Marvel has produced more animated superhero TV shows than most fans realize, and a surprising number of them have been forgotten. Arguably, these Marvel shows are better than the MCU movies, handling the best Marvel comics storylines packaged as 23-minute episodes in more nuanced ways that their movie counterparts didn’t always nail.
These series arrived in odd time slots, vanished after network shake-ups, or were eclipsed by bigger titles, yet each one offered something distinct in Marvel’s long animation history. If you’ve never heard of these shows or simply forgot about them, revisiting these classic Marvel animated shows now feels a bit like opening a time capsule.
Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (2006)
1 Season, 26 Episodes
Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes never had a shot to begin with. At release, Cartoon Network only aired the first eight episodes before putting it on ice for a year. Then the studio attempted to relaunch the show to coincide with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), but it wouldn’t be aired in its entirety until 2009, when Nickelodeon purchased the rights.
So you wouldn’t be faulted for forgetting about this show because it was treated as if it never should have existed. But among many of Marvel’s best animated shows, Fantastic Four: World‘s Greatest Heroes had sharp visual identity.The series leaned into an anime-inspired style that gave the team’s cosmic chaos a bright, kinetic energy. It captured the family dynamic with surprising ease, balancing Reed’s ambition, Sue’s steadiness, Johnny’s impulsiveness, and Ben’s dry humor in ways that felt true to the spirit of the comics.
Over time, it faded into a kind of nostalgic haze, remembered by only a sliver of fans who caught it during its original run. Revisiting it now reveals a series that understood the Fantastic Four better than most adaptations, capturing the blend of adventure and vulnerability that defines them at their best.
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999)
1 Season, 13 Episodes
Spider-Man Unlimited stands out because it didn’t try to mimic anything that came before it. Instead, it swung headfirst into a sci-fi odyssey, sending Peter to Counter-Earth on a mission that felt ripped straight out of a pulp serial. The show’s bold designs and bizarre worldbuilding made it strangely unique. It’s not the best Spider-Man animated series, but it deserves its flowers for its undeniable confidence and willingness to experiment with the character.
But the show struggled to survive outside that ambition. Network interruptions and preemptions kept it from building momentum, and its single-season run left many of its biggest ideas hanging in the air. Still, there’s something endearing about how Spider-Man Unlimited committed to its vision, even when the choices were surreal.
Wolverine and the X-Men (2009)
1 Season, 26 Episodes
Taking cues from every X-Men movie, Wolverine and the X-Men positioned Logan as the emotional center of a fractured team. The series opened with the X-Men scattered after a devastating event, using that sense of loss to fuel a story about rebuilding and responsibility.
The best Wolverine and the X-Men episodes saw Wolverine stepping into a leadership role he never wanted, and that friction—between the man he is and the man the team needs—preserved the show’s emotional core and gave the audience something to latch onto. With tight plotting and clear stakes, it managed to honor the ensemble while letting Logan’s arc handle the narrative lifting.
The real tragedy is how close the show came to something even bigger. Season 1 laid the groundwork for an ambitious multi-season plan after concluding the Magneto and Sentinels arc in the season’s final episodes. Instead, the show ended just as it reached its most compelling ideas, leaving behind a single season that remains one of the most confident interpretations of the X-Men on television.
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (2010)
2 Seasons, 52 Episodes
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes hit a sweet spot that Marvel animation rarely achieves, delivering the scope of a high-stakes team adventure while keeping every character grounded in their own motivations. The show brought decades of continuity into a streamlined narrative that never felt weighed down by lore, giving each Avenger room to breathe and evolve.
More impressively, some of the best Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes episodes tackled Ultron, Kang, and Doctor Doom years before the MCU ever would. The writing understood the appeal of the lineup and built stories around those dynamics rather than relying on the most exciting action moments to carry the episodes.
The series only grew stronger as it progressed, setting up arcs that reflected the larger moral questions that define the Avengers. It gave fans a version of the team that felt both classic and modern, a mix of comic-book reverence and confident adaptation. When it ended, it felt less like a natural conclusion and more like a door closing on a show that still had plenty of ground left to cover.
