Spider-Man: The New Animated Series
The MTV Spider-Man nobody kept: 13 episodes, Neil Patrick Harris as Peter, Malkovich as Doc Ock, a season long possession arc. Curio worth knowing about.
Cast & Key People
Our Review
Sony made a Spider-Man cartoon for MTV in the shadow of Spider-Man 2 and then buried it: thirteen episodes, one July summer run, gone. Neil Patrick Harris voiced Peter, Amanda Peet was Mary Jane, John Malkovich was a very serious Doc Ock, and the show had a moody visual style nobody on the Kids WB cartoons could touch.
It is a genuine curio, the bridge between the 90s Fox Kids era and the movie universe, with storylines that leaned adult: a Doc Ock possession arc that spans the whole season, Peter and MJ as a real couple with friction. It has never had a proper US release, which is a shame; the episodes circulate in fuzzy bootleg quality on the usual video sites.
We score it 6, a notch above its quality, because we would rather rate it honestly than let it disappear. If a remaster ever surfaces, the season two that almost happened would have been something.
