We’ve heard a lot lately about what will be on the upcoming Disney+ streaming platform. It’s a bit reductive to say “everything,” but yeah it’s pretty much everything. At D23 last month, we heard more about the wide array of original content scheduled to premiere after the November launch, but legacy content is a bit less specific. We know we’ll get the Star Wars movies, and all of the Disney catalog, and just about all of the MCU movies, but what else? Well, now we have a better idea, thanks to a soft launch for Disney+ in the Netherlands. And that includes a ton of classic and beloved Marvel animated series.
According to Twitter user GJ Koojiman, who seems to live in the Netherlands, all of your favorite Marvel animated series, and a couple you probably don’t care that much about, are on Disney+. These include a few of the pre-’90s shows, specifically 1979’s Spider Woman, and 1981’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. But the real pay dirt comes with the ’90s series.
People have asked so here’s all the pre-2000 Marvel shows I’ve found:
Spider-Woman (1979), Spider-Man(1981), Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1982), X-Men(1992), Iron Man (1994), Fantastic Four (1994), Incredible Hulk (1996), Silver Surfer (1998) and Spider-Man Unlimited (’99)— GJ Kooijman (@gjkooijman) September 12, 2019
The ’90s were a positive revolution for Marvel animated series. Following the massive success of Warner and DC’s Batman: The Animated Series, superhero fans got what is still considered a pillar of comic book TV writing, 1992’s X-Men. For many of my generation, the ’90s X-Men are the definitive versions of those characters, and the reason talk of a Gambit movie still pervades. After the massive success of that series—which managed to do great things with great images but very limited animation—more Marvel series popped up.
Chief among these is 1994’s Spider-Man. By this point, there’d already been several cartoons and even a couple live-action series starring the friendly neighborhood webslinger, but ’94’s series boasted a complex and continued continuity, plus every single one of Spidey’s best villains. They covered an awful lot of Spider-Man lore in 65 episodes, including guest appearances by the X-Men, Daredevil, Blade, and the Punisher.
While those two shows are the cream of the ’90s Marvel crop, it appears Disney+ will also have the syndicated efforts Iron Man and Fantastic Four from 1994, the former of which was more successful and in the vein of Spider-Man. 1996’s The Incredible Hulk ran on UPN for 21 episodes and featured Neal McDonough as Bruce Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the voice of Hulk. 1998 saw a short-lived Silver Surfer series back on Fox Kids, and that’s when the Marvel animated series boom started to go bust. By time 1999’s Spider-Man: Unlimited premiered, which saw Spidey go into a post-apocalyptic future, it couldn’t compete with the likes of Pokemon or Digimon.
Knowing I can watch all of these series (or at least most of them) on Disney+ is pretty exciting. If for no other reason than it’ll save us all trying to find them on other platforms where the might disappear in between episodes.
Featured Image: Marvel
Kyle Anderson is the Editor at Large for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!
