Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Five: The Menace of Mysterio

The Menace of Mysterio

First Aired: February 25th, 1995

Synopsis: Spider-Man is seen robbing a museum and successfully getting away with it. The next day, Peter Parker wakes up to a call from Mary Jane, who wants to go on a date with him. After arranging it  Peter hears about the museum robbery, and goes to investigate it as the Daily Bugle's photographer. He meets a police officer there who recognises him as the person who takes Spider-Man's photos. While they're talking, Mysterio appears and declares that he'll defeat Spider-Man, before disappearing. Later, Peter's on a bus when he hears a radio report about another Spider-Man robbery. He investigates and soon discovers that the Spider-Man doing the robberies is Mysterio. Mysterio lures Spider-Man to the Brooklyn Bridge for a confrontation, claiming that it's where he was ruined. Before a crowd of people, Mysterio's able to knock Spider-Man into the water. Everyone assumes that he's dead. When Peter gets home he gets a call from Mary Jane, annoyed that he forgot about their date. Frustrated by this and his defeat, Peter declares that he won't be Spider-Man any more.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Four: Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous

Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous

First Aired: February 18th, 1995

Synopsis: Peter Parker shows up to Felicia Hardy's elaborate mansion so that he can take her to a science exhibit as her tutor, but Doctor Octopus breaks into her room and captures her. Felicia's held for ransom and her mother recognises the writing on the note as belonging to that of Doctor Octavius, whom her foundation refused to grant money to. Peter himself recognises the name as being the person who ran a science camp he attended when he was younger. In his memory, Octavius was kindly and cared strongly about science. Meanwhile, Octavius talks to Felicia about his origin - he wanted to be able to do cold fusion in a battery but was laughed at. Although Felicia's mother's foundation gave him a grant he was progressing too slowly for them, and the money was cut off. Resorting to doing experiments by himself, he couldn't afford proper protection and ended up getting caught in an explosion which fused his tentacles to his spine.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Three: The Return of the Spider-Slayers

The Return of the Spider-Slayers

First Aired: February 11th, 1995

Synopsis: Peter Parker is being forced to go on a blind date with his neighbour Mary Jane Watson, and isn't pleased about it. When he's finished talking to Aunt May about it on the phone (while in costume), he's attacked by the Spider-Slayer that he fought previously, as well as a new, larger one. He manages to get Spider-Tracers on both of them but is defeated by them. Spider-Man is taken to Alistair Smythe, who has invited J. Jonah Jameson to unmask Spider-Man. It turns out to be a trap for Jonah, who's shackled to a bomb with Spider-Man, set to explode in one hour. Alistair blames the rivalry of the two for killing his father, and also has plans to kill Flash Thompsonn, Eddie Brock, and Norman Osborn. The Spider-Slayers drop Spider-Man and Jonah on a rooftop then head off to their targets.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Two: The Spider Slayer

The Spider Slayer

First Aired: February 4th, 1995

Synopsis: Spider-Man is attacked by flying robots which explode while he's out web-swinging. He defeats them, not knowing that scientist Spencer Smythe and his son Alistair are behind it. Norman Osborn is funding them, which Spencer has agreed to as he wants the money to make a hover-chair for Alistair, who's in a wheelchair. Unbeknownst to them, Norman is working for the Kingpin, and if the Spider-Slayer - the giant robot they've designed to defeat Spider-Man - doesn't do the job, Kingpin gets control of Norman's company. Elsewhere, a gala ball is behind organised by J. Jonah Jameson, who's hosting it, and Felicia Hardy, whose mother is a philanthropist sponsoring it. Peter is assigned as the photographer since he's cheap, and Jonah discovers that Peter and Felicia go to college together. Once the gala starts, Felicia starts flirting with Peter, which annoys Flash enough for him to change into a Spider-Man costume in an attempt to humiliate Peter - right before the Spider-Slayer attacks.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode One: Night of the Lizard

Night of the Lizard

First Aired: November 19th, 1994

Synopsis: Two sewer workers are attacked by the Lizard, and one of them is captured. Shortly afterwards, Peter Parker is given an assignment to photograph the Lizard, although he's sceptical that he exists. Eddie Brock, Peter's photography rival, also wants the assignment since J. Jonah Jameson is offering a $1,000 bonus to whoever gets the photos, but Jonah gives everything to Peter since he's worked with the reptile scientist Curt Connors. When Peter goes to university to see Connors, followed by fellow student Debbie Whitman, the two of them are attacked by the Lizard, who gets away with a mysterious wrapped-up package. Peter goes to Connors' house, as does Eddie Brock, secretly, and finds the Lizard there. After a brief fight with the Lizard, Curt's son Billy calls out to the Lizard, who runs away. Curt's wife then reveals the truth to Spider-Man: Curt Connors is the Lizard.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series: Before Watching

While I've mentioned previously that Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends is the first Spider-Man show I've covered that people seem to still have some memories of and nostalgia for, it's pretty safe to say that for a lot of people, Spider-Man: The Animated Series* is the definitive Spider-Man show. Why? I'm not quite sure, although I can't say I've really heard anything bad about it.

