The Stretch Armstrong franchise seems like an ideal choice for an ambitious animation team. The character has that all-important brand recognition factor, but no real mythology or supporting cast to speak of. Despite all the many attempts to bring adapt the Stretch Armstrong toy to film and TV, he's still essentially a blank slate of an IP. That gives creators almost total freedom to interpret the character and build his world however they choose. With all that freedom, it's a little disappointing to see Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters develop into such a formulaic teen superhero story.

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Three heroes in search of a more compelling mission.

The series was developed by Victor Cook, Chris "Doc Wyatt" and Kevin Burke. The fact that cook is a veteran of the beloved but short-lived Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon is easily the show's biggest selling point right out of the gate. And there are certainly plenty of similarities between the two shows. Like Peter Parker, Jake Armstrong (Teen Titans' Scott Menville) is a brilliant but socially awkward high schooler who finds himself struggling to balance his hectic personal life with his budding superhero career. He's literally stretched too far between all his academic and extracurricular commitments. The biggest difference here is that Flex Fighters is an ensemble show. Jake is joined by fellow stretchy heroes Ricardo Perez/Omni-Mass (Monster High's Ogie Banks) and Nathan Park/Wingspan (The Walking Dead's Stephen Yeun).All three leads are very well cast. Yeun in particular manages to showcase his versatility/ His nerdy, agitated Nathan is a world away from the arrogant, driven character he plays on Voltron: Legendary Defender. Menville's voice can be a little distracting in just how much his Stretch Armstrong sounds like Robin, but there's no denying his knack for bringing awkward, puberty-stricken teen heroes to life.Most of what does work in these first 13 episodes boils down to the dynamic among these three characters. Each hero has a laundry list of personal problems, most of which involve troubled family dynamics or the pressure to live up to the expectations of adults. Stretch himself frequently butts heads with his aggressively overbearing father, a man who expects military-grade discipline out of his son while remaining blissfully unaware of his costumed activities. The slowly budding friendship between Ricardo and Nathan is always a highlight of the season. Ricardo initially comes across as a textbook high school jock, but he steadily gains more depth as he grows closer to his new friends and finds a new family unit to replace his own painfully inadequate one.It's a shame, then, that the same care and attention isn't devoted to the supporting cast. The Flex Fighters' benefactor, business tycoon Jonathan Rook (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wil Wheaton) is bland to the point of being snooze-worthy. His right-hand-man, Malcom Kane, fare somewhat better, but mainly by virtue of the fact that he's voiced by the inimitable Keith David. David's role is symptomatic of a larger problem in that Flex Fighters has a top-notch vocal lineup (including Felicia Day, Spectacular Spider-Man's own Josh Keaton and more Star Trek veterans like Walter Koenig and Kate Mulgrew) but they're rarely given much to work with. The cast of high school characters are largely one-dimensional, and the numerous villains tend to get in each other's way.Probably the most frustrating thing about the show is the way it squanders its time with poorly paced storylines. The first two episodes form a mini-movie of sorts that establishes the team's origin story. But the three leads make the transition from greenhorn heroes to accomplished fighters literally overnight. From there, the season settles into a plodding routine where the three heroes attend school by day, defend Charter City by night and slowly unravel the conspiracy linking villains like Stretch Monster, Dr. C and the cyber-ninja Blindspot. Suffice it to say, that conspiracy isn't enough to keep the plot humming along for 13 episodes. Plot progression is sluggish all the way up until the exposition-heavy final two episodes. And these last-minute revelations are so predictable that there's very little payoff.Ultimately, Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters seems content to skew towards a young demographic than other Netflix Originals like Trollhunters and Voltron: Legendary Defender. Both those shows stand out because they emphasize characters and story over spectacle. Never does it feel like Netflix is producing those shows with toy sales as the prime motivator. But with Flex Fighters, I don't get that impression. Too often, the show reminds you that it's inspired by a decades-old Hasbro toy. Each episode follows a rigid, 23-minute format with obvious fades to commercial breaks every so often. The sheer number of colorful but forgettable villains and long-winded fight scenes often make Flex Fighters feel like a relic of a simpler, less ambitious era.It would be one thing if the fight scenes were dynamic and stylish enough to make up for the sluggish plot. Unfortunately, here is another area where Flex Fighters can't quite measure up to Netflix's best. The art style is too plain, and the colors too flat. Spectacular Spider-Man wasn't so different in that regard, but that show usually made the most of its relatively simplistic art style. But here, the fluid, graceful sense of movement is lacking. With the way they often drag out for minutes at a time, the battles eventually lose all sense of urgency. Rarely does it seem as though either side is in any particular danger in these conflicts.