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Spider-Man and his Amazi— er, Ultimate Friends.
Clockwise from behind Spidey 
Loki: The Trickster tricked... by a MORTAL!?
Thor: He is no mere mortal. He is the Man of Spiders!
Spider-Man: Close enough.

Ultimate Spider-Man is an American animated series based on the superhero character published by Marvel Comics. Paul Dini (of the DC Animated Universe fame), Brian Michael Bendis and Man of Action Studios (of Ben 10 and Generator Rex fame) were involved in the making of the show, which premiered April 1, 2012 as part of Disney XD's Marvel Universe block. The executive producers consist of Jeph Loeb and Stan Lee. This is the replacement series for the fan-favorite The Spectacular Spider-Man, which was cancelled when Sony lost the TV rights to Spider-Man (movies, on the other hand...).

Peter Parker has been Spider-Man for one year when S.H.I.E.L.D. sits up and takes notice. Nick Fury invites him to be professionally trained in superheroics, alongside other young heroes: Iron Fist, Power Man, Nova, and White Tiger. With SHIELD's experience and resources backing him, Peter might just become the Ultimate Spider-Man!

The third season sub-titles the show as Web Warriors, which opens up the 'Spider-Verse' arc and routinely crosses over with other shows in the Marvel Universe (which also includes a crossover episode with the sitcom Jessie, of all things...).

The series ended January 2017 after a standard four season run note , under the subtitle "Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six", with a new show, Marvel's Spider-Man, that took its place, likely to coincide just in time for Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Not related to the Ultimate Spider-Man comic book, outside of the usual incorporation of Ultimate Marvel elements. Although confusingly enough, it has its own comic book tie-in.

There's a recap page in progress. Here's a trailer.


Ultimate Spider-Man provide examples of:

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    Tropes A-M 
  • Aborted Arc:
    • When the Lizard first appeared, a serum for scorpion mutations were seen as well. When the Scorpion finally appeared on the show, it was as as Badass Normal and later with a suit of Powered Armor. At no point did he ingest or get his powers from the serum.
    • Man-Wolf aka John Jameson. He only appeared once, still having the wolf's curse by the end of the episode. He is never seen again.
    • During the season one finale, Harry Osborn swore he would "get to the bottom" of what happened between his dad and Spider-Man, and have his revenge, suggesting he would become a new villain later on. But as season two rolled around, he showed no signs of actually investigating what happened to Norman, or of taking revenge on Spidey, instead settling on hating the webslinger from afar.
    • Near the beginning of Season 3, it was established that Echo, Gravity, and Speedball were potential S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits handpicked by Nick Fury to undergo training. One season later, we never see these three superheroes again.
    • In "The Parent Trap", Luke is exposed to a burst of energy when Scorpio suffers Phlebotinum Overload from a tampered batch of super soldier serum. At the end of the episode, his eyes glow with the same energy, suggesting that he would gain some kind of Mid-Season Upgrade. However, nothing ever came of this.
  • Action Girl: White Tiger
  • Actor Allusion:
  • Actually a Doombot: In "Doomed", Spider-Man and the team fight and capture who they think is Dr. Doom, only to realize too late that it was really a Doombot that Doom let get captured so it could destroy the helicarrier. Reversed in "Not a Toy" when Spider-Man is being chased by an army of Doombots and he wonders if one of them is actually the real Doom pretending to be a Doombot. Captain America tells him it's never that easy.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • Electro finds Spidey's Lightbulb Joke amusing, though the rest of the Sinister Six don't.
    • John Jameson actually laughs at Spidey's comment about coming to the Moon to get some space from his dad.
  • Adaptational Badass: For a show that's fairly light-hearted, there are some good cases:
    • Beetle is portrayed as a cunning Professional Killer who can deal with all of Spider-Man's team of his own.
    • Amazingly, Sandman, an already powerful villain from Spider-Man's Rogues Gallery, is portrayed as even more dangerous than he is in the comic.
    • The Wrecking Crew, while not exactly more threatening than they were in the comic, are portrayed as MUCH smarter than their Dumb Muscle comic counterparts, as they come up with an actual plan instead of just wrecking everything.
    • Agent Coulson can fight on equal terms with the Beetle, using nothing more than Improvised Weapons.
    • Arcade is a goofy jokester in the comics, whose only real claim to fame (before the Arena Murderworld arc of Avengers Arena, anyway) is that he's supposedly an elite assassin who never actually manages to kill anyone (or at least not anybody that has a name). In the show, he's a teenage Technopath who hacks S.H.I.E.L.D. and almost starts World War 3 before narrowly being stopped.
    • Jessie Prescott (yes, THAT Jessie Prescott) fights Morgan Le Fay on equal ground, though it's thanks to a magic sword that kept the witch imprisoned.
  • Adaptational Heroism:
    • Norman as Iron Patriot. In the comics, Iron Patriot was just Norman's attempt to appropriate symbolism from Iron Man and the then-deceased Captain America in order to rally the public behind his Dark Reign. In the show, his Heel–Face Turn is genuine, and he seeks to use the Iron Patriot armor to atone for his past mistakes. At least until Doc Ock forcibly turns him back into the Goblin. He returns to this role after being permanently cured of being the Goblin in Season 4.
    • Initially downplayed with The Collector. During the "Contest of Champions" Arc, he controls the team of heroes while his brother, The Grandmaster, controls the villains. He is initially just the lesser of two evils, while he sees his collection as valuable items to be safely stored, despite many of them being people, his brother simply wants to play with them in their "game" until they break, much like a big brother breaking his little brother's toys. It is played straight during the final episode of the arc, where The Collector fights alongside Spider-Man and other heroes, saving Spider-Man from his brother at one point and after winning agrees to stop collecting things from Earth. He also states he plans to take a break from collecting things and is more interested in friendships and relationships with others, inspired by Spider-Man's own friendships.
  • Adaptational Modesty: Zigzagged with Red Hulk. During the "Contest of Champions" Arc, Red Hulk is at one point shirtless like his comicbook counterpart, then in another instance he appears he is dressed as he was in Hulk and The Agents of SMASH.
  • Adaptational Origin Connection:
    • Scarlet Spider, Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Venom, Carnage, Rhino and Vulture. Their origins are all tied to OsCorp.
      • Spider Slayers further reveals Scarlet and Octavius to have origins with Hydra.
    • Some of Spider-Man's classic team have ties to other heroes and villains
      • Ava Ayala became the new White Tiger after Kraven killed the old one, her father.
      • Luke Cage got his powers from a Super Soldier serum to protect him from Scorpio.
      • Danny Rand trained along side Scorpion.
      • Sam Alexander aka Nova was originally a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy along with being with the Nova Corps.
    • Spider-Gwen's origin is due to Miles Morales disappearing into Peter Parker's dimension.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: The Captain Stacy of the Spider-Gwen comics is a Reasonable Authority Figure, who only hunts Spider-Woman because she has been falsely accused of murder. In "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Four", he is far more hard-nosed, harboring a deep dislike for all masked vigilantes, to the point where he tries to arrest them on sight. All that changed when he learns that his daughter is Spider-Woman, and presumably become more like his comic book counterpart.
  • Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
    • In both the original and Ultimate comics, Aunt May doesn't trust Spider-Man. Here, she doesn't seem to acknowledge him in anyway. Presumably because she's been aware he and Peter Parker are one and the same.
    • In the original comics, May has a crush on Doc Ock. Here, she sees him as the dangerous criminal he really is.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Loki - This version of him, while still a genuine threat, is shown to not be a match for Thor, and actually ends up Out-Gambitted by Spider-Man, ending up in the realm where he banished the Nordic beasts. Even worst in Run Pig Run, where Spidey actually defeats him in a hand-to-hand fight.
    • Averted in season three, where he easily manages to smack Spidey around. His body even withstood a massive electric shock, with him claiming that such a thing is the equivalent to a stubbed toe to Asgardians. Though considering his arch-enemy is the Thunder God, it would make sense.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The symbiote's origins in the series are noticeably similar to that of the Ultimate version of Carnage; it's created from a stolen sample of Peter's blood.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • In the comics, Mr. Negative's minions are called "Inner Demons". In "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Three", he calls them "Dragons".
    • In the comics, the identity Norman tried to force Harry to assume during Dark Reign was American Son. Here, Norman still makes the armor for Harry, but the identity is called the "Patrioteer" instead.
    • In the comics, Luke Cage was born "Carl Lucas" and he legally changed his name. Additionally, his parents were named James and Esther. Here, he was born "Luke Cage" and his parents are named Walter and Amanda.
    • In the comics, the Rhino's real name is Aleksei Sytsevich, with his original name, Alex O'Hirn, Retconned into being an alias. In the cartoon, Alex O'Hirn is his real name.
    • Arcade's amusement park is changed from Murderworld to Madland.
    • As with Spider-Man: Noir, the Green Goblin is just called the Goblin here.
    • To avoid the confusion of having two characters named "Spider-Man", Miles Morales temporarily changes his superhero name to Kid Arachnid while staying in Peter's dimension, then adopts is permanently after he chooses to stay.
  • Adapted Out:
    • The series omits the three White Tigers who came before Ava Ayala, instead establishing that she inherited the mantle directly from her father (though he is made a Composite Character with her brother Hector by having his name). It also skips over the Sons of the Tiger, a trio of martial artists who had the tiger amulet before the original White Tiger.
    • Likewise, while the Sam Alexander version of Nova is a major character, there's no mention of Richard Rider, his predecessor.
    • This series marks the first time outside of the comics that Venom has appeared without Eddie Brock. Even Anti-Venom is not Eddie. Instead, the host is Harry Osborn, along with Spider-Man not being the black suit, as Harry takes the form of it.
    • Similarly, Cletus Kasady isn't Carnage, or even shows up for that matter.
    • A majority of the Daily Bugle staff members from the comics, such as Betty Brant and Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, practically don't exist in this universe.
    • Ditto for Gwen Stacy, but while her alternate dimension counterpart Spider-Gwen is featured in "Return to the Spider-Verse", this begs the question of what role Gwen Stacy had in this universe.
    • Like Gwen Stacy, Hammerhead and Mr. Negative seem to be exclusive to the show's version's of the Spider-Man Noir universe, as is the Hulk's Mr. Fixit persona pulling a Decomposite Character and merely being the Hulk's counterpart in that universe.
    • Other characters, such as Black Cat, also don't appear in the series.
  • Advertised Extra: Shriek appears prominently in the promos of the "Spider-Man vs. Sinister 6" special but only shows up for a few minutes in the beginning of part 1.
  • Aesop Amnesia: More than a few episodes centre aound Spidey and one or more of his teammates learning that they need to put aside their differences and work as a team. Expect to see them be right back to bitching at each other next week.
    • Same thing apply to Spidey; no matter how many times he learns about responsibility and humility, he keep forgetting it again so he can get humiliated to learn it over and over again.
    • Less forgotten than a Deconstruction of both aesops: becoming a team is more than a matter of just realizing that you should be a team, it takes a lot of work, training, and gradual personality and relationship development. Adding to the difficulty, the main cast are all teenagers, and thus prone to distraction, moods, and bouts of selfishness. This kind of deconstruction is actually what the Ultimates universe was mostly intended to do.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: "For Your Eye Only." The Helicarrier has squeaky clean vents!
  • Age Lift:
    • Power Man and Iron Fist are depicted as teenagers rather than adults like their comic counterparts.
    • Nova is depicted in his mid-teens while as his comic version is in his early teens.
    • Conversely, Amadeus Cho goes from mid-teens to early teens.
    • Arcade is given this treatment in Season 2.
    • Echo, Ka-Zar, Vulture, and Triton as well in Season 3.
  • Agony of the Feet: Power Man gets a hot foot from a tiny Doombot.
  • Alliterative Name
    • Peter Parker obviously, but also Ava Ayala (White Tiger).
    • Subverted by Nova. Richard Rider's replacement, Sam Alexander, was created specifically for this show.
  • Almighty Janitor: Played with, lovingly. Stan the Man is not just a Janitor. He's armed with a special multi-weapon mop, and is a Founding SHIELD agent (Even implying that he is the one who came up with the acronym).
  • Alternate Self: The premise of Season 3's subtitle, "Web Warriors", is that Peter is set to team up with alternate versions of Spider-Man: Spider-Knight, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir, Miles Morales, Spider-Ham, and Spider-Girl - not May Parker but a Gender Flipped version of Peter named Petra Parker).
  • Alternative-Self Name-Change: When Miles Morales arrives in the main universe and starts working alongside Peter Parker, he changes his superhero identity from Spider-Man to Kid Arachnid.
  • Alternate Universe: Spider-Man travels to several during the Spider-Verse episodes in season three and four, and later appears as part of the main Spider-Verse crossover. Officially the universe of the show is Earth-12041, and is the same setting as Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. and the first four seasons of Avengers Assemble.
  • Ambiguous Situation: At the end of "Me Time" Spider-Man, having just saved Doc Ock from underwater death, is falling deeper into the ocean, drowning, while Octopus drifts towards the surface, seemingly unconscious. Spidey blacks out then wakes up safe with SHIELD The circumstances of his rescue aren't shown and Ock is nowhere to be seen, so there is the possibility that Doc Ock saved his life.
