A lot of people still marvel at what Marvel films has done with their Cinematic Universe (ya there’s a pun there and I regret nothing). So much so that it seems like every other studio is trying to replicate Marvel’s formula, or at least has plans to.
No matter how excited I get for the upcoming slate of Marvel Films, I can never forget that this the second time I’ve seen something like this. No I’m not talking about the comic books (they of course are obviously built for that), I’m talking about the 90s cartoon shows from UPN and Fox Kids (separate networks, impressive). As a kid in the 90s I too had a connected Marvel universe to watch and enjoy. So, I’d just like to honor it.
Fantastic Four (1994-1996)
Let’s start off with probably the worst of these shows. I’m not going to have much to say as it wasn’t a series I watched a lot. I haven’t even tried to re-watch it because I can only barely make it through the cheesy intro. Like the movies, it’s a shame that the show isn’t especially good since the comics were great. The main thing I remember is this show introduced me to the character of the Silver Surfer… who I originally thought was Iceman. Honestly I remember the “Fred and Barney Meet The Thing” show more. No, the Flintstones don’t interact with good old Ben Grimm as the title would suggest. It was just “Flintstones” shorts airing with “Thing” shorts where he was a teenager who used a magic ring to transform into the Thing to do hero stuff. Well I’m beginning to ramble, so let’s examine its place in the Marvel Animated Universe.
How it was connected: This one is somewhat more debatable than other shows. While it did introduce many Marvel characters, they often only appeared on “Fantastic Four” and nothing else. Also the showrunner (basically the guy who runs the show’s day-to-day creative decisions) of “Spider-Man” HATED this show. In fact, he hated it so much that when the Fantastic Four would later appear during a crossover they completely recast the all of the roles (except for Quinton Flynn as the Human Torch). Unlike all of the other crossover roles, they didn’t even try to follow their designs from said show. However what definitely makes this a part of this animated universe is the crossover it had with “The Incredible Hulk” – A cartoon which was undeniably connected.
Incredible Hulk (1996-1997)
Most of the time in TV, the first season is so-so then the next season gets more serious and better. This show somehow managed to not only do the opposite, but be better for it. The first season was fairly dark in theme and visuals. However, it apparently wasn’t getting the viewership they were hoping for. So, for the second season they decided they wanted to go with more comedy and added She-Hulk as a regular character. She-Hulk is one of my favorite comic book characters, so this was a plus as they got her down pretty perfectly. Also, they followed Peter David’s run from the comics with Bruce Banner’s broken psyche producing two different Hulks. The regular green one (“Hulk smash!” and such) who was voiced by Lou Ferrigno. At other times Banner would instead change into the Grey Hulk, which is my favorite version of the Hulk. He’s not as strong as the green Hulk but he’s smarter, as in he can talk coherently and has quite the ego on him. Basically he is Banner’s id. So even though the show didn’t take itself as seriously as it’s 1st season, the show expanded the Marvel world and introduced the young me to, what are in my opinion, the best parts of the Hulk franchise. Seriously, I really hope they make the jump to the films.
How it was connected: This show was somehow very connected, yet not connected at all. On one hand, It did have crossovers with “Iron Man” and “Fantastic Four” with their proper voice actors. In fact, the “Iron Man” crossover went both ways. He was meant to appear in “Spider-Man” for their Secret Wars arc, but was prevented for legal reasons and replaced with the Lizard. He also cameoed in an episode of the “X-Men” in Juggernaut’s dream sequence. Like “Spider-Man” this was a FOX show where as “Hulk” and the rest on this list were UPN. I assume this was because the X-men episode in question aired a couple of years before the “Hulk” show came into being. By the time the Secret War arc aired on “Spider-Man,” Hulk already had his own show.
Iron Man (1994-1996)
Can I just say how weird it is to think of Iron Man as THE mainstream Marvel character. I never would have called it from what I saw and understood of the character as a kid. Like the “Fantastic Four” section this will be a little light ,as I can’t remember a lot about the show. Unlike that series, I actually do recall liking “Iron Man” as a kid. Although, I remember his crossovers more than his actual show. As I read other people’s recollections on the show during the second season, it seems that it got retooled to have a darker and more serious tone. I honestly can’t remember a big difference. Iron Man, for me as a kid, was probably the least interesting character. I didn’t care for the show, but the “Fantastic Four” had 4 main characters I liked and wanted to learn more about. The main thing I can remember about the old “Iron Man” show was Tony Stark’s amazing 90s mullet. Seriously I think “Iron Man 3” missed out on the early flashback scenes by not putting Robert Downey Jr. in a wig to reference this point of Iron Man’s history.
How it was connected: As mentioned before “Iron Man” had crossovers with “The Incredible Hulk,” and it also crossed over with “Spider-Man.” However, this wasn’t a one-and-done sort of thing. He did it three times. Of course in the Secret Wars arc that I mentioned earlier, but even before that Iron Man was firmly established as being a figure in Spider-Man’s universe. First, in the Venom and Carnage episodes; which was an odd adaptation to say the least. “Spider-Man” was heavily censored so Carnage’s Cletus Kasady couldn’t be identified as a serial killer, nor could Carnage be his normal totally chaotic evil force of nature. You know, killing anyone he comes across… just cause. No, they had to add in tie in with Dr. Strange’s to justify Carnage’s motives of stealing people’s life forces. You may be wondering what this has to do with Iron Man and War Machine, but that’s about as random as their purpose in the crossover is. They’re just kind of there helping out… because. It’s the same voice actors and design so it’s nice, but still weird. Then a few episodes later, Tony Stark appears in the beginning of a story to cut the funding to the antagonist of the episode’s project, thus giving the villain his motivation. And that is all Stark does in that episode. Again, I assume the reason this UPN show and FOX show able to do these crossovers was due to the “Iron Man” show being canceled by the time of these episodes.
