Andrew Adams – Google

I don’t understand why this is seen as Marvel’s worst cartoon if it was adapting classic Avengers I’d get it but it’s not it’s adapting the 80s West Coast Avengers and in that way is faithful to the comics and having watched it I can say it’s not as awful as believed and I know I can’t be the only one if anyone likes this show and finds it faithful please say so ignore the internet you know it’s not terrible and that’s all that matters.

I think this was the most faithful to the source material until 2008 I mean FF had already had other cartoons of varying quality (Marvel Superheroes 1966 doesn’t count cause for all how faithful it was it still managed to be worse even the first season animation is a big step up to this) this is the first Iron Man cartoon to flesh out Iron Man as well as his friends and enemies and the first season doesn’t feel like it would at first but when it’s over season 1 is more mature than when it started and season 2 kicks it into high gear doing what was done at the end of season one adapting stories from the comics if anything my fondness for 90 Marvel cartoons outweighs my fondness for the ones that came out later if you give any of them a shot they’re as dumbed down as was thought.

I'll take this over Spectacular any day it may be a great show but it doesn't outdo 94 in any way for all the praise Spectacular gets on character growth and mature story arcs 94 already had that in spades same with likablity and relatiblity sorry but 94 MJ was more of a character than Spectacular MJ who may have the confidence but that's it in 94 she's a human as flawed but with as much inner strength as anyone else in the show and Liz for all her brief appearances is more of a character than Spectacular Liz. Don't get me wrong I like Spectacular but that doesn't mean 94 is a dumbed down aged poorly show with decent story arcs if you watch you'll know that's far from true and the praise Spectacular gets at 94's expense is just insulting bottom line there's nothing Spectacular did that 94 didn't already do and for all the censorship it is just as mature Batman TAS only subtle than blunt that's the difference.

Before I get critical let me say this Spectacular was a great show I didn't grow up with it but watched it when it aired and yeah it's great but it doesn't outdo 94 Spider-Man or the Raimi Trilogy that's my problem with the praise this show gets it's at other great Spidey adaptions expense. On top of that the characters are more unlikable than they are likable not that they aren't likable but the unlikablity outweighs the likablity the characters are supposed to have Harry is more unlikable than in 94 constantly abandoning Peter and Gwen to be with shallow friends or to get ahead usually more undeserved than deserved especially with Peter in 94 Harry was a lot more accepting of Peter and not quick to abandon him at a moment's notice he tries to talk to Peter about his father and MJ after they've disappeared so that says a lot. And MJ I get why they didn't want her to be love interest but she didn't have to be a background character either after her debut in 94 MJ is exactly like she was in Spectacular only she's more fleshed out after her debut in 94 rather than in the background like in Spectacular yeah she stands up to Eddie Brock but in 94 she stands up to Morrie Bench who was more of a creep than Eddie was in Spectacular or 94 not to mention 94 MJ succeeded where the Raimi version failed she helped Spidey beat the bad guys and when we learned about her past we saw how strong she was in facing it. And even though Liz didn't appear often in 94 when she did she was not a shallow brat but the mature woman that cares for her friends and is willing to cheer them up not that Liz wasn't like that in Spectacular but the shallow brat overshadowed it. And finally Walter Hardy as Ben's killer he was dying cat burglar that Spidey didn't meet until he was already dead plus in Spectacular the first time we see him in that flashback contradicts what he says about never having carried a gun or getting scared as he grew older we don't how killing Ben truly eats at him Sandman as Ben's killer is not forced or contrived this is what Spectacular wanted to do with Walter but it came across rushed not fleshed out like it was in 3 where Peter unlike in Spectacular comes close to being as bad as Sandman and Venom so Peter has good reason to forgive whereas in Spectacular he doesn't. Harsh as I was I don't hate Spectacular just don't think it outdoes 94 or the Raimi films like everyone says 94 has a lot of scenes that are in Spectacular (especially with Shakespeare regardless if Semper is a fan or not) it's a great show but it's not better than 94 or Raimi trilogy. That's my problem every time it gets praised.