I said last week I expected to see Norman Osborn as Green Goblin within the next few episodes. Now, I’m kind of hoping that’ll be the Season 1 finale. Without watching Episodes 4 and 5 prior to this review, let’s swing into “Secret Identity Crisis.”
We didn’t linger too long on Peter’s mental crisis after Norman revealed that he knew of Peter’s identity as Spider-Man. Normally, I’d like to explore this a bit more but, for this show, it would feel out of place. That said, we got to learn a bit about Nico’s situation during this segment. She’s in foster care. If they’re going to lean into a variant of the Runaways narrative, I’m digging this backstory.
I’m not sure I cared too much for Lonnie’s kid brother joining a gang. He seemed disgruntled but, overall, a good kid. It wasn’t entirely unexpected since we saw how Lonnie was followed by the cops (among other things) in “Amazing Fantasy.” This felt a bit forced. However, Lonnie turning himself over to the gang to save his brother does make sense for his character. I’m curious to see how he’ll become Tombstone later.
One last thing. I thought it was endearing to see Peter save Uncle Ben’s camera. The camera backstory isn’t something I’ve seen much of. I found myself saying, “Aw.”
Skye’s Take
While I started having doubts in the last episode, the show is back on track with this one. At first, I thought the show was moving too fast and I couldn’t tell where they wanted to take the show. Their intentions are now clear. In fact, this episode was kinda cute.
I latched onto each character. Not gonna lie, I was surprised to see how caring and positive each character is, especially Norman Osborn. Considering how the previous episode ended, I expected him to go into full Goblin mode real soon. However, he’s far from that. Norman seems genuinely pleasant and willing to help Spider-Man after learning his identity, and that’s a nice spin on the idea. The Spider-Man stuff is getting more interesting as Spider-Man’s “Guy in the Chair” is literally the Green Goblin.
I agree with Season on the Lonnie stuff. His brother Andre joining a gang was out of left field, but the show needed to get Lonnie into a gang somehow. It also makes Lonnie a more complex character. Knowing his future as Tombstone, seeing him vulnerable around his family sets him up as a tragic character. I’m looking forward to the episode when they rip my heart out with him becoming Tombstone.
With minimal gripes on this episode, and prior to watching the other two, I’m back on board. Let’s keep this Spider-Train a rollin’ with more great episodes.
Culdcept has titles spanning nearly two decades. It has a manga series. It’s difficult to find Western copies. Discard your card and let’s play a round of Culdcept.
Hey, everyone! Season here. We’re trying something new this week with Video Game Cult Classics. This week, we’re focusing on Culdcept (or Karudoseputo in Japanese). The basic premise of Culdcept is Monopoly meets Magic: The Gathering in video game form. The first installment was developed in 1997 by Omiya Soft. For a video game to make this series, we’re going to consider its reception, relevance, and accessibility. Since Culdcept is predominantly a deck construction game, we’ll start with the different types of cards before jumping into gameplay.
Note: Most of the images are from the Culdcept Revolt wiki, but some will be from Culdcept Second (which will be labeled).
Card Types
Before we jump into card types, Culdcept has a card rating system (how easy cards are to obtain). After a match, cepters (players) receive “card packs.” The number of cards contained in each pack varies depending on whether the cepter won or lost. In Culdcept Revolt, cepters may also purchase card packs outside of matches. The different ratings a card can have are normal (common), strange (uncommon), rare, and extra (ultra rare). Extra cards are powerful and may only be obtained after meeting certain conditions within the game.
Below, we have “Rainbow Piece,” an extra item card obtained after defeating a specific cepter in story mode of Culdcept Second.
Now that we’ve got obtaining cards and their rarities down pat, let’s take a look at the categories of cards. Culdcept has three basic categories of cards: creatures, spells, and items. We’ll start with creature cards.
Creature Cards
Creatures claim/defend land and attack/defend against other players. They’re essential for collecting tolls and fending off your opponents. Each creature card will have ST (strength), HP (health), MHP (max health), and G (cost). Some creatures will also have an element symbol or card symbol as part of their G. This means you must own the number of required land and/or discard a card from your hand to place that creature.
Some creatures will have “land limits” (types of lands they can’t be placed on) and “item limits” (items they’re unable to use in battle). Each creature card will have a different colored border, denoting their element. If the cepter places a creature on a land of their element, they’ll receive a land effect, meaning they’ll get bonus HP and ST from that land during battle. This excludes neutral (gray) creatures unless they have an effect that states otherwise.
