SPIDERMAN

    "Spiderman. Spiderman.
    Does whatever a spider can.
    Spins a web, any size.
    Catches thieves- just like flies.
    Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!
    Is he strong? Listen, bud.
    He's got radioactive blood.
    Can he swing, from a thread?
    Take a look overhead.
    Hey, there! There goes the Spiderman!
    In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime.
    Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time!
    Spiderman. Spiderman.
    Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman.
    Wealth and fame? He's ignored. 
    Action is his reward.
    To him, life is a great big bang-up. 
    Wherever there's a hang-up,
    you'll find the Spiderman!"

Peter's Uncle Ben is murdered by a burglar, a criminal who earlier ran past Peter at a television studio to which Peter had come to exhibit his spider-abilities. Peter selfishly declined to help the police to stop the fleeing malefactor and is to a significant extent responsible for the death of his uncle. Peter, in his Spiderman guise, finds, punches, and webs the murderer. Now aware that he has received his powers for a higher purpose than exhibition for monetary gain, Peter accepts his duty as a costumed fighter of crime, a responsibility that he vows never again to fail. To financially support his Aunt May, Ben's widow, Peter becomes a freelance photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper as an aside to his continued studies and his responsibility as Spiderman to the good people of New York City. Peter does not allow anyone, not even his aunt, to know that he is Spiderman. The Daily Bugle publisher, a cigar-smoking, self-righteous, blustery chauvinist named J. Jonah Jameson, has a jaundiced view of Spiderman's heroism and wields considerable influence with the city government and police force. So, Spidey must constantly be wary of the police whom he is helping, usually retaining the villains that he catches in a web for police to apprehend after he has left the capture scene, and attaching a note with an appropriate pun in regard to the crook and which says that the capture was courtesy of "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman".

Peter often uses his intimate involvement with his alter-ego's pursuit of villains to obtain exclusive photographs of the criminals, their evil deeds, and their capture, and provides the photographs to an incredulous Jameson, who, though he prints the pictures, usually manages to negatively spin-doctor Spiderman's involvement and magnify his own importance, much to Spidey's good-natured annoyance and the objection of Spidey's admirer and Peter's friend, Betty Brant, Jameson's feisty secretary.

Meanwhile, in Peter's continued university life, he encounters eccentric professors whose unauthorized, dangerous experiments result in calamity that only Spiderman can remedy, and he experiences frustration with girl-friends who accuse him of cowardice every time that he must leave them in the midst of a dire situation so that he can privately change into Spiderman.

Spiderman is the creation of Marvel Comics' founder Stan Lee and one of the earliest super-heroes to be featured in graphically illustrated magazines, or comic books, under the Marvel Comics name. The protagonist being a youth still learning about the ways of the world was quite innovative as a comic book premise, because before the advent of Spidey, most super-heroes had been mature, fully educated scientists prior to gaining their special abilities, for instance the members of The Fantastic Four and atomic researcher Dr. Bruce Banner, who transforms whenever angered or outraged into the Incredible Hulk. The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and Spiderman were Marvel Comics' most successful magazine publications in the mid-1960s, but Spidey's popularity eclipsed that of the others, probably because children and teenagers, the majority of comic book buyers, identified best with young Peter Parker. Discussions commenced between Marvel Comics and the American television networks on a possible television life for Spidey, and, in 1967, Spiderman web-swung from comic book preeminence to his own television show.

The first season of Spiderman was the work of Grantray-Lawrence Animation, a cartoon factory in California founded by veteran Hollywood animators Grant Simmons and Ray Patterson. Simmons and Patterson hailed from the cartoon studios of Walt Disney, Walter Lantz, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and from arguably the best years of theatrical cartoon production, their work having included contribution to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's popular and highly acclaimed Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts. The third partner of their team, Robert Lawrence, was an accomplished administrator in Hollywood film studio operation. Under the employ of Grantray-Lawrence for Spiderman were director Clyde Geronimi, who had helmed several Walt Disney Productions feature films, and Warner Brothers cartoon veteran Sid Marcus, who also served as cartoon director on Spidey's first foray onto television. Among the Grantray-Lawrence Spiderman cartoon animation staff were former Walt Disney Productions animators Hal Ambro (The Jungle Book) and Harvey Toombs (Peter Pan). Grantray-Lawrence was contracted by Krantz Films and Marvel Comics to yield 52 half-hours of Spiderman for the U.S. ABC television network but went bankrupt after the first season of 20 installments, and so was the remainder of the 1967-70 Spiderman television series completed in New York City at Krantz Films by new executive producer Ralph Bakshi.

Bakshi introduced to Spiderman techniques of economized cartoon animation, such as superimposing lip movement over otherwise static characters and repeating animated action against changing backgrounds, in strict adherence to the reducing production budget and to deliver episodes to ABC as per the increasingly rushed timetable specified by the television network. In the interest of variable background, Bakshi chose to guide the exploits of Spidey into the realm of outlandish and "trippy" science fiction and fantasy, resulting in a widely divergent contrast of style between Season 1 and the subsequent episodes of the Ralph Bakshi New York City unit.

Season 1 is more formulaic than its successors. It tends to focus on the interaction between Parker, Brant, and Jameson at the Daily Bugle; in fact, Brant and Jameson are in every episode of Season 1 and make only sporadic appearances in Seasons 2 and 3. Also, Season 1 usually features villains from Spidey's comic book adventures, among them Dr. Octopus, the Lizard, Mysterio, the Vulture, the Scorpion, the Green Goblin, and the Sandman. In the other two seasons, few of the classic comic book villains are used.

The Vulture, Electro, and the Green Goblin, together in criminal conference with Dr. Noah Boddy in "To Catch a Spider".

Stylistic changes between Seasons 1 and 2 are most evident in the look of the episodes. The Daily Bugle is a more spacious, less cozy workplace in Seasons 2 and 3, and several episodes have an autumnal motif coincident with such evidence of urban rot as tattered, old posters on fences and neglected alleys. Opposed to the cloudless, light-blue sky of most first season entries is the overcast gloom of Seasons 2 and 3. Seemingly impenetrable, multi-colored, dark clouds serve as nihilistic backdrop to Peter's anxiety as a studious youth in the freewheeling, psychedelically sensual culture of the late 1960s, to Spidey's adventures in exotic places and times, and to his battles against madmen with somewhat more grandiose schemes than those of the man-creature (e.g. the Vulture, the Scorpion, the Rhino, etc.) antagonists of Season 1.

Titling of episodes is different also. In Season 1, all stories begin with a brief prologue that reaches a high point of action or suspense, followed by a title card with unfancy, yellow letters set against a screen-spanning spider web, behind which are New York City metropolitan buildings and blue sky. Episodes of Seasons 2 and 3 are without prologue, their titles immediately appearing in typewriter-style, white lettering of various degrees of size, amid a Moonlit, nighttime pier. One could be tempted to refer to Season 1 entries as "web" episodes and to those of Seasons 2 and 3 as "piers". In "The Origin of Spiderman", the pier is the location to where Peter, having been bitten by the radiation-exposed arachnid, drives his motorcycle and pauses to think about the amazing feats of which he has found himself to be capable in the previous hours. In further episodes of the second season, Spidey web-swings past this same pier. The webbing-and-skyscrapers background was used for the closing credits in Season 1, and second and third season installments all end with credits printed against the pier. Titles for third season Spidey adventures stay on screen somewhat longer than do those of Seasons 1 and 2. This may have been in reaction to complaints by younger viewers that they had not had enough time to fully read longer titles.

Due to limited budget and reduced time for production, many third season installments reused cartoon animation heavily from episodes of Seasons 1 and 2, to the extent of practically repeating the storylines of episodes from the former seasons, and two episodes, one in Season 2 and the other in Season 3, incorporated a bulk of cartoon animation from the Rocket Robin Hood (1966-9) television series, whose grimly impressionistic visual style of later episodes is strikingly similar to the Season 2 and 3 Spiderman.

Before the closing credits of each episode, Spidey tells to the audience what will transpire on "next week's show". In Season 1, scenes from the upcoming episode accompany Spidey's description of his next adventure or, in most cases, adventures, in that 18 of the 20 Season 1 episodes consist of two self-contained, separate stories. In Seasons 2 and 3, there are no scenes from the upcoming episode coincident with Spidey's voice-over. Instead, a montage of rapid cuts from Season 1 was used. Spidey's descriptions are not always correct. His "next week's episode" statement for "Rhino"/"The Madness of Mysterio" erroneously forecasts the second of the two stories to be "The Scorpion and the Spider", featuring not Mysterio, but the Scorpion, no doubt in a planned reconstituted story using cartoon animation from one or both of Spidey's Season 1 conflicts with the Scorpion.

