Every Marvel Comic Book TV Show Ranked From Worst To Best

From a Japanese Spider-Man to the MCU, there've been some weird and wonderful Marvel shows.

By James Hunt /

Netflix/FX/ABC/Spike/CBS

Having dominated cinema for almost a decade, Marvel are gradually doing the same with television.

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They've carved out a whole corner of the MCU over on Netflix, which earns as much critical acclaim as any of the movies, and have plans for many more series to come: from further Netflix series The Defenders and The Punisher, to Hulu's The Runaways, Fox's X-Men TV series, and ABC/Freeform shows Inhumans, Damage Control, and New Warriors (ft. Squirrel Girl!), all in addition to continuing their recent hits.

Marvel wasn't always the film and TV superpower it is today, nor synonymous with any kind of guaranteed quality (although the animated X-Men and Spider-Man series of the 90s were incredible, I'll be sticking to live-action here).

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It's interesting to look through their back catalogue, and chart their journey that's led us to the Netflix Marvel Universe and beyond, and see how they all stack up.

Honourable Mention: Spidey Super Stories

This one doesn't fully count, since these were just five minute segments as part of The Electric Company, yet there is some importance to them.

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Airing in 1974, this represents the very first live-action portrayal of Spider-Man. He's, er, come a long way since then.

Aimed at kids, the stories are pretty silly, utilising word balloons rather than actual speech and showing comic book images rather than special effects. Still, it did contain narration from Morgan Freeman (who was a regular on TEC), and a cracking theme song.

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"Spider-Man, where are you coming from? Spider-Man, nobody knows who you are! Spider-Man, you've got that Spidey touch. Spider-Man, you are a web-slinging star!"