  • Amusing Injuries: Due to the nature of the show, ventures into this territory from time to time with Spidey being the main recipient.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The Grand Finale of the show has Spider-Man and his team graduate from S.H.I.E.I.D Academy with Agent Venom and Scarlet-Spider become professors to train new students. Peter finally becomes the Ultimate Spider-Man, swings off to stop another robbery, and narrates that despite this accomplishment this is only the beginning for him.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Spider-Man, White Tiger, the Beetle, and most of the Spider-Man villains introduced in season 2.
  • Animation Bump: The fight-scenes are wonderfully crisp and fluid, with smooth animation and lots of attention to detail. It's best seen with the intricate ways Venom or Doctor Octopus move their pseudopodia/limbs.
    • In season three, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Hawkeye have new character models, ones which more closely resemble their appearances in Avengers Assemble.
  • Animesque: With Man Of Action as one of the producers and Dong Woo Animation and MOI Animationnote  animating. This is pretty much a given.
  • Animorphism: Spider-Man is turned into a pig in the episode "Run Pig Run" and Thor is turned into a frog in "Field Trip"
  • Appropriated Appellation: Miles Morales tries to decide a new codename for himself to not be confused with Peter Parker, after he ends up stranded in Peter's dimension. After going through several bad names, Doc Ock mockingly calls him Spider-Man's "Kid Arachnid". Miles takes a liking to this name.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Spidey and Power Man invade Scorpio's base, Spidey comments on some of the evil stuff Scorpio's scientists are working on. They involve future tech, doomsday weapons, and pirating the latest hit movies.
    • In a Spidey imagine spot of how Hulk could deal with anything by just punching, it shows the latter punching out Doctor Doom, Juggernaut, and scaring a hot dog guy.
  • Art Shift: The art shifts all over the place.
    • There's "doodling on the notebook" style for when Peter is reviewing his earlier fights and giving himself bad grades.
    • There's chibi style, for various Imagine Spots, SHIELD graphics, or Spidey's inner voices.
    • The Spider-Verse four parter had Spidey and Goblin reanimated in CG (2099 universe), more subdued colors (Noir universe), and a cartoonier art style (Tooniverse).
    • The Christmas Episode showing Peter's early days as Spider-Man is animated in the same style as Spider-Man (1967).
    • Easy to miss, but in "Contest of Champions: Part Two", the close-up on Black Widow's face looks a lot more Animesque than the rest of the show.
  • Art Evolution: The character designs for season two have become a little more streamlined and less rounded than in the first season. Somewhat reminiscent to what happened for Batman: The Animated Series when it underwent a Time Skip.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Season 3, episode 24: Spidey zaps Ymir the ice giant with electricity, after having an Eureka Moment about that "Suddenly flashing back to high school science and what electricity does to water, or, in this case, ice". In reality, ice is poor electric conduct; electric conductivity of water is based on mobile ions diluted into water, which act as charge carriers (water itself doesn't really carry current). When water is frozen, the ions get in stuck into the ice lattice (="freeze in place"), making them much less mobile and thus they can't act as charge carriers. You were supposed to be a top science geek, Pete.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Based on what was revealed for the 5th episode, Spider-Man is a massive fanboy of Iron Man and in return, Tony makes him his own Iron Spider armor. Also, White Tiger is a SHIELD fangirl and geeks out every time they are in the Helicarrier. Agent Coulson, true to the movies, is a rabid Captain America fanboy. Flash Thompson is also a Spider-Man fan boy, before he becomes Agent Venom.
  • Ascended Meme: Amadeus Cho: "Cool story, bro."
  • Asshole Victim: Spider-Man is tempted to think of Flash this way whenever he's attacked but resists the urge.
  • Author Avatar: Stan Lee appears as the janitor (see also Mythology Gag).
  • Awesome by Analysis: Taskmaster
  • Badass Boast:
    Blade: There are worse threats out there tonight then these things.
    Spider-Man: Like what?
    Blade: Me!
    • From Peter himself:
    Hydro-Man: You think you gonna get past me? I'm a force of nature.
    Spider-Man: Yeah? So am I!
  • Badass Bystander: Mary Jane Watson kicks a plate of slippery, messy cafeteria food under Thundra's foot to help Spidey win the battle of Midtown High School.
    • Aunt May blasts Beetle with a jet engine.
    • Stan Lee initially seems to be one, but turns out to be one of the founders of SHIELD and thus a Retired Badass instead.
  • Badass in Distress: In "Me Time" Doc Ock manages to capture Spidey for a bit. Also plays into the episode's Aesop, in that Spidey likely would have never been captured in the first place if he hadn't insisted on having some time to himself.
  • Bait the Dog: Goblin drops his son to his possible death right after telling him how proud he was of him.
  • Bald of Authority: Nick Fury!
  • Bash Brothers: Power Man and Iron Fist, they are usually seen fighting side by side. Which is, of course, a Shout-Out to their comic series, appropriately named Power Man and Iron Fist.
  • Beach Episode: "Snow Day."
  • Be Careful What You Wish For:
    • For Spidey's lack of respectability due to Jonah's bad press, Nick Fury, Coulson, Thor and his team of heroes are more than ready to do all they can do save him when he gets turned into a talking pig. Showing he was a lot more desirable than thought, ironically, by Loki.
    • The main arc of season one involves Norman Osborn (despite supporting Spider-Man in public) working with Dr. Octopus to capture Spider-Man and figure out his powers so that Norman can either create an army of spider-powered mercenaries or gain the powers for himself. In the episode "Revealed", Dr. Octopus betrays Norman and injects him with the serum that turns him into the Green Goblin. Norman now has the power he always wanted, but at the cost of his sanity and humanity.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Played for Laughs — Spidey really doesn't like being called a bug or insect. Spiders are arachnids!
    • In the "Hydra Attacks" two-parter, Fury totally loses it when he sees that his Tri-Carrier has been transformed into Hydra's new base.
  • Big Bad Ensemble:
    • There's a real tug-o-war for the title of Big Bad, and as such, none can truly claim sole big bad title. Norman Osborn's one of the more honorable versions where Green Goblin is his Superpowered Evil Side, so he doesn't really get to be behind everything the way he usually proves to be. Doctor Octopus is the highest-level recurring threat, making with the Mad Scientist routine that creates other villains, but others such as Loki also step up to menace Spidey as well.
    • In season three, the role clearly belongs to the Taskmaster. It's a race to recruit the new heroes for the team, SHIELD and Taskmaster working from the same list. The name of the game this year is Once an Episode it's Spidey vs. Taskmaster for the guest hero of the week. Quite a jump for a guy who had only appeared twice before in fairly unimportant episodes and was nowhere near the top of the Rogues Gallery. However, he ended up releasing Green Goblin and gets imprisoned, so now, Green Goblin takes the role. After the Spider-Verse 4-parter, Arnim Zola takes the part for the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy arc, and then The Grandmaster winds up being the Final Boss. Doc Ock has undoubtedly stepped up as the main villain in season 4, but it doesn't last. The role later goes to Wolf Spider being the main antagonist of Return to the Spiderverse four-parter. After that, Ock takes the Big Bad mantle back.
  • Big Damn Heroes
    • Power Man, White Tiger, Iron Fist, and Nova pull one in episode 2.
    • The four do it again in "Beetle Mania", after Spidey takes a beating from Beetle.
    • The team does it again in "Revealed", right when Doc Ock had injected Norman with the Goblin serum and was about to dissect Spider-Man.
  • Black-and-White Morality: Iron Spider shows this mindset in "Beached", seeing the likes of Vulture and Sandman as "viruses" that need to be expunged. Spider-Man is quick to point out that they are still people underneath it all. After getting to know Sandman, Iron Spider changes this mindset.
  • Big Damn Reunion: "Parent Trap" sees Power Man reunite with his parents, who he'd long thought were killed in a plane crash caused by Scorpio (when in fact he'd kidnapped them and used them to recreate the Super-Soldier serum telling them that he had their son imprisoned and that he'd only free him if they made the serum.) By the end of the episode, the family not only gets back together, but the Cage doctors rejoin SHIELD.
  • Blah, Blah, Blah: How Spider-Man tends to hear Nick Fury once he's gone into lecture mode.
  • Bond Gun Barrel: The episode "For Your Eye Only" begins with a parody of the iconic gun barrel sequence from the James Bond films where Spider-Man shoots his webbing at the gun barrel.
  • Book Ends:
    • Though not the end of the show, it was the end of a Story Arc of sorts: During the end of the episode "Carnage", Harry gives Peter a ride in his limo right when it was raining outside mirroring the day they met. This is the point when Peter and Harry begin to reconcile their friendship as well.
    • The first and final villain Spider-Man fights in the series is The Trapster, showing how far he's come since the first episode. Nick Fury himself also shows up, exclaiming Spider-Man has finally broken Captain America's record.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Comes up around the most notorious catchphrases.
    Spider-Man (in the Hulk's body): All you did was make me angry. And you don't wanna make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
    The Thing: Niiiice.
    Spider-Man: Thanks, man.
  • Brain Bleach: Requested by Peter at the end of Episode 6.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
    • Near the end of four-part episode "The Spider-Verse", Spider-Man remarks after returning to his home dimension how he's relieved that J. Jonah Jameson isn't a funny animal, a woman, or a funny animal woman.
    • In "Return to the Spider-Verse", Spider-Man at one point wonders whether the universe he and Miles have entered is a world of monsters, a world of clowns, or a world of monsters who are clowns.
  • Brick Joke: In "Damage", J. Jonah Jameson announces he's keeping an eye on Spider-Man's cleaning job, and shortly afterwards, he appears on the TV screen in Times Square. He wonders who's recording him, but then he sees a camera truck with a camera man perched on top who yells "Yo, Spidey!" At the end of the episode, the team take down the Wrecking Crew in the same area with minimal collateral damage and the help of Mac. Spidey wishes Nick Fury could have seen it, but then Mac points at the large screen showing everything was televised. He's confused, but then he sees the camera truck from earlier in the episode with the cameraman yelling: "Yo, Spidey!"
  • Bring Him to Me: Norman believes that Spider-Man can be used to create a new generation of spider-enhanced super soldiers and is not above hiring super villains to capture him as of episode one. He seems to respect Spider-Man's balance of strength, speed and agility and how he can combine them with his smarts to take on threats that are on paper way more powerful than him.
  • Bring It: In his first appearance in Season Two the Beetle at the climax of their fight inside the incomplete helicarrier, the Beetle has Spider-Man dead-to-rights with his Arm Cannon. Spidey knows it too but instead of firing he deactivates his gun and makes the classic hand-gesture. He's gonna beat Spidey the old-fashioned way.
  • Broken Aesop: One of the main morals of the show is that Peter needs to know and become friends with his teammates. One problem is that several episodes have gone by that make no use of the teammates, instead focusing on Spider-Man solo. The other problem, though, is that these people know more about him than he knows about them, keep finding some way to insert themselves into his life, and tending to attack him in the end of the episode for doing something minor. This was more a problem of season one, however, as later seasons show Spider-Man learning more about his teammates and bonding with them.
    • The "Electro" episode tries giving an aesop about people becoming too dependent on technology. That coming from a show that made Spidey go from a guy with relatively simple web-shooters to using high tech gadgets for the sake of merchandise. Spidey doesn't even uses his ordinary web-shooters in the episode. (Although this is used to highlight the Aesop; Spidey no longer has his regular web-shooters because the high-tech ones were so cool, and this was a mistake. But still...)
    • Lampshaded at the end of one episode where Coulson asks Spider-man if he's learnt his lesson about not touching things that don't belong to you after he lost Captain America's shield. Spider-Man points out that if he hadn't done this then they never would have found out about Doctor Doom's plan to take over the world.
  • Broken Glass Penalty: The plot of "Not A Toy" is kicked off by Spidey losing Captain America's shield while playing with it. He ends up going after it, only for it to end up in the Latverian embassy where Doctor Doom just happens to be. After a failed attempt of asking for it back (in which Doom responded with a missile), Spidey then teams up with Captain America to get the shield back.
  • Brought Down to Normal: During the "Graduation Day" two-parter, Spidey, in order to save Aunt May, is forced to allow himself to be injected with a serum that removes his powers. He manages to regain them in the second half, and uses the same serum to cure Rhino and Vulture.
  • Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Spidey gets grabbed as Peter, turned into this continuity's Carnage, and sent to attack...Spider-Man. Doesn't get much more held hostage than that.
  • The Brute: Thundra is a rare female example. She's the muscle of the Frightful Four.
  • Bucket Helmet: Worn by Peter Parker in a secret recording in his bathroom when he was mocking Nova. This is a direct reference to the original Nova of the comics, Richard Rider, and his semi-affectionate nickname "Bucket-Head" given to Rider by his teammates in the New Warriors.
  • Butt-Monkey: The team doesn't seem to care much if anything happens to New Jersey.
    • The Trapster totally fills this role.
    • Spidey tends to get more than his fair share of this.
  • The Cameo
    • The Super Hero Squad and Spider-Ham in "Flight of the Iron Spider".
    • Howard the Duck makes a cameo in "Awesome", also making this his first appearance in animation.
    • Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Miss America, the Golden Age Human Torch, the Red Skull, and Baron Zemo all appear in "S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy" as part of the Whizzer's flashback.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) and Avengers: Black Panther's Quest, despite the former taking place earlier in the chronology of the animated universe and the latter's earlier seasons featuring this Spidey, features a crossover with Marvel's Spider-Man, suggesting that this series has either been overridden or is being treated with a large dose of Broad Strokes. Word of God later revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy was only canon with Marvel's Spider-Man, though some elements were still canon to the team that appeared in this show.
