IGN ranks all 8 Spiderman cartoons
 

Spoiler: Spectacular Spiderman is #1 as expected.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/...eries-2?page=1

Interesting enough looking over that list I'm surprised how many Spiderman cartoons got canceled after just one season. Half the shows on that list only lasted 13 or 26 episodes. Why were they all so short-lived?

The only shows to last a good run was the 1967 one, Spiderman 1994 (65 episodes), and Ultimate is going on to 78 episodes but that show sucks so it doesn't matter.

It's kinda say though that to this day there is no, "definitive" Spiderman cartoon overall. Had Spectacular not been canceled so soon it would have likely been that but it was too short lived.

Expected? I long thought Spider-Man:The Animated Series was the definitive other media depiction. Aside from two things it gets everything so well adapting issues and being its own thing at the same time. Macendale being Hobgoblin while only towards its in did the comics reveal it was really Roderick Kingsley. The other being Electro being the son of the Red Skull instead of Max Dillion both bug me. The numberous attempts since then have not recaptured the magic of Spider-Man:The Animated Series. I watched it on and off and when Spider-Man (2002) saw it on the weekends on ABC Family and eventually watchex it non-stop on Netflix al the way through. Great stuff. All the others are okay to blah.

I think Spectacular and 94 tie for me. Loved both of those shows. I just can't get into Ultimate. It's just too wacky for my tastes. Certainly doesn't feel like Spider-man to me at all, but that's just my opinion. I will say I liked the goblin and Venom/Carnage episodes so far. That's about it.

How the hell did the CGI piece of crap rank so high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:o

I have seen the complete 94 run via netflix and I thought it was sure to get the top spot, but to have spectacular take the spot top was definitely a welcome surprise. I will have to watch it when I get a chance.

Spectacular is the right answer.

The MTV show is NOT.

I'm surprised how high Ultimate Spidey was....yikes.

I will agree that S-M: TAS should have the top spot. It adapted some of the best of the comic book stories, but still had its own identity, much like the X-Men cartoon of the same era. One of my favorite arcs from that series was the one with Punisher, Kraven, and the Man-Spider mutation. And unlike the comics, Kraven was a much more sympathetic character. So was Venom, and Carnage was just so amazingly done! And Hobby being voiced by Mark "Joker" Hamill? Pure awesome-sauce.

Wow I never even realize that!!!!! no wonder he did so well as a goblin!!!!!

The best thing about Ultimate is its animation far superior compared to its predecessors, but that in the most part, but that is due to the technology available to us now. :ohwell:

Anyone who thinks 90's Spider-Man is better than Spectacular is blinded by nostalgia. This is fact.

Damn I really am going to need to check this series out. I have watched episodes but I have seen a few clips and I prefer the traditional marvel design of the 90's over the spectacular spiderman drawing design. I am not saying it bad, it doesn't even bother me. I just enjoy the 90's design better.

Ign said that spectacular is based on the Ultimate comic run, how true is that?

Sure the designs take some getting used to, but the character and story are awesome. I really ought to get the full series on blu ray...I have the 1st season on DVD...is season 2 even in a set on DVD?

wait I thought their was 1 (26) episode season or is it two season of (13) episodes or are there more episodes???

The 90s Spidey cartoon is pretty cool and had it's own 'spin' (hur hur) on many classic stories. I remember soiling myself when Green Goblin took MJ to that bridge. It was a crazy mix of the infamous Gwen Stacy story and SLIDERS, but it was riveting television, and had some real far-reaching consequences.

It had it's share of stupidity though. I don't know what it is about 90s superhero shows, but they loved marrying their heroes off to clones back then (Lois in Lois and Clark, MJ in this cartoon), Peter's wedding story in this series was also significantly more action-packed than the real versions were

I also loved how they utlized the villains, bringing them altogether under the constant employ of The Kingpin etc, and Kraven being an on/off ally was refreshing too

Also, Electro: Son of The Red Skull and capable of single-handidly destroying SHIELD. So stupendously implausible it's awesome.

That said, it's pretty dated now, minimal violence and some of the largest ham voice acting you'll ever hear. Spectacular is much better.

MTV Spider-Man and Spider-Man Unlimited are poor, but had awesome theme songs.

