Spider-Man (1967) Episode Forty-One: Trouble with Snow / Spider-Man vs. Desperado

Trouble with Snow

First Aired: March 29th, 1970

Synopsis: In cold weather, an electrical line falls onto a snowman which, unbeknownst to anyone, has trace elements of chemicals in it. This, of course, brings it to life, and the snowman goes on a rampage, repeatedly grabbing and reaching for things with electricity flowing through them. Peter Parker witnesses this original rampage, and although he doesn't get a chance to switch to Spider-Man, he does take a sample of the snowman and analyses it. He detects chemicals in it, and upon visiting the site where the snowman originally was, is able to deduce its origins.

The snowman goes on several more rampages in the next few days, growing larger whenever there's snowfall. Spider-Man shows up, both to stop the snowman and to take photos of it, and ends up being punched by it. Feeling an electric shock from the punch, Spider-Man works out that if the snowman is deprived of electricity, it'll die. He then takes some copper cables from an electrical company and tricks the snowman into walking into them while they're in contact with the water in the sewers. This ends up destroying the snowman, although all is not well, as J. Jonah Jameson ends up annoyed at Peter for not getting any photos of the snowman.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Peter first sees the snowman rampaging, he's talking to his classic red-headed love interest - none other, of course, than Susan. Wait, who?
• I commented last episode that the animation was heavily, heavily recycled. With that in mind, during the scene where Peter visits the location the snowman became sentient, there's some people in the background working to repair the power line, fully animated. Unless it was something that could be recycled from another show, it's a bit of a random detail to be chosen to be animated, but it's one that I highly appreciate.
• I doubt it's more than a coincidence, but between the snowman being a mindless beast and having electricity power it, it's more than a little similar to the Hulk villain Zzzax, who wouldn't appear in the comics for about another three years or so.

Review: While the snowman may be a generic forgettable villain, there's several things here which manage to keep the story afloat. Firstly, there's not really any Spider-Man action until the end, which works in the episode's favour. We don't need to have Spider-Man continuously defeated through contrived circumstances to pad out the episode, and we get to see Peter Parker's brain. Secondly, the way in which the snowman is nice and concise, and it feels plausible enough based on what we know about it.

The premise behind how the snowman became sentient is hokey as heck, as is Peter deducing it all after examining some snow and visiting the location, but really, is it any worse than some of the other things we've seen in the show? Although I'd definitely call it the weakest part of the story, it's honestly not enough to bring the story down.

The only other major flaw I can think of is that it's honestly a bit hard to see how the snowman is a threat after its initial rampage - we essentially cut from Peter investigating its origin to the final fight, while a voiceover assures us that it's been on a rampage. While past episodes padded things out with fights with the military I didn't care about, this story ironically could have benefited from it. Overall, the story isn't exactly what you'd call the strongest, but it manages to put in a surprisingly competent effort in spite of its goofy premise.

Spider-Man vs. Desperado

Synopsis: While Spider-Man is swinging around the city, bored, he spots an anachronistic cowboy flying around the city on a robotic horse. The cowboy robs a bank and declares that he is Desperado, making off with the loot before Spider-Man can stop him. When he later robs a jewellery store, Spider-Man fails to stop him once again thanks to a smokescreen emitted from the horse. Sitting around on a building, Spider-Man gets an idea when a flier for Western Six Guns conveniently flies up and slaps him in the face. He writes his idea down and sends a note to J. Jonah Jameson.

Jonah agrees to Spider-Man's plan, which is to place an advertisement for an exhibit of Western memorabilia in the Daily Bugle so as to lure Desperado there, where the police will be waiting. Jonah also assumes that Spider-Man is working with Desperado and will get caught in the trap. When Desperado arrives at the museum where the exhibit is, he has to do so without his horse, which can't fit in. He manages to take out the police, but discovers that the items in the exhibit are all fakes, set up by the police. Spider-Man arrives, and after fighting through the hypnotic power of Desperado's guns, webs him up. The police try to arrest them both, but Spider-Man gets away - not that that stops Jonah from thinking that they were in cahoots.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Coming out of absolutely nowhere with no forewarning whatsoever, this episode features a brief appearance by Aunt May...who once again has a completely different appearance from the last two times she appeared. At this stage I'm wondering whether it's actually just the Chameleon in disguise.
• Spider-Man claims that he can resist the hypnotic powers of Desperado's gun (when he shoots them, swirly patterns appear and anyone seeing them is stunned), as "Luckily my spider-vision was strong enough to fight off the power...". Spider-Vision isn't a power anyone has ever had.
• Again, it's probably unintentional, but the villain of this story is fairly similar to an existing Marvel villain for another hero - in this case, the Black Knight. 

Review: When was the last time we had a villain this Silver Age? Desperado is an anachronistic cowboy who probably built his robotic horse he flies around on and uses to rob banks, all the while speaking with some of the most stereotypical cowboy phrases. His guns don't shoot bullets, instead dealing with his victims non-lethally and with the right twist of comic book science. I like this guy.

Unfortunately, this episode feels a bit formulaic, particularly when compared to an episode from the first season. Whenever Spider-Man encounters Desperado, he's instantly taken out, and both times it feels underwhelming and undeserved. By the time he encounters him at the fake exhibit, the episode's nearly over, so we don't get a good chance to see a proper slugfest between the two. It feels like there's more than a bit of wasted opportunity here.

Still, I do appreciate that the episode gives us a solid reason for why Spider-Man's victorious in the last fight (without his horse, he can't get around as fast) and Desperado was a pretty good fit for the story. There's not a whole lot here to write home about, but I'd rather that than having to deal with some of the nonsense we have in the past.