Marvel's Spider-Man Producer Interview

Just a few months after the finale of Ultimate Spider-Man, Spidey returns to television this Saturday with the aptly titled Marvel's Spider-Man, a new Disney XD animated series. The show has a heavy focus on Peter Parker's high school days, but with a twist -- instead of being bullied at Midtown High, he's among other science geeks at Horizon High, run by Max Modell as principal.

Fans will recognize plenty of his classmates -- as they include Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy and Anya Corazon. The show aims to pay tribute to everything from Stan Lee & Steve Ditko's Silver Age comics that laid the groundwork for the Spidey mythology, to writer Dan Slott's current run on the comics, while presenting a superhero series aimed directly at an all-ages audience.

TV and comics veteran Kevin Shinick is at the creative center of Marvel's Spider-Man, serving as supervising producer and story editor. CBR spoke in-depth with Shinick about the series, and how he's looking to distinguish it from past animated Spidey adventures -- along with the briefest of teases for his upcoming Star Wars children's book, Star Wars: The Last Jedi -- Chewie and the Porgs, illustrated by Fiona Hsieh.

Still from the "Osborn Academy" episode of Marvel's Spider-Man.

CBR: Kevin, there's been a Spider-Man animated series on air pretty consistently since at least Spectacular Spider-Man in 2008, and Ultimate Spider-Man just wrapped a run after about five years. For you, what was important to accomplish with this seires, in terms of showing viewers things they haven't seen before?

Kevin Shinick: Two things were important to me. One was to go back to the Spider-Man that I grew up loving. I love all incarnations of him, but we got to the point now where he's a superhero all the time, we've had series where he's been in S.H.I.E.L.D. and comics where he's been in the Avengers. I wanted to go back to the angst, to be blunt. "I'm trying to get my grades, I'm trying to help Aunt May, and I'm trying to be a superhero," because that's what I loved about it from the get go.

I wanted to go back to that, but I also wanted to move forward in a direction that hadn't been done before. So we pitched this idea that, kind of like Hogwarts, there is a school system set up -- Horizon High, a magnet school for geniuses. He's a science geek, Peter loves science. What I wanted to do is create an environment we hadn't seen before. Between Midtown, Horizon and Osborn Academy, you've got this triumvirate of competing schools, competing heroes, and all of the stuff that goes along with that.

When I pitched to Disney, I said, "Spider-Man can be summed up in one word." They were about to say "duality." I said "science." They were a little taken aback by that -- but I really wanted to approach this from an authentic voice. I wanted it to be a science geek, 16 year old, who's going to school. I wanted kids to be able to relate to this. I wasn't great at science in school, but I was a high school kid, and I wanted to get back to the reality of being a high school kid who has the burden of becoming a superhero, as well.

That definitely creates different dynamics -- and speaking of dynamics, wanted to ask about the relationship between Peter and Miles. Comics fans are used to Peter being the hero who inspired Miles, and Peter being 10 to 15 years older than Miles -- here, he's maybe a year older than Miles.

He is -- a year or two.

That alone makes their relationship different that what fans are used to. What are your thoughts on that dynamic, and how they both fit into this series?

What's great about this story is you live it through each of the characters, as opposed to just one. You go along with Peter, he's become Spider-Man, it's his first outing as the hero. We did the shorts because people want to know how he became Spider-Man, although like Spider-Man: Homecoming, so happy we don't have to do that again.

What's great about Miles for me is, the age is close, but it's almost like an older brother. Just like in the comics, Miles looks up to Peter. It's that same thing, but it's almost a closer relationship. Here, it's more like siblings. They're good friends. Now they have a lot in common. How often can you be that close with a friend where you have the same spider-powers?

To me, a lot of this series is about relationships. If you look at kids that age, relationships are huge. It's one of the things we focus on, because you're leaving your family, and your friendships are really important. Peter's relationship with Harry is invaluable. They're best friends. His relationship with Miles is almost brotherly. In many ways, I think Harry looks out for Peter, and that's kind of flipped with Miles. Peter's kind of the older brother, trying to look out for Miles. Miles is more of a shoot from the hip kind of guy. Peter hasn't even been a superhero that long, and he has to mentor another superhero. To me, that was important. Making those relationships definable and distinct.

