josh keaton the voice of spiderman in spectacular spiderman is being replaced as the voice of spidey in avengers emh for that stupid drake bell one which i have no clue anybody would like. why would marvel replace josh after he already finished recording for the avengers episodes with drake bell. why is marvel so intent for shoving the crappy new voice down our throats. no wonder dc wins in the animated ccategory. it'd be if mark hamill recorded for joker but they dub over him for that lame young justice joker wannabe because he is new. why must marvel ruin their shows and heroes in animation. avengers emh was good but i also hear they may replace it with a show to fit in the ultimate spidermans universe. seriously avengers will join spectacular spiderman and wolverine and the x-men.

Marvel = Disney that's why it sucks now.

Edited the topic title to make it more clear what this was talking about. For a moment, I thought this was the movie franchise. XD


I'll be honest, Drake Bell isn't a terribly bad voice actor, and he does a decent job with Spidey... but he's nowhere near as awesome as Josh Keaton. I don't think anyone does a good a job with Spider-Man as Josh Keaton to be honest.

By the way, if you're looking to compare to two, there's a very useful website called Behind the Voice Actor that catalogs various fictional characters' voice actors, and they have a very extensive number of comparisons for comic book characters. You can find a page for Spider-man here.


Gosh, you sound like a Dragon Ball fan whining about Kai. XD

Consistency for the kids watching the show. Ultimate Spider-man and Avengers air within the same half hour of one another on Saturday mornings. It could be a little confusing to kids if there are different people voicing the same character within a half hour of one another.

As an older fan, I still don't agree with it, but it doesn't bother me too much because Spider-man isn't even a major character in Avengers anyway. If they were to swap out Thor, though, I'd probably get out my hammer...


To be fair, DC's animated programs are generally better than Marvel's because of one major factor, and that's that they can hock their crap over on Cartoon Network. You see, Time Warner owns both Cartoon Network and DC Comics, so I'd wager they're naturally biased towards putting cartoons for DC on the air during prime programming slots (like Saturday mornings) and keeping Marvel's cartoons off the air. It makes it harder for Marvel's cartoons to get anywhere because Cartoon Network certainly isn't helping them.

They have two very good options at the moment for their cartoons, though -- The Hub and Disney XD. The Hub is owned by Hasbro, who also licenses Marvel's toys. The only Marvel cartoon airing on that channel at the moment, though, is the Super Hero Squad Show, which is essentially a 30 minute toy commercial for a toy line of the same name. Of course, pretty much everything on The Hub is a 30 minute toy commercial, and honestly, most of those 30 minute toy commercials are pretty good. G.I. Joe Renegades, Transformers Prime, My Little Pony... Is' all good stuff, and the Super Hero Squad Show isn't an exception -- it's a very affection, self-aware parody of the Marvel Universe, with tons of stuff that only longtime fans of the comics are going to get.

There's also Disney XD, which seem to be the main option right now, considering Marvel is now a subsidiary of Disney. They've got a solid programming block on Saturday mornings, but the main problem is that, like The Hub, it doesn't come with basic cable. Disney needs to take a big leap forward -- airing these cartoons on their main channel. (And mayhaps direct-to-video films during their movie nights? I suppose they'd be a little too violent for the kid-friendly image of Disney Channel though...) 95% of what's aired on the Disney Channel right now is trash, and I say 95% because Phineas and Ferb is pretty good, it's just not my kind of cartoon. They used to air cartoons like Gargoyles, Kim Possible, and American Dragon Jake Long. I ask, why can't we have good shows like that back on the main channel? Because kids are too busy watching crappy sitcoms and don't understand what good entertainment is?

I understand the Disney Channel's target audience is tween girls these days because I know the tween girls who watch their crap. However, tween girls can still like shows like Spider-man if they're given a chance, and they'd be opening up to a wider viewer demographic by showing more programs for young boys as well.


No, it'd be more like if a Batman cartoon aired before Young Justice and the swapped out Mark Hamill's voice for the guy in the Batman show.


Those are far from the worst examples. Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes and the Silver Surfer cartoon take the crown. The former aired during crappy time slots on Cartoon Network before being outright canceled eight episodes in, never to reappear on basic cable. It resurfaced briefly on Nicktoons two years later, which is a shame, because it's the best Fantastic Four cartoon to date.

The Silver Surfer cartoon is arguably worse in some respects because it got canceled in the middle of a two-parter with a major cliffhanger at the end. It didn't get canceled because of low ratings -- they were actually pretty passable, considering I don't think I would have lasted through it if I were below the age of 11. (Maybe to look at the pretty pictures, but that's about it) It got canceled because of disputes about airing the program on Fox. Finding a home for Marvel's stuff on cable has always been an issue and it winds up killing anything worthwhile.


Marvel =/= Disney

Marvel is a subsidiary of Disney. The actual media that they produce is largely unaffected, and there's no "Disneyfication" of the characters like some people have been afraid of. (Unless you count fanart of Loki and Thor as Disney Princes) The Avengers movie was distributed by Disney and shoved down my throat every time I walked into my local Disney Store or went into my living room during commercials on the Disney Channel. And you know what? It was still awesome.

If anything, the Disney/Marvel merger is turning out to be a pretty good thing, because, as I mentioned, it gives Marvel a channel to broadcast their shows. The Avengers cartoon probably wouldn't have made it past its first season -- if that -- if it weren't for the merger. The overall product hasn't changed any since then. Marvel is still Marvel. Disney is still Disney. Until we see Dr. Doom get get shoved off a cliff never to be heard from again or Mary Jane starts signing and all of the birds follow her, I think I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.

what really gets me is that josh keaton already voiced the character. he already recorded for them. they then dubbed over him which is unbelievable. i knew drake bell would do it originally, then i heard keaton would do it. and now they dub over him after he finished recording. what i hate about ultimate spiderman is spidey and peter don't seem very bright. peter parker is a smart high school student who as spiderman has good quips. the one from ultimate is not very smart, has poor jokes, and is kinda like a little kid who is always excited. oh i also saw the fantastic four cartoon you mentioned when i was younger and it was very good. never saw silver surfer though.

Well, at the very least, it's not like they replaced his voice after it was aired.


To be fair, the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon is based on Marvel's Ultimate universe, Earth-1610. It's an an alternate universe where a lot of things are very different from the mainstream Marvel universe, Earth-616. For instance, Tony Stark isn't a jerk, Cap's racist, sexist and homophobic, Reed Richards has become that universe's Dr. Doom, Thor has no alter-ego and another god is Donald Blake, Nick Fury is black, and Galactus is a horde of alien spaceships.

Peter Parker in that universe isn't as bright and is more free-spirited, much like in the current cartoon. That's why it's called "Ultimate Spider-Man".


The Fantastic Four cartoon really shines after you've spent some time reading their Silver Age comics. There are a lot of obscure continuity jokes in there, like the Skrulls masquerading as cows, and most of the episodes are modern takes on old plots, like the Baxter Building being shot into space. Marvel actually has all of the episodes (sans 25 for whatever reason) on their website, and it's good quality too.

The Silver Surfer cartoon is pretty obscure. It aired in I believe '97 or '98, which was right after his longest ongoing series had finished. It's a really interesting cartoon because I can't honestly say I've seen anything like it before or since. It's not as deep as a lot of the comics based on the character, probably because it's a kids' cartoon, but it was pretty neat for what it was. Whether or not you'll enjoy it really depends on your personal tastes.