Spider-Man (1981) Episode Nine: Carnival of Crime

Carnival of Crime

First Aired: November 7th, 1981

Synopsis: Spider-Man has committed several robberies recently, although Peter Parker notes that in spite of what the news thinks, he didn't do so, and that he'll have to clear his name soon. While Peter leaves for the carnival with Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson assigns his nephew Mortimer to cover a gold shipment which is coming in, warning him that Spider-Man might rob it. While Peter, Aunt May, and Betty Brant are all at the carnival, Peter's spider-sense tingles, and he sneaks off to investigate as Spider-Man. He finds that the Circus of Crime are present at the carnival, and are apparently responsible for the robberies he's supposedly been committing, using the Ringmaster's hypno-gas to convince people that Spider-Man was behind their robberies.


After a brief scuffle, the Ringmaster releases the animals of the carnival from their cages, and Spider-Man has to leave to save Aunt May and Betty. After stopping the animals, everyone returns to the carnival like nothing happened, while the Circus of Crime rob the gold shipment Mortimer was covering. As per usual, they hypnotise people into thinking Spider-Man was behind it. When they return to the carnival, Spider-Man confronts them, and manages to escape from a gorilla they trap him in a cage with. The news is spread that the Circus of Crime is behind the robberies, while Peter plays darts at the carnival with Aunt May - who, to her disgust, wins a Spider-Man plush.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• At the start of the episode, we find out that Spider-Man has been accused of committing the robberies when a radio by some basketball-playing teens makes the announcement. In this scene, the basketballs are white. Is this a colouring error, or is this an actual thing that was once a thing?
• So, Peter, Aunt May, and Betty Brant spending time at a carnival...I'd love to find out how this happened. Did Peter and Betty arrange a date and then Aunt May decided she'd love to attend the carnival and ended up coming along? Did Peter and Aunt May make plans to attend the carnival and then Betty decided she'd use it as an excuse to hang out with Peter? (Did Aunt May and Betty make plans and Peter decided to butt in?)
• As mentioned, the Ringmaster uses hypno-gas to convince people that Spider-Man is behind the robberies. In the comics, his top hat has a mechanism in it which lets him hypnotise people. Although he doesn't use it in the episode, his hat does still have a swirly pattern on it, just like the comics.

Review: Well, it's a Circus of Crime episode, so...do I really need to say much more? I actually don't mind the Circus of Crime when they show up in the comics - thanks to the number of members, you get a bit of a variety in the fights, and when a writer is aware of how low-level they are in terms of threat level, they can be written quite entertainingly - but I can't see any cartoons embracing the things I like about them any time soon.

So, yeah. Spider-Man is framed for a crime, but the Circus is actually behind it, there's a lot of fighting and shenanigans at the carnival, and...that's about it. I do think that this episode missed a golden opportunity by having Mortimer present at the robbery but then having him hypnotised by the Ringmaster. What if Mortimer saw (or photographed) that Spider-Man wasn't responsible for the robbery, and ended up going against his uncle Jonah with the evidence? Unfortunately, he doesn't, and instead we get a brief gag of him telling Jonah that Spider-Man was responsible for the robbery moments before Jonah finds out that it isn't the case. Mortimer could be used as an excellent foil to both Jonah and Peter, but we haven't seen any of his potential, and I suspect we won't see any of it.

Still, inside of the below-average quality of this episode, there are a few moments which were cute. Aunt May is by far the MVP of this episode - aside from the surprisingly sweet concept of Peter and her going to a carnival together, she also provides some good humour in being genuinely excited to go on a rollercoaster, in spite of Peter being worried about her. And what do you know, she ends up having a blast on it! There's also her winning a Spider-Man plush (after Peter pays for fifty plays of darts for her and Betty to distract them while he does Spider-Man stuff - also quite funny) - the joke done is obvious, but still entertaining. Overall, this episode is definitely on the lower end of quality, but it easily could have been a lot worse.