Below, we have a “Death Gaze.” It’s a rare earth creature. It has ST: 50, HP: 30, MHP: 30, and G: 70+ you must own at least one more earth land to place “Death Gaze.” The printed “Land Limit” shows that “Death Gaze” cannot be placed on a wind land. The “Neutralize Scroll” effect means that it’s impervious to scroll attacks.
Credit: gamerinfo.net, Culdcept Second
Spell Cards
Spells can either help or harm the casting cepter. They can be used offensively to steal magic (more on magic during “Gameplay”) from other cepters and harm their creatures or defensively to protect the casting cepter and their creatures from their opponents. Some spells have area effects, alter lands, and affect movement. Spells may have different symbols that denote which aspects of the game they affect. In Culdcept Revolt, there are “secret” spells, which aren’t revealed until they’re played. More on that later.
The spell below is “Holy Word 6,” which allows a cepter of the caster’s choice to have a fixed die roll of 6 on their next roll phase.
Item Cards
Items can be broken down into four types: weapons, armor, scroll attacks, and tools/accessories. Weapons and armor can both affect a creature’s ST and HP stat. Weapons tend to provide more strength and armor tends to provide more HP. Scroll attacks give a creature a fixed strength and can have different effects, such as critical hits to certain types of creatures and can ignore items that neutralize attacks. Tools/accessories can do a variety of things. They can neutralize attacks, penetrate (remove land effect buffs from creatures), give a creature first attack, and destroy/steal the opponent’s item. There are probably more effects we’re forgetting. Some creatures may also double as items, which is described in their effect text.
Gameplay Overview
Cepters (players) draw a card, roll two 6-sided dice, and move around a board, placing creatures and paying/collecting tolls as they go. Each installment of Culdcept has different variations and add new mechanics. For this write-up, we’re going to focus on Culdcept Revolt (2016), since it’s the most recent installment.
At the beginning of a cepter’s turn, they draw one card from their book (deck). Each cepter can hold a maximum of six cards in their hand and must discard down if they draw a seventh. If they are holding any spell cards in their hand, they may play one per turn if they have enough G (cost). Culdcept is played with player hands revealed except for “secret” spells, which aren’t revealed until they’re played.
Credit: videochums.com
Next, the cepter rolls the dice and moves the number of spaces on the dice. If the cepter rolls a symbol on one of the dice, it equals zero. Rolling symbols on both dice equals twelve. Land tiles are elemental and may be either vacant or occupied. The different types of land tiles are air (yellow), fire (red), earth (green), water (blue), morph, and multi-elemental. The former four are more common and provide land effects to creatures corresponding with their matching element. Morph is a neutral land tile that transforms into the element of whichever creature is placed there. In Culdcept Second, these are neutral tiles and remain neutral even after a creature is placed there. Multi-elemental provides land effects to creatures of any type but won’t provide a chain effect. More on chain effects later.
Credit: videogamesuncovered.com
Special Tiles
There are also many types of special tiles cepters may land on. We won’t go in depth here, but we will give a brief overview of them.
Gates are represented by N, S, E, and W. They must be passed to collect magic to win the game.
Warp and Bridge tiles are similar since they send cepters to another location on the map.
Fortune Teller lets cepters choose creature, item, or spell, and gives the cepter one of the selected options at random from their book.
Spell Circle allows cepters to choose one of two spells presented, which is cast instantly, free of charge.
Card Shop allows cepters to purchase one of four cards for 20G.
Path Switch alters the path on the board for cepters, like a mine cart junction.
Magic Trap with either steal magic from cepters or give cepters all of the magic it has depending on what the cepter who landed on the tile rolls (1-6).
Siege Tower allows cepters to invade any land or occupy any vacant land with a creature from their hand.
Gem Store allows cepters to sell, buy, or steal Element Gems from one another, which can be used to enhance the element they’re assigned to. This increases the value of an element for a player. Cepters choose one element for the Element Gem’s rival (this element’s value decreases) and one element for the Element Gem’s ally (this element’s value increases). Element Gems are one of the more complex aspects of Culdcept Revolt and could be an article on their own.
Metro Bridge Map, Culdcept Revolt
Once a cepter lands on a tile, they will either perform the effect of the special tile, place a creature on the land tile if it’s vacant, summon a creature to battle on the land tile if it’s occupied, or use territory commands.
