octavius begins working on methods to become more efficient in crime-fighting than Peter ever was, but his ruthlessness prompts Miles to have the Avengers investigate on his behalf. Meanwhile, Peter's consciousness escapes the Living Brain via the Neuro Cortex and downloads himself into Octavius' discarded tentacles after encountering memories of Octavius' past in the process. Octavius re-enrolls at Midtown High and befriends the assistant chemistry teacher Anna Maria Marconi. Discovering how wrong he was about himself and Spider-Man during a fight against a genetically-altered Venom, Octavius reunites Peter's consciousness and body before his tentacles degrade the former into nothing. After saving Anna Maria from Venom, Spider-Man honors Octavius' heroism by placing his consciousness back in his inactive body. Soon after becoming his former self once more, Spider-Man takes it upon himself to rescue the Avengers from Regent, who has been replicating the abilities of the various super villains incarcerated at the prison known as the Cellar to imprison the Avengers in another dimension. Octavius recovers from his coma in time for him and Anna Maria to help Spider-Man free Cloak and Dagger so they can rescue the missing Avengers and defeat Regent.
After Spider-Man stops the rampaging speedster Slyde with help from Octavius, they discover the existence of a recently formed cult-like organization who are calling themselves the Goblin Nation, armed with the same kind of Goblin technology used by Norman. While investigating Norman's hidden Goblin tech chamber, Spider-Man and Hobgoblin discover the Goblin Nation's leader the Goblin King is none other than Adrian Toomes. Working together with the rest of the Spider Team, they are able to defeat the Goblin Nation's various clans. When Toomes takes control of a powerful Goblin Mech in a bid to destroy the city, Octavius stops him by disabling the suit with the Neuro Cortex but fades away into light particles in the process. At Octavius's funeral, Peter reconciles with Gwen, Anya, and Max for what happened when Octavius was Superior Spider-Man. To his surprise, Peter is re-enrolled at Horizon High thanks to a recommendation letter given to Max by Octavius prior to the latter's death.

Season 3 (''Maximum Venom'')

Two weeks after Otto Octavius' death, Spider-Man finds himself dealing with a machine called the Technovore rampaging through Horizon High and ends up using a synthetic copy of Venom created by Max, who has also been aware of his true identity since the downfall of the Goblin Nation, to stop it. Peter and Max later discover that the Technovore's rampage had been orchestrated by the school's new teacher Curt Connors, as part of a mission to investigate Max's "corrupt operations" on the behalf of unknown benefactors. But during his investigation, Dr. Connors accidentally releases the original Venom, who revitalizes himself using his synthetic copy and escapes to Duncan Valley, where the meteor that brought him to Earth crashed. There, he recovers an energy seed that had been in the meteor as well, and uses it to shoot out a beam-like beacon powerful enough to travel through space to his home planet before the beacon is stopped, and Venom himself is ultimately killed, by Spider-Man. However, in response to Venom's beacon, a massive swarm of Klyntar make their way to Earth for an invasion, with Groot arriving on Earth ahead of the swarm to warn Spider-Man of the impending invasion, having helped him with. Peter and Miles are able to decode Groot's message after they, Ironheart, Totally Awesome Hulk, and Doctor Strange rescue Groot from the clutches of A.I.M. and Baron Mordo.
As the first wave of Klyntar make planetfall, they use the Avengers they possessed on their way to Earth as their advance team to possess the heroes of Earth one-by-one so the rest of the swarm can quickly do the same to the citizens of New York City, with only a few survivors including Spider-Man, Max, and Aunt May. Despite the growing threat caused by the invasion pushing him to his breaking point, Spider-Man makes an alliance with retired hero Marc Spector to rescue Max, who has captured the Venomized Groot from which he can create an antidote to the Klyntar possession. With the help of Marc, May, and the other survivors, Spider-Man and Max succeed in creating a synthetic Klyntar named Anti-Venom from the one possessing Groot to counteract the rest of its natural, extraterrestrial counterparts. After everyone on Earth is cured by Anti-Venom, Doctor Strange takes the Anti-Venomized Groot into space so that the Guardians of the Galaxy can be cured. Unbeknownst to everyone, the seed from Venom's meteor is retrieved by an unknown individual.

Characters

Main


The Avengers are a world-renowned team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers occasionally lend the Spider Team a hand over the course of their adventures. They also have young heroes-in-training such as Ironheart and Totally Awesome Hulk working under their guidance and training to become veteran heroes.
The Guardians of the Galaxy are a group of intergalactic adventures and bounty hunters who Spider-Man previously met in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! episodes "Back in the New York Groove" and "Drive My Carnage".

Crossovers

Development

In October 2016, the series was announced by Cort Lane, senior vice president of Marvel Animation, as a replacement for the series' predecessor, Ultimate Spider-Man, which ended its run in early January 2017. It premiered on August 19, 2017 on Disney XD.
The "Maximum Venom" season debuted on April 19, 2020.

Crew

The show premiered August 19 on Disney XD in the US, August 28 on Disney XD in India and a simulcast premiere October 14 on Disney Channel and Disney XD in Southeast Asia.

Reception

Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave the first season's premiere a score of 7.4 out of 10, writing that the series "strikes a solid balance between the familiar and the new, emphasizing qualities and hallmarks Spider-Man is known for while skipping over well-trod territory like showing the origin story." She commented, Marvel's Spider-Man "has enough of a different approach to make it stand apart from other animated takes on the character."
Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the television series 4 out of 5 stars, and described the series as a "likable interpretation". Ashby also declared, "For the casual Marvel fan, Marvel's Spider-Man is a fun, action-filled series that pays homage to the character's comic book beginnings throughout the episodes."