Spider-Man (1967) Episode Forty-Two: Sky Harbour / The Big Brainwasher

Sky Harbour

First Aired: April 5th, 1970

Synopsis: A giant base, held aloft by two zeppelins attached to it, is soaring through the air. The villains declare that their day will soon come, and send out several antiquated planes. The planes attack a commercial plane, which is destroyed. As a result, air travel all around the world is suspended, and the UN have a meeting to discuss what to do. The mayor of New York has a plan - he'll call in Spider-Man to help with the issue.

Spider-Man answers the summons, and says that he'll take care of Sky Harbour. The Baron, the top agent of Sky Harbour, is flying around New York, and Spider-Man tricks him into destroying a mirror image of himself. He then webs himself to the Baron's plane, and when one of the Baron's men spots Spider-Man, he opens fire. The Baron's plane is badly damaged, and Spider-Man manages to manipulate the wings so that it flies into the zeppelins holding Sky Base up, blowing them up and destroying the structure. Afterwards, he quips that there was no doubt that the Baron's plan would fail, as it was full of hot air.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• As mentioned, Spider-Man is specifically called in by the mayor for help. It's probably because it was the most convenient way to get him into the plot, but part of me can't help but wonder whether there was an inspiration from Batman and the Bat-Signal.

Review: As you can probably guess from the plot summary, this is one of those stories that borrows animation from another show even more than usual. That opening, with the villains of Sky Harbour attacking another plane? That goes on for about half the story.

Once Spider-Man finally gets into the picture, everything still feels pretty off. Putting aside the issue of Spider-Man being best friends with the mayor, there's the weird bit with Spider-Man creating a fake image of himself with a mirror for...reasons, as well as the fact that he's even having to deal with these villains. What I can appreciate is the way in which Spider-Man destroys Sky Harbour by destroying the zeppelins. Sure, it's a little bit of a cheap way to do it, and we probably shouldn't think too hard about how many people he killed, but it makes sense, and were this another episode I could picture him using a convenient self-destruct switch, or something equally dubious.

Overall, it's hard to recommend this story, seeing as how blatantly it's been taken from another show, but for what it does, it does it competently enough. I just wish that it wasn't doing it at the expense of the superhero genre or Spider-Man action.

The Big Brainwasher

Synopsis: The Kingpin is opening a club, but unbeknownst to the public, he's built a secret brainwashing machine in the back. He's also got a camera which produces a hypnotic effect with the flash, that will make people photographed with it want to go to his brainwashing machine. He's planning to have his new dancer take photos of city officials with the camera so that he can brainwash them - and that new dancer's name is Mary Jane. Pleased that she's got the job, MJ tells Peter Parker to come by the club, and he does. However, he soon grows suspicious when he sees that she's only been told to photograph city officials, and that each of them keep going to a room in the back.

Leaving and then returning as Spider-Man, Spidey's almost able to defeat the Kingpin, but a falling piece of machinery delays him, and the Kingpin escapes with MJ and Captain Stacy as hostages. Spider-Man manages to follow the Kingpin's car, but while punching out thugs in the warehouse they end up in he gets knocked out. When he comes to, he finds himself tied to the wall with chains, in a room filling with water. He manages to break the chains and uses his web to create an air bubble, before breaking out and saving Captain Stacy from being killed by Kingpin. In the aftermath, Mary Jane quips that she thought her act was something.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• This issue is roughly based on Amazing Spider-Man #59 - 61, which also had the Kingpin open up a club with a secret brainwashing machine, which Mary Jane worked at. The brainwashing technology introduced there would later be used by the first Hobgoblin.
• In case you missed it, this episode features a surprise appearance by Spider-Man's best love interest, the person who knows him better than anyone else in the world: Mary Jane Watson. Welcome to the animated world of Spidey, MJ!
• Captain Stacy also makes a reappearance in this episode,where he is, of course, referred to as Mary Jane's uncle. Wait, what?
• Captain Stacy also has a completely different appearance to the last time he appeared in the show. I guess Stacy isn't that uncommon a name, and that while unlikely, it is possible that he's a separate Captain Stacy to the one who appeared previously...but I'm gonna say that it's more likely that it's the Chameleon.
• In a handful of scenes in this episode, Kingpin uses a gun. While I'm sure he's used one multiple times in the comics, it's not something you see often.

Review: Oh, hey, what a surprise: the story based on an existing comic is actually pretty decent. While the idea of the Kingpin having a brainwashing machine which he plans on using on city officials is straight out of the Silver Age, it's a surprisingly solid plan because, well, it makes sense in its simplicity. Buy that he has his brainwashing machine and magic camera and then everything else falls into place quite easily.

We've also got a Peter Parker who has reason to be at the plot-relevant location, and who's pretty savvy as to what might be going on simply by paying attention. These sound like such minor things to be praising, but given what we've seen in some stories in this show, I've got to be grateful for them when they appear. For bonus points, he's also pretty damn competent in a fight.

Honestly, the biggest annoyances in this episode for me are Captain Stacy's suddenly being revealed as Mary Jane's uncle, and his strange new appearance, and those are just me being a nitpicking comic book fan. This is overall easily one of the strongest stories we've had in a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's not surpassed for the rest of the series.