Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode Five: Swarm

Swarm

First Aired: October 10th, 1981

Synopsis: Angelica and Peter's science teacher is preparing to send a rocket probe into space with his class when they see through a telescope at the observatory they're at that a meteor is headed towards Earth. Angelica changes to Firestar and investigates the meteor after saving a plane from being hit by it. When it lands it irradiates a nearby beehive full of bees, which become a collective being known as Swarm. Swarm uses the eye lasers he apparently has to make his beehive gigantic and to turn a nearby farmer into a human-bee hybrid. When Firestar's unable to defeat him, she flies back to Peter and tells him she'll need his and Iceman's help. While Peter heads home to grab Iceman, Swarm creates giant bees and more bee people. Iceman, Firestar and Spider-Man all confront Swarm at his giant hive, and Spider-Man finds out that he's immune to turning into a bee person because of his spider blood. Firestar and Iceman aren't, however, and they're now ready to capture Spider-Man.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode Four: Sunfire

Sunfire

First Aired: October 3rd, 1981

Synopsis: When a large meteor is at risk of destroying the city, Firestar flies out to destroy it, unaware that she's being watched by Shiro Yoshida, who is the mutant Sunfire, and his uncle Genju. Genju wants Sunfire to recruit Firestar, ostensibly so that they can power up his fusion reactor and help the world, but really so that he can create a giant fire monster he can use for evil purposes. Shortly afterwards, Iceman, Spider-Man, and Firestar are at a carnival where Shiro is showing off his uncle's electronic company's samurai robots, when Aunt May ends up in danger when the helicopter she accidentally climbed into starts to have problems. Sunfire and Firestar save her, and Iceman realises that he recognises Sunfire as someone he's fought in the past. Shortly afterwards, Sunfire invites Firestar to meet with him by writing her name in the sky in flames. While she goes out flying with him, Iceman and Spider-Man decide to investigate Genju's electronics company, but Spider-Man ends up captured.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode Three: The Fantastic Mr. Frump

The Fantastic Mr. Frump

First Aired: September 26th, 1981

Synopsis: Doctor Doom is performing a ritual atop the Latverian embassy which will give him unlimited power, which requires all four quarters of an amulet. Which he's performing it, Spider-Man, Firestar, and Iceman in their civilian guises run into Mr. Frump, an elderly man who used to help Aunt May out but who has recently had a string of bad luck. Peter reassures him that something good will come up. The three heroes change into their alter egos and decide to race home, but along the way Spider-Man runs into Doctor Doom performing the ritual. Spider-Man attacks Doom, who drops the amulet off the roof. Mr. Frump picks it up right as the ritual was about to be finished, and ends up with unlimited power, although he doesn't realise it yet. Spider-Man and his friends continue fighting Doom while Mr. Frump slowly learns about his power, before he begins experimenting with it. The effects of his reality warping soon reach the fight, where each hero and Doom have acquired a piece of the amulet. Mr. Frump wonders how he got his powers and as such Doom appears before him. Doom manipulates Mr. Frump into working with him, and Frump turns the heroes to stone.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode Two: The Crime of All Centuries

The Crime of All Centuries

First Aired: September 19th, 1981

Synopsis: Peter Parker comments that a new movie about a dinosaur on the rampage is popular thanks to Kraven the Hunter hunting dinosaurs in the Savage Land. Unbeknownst to him, while Kraven is catching dinosaurs in the Savage Land, he's also taking their eggs. He plans to use a ray to hatch and rapidly evolve them, then use his dinosaur army to hold New York hostage. He needs two things: a famous ruby, and Firestar, as her heat will be needed for the ray. Kraven heads to New York and "accidentally" releases a pterodactyl he's got. When Firestar stops it, he thanks her and invites her to a museum where he's got an exhibition of his dinosaurs. Peter and Bobby are both dismissive of Kraven when they find out, but end up coming to the exhibition anyway. Bobby also mentions that he needs rent money. At the exhibition, Kraven is showing off his dinosaurs but they're unexpectedly released from their cages and go on a rampage.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode One: The Triumph of the Green Goblin

