Turning 50 doesn't mean Peter Parker is getting out of high school anytime soon. Spider-Man returns for an all new generation to grow up on.
Spider-Man is returning to back his roots. An award-winning comic book writer and TV producer, Jeph Loeb spent years working on hit shows such as Smallville, LOST, and Heroes before taking over as Marvel's head of television. Loeb spoke to BuzzFeed on the phone about what to expect from Season Two of Marvel's new take on the web-slinger and why you should be watching.
Agent Phil Coulson.
BuzzFeed: Is the Avengers movie universe the traditional Marvel world, or is it the alternate reality seen in the Ultimate series?
Jeph Loeb: The idea was to try and capture the spirit of Marvel and to make sure what we were doing was in line with what we refer to as Marvel's DNA. It really just comes down to "Does it feel like Marvel?" which is epic story-telling about the human spirit. Clark Gregg, who is amazing, is actually playing Agent Coulson on the show.
The humor.
BF: The show is very fourth wall breaking. Almost a Deadpool-lite vibe?
Loeb: Humor has always been a big part of Spider-Man. When we started talking about doing Ultimate Spider-Man we were talking about the best ways to capture humor in an animated show. We thought the audience is already so like Peter, why don't we just really be Peter and break that fourth wall and let him talk to us and take us inside his head and his fantasies?
The team.
(L to R: Agent Coulson, Danny Rand/Iron Fist, Luke Cage/Powerman, Sam Alexander/Nova, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Ava Ayala/White Tiger)
BF: How did you decide who would round out Spider-Man's S.H.I.E.L.D. team?
Loeb: Keep in mind this project started almost three years ago and at the time we were looking forward to who might be the next big characters, the next big franchises. Just like we just announced Guardians of the Galaxy, we are certainly looking at the Heroes for Hire franchise which is Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Nova is very important to us; he happens to have a new comic book series starting in February which is oddly enough written by me. And White Tiger is, again, a character we just saw real possibility with. And of course each character had to have a unique voice and have their power sets to complement each other. The costumes need to be distinct enough from each other so you recognize them even in motion. We wanted a superteam that kids and families could look at and look up to, relate to.