Chaining
If a cepter places a creature on a vacant land of an element they already own, a chain happens. Chaining raises the toll of that cepter’s lands if the lands occupied are the same element. So, if a cepter has two water lands and one fire land, the two water lands will be chained, raising the toll fee of that cepter’s water lands. The fire land will not be affected until that cepter places a creature on another vacant fire land. Chains don’t apply to multi-element lands.
Battles
Battles are fairly straightforward. If a cepter lands on a land tile occupied by another cepter, they may summon a creature to invade the opposing cepter’s land. The creature chosen must have its requirements met before being summoned, such as G, discarding a card, the number of adequate lands are occupied by the summoning cepter, and land limits.
The invading creature attacks first (unless the defending creature has the “first attack” effect), dealing damage equal to its ST to the defending creature’s HP. Each cepter has the option to choose an item to use in battle. Even if an item isn’t used the backside of a blank card will lay in the upper left or right-hand corner of either creature card until the battle commences.
Credit: hak271828, YouTube, Culdcept Second
If an item is used it will remain in the upper left or right-hand corner of its respective creature card and its effect will occur. If a creature has a pre-battle effect, such as critical hit, that will go into effect. If a creature survives the battle and has an effect post-battle, that will go into effect before exiting the battle screen and returning to the board. If the invading creature wins, the land will be taken over. If the defending creature wins, the cepter who landed on the land will pay the toll. If both creatures get destroyed, the land becomes vacant.
Credit: videochums.com
Territory Commands
Territory commands can range from leveling up lands to doing a myriad of things with creatures. They may only be available for territories the cepter has passed during their move phase. All may be accessed if the cepter lands on a gate. Lands can be level one through five—five being the highest. Cepters must pay the appropriate cost in G before a land can be leveled up. Cepters may also exchange the creature currently occupying a land with one from their hand or move a creature to an adjacent land (except for defense creatures that can’t be moved). If the adjacent land is occupied, a battle ensues. Otherwise, the creature occupies a new land. If a creature has a territory ability, the ability may be used. The game ends when whichever cepter collects the required magic power first.
Phew! That wasn’t nearly as in depth as it could have gotten, but I’ll spare you the nitty gritty. The game itself teaches new players more slowly, so it’s not nearly as much of an info dump as my breakdown.
Reception
Culdcept was more of a hit in Japan than in Western countries. The original Culdcept doesn’t have an official translation. However, Culdcept did get released as Culdcept DS in 2008. Culdcept also released during the middle of the collectible card game (CCG) boom of the ‘90s. It came out one year after the Pokémon Trading Card Game (1996) and two years before the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (1999). CuldceptSecond got an official translation and was released in North America in 2003 for PS2. This is the iteration of Culdcept I’m most familiar with. However, Culdcept Second still wasn’t very popular and sold roughly around sixty-five thousand copies globally. Culdcept 3DS released in 2012 in Japan, but this is similar to Culdcept Second.Culdcept Revolt incorporated an online element. This garnered Culdcept Revolt more popularity than its predecessors and it included elements to streamline the game.
Credit: Vysethedetermined2, YouTube, Culdcept Second
Relevance
Since Culdcept released as a video game hybrid of popular tabletop games, you’d think it’d have a wider fanbase. I’m not sure why it’s an obscure series, but I can hazard a guess. OmiyaSoft wanted to jump on the CCG bandwagon with a video game resembling a CCG. Culdcept got sandwiched between two popular titles during that time. Yu-Gi-Oh! (the manga) began serializing in 1996 and Pokémon (the anime) started airing in 1997. Culdcept likely got overshadowed by these two titans and faded into obscurity.
The publisher, Omiya Soft, is a small, not well-known publisher outside of Culdcept. To their credit, Culdcept lasted for almost twenty years. They had enough dedicated fans to continue producing games. On their website, they advertise themselves as a variety publisher. They haven’t released anything since Clash! Hani World in 2017, which is only available in Japan.
Credit: mobygames.com, Culdcept Second
I mentioned the manga at the beginning of this write-up, so I’ll cover the manga’s reception here. The Culdcept manga was serialized from 2004-2006, between the releases of Culdcept Second and Culdcept Saga, shortly after Culdcept Second became available in North America. I didn’t know it had a manga even though it was published in English by Tokyopop, which is a well-known English manga publishing company. Regardless, even the manga had a short shelf life.
