I don’t think I’ve seen enough of the older Spider-Man adaptations to form a serious opinion of them. My memories from those come from re-runs on Jetix…to which I was already reaching adulthood so I don’t have as fond of memories as I do of things like Adam West’s Batman. I will say that they are pretty much products of their time as it seemed all super hero stuff had similar tones back in the day (as in I could see an episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and fit it together with something like The New Adventures of Batman) However, I think that has to do more with my age than anything…as I’m sure people would think the super hero cartoons of my childhood (90’s) would feel samey… So I’ll only be ranking stuff that I have seen enough of it to form an opinion of it. I didn’t really catch the MTV show as well, (I was probably too young to be watching it when it initially came on) so I won’t include that either.
GREAT:
1 Spectacular Spider-Man
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Good:
4. Spider-Man the Animated Series
5. Spider-Man (2001)
Meh:
6. Spider-Man: Far From Home
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Amazing Spider-Man
9. Spider-Man (2017)
Bad:
10. Spider-Man 3
11. Spider-Man Unlimited
12. Ultimate Spider-Man
Reasoning:
1. Spectacular Spider-Man -The fact that I'm still bitter that this show being cancelled for as many years it has been is saying something. This had to be one of the only superhero media outside of comics where I genuinely cared about a lot of the supporting cast members. The fact that I wanted to see more of the life of characters like freaking LIZ ALLAN of all people just goes to show how good this series was...I think this show ruined Spider-Man in media for me as I think it satiated my expectations for an adaptation of Spider-Man. I always find myself unconsciously comparing almost every piece of Spidey related media (movies/cartoons) to it after it ended. Also we were THIS close to getting the Hobgoblin story done correctly...THIS CLOSE.
2. Spider-Man 2 - This was quite the solid superhero flick. Despite some issues with evil AI rather than Doc being responsible for his actions Molina KILLED it. The train scene in this film is quite iconic and seems to be the live action equivalent to Spider-Man being trapped under rubble after fighting the Master Planner in comics. Say what you want about the Raimi films, but you have to admit that this film was one of the best incarnations of Spider-Man in live action.
3. Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse - This is something that actually made me care for Miles Morales, which is a feat into itself as I never seem to care about replacement characters all that much. I'd say them focusing on Miles being more artistic than scientific made quite the difference and made him more than a "discount Peter"...or we can even say discount Hobie. Peter was also great in this as despite not being the central character, he had an arc and I kind of want to see more of him. At first I was skeptical of this one as it seemed to do ANOTHER take on Spider-Man being pathetic and needing help from elsewhere (this time by his replacement who is at LEAST a decade younger than him), it was a pleasant surprise.
4. Spider-Man the Animated Series (94) - I'm not sure if it is my nostalgia talking (as this series was what was on when I was a kid), but despite not aging as well as Batman the Animated Series, or even the X-Men cartoon that was also on during the same time period I've always had a soft spot for this show. Roscoe Lee Browne's Kingpin had the perfect amount of refinery and menace, and Chris Barnes is quite iconic as an adult Spider-Man. This show even managed to put a trait on the Symbiote that has pretty much turned into "common knowledge" despite it not being there prior to this cartoon (I think they did so because they needed SOME REASON for Peter to have the need to get rid of the Symbiote). Which is quite the feat for an animated series to have some sort of reflection on comic books and other media after the fact. I’d also wager that unlike Batman the Animated Series, this show was one of the first in my memory doing things in a serial way rather than episodic. That said that could have been a detriment too, as sometimes things lasted TOO long (I hated the Neogenic Nightmare arc as a kid and still hate it as an adult)
5. Spider-Man (2001) I'm a sucker for the hammy supervillains, and Dafoe's Goblin nailed it. Despite problems with trying to be realistic with Gobby's costume (the mask alone defeated THAT purpose), I believe this was one of the movies that made people take comic book movies seriously in the modern era. The origin of Spider-Man was wonderfully told, and establishing some of his supporting cast (JJJ) was done so well. Perhaps it was done too well, as the movies afterward go out of their way to be different from 2001's Spider-Man that they either botch things in a way (Amazing with the origin) or go out of their way to ignore it (MCU with the origin, Amazing with JJJ).
