Your introduction to superheroes?

[sdp]

I think everyone bases their superheroes based on the version they grew up on for the most part. Definitely think that is true for me. do you remember how you saw most of the iconic heroes for the first time? I obviously 'knew' of their existence before but these were the first time I truly watched them, being a 90s kid most of my list is obvious.


Batman BTAS, and it completely shaped who these characters were for me. I remember watching Superfriends and even the other 70s batman cartoon but that was after I had already watched episodes BTAS and I hated it since I kenw that was not how batman was supposed to act. Putting this one first since I think it might've been my first superhero cartoon.

Superman Superfriends and later some of those filmation superman cartoons. Because of this I feel I like silver age superman more since the whole he can do anything he wants was just what I expected. I do remember loving the Flesicher shorts but I watched those later, same with Superman TAS which I watched a bit later, it wasn't my introduction so while I prefer those 2, I just like the whole superman that can have any power he wants per episode take.

Spider-Man The 90s cartoon of course and man did this show get hated on in the 2000s in online forums, I know it's liked now but it wasn't always the case animation fans trashed this cartoon so hard for so many years online. But to me it gave me a quick rundown of who spider-man was and college aged bpeter parker is just spider-man to me.

X-Men Didn't watch X-Men until the mid 90s in re-runs but that show became of who the X-Men were to me as well, loved it and x-men without the 90s x-treme designs and attitude just doesn't feel like X-Men to me unlike other heroes that I can take other decade designs on them, not for x-men.

Spawn We all knew Spawn as kids but it wasn't until the movie came out and I saw it that I finally really saw who he was and I love that movie, I know it gets hated on but to me it still feels like a decent origin story. Crazy to me there was no kid friendly Spawn cartoon to cash-in in the 90s. I know the HBO cartoon but that was only 3 seasons and while amazing it was likely a mistake not to have saturday morning cartoon.


I think those are all the major ones but yeah all the other marvel heroes cartoons from the 90s were also my introduction to them, and later Justice League to the other DC heroes. Only exception would be flash since I saw that TV Movie live action version.

[Coola Yagami]

I would have to say the Batman Adam West show.

Superheroes were always everywhere, in subtle ways. I remember some cartoons had Spider-Man on the logo, there was superhero underwear, halloween costumes, and whatnot.

The Batman Keaton movie got me curious enough to finally buy the Batman comics (Batman and Detective). I eventually got into Spider-Man, West Coast Avengers, Wolverine and Avengers Spotlight comics.

Then of course we started getting stuff like Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Spider-Man, all the movies started coming out, etc etc etc.

[CyberCubed]

For Batman it was probably the 1989 movie, B:TAS didn't come out till 1992 so I'm pretty sure I saw the movie before that. I mean I was only 4 years old in 1989 so I can't remember when I saw it the first time, but my father had it on VHS so who knows. I also saw the old Adam West Batman on TV in reruns back then, probably sometime after B:TAS.

Superman, the same, saw the first two movies on VHS, then Superman:TAS came out so I watched a Superman show properly.

For Spider-man and X-men I never really watched the Fox shows when they aired, I obviously knew of them and their characters, but only saw a few episodes. Wasn't until the movies with X-men in 2000 and Spider-man 2002 with Tobey Maguire I watched them properly. Also X-men Evolution on KidsWB was the first X-men cartoon I followed from start to finish.

And all the others like the Avengers, or Wonder Woman, etc, I obviously knew of Captain America, Hulk, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc, but I never saw anything with them in it till they started appearing in cartoons, and later the MCU movies.

[Coola Yagami]

I remember the one time I went to drugstore that sold comics and decided to check out some of the Marvel heroes other than Spider-Man and Wolverine. I grabbed a Captain America comic, an Iron Man comic, a Thor comic, then one of the base Avengers (not West Coast or Spotlight) and realized that all three were on the same team, lol.

[CyberCubed]

It's weird to think that when we were born, superheroes had already been around in comics for like 50+ years. The oldest ones anyway, it really blows my mind. I know Spider-man started in the 60's but that was still a long time ago.

Imagine creating characters that would literally be around forever. Outside of stuff like Mickey Mouse, it's honestly mind blowing to think characters like Batman, Superman, Spider-man, etc, will probably be around until the end of time. Like kids in the year 2100 will know these superheroes and will be watching whatever movies or cartoons exist for them 100 years from now.

[IMJ]

My initial instinct is that it was some combination of the first Superman movie or the Batman '66 show, although I couldn't tell you which came into my life first. But then I dug a little deeper because the thread title itself made me really think about it and now i wonder if it was either the Super Friends cartoon (reruns), or even more likely it might have been Batman appearing on Scooby Doo.

I was born in '77 so you can imagine how all of those things could sort of coalesce as a possibility for someone of that era. All I know is that there was a deep intersection of a lot of those things because I had Spider-Man, Superman, Batman and "CHiPs" megos as a kid, which means I caught the tail-end of the Mego fad when I was really young.

My first comic book however was absolutely (and by tremendous luck) Superman Annual #11. I just saw it in a Jewel/Osco rack as a kid and my mom got it for me. Never in a million years would I have guessed that it was going to go on to be one of the most iconic Superman stories ever told. It was just something need to read at the time.

