That 90's animated series really is something. And by something I mean really freaking weird. I liked it as a kid but now it makes me laugh at best and frustrates me at worst.
Electro being Red Skull's son is one really weird thing. I'm never against reinventing a character's origin, and he can be one of the more overpowered villains so hyping him up as a bigger villain's trump card like a nuclear weapon kind of makes sense. Although I'm not sure why it had to be for Hydra of all things? It actually makes him more of a Captain America or Avengers villain than a Spider-Man one.
Then there's the weird censorship. Like how the characters fight in any way but actually punching or kicking each other. Sort of like how the TMNT in the 80's series and second movie almost never use their weapons from what I hear. Or the Sinister Six being called the Insidious Six, but then Mr. Sinister keeps his name in the 90's X-Men animated series. And since when does a kooky word like "sinister" sound more evil than "insidious"? Guess it's because "sin" is in the word?
And I'll never forget how much of an obsession that show had with Kingpin being the biggest baddie in town and regularly overpowering anybody with supposedly brute human strength. It's so funny and I loved his badass voice actor. But seriously, watch this:
But that's just a result of the 90's animated series being based off entirely on the comics without any other media influence, and classic comic book Kingpin is actually this ridiculously overpowered.
It's a shame that Spectacular Spider-Man needed to use Tombstone to replace Kingpin back when FOX still owned the Daredevil adaptation rights, but at least Tombstone kicking Spider-Man's ass looks more believable. But I'm not even complaining. Seeing Kingpin throw Spider-Man threw walls and dent metal pipes with his fists in the PS4 game endlessly amuses me.
While I'm on the topic of the Spider-Man animated shows, you want to know which character I feel like they never use to their fullest potential?
Otto Octavius. AKA Doctor Octopus.
He is easily one of the top two-three villains in Spider-Man's rogues gallery with his smarts, power, and schemes over the decades. But for some reason, he never gets as much build-up or focus as an intimidating overarching nemesis in any Spider-Man show as Venom, Green Goblin, or even Kingpin (if we count Spectacular's Tombstone as being a de facto version of him).
Oh, sure, Ock gets more to work with than the rest of Spider-Man's rogues gallery like leading the Sinister Six every once in a while. But he also gets treated like a stooge compared to those three other villains. And often even gets forced to work UNDER them in some way as his introduction.
Kingpin extorts Doc Ock and the whole Sini-sorry, I mean INSIDIOUS SIX to work under him in the 90's series while almost every series since then has Doc Ock debut as Norman Osborn's lackey in Spectacular and Ultimate Spider-Man. As if to subtly imply his entire existence as an antagonist will always live under the shadow of these other big villains.
Even in a show as great as Spectacular Spider-Man, while Gobby and Venom gets multiple episode character arcs and villain buildup in Spectacular, the first episode where Doc Ock forms the Sinister Six has them get used as punching bags to emphasize how strong black suit Spider-Man is. As if to subtly imply his entire existence as an antagonist will always live under the shadow of these other big villains.
It's really sad. Especially since Doctor Octopus has more character development potential and works so much better as an anti-Spider-Man than Venom does on a figurative level. His domestic abuse backstory is the opposite of Peter's, he has an ego like Peter does before Uncle Ben's death that was never humbled by Uncle Ben's moral guidance, he has scientific knowledge that rivals/surpasses Peter's, and he's designed like an arachnid in the opposite way of Peter by not having superpowers but using artificial cybernetic limbs. There's also the whole Superior Spider-Man thing and how he has moments where he does help and care about others.
He might look goofy at first glance, the good doctor deserves a lot more respect than he usually gets. Which the PS4 game fortunately does in spades. I rank him up there with Joker and Lex Luthor as my favorite super villains. I'm tired of Otto having to deal with this absurd glass ceiling despite arguably being the best Spider-Man villain.
@Rogues':
Speaking of Shocker, I heavily disliked his on-screen treatment in Homecoming. No suit, didn't have any scenes remotely interesting or memorable, and wasn't even given a complete pair of vibrating gauntlets to work with, only one, and it was for like 30 seconds!
Homecoming treated Shocker's first film debut as a throwaway joke, which is sad considering he's actually a pretty lethal opponent if he uses his technology right.
Much prefer his recent PS4 interpretation.
Agreed. This is why I'm skeptical whenever people cite Spider-Man Homecoming as a good example of balancing multiple villains because they're way of handling that is having Vulture be the main antagonist and the other villains either not even be villains yet or have zero character aside from a fight for less than a minute.
And seriously, you can't tell me that Shocker can't have his costume in live-aciton when it's literally a yellow and brown version of Spider-Man's suit.