Spidey's first television series was initially broadcast in the U.S. on Saturday mornings on ABC. The first episode to be telecast was "The Power of Doctor Octopus"/"Sub-Zero For Spidey" on September 9, 1967. For the full run of Season 1 in 1967-8 and of the second season in 1968-9, Spidey was seen at 11 A.M. Atlantic Time. ABC's last Saturday morning broadcast of Spiderman was on August 30, 1969, with 39 half-hour episodes (many with two separate stories) having been transmitted. The web-swinger went on hiatus until the following March, when a third season began a six-month run, from March 22 to September 6, 1970, on Sunday mornings, at 11:30 Atlantic Time. "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension" was not included in ABC's broadcast of Season 3, and speculation is that incidence of death, spatial spookiness, and extreme psychedelia were the reasons for ABC's censorship of this episode. The first season adventures, "Sting of the Scorpion"/"Trick or Treachery", were repeated in its stead. Season 3's thirteen episodes were added to the 39 prior installments in the syndication package to be distributed hereafter.

Spiderman's acting talent was based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, provided by members of a voice artist company led by Bernard Cowan. The rationale for eschewing Hollywood and opting for Canada with regard to voice work was purely monetary, as residuals over an indefinate time period were demanded by the Screen Actors' Guild in the United States, while no such requirement existed in the utilization of Canadian talent. A lump sum of money paid to Cowan's group at the time of their involvement in the production was sufficient for perpetual television transmission of their services. Cowan was the dialogue director, narrator, and voice of some supporting characters. Paul Soles, remembered by Canadians as the Lawbreaker on CBC's mid-1970s television series, This is the Law, was both Peter Parker and Spiderman. Peg Dixon gave vocal life to Betty Brant and various of Peter's love interests, and Paul Kligman's distinctive, high-pitched, nasal voice is heard in the rants of J. Jonah Jameson and several villains. Gillie Fenwick, who voiced the Sheriff of N.O.T.T. in Rocket Robin Hood and played butler to Jack Palance in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), went uncredited for his work as Doctors Smartyr and Conner and the catly sorcerer, Pardo. Likewise without credit were Len Carlson as Captain Stacy, Chris Wiggins, lead actor in television's Swiss Family Robinson (1972-3), as Mysterio and Fifth Dimension overlord Infinata, and Tom Harvey, a regular cast member on the Bizarre comedy television series of the 1980s, as Master Vine in "Vine", the radiation specialist in "Specialists and Slaves", and some of the New York City officials and policemen.

Perhaps the most famous aspect to the 1967-70 Spiderman is its opening and closing theme song, which was performed by a vocal group to lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster and quick-tempo instrumentals performed by Bob Harris- and published by Buddah Music, Inc..

In order to escape the encircling, devouring wrath of the titled creature of the episode, "Blotto", Spiderman descends to the New York City sewer system.

Episodic musical scores became increasingly moody from season to season, with particularly eerie compositions for "Menace From the Bottom of the World" and "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension", 1960s dance music for stories ("Swing City", "Criminals in the Clouds", "Diamond Dust") involving Parker's school life, dramatic drum music and symphonic bursts and crescendos for the onslaught of "Blotto", and horn toots accompanying the prowl of the giant cat in "Pardo Presents". Some of the tunes for Spiderman were library music used in The Fugitive (1963-7), Doctor Who (1963-89), and some American Public Service Announcements. The haunting melody heard when Spidey first enters Mole City in "Menace From the Bottom of the World" and while he is being "iced" in the nuclear freezer in "Cold Storage" was a regular fixture of the soundtrack for the 1980-1 season of Dallas (1978-91).

Below is a complete episode guide for Spiderman.

Mysterio, the Scorpion, and the Rhino.

Season 1

"The Power of Doctor Octopus" and "Sub-Zero For Spidey" seem to be an unusual pair of stories with which to launch the animated cartoon television version of the web-swinger. Though in one of them Spiderman is a captive of his enemy for awhile, which is unusual for Season 1, they do appear to be a couple of Spidey outings that could go anywhere in the first season. "The Menace of Mysterio" seems to better set the television series into motion, as the viewer is presented with a villain capable of impersonating the superhero, and Spidey's extended effort to "clear his name", with some rather lengthy web-swinging scenes, affords to the viewer plenty of occasion to become acquainted with the milieux (e.g. the streets of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge) of Spiderman's home metropolis. Further, the first time that Peter and Betty Brant are shown together is with Betty on station in Jameson's office, so that the relationship of the two characters is immediately placed in context. And it is established by "The Menace of Mysterio" on Jameson's first appearance that J. Jonah is not an admirer of Spidey, that he has never believed in Spiderman, that he always thought Spidey to be a menace to society. Plus, the episode-ending scene with Spidey confronting J. Jonah defines the antagonism between them that would last through this season. Jameson's first dictate to Peter in "The Menace of Mysterio" establishes that Peter is a newspaper photographer as such is stated by Jameson. And Jameson's news report and his editorial portrayal of Spiderman as a self-seeker of criminal intent is clearly presented here as a valid reason for Spidey to be wary of law enforcement officials, even when he is not under suspicion for a specific offense. In all of these ways, "The Menace of Mysterio" is a better candidate for first Season 1 broadcast than is "The Power of Doctor Octopus"/"Sub-Zero For Spidey".

Which is not to say that "The Power of Doctor Octopus" and "Sub-Zero For Spidey" are not effective Spidey stories in their own right. "The Power of Doctor Octopus" accurately presents a villain from the colorful pages of Marvel Comics, ensconced within a gadget-filled cavern, chaining Spidey and later Betty as captive, and proceeding with a plan to detonate the water, natural gas, and electrical outlets beneath the edifices of New York City as a demonstration of his capability to literally undermine the public security and economic health of the Western world. And "Sub-Zero For Spidey" is chillingly impressive in its depictions of trees, buildings, and the walls of a house turning to ice and rather bold to suggest that planet Pluto has Jack Frost-like iceman inhabitants of towering size. The resolutions to both stories are rather easy, in one of them bringing events to a conclusion because the alien beings are found not to have hostile intent and only wish to return to their home world, having abducted the one scientist capable of assisting them in this endeavor, and in the other finishing with Spidey discharging a key-like web into his and Betty's handcuff locks, shooting forth a sticky webbing to obstruct the vision of the tentacled antagonist, and then with more webs binding Doctor Octopus and all of his arms to a metal beam in the cave, with Betty summoning police to apprehend the evil doctor. But the excitement of watching Spidey in action against Doctor Octopus and against the as yet unknown motovation of the savant-capturing ice creatures, and the limited though polished animation and overall aural-visual stylishness of the entire two stories cannot be denied.

"Where Crawls the Lizard" offers a view of the Everglades in Florida, a lovely mix of yellows, browns, and greens, as background for another Marvel Comic storyline brought to animated cartoon format. Spidey travels to the southern U.S. state in response to reports of a Lizard Man lurking in the Everglade swamps, learns that a reptile researcher name of Conner is missing, and suspects that Conner's experimental swamp fever cure serum may have transmuted the Floridian scientist into the humanoid reptile. The man who changes into the Lizard in Marvel Comics' story is named Conners and not Conner and in Marvel Comics is without one of his arms whereas Conner in "Where Crawls the Lizard" has all of his limbs intact. Still, "Where Crawls the Lizard" offers a generally satisfying portrayal of an iconic Marvel Comics Spidey adventure, the web-spinner battling another man of science's biologically-induced alter-ego. However, its companion in the second installment of Spiderman Season 1 is a rather undistinctive and rather less inspired outing for Spidey. Indeed, Electro burglarizing Jameson's house and jewelry stores in his introduction story, "Electro the Human Lightning Bolt", is not as interesting as his hijacking of the metropolitan power supply in "Kilowatt Kaper". Spidey is blamed by Jameson and sought by police for Electro's thievery, resulting in skirmish between Spidey and the N.Y.P.D., but the crimes of Electro in this episode still pale when compared to his attempt to control the entire New York City's stores of vital energy.

The trend in Season 1 is for villains to appear as Spidey's central adversary in two separate stories. One notable exception to this is the Sandman, whose only foray into the world of 1967-70 televised Spiderman is in "Sands of Crime". Of the two stories in which the other villains are performing their dastardly deeds, one tends to be much more exciting and memorable than the other, usually due to some more elaborate and imaginative condition, action, or intent of the antagonist, such as the Scorpion growing gigantic, or the Vulture holding Jameson as a hostage and a grudging information provider inside of a clock, or Electro being Manhattan's would-be energy baron, or the Rhino building a solid gold statue of himself. The other story, i.e. that without such cogent and distinctive elements, tends to be rather non-descript beyond perhaps introducing a Marvel Comics villain to viewers of the 1967-70 Spiderman. "Never Step On a Scorpion", for example, shows the standard-sized titled villain, newly conceived in collaboration between Jameson and a Doctor Stillwell, chasing and attacking Spidey and doing damage to a fuse box and a sign, then turning against Jameson, resulting in a pair of all-too-fleeting fights between super-hero and antagonist at the Daily Bugle office. Rather unsatisfying compared to "Sting of the Scorpion", i.e. the Scorpion becoming a colossus who carries Jameson away from the Daily Bugle building and into Central Park, where he is confronted by Spidey and the military.

