Spider-Man (1967) Episode Thirty-Four: Home

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First Aired: December 14th, 1968

Synopsis: In a swingin' sixties coffee shop, Peter Parker is harassed by his fellow students for reading a paper about the Proton Device rather than dancing. A girl nearby named Carol hears Peter talk about how much he likes science, and convinces him to dance with her. They hit it off, but when Peter goes patrolling as Spider-Man, he encounters Carol committing robbery - and furthermore, she's got spider-powers similar to him. She manages to get away, and doesn't show up to meet with Peter at the coffee shop the next day. When Peter goes out patrolling as Spider-Man, he runs into Carol again, and she recognises Spider-Man as Peter. When Spider-Man webs up Carol, she's rescued by a mysterious floating sphere.

Spider-Man chases the sphere for a lengthy time, with it eventually going through some underground caves to a hidden city. Inside the city, Spider-Man meets Carol's father, who reveals that they're aliens from a distant planet who crash-landed on Earth. Although they're supposed to be rescued in two hours, the Proton Device will crack the Earth when it's activated before then, killing them. Carol was committing robberies to try and prevent the Proton Device from being activated, but wasn't successful enough. Although the spider-people have a device that will weaken the Proton Device, they can't get to it in time, there's a mutant spider in the caves, and the rules won't let them go to it. Spider-Man steals the device and goes to place it by the Proton Device, but is stopped by the mutant spider...before the leader of the spider-people saves him, saying that the rules don't apply to him. Spider-Man is able to get the device to the Proton Device, and the spider-people are successfully transported from Earth.

"Spidey Swinging to Pad the Episode" Montages: One, by my count. Man, will you get sick of the swingin' sixties musicians in the coffee shop, though.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The students who appear at the coffee shop to harass Peter are named Sonya and Ronnie. Sonya previously appeared in Swing City, and I swear that Ronnie appeared previously as well, but I can't seem to find a reference to him.
• Carol says that she knows that Spider-Man is Peter because of her spider-sense. That's not something Peter's spider-sense could detect, but I'll buy it since she's an alien.
• The Proton Device being able to crack the Earth and kill the spider-people is a pretty good motive for them to want to stop it...but just for extra emphasis, Carol mentions that her people are "susceptible to Proton Rays of any sort." Sure you are.
• How much does the leader of the spider-people love the rules? When Spider-Man steals the device and leaves, rather than saying, "Shit, what an amazing loophole which will save my people," he instead calls out, "Guards! Stop him! The rules!"

Review: While the second half is a bit of a drop in quality compared to the first, overall this is a surprisingly solid episode given that it features a giant mutant spider and spider-people who are aliens from another planet. The first half might just be the best set-up we've gotten this entire season - Carol is presented as a love interest at first, and so seeing her committing a robbery is unexpected, even before we find out that she has spider-powers of her own. Bonus points to her for being pretty competent and managing to avoid being a damsel in distress.


Once we get to Spider-Man in the alien city, there's a bit of alien sci-fi mumbo jumbo, but they're presented quite sympathetically and Spider-Man takes their side which surprised me. If Sub-Zero for Spidey hadn't also previously shown aliens who just wanted to leave the planet and go home, it would be even more effective, but it'd be a stretch to say that that makes this a bad episode.

Overall, while there are some definite plot holes here (why does Carol go to the coffee shop rather than committing robbery?) and conflict for the sake of padding (see: the spider-ruler siccing his guards on Spidey when he tries to save them all), this is a surprisingly solid episode, and one of the strongest ones overall. The biggest complaints I have are that we won't see Carol again and that she didn't get a cool costume - I'd love to see her as a recurring character, fighting alongside Spider-Man, but I already know that she was forgotten the second this episode finished being animated.