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.

Top Five Best Episodes

1. Pawns of the Kingpin: We've got some great action sequences, a bunch of double-crossing and betrayals, and Captain America joining in the fun. Add in a hilarious ending gag and is it any surprise that this is the best episode?
2. Sunfire: Even with some dodgy pacing, this still manages to be a pretty solid episode overall. Yeah, there's a giant fire monster and some robot samurais, but were we expecting anything less?
3. Spider-Man: Unmasked!: Having Sandman of all people discover Spider-Man's identity is a great plot for an episode, and Peter's reaction to the whole thing feels realistic. The way the dilemma is solved is pretty fun, too.
4. The Triumph of the Green Goblin: We instantly get a comparison to Revenge of the Green Goblin, which I think pulled off most of this plot better, and there's also the odd choice of the Green Goblin being a physical transformation. Still, it did a good job of introducing the setup of the show, and having Iceman be dating Norman Osborn's niece is an unexpected but not unwelcome development.
5. Spidey Meets the Girl From Tomorrow: If you can buy that Peter and Ariel really are in love with each other after five minutes of knowing each other, and put up with some elephant-related shenanigans, this is a pretty well-written tragedy. No matter its flaws, the final scene of the episode is written absolutely perfectly.

Honorable Mention: The Education of a Superhero is a pretty forgettable episode, but watching Francis Byte screw up every single thing he does, especially when people are giving him explicit instructions not to do the thing he's about to do, is absolutely hilarious. Bonus points for the characters shipping him off to the X-Men at the end of the episode, not wanting to deal with him at all.

Top Five Worst Episodes

1. The X-Men Adventure: Bad villain, bad plot, inexplicably changed Thunderbird powers, weird hologram stuff, dodgy villain motivation, retconned connection to the villain in a failed attempt at making him more interesting. Need I go on? (I did love the Maze of Madness, though).
2. Swarm: Some day, someone will write a version of Swarm that presents him as a legitimate threat, and it'll be awesome. It sure as heck won't be this episode and its bee people.
3. The Vengeance of Loki: If your idea of a good episode involves Iceman hanging out with Frost Giants while all of the other characters are imprisoned and do nothing, then you're in luck! I'm not though, because that's a terrible idea for an episode.
4. The Fantastic Mr. Frump: Seeing Doom manipulating someone is entertaining and very much in-character give that the someone has omnipotent power. What's less so is how inane all of the things that power is used for are, and how little of substance actually happens in the episode.
5. The Bride of Dracula!: I was torn between this and Knights and Demons (honorable mention there, I guess?), then I remembered that Spider-Man and Iceman spent half of this episode clinging to the outside of a plane because it was the best way for them to get overseas. Firestar also has very little presence in the episode until the end.

Next time, I'll be putting down some initial thoughts on the upcoming viewing of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. I hope you'll join me for them.