"Never Step On a Scorpion"/"Sands of Crime" is preceded by "The Sky is Falling"/"Captured By J. Jonah Jameson". "The Sky is Falling" presents the Vulture and his abilities of personal aviation and control over other flying creatures, but is otherwise a lacklustre offering. The arguably best part of it, a tussle between Spidey and Vulture on a building construction site, occurs not at climax but less than halfway through the story. The Vulture's intent of aerial hegemony over Manhattan is rather more compelling in the third season retread of much of this story because of the darker and more variable color therein to the skies, a more appropos backdrop to the unnerving menace of increasing flocks of shrieking birds of prey than the clear, cloudless blue airspace of this first season entry. Spidey's solution to the Vulture's added two million dollar extortion scheme involves the placing of a transmission jammer onto the Vulture's head, thereby thwarting the Vulture's bird-control and turning the wrath of predatory fowl against the Vulture, is rather unsatisfying. How did Spidey attain such a device? How has it been attuned to the precise wavelength to obscure or block that of the Vulture's bird-control signal? And why do the birds then instantaneously turn against the Vulture? Retribution for his having dominated them? Do birds have such an impulse? It is a too-convenient outcome to a story that, despite the Hitchcockian threat of a massed feathered assault, lacks a palpable feel throughout of seige intensity and spreading fear. "The Vulture's Prey" is rather more iconic as a Spidey-against-Vulture story, for the Vulture has captured Jameson, holds the Daily Bugle publisher hostage inside of a clock, and is proceeding, with information provided under grudging duress by Jameson, to perpetrate heists of jewels and military equipment. It is not a flock of birds but the Vulture himself who perpetrates all of that story's villainy. And the threat throughout "The Vulture's Prey" to Jameson as Peter and Betty ponder as to their boss' whereabouts is conveyed with efficiency. Spidey's webbing and capture of the flying fiend is all too quick, unfortunately, but in the sum of its parts, "The Vulture's Prey" is the superior Vulture story.

"Captured By J. Jonah Jameson" is similar to the next installment's "Never Step On a Scorpion" in that J. Jonah allies with a scientific genius to arrive at something capable of ridding the world of Spiderman. Jameson's associate here is a robot inventor named Smythe. This surname is same as that of the creator of Marvel Comics' Spider-Slayer machines. "Captured By J. Jonah Jameson" is a fast and furious story that grabs the viewer and never relents as Spidey desperately flees the powerful clutches of the Smythe device controlled by Jameson (whose face is imaged in the robot's head). Unless Spidey can elude the unrelenting mechanism, his secret dual identity and probably even his crime-fighting career will be ended. The title of the story suggests that Spidey may indeed lose in this harrowing encounter with his newspaper-publishing nemesis' weapon, preserving the suspenseful and exciting effect of the chase through Manhattan and to a beach and back into metropolitan areas. Spidey's climactic solution after being braced within the metal arms of the robot is to utilize his "brains and the suction power of (his) fingers" and pull open the hatch to the robot's circuitry and yank the wiring of the robot out of its sockets, and Jameson's despondent frustration at discovering that Spidey has outwitted him is played to perfection. The similar story premise of "Never Step On a Scorpion", in the next Season 1 installment, aptly coincides with the happenings of "Captured By J. Jonah Jameson", going one step further with Jameson's intended Spidey-eradicator turning against J. Jonah, and the overweening Daily Bugle publisher needing Spidey's help against the lethality of the Scorpion's crushing tail, and then of course disregarding Spidey's heroic role in ending the frightful experience. Featuring a slinky, saline Marvel Comics villain's one and only appearance in this Spiderman television series, "Sands of Crime", paired with "Never Step On a Scorpion", is a rather humdrum jewel robbery and extortion caper, notable, if at all, for the climactic battle between Spidey and Sandman in a rock quarry.

"Diet of Destruction" presents a rare divergence from the visual style and story formula of Season 1. There is an experimental, unusual look to the character designs. Jameson, especially, is given high cheekbones and a more vertically elongated, retangular face than usual, yielding a forbidding, austere appearance. With this combined with a wider than expected opening of the mouth during his rants, J. Jonah does look somewhat frightening. Parker's facial design is different also from Season 1 standard. Also more elongated, giving to him the impression of a still higher intelligence than already demonstrated. And there are scenes of Spidey in which there is starker contrast and reduced curvature of tips of his black eyes against the red of his head mask. Expansive, varied spacings between buildings and diverse architecture of some such edifices, some rather squat and square rather than the usual retangles, is also a "Diet of Destruction" distinction. And the walking, 30-foot-tall, metal-eating, havoc-raising, uncommunicative "furnace mouth" is a monstrosity that would not be out of place in a Season 2 or Season 3 episode. Within the fairly "even keel" of Season 1's consistent-conventional visuals and thievery-criminality story style, "Diet of Destruction" is rather an anomoly. And its episodic mate, "The Witching Hour", contains a more saliently diabolical than usual machination by a villain and a notably nasty clash between him, the Green Goblin, and Spidey in Jameson's office, with Spidey being clobbered in the face at close range by a file cabinet component and one of the sides of Jameson's desk. The latter facial impact induces unconsciousness for the web-spinner, who is very nearly captured by the N.Y.P.D. summoned by Jameson to the Daily Bugle, and would have been in police custody had he not regained consciousness when he did. "The Witching Hour" has a rather subtle thematic connection to its installment partner. Jameson becomes entranced while unwittingly reading the Goblin's written incantation, the last words thereof being "mondas infernus". Two words that imply a world afire. Coming after a story concerning a walking, flaming furnace, a hellish motif- albeit technological in its physical being, this allusion to Hades, from where the frowning-ghost demons of the spirit world are evidently being summoned by the Goblin, provides an exquisite coincidence between same-installment stories. Visual style of "The Witching Hour" is more aligned to the overall look of the first season than is that of "Diet of Destruction", though the fight scene in Jameson's office is of a more violent nature than normal for Season 1.

"Kilowatt Kaper"/"The Peril of Parafino" are a pair of stories beginning with a prison inmate's escape. In his endeavor to bring the convicts back to jail, Spidey must be careful of where he steps for there might be electrical charge or sticky wax underfoot. In this duo of nocturnal, prison escape storylines, Jameson is more cantankerous with Peter than he has been until this time, going so far as to declare Peter's employment terminated, and is undeterred from this decision even after Betty reminds J. Jonah that Peter is a freelancer, and not a staff member. Electro's prison-break and subsequent comandeering of the New York City energy supply is punctuated by a distinctly harrowing encounter at the Manhattan power station, with Spidey nearly being sliced and diced by turbine blades after Electro's emitted energy bolt breaks the web-swinger's arachnid's tether directly above one of the power generators. The climactic battle between Spidey and Electro in Times Square, watched from the street by Jameson and N.Y.P.D., is exciting, although it is expected that Spidey's improvised new webbing formula, on which Peter has been busily occupied much to Jameson's frustration, will somehow withstand Electro's energy emissions and capture the live-wired n'eer-do-well. Red Dog Melvin, the on-the-lam convict in "The Peril of Parafino" is the secondary villain of that Spidey outing, covered in wax and in suspended animation for most of the story time frame. Parafino has centre stage as Spidey's ruthless antagonist. A wax artist who, in the tradition of the Vincent Price and Lionel Atwill movies about macabre goings-on at wax museums, has no qualms against exhibiting statuary of real human bodies beneath layers of the greasy, hydrocarbonic element. Spidey and Betty are captives of Parafino in a thrilling climax above huge vats of hot wax, pitting Spidey's web-power against the flex-resistence and dagger-forming capability of gobs of wax thrown by the sinister artist, followed by an unheralded, therefore surprising storyline twist just when Spidey and Betty believe that Parafino has been thwarted. Within "The Peril of Parafino" are some uncharacteristic, for Season 1, continuity errors, involving the names inscribed on pedestals in the Parafino wax museum. Red Dog Melvin is assigned a pedestal in Parafino's display room, but the name on the pedestal changes spelling from Melvin to Melvan from scene to scene, and Spidey's pedestal splits the two parts of his name onto two lines in some scenes but not in others.

