Meet Ultimate Spider-Man's Supporting Cast

Disney XD's Ultimate Spider-Man TV series is about to be released and to build up more hype, Marvel has released new images for Peter Parker's super powered supporting cast.

Luke Cage

In the TV series, Luke Cage reverts to his old school code name of Power Man and will be part of the teenage class that SHIELD will be teaching to be the next generation of metahuman heroes.

(Being that Brian Michael Bendis is lending a helping hand with the development of the stories for this, we should be expecting Luke to make an appearance.)


Iron Fist

Power Man will never be truly complete without his best friend, Danny Rand aka Iron Fist.

"The Ultimate Spider-Man version Iron Fist is definitely a Danny, and not a Daniel, Rand," said Ultimate Spider-Man supervising producer (and veteran comic book artist) Duncan Rouleau in a Marvel.com article. "Danny embraces a go-with-the-flow attitude. Stepping out from the confines of K'un L'un into the madhouse of New York, Danny tends to look at everything with a wide-eyed sense of the new that offers a unique perspective vs. his more jaded fellow trainees."
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 White Tiger

Ava Ayala will be part of the main cast of the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, joining Spidey, Iron Fist and two other yet-to-be-named characters. "We wanted a young female voice on the team and while she is new, White Tiger proved to be the perfect choice," said show creative consultant Paul Dini in a Marvel.com article. "She's tough and smart, and her cat-like reflexes allow her to match Spider-Man leap for leap in agility."
Based on the description of White Tiger in the Marvel.com piece — Dini says "it's important to her that she excels at everything she does, as she plans on leaving the team someday as a full super heroine in her own right" — it looks like she's the "conscientious and an overachiever" character that Marvel chief creative officer Joe Quesada hinted at in a Q&A on Tuesday.

In the comics, Ava Ayala is the sister of original White Tiger, Hector Ayala, and though the Marvel.com article doesn't specifically mention that character, Dini calls Ava "a legacy heroine and the newest in a family of heroes to use the White Tiger name."

(Its also important to note that the same White Tiger is currently kicking ass in the pages of Avengers Academy together with X-23)

Nova

Sorry Nova fans but this is not Richard Rider. This is actually another human from the Nova Corps named Sam Alexander. This Nova in particular is brash and arrogant which fills a typical stereotype for these sort of TV shows. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually acts like a leader similar to how Avengers Academy member Striker assumed the role when the school was established.