Spider-Man is a
syndicated animated TV series based
on the popular
Marvel Comics character
of the same name.
Overview
Production background
The series was created to launch
Marvel Productions, successor of
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, who
had previously produced the
1978
New Fantastic
Four and
1979
Spider-Woman
animated series (where Spider-Man made two appearances).
Synopsis
The series featured
Peter Parker having
to balance his alter ego crimefighting with his responsibilities as
a university student, a part-time photographer for the
Daily
Bugle and caring for his elderly Aunt May Parker. The series
was not as popular with fans as
Spider-Man and His Amazing
Friends, another animated series that aired on
NBC around the same time, but
Spider-Man still
provided viewers with plenty of comic book villains, including
Chameleon,
Doctor Doom,
Doctor
Octopus,
The Kingpin,
The Lizard,
Sandman,
Silvermane,
Vulture,
Mysterio,
Magneto,
Red
Skull,
Kraven the Hunter,
Wizard, and the
Green Goblin.
Character designs
The character design for Peter Parker (as well as other supporting
characters including Aunt May and J. Jonah Jameson) was also quite
faithful to the comic books of the period and hearkened back to the
illustrations by
John Romita Sr. of
the young hero in Spider-Man’s newspaper strip adventures from the
1970s. Due to network constraints and demands from parents,
characters such as Spider-Man were not allowed to make a fist to
strike an opponent, but the show’s creators managed to conceal
these issues with a focus on action and relatively fluid
animation.
Much like the
Spider-Man newspaper strip of the late
1970s, Peter Parker’s character design did away with the
conservative suit and tie of the 1960s animated series in favor of
a hip jacket and yellow turtleneck (although he infrequently wore a
button down shirt in the series and put on a tie for the
President’s arrival at the New York City airport in “Dr. Doom,
Master of the World”). Stan Lee once remarked that John Romita Sr.
often drew Parker with a turtleneck instead of a collared shirt
since he felt it would better hide his Spider-Man costume, which
was always worn under his street clothes.
Peter’s mask was connected to his costume at the back of the neck,
almost like a hood, which he would pull over his head when he
changed into Spider-Man.
In relation to Spider-Man and His Amazing
Friends/Controversy
Spider-Man and
His Amazing Friends was originally believed to be
something of a sequel to this solo
Spider-Man animated
series, although this has since been disputed since both series
were originally first aired at the same time on September 12, 1981.
The two series are connected in the latter's third-season episode
“Origin of the Spider-Friends.” Although not as well known as
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends the cartoon itself is
regarded by many comic book fans as being vastly superior since it
remains faithful to the character's origin. The animation to both
incarnations and its soundtrack are completely identical, although
the voicing actors are different.
In both animated series featuring Spider-Man that aired in the
1980s, the
Green Goblin appears in
similar episodes, and seems to be similar to a man that transforms
into the Goblin, (as in “
Dr. Jekyll”)
rather than a man wearing a costume.
The third season
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
episode “Attack of the Arachnoid” borrows the majority of its plot
from “The Web of Nephilia” from this series.
In the episode "The Prison Plot" of
Spider-Man and His Amazing
Friends, there is a flashback sequence that depicts a scene
from "When Magneto Speaks...People Listen", confirming the sequel
theory.
Reruns and DVD release
As was the case with
Amazing Friends, the series was later
re-aired in the late 1980s as part of the 90-minute
Marvel Action Universe (not to
be confused with
1988's
The Marvel Action Universe), a syndicated
series that was used as a platform for old and new Marvel-produced
animated fare (the newer programming featured
RoboCop: The Animated
Series, Dino-Riders and
on occasion, “Pryde of the
X-Men”, which was intended to serve as a pilot for a potential
X-Men animated series).
The rights to all Marvel shows were with Disney, before Marvel
acquired them back in 2008. Currently there are no plans for a DVD
release in the US or other places in the world. But, in Canada,
Morningstar Entertainment has released the episode
The
Vulture Has Landed on DVD in the set entitled
Spider-Man Vs. The
Vulture. The set also contains
The Vulture's
Prey and
The Dark Terrors, both from the
1967
Spider-Man TV series. Unfortunately it appears that
Morningstar only had access to a VHS copy of
The Vulture
Has Landed, so the video quality is very low.
