Spider-Man 1994 Review

And we’re back to Spider-Man but now in 1994-1998! I think it’s safe to say Spider-Man is a successful character when it comes to animated shows, despite how silly they may be. This show has 5 seasons and after the last Spider-Man shows I’ve watched, I have concerns about the logic of what is going to happen. At  least the animation quality should be getting better finally! Here we go!

Season 1: This season has 13 episodes and the intro for this season was pretty good; nice funky beat and odd but cool sounding singing. Peter’s spidey sense looks like something out of a horror movie though with the way they animate it. The season stayed within Spider-Man’s range though, which was a relief after the other shows. By that I mean he only fought his own villains, he stayed within New York and didn’t have to deal with world-ending events that would normally be handled by the Avengers, and his character (witty, sassy, etc.) was fully accurate. He also made references to other superheroes which I liked. Mary Jane was introduced as well and I’m curious to see when she’ll find out he’s Spider-Man. The only character I can’t really deal with, once again, is Aunt May. She’s still tedious and her hatred for Spider-Man (which is based on absolutely nothing) frustrates me. 

Season 2: This season has 14 episodes and began by introducing the Incidious Six, or as I like to call them, the Idiotic Six. They are Dr. Octopus, Scorpion, Rhino, Mysterio, Chameleon, and Shocker. I was super excited to see the X-Men from my 1992-1996 X-Men show with their voices and everything! Their animation style is slightly altered to fit the show, but it’s still true to their show which makes me happy. For some reason we got a repeat of Peter’s backstory though, which I found unnecessary since we already watched it in season 1. This entire season turned out to be just one big collection of Parts 1-14 of Neogenics, which I felt was riding the line of a bit extreme and done really well. 

Season 3: This season had 14 episodes and started off on a great note: with Dr. Strange! We also got the full story of how Peter became Spider-Man in a scene I weirdly recognized, but I don’t know from where. Something that seems to be a common theme in all these shows is Peter deciding to quit being Spider-Man then changing his mind by the end of the episode in every other episode. It got a bit tedious at points because he came across as whiny. The season did have a dramatic ending though and I’m really starting to get invested in this show! This season did the same thing with the titles as the last one did though, all being part 1-14 which is getting stupid at this point because they still have titles so just remove the part whatever of whatever. 

Season 4: This season has 11 episodes and I’m very curious to see what happens with MJ since she has seemingly returned without explanation. And he told her who he was finally and he proposed! This season introduces some familiar faces such as Black Cat and Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin now. Morbius returns as does Blade, characters I forget to mention before. This season felt fairly quick compared to the others but it built up the story more and I’m fully invested now to see how things turn out for everyone, specifically Peter and MJ now that they’re engaged. 

Season 5: This is the last season and it has 13 episodes. We started off strong with Peter and MJ’s wedding and brought back Black Cat and a lot of Peter’s enemies. However, this season took quite the turn as we learned that MJ was actually a clone of MJ and died. I really don’t like how there was no resolution with MJ in the series, despite the ending claiming they’re going to go find her. I would have liked to actually see her return and Peter get the happy ending he deserves. Watching Peter lead his team and later his team of other Spider-Men was great and I actually cried at the end of the series as Peter went to what was basically our dimension and met Stan Lee. 

Peter does a lot of thinking to himself, but at least his train of thought is easier to follow in this show compared to the others. He’s definitely comic-accurate personality wise, which is always refreshing. Most of the characters were true to themselves. I also liked the relationship development between Peter and MJ because it was realistic and I felt emotionally invested in a happy ending for them. I’m disappointed I didn’t get the happy ending with them I wanted, but Peter’s love for her never really falters. 

I loved how grounded in the comics this show was. Peter sticks to New York for his trials and tribulations and everyone in the show is from Spider-Man comics only OR is brought in for short periods with logical explanations. Overall, this was a great show and I would recommend it after the X-Men show I reviewed a few weeks ago! 

Here are some comments I made during the show:

A quick note: all of the shows I’m watching are on Disney+ so I only have access to what they have available. If there is another season for this show I apologize for missing it but I’m not going to try and seek it out or double check anywhere! 

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