The Triumph of the Green Goblin

First Aired: September 12th, 1981

Synopsis: On a stormy night in New York City, Spider-Man and Iceman work together to stop some jewel thieves before heading off, saying that they've both got dates. In the air, a private plane containing Norman Osborn and a pilot is struck with lightning. Norman and the pilot parachute out, but upon landing Norman finds himself turning into the Green Goblin. Iceman and Spider-Man, meanwhile, meet up in their civilian guises with Firestar and a friend of theirs called Mona. The four of them go to a costume party, but Peter's spider-sense soon tingles and he heads off to investigate. He finds the Green Goblin searching the building. The Goblin has his gadgets, but is looking for his formula, which he'll use to turn all of New York into creatures like him. The Goblin paralyses Spider-Man with a ray, then sets up a trap for Firestar, who's looking for him, which will freeze her with liquid nitrogen.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: Before Watching

Not to rehash some of my posts about the 1981 Spider-Man series, but Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is the much better-remembered Spider-Man cartoon of the early 1980s. With the two cartoons airing at the same time, inevitable comparisons are going to be made. Given that Amazing Friends has a fairly positive reception, I'm curious about how much of that reputation it deserves. Does it owe its reputation to nostalgia, or will the show manage to tell competent stories, with the pacing and plot points that have often been lacking from the previous two shows I've seen?

Honestly, it's hard not to feel optimistic at this point. Iceman and Firestar could very well add a good character dynamic to complement Spider-Man, and while the use of them is a little out of the blue, with Firestar having been created for the cartoon, I can think of far, far worse characters to team up Spider-Man with. I like both characters on their own, both thanks to their personalities and powers. At this stage, the main worries I have about this series are that we'll get some formulaic and predictable plots, but I'm hoping that my enjoyment of the three main characters will manage to counteract the worst of it.

Spider-Man (1981): After Watching

The 1981 Spider-Man cartoon is often overlooked, appearing as more of a footnote in comparison to its much more popular sibling, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Having watched the entirety of the series, is it fair? Does Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends hold more of the spotlight because it's genuinely better, or is it unfairly taking attention away from this hidden gem?

Well, I can't answer that, because I haven't seen Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends yet. What I can answer, however, is how this show compares with the previous series, which first aired in 1967. For a start, the exclusion of episodes made up of recycled animation - both from the show itself and other shows - feels like a breath of fresh air. I don't want to be too harsh on the 1967 series, but going into this and knowing that I'm not getting weak animation is an absolute blessing. Something else I was a big fan of was that the 1981 series was experimenting more with the wider Marvel Universe, showing off unexpected heroes and villains from other series. On the downside, I would have been keen to see an episode or two of the 1981 series directly adapting a comic book issue, as happened with several of the stronger 1967 series episodes.

So, the show's got quite a bit going for it when comparing to the previous series. How does it stand up when we're not doing a comparison? Unfortunately, a lot of the episodes are forgettable, or mediocre at best. A lot of them fall into that category of, "Well, it got a lot of stuff right, but it also got a lot of stuff wrong," and so there were few that I really strongly enjoyed. To the cartoon's credit, this might be more due to what was expected from the story of a cartoon at the time, and I can see what the creators were aiming for a lot of the time. The attempt at an ongoing story arc involving Doctor Doom, while ultimately not up to my standards, is encouraging, and I'm glad that the creators tried.

I didn't talk about it much in my reviews, but one of the most fascinating things I found about this show was the character of Mortimer, J. Jonah Jameson's nephew, who is introduced as a rival to Peter, and then proceeds to do absolutely nothing. Who is this character, and why was he created? This feels weird to type, but I'd love to see him show up in a future Spider-Man work, with his character more fleshed out and making more appearances overall. There's potential in him, if you ask me.

With all of the above in mind, I'm going to finish off my thoughts on this series with a list of the top five and the worst five episodes, so that you, the intelligent reader, know what to look forwards to and what to avoid if you decide to check out this series.

Spider-Man (1981) Episode Twenty-Six: Under the Wizard's Spell

Under the Wizard's Spell

First Aired: March 6th, 1982

Synopsis: Spider-Man is accused by a policeman of being behind some trouble some roller blading youths committed, but is unexpectedly bailed out by Medusa of the Inhumans, who is in New York for an unspecified reason. Spider-Man laments that she doesn't have time for him when she leaves. Medusa meets up with the Wizard, who first asks her to help him commit crimes, and when she refuses, attaches a collar to her neck that lets him control her. Medusa and the Wizard soon steal a rare metal at an exhibition Peter Parker is conveniently attending, and he changes to Spider-Man to stop them. Although Medusa saves Spider-Man when he's nearly crushed to death, she nevertheless gets away with the Wizard. When Spider-Man and Medusa meet up in Central Park later, she's evasive when Spider-Man asks what she was doing with the Wizard, and convinces Spider-Man to meet her at a water tower later, something the Wizard plans to exploit.