Best Spider-Man voice over actor?

[AlgeaX]

"To go off on a tangent for a moment," continues Semper, "a lot of people don't know this, but Batman: The Animated Series did not set the world on fire in the ratings. Never was a big hit. The reason Warners continued making it was because they branched off and created their own network. If you remember, Batman began on FOX and then sequed over to Warners. Because it was an established franchise, they kept making new episodes. But Spider-Man routinely beat the spandex off of Batman. You may not remember this, but when they premiered Superman, they put it on opposite Spider-Man and Superman failed so miserably that in order to keep it alive they had to pair it with Batman as the Superman/Batman Hour. Then they had to take that show away from being on opposite Spider-Man, because Spider-Man was clobbering it."

And Mighty Morphing Power Rangers used to trash Gargoyles in the ratings on a regular basis. You know another show that used to have lousy rating? Joss Whedon's Firefly. High ratings does not equal high quality!

"I didn't use Gwen on this show, because everything with Gwen would ultimately have to lead to her dying," he says. "We can't do dying on Saturday morning. The Batman guys always managed to get away with stuff like that, but they always managed to get away, quite literally, with murder. They did everything we weren't supposed to do -- everything I was absolutely told not to do by the censors. What happened with Batman initially was when they did the first season, I think the censorship was a bit looser. By the time I started Spider-Man, FOX was having trouble placing their shows in Canada, which was banning shows like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. FOX was being really skittish about violence and they didn't want to take any chances. So all the stuff the Batman guys had been doing, we suddenly couldn't do. Then Batman moved over to the WB network, so you've got Warner Brothers making cartoons for the WB network, and there never seemed to be any censorship on those guys whatsoever.

This shows a stunning lack of imagination on Semper's part. Greg Weisman has proved that you can get a lot of milage out of Gwen's character without tossing her off a bridge. It's even sillier when you consider that Semper ended up doing the story anyway, except with MJ and interdimensional portals.

Viewers were saying, "How come Spider-Man doesn't hit anybody?" I was absolutely told that I could not do that. So I couldn't do what they did, yet I got better ratings. Their show went on to win Emmys and ran for years and years, because Warner Brothers wisely saw the sense in keeping the franchise going. My show, which routinely beat Batman in the ratings and certainly clobbered Superman -- not only did it end with sixty-five episodes, thanks to corporate stupidity, but it really was a show that from the beginning had far more restrictions on it than any of those Warner Brothers shows did. The original Batman has always received kudos and Spider-Man has not, yet Spider-Man, as far as I'm concerned, was the better show from a storytelling point of view. Not that I'm biased or anything..." He laughs.

Are we sure John Semper isn't really some kind of alias of John Bryne?

 

[satam55]

Interesting, don't agree with him on some points, though.

It's the quality of the show that won BTAS their Emmy's, not the ratings or the fact Batman could hit people in the face. And if SMTAS didn't have the level of censorship it did it still wouldn't have won any Emmy's because the animation would still be terrible and the stories still wouldn't have been that great.

I am curious what he meant by "[SMTAS] was the better show from a storytelling point of view." I assume he meant since BTAS largely done in one stories where as his show was more story arcs and the like.

Regardless BTAS's "Heart of Ice" beats out anything he did story wise, larger implications or not.

That's The ONLY problem I have with Batman: TAS/TNBA and Superman: TAS. Every episode (Unless it's a 2 or 3-parter) is a stand alone episode, unlike both 90's X-Men and Spider-Man which used Season Long Storyarcs/Long Running Storylines.

But Fortunately, Bruce Timm and crew started doing them in the 1st season of Batman Beyond. Than they started doing them again on JL Season 2 and throughout JLU.

 

[Aldrius]

Batman: The Animated Series, and Superman aren't about story-arcs, though. You'll have the occasional two-parter but mostly they're both fairly static characters, and that's intentional. They might have big events in their lives that pass on to future stories (such as Harvey becoming Two-Face), but they rarely change, and in my opinion they didn't have to, that would have ruined the mini-movie format.

Anyway, ratings don't really affect quality at all, but I think that's obvious.

 

[Rick Jones]

Batman: The Animated Series, and Superman aren't about story-arcs, though. You'll have the occasional two-parter but mostly they're both fairly static characters, and that's intentional. They might have big events in their lives that pass on to future stories (such as Harvey becoming Two-Face), but they rarely change, and in my opinion they didn't have to, that would have ruined the mini-movie format.

I totally agree. Everything doesn't have to be storyarcs and season long sagas. There's nothing wrong with standalones or so called filler episodes.

 

[AlgeaX]

That's The ONLY problem I have with Batman: TAS/TNBA and Superman: TAS. Every episode (Unless it's a 2 or 3-parter) is a stand alone episode, unlike both 90's X-Men and Spider-Man which used Season Long Storyarcs/Long Running Storylines.

But Fortunately, Bruce Timm and crew started doing them in the 1st season of Batman Beyond. Than they started doing them again on JL Season 2 and throughout JLU.

While I generally prefer arc-driven shows; which is probably why I've always prefered Gargoyles to B:TAS, there's nothing inherently inferior about the stand-alone mini-movie format of B:TAS. It's simply a matter of writing style and personal prefrence.