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • The new White Tiger, Ava Ayala, was created for the show and debuted in the comics in Avengers Academy. She then joined Luke Cage's Mighty Avengers and Sunspot's New Avengers.
    • The new Nova, Sam Alexander, was also created for the show and was introduced in the comics during the prelude to the Avengers vs. X-Men Crisis Crossover.
    • Phil Coulson, a SHIELD agent undercover as the principal of Spidey's school, is an immigrant from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And then made the transition to the main Marvel Universe.
      • Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, members of Coulson's team that debuted in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. appear in season four. Jemma has since appeared in the main universe comics and as an NPC in the video game Marvel's Future Fight before turning up in this show.
  • Cassandra Truth: Fury and the rest of the team blow Spidey's concerns off about Black Suit Spidey being Venom returned. Spidey takes off to prove himself right — and he is.
    • This also appears in the second half of "Blade and the Howling Commandos" where checking on his Aunt May, Peter appears at the house in costume. She immediately recognizes him, but since it's Halloween thinks he's going to a party. She even says that it's a lame Spider-Man costume and he should get his money back.
  • Casting Gag:
  • Catch a Falling Star: Spider-Man does this fairly often, and does it in a realistic way (waiting until he's falling in sync with the falling person and then swinging in an arc before getting them to safety).
  • Cat Girl: White Tiger/Ava Ayala.
  • Celestial Deadline: "Run Pig Run" is one: the hunters have until sundown to kill a transformed Spider-Man (who's now Spider-HAM) or everyone else to keep Peter alive.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The finale of Season 1 is considerably darker than the rest of the series.
  • Character Filibuster: Literally every time J. Jonah Jameson is on screen he's going on about how bad Spider-Man is.
  • The Chessmaster: By manipulating the laws about the Asgardian Boar Hunt, Loki seems to get a chance at revenge when he disguises himself as a hot-dog vendor to give a hungry Peter a free hot-dog that turns him into a talking pig.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Peter and Mary Jane. At the moment they're in the Just Friends stage though.
  • Chirping Crickets
    • Spider-Man makes a joke about his new SHIELD webshooters that falls flat.
    • There is also an occasion in "Back in Black" where a joke falls flat the same way.
  • Christmas Episode: "Nightmare Before Christmas", appropriately enough.
  • The Chosen Many: Nova. It hasn't been discussed much, but it has been mentioned that he's a part of the "Nova Corps."
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
    • Mary Jane no longer appear after Season 2.
    • J. Jonah Jameson. He's been completely absent from season four (save for a brief unspeaking appearance as one of the people infected by Carnage in "The Symbiote Saga"), but was referenced in "Strange Halloween" via a kid dressed up like him.
    • Due to the Fox embargo mentioned in the Avengers Assemble entry above, characters like Wolverine and Doctor Doom stopped appearing midway through Season 3. It was especially notable during the four-part adaptation of Contest of Champions (1982), which despite bringing back a huge number of heroes and villains from past episodes, neglected to include any of the X-Men or Fantastic Four-related characters Spidey had previously encountered.
    • Deadpool only shows up for one episode in season two and is never seen again after that. His movie being R-rated, coupled with the aforementioned Fox embargo, likely contributed to his lack of future appearances.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In "Strange", Spidey confesses a complete lack of belief in magic. ("My 'non-sense' is tingling.") By the end of the episode, he has come to realize that magic is real but nightmares are not, which gives him enough power to defeat Nightmare.
  • Clothing Damage
    • Played for Laughs, as the tentacle-bot pinches Spidey's ass. He slaps it away and wins the battle, only to find out the hard way that the crowd is taking pictures of the hole in his Spidey-suit... which also reveals he goes commando underneath.
    • After Iron Fist is freed from being stuck to a wall by Venom, most of his clothes vanish along with the symbiote's webbing.
    • In "Back in Black" Spidey recalls how inconvenient his Spidey suit can be in comparison to Harry Osborn's Venom-slick-it-on, slick-it-off Spidey suit, including the time it ripped in the back and revealed his red polka dotted underwear... which might explain why he was going commando in the second episode.
    • "Kraven The Hunter" give us a variation of what happened to Spidey in "Venom" only to Nova. Since they're chasing Ava he ties a pizza box to keep hidden that he too goes commando under his costume.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Captain Webbeard, AKA Pirate Spidey. Being stuck on a deserted island for who knows how long with only a coconut for company does wonders for your sanity.
  • Cold Open
  • Combat Tentacles: The Venom Symbiote's main form of attack, in addition to whatever abilities its host has.
    • Doctor Octopus as well, obviously. In fact his primary limbs appear to be non-functional.
    • Carnage uses them, too, through they're more like tendrils in his case.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: Lampshaded by Peter when trying to explain to Harry Osborn why using the Venom symbiote to be Spider-Man in a black suit just to feed his ego is a very bad idea.
    • Norman has his own version. "With great power, comes great reward."
    • As does Iron Fist when posing as Spidey. "With great power, comes inner peace!"
    • Also used against Deadpool in the form of a sucker punch.
  • The Comically Serious: Nick Fury, several times.
  • Composite Character:
    • Electro is a "multiple versions of the same character" type. He changes from the 616 version to the Ultimate Universe version when he gets supercharged.
    • The Rhino has the same name as Rhino in the comics, but his personality and motivation make him closer to Charlie Weiderman, one of the Molten Men. He also looks strangely similar to the version of Seymour O'Reilly from The Spectacular Spider-Man, though that also may be a coincidence.
    • The show's version of Scorpion is a of mix of Scorpion and the Iron Fist villain Davos. And with a little bit of another Scorpion thrown in. He also uses a hook weapon Maximus Gargan.
    • The show's version of Korvac is a mix of Michael Korvac and Thanos (especially the MCU version). His name and appearance come from Korvac, while his role as a galactic tyrant and the leader of the Chitauri come from Thanos.
    • Max Fury/Scorpio, Nick's evil brother, is a cross between Jake Fury/Scorpio, Nick's evil brother in the comics, and Max Fury, Nick's evil robot duplicate in Secret Avengers.
    • In an in-universe example, Spider-Man points out that Iron Patriot is quite literally the result of taking Captain America's iconography and applying it to Iron Man.
    • The Vulture is Adrian Toomes, but in contrast to his comic book counterpart (who has no powers and relies on a winged flight suit), this show's version of the character is an actual bird mutate, like the Jimmy Natale version of the Vulture.
    • Flash Thompson briefly tries to fight crime as the Scarlet Spider before becoming Agent Venom.
    • The Goblin from Miles Morales's universe, is a mix of the Goblin from the Ultimate comics and the Goblin from 2099.
    • Harry Osborn shares a few similarities to his comic counterpart such as being Peter and Mary Jane's closest friend, and his grudge against Spider-Man for ruining his relationship with his father. He also shares some traits of various versions of Eddie Brock like his good looks, bad temper, and being the former host of the Venom symbiote.
  • Conspicuous Trenchcoat: Juggernaut, of all people, pulls this off for awhile.
  • Continuity Nod: Ant-Man's membership in the Avengers in his self-titled episode carries on from the Avengers Assemble episode The Ultron Outbreak.
  • Continuity Snarl: The season three episode "Inhumanity" introduces a teenage version of the Inhuman Triton. The season finale, "Contest of Champions" confirms that the series shares the same continuity with Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.. However, the earlier Agents of Smash episode "Inhuman Nature" featured an adult version of Triton.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The episode "Not a Toy", when Spider-Man accidentally tosses Captain America's shield out of the helicarrier. It lands in the Latverian Embassy while Doctor Doom is standing in the specific room it flies into. Spider-Man even lampshades how only he could get that result.
    • Not to mention, it manages to bounce off of Iron Man, mid-air, and also strikes Trapster in his backpack before landing in the embassy. Talk about unlucky.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Oddly enough both averted and played straight in "The Parent Trap": the lava heats metal enough to hurt Spider-Man and it burns his web when it is close to it, but it has no effect on Luke; while you can argue his skin is protecting him,there is no reason why his clothes, hair and sunglasses are not burning.
  • Cool Bike: The Spider-Cycle. It fires webs that it can drive on, and can drive on any surface Spidey can wallcrawl on.
  • Cool Old Lady: Aunt May
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: As in any Spider-Man show, Norman Osborn.
  • Costume Copycat: When Deadpool shows up, he notes the similarities between his and Spidey's costumes, and takes it as a sign that Spidey is a huge fan of his. Spider-Man, of course, has never heard of him. (For the record, the comics did eventually reveal as a gag that Deadpool's costume is one rejected by Spider-Man.)
  • Covered in Gunge
    • Spider-Man's first training session with SHIELD results in him getting slimed.
    • Peter's sneezes in "Back in Black" produce a frightening amount of green discharge.
    • Both Coulson and Juggernaut are covered in grey goo after the Awesome Android spits them out, in the latter's case helps hide his lack of clothes.
  • *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": In "Stan By Me" Spidey imagines Stan the Janitor as an action hero, except for this trope getting in the way.
  • Crawl: There's one running on the DBC news broadcasts, which contains a number of Mythology Gags, such as, "Squirrel Girl launches new perfume line."
  • Crossover: With Jessie. No seriously, the third season Halloween special had the cast of the Disney series animated and running into Spider-Man while getting caught up in a caper.
    • Though not in the actual cartoon, it was also involved in Spider-Verse, with this universe's Peter not only meeting up with another Miles Morales, but also the Peter Parker from Spider-Man (1967)
  • Crossover Punchline: The Living Laser is beaten by being sent to dimension of The Super Hero Squad Show.
  • Cumbersome Claws: One episode sees Spidey and Wolverine swap bodies. Spidey has some trouble with Wolverine's claws. Trouble that involves him stabbing himself. A lot. Thank goodness for those healing factors!
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Anytime Ock versus Goblin happens, it results in Goblin kicking Ock's ass with Ock unable to fight back.
  • Curse Cut Short:
    • Spider-Man webs Thundra's mouth shut just as she is about to sling a vulgar insult at him. He explains that he gagged her to prevent her from cursing in front of "the kiddies".
    • After his team is trapped in a web left by Spider-Man to keep them from going after Venom, an angry Nova begins a sentence with "That slimy, little... " The scene jumps to Spider-Man laughing before he can finish the sentence.
  • A Day in the Limelight: "Kraven The Hunter" delves into White Tiger's backstory and "Journey of the Iron Fist" explain Iron Fist's origins. "Guardians of the Galaxy" give some insight on Nova's past and "Parent Trap" reveals Power Man's origin.
  • Da Chief: Nick Fury. Like most versions of him, he's the "Top Cop".
  • Damsel in Distress: Subverted big time! Aunt May alternates between scolding and sweet talking the Beetle until he's distracted enough for her to run off, then pulls a Ripley on him with a jet engine then bats her eyes at Coulson and Spider-Man like she was helpless all along.
    • Mary Jane also has no problems with kicking a guy right in the sourdough area when he tries to take her hostage. Especially if its the Trapster.
  • Darker and Edgier: Season two is considerably darker, with less humorous moments and more drama-centric episodes. Season 3 takes this even further by sparingly using cutaway gags, favoring Spider-Man's quips and character-based dialogue. Season four only takes further: Mood Whiplash quickly comes into effect - with Spidey's 'perfect day' soon almost turning into a The Bad Guy Wins moment for Hydra. New character Scarlet Spider suffers from anger and self-loathing issues due to being kidnapped and experimented on by Doc Ock. And the Ultimate Green Goblin becomes a recurring villain and winds up killing Baron Mordo in a highly Family-Unfriendly Death. The Reveal that the Scarlet Spider was the true mole for Ock only makes things worse.
  • Deadpan Snarker
    • White Tiger
    • Nova as well:
      (after Spidey lets the Venom Symbiote possess him to stop it from hurting anyone else)
      Nova: Ah, I wish we hadn't just had a special moment where you'd sacrificed yourself and junk. (proceeds to blast Venom)
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: Ava, for most of season 1 she's an uptight jerkass to Peter, until comes the "Kraven the Hunter" episode where she warms up to Peter since they can both relate to the loss of a loved one.
  • Demoted to Extra: Spider-Man's original team: Nova, Power Man, Iron Fist, and White Tiger have become more or less minor characters since season 3.
  • Denser and Wackier: Even aside from Peter's Fourth Wall Imagine Spots, the show's tone is much more comical than your usual Spider-Man fare.
  • Designated Girl Fight: When Loki tricks Spider-Man's team and the Avengers into fighting each other in "The Avenging Spider-Man", White Tiger fights Black Widow.
  • The Determinator: Peter states when MJ sets her mind to something, nothing can change it. He seems to believe if she wanted to, she could get Galactus to stop eating planets.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dr. Octavius dies in Norman Osborn's arms, but obviously, he's not really dead.
  • "Die Hard" on an X: Die Hard On A SHIELD Helicarrier. Spidey even yells "yippie-ki-yay" at one point.
