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(1994-present)
Throughout the 1990's, as the popularity of Spider-Man grew due to his successful animated series, a number of trading card sets were released to appeal to both long time fans and new comers brought in by the show. In the years following the cancellation of the Spider-Man animated series, card sets continued to be published, though in fewer numbers. The latest Marvel trading card set, Marvel Legends (also covered on this page), has a number of Spider-Man related characters included in it.
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In 1994 Marvel relaunched it's successful series of Spider-Man trading cards with an all-new line, with inter-locking cards rendered by Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley. The cards included sections detailing Spider-Man and Venom's powers, Spidey's greatest foes, his friends (both regular and super-powered) and spotlights on major events in Spidey's life. The usual assortment of chase cards were included as well.
Just following the start of the Spider-Man animated series, a card set was released featuring both old and new characters as well as timeline cards, Venom and Carnage sub-sets and a number of special limited cards. The series, which focused mainly on new Spider-Man villains at the time, had little mentions of the character's actions on the Spider-Man cartoon if they were on it, and led to a brief series of reprints based on it.
The first reproduction to be made based on Spider-Man '95, was five cards of Spider-Man, the Shocker, the Hobgoblin, the Lizard and Dr. Octopus, in boxes of Spider-Man cereal. The cards were reproductions of the animated "clearchrome card" inserts in the regular card set, though reprinted on regular cardstock with the information from the regular series cards on their backs.
The second time the cards of Spider-Man '95 were reprinted was in 1997 when the cards were rereleased on less glossy cardstock in packs of five cards. The characters included in the rerelease were pecular to say the least, the most notible of one purchased pack being the Sandman.
In 1995 the Fox Broadcasting Corporation and it's Saturday morning programming block "Fox Kids" ruled the airwaves, with X-Men, The Power Rangers, Batman and of course Spider-Man amongst the top-rated childrens programming around, and all on the same network. Therefore it made sense for Fox and it's partner in Fleer to take advantage of this and release a card set featuring all of it's top rated programs, with the exception of Batman, (due to the fact that Marvel owned Fleer at the time and it's unlikely that DC would have cared for Batman being included in a card set with the X-Men and Spider-Man, it's competition) and the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, then considered controversial for it's violent content.
Still, the set featured the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Tick, Eek the Cat and Bobby's World, and unlike other Spider-Man card sets, this one focused on more important villains as well as feauring J. Jonah Jameson and Mary Jane on multiple card. And in an odd twist from the comic card sets which featured information on the animated series, the animated card sets featured information on the comics.
Without question, one of the most prominent comic events of the 1990's was the much talked about Marvel versus DC crossover, pitting Marvel's greatest heroes and villains against each other in grand fashion. The cards featured profiles for some of the more important characters from each universe, including the X-Men, the Justice League, and, of course, Spider-Man, who at the time had been replaced by his clone Ben Reilly. The cards also included depictions of battles from the actual comics, and included comments on the card backs by either Clark Kent or Peter Parker. A ballot to choose the victor of five different hero vs. hero battles was included in every pack.
Making a sharp turn away from the previous card sets, the Spider-Man '96 card set, which was actually released in 1997, had a darker influence towards it and it focused more directly on Spider-Man's rogues gallery. Still including more modern and obscure foes, this set also had a bevy of more classic villains than the '95 set, and included several sub-sets including nine cards devoted to Spider-Man's female enemies, foes that have gone mad including Venom, Chameleon and Carrion and a set devoted to foes that have died, though by now that set is somewhat out of date, having included Norman Osborn, Dr. Octopus and Calypso.
One final villain related subset dealt with fights against villains, though given the release of the cards a great deal of focue was spent on Ben Reilly as both the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man and his his fights.
Returning to the animated series as the basis for a card set, Spider-Man '97 focused primarily on characters used in the Spider-Man animated series while including some characters used only in the core Spider-Man comics. The set went beyond the Spider-Man universe as well, bringing in some of Spider-Man's co-stars from the cartoon including Iron Man, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Strange and featured cards showcasing great battles and team-ups.
The Spider-Man '97 card set was an attempt my Marvel to bring in a younger audience into comics by charging only ninety-nine cents a pack, a tactic shared by Marvel's short-lived ninety-nine cent comic line. A similar ninety-nine card set was released focusing on the X-Men.
In addition to the less expensive Spider-Man '97, another Fleer Ultra Spider-Man card set was released, continuing the annual tradition. This set, like the '96 villain set, had an interesting angle as well, recounting the last few years stories and characters on the cards in separtate sections. Spider-Man titles including Peter Parker: Spider-Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man Team-Up and Spider-Man Adventures, were all featured on the cards, each with an unique style. Current Marvel Editor-In-Chief contributed to the designs.
One drawback to the series was the puzzle to be put together on the back of all the cards. The order was irregular making it difficult to put together, and unlike the Spider-Man card set from 1994, the puzzles went beyond nine cards making it nearly immpossible to get a complete picture without buying the entire set. Still, a set like this has never been done before, one that included all of the Spider-Man titles equally, giving consideration to all of the hard work being done by all creators, instead of focusing on a specific title.
Following 1997, Spider-Man trading cards were seldom seen, barring the rerelease of the '95, the reason being that Marvel had entered a state of bankruptcy and had to cancel all non-comic productions, including the Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk and Silver Surfer animated series and most film projects. Once reentering financial stability Marvel refocused it's efforts towards other media and put out a X-Men Movie trading card set, which led to a new Marvel Universe card set.
Unlike other Marvel ventures, focus in Marvel Legends seemed to be less upon the X-Men and more towards the other characters, and unlike other Marvel universe trading card lines the focus went beyond the last few years of the comics and exclusively exclusivly to characters from the early days of Marvel that are still around today. All of Spider-Man's classic villains were featured including Dr. Octopus, the Kingpin, Mysterio, the Sandman, the Green Goblin and the Vulture, and Ben Reilly actually even made an appearence in the Costume Change sub-set.