Spider-Man: Ranking the 8 best TV and film iterations of Peter Parker

4. The 1994 animated series

This was the first Spider-Man cartoon for a new generation. While Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends came out over a decade prior, this was the one that made the character popular outside of comic books. Even the adults enjoyed it. It also helps that the show was riding the momentum of Fox’s widely populer X-Men cartoon (one thing Fox got right with the X-Men). Like a lot of the Spider-Man cartoons, this was a semi-shortly lived cartoon only lasting five seasons and going 65 episodes. But even in that short amount of time, they covered a lot of ground without anything feeling rushed.

We got characters like Kingpin (who was perfect), Carnage, Venom, and even the Punisher. All of this and Spider-Man wasn’t allowed to punch people during the cartoon. Showing that the show didn’t need to rely on violence to be good. All it needed was a great character and phenomenal storytelling. After 20 plus years, the show holds up better than most cartoons its age. The theme song is still catchy (good luck getting that tune out of your head), the stories still hit home, and the jokes are still funny. There are some flaws like the things with Mary Jane towards the end but, overall, it’s still a terrific show.