  • Dirty Old Man: Wolverine (when in Peter's body) makes a pass at Mary Jane, who is thoroughly disgusted. Considering he's something like 120 and she's a lass of 16, quite understandable. Trapster tries it as well.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: While never outright stated in the show, it's implied that Dr. Octopus is a quadriplegic, as he uses his robot arms to do everything and loses it whenever someone takes/destroys one of his robot arms. Still, you can't deny that he's still one of the deadliest characters in the show.
    • More apparent in season 2, as there were a few episodes in season 1 where he was able to move his own limbs as well as the tentacles.
  • Disappeared Dad: Norman Osborn is the "neglectfully absent/physically present" variation. After recovering from his time as the Goblin, though, he's clearly trying to be a better parent, willingly spending more time with Harry and apologizing for not being there for him in the past.
  • Discriminate and Switch: During the Spider Verse arc, Peter winds up in the comic book world of Ultimate Spider-Man, where he runs into Miles Morales. When Miles takes his mask off, Peter is shocked to see that that world's Spider-Man is so...young.
    Miles: I'm thirteen! I can ride my bike to the store alone!
  • Distaff Counterpart: Gets taken up to eleven when Spider-Man winds up in a parallel world where the gender roles are all reversed and he meets Petra Parker and Norma Osborn. Even historical figures in this world are reversed, demonstrated when both Spideys head for the Georgia Washington Bridge.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Many villains in the show became as bad as they did due to another character mistreating them and causing them to seek revenge.
    • Venom (under Harry's control) targeted Norman Osborn because of Norman's lack of interest in his son. Venom once teamed up with Spider-Man against the Goblin simply because that anger/hatred for Norman was so strong.
    • Doctor Octopus turned on Norman Osborn after the latter tried to kill him for failing to kidnap Spider-Man too many times. This led to Octopus injecting Norman with the Goblin serum and becoming his sworn enemy for the rest of the series (to the point that he once allied with Spider-Man just to ensure that the Goblin would be defeated).
    • Alex was a normal kid at Midtown High (albeit one as smart as Peter) who became Flash Thompson's latest target after he stopped picking on Peter. He grew so desperate for revenge that he stole chemicals from his job at Oscorp that turned him into this series' Rhino.
    • Michael Tan (aka Swarm) thinks he's this trope, as he believed that Iron Man unjustly fired him. In actuality, Iron Man rejected his proposal for a device that granted one technopathy as it wasn't ready for testing, and Michael decided to attack the lab with his device to prove that his tech was ready (creating a disaster that would have killed several people if Spider-Man and Iron Man hadn't stepped in). Iron Man told him as much when he fired him, but Michael didn't see it that way and tried to destroy Stark's lab.
  • Don't Try This at Home:
    Spidey: (addressing the audience) Yes, I am riding the Spider-Cycle in a subway. No, I am not allowed to do this. And neither are you.
  • Doomed by Canon: Dr. Connors gets his right arm crushed in the Season 1 finale. Gee, whatever will happen to him next season?
  • Dope Slap: Venom decides hit Spider-Man and tells him to shut up shortly after when he tires of Spidey's babbling in "Carnage."
  • The Dragon: Doc Ock, to Norman Osborn.
  • Dramatic Spotlight: Peter gets one after a comment from Sam upsets Harry and Peter can't explain why he's hanging with Sam and the other new kids.
  • Driving Up a Wall: The Spider-Cycle can drive up or along walls just like Spider-Man.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: He saves the city on a regular basis, has to balance his home life, crime fighting, time with non hero friends and shield training and has repeatedly shown himself to be the most able member of the team. The thanks he gets? Repeatedly slandered by Jameson, turned on by the people he protects the second a reward is involved. Called unreliable by his normal friends, taken advantage of by his hero friends, forced to study or train when the rest of his team gets to have fun and tormented unfairly and called out on when he rightfully decides to do something for himself.
    • Explained/Justified in Season 3 to an extent. The other heroes look up to him, and know that whenever they need help he will be there for him. Iron Fist knew that the reason Iron Spider wasn't punished for activating Zola was because Peter took all the blame upon himself. Agent Venom and Rhino both look up to Spider-Man to the point that they not only became heroes on Spider-Man's request but were also able to put aside their difficult relationship (namely bully and bullied) to save him when it mattered the most. In the Christmas episode, we see not only that his original team truly cares about him, but that when they couldn't get a hold of him they went out to look for him and picked up his gift for Aunt May. Hell, Nick Fury trusts Peter with commanding two different teams of teenage superheroes and even explicitly states that everyone there is harder on Peter because they have higher expectations from him and want him to do his best.
  • Dwindling Party: In Season 4, Spiderman puts together a new team of Web Warriors, but one way or another, he loses teammates as the season goes on; Agent Venom is badly injured and sidelined, then Scarlet Spider is probably dead after pulling a Heroic Sacrifice. Spiderman is down to just Iron Spider and Kid Arachnid. Gets subverted when Agent Venom returns to the fold.
  • Embarrassing Old Photo: Peter's past "Picture Day" photos are a few
    • Present-day embarrassing photos include pics of Spidey going commando under his costume, and Spider-Ham's time during the Asgardian Boar Hunt (which had everyone else laughing).
  • Energy Beings
    • Living Laser, who is made of living photonic energy.
    • Also the Hulk villain Zzzax in the episode "Exclusive".
  • Epic Fail: Nick Fury of all people gets one of these in "Out of Damage Control". After spending pretty much the entire episode lecturing Spider-Man and his team for causing way too much damage in battle, he's in the midst of reinstating them as SHIELD-sanctioned superheroes when he accidentally brushes against a pile of culvert pipes marked with a sign marked "Caution: Unstable Structure". The pipes immediately start rolling and crash into a building that had recently been damaged in a fight with the Wrecking Crew, causing it to completely collapse!!
  • Epic Hail: In "The Sinister Six" Spidey needs to contact his team. What does he do? Jumps on a Daily Bugle Helicopter and records himself stating he needs help. Of course, JJJ doesn't like this.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Norman is genuinely distraught when he learns that the Frightful Four is attacking his son's school. Though he's mainly concerned with Harry's safety, making it more an Even Evil Has Loved Ones case.
    • Loki might not spit in another's hot dog, but with things so close, he won't let a time limit deny him (or he won't try to)
  • Evil All Along:
    • In Season 4, we are introduced to Scarlet Spider Who claimed to be a former subject of Doc Ock's experiments who had been living in the sewers ever since he escaped and done something that he can't forgive himself for, but then Episode 10 reveals it to be a ruse. Scarlet Spider is actually a spy working for Doc Ock as part of his Sinister Seven. While initially loyal to Ock because he allegedly took him off the streets in his time of need and gave him his powers, he finds himself Becoming the Mask, especially after it becomes clear that Ock doesn't care about him one bit, leading to his Heel–Face Turn and redemption arc.
    • There's also the bizarre case of "Amoral All Along" with Deadpool about two seasons earlier. Initially, the Merc with a Mouth appears to have been re-imagined as a freelance hero who used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D., claiming that a mysterious villain named "Agent McGuffin" had stolen encrypted S.H.I.E.L.D. files with the secret identities of every known hero with intent on selling the information to Taskmaster. But after Deadpool easily defeats Taskmaster with his sheer unpredictability, Spider-Man learns the hard way that "Agent McGuffin" never really existed, and that it was really Deadpool himself who stole the list with intent on selling it. Taskmaster merely stole the list right from under Deadpool's nose, while he was doing some bathroom business. Deadpool's fight with Spidey makes it clear that he's actually a mercenary who will do literally anything for money. Truly a faithful G-rated adaptation of the Merc with a Mouth.
  • Evil Cripple: Doc Ock. Because of an accident, he lost the use of his limbs. He uses his metal arms to work, fight and move around. He's still menacing and looks rather creepy.
  • Eviler than Thou: Goblin is this to Ock, especially when Ock is stupid enough to turn Norman back into the Goblin again. Best summarized by this piece of dialogue:
    Goblin: All this time, you've had it all wrong, Octavius. I've always been your master.
  • Evil Red Head: Thundra of the Frightful Four.
  • Exactly What I Aimed At: Spider-Man states this when fighting the Beetle and smashed him with the couch he was aiming at.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: the season 2 episodes; no, seriously, all of them so far are named after the villains or new characters showing up in them: "The Lizard", "Electro", "The Rhino", "Kraven the Hunter", "Hawkeye", "The Sinister Six"... you can hardly get more obvious than that.
  • Exact Words: Fury did promise Spidey that the surveillance tapes of him would be erased in 24hrs. He never did say he won't show them to the team before that.
  • Exhausted Eye Bags: Peter suffers these as a result of being sick and not getting enough rest due to wall-crawling heroics.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: One of the Zodiac Mook's quotes is this about Spider-Man.
  • Expressive Mask: The Spidey mask is very expressive, though Peter Lampshades that you can't see all his expressions. Same goes for White Tiger.
  • Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: A paperboy was shouting that in "Spidah Man" and Spidey found himself surprised there were still people doing that.
  • False Reassurance: Nick Fury has cameras spying on the young heroes and their families to keep them safe. In one episode, Nick told Spidey all embarassing images of him would be erased in 24 hours. 23 hours and 23 minutes later, he had finished showing said images to the other young heroes and then he deleted them.
  • Family-Friendly Firearms: "Pew pew guns" and Spider-Man's Web Cannon 3000, which is so friendly that Spidey, who Doesn't Like Guns, will use it.
    • Spidey's second visit to the Noir universe has gangsters having shootouts in the streets with hi-tech energy weapons.
  • Fanservice: For the female viewers! Iron Fist, once freed from Venom and webbing, is stripped down to his matching banana hammock.
  • "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: The episode where Spider-Man and Ant Man must shrink down into Fury's body that has been infected with Doc Ock's nano-bots.
  • First Kiss: Peter and MJ had theirs with each other when they were 12 years old, apparently.
  • Flashback: A couple, on Peter's part, relating to Uncle Ben, Aunt May, and his growing up with Mary Jane.
    • Later, Peter flashes back to how he became Spider-man, but since everybody is sick to death of Spidey's origin story, his chibi avatar rushes through it.
  • Food Fight: Peter starts one against the Frightful Four to give him the chance to get away.
  • Forced Transformation: Like in most continuities, Dr. Curt Connors is portrayed as a brilliant and kind man who Peter Parker/Spider-Man considers a friend. He loses his arm during the Goblin's attack in the season one finale, and starts season two by experimenting with Doc Ock's serums to try and grow it back via lizard DNA. While Spider-Man almost talks him out of it, he uses it on himself. It works, having him grow a very strong, very scaly new right arm. Unfortunately he takes more of the serum, turning him into the Lizard and one of Spider-Man's most dangerous enemies.
  • Fourth Wall: Peter abuses the hell out of it, talking directly to the viewer. Basically, it's his trademark inner monologue visualized!
    Spider-Man: Language, Thundy. Kids are watching.
    • Then there's Deadpool, who does it more than Peter, even breaking into Spidey's fourth wall breaking. Of course, it's Deadpool.
  • Forced Transformation:
    • Thor is turned into a frog for most of "Field Trip". Despite this he's still pretty badass.
    • "Run Pig Run" has Peter turned into the talking pig Spider-HAM as well.
  • Foreshadowing: In the Lizard episode, Doc Connors shows Spidey tubes of glowing animal DNA, one is labelled with a lizard, the other two with a Scorpion and a Vulture. The vulture isn't too clear, but it's emphasised by the Imagine Spot two seconds later featuring an evil petting zoo.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip:
    • Wolverine and Spider-Man have one in an episode (appropriately titled "Freaky"), a plot taken directly from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic.
    • Later the incident is repeated with Spider-Man and the Hulk.
    • And Loki in the first episode of the third season.
  • Funny Background Event: After Agent Coulson invites Aunt May on a date, Peter starts talking about it. In the background you can see Coulson's shadow jumping around in the principal's office, and then you can hear something crash.
  • Gender-Bent Alternate Universe: During the Spider-Verse episodes in season three and four one of the worlds Peter travels to is one where everyone is gender-flipped. Here he meets his female counterpart, Petra Parker. This version of Earth is seemingly matriarchal, with Peter given a Stay in the Kitchen attitude from Petra. They still manage to work together to fight both his Green Goblin and her Green Goblin.
  • Genius Cripple: Dock Ock. See Evil Cripple above.
  • Genius Loci: The heroes vacation on a classified island and meet Sandy, a Creepy Child who looks a lot like Sandman, and later his older brother Flint. Eventually the entire island turns against the heroes. Or at least its soil: Sandman - we find pictographs on the mysterious ruins that hadn't been there a minute before that depict his old-school origin, completely unchanged - has assimilated every single bit of soil until the place was an extension of himself. Near the end, it's a race against time because a little dirt had clung to one of their costumes, allowing Sandman to come home with them. They had to keep him from the mainland because if any part of him had touched the ground on the mainland, he could have assimilated it all. All. As in, "North America, you were nice while you lasted."
  • Genre Blindness: Doc Ock is hit with this hard. Despite observing Spider-Man's movements for months, he falls for every single on of his tricks.
  • Genre Savvy: By the time SHIELD recruits him, Spider-Man's been a solo vigilante for a year. So there are some tricks and tropes he's already well familiar with (i.e. some fighting moves/distractions, the importance of downplaying one's abilities to pass for normal, knowing ones limits as a fighter, knowing when to go solo and when to call for backup, etc.) That said, he comes to accept over the course of the series that he can't handle everything alone, nor does he know everything about being a superhero.
