Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends Episode Thirteen: Quest of the Red Skull

Quest of the Red Skull

First Aired: December 5th, 1981

Synopsis: Some Nazis are searching a university professor's house in the suburbs for something, and while they're able to capture him, they aren't able to find it. Peter Parker leaves a nearby party, but when his spider-sense warns him of the nearby danger, he investigates as Spider-Man. During the fight with the Nazis, he unintentionally finds the Nazis' goal - an engraving of a scorpion. The Nazis defeat Spider-Man and leave with their goal. The Nazis go to their boss, the Red Skull, who reveals that the scorpion can lead them to a stash of Nazi weaponry and money. Meanwhile, Spider-Man recovers and meets secret government agent Iceman, Firestar, and the professor, Hiawatha Smith. Smith is a Native American and reveals himself to be competent enough to accompany the heroes. It turns out that the scorpion found by the villains was a replica, and that the heroes can use the original to find the stash of Nazi stuff before they do. They work out that the stash is in a South American jungle and head there.


In the jungle, the heroes are unknowingly being spied upon by the Red Skull, who is travelling in an underground digging machine. The Red Skull reaches the cave where the stash is first, and his thugs set up a trap for the heroes. Although they trigger it, all of the heroes survive, and Firestar goes off in search of the stash. She finds the cave where the Skull is but is captured. By the time the heroes arrive at the cave, it's been cleared out, and the Red Skull is escaping with the stash and Firestar. Fortunately, the heroes know that the Red Skull will be heading to Skull Island. Upon arriving, Spider-Man and Iceman are almost instantly taken out by traps, leading to them being strapped to missiles about to be launched alongside Firestar. Professor Smith frees Firestar, who frees the others and redirects the launched missiles back to Skull Island. Although Spider-Man tries to save the Red Skull, he doesn't want to leave his stash, and is seemingly destroyed when the missiles hit the island as the heroes and the Red Skull's goons escape. In the aftermath, Professor Smith thanks the heroes for their help, and says that while the Red Skull's body wasn't found, he'll inevitably return.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• At the party Peter leaves at the start of the episode, there's a very unexpected appearance from Mona Osborn, Norman Osborn's niece who last appeared in The Triumph of the Green Goblin.
• While the Nazis are searching Professor Smith's house at the start of the episode, they mistake a Native American symbol for a swastika and salute it. I don't know whether there are any Native American symbols which look similar to a swastika - I don't want to go searching Google for swastikas - but from what I understand it does have roots in Hindu and Buddhism.
• When the Red Skull gets away in a submarine, Spider-Man throws a spider-tracer on it, and then tells the others that he did so. Immediately afterwards, they comment that they already know that he's going to Skull Island. So why the hell did he waste a spider-tracer?

Review: When you boil it down, this episode is really just a big pulpy, Indiana Jones-esque adventure. Hidden maps that lead to hidden stashes in the jungle! Secret islands filled with traps! An attack by a swarm of vampire bats while they're in the jungle! The badass professor who's a skilled adventurer! As someone who's a big fan of Indiana Jones, this sort of adventure was right up my alley. (For anyone else who likes Indy and comics, I highly recommend The Bloodstone Hunt, a Captain America arc with a similar tone).

Probably the biggest surprise of this episode is how much the history of World War II and the Nazis are explicitly referred to, with Professor Smith at one point sitting down to show some short films to the protagonists to get them (and the audience) up to speed. While it's obviously toned down for the audience - there are no references to the Holocaust, for obvious reasons - it does a pretty good job of summing up how horrible Nazi ideology was and why the Red Skull needs to be stopped. It's an interesting comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's take on it, which is very often to sidestep the Nazis and focus on Hydra instead.

There's definitely some silliness in this episode, notably Professor Smith listening to earthworms to tell where the Red Skull's been, and Firestar creating a fiery rope when the heroes initially think that Professor Smith is an antagonist. Still, it was a good adventure story with a good (seemingly) end for the Red Skull, and I can't really say that I'm disappointed with it.