Next in the run of Season 1 episodes, "Horn of the Rhino" is a full-length story with Peter grappling with a viral respiratory infection and frequent sneezes during his effort to halt the Rhino's thefts of component parts to a weapon, whilst Jameson's frets constantly about Peter's unavailability for photographic missions, due to Parker's illness as reported to Jameson by a feisty Aunt May. J. Jonah eventually decides to himself do photographer's duties, beneath the guise of a fake beard so as not to be recognized as a revered newspaper publisher stooping to the plebian duty of cameraman. Jameson's beard falls from his face directly in front of a member of the Military Police, one who does not know Jameson's identity and thinks that he has caught a "real, live spy." The ranting and raving J. Jonah is jailed, eventually bellowing within his prison cell that, "It's all the fault of that hypochondriac teenager." All of this yields an entertaining, episode-spanning Spidey story. However, what the Rhino is doing, and his motivation, could be better conveyed to the viewer. The device that he is assembling, though said to be the most powerful weapon in the world, is a rather unimpressive, hand-held cube. Yes, sometimes size matters not, but the weapon lacks any defining markings, circuitry, gears, or other protuberances that usually signify a weapon of mass destruction. There is no indication of how this obscure, hand-held cube can ravage the world more effectively than the bulky atomic warheads in the arsenals of the superpowers. And what, exactly, does the Rhino plan to destroy with it, anyway? How much destruction? And to what exact purpose? Extortion of money with which to control the world? Killing world leaders so that he can usurp their position? The audience puzzles as to the Rhino's motivation and to the weapon's specific means and capacity of destructive power. The Rhino's gold heists and vain construction of a glittery self-image in "The Golden Rhino", though nowhere near as threatening as an assembled weapon of large-scale-destructive capability, forms a rather more lasting visual imprint upon the minds of viewers, in addition to offering a more cogent, self-gratifying motivation for the antagonist. And "The Golden Rhino" features as many Spidey-versus-Rhino confrontations of battle over a shorter period of screen time. What "Horn of the Rhino" has in its favor is an as-usual fairly competent standard of animation and character design, efficient portrayal of building frustration in Jameson's world, leading to an amusing predicament for the hot-tempered publisher, and a clever, climactic application by Spidey of sneeze-inducing pepper, added to Peter's soup by Aunt May in earlier scenes of this episode, to bring the Rhino's muddy world crashing down around the horned villain. It is a pity, though, that the contested object, the assembled weapon, of "Horn of the Rhino" has such an unimpressive appearance, and the Rhino's plans for it insufficiently defined.

Following "Horn of the Rhino" was a veering away from Marvel Comic villains for 4 installments in which the foes for the web-swinger are unique to this Spidey television series. First came the Jameson-robbing Australian hunter, Harley Clivendon, and his Aborogine accomplice, the latter a stereotype for savage natives of exotic lands and the reason why "The One-Eyed Idol" and its installment companion, "Fifth Avenue Phantom", have been barred from broadcast in some television markets. By anonymously bestowing to Jameson the gift of an small idol, Clivendon has injected a Trojan Horse in the wealthy newspaper publisher's midst. The idol projects from its eye a beam of light that hypnotises Jameson, rendering him susceptible to Clivendon's radioed (through the idol) suggestions that Jameson loot his own wall safe and place the money in the head of the idol for the wall-scaling Aborigine to collect at a later time. The graven image-object's light beam emitted from its eye is a motif link to what the Phantom's feminine robots do with their optical areas. They, too, discharge lights from their eyes. In their case, shrink rays. Like the Jawa creatures of Star Wars, the Phantom is garbed in a hooded cloak, his face represented within the darkness of the hood only by a pair of sparkly eyes. Miniaturization, the method of the Phantom's elaborate scheme to plunder full-scale furs, furniture, and automobiles from metropolitan department stores and smuggle the merchandise in the guise of toys out of the targeted vendors' places, is a quite bold concept for the first season of this Spidey television offering. It recurs in a rather more menacing vein in Ralph Bakshi's third season story, "The Birth of Microman". The Phantom's robots posing as department store mannequins, giving him instant access to the interiors of department stores and the there-contained inventory, accords with the Trojan Horse's purpose of Clivendon's idol. Presented here is an interesting pair of stories with original villains, an un-politcally-correct henchman, and feminine robots that predate the ones on American television's The Bionic Woman by 9 years. Yet, there are some quibbles to be had with "The One-Eyed Idol"/"Fifth Avenue Phantom". Peter's voice in one scene sounds like that of Spiderman while he talks for several seconds without having first donned the Spidey mask, there is an exaggeratedly thick, black outline of the Daily Bugle building during a nighttime scene, and Spidey's super-heroic resolution of the criminality before him is in both cases rather dubiously choreographed. In the midst of climactic battle between Spidey and Clivendon, Spidey is shown as being able to dodge Clivendon's handgun bullets and to halt in mid-motion and disable in mid-air a spear thrown at him at fairly close range by the roguish stalker of the Outback, abilities that one would think would be beyond the scope of Spidey's radioactive-spider-transferred power. And in the action scene at the climax of "Fifth Avenue Phantom", Spidey too easily, by a few jerky moves, evades the combined assault of the shrink rays of three of the Phantom's robots and web-swings rather slowly over them to a position from which he has an unobstructed web-spin aim at the Phantom, who merely stands still as though caught by surprise by Spidey's speed of movement. Yes, the Phantom obligingly stands still with his back to Spidey, turning around too late to avoid the encumbering webbing that denotes his capture. He also conveniently drops his robot control for Spidey to pick up and switch off. The animation is polished, but the action is unsatisfying.

"The Revenge of Dr. Magneto" and "The Sinister Prime Minister" constitute the next installment in this Spidey television series. Both involve ordinary (i.e. non-hybridized) men as antagonists. Dr. Magneto could be seen as something of a template for many of the vllains of Seasons 2 and 3. A disgraced and vengeful genius with a pseudo-scientific way of causing amazing and menacing things to happen. A magnetising gun is Magneto's instrument, and it can instantaneously induce magnetic properties in anything specifically selected and de-magnetize objects with equal precision, enabling Magneto to wreak havoc on lighthouse beacons, railway tracks, and statues perched precariously at high altitude. In the climactic meeting of superhero and villain at a science Hall of Fame, whose interior layout will be reused for the Cosmopolitan Museum in Season 2's "Diamond Dust", Spidey asks whether Magneto ever considered helping people with his scientifically engineered power, as Spidey has done with the abilities that he has. Peter Parker, as will be presented in Season 2, was selfishly tempted to pursue selfish goals but learned early in his life as Spiderman that he requires a social conscience and an unswerving sense of public responsibility. Alas, some extraordinarily endowed individuals are unable to transcend the desires of their own egos, and their abilities become perverted and evil. Says Spidey on the note that he attaches to the webbing-entangled Magneto following the confrontation at the Hall of Fame, with Spidey's anti-magnetic web fluid prevailing over the doctor's gun, "For the most misguided use of scientific knowledge your Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman elects this candidate."

"The Sinister Prime Minister" is a run-of-the-mill imposter storyline, not as interesting as its sequel, "Double Identity", because here the impersonator, renowned actor Charles Cameo, is effecting his make-up-disguised and deceptive techniques on only one usurped personality, that of the leader of an obscure foreign country. Jameson, of course, is bamboozled by Cameo's performance, prepared to donate two million dollars to that country, and in Cameo's scheme, directly to Cameo's evil coffers. This story, however by-the-numbers and bland in concept, boasts some excellent scenes, with Spidey using his webbing as a dog muzzler and, attached to a couple of trees, as an armored-truck-stopping roadblock, and thwarting Cameo on board an airplane by lassoing his webbing to blocks of gold bullion and thrusting said gold into Cameo's rotating-blade cane weapon and then webbing Cameo and cane. And immediately following such dramatic statements by Peter/Spidey as, "Time for Spiderman to swing," and "The airport's my last chance," is some quite rousing music.

History's notorious evil-doers and some of mythology's grotesque and violent denizens are pitted against Spidey in "The Night of the Villains" and "Here Comes Trubble" respectively, two stories sharing a first season Spiderman installment.

Parafino returned for "The Night of the Villains" wherein Spidey is confronted by some of history's most fearsome personages, i.e. Blackbeard the Pirate, Jesse James, and the Executioner of Paris, all automated wax figures conceived by Parafino, who remains in the shadows at his museum for the majority of this story. How Parafino managed to avoid or leave prison after his prior machinations had resulted in his capture, is not stated. Spidey suspects that the historical figures committing daring robberies are of wax construction, but only during his tussle with the Parisian beheader, the last of the three infamous evil-doers to face Spiderman in battle, does Spidey act on his astute theory, scraping his finger along the arm of the webbing-encumbered Executioner and finding on said finger a drippy, milky substance. "Yup, just as I thought. Wax." The time at which Spidey started to consider that the "outdated villains" are made of wax and that he is not hallucinating due to lack of a needed, overdue vacation, is not precisely shown. It would seem, though, to be sometime between the encounters with Jesse James and the Executioner. The inevitable Spidey visit to Parafino's museum for the climactic battle with the criminal mastermind, is rather disappointing for the ease by which Spidey immobilizes the historic villains trio and pins Parafino to a wall with Parafino's own wax. And how did the Executioner escape Spidey's webbing and return to the museum in advance of Spidey's arrival there? Unless Parafino has another Executioner wax robot, this is a problem of story integrity. Spidey destroys the robot controls, doing so with swift and unstalled action, putting Parafino's "robotized dummies" out of commission, and Parafino throws gobs of wax at Spidey, who spins a giant webbing scoop to hurl the accumulated wax at Parafino. Some climaxes could do with a bit of protracting, and this is one of them, for it is a suggested impending fight, Spidey versus the combined forces of Parafino and the villains, that does not quite deliver in the excitement department. Common of 1967-70 Spiderman's first season, Spidey presents the captured wrong-doer to Jameson, who spent the bulk of this story blaming Spidey for the robberies being committed by Parafino's villainous minions. Animation throughout the story is efficient, and the museum is ably rendered eerily atmospheric. Story structure, unfortunately, has a niggle or two, and it, though providing some engaging intrigue about "history's greatest villains", comes across as rather less thrilling than "The Peril of Parafino".