 

[Batman]

Christopher Daniel Barnes is still The definitive voice of Spider-Man/Peter Parker .

Josh Keaton does an amazing job but he still isn't as good as Christopher . Just like Kevin Conroy & Mark Hamill are the ultimate definitive voice of Batman & The Joker , Christopher Daniel Barnes is and always will be Spider-Man .

 

[satam55]

Christopher Daniel Barnes is still The definitive voice of Spider-Man/Peter Parker .

Josh Keaton does an amazing job but he still isn't as good as Christopher . Just like Kevin Conroy & Mark Hamill are the ultimate definitive voice of Batman & The Joker , Christopher Daniel Barnes is and always will be Spider-Man .

Hold that nostalgia tight!

Actually, Spiderman is right. Like I said in a previous post, Keaton is solid but their is nothing so special about his performance that makes him stand out more than any other previous spidermans.

 

[Sonic_Eclipse]

Barnes is the voice I hear when I read the comics, so I guess he's my favorite Spider-Man.

Second would probably be Neil Patrick Harris, its a shame it didn't last long.

 

[Wonderwall]

I don't think there has been a voice that I've listened to that is definitive for me. I like a lot of Spiderman voices, Barnes, Romano, Harris, Keaton, I even like the guy who did the voice in the 60s show. Barnes was one that I use to associate with a lot but Keaton has really come up to match him, so I think those are my front runners.

 

[foxwolf2099]

yeah, though i grew up on Barnes, Keaton is really growing me the more and more I was Spectacular

 

[satam55]

Barnes is the voice I hear when I read the comics, so I guess he's my favorite Spider-Man.

Second would probably be Neil Patrick Harris, its a shame it didn't last long.

LOL! AGREED!!!! I use all the voices from Spider-Mam: TAS, when ever I read the comics.

 

[foxwolf2099]

the more i watch Spectacular, the more I'm liking Keaton as Spidey. He just plays him so naturally.

 

[foxwolf2099]

other Spidey characters voices added

Voice compares have been added for GREEN GOBLIN and MARY JANE WATSON

for green goblin, its a tie between Neil Ross and Steve Blum. The Rino one with the accent was super lame.

For Mary Jane, the Fox Kids Sara Ballantine wins by far. The others are just so monotone

 

[satam55]

Voice compares have been added for GREEN GOBLIN and MARY JANE WATSON

for green goblin, its a tie between Neil Ross and Steve Blum. The Rino one with the accent was super lame.

For Mary Jane, the Fox Kids Sara Ballantine wins by far. The others are just so monotone

I gotta go with Neil Ross over Steve Blum, although I do like Steve Blum's Green Goblin. But, Neil Ross has the versatility of playing both Green Goblin and Norman Osborn on 2 Different Spider-Man Shows (90's Spider-Man and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends)

As for Mary Jane, I really Like TSSM Mary Jane voice (but I hate the fact that she is trying to hook peter up with Gwen Stacy, which is unlike the comics version of her, who was agressivley flirting and throwing herself at peter even though he was dating Gwen and MJ was going out with harry.) but Sara Ballantine's voice is most familar and its her voice I use when I read the comics. So a slight lean for Sara Ballantine.

 

[SpideyFan914]

Which of those VAs go to which series?
All I know is that for GG, I'm sticking with TSSM, and for MJ, it's TAS all the way by a long shot.

 

[Webbed-Wonder]

I gotta go with Neil Ross over Steve Blum, although I do like Steve Blum's Green Goblin. But, Neil Ross has the versatility of playing both Green Goblin and Norman Osborn on 2 Different Spider-Man Shows (90's Spider-Man and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends)

Three, no? Not positive; but I'm pretty sure he voiced Norman and the Goblin in the solo 80's show, too.

 

[satam55]

Three, no? Not positive; but I'm pretty sure he voiced Norman and the Goblin in the solo 80's show, too.

My Bad, I'm pretty sure he was also Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in the solo 80' show.

So that's 3 spider-Man shows. That's why i have him as the Definitive Norman Osborn/Green Goblin,

 

[Nygma]

Which of those VAs go to which series?
All I know is that for GG, I'm sticking with TSSM, and for MJ, it's TAS all the way by a long shot.

Your joking right? GG I can somewhat let you slide on that (though Steve Blum owns Ross on that IMO). But TAS MJ? Her voice was absolute crap IMO.

 

[Animation Freak]

I gotta go with Neil Ross over Steve Blum, although I do like Steve Blum's Green Goblin. But, Neil Ross has the versatility of playing both Green Goblin and Norman Osborn on 2 Different Spider-Man Shows (90's Spider-Man and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends)

To be fair to Blum, Weisman was trying to keep the identity of the Green Goblin a secret to those not already familiar with GG.

But getting to the subject on this thread, I gotta say I prefer Rino Romano as Spidey. Yeah, Unlimited was in sucked, but he still suited the character and the first PS1 game was pretty good.

 

[foxwolf2099]

Green Goblin and Mary Jane Watson have been added to voice compare.

Have a listen.

I still stick to my Fox series faves Neil Ross for GG, and Sara Ballantine for MJ