Netflix Just Added a Marvel Show to Its Catalog

Disney has been doing a good job of making itself the one-stop-shop for all things Marvel, but Netflix just secured an older Marvel Comics adaptation for its catalog. Starting this month, you can watch The Spectacular Spider-Man on Netflix. This 2008 animated series was a fan favorite when it premiered on The CW, but it only has two seasons.

The Spectacular Spider-Man was just getting underway when Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment, and according to a report by Comicbook.com, most fans speculate that Disney found a way to end this series. It was produced by Sony Pictures Television, but once it was over Disney was able to create an animated Spider-Man series under its own umbrella instead. The replacement was Ultimate Spider-Man, which aired on Disney XD.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is quite different, without any of the multiverse complications of world-ending stakes of the more recent productions. Netflix’s blurb for the series reads: “This animated series picks up the famed web-slingers’ mythology at the start of his journey as Peter Parker — a not-so-typical 16-year-old with new powers — grapples with the pressures of teen life while battling supervillains in the real world.”

The two extant seasons of The Spectacular Spider-Man have 13 episodes each, so it is a quick binge-watch for those interested. The titular hero is voiced by Josh Keaton, and Lacey Chabert played Gwen Stacy. The show was developed by Greg Weisman and Victor Cook – both animation legends in their own right. Weisman has a particularly strong resume in the superhero department, as he previously worked on Young Justice.

Weisman also gave fans their best explanation for the show’s cancellation in a 2012 Q&A on an animation fan forum. He wrote that no single company was singularly responsible for the show’s abrupt end, and that the show’s crew were “the recipients of bad corporate luck… We just wound up with a situation where no single company could proceed with it.”

The Spectacular Spider-Man is streaming now on Netflix, as are The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and a few Lego Marvel animated productions that include Spider-Man. On Disney+ you can find the 1981 Spider-Man animated series, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, the 1994 Spider-Man animated series, the 2017 Spider-Man animated series, the above-mentioned Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited and the 2021 children’s series Spidey and His Amazing Friends. For the rest of the Spider-Man blockbusters out there, you will probably need to turn to digital stores or hard copies.