In any case, "The Night of the Villains" is a compelling companion to this same installment's "Here Comes Trubble", these two stories presenting post-Renaissance or ancient mythic creatures as fantastic thieves, their criminal acts instigated by a person lurking within a building in Manhattan's business district. Miss Trubble, bookstore owner, is an afficionado of antiquities and all things mythological. She possesses a magic chest from which she summons into present-day reality a centaur, Cyclops, and Great Vulcan, God of Fire. Each of these denizens of mythological domain are given a thoroughly white appearance to appear statuesque, and each disappears in a billow of smoke following their manifestation in Manhattan. Miss Trubble orchestrates the theft of a three-headed dragon-like figurine, Sir Baris, Watchdog of Hades, and it comes alive in the same way as Trubble's other mythological menaces, by way of the power of the magic chest, to protect her bookshop from a probing visit by Spidey, who is suspicious of Miss Trubble because of her incessant pestering of uninterested Jameson that she write a regular column on mythology for the Daily Bugle. Miss Trubble interrupts Spidey's search of her premises, and this story's climax is truly frightening as Spidey's legs and hands are wrapped in gold chains thrown at him by Vulcan and is then the target of hot coals hurled in his direction by the same Fire God. Spidey dodges the coals, which hit the Trubble store's bookshelves, turning Miss Trubble's Book Corner into an inferno. Vulcan strikes Miss Trubble into a dazed condition on the bookshop floor when she tries to order him back into the magic chest. An indeed rare instance of physical violence against a woman in this animated cartoon Spidey television series of the 1960s. Vulcan and the chains binding Spidey disappear as the magic chest overheats in the fire, and Spidey carries Miss Trubble outside of the blazing building in narrow advance of an expolsion. "Here Comes Trubble" is a triumph of visual design of settings and mythological monsters, compelling references to ancient myths and motifs, adept characterization (Miss Trubble, says Jameson, is one woman who, "...lives up to her name.", and Peter says that the austere dragon-lady Trubble reminds him of Jameson), aptly creepy atmosphere, and riveting, tension-building story structure. Outstanding Season 1 Spiderman.

Same cannot be said of what is offered in the next installment. "Spiderman Meets Dr. Noah Boddy" revisits the ridiculed, disgraced scientist motivated by revenge type of storytelling territory pioneered by "The Revenge of Dr. Magneto", but less interestingly, for all that Noah Boddy seems interested in doing is avenging himself upon Jameson, who had negatively editorialized Boddy's theories of invisibility. The resultant storyline consists of a series of thieving crimes committed by the unviewable Noah Boddy (kudos at least go to the witty name given to the transparent villain), with circumstances invisibly manipulated by Dr. Boddy to portray Jameson as culprit. What destruction or threat thereof occurs is in the Daily Bugle press room as cannisters of ink and printing presses are thrown by Noah Boddy at Jameson. Invisibility is a daring concept, but it could do with rather more widespread menace than the humiliation and false incrimination of one man, and Jameson's blaming of Spidey for the evil quantity's deeds and Spidey's unthanked efforts to help Jameson against a villain's wrath is more than a little predictable and tiresome by this stage in this Spiderman television series. "The Fantastic Fakir" is a clunky story of jewel theft and impersonation of a foreign leader by immobile facsimile, perpetrated by a hoarde of turban-and-dagger Arab stereotypes led by one of their ilk who possesses a magic, animal-and-lifeless-object-manipulating flute. All that Spidey needs to do is kick the flute out of the hands of "The Fantastic Fakir" and expose said Fakir's masquerade of a mannequin-like dummy Maharaja of Jin Jhamir, for the stolen jewel to be returned to its rightful owner. The viewer is subjected to 8 mainly plodding minutes before such does happen.

Yet more infamous historio-literary-mythical figures surface in "Return of the Flying Dutchman"/"Farewell Performance", this time as hoaxes. Projection from a piece of filmic equipment or a magician's trickery. Both of the presumed apparitions, the famed ghost ship- the Flying Dutchman, and Mr. Hyde of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", hail from the nineteenth century. Mr. Hyde seems to creepily advance out of the paper fibre of a theatre poster. A faithful viewer by the time that he is watching these two stories is likely to remark a few things. There does seem to be quite a propensity for thunderstorms in the New York state region shown in Grantray-Lawrence's Spiderman. Previously captured and presumably convicted villains tend to reappear in this Spidey television series with no mention of how they came to be free of incarceration. And Jameson seems to be not only a publisher of a newspaper but a wielder of some considerable sway in municipal affairs. It does often seem like he himself governs New York City. These are two quite charming and appealing stories, the full resolution of one achieved with the opportune assistance of a likable sea Captain and the other concluded with Spidey joining, or collaborating, with the portrayed antagonists of most of the story, in aid of a worthy cause.

"I think ghosts are fun," says Betty. And although proven fake, they indeed are fun, especially when presented with the slyly menacing aplomb as they are in these stories. The return of Mysterio in "Return of the Flying Dutchman", though not as exciting and problematic on a personal level for Spiderman as his initial appearance, heralds a pair of fairly lengthy and fun to watch tussles between him and Spidey at sea and in a cave, and "Farewell Performance" introduces Blackwell the Magician, a charismatic conjurer and stage performer, who is not above some rather mischievous behavior, i.e. intimidating cloak-and-dagger theatricals in his and a couple of actors' bid of preserving a theatre slated for demolition. A Dove of Peace appears at the behest of Blackwell's magic wand and is transformed by said wand into a hawk. It is ironic, also somewhat curious and fascinating, that a white-plumed bird should grace a story that contains a reference to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". In two Warner Brothers cartoons in which Dr. Jekyll, Jekyll's laboratory, Mr. Hyde, and characters metamorphosing into monsters are primary constituent elements, those cartoons being "Hyde and Hare" and "Hyde and Go Tweet", the disturbing and frightening events are preceded by a scene with white birds, alluding, it would seem, to the same purity, ironic and exquisite in terms of the overall story that is unfolding. Dove changing to hawk in "Farewell Performance" represents placidity turning to aggression. That the motif of such baleful transmutation should be manifest in an story with an early scene of Mr. Hyde's spectre in a poster, is quite an artistic flourish. Season 1 Spidey 1967-70 stories do have a propensity to allude to provocative classical symbols, concepts, or archetypes. Here is one such instance.

In his graven image does his projected evil lurk. "The Golden Rhino" is already mentioned above as the horned, rampaging villain's definitive story. An ultimate portrayal of criminal vanity accentuated by a series of scenery-devastating, brutal battles with Spidey in the heart of Manhattan. "Blueprint For Crime" is an interesting installment mate for "The Golden Rhino" in as much as one of the henchmen in the sinister Plotter's missile-blueprint heist, is called Ox, name for another hulking animal, and charges on the run toward his intended target for violence with his head lowered in ramming position. This mode of attack is same as the Rhino's. The theft of strategic and top-secret document storyline for "Blueprint For Crime" is rather run-of-the-mill and uninspired. All that the Plotter needs is a Persian cat to complete his duplication of a James Bond villain. The action, while abundant and by times witty, lacks a sustained level of excitement, and the climax of the story consists of clumsy Ox colliding with his Cowboy cohort, Spidey easily webbing them as, "...two for the corral," and Spidey negating the Plotter's force field with an unheralded special kind of web fluid and then likewise swiftly web-encumbering the defeated Plotter. Apart from the Ox and Rhino similarity, "Blueprint For Crime" could be said to be of interest for but one, highly amusing scene, with a pair of hippies who comment on Spidey's garb and wall-crawling ability. "Roll your eyes over those crazy pajamas," and, "Nothing like crawling the walls, man." Spiderman is a super-hero of the 1960s, and this smile-inducing, little scene firmly establishes this Spidey television series within the "groovy" sensibilities of that decade.