Episodes
| # |
Title |
Summary |
| 1 |
Bubble, Bubble, Oil and Trouble |
Doctor Octopus commits various
mysterious crimes in an effort to upgrade his mechanical arms and
steal the world’s oil supply. |
| 2 |
Dr. Doom, Master of the World |
Doctor Doom is replacing world
leaders with robots that, at the upcoming United Nations meeting, will declare him to
be the master of the world. |
| 3 |
Lizards, Lizards, Everywhere |
The Lizard is plotting to turn
New York City into a swampland, filled with reptiles under his
control. |
| 4 |
Curiosity Killed the Spider-Man |
The Black Cat announces that
she plans to steal the Maltese Mouse and challenges Spider-Man to
try and stop her. |
| 5 |
The Sandman Is Coming |
The
Sandman steals radioactive
soil samples from NASA and goes on
a crime spree. |
| 6 |
When Magneto Speaks...People Listen |
Magneto uses a spacecraft to
increase his powers and shut off the nation’s power supply. |
| 7 |
The Pied Piper of New York Town |
Mysterio opens up a new disco nightclub
in town that turns its patrons and anyone else that hears the disco
music into his slaves, whom he uses to try and steal a nuclear
missile. |
| 8 |
The Doctor Prescribes Doom |
Doctor Doom returns to try and force
the United Nations to declare him ruler of the world. |
| 9 |
Carnival of Crime |
The circus has come to town, and the Ringmaster uses a special gas to rob
banks, while making people believe that Spider-Man is the
thief. |
| 10 |
Revenge of the Green Goblin |
Norman Osborn escapes from a mental institution, but when the
train he is riding in gets into a crash, he remembers that he is
the Green Goblin and threatens to
reveal to the world who Spider-Man really is, and seeks revenge on
Jameson for publishing stories about his chemical plant being
unsafe. |
| 11 |
Triangle of Evil |
The Triangle of Evil forces Spider-Man to survive deadly
stunts. |
| 12 |
The A-B-C’s of Doom |
Doctor Doom forms a criminal partnership with Goron to pose as
humanitarians to gain control of a space craft. |
| 13 |
The Sidewinder Strikes |
A rodeo show has come to the city, and the Sidewinder tries to
steal the gold spurs. |
| 14 |
The Hunter and the Hunted |
After being hired by J. Jonah Jameson to look for a mascot for
the Daily Bugle, Kraven the Hunter
comes to the city as a hero when he captures Zabu. Ka-Zar comes to the city to
liberate his animal companion. |
| 15 |
The Incredible Shrinking Spider-Man |
A janitor, feeling that his genius is ignored, dons the
identity of the Gadgeteer to steal his employer’s new device that
can shrink anything. |
| 16 |
The Unfathomable Professor Gizmo |
Professor Gizmo seeks to reclaim sunken treasure and to steal
the diamonds from a charity cruise ship. |
| 17 |
Cannon of Doom |
Doctor Doom secretly uses a laser cannon to create a fault line
on New York City and then promises to fix the problem, when in fact
he plans to use his laser cannon to create more earthquakes. Doom’s
origins are told. |
| 18 |
The Capture of Captain America |
Captain America is kidnapped by
the Red Skull. |
| 19 |
The Doom Report |
Freedom fighters from Latveria start an
underground movement in New York City, while Doctor Doom orders the
United Nations to make him ruler of
the world or else he will use his weather control device to cause
chaos. |
| 20 |
The Web of Nephilia |
A mad scientist named Dr. Bradley Shaw transforms into a mutant
spider when trying to gain Spider-Man's powers from his blood
sample. |
| 21 |
Countdown to Doom |
NASA sends a
rocket into space, built by Doctor Doom, unaware that he has
attached a device to it that will move the Earth out of orbit,
sending it into a new ice age, in an effort to force the United
Nations to declare him to be the master of the world. |
| 22 |
Arsenic and Aunt May |
Spider-Man catches the relative of the burglar that killed Ben Parker, which leads
the Chamelon to discover Spidey’s
secret identity. He poses as a medium to Aunt May and give her a
necklace that makes her want to kill Spider-Man. |
| 23 |
The Vulture Has Landed |
The Vulture has been kidnapping
scientists in an effort to gain control of a NASA space probe. |
| 24 |
Wrath of the Sub-Mariner |
Upon calling a truce with crime lords Silvermane, Hammerhead, and Caesar Cicero, the Kingpin shows them a powerful acid
developed by Dr. Everett to unite the crime lords in a plot to pull
off crimes. The subsequent chemical waste from the new chemical is
illegally dumping into the water, causing sickness to Sub-Mariner’s cousin, Namorita. |
| 25 |
The Return of the Kingpin |
The Kingpin is able to trick Spider-Man into committing a series of
crimes. |
| 26 |
Under the Wizard’s Spell |
The Frightful Four members the
Wizard and Medusa arrive in New York City to steal an
electronic device from a military base. |
The episodes featuring Doctor Doom had an ongoing storyline about
rebels in Latveria trying to topple Doom. Throughout these episodes
Doom is able to trick people, especially Jameson, into thinking
that he is a kind ruler and international humanitarian.
Cast
Additional cast
References
-
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Spider-Man-Vs-The-Vulture/11108
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search