The End

The End

When I first started this blog, I gave a list of Spider-Man shows that I was planning to watch, and said that I wanted to work my way through all of them. Well, I've now done that, and you know what? I'm done. This has been a fun project, but it's also gradually become something of a time sink. I've achieved what I've set out to do, and I feel satisfied that I've now caught up on every current Spider-Man cartoon. While it's true that there's the upcoming Spider-Man: Freshman Year for Disney+, it's not coming out for ages. Maybe I'll change my mind by then and end up covering each episode here as they come out, but I doubt it - it's much more likely that I'll just wait for the entire season to come out then watch it all over the course of a few days.

There are a few other series I could have covered, but I ultimately didn't consider them to be within the scope of this series, and with one exception, I'm not really curious about seeing any of them, as I was with the numerous cartoon episodes I've watched over the years. Going through them:

• Spidey and His Amazing Friends: This show has a younger demographic than any show I've covered here. While I've covered plenty of stuff here out of my demographic, the implication was that it always aspired to appeal to all ages, at least. I can't judge a show like Spidey and His Amazing Friends fairly because what denotes a good episode is so far out of my wheelhouse, it wouldn't be fair.
• The Amazing Spider-Man (1977): The scope of this blog has always been aimed at cartoons, and I don't have high hopes for the execution of this show. While I think it's probably got some fun stuff and would tap into the zeitgeist of the late 70s well, I don't care about it enough to write up a post for each episode.
• Spider-Man Japan: Everyone loves Spider-Man Japan and Leopardon, that's true, but the general vibe I get from it is that it's nothing like Spider-Man at all. See also my comments above about this blog always aiming at covering cartoons, too.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Well, it's animated, but it's also a movie. I'm not sure how I would cover it, unless I split it up into multiple posts covering around twenty minutes each? Nah, I'm good. Anyway, what do you need to hear my opinion on Into the Spider-Verse for? You should already know how damn good it is.

I've had fun doing this blog, and I hope you've had fun reading it, too. If you've enjoyed reading my rambling, incoherent thoughts, then I'd encourage you to check me out at Too Many Teeth, my game development site where I occasionally post blogs musing on video games. I'm also working on a visual novel at the moment, so if horror's your jam, please come and check that out!

Of course, even with this being my final post, I can't just leave it like this - I will, naturally, finish things off with one, final top ten list. Thank you for reading.

The Spider-Man Cartoons, Ranked

1. The Spectacular Spider-Man: Really, how could anything but Spectacular Spider-Man be rated the best show? It does a fantastic job of knowing when to reinvent ideas and when to leave them be, when to homage a story and when to change things around a bit. It's absolutely perfect, and the fact that it'll never get a third season is a crime.
   
2. Spider-Man: The Animated Series: While it's a bit dated in some parts, and has some cheesy moments from time to time, this series does a really good job of capturing the essential Spider-Man essence and translating it to television. The Marvel Universe is worked in well, and a lot of its stories are original to the show and written well. It's also the only series where Peter actually marries Mary Jane, which really needs to be done again some time.
   
3. Marvel's Spider-Man: Marvel's Spider-Man tweaks enough things that it doesn't feel like the most accurate Spider-Man show, but it does so well enough that things don't often feel wrong. It lingers a bit much on some concepts - notably, symbiotes in the third season - but generally manages to be inoffensive and entertaining enough.
   
4. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: It's got more than a few goofy moments - I keep thinking of the episode where Iceman is punched into an open oven, which takes him out - but manages to produce some good moments here and there, like Peter's distress when his alien girlfriend has to leave him, or when Iceman has to interview himself for school.
   
5. Spider-Man (1967) - Season 1: The first season of the 1967 Spider-Man show does get pretty silly, but a lot of the time if you can't admire them for trying, you can at least laugh at what the outcome is. It also does some pretty solid adaptations of the comics, which help raise the average quality a bit.
   
6. Spider-Man (1981): The 1981 Spider-Man series doesn't quite seem to know what to do with itself, as its biggest claim to fame is attempting an ongoing arc involving Doctor Doom. Still, it tries admirably enough, and has a few cool moments - when it isn't having Aunt May try to kill Spider-Man, that is.
   
7. Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Spider-Man eventually does pick up a bit, but so much of its humour is bad, and so many of its characters are unlikeable jerks that watching a lot of it is just painful. At least with some of the older shows I didn't get my hopes up too much - this should had the potential to be good from the start.
   
8. Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: I'm not inherently opposed to some of the ideas here, like basing it off the first Sam Raimi movie or animating the entire show with 3D animation, but it takes itself so seriously a lot of the time, and is so keen to have a grounded tone, that the show never really hits its potential.
   
9. Spider-Man Unlimited: Spider-Man Unlimited is at its best when it's focusing on its original, cyberpunk-y premise, and not trying and failing to be a Spider-Man show. But if the show is better without Spider-Man, then how could it be a good Spider-Man show? Keep your shitty Green Goblin mystery to yourself, pal.
   
10. Spider-Man (1967) - Seasons 2 and 3: Look, I respect the creators for trying to keep the Spider-Man action going by splicing together things from other cartoons, but the end result is frequently a psychedelic mess that pads itself out with looped animations and a nonsensical plot. Very, very few episodes here are worth watching, and the ones that are tend to be worth watching to laugh at.