Villains in black garb confront Spidey in both halves of the installment consisting of "The Spider and the Fly" and "The Slippery Doctor Von Schlick". The first story here involves a series of wealthy-society robberies committed by a man capable of climbing walls and moving from building to building by walking on spun wires. Jameson, of course, pegs Spiderman as the one and only suspect in these daring crimes, and Spidey finds himself in intense combat with a super-nimble, black-suited "Human Fly". "Whistling webs, but he's fast," remarks Spidey of his foe. And this only begins to describe Spidey's amazement as the story progresses. Somehow, "the Fly" is able to execute his brazen misdeeds in too quick a succession for a man to move so rapidly from place to place. Still, Spidey believes his nemesis to be one super-swift man, and an effective sense of confounding mystery is conveyed, until a dramatic reveal of the twin "Flies" at a time when Spidey believes that he has captured his foe in the commission and at scene of a crime. "I had to find out there were two of them... the hard way." Sometimes trouble can come in pairs. Once Spidey is completely "in the know" about the two-fold enemy that he is fighting, he plants a transmitter device on the expected next object to be stolen by the "Flies". Spidey finds the abandoned-amusement-park hideout of the costumed criminals and in the ensuing battle finds a novel, repetitive villain-pummelling-on-ground use for a Ferris wheel. The titled character of "The Slippery Doctor Von Schlick", dressed in a black, stick-resistant wet suit impervious to Spidey's regular webbing fluid and propelling adhesive oil and petroleum bubbles from his index finger to slow Spidey's pursuit of him, is an alchemist capable of sneakily heisting streams of oil, pulling the black fossil fuel through contrary currents of water by a "magnetic oiloscope", to his lair, and refining oil into concentrated pellets of an awesome potency. And his ambitions by means of these pellets extend not only to dominating New York City or America or even the world, but to control the universe! Fuel shortages resulting from Von Schlick's "black gold" thievery form the basis of comedic interplay between a fretting Jameson ("Why does everything happen to me?") and a matter-of-fact-stating Betty Brant at the Daily Bugle building whose oil-powered printing presses cannot function. Oil and water may not mix but Spidey, having found Von Schlick's lair, releases a cascade of H20 to flood and destabilize a reactor, with the outcome being a modest explosion that sends Spidey and Von Schlick atop a surge of water, onto a Manhattan avenue. This and Spidey's stick-to-anything web formula brings an end to the petroleum plunder and devious scheming of the villain in black.

Black or dark antagonists recur in the next installment's second offering, in the possibly most surreal entry in the first season's run of stories. The nefarious Phantom's latest gadget is a pair of glasses that conjure and cast shadows of any shape or size, shadows that, although impervious to Spidey's webs and punches (which pass straight through the shadows), have a living reality- and behave precisely as would the creature or object being represented. "If this is shadow boxing, I'll take mine in the gym," says Spidey while trying in vain to incapacitate one of the Phantom's obscure projections. "The Dark Terrors" is suggestive of one of the key tenets in Swiss psychologist Carl Jung's theory of a dually, polarly inclined human mind. Dr. Jung posited the need to conquer the regressive impulses of the psyche, which Jung called "the shadow", and channel them toward higher goals. Fighting shadows which assume monstrous shapes is the ultimate Jungian allegory for "battle for deliverance" against the dark demons of the unconscious id.

"Fountain of Terror" revisits the Conner family in Florida, enabling Grantray-Lawrence to utilize Everglades backgrounds that had been designed for "Where Crawls the Lizard", plus some Spidey swimming animation from "The Fantastic Fakir". What is presented in "Fountain of Terror" is a quite tender tale of friendship between Spidey and Billy Conner as they search for Billy's father, who is held prisoner by Ponce de Leon in the Spanish fort first shown in "Where Crawls the Lizard". Installment companion to "Fountain of Terror" is "Fiddler On the Loose", an absurd but enjoyable story involving a strings musician with a fiddle emitting destructive sonic waves, exploiting this uncanny instrument for vengeance against an impressario blamed by this fiddler for having superseded classical music with "rock and roll rabble".

Evidently, near the end of Season 1, Grantray-Lawrence was in want of engaging story ideas for Spidey's scheming foes from Marvel Comics. "The Terrible Triumph of Doctor Octopus" is a somewhat lacklustre second appearance for the scientist of many a grip, concerning the multi-armed malefactor's theft of a rocket-attacking missile followed by a protracted and mostly rather boring search by Spidey for Doctor Octopus' lair and an an-too-brief battle there between Spidey and Octopus. And "Magic Malice" reduces the formerly evil-spirit-summoning Green Goblin to robber of a parking meter, jewelry store, and bank, using a magician's book of tricks to perpetrate his crimes of thievery. In a sense, "Magic Malice" repeats the Goblin's motis operendai of "The Witching Hour", i.e. the Goblin invading the residence of a noted performer of ostensibly occult feats to access the secrets of a book belonging to said performer. Said residence, although belonging to two different men, looks the same in exterior and some interior views in both Goblin outings. It is possible that it is the same place and that it changed owners, both of whom interested in metaphysics and occult power.

Further, "Sting of the Scorpion", while certainly more interesting than the first Scorpion story due to the Scorpion's enormous size, is a rehash of part of the earlier "Scorpy" scenario, the Scorpion escaping prison and stalking Jameson and Spidey. Money must also have been becoming scarce by this time, for Dr. Stillwell's residence and laboratory is from exterior perspective identical to that of Dr. Smartyr from "Sub-Zero For Spidey". Production quality was still of a high standard, even if economising was in evidence. Minimizing production costs could also explain the tedious "Trick or Treachery", another go at clever criminality by the paroled Human Fly Twins, with recycled animation of them and the likewise re-utilized background of their "old hangout". Their Spidey-incriminating, thieving shenagians are not very much distinguishable from those in "The Spider and the Fly", and are punctuated by Daily Bugle scenes of Jameson's predictable anti-Spiderman arguments that have become more than a little tiresome. "I've told you and Parker a thousand times..." Indeed!

In apparent desperation for a new and exciting storyline, there was conceived an ingenius premise of several of Spidey's antagonists assembling into a formidable team of vengeful intent. Led by Dr. Noah Boddy, who frees them from prison, the Vulture, Electro, and the Green Gobin separately fight Spidey before a concentrated, combined attack at a prearranged time and place. Hence, an extended, viewer-on-edge-of-seat climax, Spidey versus all comers, during which the crafty web-swinger turns his foes against one another by way of carefully applied ventriloquilism. "To Catch a Spider" is of an admirable pedigree, that of one hero put into the position of having to combat multiple enemies all at once, and is forerunner to a superlative two-part thriller, titled "The Insidious Six", in the 1990s' Spider-Man animated cartoon television series. "Double Identity", installment partner to "To Catch a Spider", is also an enjoyable, creative gem of a story, in which Spidey must determine who is who in order to stop the art heists of actor and imposter extraordinare, Charles Cameo. It begins on a most intriguing note as what appears to be Peter Parker is committing robbery of a rare book and is confronted on the street outside of the book dealer's establishment by an astonished Spidey. "Whallopin' websnappers! It's... me?!!" Even if just a Jungian strand of symbolism underlying a conventional Spidey against imposter storyline, a dual-identity hero confronting his alter-ego is a recurrent image in super-hero lore. The 1978-82 television show rendition of The Incredible Hulk, with actors Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, explored this concept a couple of times, and Christopher Reeve's versions of Superman and Clark Kent waged violent conflict in a scrap yard in 1983's Superman III. Peter was concerned in "The Menace of Mysterio" that he may be becoming a "split personality", an understandable worry for anyone living every day with a dual identity. It is a fascinating premise, if only hinted beneath an outwardly ordinary storyline for Season 1 of 1967-70 Spiderman. If Spidey were to develop a dichotomy of motivation or of personality, might Peter be more inclined to be the selfish and acquisitive side of the coin? Some early episodes of Season 2 dramatize such a potential for a divergence, though not in a direction of a criminal nature, between the personal aims of Peter and the responsibilities of Spidey.

The final first season installment's "Sting of the Scorpion" is a sizeably superior but all-too-obvious revisiting of the jailbreak storyline of the latter half of "Never Step On a Scorpion", and "Trick or Treachery" is a lazy, unimaginative sequel to "The Spider and the Fly". The first season's final episodes are replete with evidence of a production team grappling with decreased funds and waning creativity. Spidey was in need of a different approach along with a hitherto untapped current for story ideas, and this is what came in the form of Ralph Bakshi and his team of writers.

"The Power of Doctor Octopus"/"Sub-Zero For Spidey"
Peter Parker is on assignment for J. Jonah Jameson, investigating mystery lights outside of the New York City limits for 
possible Daily Bugle pictures, when a rock avalanche forces his car off of a road and onto a tree part-way down a cliff.
Peter changes to Spiderman and uses webbing to gently bring his car to a landing at the base of the cliff, where he 
notices light emanating from an opening in the rock, revealing a gadget-filled cave wherein the multi-mechanical-armed 
Doctor Octopus is scheming to trigger a series of underground explosions in Manhattan. Octopus surprises Spidey by 
dropping an entangling chain around the super-hero, then confines Spidey behind a descending set of jail cell bars. When 
Peter is overdue at the Bugle, Betty Brant drives her car to the same location and is also captured by Octopus. With his
back turned from Spidey and Brant, Octopus initiates his diabolical plan as proof of his power to devastate New York. 
Spidey sprays his webbing into the jail cell locks that imprison himself and Betty, the webbing serves as a key, and Betty
is free to run for help, while Spidey fights Octopus, shooting webbing at Octopus' glasses and blinding the villain so 
that he can be webbed to a wooden beam in the cave. The police, summoned to the scene by Betty, arrest Octopus, and Betty
is reunited with Peter, who tells to her that he has been looking for a mechanic to repair his car... A group of giant ice
creatures situate in New York Harbor in their damaged, diamond-like spaceship and abduct Dr. Smartyr, a noted scientist. 
Spidey boards the alien space vessel, passes through a maze of perilous, icy tunnels, and finds the aliens' control room,
where Smartyr, an expert in propulsion, is helping the creatures, friendly Plutonians who were forced to land on Earth for
repairs to their spaceship. With his new invention, a space warp control device, Smartyr assists the Plutonians to launch
their spacecraft out of New York Harbor, leave Earth, and return to Pluto. But neither Smartyr nor Spidey will tell anyone
about their encounter with aliens.

