Don't understand the praise.

Long post ahead....

We like it because we enjoyed the stories, characters, action sequences etc. The episodes really weren't rushed. Especially no where near the 90s cartoon was where things moved so fast. For one thing, Eddie Brock had more appearances before he became Venom(which wasn't until the end of the first season). Time was taken to develop his hatred for Spider-man. The symbiote arc was also longer. It even included an episode that took time to show the symbiote's strong desire to be with Spidey. Plus the majority of the villains alter egos appeared before the episode they became a supervillain.

Then there's the characters and the character development. Gwen was a main character for first time, Flash develops into a person, MJ was finally the cool party girl. Many characters shine and this series was the first to use some of them. Each character was developed enough that Peter didn't even have to be there for there to be a story.

Then the villains. This series was the first time Norman Osborn was portrayed like he originally was in the comics. Calm, collected, respected by his peers, and was actually aware of his actions as the Green Goblin. Whereas 90s Norman for the most part was whiny, cowardly, disrespected by his peers, and literally had to snap to actually become a threat. Doc Ock was his own villain. He created and led the Sinister Six, was the Master Planner, and became one of the top three crime lords. After 90s Ock debut episode, he was just a Kingpin lackey with a high IQ. Unlike other adaptations, Venom actually use the info he had on Spidey instead of just chasing him around because of this "You're mine and mine alone!" crap And he came much closer to beating Spidey than any of version. I also found it more interesting that they went with the story from the Ultimate comics and made Peter and Eddie friends. As when Eddie became Venom, it made things more personal for Peter. As a good friend of his became one of his worst foes. Similar to Two-Face in Batman TAS. The only thing I didn't care for was Venom's voice.

The villains also had so depth. Electro's not a bad guy at first and wanted to be normal again. But completely lost any sanity he had later on. We also see that Sandman had some humanity in him and had the potential to become a better person.

The action sequences were also pretty phenomenal. The beatings Spidey took depicted the ones he took in the comics. He gets punched a lot, hurled through buildings, slammed against walls and cars, gets his head smash through car windows etc and is able to carry on fighting. The action sequences in the 90s show mostly consisted of grappling/throwing, people ramming each other, bear hugs, and light kicks that only lasted for a minute. Plus the show made Spidey weak compared to his comic counterpart. As he'd often get hit just once and is either knocked out or too weak to carry on. The fights in Spectacular also lasted longer showing how much of a struggle Spidey had against his foes.

I admit the art wasn't the most, but it allowed incredibly smooth animation and helped provide better fights. I'll take that over a "realistic" art with poor and slow animation, heavy overuse of stock footage, and lacking action sequences.




Sick of threads "Megan Fox should play this!"

For me personally:
1)The animation is top notch. Now remember, this is different from design! I'm referring to the movement, not the still appearance of things.
This gave us some of the best fights seen in anything Spider-Man. The movements were perfect, there was a flow to everything... just... excellent.

2)Story arcs and continuity. Every 3 or 4 episodes formed a larger story or theme, an arc if you will. There were many episodes you can watch on their own, particularly in the first few, but there was still a running story that was always going somewhere and there was setup and foreshadowing. The civilian sides of Venom, Rhino, Sandman, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, and Molten Man all show up well before they're established super villains. Characters who would eventually become supervillains also appear such as Cletus Kassady, Roderick Kingsley, and Miles Warren, as well as references to others like Mac Gargan.

3) Josh Keaton. Now, I can understand not caring for a few of the voices. But Josh Keaton to me is as Kevin Conroy is to Batman. He just is the voice of Spider-Man.
John DiMaggio was a great Sandman and Hammerhead, while Kevin Michael Richardson's voice brought Tombstone to life.

4) Sources: The show takes much influence from the classic Steve Ditko/Stan Lee era, but wisely doesn't just stick to one source. Rather, I feel, the show took from the best of a pool of sources. (Eddie Brock and Peter's friendship/past from Ultimate Marvel, but the alien origin of the 616.) (Starting off with the symbiote appearance of Spider-Man 3 that shifts into the classic appearance we know over the course of the episodes.) (Doc Ock's appearance combines the classic jumpsuit with the trenchcoat look from Spider-Man 2.)

This isn't all of it, but hopefully this provides some small things.

The writing is great and the animation is very fluid, making the fight scenes very easy on the eye.

If it wasn't for the heavily stylised character design (which takes getting used to) this show would get even more love.