Accessibility
If you’ve read this far and are thinking about picking up a copy of Culdcept, you’re probably asking, “Where can I find it?” Your local used video game store likely won’t have it unless you luck out. Folks sell used copies of various Culdcept titles on eBay and Amazon. The downside to getting these titles online is that they could be damaged, and you’d have to take the disc to get refurbished. Culdcept Revolt still has some new copies on the market, but their numbers are dwindling. If you want to get your hands on the original Culdcept, I recommend having a Japanese PS1 or PS2 to go with it if you’re able to find one. These aren’t the easiest games to find and the prices for English copies vary between $25-$200 USD. Maybe more, depending on where you look.
Credit: listal.com, Culdcept Second
Final Thoughts
If you’re a fan of strategy and card games, I highly recommend Culdcept. I find the game charming and enjoy the different playstyles of each CPU within the game. That’s right. Unlike games like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, where each CPU has different decks, but employs a similar playstyle, CPU cepters have their unique playstyles that match their personalities and deck type. Some of them take over every land they see while others invade when they’re certain they can win. They can be predictable if you’re used to facing the same cepter, but they’ll sometimes leave you scratching your head.
Much of the information regarding Culdcept Revolt was found on Culdcept Central. If you want more in-depth guides for each game and deck strategies, please check them out.
What’s your favorite deck/strategy in Culdcept? If there are any cult classics you’d like to see covered in future posts, let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading and have an amazing rest of your day.
Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t reviewed today’s game, so we’ll fix that. Today’s review is another party game: Don’t Mess with Cthulhu.
Don’t Mess with Cthulhu is a social deduction game with secret identities. Players assume the role of investigators or cultists. The investigators must uncover all the Elder Signs to win, while the Cultists win when Cthulhu is revealed or if the game ends before all the Elder Signs are discovered.
Before we venture further into madness, let’s discuss Don’t Mess with Cthulhu’s details.
The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Yusuke Sato Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards Date Released: 2014 Number of Players: 4-6 Age Range: 10 and up Setup Time: Less than a minute Play Time: 1-30 minutes
You’ll have a different number of investigators and cultists, and various numbers of futile investigation and Elder Sign cards based on the number of players. Consult the charts in the rulebook to determine how many of each needs to be in the game.
Shuffle the appropriate number of Character tokens, dealing one to each player face down. Each player secretly looks at the role assigned to them on the Character token. Place any unused tokens out of play without revealing them.
Then, shuffle the appropriate number of Investigation cards, dealing five to each player face down. Beginning with the starting player (who will have the starter player token, which is a flashlight), each player secretly looks at their Investigation cards and declares (truthfully or not) the number of Elder Sign and Cthulhu cards they were dealt. (Note: there’s only one Cthulhu card in the deck, but that doesn’t mean that more than one player can “claim” to have a Cthulhu card.)
Everyone shuffles their Investigation cards and places them in front of themselves, face down.
Game Flow
Each turn consists of the Active player selecting any Investigation card in front of any player other than themselves. They place the flashlight token on the card they wish to reveal. Other players should feed the player information, keeping in mind that players with the Investigator role want to find Elder Signs, while Cultists want to reveal Cthulhu.
The chosen card is revealed and placed in the center of the play area so everyone can see it. Check to see if the game ends (all the Elder Signs are revealed or if Cthulhu makes an appearance). Play continues with the player whose card was just revealed. They take their turn the same way and this continues until the round comes to an end.
The round ends after the number of actions taken in that round equals the number of players in the game. After the round ends, the remaining Investigation cards are shuffled together and dealt evenly between the players. Again, the players secretly look at their Investigation cards and place them in front of themselves face down.
The game ends immediately if the Cthulhu card is revealed or if all Elder Sign cards are revealed. If neither condition is met, the game ends after four rounds.
If all Elder Sign cards are revealed, the Investigators win. If Cthulhu is revealed or four rounds are played without all Elder Sign cards being revealed, the Cultists win.
Review
Like most party games, Don’t Mess with Cthulhu has a quick setup and playtime. I’ve played this game quite a bit over the years and found that you don’t always need to bluff when playing—but it helps. And it’s fun when more than one person claims that they have Cthulhu. I’ve played a round where three people at the table said they had Cthulhu and then the next round, everyone said they had Cthulhu. It’s a goofy game that doesn’t take long.
And the reason why I say that you don’t have to bluff if you don’t want to is that chance plays a huge role in Don’t Mess with Cthulhu. Even if everyone tells the truth, you still must select the right card, or the game ends and the game can end in the way you don’t want. My family struggles with bluffing in games. Don’t Mess with Cthulhu gives players an option to bluff or not bluff. This leads to some great metagaming. I’ve heard many players say, you never tend to bluff but you did this time and fooled everyone. I’ve also seen the opposite. Don’t Mess with Cthulhu may get better the more games you play with a group.
