The Cartoons
You don't hang around for 40 plus years, sell tons of merch, become a favorite of people around the world and don't sooner or later get placed onto the small screen. Spider-mans quirky mannerism, flippant conversations and determination has made him a beloved cartoon character for generations. For most my age the iconic images of Spider-man come to us from the 1960's cartoon Spider-man named after the comic book. The colors were a little washed out but the action was evenly paced and the stories were ripped right from the comics.
One of the most memorable things from this show was the theme song, every spider-man theme song since then as well as the in show music always tries to match the resonance of it. For the most part spider-man didn't really change in look for the better part of 30 years. Even in the 1980's Spider-man and his Amazing friends Peter Parker looked the same, the funny part about the show is that Iceman was and X-man and while for the show Fire Star was also an X-man in the comics she was a Hellion, a ward of the Hell Fire Club and one the X-men's biggest rival. It was also an interesting mix because Spider-man and Ice man are both seen as "class clowns" so the two were always playing off each other. There was also a running joke because Ice man and Fire Star can pretty much to quick changes anywhere where as spidey has to find a place to strip.
The 1990's
The first non ABC Spider-man cartoon is probably the next generations favorite and also helped to lend a large following for everyone's favorite wall crawler. Spider-man(aka Spider-man: the Animated Series) lept on to the screen during Fox Kids Afternoon line-up to a heavy bass line, an almost digital look to it and brought both new and old characters into your living room. This was the first Spider-man to incorporate the new look of Spider-man, Peter Parker had a less feathered look, was now a college student, while it was still a type of radiation that gave him his abilities this time it was the Neogenic accelerator that Doc Connor was working on to help him with his genetics research. Parker this time shares his origin with 4 characters this time, the Neogenic accelerator created Spider-man, The Scorpion, Morbious, and The Lizard. This Spider-man offering also added long story arcs similar to the comic universe.
Spider-man Unlimited also ran in the 90's it didn't last as long as Spider-man the animated series some seem to speculate that it was because pokemon was so popular at that point in time, I think that while it was interesting the High Evolutionary and his Bestials were a little much for even die hard Spidey fans. Personally while some of the new incarnations are the classic Spider-man villains were cool, and I did actually like the nanotech Spidey suit after a while it got kind of redundant. You had the same Venom and Carnage, Spider-man with a new suit but after a while the Bestials seemed more in the way then story moving. I guess part of it was that all humans were hated so Spidey's outsiderism was no longer unique and thus you didn't need to feel for him.
Spider-man in the new century
You don't last for 3 decades and just fall off because you enter a new century and just like the rest of the successful solo characters the Web head may eventual end his current series but he doesn't stay off the tube for long. Spider-man The new animated series premiered on MTV in 2003 and while it premiered to high hopes unfortunately it tried to incorporate too much. It tried to be Ultimate Spider-man as well as incorporate all the characters incarnations from the various live action movies(thus King Pin was black instead of white) and it was also the first non video game CGI Spider-man.
Oddly enough the Angsty, pouty spider-man was universally hated by spidey fans. As far as I remember everybody I ever heard talk about the show wanted to gouge their eyes out. I watched half of one episode, I hated it, lousy pacing, it seemed to be making fun of spider-man. It was almost like it was made by a DC fan to prove that even Spider-man could be presented in a crappy way, they succeeded. The intro music was lifeless, the character development from what I heard was non existent, it was almost as if the creators of the cartoon didn't care about what we liked in our Spider universe, they had the rights to the property and they were gonna shove their "vision" down our throats. It's hard to get me to NOT watch a spider-man cartoon at 36 I can say EVERY incarnation of Spider-man BUT the new animated series has been viewed by me. I personally view cartoons and animation as part of the passing of the torch, ever since we first got the boob tube each older generation would pass down our favorite stories to the new generation on TV in some form. Cartoons became the new medium to tell a great, wide ranging, expansive story, sometimes in little bites, sometimes rushed but always in a way that would catch the eye of the young viewer.
Spectacular
The last incarnation(until the new Ultimate Spider-man series debuts on Disney in 2012) of your friendly neighborhood Spider-man was of course the Spectacular Spider-man and it seemed to combine the best of both the 616 and the ultimate universe. It ran for two seasons and was pretty good, you had Peter Parker as a high school student, both Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane watson as classmates of Peter's you had Flash Thompson, you had Kong, you had the Big Man(who was actually Tombstone not the King pin but both are Spidey Villains), Silvermane, the Enforcers, Shocker, Doc Ock, The Green Goblin, Venom, Rhino, Eddie Brock and vulture. While this show only got two seasons it (at least for me) reminded me of everything I liked about the rest of the spidey universe. Things weren't perfect, Peter had a hard time juggling life as Spider-man and Peter Parker, you saw both Harry Osbourne and Peter Parker trying to fit in. Unlike in the movies which I will discuss later, instead of being Dashing James Franco Harry was pretty much just like Peter. He had money but he was a slight kid trying to prove himself and not just seem like the only thing keeping him around was Daddy's money. Unlike the rest of the Spider-man incarnations it is IMPLIED in Spectacular Spider-man(yes there is a comic by the same name but again, the Animated Spectacular Spider-man seemed to draw on all of the good Spider-man story lines not just the ones from it's namesake title) that Harry Osbourne was the first Green Goblin not Norman. Yes Oscorp invented Globulin Green a serum that was supposed to enhance human abilities, and Harry does become addicted to Globulin Green which he used to help him make the football team and help the team with the title.
But it is later revealed that Norman Osborne had played them all for fools in the season finale cliffhanger. Harry was addicted, but whatever had changed Norman into the Green Goblin had not YET happened to Harry, in the comics Harry Osborne always becomes the Green Goblin after his father SUPPOSEDLY dies. Since the show was not picked up for the 3rd season we won't know if Harry becomes the Green (or Hob) Goblin after his fathers apparent demise.
Up next of course will be the movies. The thing about movies that get sequels, become remakes or get rebooted they always have a vast back story. I know that while some parts of this have gone on for a bit for the most part compared to all of the history of the Character (and the history that I know and love about the character) this is actually kinda short.
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