'Marvel Rising' superteam launches with four digital shorts
The story will focus on Gwen Stacey as Ghost-Spider.
Marvel is combatting X-Men and Avengers fatigue some you probably already feel by launching a new ragtag band of superheroes in 2018. The new franchise called Marvel Rising will start with six, four-minute digital shorts that will be followed by Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, a feature-length animated film, later that year. It focuses on Gwen Stacy, who's more than just Spider-Man's lady love in this iteration: she's the one who got bitten by a radioactive arachnid and transformed into Ghost-Spider after gaining superpowers.
The other superhuman teens joining Ghost-Spider are familiar names, as well: Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Quake, Patriot, America Chavez and Inferno. Their backstories might be a bit different, but they're still the same superheroes at the core. Marvel is tapping some pretty well-known celebrities to voice the characters, including Dove Cameron (Descendants) as Ghost-Spider and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) as Inferno, but it's unclear where you'll be able to watch the shorts.
The comics giant says it will announce distribution partners at a later date. Netflix could still be on that list, since its partnership with Disney (which owns Marvel) won't end until late 2019. After that, however, Disney will stop giving Netflix the right to stream its properties and will instead make them available through its own streaming service.
