Marvel Comics Group

The 1967 "Spider-Man" cartoon is definitely remembered, but not exactly fondly. The series' ultra low budget resulted in low quality animation, with stilted movement, vacant backgrounds and often recycled frames. Nowadays, "Spider-Man" is easy meme fodder. The storytelling doesn't impress either. Sure, it's a simple children's show, but it's noticeably even more formulaic and less mature than the contemporary Spider-Man comics, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko and then John Romita.

About the only thing that is considered genuinely high-quality is the show's theme song, which has stuck around as the official Spider-Man anthem (even being remixed for "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.") Because the show was the first attempt to adapt Spider-Man, that earworm stuck around in pop culture's early impressions of the character. 

So while the 1967 "Spider-Man" isn't good, it's still historic. The series lead voice actor Paul Soles was the very first Spider-Man actor, stepping into the part with little to build off of. And he pulled it off, with a made-for-radio voice that brought out Peter's intelligence and Spider-Man's man-of-action attitude. Soles had a limited supporting cast to play off of (only Paul Kligman as J. Jonah Jameson, Peg Dixon as Betty Brant, and villains of the week), but that was all he needed. Soles' Spider-Man could shoot out the quips as easily as webs and, in the rare chance he got to be dramatic (specifically the episode showing Spider-Man's origin), he did a commendable job.

Sony Pictures Animation

Now, Peter Parker is not the star of the "Spider-Verse" films — that's Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). Peter is there to be Miles' mentor, and the films' Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) is middle-aged and burnt out: a strong contrast to his rookie student.

A Spider-Man going through a mid-life crisis, Peter B. has a pretty pathetic personal life but is also a hypercompetent superhero. Those two traits aren't as contradictory as they might seem; they both come from Peter living into middle-age, getting plenty of time to see it all and f*** everything up, leaving him a jaded and lonely man even if the old Parker humor still lives in him. Channeling his star-making turn as Nick Miller on the sitcom "New Girl," Johnson walks the line between an eye-rolling cynic and a goofball.

The result is one of the funniest Spider-Man performances, and one that has already had some impact in shaping Jonathan Hickman's new excellent "Ultimate Spider-Man" comic.

Johnson as Peter B. works extra well because he's not the first Peter Parker we meet in "Into The Spider-Verse." The Peter Parker native to Miles' universe is instead voiced by Chris Pine, who plays him with straight-laced action hero confidence. The contrast between that and Johnson playing an "over it" burnout just adds to how, through "Spider-Verse," different Spider-Men bring out each others' strengths.

Marvel Studios Animation

The 1994 "Spider-Man" cartoon was similar to its sister show "X-Men" – though held back by low production values, it was comparatively more mature than past Marvel cartoons. The series didn't do just formulaic standalone episodes; it was more dramatic and serialized. Stories would be told across multiple episodes in arcs, and like the comics, there was as much focus on Peter Parker's personal life as there was on Spider-Man's superheroics.

This Spider-Man was played by Christopher Daniel Barnes, who got to show much more emotional range than previous animated Spider-Men. Though the show wrote out Gwen Stacy, it did a version of her famous demise in the season 3 finale "Turning Point" when the Green Goblin drops Mary Jane (Saratoga Ballantine) into a portal to a limbo dimension, never to be seen again. Less violent than the comics, sure, but Peter still had to deal with the loss of his love.

The series gave Spider-Man an inner monologue (right out of a comic book's thought bubbles), leaving Barnes' charming, confident voice to carry most of the series. Spider-Man's smart-aleck side comes out both in the zingers and his inner voice. When the video game "Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions" reunited several past Spider-Man voice actors to play different variants, Barnes naturally played Spider-Man Noir, because his Spidey already had the sly, cool sarcasm of a Humphrey Bogart PI character.

