Spider-Man: The Animated Series/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Adaptation Displacement: This show's take on the black costume is how most people remember the origin of Venom. Heck, it pretty much got a Live Action Adaptation with Spider-Man 3!
  • Alas, Poor Villain: Mysterio, Spider-Carnage.
  • Awesome Music: The show's opening theme. Takes you back huh?
  • Badass Decay: The Lizard gets this bad past his initial appearance.
  • Complete Monster: Herbert Landon. In his first appearance (the X-Men crossover, he had his old friend and colleague Henry McCoy/the Beast kidnapped so he could dunk him in the chemical bath he was planning to use for mutant genocide to see if it worked. In his subsequent appearances this was never referenced again, but given his later schemes involved turning people into cyborgs against their will and generally being a dick, it didn't need to be.
    • Carnage, who was as Axe Crazy as the show would let him be. Murders were too extreme to show, but sucking life force was A-OK, right?
      • Kletus Cassady alone is bad enough, but the Carnage symbiote itself might also qualify given it's bonding with alternate reality Peter Parker as the Final Boss of the series, who tried to wipe out the multiverse. Even when Spider-Carnage Peter defected from this plan due to Uncle Ben talking sense into him, the symbiote refused to let go, resulting in Spider-Carnage Peter making a Heroic Sacrifice by wiping himself from existence.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Spider-Man/Black Cat. Mary Jane was a bit of a Base Breaker.
  • Gateway Series
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the first episode Spidey complains about why he has to crawl around sewers and can't land an easier superhero gig with the Avengers. He also complains about not being "a galaxy hopping superhero," which he essentially becomes in the final episodes.
  • Jerkass Woobie: J.Jonah Jameson's distrust and dislike of Spidey make much more sense when we learn that his wife was killed by a masked gunman. Alistair Smythe arguably qualifies for this trope, along with Morbius. Also the scene where Kingpin's wife leaves him is surprisingly sad.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Kingpin. Oh, lord, the Kingpin. He's behind nearly everything in this series. The Hobgoblin fits this trope pretty well too... until Villain Decay set in after his unmasking in Goblin War.
    • The Red Skull in the few episodes he appeared turned out to be a pretty good one as well.
  • Motive Decay: At first Morbius wants to find a cure for his vampiric hunger. By the time Blade shows up, though, Morbius has already tasted Spider-Man's blood....er, plasma. Stronger than he had ever been, he liked it and set out to turn the entire city into vampires. The downside of course is that he remains a villain for a more extended period of time, and a lot of viewers grew sick of him as a result.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The "Neogenic Nightmare" arc
    • Thanks to the series being Cut Short, the real Mary Jane is still trapped in a limbo between universes at the ending.
      • Averted by the series ending, which implied that Spider-Man and Madame Web were about to go find Mary Jane, and ultimately return her to her universe.
    • Hydro-Man. Everything about Hydro-Man. He's an obsessive Stalker with a Crush, and he has superpowers that allow him to get around/into practically anywhere to find you (if you're Mary-Jane Watson) and make him virtually tireless and exceedingly hard to slow down, or even hurt.
  • The Scrappy: Anna Watson. And Madame Web. And to a lesser extent, Silvermane and all his associates.

Goblin Harry: Nyahahahaha! Excellent! Eeeeeeexcellent!

  • Take That, Scrappy!: Spidey's tirade against Madame Web matched what many viewers felt about her.

Spider-Man: I am sick of you...and your riddles. And your lessons! And your SUPREME ARROGANCE! Don't you ever, EVER enter my life again! Do you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME!?

    • And she did, until the "Secret Wars" episodes. Which she says she foretold about before leaving.
  • Villain Decay: Many of the villains within the course of the show suffered this. Most glaring would be:
    • Dr Octopus, who became a mere flunky for the Kingpin, even giving up on his plans to become The Starscream shortly after the time he got defeated by a child.
    • Hobgoblin, who was revealed to be nothing more than a petty crook and a wuss in his last appearance.
    • And Alistair Smythe, who Took a Level in Badass by becoming a mutant and leaving the Kingpin's services only to end up becoming a flunky for Silvermane in an even less important position than he was as the Kingpin's lackey.
  • What an Idiot!: In "Day of the Chameleon," none of the SHIELD agents present noticed that "Nick Fury"'s eye-patch was on the wrong eye.
  • The Woobie: True to the comics, the sheer amount of crap poor Spidey gets put through over the course of this show, particularly from the second season onwards, is unbelievable.
    • Iron Woobie: The Scarlet Spider. He's been through all the same trauma that Spider-Carnage has, but somehow came out okay.
    • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Spider-Carnage. He's psychologically damaged to the point where he wants to die but won't be satisfied until everyone else goes first.
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