I’m just going to group the meh explanations together as well.. They are just there… I’ll be nice enough to separate the animation from the live action though.
When it comes to live action, I'd give a Meh mention to both the Amazing Spider-Man and the MCU Spidey solo outings (Homecoming and Far From Home). Methinks I'm not as much of a fan of the character as most, as the most recent movies are like Spider-Man's equivalent to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight to some, where as to me it’s NOT EVEN CLOSE. While Far From Home is better than Homecoming, a lot of my qualms that I had with the Homecoming were still there. I’m not a fan of the supporting cast, and find them unmemorable if not annoying. Also of course there is the fact that the films feel like they NEED the MCU backstory to connect everything, rather than being good standalone stories that can use the greater MCU as a compliment (like Black Panther). With Amazing I just think it was unmemorable in general, and I haven’t even seen its sequel. I honestly don’t remember too much what happened in it. I’ve seen the movie in theatres and remember only some details about the Lizard and George Stacy’s death, it is a movie where it’s like, “Oh yeah, this exists” to the point I can’t even nitpick it as much as I could the MCU because I simply don’t care about it as much. However I think that I liked the live action outings better than the animated outings nowadays.
Another Meh mention goes to the most recent animated series; as while it isn't offensive, it doesn't wow me at all to the point I forget that it's still going on. I suppose the fact I'm not in the more recent Spider-Man animated adaptations primary demographic could be why I'm so indifferent toward it... But heck, I was an adult when Spectacular was on the air, and I even liked Batman the Brave and the Bold, Green Lantern the Animated Series, Wolverine and the X-Men, Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and Beware the Batman (also cartoons that came out well into my adulthood). I suppose animation has steered more toward comedy lately, which wouldn't be so bad if it was more clever and subtle and not forced and on the nose. When I watch superhero animation nowadays I find myself thinking “I am DEFINITELY not in this shows demographic”…which is…odd as I’ve always loved animation…was it like this with superhero cartoons that came out when I was a kid (90’s)? Can anyone older verify if your views were similar if you happened to catch those shows in their initial runs?
I think my major problem with more recent adaptations of Spider-Man is they play up his youth and incompetence to a ridiculous degree. Spectacular Spider-Man and everything prior Peter was quite competent in super heroics, and the mistakes seemed to be more in his personal life rather than learning to be a super hero (as in everyone could guess he’s a child in costume right off the back rather than assume he’s older than he is)… perhaps it’s because he was an adult in most of the adaptions rather than a teenager.
That said…I don’t think I’m going to go into the bad ones as deeply.
Spider-Man 3 - eh yeah. I think corporate meddling definitely hurt this one (forcing Venom into it). However, I had to say that Venom wasn’t even my main problem with it. My main problem is that they somehow found a way to be accurate to all of comic-dom and RETCON something. doing something like that makes even LESS sense in live action than it does in comics (as at LEAST you can say conflicting ideas of other creators and stuff causes it in comics).
Spider-Man Unlimited -…was this even supposed to be a Spider-Man cartoon? Or was he just kind of slapped on it? The ONLY reason this is above Ultimate is that it attempted to take itself seriously.
Ultimate Spider-Man – This series was WAY too goofy for me. While I hear that it got better in later seasons ala The Batman, I didn’t stick around long enough for it. I think that too many of the characters were unlikable for my taste. I do feel that it may be unfair to this show that it came directly after Spectacular (much like The Batman was the first after BTAS, and was unlucky to run alongside the DCAU), but the cutaways and 4th wall shenanigans didn’t help things for me… Maybe it felt more like a lighthearted Deadpool rather than Spidey? I don’t know. I was trying to be optimistic about the cartoon as details for it came out (thinking it was going to be Spider-Man’s answer to Batman The Brave and the Bold, using the title character to introduce lesser known Marvel heroes), but sadly it didn’t deliver. This was the first of the Marvel animated series to make me think “I’m too old for this”.
