My friend recently informed me that the Spider-Man cartoon from the mid-90s was on Netflix. I grew up watching this Spider-Man, as part of the stable of ‘90s superhero cartoons along with X-Men, Batman and Superman. Spider-Man has actually had seven different animated incarnations, from the first in 1967, to the MTV series in 2003 starring Neil Patrick Harris and Lisa Loeb, which attempted to be a little more adult, to, most recently a kids series in 2008. This ‘90s Spider-Man, which ran from 1994 to 1998, longer than any other Spider-Man series, was, more than any other source, where I got everything I knew about Spider-Man. I was so disappointed in the 2002 movie largely because it was so different from the cartoon which I loved. Having not seen any episodes in at least ten years, I decided to watch the first episode of the series to see how it held up.
First things first, in this edition, Spider-Man (and of course his alter ego Peter Parker) is voiced by Christopher Daniel Barnes, whose best claim to fame outside of Spider-Man is playing Greg Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie. Other notables include Ed Asner as J. Jonah Jameson and Hank Azaria as Eddie Brock/Venom.
The theme song is pretty unmemorable, especially compared to the contemporaneous X-Men cartoon’s theme, which I’ve had stuck in my head at least once a year for the past fifteen years. I did appreciate, though, the appearance of the episode title at the beginning, a tradition which virtually doesn’t exist anymore.
Something else I appreciate greatly is the lack of origin story. This is actually very difficult to believe for me. Spider-Man’s origin story is so entwined with his character, probably more than any other prominent superhero (bit by a radioactive spider and so forth). Yet, this series either takes on faith that you already know it, or decides that it’s really not that important. I love it. Maybe I wouldn’t agree back then, but the origin story has been done too many times, film included, and is so rote, and frankly not all that interesting. I say get on with him being Spider-Man.
Another thing I love about this portrayal of Spider-Man which was probably the single biggest reason I couldn’t stand the movie was that in this version Spider-Man is wise-cracking and self-assured, constantly entertaining us with his inner monologue. I understand this isn’t necessarily the most canonical version, but I like to think that, as Spider-Man’s in college by this point, he got over all his self-pitying identity issues and guilt over the death of Uncle Ben in high school. Tobey Maguire’s emo Spider-Man was the antithesis of the cartoon’s version, and I just couldn’t get over it.
The cartoon is clearly aimed at kids, and it doesn’t have the darkness, ambition or animation quality of Batman: The Animated Series, which is probably the go-to for great cartoon comic adaptations. That said, I was hardly dying of boredom either; the show was simple but still relatively entertaining. I’m not sure I’ll start marathoning the series, but I might watch a few more of my favorite episodes.
The first episode is self-contained and features as a villain the Lizard, whose origin story is vaguely similar to fellow Spider-Man villain Dr. Octopus. The Lizard was a great scientist, Curt Connors, who wanted to use reptile DNA to grow back people’s limbs, and when he tries it on himself, the reptile DNA takes over, turning him into a lizard-man hybrid. The machine he used was called the “neogenetic recombinator,” a clumsy phrase which they manage to work into the episode at least half a dozen times. The Lizard then invents a device which can turn other people into lizard creatures, and tries to turn it first onto his wife. Spider-Man intervenes and for some reason, by the two-negatives-equal-a-positive school of thinking, turns the device onto the Lizard himself, turning him back human and leading all to be well.
Quick final note: it was also interesting to me that Spider-Man referenced fellow Marvel superheroes in the episode, at one point name-checking The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Hulk.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the way the series held up.
Television, the Drug of the Nation 
Also CGI web slinging when it was just starting out.
Joe Perry played guitar on that theme song, which is notable. For some youngsters, it was their first introduction to Aerosmith.
Excellent show.