Marvel’s Spider-Man has been renewed for season 3, to air in spring next year. The animated show is currently halfway through season 2, and in September will come off a year-long hiatus that left events on a cliffhanger, and will complete a story arc adapted from The Superior Spider-Man run of comics, seeing Doctor Octopus take over Spider-Man’s body while Peter’s mind is trapped inside the shattered robot form of the Living Brain.
Marvel’s Spider-Man is the third iteration of an animated series seen in the last decade, following The Spectacular Spider-Man, a universally acclaimed take that balanced Peter’s exploits as Spider-Man with his work and school life, and Ultimate Spider-Man, a far more juvenile interpretation of the character that had a lowered intelligence, a puerile sense of humor and a Deadpool-esque tendency to break the fourth wall. This series begins with Peter Parker starting at a new school for gifted teenagers at the same time he debuts as Spider-Man, and sees him battling numerous members of the rogue’s gallery, principal among them being Doctor Octopus, Hobgoblin and Jackal. The series feels a less traditional and more modern take via Peter having allies in other Spider-People such as Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen and Anya Corazon. Additionally, the series is less isolated from the greater Marvel continuity by the appearances of characters such as Iron Man, Ms Marvel, Captain America, the Hulk and Captain Marvel.
The announcement was made by Marc Buhaj, the Senior VP of Programming at Disney XD. The series has been subtitled Maximum Venom, and will feature the alien symbiote summoning an “earth-shattering threat” from its home planet that will take the combined strength of numerous heroes to battle, but it being Peter’s already existing link to the creature that will tip the balance to save the world. Buhaj stated that:
“We are excited to have Spider-Man and Venom leading this brand-new chapter. These two characters are fan favorites and the Marvel Animation team has delivered a smart, action-packed season for a new generation. We're grateful for the opportunity to further expand the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man with Venom and continue fresh, heroic storytelling with this third season order.”
As well as being the primary villain of season 3, Venom has previously appeared throughout the series. It first bonds with Peter, who finds his abilities enhanced but at the cost of affecting his mind and personality, then Flash Thompson, with whom it bonds during a football game with a rival school and attempts to spread to the other players. In season 2, the symbiote became bonded to its traditional host of Eddie Brock, a rival photographer to Peter, and who subsequently deduced Peter’s superhero alter ego and began kidnapping the people in his life to draw him into a fight.
Although far from one of the original Spider-Man villains, Venom has always been one of the enduring. It’s common for a superhero to sooner or later encounter an enemy who is a dark mirror of themselves, but Venom has always been an interesting variation on this in that its insidious way of operating alters the personality of those its bonded with in such a way they don’t notice it’s happening. The prospect of a threat so climactic that it requires the attention of multiple superheroes to battle has a great deal of potential, and that this one is alien means it could quite literally be anything. The most obvious choice would be a mass incursion of symbiotes that slowly take over humanity like supervillain bodysnatchers, but exactly what the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man will have to face will be revealed in good time.
Source: The Nielsen Company