Barnes has gotten some criticism for overacting, especially in moments when Spider-Man is enraged, but on a whole he's still one of the definitive voices for Spider-Man. It's just that a couple other actors have come along since and done it even better.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The best Spider-Man cartoon remains "The Spectacular Spider-Man," and a big reason it has that standing is Josh Keaton's lead performance. If there's any actor who's gotten the best handle on Spider-Man's humor, it's Keaton.

Some recent Spider-Man movies and TV, including the "Home" films and "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man," make Peter too sheepish. Even when he jokes, it doesn't feel like he's trying to get under the bad guys' skin. Keaton, though, makes Spider-Man's snark cutting, sassy, and confident. The jokes aren't just lazy "well, that happened" humor from a stumbling teenager, they're relentless and mean.

Peter is of course a good guy, but part of the Spider-Man persona has always been a picked-on teen reveling in being the one who has power — except he's "bullying" people that deserve it! Watching the action scenes of "Spectacular Spider-Man," you really get why all the bad guys find Spider-Man so insufferable, for the same reason we find him so fun to watch. 

The very best "Spectacular Spider-Man" episodes are mostly ones featuring the Green Goblin (Steve Blum). He elevates the show to next level because he's the one opponent who can match Spidey's quips blow-for-blow, giving Keaton a perfect scene partner. Goblin's debut episode, "Catalysts," is basically an extended sequence of Spider-Man and Goblin throwing bombs, webs and insults at each other, and it's endlessly entertaining. 

Now, Keaton's Spider-Man performance isn't all jokes. "Spectacular Spider-Man" stayed quite true to the "Parker Luck" ethos, where nothing ever goes right and Peter chooses responsibility over satisfaction. During Peter's moments of rage, such as when possessed by the Venom symbiote, or when he learns Norman Osborn is the Goblin, or when interrogating the Tinkerer to find a kidnapped Gwen Stacy, he lets out scary cold anger.

"Spectacular Spider-Man" unfortunately ended after two seasons due to a shifting arrangement between Sony and Marvel, but Keaton remains passionate about the series and playing Spider-Man. In series creator Greg Weisman's "Young Justice," he cast Keaton to play the assassin Black Spider (basically an evil Spider-Man). On his own time, Keaton has also read out Spider-Man memes and voice acted in a fan-made film adapting "Spider-Man: Blue."

Insomniac Studios

Josh Keaton also acted in Insomniac Studios' 2018 "Spider-Man" video game... as Electro. Huh? I thought at first. If he's in the game why isn't he Spider-Man? Well, that's because the game has another equally amazing actor playing Peter Parker: Yuri Lowenthal. 

One of the most prolific working voice actors, Lowenthal has voiced several young animated heroes before, from the nice (Ben Tennyson in "Ben 10: Alien Force") to the broody (Sasuke Uchiha in the English dub of "Naruto"). He brings all those voices together to play Spider-Man and soars while doing so. Lowenthal's voice is naturally soft, youthful, and heroic, the perfect timbre for Peter Parker, but his emotional range while using that voice is wide. He can be funny, angry, loud or quiet, and in those quiet moments you can hear Peter's weariness, but he always overcomes it. 

Every line of dialogue that Yuri Lowenthal speaks, I think, "Yes, this is exactly what Spider-Man sounds like."

Like Keaton, Lowenthal is extremely passionate about the part. As he told Game Informer in 2018, "Showing up to work and getting to be Spider-Man ... There was no 'I don't wanna go to work today' because work was being Spider-Man!" Luckily for Lowenthal, he's gotten to play Spider-Man several more times since, including in Insomniac's "Spider-Man 2" and the recently released "Marvel Rivals."

Choosing how to arrange this top two was spectacularly difficult, and trust me I went back and forth. Both Yuri Lowenthal and Josh Keaton are pitch perfect as Spider-Man, but the way Lowenthal performs some of the emotional beats (like his final moments with a dying Aunt May, or the burning fury he unleashes as the Venom-possessed Spider-Man) puts him over the top for me — even if the margin of difference is as thin as a spider's web.