Unlike the other Spider-Man shows I've covered, this is one that I've actually seen some episodes of. Something like fifteen or so years ago, I watched a DVD (maybe even a video) of it which contained all of the Venom episodes, and while my memory's not good enough to remember many details, I do remember liking it, even if I had no idea that Iron Man was an established hero when he showed up in the Carnage arc.

Other than that, there are a few other little tidbits I've picked up over the years about the show, some of which I'm probably wrong about. I'll be interested to see how many of them do end up being true as I go through the show:

• The Sinister Six are renamed the Insidious Six; I think because the word Sinister was considered too scary for kids
• I think that this is the series where Electro is the Red Skull's son? That's a weird character choice to make.
• The show wasn't allowed to show Spider-Man punching anyone, and so there's a lot of censorship. There's also an urban legend that it wasn't allowed to show pigeons being disturbed on rooftops as Spider-Man ran across them.
• Since the show couldn't kill anyone (too scary! Kids don't understand the concept of death!), it instead threw characters through interdimensional portals. I definitely remember this happening at the climax of the Carnage arc, and I'm fairly sure that I heard that it happens to Mary Jane and the Green Goblin in this show's equivalent of The Night Gwen Stacy Died.
• The Hobgoblin is introduced in this show before the Green Goblin, I think. I'm curious as to whether there will be any references to the Green Goblin if the Hobgoblin's origin is touched on.

One more thing that I've been looking forwards to for a while is that this series is starting to draw from more recent contemporary comics - Venom appears, and from the looks of some of the episode titles, we'll also get Hydro-Man, Morbius, the Punisher, and other villains from the post-Ditko and Romita eras. As decent as Spider-Man (1981) and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends were, something that both were lacking in was a good use of characters from the 1970s and early 80s. On the flip side, this show is responsible for the idea of the black suit influencing Peter negatively, which I think has been soft-retconned into the comics by now.

* Technically, the name of this series is just Spider-Man, but I've already got to use years to distinguish between the 1967 and 1981 shows, and this helps to make it stand out more.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends: After Watching

Back when I first started watching the 1981 Spider-Man series (the other 1981 series, that is) I questioned whether it being more obscure than this concurrent series was unfair or not. Having now watched the two of them, I'm suprised to say that while there are probably a lot of factors going into its notoriety - among other things, I'm fairly sure that Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends aired at a better timeslot compared to the 1981 series - this series really did end up being the superior one.

Sure, there are some pretty decent episodes in the 1981 series, and there are some bad ones of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. There are plenty of episodes where Firestar and Iceman are a bit superfluous, and let's not pretend for a second that Amazing Friends' Doctor Doom is superior to the 1981 series' version. But ultimately, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends has one big advantage over the 1981 series - namely, that by having Spider-Man on a team of equals, it gives him a dynamic that few other Spider-Man stories explore.

Firestar was a consistently enjoyable character, often being the voice of reason and thankfully bringing as much to the table as the male characters. I've read a bit of Fabian Nicieza's New Warriors from the 90s, and it was good to see that she was just as enjoyable here as she was there. Iceman was a bit more annoying, but there were still some good uses of his powers, and the banter between him and Peter was thoroughly enjoyable. I doubt that there'll be a dynamic between the main characters in a Spider-Man show like this for a while.

Just adding in the team dynamic gives the show a lot more to work in. Suddenly, we can bring in characters from the other members' pasts, or, if we need to pad the episode a bit, can at least give the characters separate tasks to do to disguise it a bit. I wouldn't want Spider-Man to be on a team all of the time, but this series really did manage to pull it off well and make me enjoy what it did.

Ultimately, I think that when this show did falter a bit, it was more often than not due to a sketchy plot than mishandling of the characters. Some episodes are definitely worth skipping, and we're still in the realm of little continuity or ongoing plots, but overall Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was pretty decent. If you're wondering whether this show is worth watching and can put up with some silly stuff - Spider-Fan, go for it!

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 and His Amazing Friends Episode Twenty-Four: Mission: Save the Guardstar

Mission: Save the Guardstar

First Aired: November 5th, 1983

Synopsis: The Spider-Friends investigate a robbery at an electronics place being instigated by a woman that secret government agent Iceman identifies as Lightwave. She's demonstrates the ability to create and control light, and is able to get away with some electronics. Iceman refuses to say who she is, but Spider-Man and Firestar manage to find out shortly afterwards when they're recruited by SHIELD to stop her. It turns out that she used to be a SHIELD agent before she defected, and that she wants to gather devices to enhance her power so that she can take over the defence satellite Guardstar. What no one knows is that she's been hypnotised by a mysterious shadowy figure to do so. When she next performs a robbery, Spider-Man's isn't able to stop her because of Iceman, who helps her. He explains to Spider-Man and Firestar that she's his half-sister. Shortly afterwards, Iceman anticipates she'll go to an old carousel she liked and meets her there, but she defeats him when he tries to talk to her.