The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Lost Josh Keaton Audio)

The animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010-2012) had famous Marvel Comics hero Spider-Man guest-star in four episodes: #39 ("Along Came a Spider"), #44 ("Yellowjacket"), #49 ("New Avengers") and #52 ("Avengers Assemble", also the official series finale). Before they premiered, a rumor arose that Josh Keaton recorded the voice of Spidey. He previously voiced this character in the cartoon The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009) and five Marvel-themed video games.

As became the case for several episodes of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, these four aired in Australia first, instead of America. "Along Came a Spider" received this treatment on June 6, 2012. Viewers heard not Josh Keaton, but rather, Drake Bell. Prior to this, Bell had only voiced Spider-Man in the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man, which made its American premiere only two months earlier. Some viewers thought he gave a decent performance, while others still wished to hear Keaton instead.

A moderator of the Facebook Group "Keep 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' Alive!", Jesse G. Betteridge, expressed his disappointment at the lack of Josh Keaton by posting a picture of Drake Bell's name appearing in the EMH end credits. Josh Keaton found the screencap on Facebook, and commented, "Wow so they redubbed my audio. I recorded a few Avengers eps as Spider-Man and was looking forward to seeing them. Typical Parker luck I guess."

Marvel fans became enraged that Marvel would not only subject viewers of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes to an inferior Spider-Man voice actor, but do so without informing the cast and crew. One fansite, Marvel Animation Age, tried to promote hashtag activism as a means of convincing Marvel/Disney to release the undubbed versions of the episodes. This would involve Tweeting either "#JoshKeatonIsSpiderMan", or "#DrakeBellIsNotSpiderMan". However, neither hashtag became very popular. As controversy arose, Josh Keaton posted on Tumblr that this marked far from the first time one of his vocal performances became replaced, and that Drake Bell didn't deserve their scorn-he dubbed Keaton for money, not out of spite.

When the rest of Spider-Man's guest appearances made their TV debuts, they still contained Drake Bell's vocals, instead of Josh Keaton's. "Yellowjacket" provided an exception, but only because Spidey had no lines. This also remained the case when the episodes finally made their American premieres, starting on July 22, 2012. The North American home video releases of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes do not include an option to replace Drake Bell with Josh Keaton.

One of Josh Keaton's fellow Spectacular Spider-Man cast members also reprised his role for The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, only become re-dubbed by someone from Ultimate Spider-Man. A policeman seen in the cold open of "Along Came a Spider" has his lines delivered by Daran Norris, who played J. Jonah Jameson in SSM. However, both USM and the re-dubbed EMH have Jameson instead voiced by JK Simmons (who also portrayed the character in Sam Raimi's live-action Spider-Man movies).

One post from Marvel Animation Age's forum suggests that at least one other English-speaking country aired The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes with Josh Keaton's voice intact, but this never became verified.