"Where Crawls the Lizard"/"Electro the Human Lightning Bolt"
Reports of a lizard-man terrorizing the Everglades bring Spiderman to Florida, where he finds that a Doctor Conner, by 
testing a swamp fever serum upon himself, has changed into an intelligent lizard. The lizard that Conner has become 
intends to use a beaker containing the serum, which it confiscates from Conner's laboratory, to convert alligators into
reptiles that share its level of intelligence, to follow it in conquest of humanity. Spidey applies his knowledge of 
science to conceive an antidote to the serum and confronts Conner's lizard alter-ego at an old, Spanish fort, webbing the
bipedal reptile before it can release the serum into the Florida swamps, and forcing it to drink the antidote that changes
it back to Conner, who does not remember any of his acts as the Lizard but is immensely grateful for Spidey's help, as are
his wife and son... Electro, a villain capable of emitting energy bolts from his hands, robs J. Jonah Jameson's wall safe
as the beginning of a crime wave which is investigated by Spiderman and ends in a confrontation with Electro in an
amusement park. By his reflections, Spidey draws Electro's fire in a hall of mirrors, then startles Electro with an 
electricity-negating, asbestos-laced webbing dropped from above onto the villain. Spidey gives the webbed Electro to 
Jameson for the New York Police Department (the N.Y.P.D.) to apprehend.

"The Menace of Mysterio"
A villain named Mysterio robs the Midtown Museum in the guise of Spiderman, with intent of ruining the web-swinger's 
reputation. Mysterio then forms a mercenary agreement with J. Jonah Jameson, who has printed a front-page story in the 
Daily Bugle pronouncing Spiderman guilty of the museum heist, to rid the world of Spiderman. Jameson has always believed
Spidey to be a duplicitous menace and deemed all of the masked crime-fighter's captures of villains to be a deception to
gain the city's confidence, yet is content to ally with the even more preposterously garbed and clearly greedy Mysterio.
Mysterio challenges Spidey to a duel atop the Brooklyn Bridge, observed from below by Jameson and by the N.Y.P.D., who 
want to apprehend Spiderman for the Midtown Museum thievery. Though Spidey seems to be foiled by Mysterio's ability to 
dissolve into clouds of smoke, he maintains that Mysterio's power of illusion is artificial while his spider-power is 
natural. Spidey executes a clever illusion of his own. He appears to fall to his death from bridge-top into the East River
but, unseen by anyone, webs himself to the bridge's underside, then dives from there into the water and swims ashore. The
next confrontation with Mysterio will be on Spidey's terms. As Peter, he places a spider-shaped tracing device on 
Mysterio's cape when Mysterio is visiting Jameson at the Bugle to demand payment for destroying Spiderman. Jameson only 
gives to Mysterio half of the money, promising the remainder when Spidey's body is found. Spidey locates and surprises 
Mysterio at a television studio, where Mysterio works as a stunt-man, and tricks the bragger into admitting on cassette 
audiotape to robbing the Midtown Museum. Mysterio and Spidey battle on a Wild West set, until Spidey slides down the
handhold of a flight of stairs and kicks Mysterio, then webs him for police capture, with the audiotape-recording of his
confession sure to convict him. A humiliated Jameson is webbed in his office by Spidey until he finally consents to print
a formal apology to the web-swinger.

"The Sky is Falling"/"Captured By J. Jonah Jameson"
The Vulture, a man-bird villain, possesses an electronic device inducing huge flocks of birds to join him in attacking New
York City. Unless the mayor bestows to the Vulture 2 million dollars, the Vulture promises to continue his reign of terror
from the sky. Scientifically astute and resourceful Spidey drops a device that disrupts the bird-controlling 
transmissions, onto the Vulture's head, and provokes the bird-man into giving to the birds the attack signal, which causes
the confused birds to attack the Vulture and force the flying criminal to flee, without the 2 million dollars that he 
tried to extort... Jameson employs a brilliant scientist named Henry Smythe in an effort to catch and unmask Spiderman by
means of a relentless robot that speaks in Jameson's voice and has an image of Jameson's face in its head. After a lengthy
chase that leaves Spidey fatigued, short of breath, and easily captured by the robot, Spidey uses the suction power of his
fingers to open the lid to the robot's control centre and removes the spider-detecting circuitry that initially put the 
robot onto his trail, and when Jameson and Smythe arrive at the place of Spidey's apparent capture, Jameson removes the 
mask of what he thinks is Spiderman and finds a straw dummy in a Spiderman costume, in the arms of a non-functional robot.
The frustrated Jameson never wants to see Smythe or Smythe's robot ever again. 

"Never Step On a Scorpion"/"Sands of Crime"
Jameson's latest Spiderman-catching scheme involves a genetically mutated humanoid scorpion created by a scientist named
Dr. Stillwell, but the Scorpion's allegiances are fickle, the monster soon declares Jameson as his number one enemy, and
Spiderman must rescue his newspaper-publishing nemesis from the beast's murderous clutches. Fortunately, the Scorpion is
vulnerable to Spidey's webbing, and Spidey captures the Scorpion for police capture, not once but twice, after the 
Scorpion escapes prison and attempts again to kill Jameson... The Sandman, a villain capable of dissolving into a moving
heap of sand, slips under the defense mechanisms at a police-guarded exhibit and robs the Goliath Diamond. When the 
Sandman demands a two million dollar ransom for returning the diamond and specifies a rock quarry as a money-for-diamond
transfer place, Spidey arrives there with the money in a suitcase and stickily webs the bottom of the suitcase to a rock,
from which the Sandman is thus unable to lift the suitcase. In the ensuing battle, Spidey's makeshift web-shield deflects
the boulders falling upon him from a bulldozer controlled by the Sandman. Spidey then spins his webbing into a huge 
slingshot that deflects the bulldozer's wrecking ball back at the bulldozer, throwing the Sandman from the vehicle and 
into a vat of water, where the Sandman becomes soggy and weak and drops the diamond. Spidey gives diamond and soggy 
Sandman to the police.

"Diet of Destruction"/"The Witching Hour"
A gigantic, walking blast furnace that feasts on metal from lampposts, cars, and power transformers, is loose in New York
City. Spidey webs its two legs, ties a rope around its middle, and pilots a tugboat to pull it into the water of New York
Harbor. Water douses its fire... A ghoulish villain, the Green Goblin, plans to conjure demons of the spirit world to do
his bidding and to this end uses J. Jonah Jameson as a hypnotized medium to the evil realm. Spidey trails the Goblin and
Jameson to a cemetery to battle the green-skinned ghoul. He webs and tips the Goblin's cauldron from which the evil 
spirits are emerging. The spirits disappear as the cauldron's liquid contents seep into the ground, and Spidey webs the 
Goblin. The recuperating Jameson has no memory of any of these events. 

"Kilowatt Kaper"/"The Peril of Parafino"
Electro exploits an electrical storm to recharge his energy powers and escape jail. He hijacks the New York City power
station and intends to blackmail the city into accepting his demand of total rule. Spiderman confronts Electro first at 
the power station and then in Times Square. In Times Square, Spidey spins his special, electricity-resistant webbing 
formula to form a large net, then webs a personal shield to deflect one of Electro's bolts so that the bolt blasts a hole
through a wooden ledge. Electro, walking confidently toward Spidey, falls through the hole and into the net, where 
Spidey's electricity-resistant webbing traps Electro for police to recapture him... A convict named Red Dog Melvin escapes
jail and is granted asylum at Parafino's Wax Museum, where Red Dog is put in suspended animation and coated with wax by 
fanatical wax artist Parafino, whose advertised exhibit of Red Dog lures Spidey to the museum for a nighttime visit. 
Planning to turn the web-swinger into a wax-covered exhibit, Parafino throws an ultra-sticky wax at Spidey's hands and 
feet, pinning Spidey on a pedestal. Betty Brant arrives at the museum in search for Peter, who told to her that he was 
going to investigate the museum, and Parafino captures her too. However, Spidey uses heat to his advantage, first from a 
lamp above his pedestal to melt the wax on his hands (thus enabling him to pull his feet free from the wax bonding them to
the pedestal), then by hitting with his webbing a wax temperature control that increases heat to cause Parafino to melt! 
The real Parafino emerges to continue the work of his melted wax self-image, but Red Dog reanimates and grabs Parafino, 
and Spidey webs them both.

