Media release CBR: Following the high-school adventures of teenage superhero Peter Parker (voiced by Disney star Drake Bell), Disney XD is teaming up with Marvel Entertainment to bring Spider-Man to a new generation. “Ultimate Spider-Man” begins as Parker is recruited by Nick Fury (Chi McBride) to join a special team of teenage crime fighters, including Marvel heroes Iron Fist (Greg Cipes), White Tiger (Caitlin Taylor Love), Power Man (Ogie Banks), and Nova (Logan Miller). Using the high school as their base — under the auspices of Principal Coulson/Agent Coulson, Clark Gregg reprising his live action film role — Parker must balance his crime fighting with his school life, hiding his alter ego from friends Mary-Jane (Tara Strong) and Harry Osborn (Matt Lanter).
With the series debut of April 1 fast approaching, Head of Marvel TV and “Ultimate Spider-Man” Executive Producer Jeph Loeb and Marvel Chief Creative Officer and Co-Executive Producer Joe Quesada spoke with reporters about the show. One of the thing they emphasized is the way the upcoming series will expose viewers to the broader Marvel Universe, leveraging Spidey’s popularity in order to spotlight characters like Luke Cage and White Tiger.
“We have a huge treasure chest of wonderful characters we think haven’t been exposed properly over time, but it was also a matter of finding characters that would work well within this cast, that would mix well with Peter Parker and characters that would translate to the young audience,” Quesada said. “These are absolutely characters we feel vested in, that we’re gong to be investing in the future, that we thought would just make for a wonderful show.
As the series begins, Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for just one year. He has saved lives and fought supervillains, but he is still in the process of learning how to be a superhero. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. offers Peter the chance to train to be a real superhero and become “The Ultimate Spider-Man”. However, beforehand Peter will have to learn how to work with a team of four fellow teenage superheroes. The teen heroes Spider-Man will be teaming up with are Nova, White Tiger, Iron Fist, and Power Man.
Brian Michael Bendis and Paul Dini will be serving as writers and producers on the show. Man of Action (a group consisting of Steven T. Seagle, Joe Kelly, Joe Casey, and Duncan Rouleau), the creators of the animated series Ben 10 and Generator Rex, will be serving as supervising producers on the show. 26 episodes have been ordered for the first season. Marvel fans be there or be square.