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.



The three heroes change into their alter egos and fight the dinosaurs while unbeknownst to them, Kraven's assistant steals the ruby he needs. Firestar spots Kraven escaping and goes after him, realising shortly afterwards that he's villainous. Unfortunately, she's captured by him and taken to his training grounds, a large area that can have the environment controlled by a control panel. Iceman and Spider-Man, meanwhile, realise that Kraven's disappeared, and work out where his base is from a photo of him in an article. They head there and try to stop him but are captured. Firestar agrees to help Kraven since otherwise he'll hurt her friends, and starts hatching and evolving a dinosaur through the use of Kraven's ray. With Kraven's attention off them, Spider-Man uses his webs to free Iceman, who then is able to free Spider-Man in turn. The heroes work together to get the dinosaur Firestar evolved into a tar pit, and then Spider-Man throws Kraven in when he's attacked. Iceman says that he'll get Kraven out if he pays his rent for him. In the aftermath, the dinosaurs are returned to the Savage Land. Iceman tries paying Aunt May rent money, but she says that he's already paid it, not realising that Peter and Angelica did so for him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• In the dinosaur movie at the start of the episode, we see a sign outside the theatre saying that it's starring Simon Williams and Karen Page. For the unaware, Simon Williams is better known as the Avenger Wonder Man (and is an actor in his spare time), while Karen Page is Daredevil's former secretary/love interest who went to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming an actress.
• When Kraven is talking about how Firestar will be needed for his plans, he gets out a picture of her. It's probably intended to be that he took it out of his belt, but the animation really makes it look like he happened to have a picture of her stuffed down his pants which he pulled out.
• After the dinosaurs are released, Angelica and Bobby rush off in the chaos, away from the running crowd, and we see them change into their alter egos. Then a sarcophagus opens up and Spider-Man randomly comes out of it. I have no idea how he got into it or changed within there, but I love it.
• There's a quick scene where Ms. Lion, Aunt May's dog, is trying to track Firestar down after she's been kidnapped by Kraven, only to lead Iceman and Spider-Man to a pet store since Kraven makes it that his scent can't be tracked. The owner of the pet store has white hair and a moustache, and we see that the name of the store is Stan's Pet Store. It's hard to say for certain, but I'm fairly sure that this is a Stan Lee cameo.

Review: I've mentioned previously that I've got a bit of a love/hate relationship with Kraven, disliking him more when he's reduced to a strongman. This version of Kraven definitely focuses on hunting and his connection to the Savage Land, but unfortunately I can't say that it endears him to me very much. His plan to hold New York hostage is one of the most comic book-y plots you could go for, but it doesn't really work for me because it doesn't feel like it fits the character. I almost wish that he was replaced with an original character that uses him as inspiration, because then I would be a bit more open to this interpretation.

Unfortunately, the episode itself isn't too exciting either. There are plenty of little bits here that I liked, but thinking over the episode, a lot of it boiled down to dinosaur fights which I wasn't as keen on as I thought I would be. Possibly the writers couldn't work out how to make Kraven a valid threat to three heroes on his own, which I guess I can understand, although I'd still happily drop a dinosaur fight for a proper brawl with Kraven.

Still, like I said, there are some little bits here that I liked. Firestar isn't too much of a damsel in distress, taking the initiative several times and only helping Kraven when her friends are in danger. The running joke of Iceman trying to borrow money from the others works well, and I loved the punchline at the end of the episode of him getting Kraven to pay his rent, not to mention that Peter and Angelica were happy to pay it for him. In spite of my overall negativity, I wouldn't call this a bad episode - it's just that it's got a good chunk of bad in it in addition to the good.