  • Going for the Big Scoop: In this continuity, Mary Jane is an up-and-coming reporter. In the episode "Exclusive", she accidentally ends up with a front-row seat to a fight between the Hulk, an energy creature, and Spider-Man.
  • Going Native: The exact words used to describe Agent Coulson, who seems more concerned about the school budget and meatloaf than keeping an eye on the teen heroes.
    • Papa Wolf: Yet when the students of the high school the teen heroes are going to are endangered because of the Asgardian Boar Hunt being brought to the school, he's not going to let them get hurt.
    • Let's Get Dangerous!: He also hides an arsenal in the principal's office to show he's serious.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Spidey gets chibi good and evil Spideys helping him think through whether or not he wants to work with Iron Fist, Power Man, White Tiger and Nova. Unfortunately, the angels' dialogue very quickly devolves into a grudge match, which gets quite rough if Peter's reactions are any indication. And they agree on letting Taskmaster do what he wants to Flash Thompson, forcing Spidey to web them both out of the shot after saying, "Only Flash could get these two to agree on something."
    • Later Bad Angel is replaced with Hulk Angel, when Peter has to decide between being honest and looking out for a friend.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: "Freaky" deals with Wolverine, and so has a few "we are experiencing technical difficulties" screens to keep the less kid-friendly aspects of Wolverine's character from going onscreen. I.E., Peter accidentally stabbing himself with Logan's claws, Logan beating the tar out of Flash, etc.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Nightmare!Shoulder-Devil Spidey grumps that he's only allowed to say "heck" in the Christmas Episode.
  • Gotta Get Your Head Together: The entire cafeteria's reaction to Klaw's sonic attack.
  • Grand Finale: The two-part finale "Graduation Day" manages to solve an impressive number of dangling subplots, and brings back a large number of characters from the previous episodes to boot.
    • Also unlike the previous Spider-Man shows... THIS ONE DOESN'T END IN A UNRESOLVED CLIFFHANGER!!!!
  • Gravity Master: The Wizard has this ability thanks to his tech.
  • Groin Attack: Used by Mary Jane on Trapster when he attempts to use her as a hostage. Peter even lampshades it.
  • Guess Who I'm Dating?: Aunt May and Agent Coulson? HELP!
  • Gut Punch: In the middle of the action-packed season three finale, Spider-Man is rescuing civilians from Grandmaster and the Collector's games. Then he hears Aunt May saying, "Peter?" and running to him. Spider-Man tries to reassure her that Peter is probably fine. She delivers this Wham Line: "Don't patronize me. I lost Ben; I won't lose you too, Peter!" It turns out that she knew for a while that her nephew was Spider-Man, and is terrified because these space aliens are beyond standard New York villains. Spider-Man, with his voice cracking, tells her that he has to be the one to defeat them.
  • Half-Arc Season: With all the one-shot stories, but also with the interconnected stories mixed in as well, it looks like the first season is shaping up to be this.
  • Halloween Episode: Three episodes being "The Howling Commandos", "Halloween Night at the Museum", and "Strange Little Halloween".
  • Has a Type: Wolverine, whilst in Peter's body, attempts to make a move on MJ, stating that he's always had a thing for redheads. Due to her and Peter deciding to be Just Friends, MJ is understandably put off by this.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Power Man and Iron Fist.
  • Hologram: Fury appears to Spider-Man as one after his training session on the Helicarrier.
  • Honor Before Reason: The Hunters Loki uses for "Run Pig Run" enjoy a good hunt, but when time's up, they won't kill someone who's won because he outlasted the clock.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Iron Fist, White Tiger, Power Man and Nova all think highly of Deadpool, who once trained alongside them for a time, and never saw anything amiss about him. Spidey, on the other hand, only has to spend a brief amount of time with Deadpool to realise how deranged he is.
  • Hot-Blooded: Nova is rather quick to act without thinking.
  • How Do I Shot Web?:
    • A very literal example. When Iron Fist has to wear Spidey's costume to protect Peter's secret identity, he has trouble figuring out the web shooters.
    • Done hilariously in every "Freaky Friday" Flip episode.
  • Hulk Speak: The Hulk, naturally, he loses it in "The Incredible Spider-Hulk" while gaining increased intelligence.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: When Loki turns Spidey into Spider-Ham in "Run Pig Run", he's made the porcine Wall Crawler into the prey for an "Asgardian Boar Hunt." Fortunately, Thor, Coulson, Fury and "the team" are with Spidey.
    • Kraven the Hunter is confirmed to appear in season 2. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the character should expect this. Surprisingly enough, his prey isn't Spidey. It's White Tiger.
  • Hurricane of Puns:
  • Hurt Foot Hop: Spidey jumps around a bit while holding his foot after trying to kick the Juggernaut. Yeah, bad idea.
  • Hypocritical Humor: When fighting the Doombots in "Doomed", White Tiger complains about Spidey and Nova competing with each other rather than working in team. Then she tells her teammates Power Man and Iron Fist to stick together, just as she splits off from them to fight the Doombots on her own. Power Man and Iron Fist look at each other and shrug.
  • "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight: White Tiger and Iron Fist to the Venom-possessed Spider-Man.
    • Peter does this several times to Venom-posessed Harry. Harry does it to his goblin-enhanced father.
    • Yet again to Goblin-fied Tiger, Fist, Nova, and PM by Spidey and once more when they're hypnotised by Dracula.
    • He also regularly attempts this with Rhino and Vulture after they fall under Doc Ock's control.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Sometimes Peter's excuses to get out of mundane life and go superheroing when needed run to this. For example, in episode 25 of season 1.
    Peter: Harry! I just remembered, Aunt May needs me to do something at home. Some sort of...goldfish emergency.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Spidey's preferred method of banter, with a sizeable dollop of Deadpan Snarker added.
  • Idea Bulb
    • Played with. The lightbulb is over Peter's head, and a little chibi imaginary Spidey plugs it into Peter's ear to power it from his thoughts as he realizes something.
    • The lightbulb flashes over Peter's head only to be replaced by another of the more ecologically improved lightbulbs. Peter even comments on this directly to the audience.
  • Idea Ding: Mary Jane saves Peter's day by coming up with the idea of a study date for Harry to get used to the idea of Peter's "new friends": Danny, Ava, Luke, and Sam.
  • Idiosyncratic Wipes: Lots of speed swoosh, and trains passing by.
  • Idiot Ball
    • Spidey's team as a whole has already seen Venom in action, been possessed (each member except White Tiger) by him and all of them are perfectly aware he is a shapeshifting symbiotic organism whose appearance changes according to his host. Yet, when a "mysterious" black Spider-Man shows up, not only is Peter the only one to recognize the symbiote, but when he points out the similarity, they dismiss it without any doubt, arguing that "Venom was huge, this is just a normal guy in a suit." Made even worse by the fact that Octavius, on the other hand, immediately recognizes his work.
    • Doctor Octopus actually managed to capture Spidey in "Me Time", but he chooses not to remove his mask or webshooters, and places him in restraints he easily breaks out of. It's possible that he overestimated his own abilities while underestimating Spider-Man (seeing as he didn't make those same mistakes again), and only started caring who was behind the mask after the webhead had beaten him several times.
    • Spidey himself loses his otherwise high intelligence and even his spider-sense whenever the script decides it'd be funny (and can be easily attributed to him being a very high-strung teenager).
    • The Team didn't seem to think a LARGE GAPING HOLE into an EMPTY BANK VAULT was suspicious.
    • Nova is nowhere near the - well, brightest of the bunch, but even he grips the ball tight, when he thinks that a beach is labeled "Classy Fied" instead of "Classified."
  • Ignoring by Singing: Peter does this when Coulson talks about finding Aunt May attractive.
  • Imagine Spot: Lots and lots of them, including one where Spidey imagines how him trying to show up in costume and hide his true identity from Mary Jane. He also imitates the Christian Bale Batman voice.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Zodiac soldiers seem to have taken a few courses there. They actually manage to hit each other way more often than they do Spidey or Fury.
  • In Name Only: Despite having some of the same characters, taking place in a similar setting and having a few of its design choices, the show has nothing to do with the comic of the same name, instead coming off as a strange hybrid of Teen Titans and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: Spidey flung a few at Doc Ock, but he warns the audience that the Trapster makes cringingly bad ones based around his glue schtick.
    Spider-Man: (running out of webbing as he falls from the Helicarrier) Okay, now I'm scared thwippless!
  • Indy Ploy: Kind of Deadpool's thing.
    Deadpool: I have a plan!
    Spider-Man: Plan?
    Deadpool: Improvisation! (hits eject button on jet)
  • Ink-Suit Actor
    • Agent Coulson is both voiced by and designed to look like the actor that plays him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Clark Gregg.
    • Stan Lee as the school janitor also counts.
    • Peter Parker without his costume is designed after his VA, Drake Bell.
  • Insistent Terminology: Anytime someone calls Spidey a bug, he always insists that they are arachnids.
  • Institutional Apparel: The black-and-white stripes variety appears as Spidey describes the Trapster's time in jail.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: The "Spider-Verse" storyline in Season 3 also bounces over to the comic-book Spider-Verse storyline. To the point where this Ultimate Spider-Man gets to meet another Miles Morales!
  • Intrepid Reporter: Mary Jane Watson is reimagined as one of these.
    • In "Exclusive", MJ doesn't let a rampaging Hulk or an invisible energy being stop her from getting her interview with Spider-Man.
    • In "Beetle Mania", MJ refuses to let superheroes or the world's deadliest mercenary cause her to miss her interview for an internship at the Bugle.
    • In "Stan By Me" MJ refuses to go for help when it's obvious there's a dangerous creature loose in Midtown High who's cut the power off. She wants her story.
  • It's a Wonderful Plot: "Nightmare on Christmas" sees Nightmare subject Spider-Man one of these, if he'd decided to quit being Spider-Man after beating Shocker earlier in the episode.
  • Ironic Echo: In "Back in Black" Spidey starts the episode off sick, and eventually White Tiger warns him not to get her sick... guess what happens at the end of the episode.
  • Jerkass Has a Point:
    • This is definitely Jameson's trope. While he is always shown to rant about how dangerous Spider-Man is and is portrayed as a loudmouth jerk for doing so, he is not entirely wrong. Spidey in this show is reckless and has caused problems, or exacerbated them, from time from time. For example: the episode "Awesome" has Spidey stealing one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s inventions without knowing what it is. The invention turns out to be the Awesome Android, who proceeds to wreck the city. On another occasion, Spidey decided to go along with a plan to capture Doctor Doom, who turns out to be a Doombot and almost destroys the Helicarrier and the entirety of New York, simply to spite Nova. Sure, Spidey does try to be a better hero and acknowledges his mistakes, but it's more reasonable in this incarnation for Jameson be suspicious of Spider-Man.
    • During "Revealed", Dr. Octopus is venting [[spoiler: Norman Osborn about how it was Osborn's mistreatment that caused him to betray him. Spider-Man admits that Dr. Octopus has a point.
  • Jerk Jock / The Bully: Flash Thompson
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: J. Jonah Jameson. He compliments MJ on her video report for the Bugle's contest, even though the video was very Pro-Spidey and he even gives her a new camera. We repeat, this is JJJ we're talking about.
  • Jet Pack: Early in the series, we see Spidey fantasizing about flying with a jetpack. In "Me Time", Spider-Man discovers that SHIELD has given one to Nova — who doesn't need one because he can fly.
  • Kill the Lights: Spider-Man and White Tiger turned off the lights and used night-vision to get an advantage over Taskmaster. Taskmaster boasted that he could easily navigate the room with his Photographic Memory, only to find that the two heroes moved everything in the room after turning off the lights.
  • Knight of Cerebus
    • Venom, after the relatively lighthearted first half of the episode he appears in, barring the parts with Octavius, the second half is accompanied by less Imagine Spots and jokes.
    • Dr. Octopus also, as he's never played for comedy in all his scenes, or unless he's fighting Spider-Man.
    • In general, most of the main villains of the series (Norman Osborn, Doctor Doom, Loki, Nightmare) are played dead serious.
    • The Green Goblin really makes his mark as a Knight of Cerebus. For once, Spidey doesn't snark at all while fighting him.
    • The Rhino/ Alex can be seen as this, at least in his debut episode. Alex, like Peter was bullied by Flash Thompson. Unlike Peter, however, Alex's status as victim of bullying is not played for laughs and issue of bullying is treated seriously. Not to mention that Flash, who was quite an asshole towards Alex and Peter throughout the series, is horrified that his harrassment led Alex to become Rhino. The same episode also reveals that Flash only has a car station as a home and that his family has no money.
    • The Ultimate Green Goblin establishes himself as the biggest one yet. He's able to rather handily overpower his counterpart from the main universe and has successfully killed the Peter Parker of his universe. In his episode, he comes close several times in their fight to killing Miles and main!Peter. When he returns, not only does he murder Baron Mordo, but Family-Unfriendly Death is in full effect. Plus he also tries to destroy reality using the Siege Perilous, and Miles winds up having to trap himself in the main universe in order to stop him. Highly dangerous and downright psychotic, the Ultimate Goblin pushes the show into Darker and Edgier.
  • Konami Code: In the Season 3 episode "Revenge of Arnim Zola", Spider-Man starts reciting the code but is cut off by Zola.
