With Ultimate Spider-Man returning for Season 2 Monday night with a special prime time, one-hour airing, I spoke to supervising producer Cort Lane about what to expect – including the introduction of Hawkeye, the formation of the Sinister Six and a big nod to Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
IGN TV: We’ve hear that Season 2 will build towards the Sinister Six. Was that something you guys, sitting down and talking about it, knew early on would be a prime part of the season?
Cort Lane: When we sat down this season -- and I should mention, when I say we, we have this tremendous creative team -- We have Man of Action as our story editors, and they’re also producers on our show, and we have Brian Bendis, Joe Quesada and of course Jeph Loeb, my boss. We knew we wanted to have fun with a lot of classic Spidey villains this season. It’s pretty clear right off that we wanted to introduce several of them and build to a Sinister Six storyline and do it very cleanly in six episodes -- so [episode] six of course being the launch of the Sinister Six. And you’ll get to see them again at the end of the season as well.
IGN: The first two episodes introduce Lizard and Electro, who just so happen to be the villains in the new Spider-Man movies. Was that something where you thought, “Oh, this would be a nice way to line it up as we’re introducing some classic villains”?
Lane: Yeah, I mean it’s not just about synergy, it’s about the ideas and characters that kids are excited about, or will be excited about in our feature films. So there’s no point in fighting against that. Let’s go with it and give them a character that they’re already excited about because of the movies. Let’s introduce them to Electro so they get more excited about him in the next film.
IGN: As you mentioned, Season 1 had pulled a lot from all over the Marvel universe, including some bad guys that Spider-Man isn’t typically associated with. Did everyone just figure the time was right to focus more on the more traditional Spider-Man villains this year?
Lane: Yes and no. We certainly introduced the big Spidey villains that we wanted to in Season 1. To some extent that set up Season 2. For example, Doc Ock. Also, Norman comes into his own as a villain at the end of the season, and so in Season 2, he’s primed and ready to be an instigator, if you will, in a lot of the villains’ storylines in Season 2. A lot of that is very organic. We introduced Curt Connors so the audience could get to know him and like him and understand that he and Peter are so simpatico, they have the same interest and they’re friends. So when Curt becomes the lizard in episode one of Season 2, it means all that much more.
IGN: The press release for this season mentioned a secret sixth member of the Sinister Six joining Rhino, Kraven The Hunter, Lizard, Electro and Beetle. In the comics, Doctor Octopus was often the instigator of the Sinister Six. Should we not assume that necessarily will be the case here?
Lane: I will say that he has a role in the formation of the Sinister Six. Whether he is the sixth member or not you’ll have to wait and see in episode six. But the wheels are in motion beginning in episode one.
IGN: You’ve got Spider-Man and the other heroes now living together and in the opening scenes where they’re all at the house with Aunt May, I thought, “Hey, that kind of reminds me of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.” Then, amusingly, you’ve got, in a completely different way, a direct reference to that show later in the premiere.
Lane: We have fun with that twice, in episode one, but using the villains as the Amazing Friends, and it’s definitely an Easter Egg for fanboys. I got to know a lot more [about Amazing Friends]. I was familiar with the series, of course - I’m a huge Marvel fan and always have been since I was a child. But we worked a lot with the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends assets, those episodes, when we created the mashup. In fact, that was the first round of mashups that we created. Then I became such a fan, and everybody’s such a fan of that show, despite and including its flaws. So yeah, we wanted to pay a little homage there.
But I confess that having the kids live with Spidey was a little more inspired by the fun that Brian Bendis had in Ultimate Spider-Man [the comic book], when the Human Torch, Iceman and other friends come to live in Aunt May’s house. And that creates some interesting situations for Peter because first, he’s really been on his own. He is a very solitary hero, especially at the beginning of his career. Second, he really struggled to get along with these other kids in Season 1. Now he gets along with them, but having them in his house is another thing entirely. Really, the other element is that in as much as this season he’s struggling to become a leader to these kids, it’s hard when they’re in his space all the time, and he finds himself trying to escape and have his own solo adventures, which is a great way for us to tell those team-ups with another hero or adventures on his own.
IGN: Much of the premiere he is on his own, with the other guys helping him at the beginning and end. Whereas the second episode they’re all kind of together. Do you kind of parcel it out: “Now would be a better time for him to be on his own, maybe this episode he’ll have a guest star”?
Lane: Yeah, it’s a balance. We want to make sure we have Spidey solo adventures, and the first episode is mostly a solo adventure. Then we want him to grow as a leader to this team this season, so you’re going to have those team adventures. Sometimes they’re really sort of one-on-one adventures where he learns a lot more about these other heroes’ origins, and that’s the great thing about this season; we get to learn more about Iron Fist, Nova, White Tiger and Power Man’s origins through Spidey’s eyes. In most cases, they’re great origins with good, creative links to the rest of the Marvel universe. And then we want to do some team-ups with major Marvel heroes. You’ll see in episode five he teams up with Hawkeye, and it’s very much just the two of them. We get some great banter and interaction with a hero he’s never worked with before. He doesn’t necessarily like him, and that’s one of my favorite stories this season because, well, I’m a huge Hawkeye fan. He’s my favorite Marvel character.
IGN: You actually just predicted my next question. I was about to ask about Hawkeye, who can certainly bring his own attitude. Can we expect some of that to come through on Ultimate Spider-Man?
Lane: Yeah, he’s got that Hawkeye snark that you’d expect from decades of comic stories featuring him. He is a seasoned hero with tons of S.H.I.E.L.D. experience, and Spidey is a rookie and sometimes a bit of a screw up. So they learn to respect each other some throughout the episode, but there’s a lot of great banter. I think that’s where Spidey works very well because he is so quippy and so funny. When you pair him against a hero that he has conflicts with then that creates a lot of great opportunities for character moments and a lot of humor.
IGN: You’ve got several of the Avengers appearing this season, and Avengers Assemble is debuting later in the year. Will those members appear together on this show first? Will we see sort of a united Avengers on Ultimate Spider-Man?
Lane: Not in this season, but it’s an idea that we are very open to, and that’s all I can say.
IGN: Gotcha. But safe to say the depiction of those individual characters will be pretty in line with what we’ll see on Avengers Assemble?
Lane: Absolutely, including the same voice talent. You’re going to see character crossovers in all three shows this year [including Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.].
IGN: At some point, do you think you could do a big crossover with a storyline going through all three shows?
Lane: It’s not outside the realm of possibility, but I will tell you it does not happen in 2013.
IGN: You’ve got ongoing roles for people like Clark Gregg, reprising his role as Agent Coulson, and you’ve had a lot of notable voice stars appear on this show, some of them ongoing. Are there any you’re excited about this year showing up?
Lane: None that I can give away right now. I will say that there will be some surprises later in the season, particularly near the end. We have a lot of fun working with Clark, and he’s a very important character this season because S.H.I.E.L.D. has to recover from the devastation at the end of Season 1 caused by the Green Goblin. And Coulson’s role as a mentor with Spidey… he becomes a leader and more important.
IGN: I just quickly wanted to ask, because I’ve heard some conflicting reports... Has Iron Man: Armored Adventures ended?
Lane: I will say that that second season finished production some time ago. I think it’s fair to say there are currently no plans, but that is not written in stone.
Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 2 premieres Monday, January 21st at 7pm with two back-to-back episodes, before returning to its regular Sunday morning timeslot on January 27th.
Source : ign[dot]com
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