There were two seasons of thirteen episodes. There were plans for a five year plan covering all of Peter's high school years and then direct-to-dvd movies based off his adult life, but the whole Sony/Marvel rights issues f*cked it up and led to the cancelation of the show.

There's also a play which crossed the show over at Gargoyles that the casts of both shows performed at conventions. It's not canonical but I like to think it is.

Hey man, season 2 is spread over 4 DVDs. They never released it as an individual season set, but the DVDs are cheap enough to invest in. I did once the last set of 3 was released in 09. So you'll have a 2 disc season 1 set plus s2 on 4 discs. The discs are each devoted to the separate arcs throughout season 2 which is kinda cool, but I suppose they'll probably never get around to releasing a complete DVD set. Okay by me. The episodes are all available on DVD, which is more than I can say for the 94 show.

Yeah Duckie, I loved the Neogenic Nightmare arc too. I was glued to the TV every Saturday morning and used to have the entire 94 animated series on very high quality VHS tapes. They really need to get around to releasing all of these on disc. I'd at least like to see these available again on Netflix.

I call shenanigans! No way in hell is Ultimate better then Amazing Friends I don't care how new the animation is its not that good. The rest of the list is pretty spot on Spectacular is the best series to date probably the best marvel cartoon ever created at least if it was aloud more seasons it would have been. I love the 90's show its also great and did some pretty creative things I mean they took one of the lamest villains The Spot gave him a pretty tragic story and made his powers and technology an on going plot point in the show. Got to hand it to them that's pretty creative. Also I love the scene with him meeting Stan Lee in the final episode.

Yeah I'd have to agree with others here that Spider-Man: The Animated Series is my number one too. It was the version that really got me into Spider-Man so it is very important to me in Spider-Man lore. All the great voice casting and character stories were all spot on to me. I just wish to heck that they would release the entire series on DVD or Blu-Ray!!!:tmad:

The 90s series (hell, every Spider-Man animated series) is out on DVD in european regions.

Agree with their choice. Although i haven't seen most of those.

I'm still really annoyed at them for cancelling Spectacular Spider-man.

Jeez, Z, you guys are lucky. I'd heard something about the entire 90's series being available in the UK. I was hoping for a complete set over here this Summer to coincide with Amazing Spider-Man II but no dice. Maybe one of these days...

How the heck is Ultimate Spider-Man rated that high? Seriously, that show is garbage.

But yeah, I do agree that Spectacular Spider-Man has to be the best Spidey cartoon by far. The 90's series is decent, but pretty overrated, imo.

We need a definitive show like Avengers was for well...the Avengers.

I also view X-men Evolution was the definitive X-men show.

I just wish they would do a good quality, long lasting spider-man show.
It seems like Spider-man and marvel in general gets the short end of the stick when it comes to cartoons.

I almost agree with this. I was always a hugh 90s spidy fanboy show and LOVED the fact the X-men crossed in to the show for a 2 part episode, but then I watched Spectacular Spider-man and that became my fav, It's so good, I love the way it takes a lot of material from the Stan Lee and Steve Ditko stories, and in the end I loved the simple animation style.

I would have put the 90s show in 2nd place however, and Ultimate spider-man in 3rd (avoids rotten tomatoes) I hated Ultimate Spidy to start with, but gave it another chance and for the most part enjoyed it.

This is very true. Spidey gets the short end of the stick on everything, in both reality and in the very comics. His story ought to be the easiest bloody thing to convey from begining to end, but unfortunatly it rarely manifests in a competant narrative because everyone involved in the creative process can't think past a certain point with the character, resulting in a jumbled and confusing strand of continuity problems. Marvel being locked in an internal civil war over their preferences for the characters doesnt help (newspaper strip writers prefer him married and keep him that way, the regular comic writers do not and do their own thing regardless of how lousy and shallow they make the characters look as a result).

The 90s series may be overrated and significantly dated now, but at least you got to see Peter grow up as it went along and cope with so many different things which helped build up his character and test his resolve, culminating in a fantastic pay-off where he saves all of reality and gets Stan Lee's blessing. If Spider-Girl is the definitive legacy and Spider-Man 2099 is the definitive future, then Spider-Wars was as close as you'll ever get to a definitive ending for the franchise. It's note perfect.