  • Lack of Empathy: Doctor Octopus. He openly admits that he cares for no-one but himself, and believes that compassion make you weak.
  • Large Ham
    • Doctor Doom, naturally.
    • Thor also counts, especially because he's voiced by Travis Willingham.
    • Doctor Strange.
    • Goblin, to the point where a majority of his dialogue is stock villain wordage and phrases.
  • Laser Sights: The SHIELD helicarrier has dozens, all pointed at Spidey the first time he comes calling.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall
  • Legacy Character: It's mentioned that the White Tiger mantle is one that is passed down in Ava Ayala's family. "Kraven the Hunter" reveals that her father was the original White Tiger. He passed it to Ava before dying from injuries sustained battling Kraven.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Subverted with Hulk in "Exclusive", where Hulk ignores Spidey in favor of focusing on fighting Zzzax. Hulk even tells Spidey he doesn't want to fight "Bug Man".
  • Lighter and Softer: Compared to the three previous animated incarnations of Spider-Man. This series has yet to have anything too dark. So far, two of the Knights of Cerebus (who coincidentally are the only truly active Spider-Man rogues thus far) have added a touch of darkness whenever they come in, but their appearances have been limited due to the constant one-shot adventures.
  • Lightbulb Joke: Spider-Man makes such a joke in "The Sinister Six".
    Spider-Man: How many Sinister Sixters does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Six! Four to hold down Electro. One to screw the lightbulb into his mouth.
    Electro: (to the rest of the Sinister Six) Heh, you guys want to see that? It actually does work! (the other villains glare at him) ...Maybe later.
  • Loophole Abuse: As the son of Odin, Thor can't call off the Asgardian Boar Hunt without going against his father's law. Officially anyway. The laws never said anything about him stalling the hunters before sunset.
  • Losing the Team Spirit: While the rest of Spider-Man's team were initially happy when Spider-Man is recruited by the Avengers, its clear that it takes a toll on them. When Spidey encounters them again while they were chasing Batroc the Leaper, Nova and White Tiger are resentful of him for stopping Batroc for him, and Iron Fist makes it clear that things have not been the same without him.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Parodied. When Luke Cage is looking for his parents, Spidey is concerned they might be villains—so his Imagine Spot turns to Doctor Doom reciting this line to Cage, who gives a Big "NO!". Spidey then turns to the audience and says they were probably thinking the exact same thing.
    • Which is Hilarious in Hindsight given BOTH Marvel and Lucasfilm are both owned by Disney as of 2013.
      • As well as the fact that Luke Cage is also named Luke.
  • MacGuffin: Deadpool's episode is about retrieving a flashdrive of heroes' secret identities stolen from SHIELD...by...Agent MacGuffin. (Invoked — The plot point was introduced by Deadpool.)
  • Macross Missile Massacre: So the Beetle is cornered by Spidey's team, what is his response? To reveal that his armor carries an unholy number of missile launchers, which triggers a Mass "Oh, Crap!" expression from the heroes.
  • Magical Security Cam: This trope is very noticeable in Doctor Octopus's lab, where most of the footage of Spider-Man is recycled footage from previous episodes.
  • Magic Pants: Alex's clothes seem to change with him when he goes to and from Rhino form. The animators seem to choose angles that will specifically keep the audience from seeing how.
  • Make Some Noise: Klaw from the Frightful Four!
  • Male Gaze: Although it's justified, and averted as well. White Tiger wears a skin-tight suit and is... Developed as most females in their late teens would be. Her proclivities towards acrobatics only help this trope. But, given how her male colleagues also wear skin-tight outfits, their assets also get some nice screentime.
  • Malevolent Masked Men: Zodiac soldiers all wear animal masks (lion, bull and ram to be specific).
  • Mama Bear: Aunt bear rather. Aunt May is in good physical shape and she knows self-defense. If anyone threatens her nephew, she will defend him. In the season 3 finale, she's all-prepared to help him fight the Grandmaster and the Collector, or at least to convince Peter that he needs to evacuate, and Peter has to convince her that it's safer for both of them if she uses the teleporter.
  • The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: On one side of the mirror, Peter. In the reflection, Spidey, alternately berating him for being a loser, and encouraging him to take Fury up on his offer to be trained by SHIELD.
  • Marquee Alter Ego: The heroes tend to stand around in costume with their masks up or off, just as in the movies — presumably so it won't be so jarring to fans when watching the movies.
  • Martial Pacifist: Iron Fist, who is generally spouting philosophical advice, advises the symbiote to back up, lest he forget he's a pacifist.
  • Merchandise-Driven: With all the toys they're giving Spider-Man this is obvious. Why else would someone who can web-swing need a motorcycle (though the show does make a decent stab at justifying this one) or a suit that enables him to fly?
  • Meta Origin: Like the 90's Spider-Man show, many of Spidey's foes have their origins tied to another character for the sake of stronger continuity. Venom, Carnage, the Lizard, and the Rhino all owe their origins to Doc Ock's experimentation, while Deadpool and Awesome Android are both tied to S.H.I.E.L.D. in some manner.
  • Mid-Season Twist: In "Back in Black", the 8th episode, we find out that in this show, Venom is Harry Osborn and Dr. Octavius is hiding this fact from Norman Osborn, and thus clearly has his own plans for him.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In "The New Sinister 6, Part 2", Doctor Octopus scoffingly tells Spidey that he doesn't care about anyone—including Scarlet Spider. For Scarlet, who's been motivated by gratitude and personal loyalty to Ock, it's the last straw and he switches sides.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Doctor Doom, Doctor Octopus — although in the latter's case, he was a real doctor before the lab accident that left him in his current state.
  • Morality Pet: Harry to Norman Osborn. While a he's Corrupt Corporate Executive and he kinda wishes he was more like Peter, he does seem to care for his son's well being.
    • Horribly twisted when Norman finds out that Harry is Venom. His response is to tell Harry how proud he is of what he's become.
  • More Dakka: Norman blasts a copy of Iron Man with a huge gatling gun. Spider-Man then wonders if this is the side of Henry's dad he was hinting at complete with a goofy shot involving blasting a pickle jar.
  • Motive Decay: Rhino, when first introduced, was an Anti-Villain with a sympathetic motivation who seemed willing to get help for his condition. This is completely dropped in The Sinister Six, where he now only cares about getting more serum from Doctor Octopus.
  • Mr. Imagination: Spidey. Not that Spider-Man's ever been particularly unimaginative, but it's usually spent on insulting his opponents or making jokes.
  • Mugging the Monster: MJ frees herself from Trapster's clutches, and lays a Groin Attack on him.
  • Muggle Best Friend: Harry Osborn and Mary Jane Watson for Peter.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: "Not a Toy" is basically "Kid throws ball/frisbee into neighbor's house and needs to get it back", except the kid is Spidey, the Frisbee is Captain America's shield and the house is the Latverian Embassy and the neighbor is Doctor Doom.
  • Mundane Utility: In "Electro", Iron Fist uses glowing fist as a light source.
    • Agent Venom says that his spider-sense also warns him when he is about to take a bite of a slice of pizza that is too hot.
  • Mythology Gag: Has his page.

    Tropes N-Z 
  • Naked People Are Funny: Anyone who gets eaten by the Awesome Android loses their clothes once they are "expelled."
  • The Name Is Bond, James Bond:
    • Courtesy of Spidey's smart-aleck attitude in the series premiere.
      Nova: The name is Nova, creep!
      Spider-Man: Nova Creep. Catchy. (makes "loser" gesture with thumb and forefinger)
    • The episode "For Your Eye Only", being a spoof of James Bond in general, begins with Spider-Man introducing himself to the audience as "Man, Spider-Man".
  • Near-Miss Groin Attack: In one episode, Spider-Man just misses a pike at the top of a building during an aerial chase scene.
  • Never Accepted in His Hometown: This comes up in "Spidah-Man!", when thanks to a ten million dollar bounty causes everyone in New York to turn into a Ungrateful Bastard.
    • This is lampshaded by Batroc the Leaper in "The Incredible Spider-Hulk":
      Batroc: "I'm the one who robbed the bank, yet you're the one they all hate.
  • Never Mess with Granny: Aunt May has Taken a Level in Badass. She is a tech at work, does yoga, and bowls; not your typical frail and helpless doting old lady. She even beats her nephew in a superhero fighting game. In an Imagine Spot, Peter's even fairly sure that she could handle herself against lower-ranking villains like Bactroc. Downplayed in this series, though, as she's shown to be a bit younger here than in previous shows (she's at least Agent Coulson's age).
  • Never Say "Die":
    • Danced around in some cases, averted in others as Spidey ruminates on dying within moments of joining S.H.I.E.L.D.
    • "Kraven the Hunter" is almost reminiscent of Spider-Man: The Animated Series in how obvious this is. Ava's father was killed by Kraven, and yet the only time, despite discussing it very often, anyone says anything along the lines of die or kill is in a throwaway joke.
      Peter: I bet you guys would kill in Vegas.
    • Deadpool lampshades the heck out of this, when he has to use a Hurricane of Euphemisms instead of "kill" due to a verbal tic (his favorite being "unalive")... and then Spidey says "Wait, you mean KILL them?!"
    • Norman Osborn says "I have you now... Die, Peter Parker! Die!" in the opening to Second Chance Hero... he's talking about game dice.
    • Played with when Peter goes to the world where Miles Morales is Spider-Man. After spending a solid minute stuttering nervously around the word "dead", (i.e., a string of lines like, "I thought you were d—! Are you a ghost? Peter Parker is d—!") Miles takes Peter to his own gravestone and says that the Peter of his world sacrificed himself.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
    • The team manages to lead a whole cadre of Doombots right onto the SHIELD Heli-carrier.
    • Sam Alexander does some damage to Harry and Peter's relationship with a thoughtless comment about Harry's wealth.
    • And again in "Snow Day", he causes Sandman to escape by picking his island prison as a place for vacations;
    • An episode has Spider-Man accidentally giving Captain America's shield to Doctor Doom.
    • In "The Symbiote Saga, Part 1", Spider-Man and Agent Venom have to deal with the 2nd incarnation of Carnage, a symbiote capable of independent function without a host. They manage to blow it up with a double sonic attack...only to realize too late that this was what it wanted, as its pieces are able to take over the people of New York.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: The show avoid completely every form of teen romance. Word of God Loeb established "Our show lives in a world that is pre-romance".
  • Noodle Incident: In the episode "Burrito Run", Spider-Man is against Squirrel Girl taking her squirrels into town, mentioning a "pistachio incident".
  • No-Sell: Spider-Man's spider-sense can detect threats before they happen, to the point that it's practically precognition. Again, threats. Someone who isn't trying to hurt him (or someone he completely trusts) can bypass his spider-sense. He notes this in "Awesome", when Principal/Agent Coulson (who he did not want to talk to at that moment) sneaked up on him.
  • Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Harry while his father stares at a Spider-Man newscast.
    Harry: ...and I thought I'd move to the sewers and train albino alligators for the circus. (Beat) ...Father of the year.
  • Not So Above It All: Hey, look! Nick Fury and Iron Man! What do you think they may be talking about? Top-level national security issues, perhaps? Not exactly... Stark is detailing the women that he took to his bed.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Spidey says this about him and Hulk, since people also call Hulk a menace even though he's trying to do the right thing.
  • Not So Stoic: Doctor Octopus loses it in "Why I Hate Gym", where, after being told that Spider-Man isn't at a High School, he starts destroying his own lab in rage. He spends "Me Time" in a more or less continuous state of Unstoppable Rage.
  • Not That Kind of Doctor: Lampshaded when the team meets Dr. Doom.
  • "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: "Attack of the Synthezoids" begins with Peter Parker dreaming that he goes to school in his Spider-Man costume. He then looks down to see that he's missing his costume's pants and that his underwear is exposed for all to see.
  • Oh, Crap!: Spidey, after having been captured by Doctor Octopus, is rather distraught when Fury manages to track him down and tells him that he's deep under the East River. Even Fury seemed surprised.
    • The expression on the team's faces when the Beetle reveals his armor carries more missiles than some warships counts also. Cue Nova yelling that five against one wasn't enough to beat him.
    • Taskmaster does this when Spidey mentions Deadpool was with him.
    • Spidey does this when Nick Fury knows his secret identity.
    • Loki goes from gloating to this in "Itsy Bitsy Spider-Man" after he captures Nord Stone in mid air and he belatedly realizes what that means for him.
  • One-Steve Limit:
    • Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter Parker and The Trapster a.k.a. Paste-Pot Pete or Peter Petruski. They got around it by never having The Trapster called by any of his other names.
    • To get around Peter and Miles both having the hero name of "Spider-Man", the latter adopts the moniker of "Kid Arachnid".
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
    • Taskmaster lies to Doctor Octopus about Spider-Man's connection to the school so he can have another crack at the wall crawler.
    • Ultimate Green Goblin won't like it if somebody else defeats his universe's Spider-Man.
  • Other Me Annoys Me: Ultimate Green Goblin thinks the Goblin is a weakling and proves it by easily defeating him.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: In "Back in Black", Jonah J. Jameson suddenly starts supporting Black Spider-Man for no apparent reason when he shows up, despite the character being well-known to hate all costumed heroes.
    • He does it again in "I Am Spider-Man" where he praises the musical version of Spider-Man. Now he's just coming off as a major hypocrite.
