Marvel Rising: Initiation (TV Series)

Marvel Rising: Initiation is a six-part series that leads up to the film. It is comprised of four-minute segments spotlighting the characters. The series premiered on Disney XD on August 13th, 2018.

Cast

 * {| class="wikitable"

!Actor !Role(s)
 * Dove Cameron
 * /Gwen Stacy
 * Chloe Bennet
 * /Daisy Johnson
 * Tyler Posey
 * /Dante Pertuz
 * BooBoo Stewart
 * /Victor Kohl
 * Kathreen Khavari
 * /Kamala Khan
 * Milana Vayntrub
 * /Doreen Green
 * Cierra Ramirez
 * Miss America/
 * Kamil McFadden
 * /Kayshaun Lucas
 * Kim Raver
 * /Carol Danvers
 * Skai Jackson
 * Ming-Na Wen
 * Steven Weber
 * Captain
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Tara Strong
 * Skai Jackson
 * }
 * /Carol Danvers
 * Skai Jackson
 * Ming-Na Wen
 * Steven Weber
 * Captain
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Tara Strong
 * Skai Jackson
 * }
 * Captain
 * Dee Bradley Baker
 * Tara Strong
 * Skai Jackson
 * }
 * Tara Strong
 * Skai Jackson
 * }
 * Skai Jackson
 * }
 * }

In an interview, Milana Vayntrub said, "It's a show about a bunch of different people who maybe feel like they don't fit into one place or another from various backgrounds who have come together to genuinely try to make the world a better place. They're all, or some more than others, are battling their personal demons, while making connections with people who they are unlikely friends with."

In the same interview, Dove Cameron said, "It's a predominantly female cast. It's got a female empowerment heartbeat, as I've been saying, because it's not just for young girls. It's for everybody, and everybody can find something to relate to, but it's really beautiful. Females are friends! Females are enemies! Females are foes. Females are figuring each other out. It's everything that you would want in an action-adventure comedy drama amazing series for young people, but just with women, right? So yeah, there's loads of women who rely on each other and who fight each other, and I think, that's what it should be. It's not about that, but it has that, because it has everything, because it's just a wonderful program."

Adding to Cameron's statement, Kathreen Kavari said, "And it's also about, even if you are fighting with each other, understanding one another, having compassion for one another and really trying to see the other person’s point of view."

Chloe Bennet further added, "It pretty much just reflects real life and real life friendships with women, and that's what’s great about it is it doesn't play into it. It's just normal, and so often on TV or in pop culture, things are just not reality. So the great thing about this is it's just real. It's just real! Women are friends! Women can not be friends! And then, what Marvel does so well is it's all incorporated through animation and through these characters, so it's all heightened with superpowers and fun action sequences."

Reception
Paige S. Allen of IGN gave the series a score of 8.0 Great saying "Marvel Rising: Initiation is a breath of fresh air that serves as a welcome introduction for a new class of heroes." She noted that while the attention on female heroes was luxurious she claimed it could run the risk of feeling like pandering. She did feel the series sidestepped those concerns feeling genuinely like a breath of fresh air for Marvel and a promising sign of things to come. She noted that it was like many other shows about teenagers living a double life while this one did less to balance the civilian and superhero lives. She pointed out how references to the Spider-Gwen comics were few, brief, and not very deep. She did praise the variety of the cast. She did feel like not having the Eli Bradley version of Patriot was a missed opportunity to bring in some of Marvel's other younger heroes. She like how the series was committed to different race, gender, and body diversity, something most other superhero media fail in. She liked the number of female characters as it allowed them to embody different personalities and play off one another. She praised the animation as the strongest component of the series, calling it a natural maturation of. She felt the costumes and civilization designs stood out, helping compensate for the one-note backgrounds. She did feel the fight scenes were on the understated side in terms of choreography, but did have some spectacular visual flourishes. She compared Gwen's Spider-Sense to that of. She did like the silly visual gags and quirky physical mannerisms, like Squirrel Girl and her anime-style fighting techniques. She felt that despite the narrative shortcuts it would work for the intended audiences, being a simple introduction to a new wave of superheroes. "Marvel Rising: Initiation shines as a promising introduction to Marvel's next class of superheroes, which is made up by richly-characterized female leads. While some viewers might lament the series' watered-down adaptation of its source material, or find that other shows have better mastered its themes, overall Marvel Rising: Initiation has enough enjoyable material to keep new and seasoned fans alike interested in the forthcoming Marvel Rising universe."