The 90s Fantastic Four cartoon, which came out AFTER marvel had released the epic X-Men cartoon, was a load of hobo piss. It's campy, lame, and has a castratingly awful theme song, not to mention ugly animation that would make Ray Charles flinch. And Marvel wonders why these characters didn't catch on when the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons further propelled those characters' popularity?

Bump

The 90's FF cartoon was sadly unwatchable in the first season, it was plagued with uninspired dialogue and terrible animation, all of which ruined the presentation of the iconic stories they were adapting. In the second season though, when pretty much every part of the production was improved, it got remarkably better. It wasn't as stylish or cohesive as the X-Men cartoon was, but I think the second season stands up pretty good next to the Spidey cartoon in the 90's, which in my opinion looks rather dated and tacky by comparison. Maybe it was the obligatory Macfarlane style they tried to force the whole show into because "hey, it's the 90's".

Check out episode 14 or 15 of the FF cartoon from the 90's and you'll notice immediately how much better the show gets. Within the first few minutes of season two the show is already more self aware and clever. Sue calls Doctor Doom out as being cliche and predictable for abducting her and pulling the "damsel in distress" routine.

I agree with your original point though, if Marvel hadn't started the 90's cartoon off so horribly then the team might have actually gotten the marketing boost it needed to launch the FF back into relevance with that generation. With the exception of season two and the World's Greatest Heroes version of the Fantastic Four, I'm afraid that the lack of quality in their television/film adaptions has lead to the general public and casual comic readers disregarding the team completely. It's a damn shame because next to Batman, I think the FF have the greatest rogues gallery in superhero comics, even more than Spider-Man and the Avengers.

I also still can't decide if the opening theme to the cartoon in question is the worst thing to ever exist, or the greatest.