Semper, the head writer and showrunner behind the 1994 Spider-Man Animated Series, has announced that he is writing Spider-Man ’94 Annual #1, a comic releasing in December 2026 that will directly resolve the cliffhanger ending of the original show. His statement says everything: “I’m thrilled to announce that with the upcoming Spider-Man ’94 Annual #1, I will be returning to the world of Spider-Man. After 30 years, I’m finally getting to resolve the ending of my iconic animated series and tell the story of Peter finding Mary Jane. I want to thank everyone involved at Marvel for making this possible, especially my editor, Danny Khazem. I was given free rein to tell the story that I’ve always wanted to tell, and it has been a real blast.”
I'm thrilled to announce that with the upcoming Spider-Man '94 Annual #1, I will be returning to the world of Spider-Man. After 30 years, I'm finally getting to resolve the ending of my iconic animated series and tell the story of Peter finding Mary Jane. I want to thank everyone… pic.twitter.com/dxgfGZrZIc
— John Semper Jr. (@johnsemper) September 23, 2026
Here’s my variant for this epic conclusion! https://t.co/jqCrgavdTk pic.twitter.com/A9AlUSiNLh
— Will Robson (@robsonink) September 23, 2026
The reason this announcement carries the weight it does requires going back to 1998, when the animated series ended its five season run on one of the most maddening cliffhangers in cartoon history. Peter Parker had ventured into the multiverse searching for Mary Jane Watson, who had been lost in it during the events of the season five finale. The show was cancelled before that thread was ever resolved, and an entire generation of fans has been sitting with that open ending ever since.
Semper had been publicly vocal about wanting to return to it. In February 2024 he expressed willingness to revive the series on Disney+ if Marvel Studios Animation came to him with the offer. Christopher Daniel Barnes, the voice of Peter Parker in the original run, echoed the same interest, saying he would reprise the role if asked. Brad Winderbaum, head of Marvel Studios Animation, went on record saying an animated sequel was not off the table.
The property got a meaningful nod through X-Men ’97, where Spider-Man appeared in a non-speaking cameo during “Tolerance is Extinction Part 1,” witnessing Magneto’s global EMP, and returned in the season finale as Peter Parker watching Asteroid M fall toward Earth alongside Mary Jane and Flash Thompson. Series head writer Beau DeMayo confirmed the character is the same iteration from the 1994 series, and that Peter had already successfully rescued Mary Jane after the cliffhanger, which answered one question while raising the immediate demand for a full story around it.
Marvel moved on the property in June 2025 by announcing Spider-Man ’94, a five issue limited series written by J.M. DeMatteis with art by Jim Towe, picking up from the season five finale with Peter searching the multiverse for Mary Jane before returning to New York, with two major villains from the comics who were never adapted in the animated series set to appear. Publication began in September 2025. The problem is that Semper had no involvement in that project whatsoever. He confirmed he did not find out it existed until the public announcement, which is a difficult thing to reconcile when the entire point of the project is honoring a specific creative legacy he built.
Spider-Man ’94 Annual #1 arriving in December 2026 with Semper at the helm, with full creative freedom and his own editor backing him, is the version of this story that should have existed from the start. After thirty years, the man who left the door open is the one walking back through it.
