Spider-Man ’94 Comic Reminds Us the ’90s Were the Peak of Superhero Cartoons

As the world’s foremost wallcrawler, Spider-Man has been known to hang off of things for a while. But 27 years is pushing it, even for him. Yet that’s how long Spidey’s been waiting for a resolution to the cliffhanger that closed out Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the popular cartoon show that ran from 1994 to 1998 on the Fox Network.

The series ended in ’98 with Spider-Man following Madame Web’s instructions to find his wife Mary Jane, who had been lost in the multiverse after being replaced by a clone in his own timeline. We never see the two of them actually reunited, an error that Marvel Comics will finally rectify with the release of the upcoming four-issue miniseries Spider-Man ’94, from legendary writer J.M. DeMatteis (Kraven’s Last Hunt) and artist Jim Towe.

Spider-Man ’94 is just the latest cartoon series of the era to get a nod in recent years. Recently Nicholas Hoult credited Clancy Brown‘s performance in Superman: The Animated Series as an inspiration for his take on Lex Luthor, and a new Captain Planet and the Planeteers comic book released this year from Dynamite Entertainment. There is also the sensation that is Disney+’s X-Men ’97 (which we should note also only got a greenlight after Marvel Comics dipped its toe into nostalgia via the X-Men ’92 miniseries in 2015). In other words, it’s becoming kind of obvious that the ’90s nailed superheroes.

So as we wait for Spider-Man ’94 to finally get Spidey off that cliff, let’s look at some of the best cartoon series of the era and what they did so well.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996)

Yes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted in the late ’80s, but the series hit its peak in 1990 and set the stage for the superhero boom to come. After all, the Turtles made their debut not in cartoons, but in the pages of comics independently produced by creators Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman—comics that began as a parody of Frank Miller‘s Daredevil.

For those of us who were kids during the Turtles’ initial boom, the original comics were the stuff of legend: black and white and apparently edgy, they were a forbidden fruit that we all wanted to seek out but were afraid of what we’d find. Looking back, however, it’s remarkable to see how much of the goofy Turtles lore comes directly from those first comics, including the alien Utroms (represented in the cartoon by Krang) and the psycho vigilante Casey Jones.

Whatever one feels about that revelation, the fact that the Ninja Turtles got fans to seek out indie comics is still remarkable. That impulse did lead to a glut of cartoon shows based on indie comics, some great (The Tick) and some less so (Wild C.A.T.S.), but it reminded people that superheroes can thrive outside of the Marvel and DC Universes, a lesson still relevant today.

Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may have kicked off the animated superhero boom, but the movement was perfected by Batman: The Animated Series. Created by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, Batman: TAS moved the genre forward by looking backward. Set in an indistinct time period and only tangentially related to the Tim Burton movies, Batman: TAS worked because of Timm’s barrel-chested designs and superb scripts by writers like Paul Dini. Together they distilled the classic tropes and sagas from previous decades of comics into something that made the hero timeless.

Most episodes of Batman: TAS told standalone tales, not unlike those you would find in an individual issue of Batman or Detective Comics in the Golden Age or the Bronze Age. Some sort of baddie—whether it be a costumed freak like Joker or Scarecrow, or a thug like Rupert Thorne—would threaten Gotham, and Batman would use all the tools at his disposal to stop them.

Simple as that premise was, Batman: TAS also found efficient, and even definitive, ways of uncovering pathos in these archetypes. Mr. Freeze went from a joke to a tragic figure, the Joker never felt so menacing (without veering into gritty ugliness), and Poison Ivy made her first steps toward becoming the antihero we know today—including by, ahem, partnering up with a TAS original creation, Harley Quinn.

Batman: The Animated Series launched a host of spinoffs, including the aforementioned Superman, the future-set sequel Batman Beyond, and Justice League. The legacy continues today, not only in Timm’s spiritual successor Batman: Caped Crusader, but also in every adaptation that tries to tell solid superhero stories for a general audience.

X-Men: The Animated Series (1992-1997)

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. Yes, X-Men ’97 technically resolved the Spider-Man: The Animated Series cliffhanger in the season one finale where we see a glimpse of Mary Jane standing next to Spidey, suggesting that the two did reunite and make their way home.

That out of the way, let’s talk about what X-Men: The Animated Series did really well: it brought the comics to the masses. While Batman: The Animated Series deserves praise for its economic storytelling, that approach had largely been abandoned in its source material. By the early 1990s, superhero comics were often convoluted, soap operatic stories with complicated interpersonal relationships. No one did these types of stories better than Chris Claremont, who started writing the X-Men in 1975, transforming the team from Marvel c-listers into the biggest heroes on the newsstand by 1992.