It's not just Miles Morales -- plenty of characters who fans know play a part in this series, including Anya Corazon and Gwen Stacy. What was the like of taking elements from all over the Spidey mythos? The show uses Max Modell, something from the relatively recent past, and characters from Silver Age. How did that come together?

What's great about it is, Spider-Man is popular for many reasons, but one core reason: Because he is kind of the everyman. Or the everyboy. As long as you stay true to that, I think you're going to be on your mark. But I wanted to update it. I enjoy Dan Slott's run, and I wanted to corporate as much of that as I could. That being said, the comics can be tailored to be more kid-friendly -- or more relatable, I should say. That's the whole point of this series: Take what works from the comics, but make it more relatable to this generation.

Consistently, we've had a Spider-Man [animated series] since Spectacular Spider-Man. There's a reason for that. That generation is always a new generation. People love Spectacular. People love Ultimate. There will be people who love this. Everybody will have their own Spider-Man. When I grew up, I think they only had the '60s one, which were older reruns. I think now that we keep this alive, everybody can have their own.

You mentioned Dan Slott, and he's a consulting producer on the show. How did that come about?

I respect and enjoy a lot of the stuff, just as a fan and a reader, of his run, so I wanted to be able to use some of that, and yet make it our own. We all thought the best way to do that was to have Dan come on as a consultant. We'd do summits where we'd break story, and he was invaluable.

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Interested to hear about your philosophy in regards to tone. These are shows that are deliberately aimed at younger audiences, and it needs to be treated as such to reach that audience, but as the same time, I know you're not looking to dumb it down. How do you achieve that balance?

It is a balance. I worked on Robot Chicken, and I also left and created Mad. The great thing about that was, that was a similar age group. Everybody said, "Oh, you write great for kids." I'm not writing for kids. I'm writing for what I find to be funny, and I think they will also find funny. If you think back to when we were kids, and we were watching Bugs Bunny. There were references in there -- I didn't know who Liberace was, but things are innately funny. So I never, ever dumb down -- if anything I want to build it up. If they don't get something, let them ask about it. I think you need to aspire to that, because that's what we grew up with.

Yes, you want to make things kid friendly -- it's Spider-Man, it should be kid friendly -- but at the same token, I'm not going to talk down to them. I'm going to tell a story. Spider-Man has a personality we all know. He's funny. But I want to be realistic with that -- he's not Zach Galifianakis. I didn't want to make the show goofy. Coming from Robot Chicken -- it's not going to be that. That's a completely different animal. But I wanted it to be authentic to that age group. The movie did it very well, too. He's not Shecky Greene -- he's not out there doing one-liners. But he is [funny] -- maybe because of nerves. He's nervous about this. I think that's where the humor comes, when you remain -- I'll say it again -- authentic to the character, authentic to the age and to his settings.

Which is surely easier said then done.

It's true. A lot of shows I'll watch, it'll be a kids' show, but they're saying things that adults say. We play around with it a little bit, because he is a 16 year old, but he's also a science geek. He's a science genius. But think back to high school -- we knew people like that -- very brainy. I think in many ways, Peter is like that. Peter has a laser-focus on the things that he enjoys, and that, luckily for us and for him, is science. That was a great starting point to make this show different.

Let's talk about villains -- in the first episode we see Vulture, and a lot of other ones set up, including Doctor Octopus. I know Jackal is going to be a big part of the show. Which villains were you excited to use, and what can you share about the different ways we'll see them pop up?

What excited me more than what villains I could use was how to create them. We haven't seen this before, where we have three schools set up, which ultimately become the birthplace of a lot of these heroes and villains. Now, they don't necessarily start out as heroes and villains -- they are the product of their school. I love that idea that you've got a science project, and maybe you're the guy who created the Shocker. You don't necessarily do it to become a villain, you did it because you were trying to get an A. But now you have this power -- what do you do with it? That's always been Spidey's thing. He's given this power, what does he do with it? He knows that with great power comes great responsibility. Not everybody does that.

