I liked the MTV one so I have to ask what was wrong with it? I'm not challlenging you or anything I would just like to know. At the very least we can agree its better than Ultimate right? By the way is any one else kinda upset that this show has NOTHING to do with the Ultimate Spider Man comics? I would have loved it if that was the case.
S'okay, I don't consider it a "challenge" to be asked to define an opinion.
Keeping in mind that most criticisms are subjective, I had three major issues with the "MTV SPIDER-MAN". The first was that with a few exceptions, the villains were mostly made-up creations who were often generic and seemed to exist to provide a guest voice role, often with musical themes (such as Eve as Talon). The second was that due to MTV's insistence on "no old people", J.J. was limited to a minor cameo and Aunt May was nowhere to be had. The third was that because the villains mostly died at the end of every episode, the tone of the show was overly grim and didn't allow for many re-occurring villains. The only one who did re-occur was Electro, who was killed off in his second appearance.
The causes of these issues were due to two major wrinkles; the bizarre demands MTV made on the show, and a drastic change in the production scheme. When development began on the show in 2001-2002, the idea was to theme it around the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN comic which at the time was very fresh; writer Brian M. Bendis was even involved. However, once "SPIDER-MAN" the film broke records and became a far bigger hit that even Sony anticipated, the production took a major u-turn to share loose continuity with the universe of the film. This included the fact that Norman Osborn couldn't appear, nor could Dr. Octopus (the planned villain of the sequel). This also meant that the plots had to heavily weave Peter and MJ together, but without actually going anywhere serious since that was presumed to happen in "SPIDER-MAN 2" in 2004. Thus, the character of Indy was created for Peter to date. While I personally didn't mind the fact that in the series he DID bed her, at the time I recall the Internet breaking in half over that.
Because the censorship standards on MTV were almost non-existent compared to most networks that feature cartoons, part of the reason why there was so much murder and/or death in the series was simply because they could. The problem is this gave the show a very dark tone, which isn't something everyone likes with Spider-Man. The series finale alone is among the most grim pieces of CGI animation since the ending to CONKER'S BAD FUR DAY on the N64.
While the animation from Mainframe was pretty good for the time, there were some repeat shots here and there; I personally counted one shot of Spider-Man swinging forward at the camera re-used at least a dozen times. That isn't to say the series was entirely bad; some of the casting was pretty good, especially Neil Patrick Harris as Spidey (at a time when he was hardly known for voice acting roles). While only a few Spider-Man villains actually appeared, I thought this show had the coolest adaptation of Kraven The Hunter that's ever been put to animation. I am aware of the irony that this was the last time the Kingpin has appeared in a Spider-Man cartoon, even though it was the version from Fox's "DAREDEVIL" film (with Michael Clarke Duncan reprising the role). Some of the fight scenes were pretty good, especially as this was the first animated Spidey who was really allowed to hit anyone on screen; the shame of it was that it was against often forgettable villains like Turbo-Jet or Pterodax. While it did have a consistent tone, far too many of Spider-Man's battles ended with the villains dying, which is not usually how he operates.
That said, the bit in "MIND GAMES" where you essentially have Stan Lee attempting to convince one of his greatest creations to murder someone for revenge is probably the most disturbing thing he's ever done in all of his Marvel cameo work.
Still, the MTV show isn't one I usually look fondly on. I've seen worse and it has its moments but overall I found it to be a bit of a mediocre effort constrained by a network that barely even wanted it (even after the show provided MTV with then historic ratings). While "USM" is far from a great show, it at least has actual Marvel villains, solid 2D animation (which I prefer) and Iron Fist. To me a debate over which is better is a little fruitless as I consider both efforts to hardly be Spidey's finest hour on TV.