The stakes are low with Don’t Mess with Cthulhu. Most games last about fifteen minutes with some games going as short as less than one minute. I’ve seen plenty of games where the first or second card the active player chooses is the Cthulhu card. It doesn’t matter. Laugh it off, shuffle the cards, and play again.
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Don’t Mess with Cthulhu is a great change-of-pace game for most gaming groups. It won’t be a group’s main game, but I’ve seen many game nights where this game caps off the session. It’s endlessly replayable and has low stakes. Don’t Mess with Cthulhu’s goofy fun doesn’t force you to bluff—but bluffing doesn’t hurt.
Last week, I thought Ivy’s secrecy would come back to bite her. Boy. It really came back to bite her this week. Ready to enter the Green?
As denoted by the title, Dr. Woodrue (Floronic Man), chose to enact his revenge on Poison Ivy. This was foreshadowed at the end of “Back to School,” but I wasn’t sure if they were going to focus on a different story in Episode 3 and circle back to Floronic Man. This episode also incorporated dramatic shifts from the darker parts of the story with Ivy and ridiculousness with Clayface.
Clayface going to Metropolis after getting a negative review from the Daily Planet made the episode for me. I enjoy Ivy’s edgy backstory, but, like, it’s Clayface. Harley Quinn does a good job of shifting the narrative drastically throughout an episode while keeping the audience engaged. I try to avoid spoilers, but I do have one here. Harley “killed” Floronic Man at the end of the episode. I say “killed” in quotes because Ivy thought she killed him at the end of “Back to School.” I feel like he’d need to be burned or something. Then again, Scarecrow didn’t make it past Season 1. End of spoilers.
We’ve gotten some more foreshadowing for the next episode. Will the big baddie who made an appearance at the end of “The Big Apricot” be featured or will we have to wait a bit longer? Personally, I’d like to see him at the season finale.
Kyra’s Take
While I could also wait a bit longer for this season’s big bad to make a full appearance, I don’t think Harley Quinn will stay in Metropolis for more than one season. And this season’s big bad makes little sense outside of Metropolis. I’ll stop avoiding spoilers and just name the season’s big bad: Brainiac. Brainiac needs Metropolis, and Superman must feature in the story.
Harley Quinn has taken its time to move characters from Gotham to Metropolis. I love a good Clayface B Story, and this week’s Clayface B Story delivered. It doesn’t hurt that Bane joined in on the Clayface goofiness. This story thread does more than offer the laughs, while Ivy’s story grew dark. Clayface promotes his career. He does so in the most Clayface way possible, over-the-top. He kidnaps the Daily Planet’s editor-in-chief Perry White, and infiltrates the newspaper disguised as White. This was a clever way for Harley Quinn to introduce larger story elements. The big bad makes moves in Metropolis. We learn about some of these machinations through pitched Daily Planet headlines, but Clayface only cares about his review. Love this. It’s brilliant.
Ivy’s backstory gets a satisfying end. Floronic Man may be little more than a villain of the week. I got Arrowverse vibes from how Harley Quinn treated him, but that works in an animated series like Harley Quinn. As Season said, Harley Quinn killed off Scarecrow in Season 1. It did the same to multiple major Batman villains. I like how no one’s safe, not even someone who usually factors into one of the main cast’s origins.
The show does a good job of maintaining forward momentum and giving the impression that there’s a satisfying ending for this season’s story while keeping the audience guessing. I like how the show could go in multiple directions. Heck, Harley Quinn could stay in Metropolis for a second season. There are plenty of Superman villains to explore.
Two episodes in one day? Did I win the lottery? Disney decided to give us big bucks this week. Joking aside, “The Parker Luck” kept the momentum of “Amazing Fantasy” and catapulted the story forward.
There was a recap at the beginning of “The Parker Luck,” which I normally wouldn’t mind if I knew the episodes were aired one week after the other. “The Parker Luck” and “Amazing Fantasy” dropped on the same day, so the recap felt unnecessary. It also needlessly padded the runtime (which is three minutes shorter than “Amazing Fantasy”) with this addition. That said, I’m digging the intro. I refuse to skip that intro.
Since he was introduced at the end of Episode 1, I’ll name drop him here. I’m loving the arc of Norman Osborn approaching Peter to offer him an internship, followed by another turn at the end of the episode. Once again, they wasted no time in propelling the story forward. However, I wasn’t a fan of Peter making plans with Nico then not showing up because of his other obligations. It’s overdone and trope-y. This is a kids’ show, so I won’t nitpick too much, but that trope gets old real fast.
