I was born in 1986 and fondly remember the first comic book I ever read (X-men: Savage Land) which I can also remember proudly taking into school with me for the first show and tell style thing I did – so I would have been around 6 at the time. That comic also featured Spider-Man and the webslinger would go on to be associated with some of the key moments of my young life. My nose got broken at school, so my dad turned up at the hospital with the latest issue of Astonighing Spider-man (which was dated 1993), I had to have a tooth removed and when I came to I was vomiting blood so my dad took me to Argos to buy me a Spider-man action figure for being brave. I remember going on holiday to Cromer in Norfolk, England and having a birthday just days before so I took my three favourite presents with me – Spider-Man, Venom and Hobgoblin figures. The point is there are several things I remember that are based around Spidey. Pre-Power Rangers I remember getting up early for school each day so I could watch the 80s Spider-man series before setting out and I can clearly remember watching the very first episode of the 90s Animated Series and having my mind blown. Also, this very website is named Team Venom Media and named for the Spider-Man villain (Venom) who I was introduced to via the 90s Spider-Man series. My point being that I was majorly influenced by Spider-Man and, in particular, the fantastic animated series in 1994. Therefore the purpose of this article is to show 5 Major Ways that Marvel itself was influenced by that awesome show both in their comics and movies.

5. Venom’s Origin in Sony’s Venom movie

When Sony announced their Venom movie staring Tom Hardy, fans were both excited and hesitant. The reason for them being hesitant was that Sony had said that this would not be set in the same universe as the Spider-Man movies so fans of the comics were confused based on Venom’s origins. In the comics, Spider-Man brought the Venom symbiote back with him from Battleword during the major “Secret Wars” event and would ultimately reject the symbiote, leading it to bond with Eddie Brock and unite to attempt to destroy Spidey. The Animated Series, however, offered a much better origin where a space shuttle piloted by John Jameson brought the Symbiote back with it. The Venom movie used the later origin and even had the pilot of the shuttle named as John Jameson, which was a great nod to the animated series

4. Making Captain America a Big Deal, Internationally

Ok so as a child, I couldn’t care less about Captain America. I’d read several comics involving him but never actually cared. I owned the “Captain America and The Avengers” videogame on the Mega-Drive/Genesis but he was always the last character I’d play as. But. When Spider-Man: The Animated Series gave Felicia Hardy a modified Super-Soldier serum to level her up as the Black Cat, I suddenly found myself invested in the origin of Captain America. Fast-forward to the “Secret Six” story arc and we got to see Captain America, in all his glory, fight alongside the wallcrawler and impart wisdom on him before sacrificing himself again to prevent the Red Skull from getting loose (they were held in stasis, locked in combat). I remember then seeking out a Captain America action figure to go along with the rest of my Marvel figures as a result (as well as a Red Skull figure). My point is, there would have been millions of people my age tuning in to that and ending up loving the character of Captain America based off this, like I did.

3. Showing that an inter-connected universe could work and laying the foundation of the MCU

So the MCU is currently over a decade in and has over 25 movies and 10+ TV shows that tie-in to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Many film studios have tried to replicate this but have failed (Monsterverse, DCEU for example) but back in the 90s, Spider-Man: The Animated Series featured crossovers with X-Men, Iron Man and more and kept all of the voice actors from their respective shows. This all culminated in an adaptation of Secret Wars that pulled in the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Iron Man, Storm and more and showed just how well these shows could mesh.

2. Shining a Spotlight on Morbius, Blade, The Punisher and Doctor Strange

So I’ve spoken about Captain America and the crossovers with various other Marvel shows but one of the coolest things that TAS did was to introduce characters like The Punisher, Morbius, Blade and Doctor Strange in ways that not only made sense to the story but cemented those characters as big-time Marvel characters to watch. Prior to this, Morbius had had a few failed ongoing comic book series and The Punisher was always on the edge of popularity. Blade underwent a major image change for Spider-Man: The Animated Series and that has been the general basis of his appearance across all other media ever since. Not only that but we now live in an age where a Morbius movie is about to come out, The Punisher has had 2 movies and 2 TV seasons, Doctor Strange is about to have his second headline movie but SIXTH movie appearance and Blade was the movie that pioneered comic book movies back in 1999.

1. Introducing the concept of the “Spider-Verse”

Spider-Man: The Animated Series ended on a major high note with the superb crossover involving Spider-Men from different dimensions coming together to stop a crazed Spidey that had bonded with the Carnage symbiote and planned on destroying all of reality. This involved the armoured Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider, a Spidey with Dr Octopus’ arms and a Spidey that was an actor portraying Spider-Man in OUR world, which led to the final scene of the show being Spider-Man meeting Stan Lee in one of Stan’s most memorable cameos.

In summation, Spider-Man: The Animated Series is one of the most influential comic book shows of all time and is definatley worth a watch, and watch it you can! Every episode is available for streaming on Disney Plus!