When the original 60s animated Spider-Man series does not age well, that’s because the presentation is vastly outdated when compared to newer material. Interestingly, the latest take, Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, takes the best little bits from that series and mixes it up! I like the new score. Adding a touch of artistic nostalgia from the early comic books creates a winning formula and is part of this list.
It breaks in at number five. I’ll have a review of season one when that finally wraps up and I binge on it a few times. But until then, what I offer is my list of four favourite past series.
I have ranked these series in reverse order, culminating in my top number one favourite.
Spider-Man (2017–2020)
As part of a united, animated universe, this series had its charm by offering animated takes of story arcs published in this century than prior. It makes for a good way to get “caught up” in more recent lore without having to read the original takes. The highlight is the Goblin War story-arc; what makes this series good is that it looks at trying to balance the life of Peter Parker, scientific genius, rather than just a hero.
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981–1983)
This fond classic is simply about getting back to the basics and seeing how well this spider can work in teams. His amazing friends are Ice Man (who left the X-men) and Firestar. One reason why this series work as a sort of precursor to the 1994 series is that fans of Marvel Comics got to see the X-men make cameo appearances! Since both mutants were part of the team once upon a time, this series could peak into the Marvel animated universe at large. Captain America and Thor also made appearances!
The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008–2009)
When Greg Weisman is one of the two showrunners for this series, I have nothing but praise. Not only is the writing above par, but also it wasn’t regurgitating tropes like it meant nothing. It’s perhaps the most accurate of the takes since this producer respected the lore, and gave audiences characters that you want to see succeed.
Spider-Man (1994–1998)
This series ran alongside X-Men the Animated Series, and although there were not a lot of crossover episodes, what’s special about it is in how well it retold the story arcs from the comic book in a reimagined format.
It’s the only version where I believe Venom is at his worst and silly. Also, it was the first to introduce the Spider-verse, and I particularly love this version of Madame Web (movie review) over any other! It’s a shame the story arc considering finding Mary Jane never got finished. That’s because of the behind the scenes’ drama between studio executives, and the series got cancelled.
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