I’m expecting to see Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin within the next few episodes, if not Episode 3 next week. We may see the counterparts of other characters during that time, too.
Skye’s Take
While the pilot episode proved to be a solid opening, this second episode got more mixed feelings out of me. “The Parker Luck” does have good things in it, but it left me asking “What’s the goal of this show?”
Since the episode ended with one of the main characters discovering Peter’s identity, I’m not sure where else this show can go from here. Sure, Spider-Man: No Way Home also dealt with Peter living with his identity going public, but at least that Spider-Man had been established for some time. Once again, I’m still not sure if I like this Spider-Man yet. It seems to me that the show is throwing a lot of major plot developments in the first few episodes to encourage viewers to keep watching. Given the show is still in its infancy, it’s moving way too fast.
However, I still feel satisfied with the relationship between Peter and his friends. Despite my other complaints, I enjoy seeing Peter hang out with Nico and Lonnie. This is also why it was so frustrating when he didn’t make it to the party in the episode. Believe it or not, this Spider-Man show is hooking me with its Peter Parker content more than its Spider-Man content. There were a few characters that appeared in the episode which are clearly being set up for future episodes. Dr. Connors and, of course, Norman Osborn who’re soon to be The Lizard and The Green Goblin respectively, but there’re undoubtedly more to come. As a Spider-Man fan, I can’t deny that there’s a novel feeling to seeing these characters appear knowing what they’ll eventually become.
Despite some reservations, I’m excited for this show and look forward to more surprises.
Whoa! Spider-Man got aged down again in his new show on Disney+. Not going to lie, the thirty-one minute runtime intimidated me at first. Despite this, the episode didn’t feel like a thirty-one minute long pilot. Grab your web shooters and let’s swing through Episode 1 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
First impression: the art style. This was jarring for me when I looked at promotional materials for the show. I don’t dislike it, but it does take some getting used to. There were a few scenes at the beginning of the show depicting Peter getting ready through animated comic book panels, which was cute. I hope they do more of this in future episodes.
In the opening paragraph, I mentioned the runtime. I anticipated the spider bite scene to be at the end of the episode, but they wasted no time getting into it. The opening sequence of Peter getting ready/being late on his first day of school dragged a bit. He spent a lot of time telling Aunt May how much he appreciated her, which was heartwarming, but I don’t think it warranted two separate scenes within the first ten minutes. There were several characters who got introduced right off the bat, some of whom will likely become villains later on down the line. I won’t name drop, but there is a major Spider-Man villain who gets introduced at the end of “Amazing Fantasy.”
One last thing before I let Skye take the wheel—toward the end of “Amazing Fantasy,” real-world problems were showcased. The most notable examples are Lonnie getting followed by a cop on his walk home and someone who stole cash after losing their job. I won’t hang on this for long, I appreciated the inclusion of these moments. It makes the show more grounded.
Skye’s Take
Thank you for the stirring introduction, Season. I must say, after watching the first episode of this new Spider-Man series, I was pleasantly entertained. For the most part, it seemed to combine both old and new concepts we’ve seen in Spider-Man stories before. In the process, it created a world that looks familiar yet still feels fresh.
Regarding Season’s comment on the animation, I thought it was good with some noticeable imperfections. Overall, it’s pleasing to the eye, but it isn’t as good as Into or Across the Spider Verse. Part of me wonders if the animators were attempting to imitate that style by blending hand-drawn and CG animation similar to what those films did.
Despite that, this show proved to me that it was on the right track. The action was energetic and well-paced. We were introduced to a bunch of characters, but each of them seems likable with room to grow. Even the voice acting was pretty solid. There were some notable exceptions with some of the extraneous characters, but what can you do? If I were to harp on anything: the jokes aren’t that funny. The jokes got no more than a chuckle out of me, but comedy is subjective.
I’ll piggyback off another of Season’s comments. While I’m not opposed to including a moment like Lonnie getting racially profiled in a kid’s show, the moment comes out of nowhere. Suddenly, we’re supposed to feel bad for a character we barely know, and it comes across as Disney just trying to earn brownie points with minorities. Disney has a history of pandering to minorities on-screen, while behind closed doors, it’s a different story. If this story beat returns, I may have different thoughts.
Ultimately, this was a good start to a (potentially) good series.
