[6.8/10] I’ve watched a lot of Spider-Man shows, and if there’s one thing I get tired of quickly, it’s all of a hero’s friends and acquaintances just happening to develop superpowers. I’ve also watched Batman Beyond, and if there’s a second thing I get tired of quickly, it’s superhero shows doing thinly veiled “Don’t do drugs” episodes.
So with that in mind, the fact that I still found this one to be pretty decent at worst is almost a compliment. There’s an interesting vein to mine with Ritchie being jealous of Virgil’s superpowers and wanting to be a hero cut from his own cloth. But the advent of Ragtag and his barely-shielded drug dealer metaphor really didn’t do it for me. It’s neat to see Ritchie as “Push”, the Green Lantern-like superhero doing good, but the conflict with his compatriots isn’t particularly exciting, and Ragtag himself is a pretty meager antagonist.
The only truly compelling part of this is the rivalry/friendship that develops between Virgil and his best friend over this development, and even that feels undercooked. But they save one another’s butts at the right time, defeat the bad guy, and reunite despite some friction, so it still clicked decently enough for me.
Overall, this is a good idea that doesn’t have the world’s greatest execution, but which gets by on the coolness of the central premise.
Shout by TikiWhoVIP 2BlockedParent2024-02-28T04:47:08Z
It really looks like the second episode had half the animation budget of the first one.