It was the winter of 1994 when John Semper released the first-ever episode of an iconic series titled Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Before he found fame with Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi’s films, the character of Spider-Man was a part of an animated show.
And much like Spider-Man, Bruce Wayne aka Batman also had an animated show to its name titled Batman: The Animated Series. The difference between the two was that Batman: TAS was let off with a lot of controversial scenes while the Spider-Man series suffered from censorship. An event that creator John Semper is still jealous of!
Batman: The Animated Series Was Too Much For Children!
Back in 1992, Bruce Timm created the iconic series Batman: The Animated Series with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill voicing the characters of Batman and The Joker respectively. Finding much fame and acclaim, the series was an instant success and a beloved cartoon for the people.
Since it was based on comic books that were borderline violent, some scenes were deemed a bit too controversial for children (their target audience). To counter this, they proposed censorship of the animated series and decided to cut scenes that seemed to be too much for the children.
However, from 1992 till the censorship laws were implemented, Batman: The Animated Series got away with pretty much everything! On the other hand, John Semper, the creator of Spider-Man: The Animated Series was still developing his upcoming series based on the character of the iconic web-slinger.
The Creator of The Spider-Man Series Is Jealous of Bruce Timm’s Batman!
As stated above, the censorship laws resulted in some very downgrading of fight sequences. Some of the awesome fight scenes in the comic books were not allowed to be adapted. John Semper, the creator of Spider-Man: The Animated Series revealed in an interview that he was quite jealous about all the stuff that Bruce Timm and Batman: TAS got away with!
“When I watch the older episodes of ‘Batman’ that first aired on Fox, they do all kinds of things that we couldn’t do. By the time Spidey came on, Fox wouldn’t let us do anything like that. No fists to the face, no realistic guns, no fire, no crashing through glass, no children in peril, no mention of the words death, die, or kill.”
Although the series had to undergo heavy censorship laws, Spider-Man: The Animated Series received a rating of 8.4/10 on IMDB and a whopping 95% on Rotten Tomatoes.
With 5 seasons to its name, the censored show is available to stream on Disney+. On the other hand, Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series, which received a rating of 9/10 on IMDB and a whopping 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