      • It's entirely possible that he simply changes his stance based on public opinion, so the Daily Bugle can remain popular. He noticeably changes his opinions whenever the public opinion turns out to be wrong (in the Avengers Assemble episode "Hyperion", he did the same thing).
  • Out of Focus: While they're still around, Power Man, Iron Fist, White Tiger and Nova are far less prominent from Season 3 onwards.
  • Pardon My Klingon / Unusual Euphemism: Spidey resorts to one when a sizable chunk of the Osborn penthouse falls toward Harry and MJ
    Spider-Man: Awww, schnitzel.
  • Parental Sexuality Squick: While toned down for the sake of the target audience, Peter clearly gets this when Agent Coulson and May go out on a date.
  • Patricide: Harry as Venom, attempts to do this in "Carnage" only to be talked out of it by Peter.
    • He attempted it earlier in "Venomous", by throwing Norman out of a window. Spidey had to jump in and save him.
  • Pet the Dog: Norman Osborn actually seems kind of angry that the Frightful Four attacked the school, showing what looks to be legitimate concern for his son.
    • In a similar vein, at the end of "Carnage", the Goblin is about to make his escape with a kidnapped Harry in tow (Harry as Venom having kicked the Goblin's ass before overpowering the symbiote and reigning it in). Suddenly, he stops short, pulls Harry close to his eerily serious face, says his father would be proud, and drops him.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Thwipp Thwipp!" Said to Spider-Man and Peter Parker.
  • Playing Possum: Spidey does this in his second battle against the Frightful Four.
  • Power Copying: Taskmaster
  • Power Glows: Nova/Sam, at least when he is in flight and Iron Fist's hands glows when he is using his chi.
  • Powered Armor: Doctor Doom and Iron Man. Also, Spider-Man in the Iron Spider armor Iron Man gave him.
  • Produce Pelting: At the beginning of the episode, "The Incredible Spider-Hulk", Spider-Man is pelted with tomatoes for being in his underwear, despite being in his suit.
  • Prompting Nudge: In the second episode, Luke Cage nudges Sam Alexander so he can introduce himself.
  • Psychological Torment Zone: Nightmare catches the whole world in one so he can feed off the energy of their bad dreams. Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and Spidey are briefly caught up in it too but manage to get free.
  • Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: The closing gag of "Strange". Poor Nova...
  • Punch-Clock Villain: The Asgardian Hunters weren't too bad when they heard the horn and saw sunset at "Run Pig Run": those were the signs the Asgardian Boar Hunt was over—and Peter, magicked into Spider-Ham thanks to Loki, didn't need to worry about becoming their dinner.
  • Put on a Bus: Coulson is effectively written out of the show in Season 3. Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons are brought in to replace him in Season 4.
  • Race Lift:
    • Scorpio is black like his older brother, Nick Fury. While Fury was always black in the Ultimate comics, his brother had never been shown in them.
    • The Scorpion in the original comics was a white guy named Mac Gargan. In the TV show, Scorpion is instead from K'un L'un, the Tibetan city where Iron Fist received his training.
    • Arcade, who is a redheaded white guy in the comics, is an Asian teenager from the fictitious country of Madripoor in the show.
    • In the Spider-Verse comics, Spider-Punk is an alternate version of the African-American Hobie Brown. During his brief appearance in "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part Four", Spider-Punk, while not unmasked, is voiced by Drake Bell using a British accent, implying that this version is a British counterpart of Peter Parker.
  • Record Needle Scratch: The whole party at Harry's stops this way when Sam says, "Tell me you rented a lion!"
  • Relax-o-Vision: Employed several times in the episode "Freaky", including instances of "Wolverine" stabbing himself with his claws, and "Peter" giving Flash Thompson a well-deserved pummeling. [1]
  • Retirony: Parodied. A Doombot in "Doomed!" says "three days 'til retirement" after he's slashed by White Tiger.
  • Revenge: Played for laughs. Marvel released a trailer for a later episode in which Loki comes to New York in order to exact his revenge on Spidey for defeating him. He tricks Spidey into eating an enchanted hot dog that turns him into a pig — otherwise known as the Spectacular Spider-Ham.
    • Played for drama with Aya intent on avenging her father's murder at Kraven's hands.
  • The Rival: Nova and Spider-Man constantly bicker over who will lead the team, even though Spidey has more experience (a whole year).
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Curiously, as of the first dozen episodes or so, the series seems to be mostly avoiding classic Spider-Man antagonists with the exception of Venom (minus Eddie Brock) and Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man has taken on the Frightful Four (Wizard, Trapster, Thundra and Klaw), Doctor Doom, Living Laser, Batroc the Leaper, Taskmaster, Zzzax, Loki, Mesmero, Sabertooth, Whirlwind and the Wrecking Crew for example.
    • In turn, Spidey villains like Kraven the Hunter and Scorpion are made into archenemies of White Tiger and Iron Fist, respectively.
  • Rookie Red Ranger: Toyed with. Spidey is the newest member of SHIELD and lacks the others' discipline, but he's been a hero longer and has first-hand experience in how to act when fighting threats.
  • Rule of Cool: The Spider-Cycle. Though Spidey didn't like it at first.
  • Rule 63: In The Spider-Verse, Spider-Girl's universe.
  • Running Gag:
    • Spidey runs out of webbing at the worst possible moment.
    • J. Jonah Jameson tirading on jumbotrons in the background of any episode. Said jumbotron is usually damaged or completely destroyed by the end of whatever fight occurs.
    • Rule of Three with the "Flag on the joke!" Chibi Spidey Referee bit in "Me Time".
    • "Flash! You'd better run, this is gonna get messy!" is said by Spidey, and the next scene has Flash breaking out in a run (Genre Savvy Spidey seems to know wherever Spidey goes, Flash probably got there first).
    • Spiders aren't bugs! They're arachnids!
  • Save the Villain: In "Me Time".
    • Spidey pulls this a bunch of times. "Journey of the Iron Fist", Spidey saves Scorpion from being buried in gold. In the series finale, he cures Doc Ock from his rash transformation into a giant octopus monster.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "Thwipp Thwipp!"
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After New York turns on him for a reward, and being forced to study while his team gets to have fun with the message of "Team leaders don't get to have fun." ringing in his ear. Spidey decides to move his heroing to Boston where he will be respected.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Doctor Strange traps Nightmare in box with an Eldritch Abomination in it.
  • Secret Identity: Peter, Danny, Luke, Ava, and Sam. The series acknowledges several times why it's necessary for them to do this, as villains knowing who they and their families are wouldn't be worth the fame and appreciation they might receive.
    • Peter even endures being Stuffed into a Locker by Flash Thompson on a regular basis to help preserve his.
    • Lampshaded again by Spidey, as MJ offers to tell his side of the story against Jameson's "menace!" tirades. (See Imagine Spot).
    • And yet again as Peter ponders Harry revealing to him that he's the new "Black Suit Spider-Man"... and why it's a terrible idea to reveal his true identity.
  • Secret Secret-Keeper: Aunt May reveals that she always knew her nephew was Spider-Man when he orders her to evacuate from Grandmaster's lair. She is ready to throw down to protect Peter. Spider-Man tells her he needs to do this, and promises he'll make it home safely.
  • Series Fauxnale: The 4-part "Contest of Champions" arc was written with the knowledge that it would likely be the end of the show, so the creators tried to make it serve as a fitting conclusion to the series. Before it even aired, the show was unexpectedly picked up for one more season by Disney XD.
  • Ship Tease: Peter and Ava in "Kraven the Hunter", especially the hug near the end. Maybe even as far back as I Hate Gym when she admitted his improvising worked and even admitted she had fun using his web-shooters when they were tag-teaming Taskmaster.
  • Shock and Awe
    • Spidey has electro-webbing that, when grounded against metal, forms a high voltage circuit that effectively fries foes. Unfortunately, Spidey himself is part of the circuit and gets the shock as well.
    • White Tiger later gains electric claws.
  • Shout-Out
    • The Theme Tune at the start of each episode (sans the "Ultimate Deadpool" Crossover episode) is a more orchestral version of the "In Color" tune from the intro of Spider-Man (1967).
    • In the Cold Open for "Venom", we get a very Looney Tunes-esque recapping of Spidey's adventures with the robots of the Marvel Universe.
    • Peter tells Osborn that maybe Spider-Man sits close to him in Spanish class. Cue to Spidey singing "Donde esta la biblioteca" from Community.
    • In "Iron Spider", the dance Spidey does with the two-legged mecha in Iron Man's lab recalls the Cat's dance with the Blue Midget lander in Red Dwarf.
    • In Me Time, when Peter discovers Fury has been spying on him he performs a Skyward Scream that pans out to show the planet, a parody of Kirk's scream from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. When taunting Octavius later in the episode, he uses Bugs Bunny's catchphrase "What's up, Doc?"
    • In "For Your Eye Only", there is a James Bond riff involving Spidey in a tuxedo on a snowboard.
      • Fury's magic number is "007" and the "Doctor Octopussy" title card is seen at the end of the episode.
    • Spider-Man falls into the trash compactor of the SHIELD Helicarrier.
    • And Spider-Man mutters sarcastically to himself in the air vents, à la Die Hard
    • The use of the scare cord during "Snow Day" seemed awfully familiar...
    • In "Spidah-Man", the city of Boston provides Spidey with a gadget-filled cave, an English butler, a Spider-Mobile, and even an eager Kid Sidekick. Three guesses as to who these Shout Outs are aimed at.
    • The Itsy-Bitsy Spider-Man has J Jonah Jameson airing an interview in response to accusations of the Bugle not being "fair and balanced" about Spider-Man. This references the tagline of Fox News.
    • In "Guardians of the Galaxy", Spider-Man quotes Daffy Duck's Robin Hood short as Rocket Raccoon tries to evade enemy lasers.
    • In "Game Over" Spidey, Cap and Wolverine face off against LMD Doppelgangers of themselves, when they are about to square off the "Versus" image is a lot like Capcom vs.; the doubles are even a lighter shade of Palette Swap.
    • From "Ultimate Deadpool":
      • The Marvel vs. Capcom references return with Spidey literally throwing the book at Deadpool, resulting in a "MASSIVE MORALITY KO!"
    • In "Awesome", Spidey steals the Awesome Android from a SHIELD lab to pass off as his science fair invention. Among the items he passed on stealing are the Ultimate Nullifier ("too tiny"), the Cosmic Cube ("too bright"), and Howard the Duck ("too weird!").
    • From "The Avenging Spider-Man":
      Spider-Man: "You treat all your new members like this?"
    • The T. rex in "The Savage Spider-Man" has the iconic roars from Jurassic Park.
    • The second half of Spider-Verse episode 2 is a love-letter to Warner Bros. Looney Tunes. Spider-Man in channels Bugs Bunny, smooching the Goblin and calling himself "wascally". Peter Porker/Spider-Ham sounding like Porky Pig. Spider-Man ends his fight with Goblin with "That's all, folks!"
    • In Spider-Verse episode 3, when Spyder-Knight corrects his pronunciation of Kraken, Spidey grumbles that "Unleash the Kray-ken!" doesn't sound right.
    • At the end of episode 4, Spider-Ham is framed by the dimensional portal as he waves good-bye to Spidey; he looks like Porky Pig saying "That's All, Folks!".
    • In "Return to the Spider-Verse, Part 2", one of the Spideys showcased looks remarkably like Getter Robo.
    • The episode "Nightmare on Christmas" is just one word different from a certain cult-classic Disney film.
  • Sick Episode: "Back in Black." Somehow Spidey also manages to fight off Venom and Dragon Man while sick.
    • There's also an episode whereupon Spidey is trying to care for an injured Aunt May and a sick Hulk at the same time.
  • Smelly Skunk: In the episode "The Savage Spider-Man" when Spider-Man is turned into a Man-Spider from a poison, Ka-Zar uses a skunk-like creature as an antidote on him.
  • Smug Snake: The Wizard, he's cocky and arrogant in both fights against Spidey, but he loses his cool when Spidey turns the table on the Frightful Four, especially in the second fight, where his team loses the numbers advantage.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Spider-Man and Hawkeye's episode together is nothing but this trope.
  • Sore Loser: Upon losing a game of virtual chess against Spider-Man, Nick Fury responds by placing a miniature explosive on the game board. Then casually walks out of the room as it explodes in Spidey's face.
  • Space Whale Aesop: Don't procrastinate on school projects or try to steal other peoples' work to pass off as your own, or you'll accidentally sic a giant android on your school.
  • Split Screen: Once an Episode or more.
  • Squashed Flat: Invoked in Spidey's Imagine Spot in "Hydra Attacks" when he pictures the Tri-Carrier walls closing in on him.
  • Squee: Spidey's reaction to seeing Iron Man show up after taking out the Living Laser. Chibi Iron Man Cupids float around Spidey's head, complete with Heart Symbol.
  • The Starscream: Doctor Octopus to Norman Osborn. It fails because Norman as Goblin keeps turning against Ock.
  • State Sec: S.H.I.E.L.D.. Officially it is an intelligence agency but it has it's own private army, navy and air force that operates outside the regular military's chain of command. It also controls several teams of superheroes and has multiple R&D labs working on various projects.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: Fury makes his entrance in the first episode. Bonus points for using the Helicarrier as a distraction.
  • Sticky Situation: Pretty much the Trapster's shtick.