Vulture. Shocker. Doc Ock. Rhino. All these villains, which I love, one of my favorite parts of the series was finding a new and fresh way to show how these characters came to life. I don't want to call them villains and heroes yet, because the majority of them are students or teachers. As a kid, how cool would it be if you found out one of your teachers is a supervillain? I get a lot more interested in school if I realize these are the people we're playing with.

That's definitely a fundamental thing about Spider-Man -- close ties with his villains, obviously Norman Osborn being the No. 1 example. And beyond your work behind the scenes on this show, you're also voicing Bruce Banner? Does he show up in Spider-Man?

He does! He shows up in the Avengers, Spider-Man, and a couple other series, I think.

I know you have voice acting experience, but how did that come about? And voicing Bruce Banner in particular?

Honestly, just the way anybody else would have. People say, "Oh, you're working there, it's a given." It wasn't a given! I'll tell you a funny story: We came up with this character, just a random character -- he was like a bully that was bullying Flash Thompson. Randomly, my agent -- who for some reason didn't remember I was creating this series -- sent me the audition. So I'm in the studio, and I say, "Guys, my agent just sent me this audition for this character." It's practically a throwaway role. They said, "You should totally do it!" I said, "I'm not going to audition for this." Everybody was like, "No, you should totally do it, it would be so cool!" Alright. So I do it, sent it to my agent.

I don't get the gig! I said, "Guys, I wasn't even going to do this! You convinced me to do this!" And I didn't get the gig. So my point being, it was like anybody else auditioning for this job. I couldn't get a one-liner for my own series. So when the audition came for Bruce Banner, I just submitted my stuff, and kept my fingers crossed, and luckily they called and said, "Yeah, we'd like you to be Bruce Banner."

Well, Bruce Banner sounds like a better role. Moving past Spidey for a bit, what can you say about the Star Wars children's book you wrote?

They threatened me not to talk about that. All I can say is that it's a young book. I have a 6-year-old daughter -- I'm dying for her to love Star Wars. She already does, just through me, but she's also a little scared of it, because of Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren. So I wanted to do a book that would be able to introduce a very young generation to Star Wars without freaking her out. So this is a story that involves Chewbacca, and that's all I can say about it. It ties into the new movie coming out in December, The Last Jedi. That was a blast to do that, too, to live and write in that world.

Kids should love Chewbacca! Clearly you've had your hands full with the animated series, but you've had a pretty good foothold at Marvel at large for a while -- but it's been a couple years since your last comic, Axis: Hobgoblin. Any plans or hopes to get back in that world?

Absolutely. I was so steeped in this series, to get it off the ground, that I had like zero time. Now that it's on its feet, and we're releasing season one, I would love to get back to writing more comics. Having written for the stage, for television, for the comics, they're all great in their own way, but for me, the rawest form is the comic books, and I would love to get back to that.

Given this strong association with Spider-Man and what we were chatting about before the interview got started, is it fair to say that he's always been your favorite comics character?

Always. To be honest, Spider-Man was my No. 1. After that was a lot of DC, but Spider-Man was my No. 1. Always. Maybe it was because I related to him, and he was my age, and I liked all of that. I just loved his cast of villains. In New York, they have the John Romita exhibit, of all the Spidey pages and covers, and it just brought me back. So many covers that encapsulated all of the villains at once. I just remember being so excited as a kid to pick up the next issue. He was my first love in comic books.

You see that a lot with kids at a certain age -- obviously when you get a little older, you can relate to his personality, but even very young children, who know nothing about his personality, are drawn to him. I was maybe one years old when I first saw Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, but there's just something fundamentally appealing about the character.

It's true. Going back to my daughter, I would let her sit with me and watch the animatics, so I got a sense of what she was being, and it was amazing, because she loved it, off the bat. And she has her favorites already. She was concerned about Anya Corazon, and she would ask me genuine questions that would help me tailor this more for a younger generation -- without going too young, without going too old. "What happened to so-and-so?" I would be like, "That's an excellent point! We didn't really follow up on that!" It was helpful, because I'm seeing it through my eyes. To see it through the eyes of someone who technically is my target audience, it was invaluable.

Marvel’s Spider-Man, starring Robbie Daymond as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Laura Bailey as Gwen Stacy and Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales, premieres at 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19 on Disney XD.