See the last two shows on Page 2!
X-Men (1992-1997)
“X-Men” is probably the most-loved of all, and with good reason. It was a really good show. It’s no “Batman: The Animated Series,” but like that it did do a good job capturing the comics and actually treating the subject with some intelligence. Yes, the designs of the characters were highly detailed which caused the animation to be kinda jerky looking and rough, but the characters were done right and the atmosphere was fun and exciting. From its famous opening theme (if the movies ever put an orchestrated version I’ll give it an automatic perfect rating), to the fact they never shied away from darker moments of prejudice, to exploring all the characters at different times with their own episodes, it was excellent. To give one example, the episode that still shocks me today revolves around the Nightcrawler. Unlike in the comics, Nightcrawler never became a part of the team. Instead the azure teleported just guest starred all throughout the episode. The episode mentions God again and again. Nightcrawler’s religion is a big part of the character and something you’d expect them to delete for a children’s show, but they don’t and I really respect them for that. I still wonder why they could get away with this but “Spider-Man” got so censored. We’ll get more into that on the next one. Now the next X-Men movie, “X-Men Apocalypse has a lot to live up to. In the show Apocalypse was one of the coolest villains ever. I really hope Oscar Isaac has lines as badass sounding as “I am the rocks of the eternal shore, crash upon me and be broken.” I could go on and on about this show and how good it was for its time, but I’ll save that for another day.
How it was connected: Much like the comics and even now the film series, this rarely connected to the other shows. Honestly, for the X-men it actually makes more sense. There are certainly enough characters for them to have their own universe, and the general concept and tone doesn’t always gel perfectly with the rest of the Marvel universe. It’s main crossover EVERYONE who watched these shows remembered was when they guest starred in a two parter on “Spider-Man.” At the time, Spider-Man was dealing with his mutation going out of whack and having the constant threat of turning into a monster. He goes to Professor Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters thinking Prof. X cures mutants. When he gets there we kids were delighted to not only see all the X-Men characters from the show, voiced by all of the same actors and the same designs (though a lot of them were recolored for some reason), but this really felt like a true meeting of the two shows. They even could actually use the awesome 90’s X-Men theme. As expected Wolverine is used the most, but they also give some good development to Beast. I really can’t overstate how mind-blowing this was as a kid, our two favorite shows coming together. Although Fun Fact, Spider-Man did make one other cameo early in the series even before he got his own show. Well his hand did anyways, see if you can spot it the next time you re-watch the show (especially the Dark Phoenix Saga, hint-hint).
Spider-Man (1994-1998)
Not the most loved, not the worse just a solid series that sometimes gets a bum rap from certain people. There were some issues, as mentioned above this show was heavily censored. Spider-Man, a superhero who fights crime, wasn’t allowed to punch on the show. The words “death” and “kill” had to always be changed to “destroy” or something like that. It reused footage all the time. A number of episodes felt really rushed, like they could easily have gotten multiple episodes out of it. Meanwhile, other storylines would stretch on for whole seasons when they could have wrapped up so much faster. Vampire characters came to suck your… plasma. The Coup de grâce being that there was a specific rule that Spider-Man must not squash on or hit any pigeons when he landed on a rooftop. I have no words for that one…
However with all of those issues aside, it was a pretty good show. I know I complained about the pacing, but there were also plenty of times when the show was really good about it. It almost always did a good job of introducing major characters before becoming their famous comic book character. Due to different creators being involved with the creation of the show and the person who would end up actually making the show (John Semper), they often had weird things like the Hobgoblin being created BEFORE the Green Goblin. In the comics it’s kinda important that it’s the other way around, but they managed to make it work for the most part. The Kingpin was a great example of the dichotomy of the series. On the one hand he was used way too much. Probably after Spider-Man himself, he was the most recurring character on the show. Almost every crime or villain related back to him in some way. On the other hand, they really nailed his character and had a fantastic voice actor (Roscoe Lee Browne). Also, I’ll just say I like how they handled his origin more than in the recent Netflix “Daredevil” show. Never quite as heavy as “X-Men” but just a solid series with an impressive voice cast and some amazing animation from TMS. My only real problem with the show was how it was canceled on a cliffhanger of Spider-Man trying to find Mary Jane, and this was right after he had met Stan “the man” Lee in the real world.
How it was connected: Well at this point of the list, I think I’ve covered most of the other crossovers except for Secret Wars, which I’ve only been teasing so let’s get into it. For those who don’t know, Secret Wars was a famous Marvel comic book universe wide event. Much has been made about it originally being created to promote a line of action figures, but the comics themselves have become classics in their own right. So “Spider-Man” knew it had to do something special for its final season making the last episode arc before the finale was an adaption of Secret Wars. A lot of changes in the story were needed for obvious reasons, but it was really cool as a kid to see multiple shows crossing over at once. You just didn’t see stuff like this at that time. Heck, Bruce Timm’s “Justice League” wouldn’t happen until a couple years later. This was the closest we kids had to an Avengers show on TV, and it was awesome. Better shows have come along (ex: “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”) and better ones were on at the time on other networks, but hey, things had to start somewhere.