My favorite Spider-Man series is definitely TAS, it gets shat on a lot on the internet but most of the things are because it's a product of its time. The choppy animation but tolerable since the stories are good. The dialog can be bad but it's more than tolerable. The show just feels epic and the definitive Spiderman cartoon. Through it's seasons it told a story and upped the ante. and the finale was just great, people who whine about open endings are terrible, I'd rather have one like that than what TDKRises did. I didn't like their version of Electro and it's missing Sandman but other than that it gave us a "complete" version of the Spidey mythos. Loved the art style, peter being a college student and the fact that it was in continuity with all the other 90s Marvel shows.

Spectacular Spiderman is truly amazing and overall a better show but it can't be the definitive version since it only tells a small part of the spiderman mythos. I especially loved how the romance in the show, it was handled really well. The art style grows on you and it's a shame it got cancelled.

Spider-man Unlimited, has some pretty neat ideas but overall it's not a great show, it lacked better writing, it's vague continuity with TAS hurts it as well. They nailed the future setting though it was dark and interesting, the villians weren't as fun though, I think that hurt it a lot. I also liked the "comic book" style they went for, in fact it made me wish of a whole show based on that style of peters life before he went to the future.

MTV's Spider-Man is definitely a weird show, and not because of the art style, I personally loved the cel shading look it had. Even though it was tied to the more "realistic" movie which limited what they could do in the show in terms of realism it still gave us pretty great villains, The show was filled with sex references IIRC because of the channel it was on and it felt fine, they were definitely aiming for an older audience with the show and ironically the plots/writing was simpler than many TAS series episodes many episodes were just boring. It had great ideas though, I really liked the character Indira "Indy" Daimonji from the show, she was great and would've loved to have seen her in another incarnation of Spiderman and not forgotten. I think the show is good enough to be considered in continuity with the movies as it was meant to, while not an excellent show it had good ideas and it's not any worse than the movies.

I watched the new Spiderman show on Disney once and I normally try to give cartoons a chance, I don't dismiss them too quickly and thought the internet was probably overreacting, but after that one episode I had no intention to watch this or the other Disney shows which seemed similar to this one.

Spiderman and his Amazing friends, I've only watched a few episodes here and there and while it's decent for its era I don't understand all the praise it gets, it's a good for its time show at best. I don't see how the internet can praise this show and yet criticize the 90s show.

I smell a batman hater :lol:


Also I am pretty sure the show had the Sandman in it. I just recently re-watched it.

On average, DC's cartoons are better than Marvel's, so it doesn't surprise me there aren't many good Spiderman shows.

DC has Batman: TAS, Superman, Batman Beyond, Justice League/JLU, Teen Titans, Young Justice, Brave and the Bold, and others.

Superfriends, Teen Titans Go, The Batman, and Beware the Batman were the only ones not as good as the others. And The Batman at least had some real hidden gems.

Yeah, that is really disappointing to me, as well. It is my favorite of the Spidey cartoons that I've SEEN. (Which is IT, Amazing Friends, and some of Unlimited, basically.) My placing it on top though is not merely nostalgia, as I have watched episodes on you-tube over the last few years, and they still hold up as great Spidey stories. I also loved the crossing-over that occurred with X-Men, and how both series were based in the same continuity, even sometimes referencing each other. He even appeared (briefly) in the X-Men's own show during the Phoenix Saga! That's a testament to how careful and attentive the writers were on that show. Very few plot holes, stories tied into each other throughout the series, and villains and side characters all had their own problems and stories going on. It was rich in lore and history, which is more than I can say for some of the other shows.

Spectacular Spider-man And TAS were both great. I would have TAS slightly higher only because the ending was so damn perfect. Peter grew, developed, got the symbiote suit, lost it, got married, lost his wife, did the whole Secret Wars thing, saved the Universe and got MJ back (not having to make a stupid deal with Mephisto helps too). Spectacular Spider-man ended on a cliffhanger right? It OWNS in terms of animation though(Only watched half of the second season so I dunno.)
Unlimited sucks. The original Spider-man is hilarious, but in a charming sort of way.
Spider-man and Friends is actually really entertaining. And Ultimate Spider-man is meh. I like the designs and animation, but not much else.