Spider-Man (1967) Episode Twenty-Five: Menace from the Bottom of the World

Menace from the Bottom of the World

First Aired: October 12th, 1968

Synopsis: At the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson assigns Peter Parker to investigate a scientist who claims to have been getting radio signals from the centre of the Earth, while a reporter named Hammond is assigned to look into a bank which has disappeared. When Peter meets with the scientist, named Orlov, he hears the radio signals, which reveals that some unknown group is behind the banks disappearing. Going to a bank as Spider-Man, he sees it disappear as with the one Hammond was investigating, disappearing down a hole in the ground.

Going through the caverns below the ground, Spider-Man eventually finds a city-like structure of rocks and the banks. Blue-furred creatures have captured them since their leader wants the gems, gold, and silver in the banks. The people present at the bank when it was captured, including Hammond, will be made slaves of the subterraneans. After Spider-Man defeats the subterraneans, he confronts their leader and removes his mask, revealing him to be Muggs Reilly, a bank robber who tunneled his way out of his jail cell. With the leader revealed to be a sham, the subterraneans have no qualms with returning the hostages and banks to the surface.

"Spidey Swinging to Pad the Episode" Montages: 6, by my count.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Peter visits Orlov, Orlov says that the signals he's been hearing are in another language. Moments later, when he shows one of them to Peter, we find out that they're in English, just slightly distorted. I don't think this Orlov guy is a very good scientist.
• When exploring the large caverns beneath the Earth's crust, Peter quips that he feels like someone in Jules Verne. Jules Verne, of course, wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth. 
• In keeping with the last two episodes, the true villain of this episode's skin is, of course, inexplicably green. Did they assume that kids couldn't tell who was the villain without that as an indicator, or something?
• Hammond's first name isn't given, but he's a blonde white male. Is...is the Human Torch working for the Daily Bugle in this universe?

Review: I've been wondering the past few episodes whether J. Jonah Jameson and Betty Brant would appear again (especially given that their animation can surely be recycled), and here we answer that question. In some ways, this represents the formula of a season one episode, as those almost always had Jonah telling Peter to go somewhere, which led to Spider-Man investigating something. So, how  does a season two episode done in the season one style hold up?

Well, one thing they could have taken from the first season was the use of switching to see what Jonah and Betty are up to throughout the episode, for comic relief if nothing else. A lot of this episode is Spider-Man swinging through caverns, in either a montage or dealing with the creatures he encounters in them. None of it is bad, per se, but it's a bit monotonous and definitely has the feel of killing time. Why not use Jonah and Betty here? Even if they don't affect the main plot, they'd be good for breaking things up and for a bit of variety in the episode, not to mention their animation (if not entire scenes) could presumably be recycled from the first season. It certainly wouldn't be the first time in this episode we see recycled animation.

So, with the middle being pretty forgettable, how about the end? Well, Spider-Man revealing that the leader of the subterraneans is a bank robber is, to put it lightly, pretty fucking bizarre. How did he know it when the subterraneans didn't? How did Muggs Reilly make the costume he wears? Did the subterraneans have a leader before him, and if so, what happened to him? While Spidey fighting subterraneans isn't the most traditional of Spider-Man stories, it's at least a genre which Spider-Man sort of fits into. Adding in a random bank robber behind it ruins it somewhat, particularly with the above and more questions being asked as a result. Remove Muggs Reilly as the true villain, have Spidey strike some sort of deal with the subterraneans instead, and you've got a mediocre episode - but at least it's one less bizarre one to deal with.