Spider-Man (1967) Episode Eight: Horn of the Rhino

Horn of the Rhino

First Aired: October 28th, 1967

Synopsis: Spider-Man is on a train carrying the first of three secret components for the US Army's newest secret weapon when it's attacked by the Rhino, who wants all of them. Naturally, when Spider-Man is seen leaving the scene, the army assumes that he was behind the theft. In spite of having come down with a cold, Spider-Man heads back to the train wreck later and follows some footprints to the city, where he briefly fights with Rhino before the villain gets away. Although Aunt May wants Peter to stay home while he's sick, he next heads to the airport, where the second component of the secret weapon is arriving. In spite of his best efforts, Spider-Man is unable to stop the Rhino from stealing this one too.


Back at home, J. Jonah Jameson calls Peter up to ask him to take photos when the third component arrives by submarine, but Aunt May takes over the call and tells Jonah that Peter can't since he's sick. She inadvertently gives Jonah the idea of taking the photos himself, but this leads to him being captured by the army when they think that he's a spy. Peter, as Spider-Man, is unable once again to stop the Rhino from stealing a component. However, back as Peter Parker, he's able to work out a way to stop Rhino after Aunt May feeds him a peppery soup. Tracking down the Rhino's base to a cave in the rhino exhibit in Central Park, Spider-Man throws a canister of pepper at the Rhino. Rhino violently sneezes, bringing the mud in the cave down on him and trapping him within it. Spider-Man once again saves the day, as displeased as Jonah is to hear about it when the army releases him.

Webbing Does Not Work That Way

•  At one point, Spider-Man uses a sheet of webbing as an ersatz matador's cape against Rhino. Honestly, this is pretty reasonable, and it was a good reminder to me that Spider-Man's webbing isn't always used for ridiculous purpose...then, about a minute later, Spider-Man used his webbing to somehow turn himself into a ball and bowl down a group of policemen that were looking for him.
• When at the airport, Spider-Man plans to stop the Rhino using a lasso of webbing. Said lasso, of course, helpfully forms itself into a loop and ties itself off without any input from Spider-Man.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Every single box containing a component of the army's device, as well as the train carriage at the start, has, printed in large letters, the words TOP SECRET. Maybe Rhino would stop making such successful robberies if the army stopped making it so easy for him.
• On the note of security, how on Earth does J. Jonah Jameson always know where the army is going to be delivering their components? He must have one hell of an inside informer - but not one so loyal to him that he can bail him out of the army's custody easily.
• To my surprise, this episode marks the first animated appearance of Aunt May - I knew she appeared in this series, but I thought that it wasn't until the second season. She makes a pretty good first impression here, too - whenever Jonah calls up Peter to tell him to take photos, she virtually teleports over to the phone so that she can tell Jonah that Peter's going to be staying in bed.

Review: Once again, we've got an episode which shows a good amount of potential, but completely squanders it in favour of a somewhat inane plot. Rhino wanting to steal the three components is a decent motivation (let's ignore that he wants to use the completed device to rule the world, and that we have no idea what the device will actually do once it's been put together) but apparently no one other than Spider-Man cares that he can do it. The army never attempt to change their schedule for delivering the devices, conceal them, or even put up resistance against Rhino. Wouldn't it have been a great twist if Rhino had put together the device and it had turned out to be a decoy, and he had in fact accomplished nothing? Instead we get that inane ending where Rhino is defeated through the power of falling mud - tell me, Spidey, what did you think would happen if Rhino's base had been anywhere other than the cave it was in?

Peter's cold is another idea that could be interesting if used correctly, but it's not. Rhino is so strong that it feels as though Spider-Man having a cold makes no difference in the fight against him, and I'm forced to concede that Peter was only given a cold for the setup with the pepper (although I will admit that Aunt May constantly telling off Jonah is both hilarious and works well within the concept). We've also got Jonah going off and trying to get photos himself, and while it's a funny scene, I've had plenty of funny Jonah scenes in this show already - why not use it to tell us something about Jonah, like why he wants this story so badly? That's a plot point that feels like padding for the episode, which is appropriate, because it is.

Before this episode, I've generally been pretty favourable to stories featuring comic book villains. Even the weakest of them have had some plot points I've enjoyed or have tried something a bit different with their interpretation of the villain. Here, Rhino manages to break that streak. Of the few good points in this episodes, none of them have anything to do with Rhino, and they barely have anything to do with the plot itself. Rhino isn't the greatest villain in the world, but there was potential here for a good story to be told with him at the very least, and it came nowhere near being met.