  • Stock Parody: "For Your Eyes Only" utilizes a lot of James Bond references. Despite the episode really being "Die Hard" on an X. However, it did have more of Nick Fury in action than any other episode to date.
  • Stock Scream: "Itsy-Bitsy Spider-Man" has one of S.H.I.E.L.D's agents pull this when thrown by the Destroyer.
  • Stuffed into a Locker: By Flash Thompson. But Peter takes any chance he can get to turn the tables and stick Flash in the locker. Inverted in Symbiote Saga Part 3, when Flash as Agent Venom gets stuffed into a locker himself by a bunch of Carnage symbiotes.
    Flash: Shoved into a locker? Aw, I probably deserve this.
  • Stunt Casting: Ross Lynch was cast to voice Werewolf by Night and given that he starred on the Disney Channel's most popular show at the time while Ultimate Spider-Man aired on it's sister channel, it's obvious why he was cast. The episode was even heavily marketed on Disney Channel with behind the scenes footage of him recording his role.
  • Super-Strength: Luke Cage (His name is Power Man, duh), Nova and Spider-Man all exhibit good examples of this. Nova was strong enough to prevent a hellicarrier from falling out the sky. Spider-Man himself seems somewhat stronger than in his previous animated incarnation. So far, he has caught a falling helicopter out the sky, thrown multiple cars with ease, and even kicked Sabretooth so hard that he sent the villain flying into a bus 50 feet away, which flipped over due to the impact.
  • Survival Mantra:
    Spider-Man: I won't screw this up. I won't screw this up!
  • Swiss-Cheese Security: A lot of the plots seem to require SHIELD to have abysmal security for either their prisoners or the dangerous items they have in storage. Usually coupled with at least one teenager with needlessly high clearance holding the Idiot Ball. It gets to inexplicable levels when the Taskmaster frees a bunch of inmates on the tricarrier and they all are somehow already in their powered combat armors.
  • Talking Your Way Out: Spider-Man explains to his teammates that Mary-Jane can't be stopped once she puts her mind to something, with various examples throughout their shared childhood. The last example has Galactus about to devour earth, only to be stopped by Mary-Jane explaining to him that the Earth's populace would pose a lot of health problems. He than says it didn't happen, but it could have.
  • Take That!: The episode "Back in Black" features one in regards to Peter's public unmasking as Spider-Man during Civil War (2006), immediately pointing out why such a thing is a bad idea.
  • Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: In the episode where Peter teams up with Deadpool, Peter's no kill rule is at odds with Deadpool's job as a bounty hunter, where he is adamant about "unaliving" his targets.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Agent Venom and Rhino. Scarlet Spider is this with everyone.
  • That's All, Folks!: In "Run Pig Run", the ending spoofs Porky Pig saying "That's All, Folks!" with Spider-Man.
  • The Bait: Norman Osborn tricks Spidey into becoming this, so Osborn can take down the Frightful Four. Spidey's not too happy when he figures out that he's been used as bait.
  • The Masquerade Will Ruin Your Friendship: Peter's constant ditching of Harry along with his inability to tell Harry the truth puts a considerable strain on their friendship. Afterwards, Peter had no choice but to reveal his secret to save his life.
  • That Man Is Dead: If someone gets turned into a monster villain, this line is likely to pop up in their dialogue:
    Venom: There is no one else. We are Venom. Venom is all.

    Goblin: Osborn...no more!
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Spidey's notion before using his electro-webs for the first time — on a tentacle-bot, while lying on electrified subway train tracks. As the subway is approaching.
    Spidey: This will be pain.
    • And again in The Beetle.
      Spidey: This is going to hurt.
  • Tiger Versus Dragon: White Tiger and Iron Fist, who has a dragon motif. White Tiger is a Spicy Latina By-the-Book Cop, a total Tsundere who often stresses over following the rules and gets easily aggravated. Iron Fist is a Stoic Nice Guy who never loses his cool and always just goes with the flow. However, they are both by far the most disciplined and responsible members of their team. It's never stated in the show, but in the comics, White Tiger's tiger amulet that gives her her powers is actually from K'un-L'un, where Iron Fist trained and gained his abilities.
  • Title Drop: "The Ultimate Spider-Man" is tossed around to refer to Spidey's hypothetical SHIELD-improved self. Text actually appears around him when Fury says it!
  • To Be Continued: Spidey himself says this word for word at the end of episode 1. Considering that it's a 2-parter, it makes sense.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • In episode 3, Spidey and his team decide to disobey Fury and attempt to capture a powerful villain to show they are good. The target they choose? Doctor Doom. And as if that wasn't enough, they go to attack him in the middle of Lavteria, without provocation. Needless to say, Doom quickly comes up with a plan to take advantage of the situation.
    • Again in the first season finale, though with a case of Idiot Ball, Spidey tried to tell his team to leave the puddle they are on as the Goblin is about to electrify them, but they just stay there, letting themselves to be electrified while Spidey manages to escape.
  • Tracking Device: Used by the Trapster on Spidey in the first episode to track him to his school. Spidey finds the bug in the armpit of his costume, and flashes back to how it must've gotten there.
  • Trap Master: The guy with the same name.
  • Transformation Discretion Shot: In "The Savage Spider-Man", while Spider-Man and Wolverine were helping Ka-Zar save Zabu from Kraven and Taskmaster, he turns into a Man-Spider from a poison. He grows extra arms and mandibles, attacks them and uses a campfire on the T. rex, burning its tail. Ka-Zar picks up a skunk-like creature and uses it as medicine on him. While his transformation occurs on-camera, the scene of him changing back occurs offscreen.
  • Troll: Loki turning Spidey into a pig, setting a hunting party on him and then constantly dicking around with him as he attempts to escape - usually showing up briefly to troll him, then popping away.
  • Troperiffic: The trope count went over seventy-five tropes represented before the second episode was finished. And there is no doubt the creative team is having a ball cramming as many tropes into the show as they can possibly get away with.
  • True Companions: Cemented in the season finale. Peter admits his friends are like his family, and by the end of the episode the team are living together. Also, with his Web Warriors in Seasons 3-4.
  • Truth in Television: In "Damage" the fact that the cameraman remained despite the danger reflects real world cameramen who continue filming no matter what.
  • A Twinkle in the Sky: Peter has an Imagine Spot of slingshotting Flash Thompson until he ends up one of these.
  • Twinkle Smile: Nova has one in episode 2.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Someone driving a motorcycle up a building at a 90 degree angle? Doesn't bat an eye.
  • Very Special Episode: With "Rhino", about bullying.
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: One of the primary criticisms of the show is that Peter's Imagine Spots sometimes do exposition that's already been explained, or in worse cases, explaining things that people will probably already have noticed five seconds ago (an example of this is when Peter finds out Harry is the new black Spider-Man, and after Harry hisses, Peter promptly points it out to the audience). Though some of the cut-aways aren't intended to be informative, they're more the narration of an insecure teenager seeking validation. Peter Parker is regularly bullied over the science thing, so he's defensive about it.
  • Villain Episode: "Me Time" for Doctor Octopus.
  • Villainous Rescue: So many villains in this show have vendettas against each other, leading them to sabotage each other either to further their own plans or simply because they hate the other villain more than they hate Spider-Man.
    • In "Revealed", Dr. Octopus stops Norman Osborn from unmasking Spider-Man by injecting Norman with the Green Goblin serum. Dr. Octopus doesn't truly care who's under the mask, he just wants to replicate the spider powers. He does it later in "Venom Bomb" due to his Enemy Mine with Spider-Man, as he creates an Anti-Venom strong enough to cure everyone on the Helicarrier and turns the Goblin back into Norman Osborn.
    • While he's only a villain when infected with Venom, Harry saves Peter from Carnage in said episode. Later, Venom teams up with Spider-Man because he hates the Green Goblin more than he hates the web-slinger.
  • Villain Takes an Interest: As in several other continuities, Norman Osborn takes a definite interest in both Peter and Spider-Man, sending the not-so-subtle message that he prefers Peter over his own son Harry.
  • Voices Are Mental: Surprisingly averted. Spider-Man and Wolverine's body swap actually has them keep their body's VAs. This stays the case in "The Incredible Spider-Hulk" and "The Avenging Spider-Man". Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, Troy Baker and Drake Bell have lots of fun in the episodes in question.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: As a result of The Hulk's Sick Episode where Spider-Man has to take care of him.
  • Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Peter, but also the other heroes, after Nick Fury gets the idea to send them to school with Peter. Later on, Peter goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy under the guise of it being an advanced science program.
  • Walking Armory: Spider-Man tries to do this in "For Your Eyes Only", but couldn't walk.
    • The Beetle however, plays it straight.
  • Warrior Poet: Iron Fist
  • We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: A Running Gag throughout "Freaky".
  • We Can Rule Together: Taskmaster offers Spidey the chance to work with him over being brought to his employer because he says that he also worked on a team lead by Fury before Fury double-crossed him. Spider-Man's subsequent Imagine Spot is of him in an apron and cleaning Taskmaster's lair as Taskmaster lazes about on the couch in a pair of boxers.
  • Weird Crossover: The Halloween ep with Jessie, largely due to the fact it's a crossover with a live-action series in animated form with characters who are far from superheroes. Plus honestly who was expecting that?
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Harry Osborn, as in most Spidey-continuities.
  • Wham Episode: The two part season finale. After a whole season of dancing around it, Norman Osborn finally becomes the Green Goblin as a result of a fusion of both Spider-Man's blood and the Venom compound. At first driven crazy, he regains his sanity, and seeks to revert his son to Venom. While he fails, a ton of shakeups to the Status Quo happen. Dr. Octopus leaves his services forever, the SHIELD Helicarrier is destroyed (for now), Harry loses the Venom symbiote which Norman takes a sample of, Dr. Connors gets one of his arms crushed, Harry hears of how the Green Goblin came from Spider-man and vows revenge, Spider-Man realizes just how important having a team is, and finally, the rest of the SHIELD team moves in with Peter. Whew.
    • "The Sinister Six" to a lesser extent. The Sinister Six is created, which test Peter's strength as a leader. In the end, the team does manage to work together and Spidey gets some Character Development. However, the real WHAM is that, although Spider-Man and his team bring in five of the six, Curt Connors fully becomes The Lizard and runs away, leaving Peter feeling helpless after he tried to save him.
    • In the vein of the "The Sinister Six", "Stan By Me" is another whammer in the Lizard arc. Can be summed up by a sole line by Spidey: "Oh, no. The Lizard part of his brain changed it to drive out Connors? And I just helped! note 
    • "The New Sinister 6, Part 1": Doctor Octopus not only completed his Sinister Six and steals an anti-HYDRA weapon, but reveals that he was really building a Sinister Seven. The worst part? The Scarlet Spider turns on Peter and reveals that he was the real mole for Ock, not Rhino.
  • Wham Line: In the episode "Stan By Me", Spider-Man finds out that the Lizard is building a machine which Spidey believes that the Connors part of the Lizard built in order to drive out the Lizard. So, Spidey and company subdue the Lizard and use the machine on him. However...
    Spider-Man: Why isn't it working?
    Lizard: Working good. Erase Connors. Connors no more. Lizard forever!
    • In the Vulture, the titular character is trying to find his past, flying toward the rising sun. And then...
      Taskmaster: Adrian.
    • The season 3 finale has Aunt May deliver one when Spider-Man orders her to evacuate with the other civilians and she wants to find her nephew: "Don't patronize me. I lost Ben; I won't lose you too, Peter!".
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Peter takes no issue with Star-Lord and the Guardians slaughtering a bunch of Chituari or leaving Korvac to die in his exploding ship.
    • However in "Blade", he gives the title character a What the Hell, Hero? speech after seeing him kill a horde of vampires. Blade then explains that the vampires were humanoid drones conjured from shadows, meaning they were never alive to begin with.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Spider-Man tells Squirrel Girl off after she stops the Juggernaut...and levels what looks like a city block in the process, as well as completely fails to restrain him.
  • Wheel of Decisions: Peter's imagination gives him:
    • Wheel of Excuses for what to tell his Muggle friends when duty as Spidey calls. It finally breaks in "Agent Venom".
    • Wheel of Explanations shows up when Peter struggles to explain to Harry Osborn that his father Norman is "an evil mastermind", "his mind go crazy bye bye" and "a liar liar pants on fire". He ends up jumbling together the explanations he got from his head.
    • Wheel of Bad News for when he needs to tell Harry that Green Goblin has showed up in town and may be coming after Harry.
    • Wheel of Responses for when Venom is back in town, and Fury believes that Spidey knows more than he's letting on.
  • Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Spidey admonishes Loki for breaking the doors to Odin's chamber.
  • Wild Teen Party: Harry throws one after feeling ignored by his father. It gets interrupted by the arrival of the Venom symbiote.
  • You and What Army?: When Squirrel Girl confronts the Juggernaut and tells him that she's gonna stop him, he asks this question. Only to find out that she does have an army...of squirrels.
  • You Won't Feel a Thing!: In "The Iron Octopus":
    Doc Ock: This won't hurt...for long.
    • And again in "Ultimate", courtesy of A Goblin-fied Nova.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Ultimate Spider Man, Ultimate Spider-Man

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The Howling Commandos

A badass group of monsters under Nick Fury's employ, usually used as "specialist" against more overtly supernatural threats.

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5 (9 votes)

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