Spider-Man (1981) Episode Three: Lizards, Lizards, Everywhere

Lizards, Lizards, Everywhere

First Aired: September 26th, 1981

Synopsis: A zoo has its reptiles mysteriously freed, leading to them attacking the civilians there. Spider-Man manages to save them, noting as he does so that he appears to be getting a cold. The reptiles all manage to escape, and it's revealed that the Lizard was the one who freed them. He steals a subway car and intentionally derails it, so that he can block off a section of subway tunnel to use as a breeding ground for his reptiles. When he tries to steal another subway car to block off the other end, Spider-Man hears about it, and although he doesn't stop Lizard from derailing that one, he does save the civilians that were onboard this train.

Although Spider-Man's able to get into the tunnel section the train cars blocked off, Lizard escapes while his reptiles fight Spider-Man, and Spider-Man thinks that the Lizard is gone for good. The Lizard heads to another base of his, where he reveals that he has a weather control device which he can use to alter New York's temperature to suit his reptiles. Spider-Man overhears the effects of this while at the doctor, and leaves to save civilians who are being attacked. After another fight with the Lizard, Spider-Man swings to a nearby radio tower, and is able to alter the frequency to block the Lizard's telepathy which lets him control the reptiles, letting Spider-Man stop the Lizard much more easily. Returning to the doctor, Spider-Man finds out that he doesn't have a cold - he's just got an allergy to reptiles.

Webbing Does Not Work That Way:

• Spider-Man is trying to dig into the section of subway tunnel Lizard has set aside to be the breeding ground for his reptiles, and is unable to make any headway. Luckily, he has the perfect solution - create a shovel out of webbing, which makes the job much easier!

Miscellaneous Notes:

• There's a billboard near the start of the episode advertising a Hulk series. Spider-Man also mentions the Hulk a few times when quipping throughout the episode.
• Aside from the subway tunnel, the Lizard also has a base in this episode, hidden beneath one of the enclosures at the zoo. Is the Lizard's human identity in this series a worker at the zoo? Did he painstakingly build it himself? Was it created for some legitimately practical reason and he simply took over it? We'll probably never know.
• No one in this episode seems to know how reptile eggs work. When Spider-Man gets into the Lizard's breeding grounds, he comments that there are "Thousands of reptile eggs - ready to hatch at any moment!", in spite of the fact that the reptiles have only been there for a few hours at most. (Unless there was supposed to be a time skip while he was digging into the tunnel, which isn't apparent). Later, after the Lizard activates his weather control device, he presses some buttons on another device, some lights shine on the eggs...and then they all hatch at once.

Review: A lot of Lizard stories are a bit same-y - he either wants to get the reptiles to take over the world, or to transform humanity into creatures like himself. There's nothing wrong with this, as comic book-y as it can be, but the pacing of this episode and a few weird choices highlight some of the flaws in this otherwise stellar plot.

The big two, of course, are the weather control device, and Spider-Man altering the radio tower's frequency. The former comes out of absolutely nowhere, and while it's a nice idea to consider the ecology of New York and how well it suits the Lizard's plan, it's so bizarre, not to mention out-of-character for the Lizard to have, that it threw me off. For the latter, it's true that the reptiles will be less aggressive once the Lizard isn't controlling them, but again the element comes out of nowhere, and in this case, that makes it a deus ex machina, with all of the negative connotations that implies.

While there are some nice moments in this episode - there's a genuinely clever bit where Spider-Man is clinging to the Lizard's tail, and the Lizard sheds it since he can just grow a new one - there's also a fair bit of not much happening, or slightly weird plot points happening. The highlight of the episode is definitely Spider-Man having to deal with the Lizard taking over the second train, and while it doesn't sink to unwatchable lows, there's not a lot of great stuff after that. I'm fine with a half-reptile, half-man creature wanting to psychically control reptiles so that they can take over the city - I just wish that there didn't have to be so much unnecessary stuff added on top of that.