[Andrew NDB]

Just superheroes?

Prooobably Batman 89. And then I'd see Batman 60s episodes on TV and mostly groan. Then somewhere along the line my dad bought me the TPB of A Death in the Family where Jason Todd died. That somewhat piqued my interest. Then Knightfall reeled me in hard and I picked up stuff like Year One and Dark Knight Returns. And then Emerald Twilight happened and I got super into Green Lantern and bought everything, ever. Then Batman's storylines burned me out on Batman (nothing ever really changed and I felt jerked around) and I stopped that entirely. Then years later I'd resume all of Green Lantern including all Justice League comics ever and their spinoffs, all major events, annuals, etc..

[Allio]

I mean as a kid it would be a combination of Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. Granted I was also watching the other Saturday morning hero shows like Batman and Spider-man.

Obviously Power Rangers had led me to Japanese superheros like Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009 or the Tatsunoko heroes which I find them more interesting then western heroes. Though not saying u hate them, just where my interest more lies.

[TheUltimateBum]

For me, it was a combination between reruns of the 50's Superman TV show, 66 Batman, BTAS and a few Spider-Man shows (67, Spider-Friends and 94). Those were pretty much my gateway. The 50's Superman still remains my favorite superhero TV show and my favorite take on Superman and his supporting cast.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by sdp

I think everyone bases their superheroes based on the version they grew up on for the most part. Definitely think that is true for me. do you remember how you saw most of the iconic heroes for the first time? I obviously 'knew' of their existence before but these were the first time I truly watched them, being a 90s kid most of my list is obvious.


Batman BTAS, and it completely shaped who these characters were for me. I remember watching Superfriends and even the other 70s batman cartoon but that was after I had already watched episodes BTAS and I hated it since I kenw that was not how batman was supposed to act. Putting this one first since I think it might've been my first superhero cartoon.

Superman Superfriends and later some of those filmation superman cartoons. Because of this I feel I like silver age superman more since the whole he can do anything he wants was just what I expected. I do remember loving the Flesicher shorts but I watched those later, same with Superman TAS which I watched a bit later, it wasn't my introduction so while I prefer those 2, I just like the whole superman that can have any power he wants per episode take.

Spider-Man The 90s cartoon of course and man did this show get hated on in the 2000s in online forums, I know it's liked now but it wasn't always the case animation fans trashed this cartoon so hard for so many years online. But to me it gave me a quick rundown of who spider-man was and college aged bpeter parker is just spider-man to me.

X-Men Didn't watch X-Men until the mid 90s in re-runs but that show became of who the X-Men were to me as well, loved it and x-men without the 90s x-treme designs and attitude just doesn't feel like X-Men to me unlike other heroes that I can take other decade designs on them, not for x-men.

Spawn We all knew Spawn as kids but it wasn't until the movie came out and I saw it that I finally really saw who he was and I love that movie, I know it gets hated on but to me it still feels like a decent origin story. Crazy to me there was no kid friendly Spawn cartoon to cash-in in the 90s. I know the HBO cartoon but that was only 3 seasons and while amazing it was likely a mistake not to have saturday morning cartoon.


I think those are all the major ones but yeah all the other marvel heroes cartoons from the 90s were also my introduction to them, and later Justice League to the other DC heroes. Only exception would be flash since I saw that TV Movie live action version.

Pretty much same for me there. I remember being very young watching Batman: TAS and even then I understood I was watching some next level sh*t lol

Kind of off-topic, but worth a rant: I hate that DC decided to can Wally and Kyle Rayner in favor of Barry and Hal.

My highschool library was full of TPB's of 90's comic, for whatever reason. I started collecting TMNT very seriously in the late 00's, but wasn't keeping up with the monthly DC/Marvel stuff. I was however blowing through stuff like Waid's Flash and Marz's GL.

I respected Barry and Hal as the canon JLA founders or whatever, but to me they were long dead relics, especially since the Justice League cartoon used Wally and John. I also remember an old DCAU tie-in comic called Adventures in the DC Universe, and they used Kyle and Wally in that as well (it ended up being non-canon, but it was cool). Little did I know TPTB had already made up their minds that they would be regressing to the ancient status quo and bringing those two back. And then inexplicably trying to force Cyborg into the Justice League once New 52 started.

Anyway, as I was discovering what defined Flash and Green Lantern to me, little did I know DC was actively undoing it all lol. Which I guess I can thank Geoff Johns for all of that? Reading comics can be so frustrating.

[ZariusTwo]

With Batman it was the combination of Adam West reruns and the 1989 Batmania media blitz that got me into the caped crusader ahead of Batman: The Animated Series.

Spider-Mand his Amazing Friends and the 60s cartoon for Spidey, I was very much fully prepped for Spider-Man: The Animated Series by the time it aired. By that point, I was reading slews of Spidey comics.

With Superman it was Lester's version of Superman II (didn't see the original Donner movie until my 20s) and the Fleischer shorts.

[Andrew NDB]

To be clear, TMNT are NOT superheroes. So if your introduction to superheroes was through TMNT but you never actually became a fan of any superheroes afterward (Batman, Superman, Captain America, etc.) then the thread doesn't really apply to you.