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, X-Men: TAS followed the leader, adapting Claremont’s stories and using the recent visual redesigns of superstar artist Jim Lee. Somehow it worked, bringing bonkers tales like the Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutants to the small screen. It hooked a whole new era of fans. Of course the most pronounced successor to X-Men: The Animated Series is the Disney+ series X-Men ’97, which continues the storylines of the original show and heightens the political messaging. But X-Men: TAS also proved to executives that comic-accurate material wasn’t anathema to general audiences, opening the door for our current entertainment landscape, in which Disney produces billion-dollar adaptations of The Infinity Gauntlet and Secret Wars.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994–1998)

Obviously, Spider-Man: The Animated Series owes a major debt to X-Men: The Animated Series. Like his merry mutant cousins, Spider-Man got to recreate his overstuffed comic book adventures on the small screen. However, even more than X-Men, Spider-Man: The Animated Series streamlined the comic book stories in a way that set the stage for future adaptations.

For evidence, take a look at the way the cartoon handled Venom. In the comics, Spider-Man got his black suit while off-planet in Secret Wars. For a while, Peter wore his black suit as his new costume, but eventually returned to his blue and red togs when he grew uncomfortable with having a symbiote. In 1988, four years after the black suit debuted, new character Eddie Brock wore the costume and became Venom.

While the slower pace helps build up the relationship between Spidey and Venom, cartoon viewers can’t wait four years for a fan-favorite baddie to exist. So in the cartoon, the symbiote attaches itself to a meteor brought to earth by astronaut John Jameson, which then jumps to Spidey and eventually Eddie Brock. The whole thing gets told in three episodes, without sacrificing any of the other-worldliness central to Venom. It also introduced the idea of the symbiote corrupting Peter Parker’s persona, and making him turn toward “dark Spider-Man.” These are all elements that have been incorporated to some capacity in every future adaptation of the Venom character, on the small screen and the big.

Examples such as those showed the creators of modern superhero movies and shows that you could get weird with the characters—as long as you were efficient. It was a benchmark for Spider-Man: TAS, the first major adaptation of the comics to capture the soap operatic appeal of the character and his “days of lives” romances as a twentysomething in NYC—a core aspect of the character that arguably no film has balanced quite so well.

Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000)

On first glance, it would be easy to say Superman: The Animated Series is to Batman what Spider-Man: The Animated Series is to X-Men. That is, a solid cartoon series that doesn’t quite rival the original. However, Superman: TAS also showed something important about creating Superman and Batman stories, something that certain people (coughZackSnyderwithManofSteelcough) forgot: Superman isn’t Batman and his stories need to be handled differently.

Whereas Batman: TAS painted Gotham City in the dark tones of film noir, Superman: TAS draws from the optimism of old World’s Fair celebrations and 1950s sci-fi to make Metropolis feel like its set in some undefined future. There’s certainly a quaintness to the proceedings, what with its cackling businessman Luthor and robo-men like Metallo. But that quaintness never feels outdated.

Moreover, Superman: TAS showed how to tell compelling Superman stories on a regular basis without making the hero feel less super. Yes, this version of Superman was a little more vulnerable than his comic book counterpart, but he always fought for the powerless and did the right thing… which sure sounds a lot like the version of Superman we’re going to see on the big screen this summer.

Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006)

Again, we’re cheating a bit here, since Justice League Unlimited ran in the mid-2000s. But it is an offshoot of three major shows from the 1990s—Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Batman Beyond—and has much more in common with them than it does other 2000s shows, such as Teen Titans or X-Men: Evolution.

Justice League Unlimited is the second incarnation of a Justice League cartoon based on the Batman: TAS universe. Where the first incarnation focused largely on “the Big Seven”—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, Flash, and Hawkgirl—Unlimited expanded things, hence the name. The Big Seven remained going concerns, but the stories also featured deep dives such as Hawk and Dove, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Like X-Men: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited did dabble in long-form serialized storytelling, with its majestic Cadmus arc and a fun, if less impressive, Legion of Doom arc. However, it taught viewers another lesson about comic books, which is that even goofy characters like Warlord and Vigilante can be compelling. Without Justice League Unlimited, we obviously would not have the current DC Comics ongoing Justice League Unlimited (written by Mark Waid and penciled by Dan Mora), nor might James Gunn be able to bring his lovable oddballs to the screen like Peacemaker and Metamorpho.

Fantastic Four (1994–1996)

Okay, the Fantastic Four cartoon isn’t that memorable. It’s a serviceable cartoon, but the choppy animation style and rote storytelling falls far short of the vibrant imagination of the Jack Kirby and Stan Lee comics that inspired it. Somehow, the weird anime-inspired series Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes stands out better, even if it isn’t very good.

But do you know what is memorable? The show’s theme song, which you will now watch and have lodged in your head with every bit of promotion for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. You’re welcome.