"Horn of the Rhino"
Sick with a cold, Spiderman must battle the Rhino, a powerful, horned villain capable of ramming through trains, trucks, 
and submarines. Though Peter's Aunt May forbids her ailing nephew to procure pictures for Jameson of the Rhino's wrath, 
Peter leaves his bed to become Spiderman each time that a component to a top-secret military weapon is due to arrive in 
New York City, because the Rhino wants the weapon and will stop at nothing to steal the components, three in total, coming
to New York by train, airplane, and submarine. But the sneezing Spidey is unable to stop the Rhino from snatching the 
components. Finally, as the Rhino is assembling the weapon from the three heisted components, Spidey obtains a can of 
pepper from Aunt May's cupboard, finds the Rhino's hideout, a cave at the New York City Zoo, and webs the can of pepper 
onto the Rhino's horn, which punctures the can, and pepper drops in the Rhino's face so that the Rhino now too has a 
sneezing handicap. An avalanche of mud falls upon the Rhino, and Spidey bakes the mud with a heat ray to trap the horned
criminal, then gains possession of the weapon to return it to the military. The Rhino is apprehended by the N.Y.P.D., and
Peter confines himself to bed to allow Aunt May to fully treat his cold.

"The One-Eyed Idol"/"Fifth Avenue Phantom"
Australian hunter Harley Clivendon pretends to be secret admirer of J. Jonah Jameson and gives as a "token of (his) 
esteem" to the cantankerous newspaper publisher a weird, hypnotic idol, which entrances Jameson into robbing his own wall 
safe and placing the money inside of the idol for Clivendon's aborigine helper to collect. When Spidey discovers 
Clivendon's scheme, Clivendon throws a boomerang to strike Spidey unconscious and binds Spidey beneath an elevator 
carriage to be crushed when the carriage reaches ground level, but Spidey breaks his bindings to escape from the
descending carriage and confronts Clivendon. After dodging the spears hurled and bullets fired at him by Clivendon, Spidey
throws the advancing aborigine at Clivendon and webs them both for police capture- and Jameson has his money back... The
Phantom, a faceless, hooded villain, orchestrates a trio of female robots, all with reducing rays, to steal merchandise 
from Bennet's Department Store. Intending to catch the Phantom, Spiderman trails the beautiful robots and a stolen doll 
house containing the shrunken items. He is captured by one of the robots toting a laser gun and brought to the Phantom's
headquarters, where the robots restore the merchandise to full size. Spidey springs into action, deactivates the robots,
and webs the Phantom. The police return the stolen items to Bennet's.

"The Revenge of Dr. Magneto"/"The Sinister Prime Minister"
Dr. Magneto, a scientist with a gun capable of magnetizing and demagnetizing various objects, plans revenge upon the world
for ridiculing his theories. He causes a rail bridge to collapse, then lifts and drops a statue from high altitude, but 
Spidey arrives on the scene and prevents Magneto's schemes from causing loss of life. Then, Spidey confronts Magneto in a
museum and, with a dense, anti-magnetic webbing, smashes Magneto's magnetizing gun. He then webs Magneto in the usual 
manner and places the disgraced scientist on a pedestal in the museum for police to apprehend... Spiderman discovers that
the visiting Prime Minister of Rutania is an imposter and must by himself battle the identity-usurper, whose cane is a 
veritable arsenal! The phoney Prime Minister, under the pretense of obtaining a multi-million dollar loan to aid the 
impoverished people of his country, has duped the American government and J. Jonah Jameson into bestowing upon him a 
fortune in gold bullion. While battling the imposter Prime Minister aboard an airplane, Spidey uses his webbing to knock 
the cane out of the imposter's hand and pin it to the fuselage's wall. He webs the imposter and, with armed guards as 
witnesses, removes the imposter's make-up to reveal actor Charles Cameo. Spidey also releases the real Prime Minister 
alive from a trunk aboard the airplane.

"The Night of the Villains"/"Here Comes Trubble"
Historic villains Blackbeard the Pirate, Jesse James, and the Executioner of Paris are committing robberies in New York 
City, and Spidey tracks them to their lair- Parafino's Wax Museum, where Spidey's wax-master enemy is scheming to besiege
and plunder the city with robotized wax villains. By destroying Parafino's control box for his robots, Spidey easily foils
the wax artist's latest scheme... Miss Trubble, a book dealer obsessed with mythology, is owner of a magical chest from
which she summons a succession of mythological figures, from centaurs to the Cyclops to Diana the Hunter-Goddess, to 
commit robberies of ancient artifacts on her behalf. A curious Spiderman, investigating Miss Trubble's bookshop, is 
captured in chains by the lady's mythic minion, Great Vulcan, God of Fire, who hurls hot coals at Spidey. Spidey dodges 
the thrown coals, and they hit Miss Trubble's books, rapidly converting the nasty lady's bookshop into an inferno. By
attaching his web to the magic chest, Spidey breaks its power, Vulcan disappears, and Spidey carries the unconscious Miss
Trubble out of the bookstore before an explosion. 

"Spiderman Meets Dr. Noah Boddy"/"The Fantastic Fakir"
A scientist, Dr. Noah Boddy, renders himself invisible by means of a machine, then acts to avenge himself upon Jameson,
who publically maligned his theory of invisibility. Twice, Noah Boddy tries to "frame" Jameson for theft, of a prized 
painting from an art gallery and a diamond from a jewelry store, by arranging to meet Jameson at these places, putting the
lifted item on Jameson's person, and "tipping" the police to arrive at the locales and catch Jameson with the painting and
jewel. Noah Boddy then attempts to kill the free-on-bail Jameson in the Daily Bugle press room. Spidey interrupts Noah 
Boddy's attack on Jameson and pours black ink on the press room floor so that Noah Boddy walks through the ink to escape,
leaving a shoe print trail for Spidey to follow. A confrontation at Noah Boddy's laboratory ends with Spidey webbing Noah
Boddy, who reveals his position by training a flame-thrower against Spidey. Police collect the invisible man inside of 
Spidey's web, and Jameson is cleared of attempted theft charges... Spiderman battles an Arabian jewel thief, whose magical
flute induces animals into attacking Spidey. Spidey boards a yacht occupied by the slinky Arab, web-swings past the 
criminal, and kicks the flute out of his hand, then webs him to end his scheme involving a dummy maharaja and a wealthy
lady's sapphire.

"Return of the Flying Dutchman"/"Farewell Performance"
Reports of a legendary, flying ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman, being sighted near Smuggler's Cove summon Spidey to the 
area, where his investigation into the phantom ship's appearance leads him to a cave in which he finds his sworn 
adversary, Mysterio, plotting with a pair of thugs. The Flying Dutchman is a hoax by which Mysterio and henchmen plan to
panic the locals, so that they can easily snatch a huge treasure. With a web-sword, Spidey out-duels Mysterio's two 
stooges, then plugs with his webbing a cannon that Mysterio is about to fire at him. The cannon backfires, throwing 
Mysterio backwards, and Spidey traps Mysterio with one web and the two thugs with another web... When a Jekyll-and-Hyde
poster comes to life at the soon-to-be-demolished Castle Theatre, Spidey visits the theatre and encounters a mischievous
Blackwell the Magician, who is trying to attract public attention to the theatre in hope of preventing its demolition. 
Spidey agrees to help Blackwell by contacting the Daily Bugle's rival newspaper to print a statement from Spidey 
advocating demolition and thereby prompting influential Jameson to champion the cause of preserving the theatre.

"The Golden Rhino"/"Blueprint For Crime"
Spiderman's old enemy, the rampaging Rhino, is stealing gold bullion to mold an auric likeness of himself. Spidey's 
spider-sense helps him to locate the Rhino's hideout, where the Rhino has completed his golden statue. Spidey falls 
through the weak roof of the old, wooden building, the Rhino attacks him, and wooden beams are shattered by the reckless
Rhino's horn, causing the building's total collapse. Spidey battles the Rhino in Manhattan's business district, with the
Rhino's horn wrecking a fish and produce store and exploding a gasoline truck. Spidey webs the Rhino and places Rhino and
Rhino statue at the entrance to the Daily Bugle for police to obtain... A bald-headed mastermind named the Plotter employs
two ridiculous criminals, Cowboy and Ox, to steal a blueprint to a missile. When Spidey interferes, he is lassoed by 
Cowboy and delivered to the "skin head" Plotter. After defeating Cowboy and Ox by tricking Ox to collide with Cowboy so
that he can web the pair, Spidey uses an electricity-neutralizing webbing to deactivate an electronic force field 
positioned around him by the Plotter, whom he webs also. 

"The Spider and the Fly"/"The Slippery Doctor Von Schlick"
Spidey chases the culprit in an attempted theft of jewels from a countess and is surprised to find that his opponent, 
dressed in a black "Human Fly" costume, also has the ability to scale walls and can cross thin wires between buildings.
The black-garbed thief escapes, then successfully robs a visiting maharaja and an eccentric millionaire. When Spidey 
thinks that he has trapped the Fly in the act of the latter theft, he is struck from behind by the Fly's identical twin!
Spidey's pursuit of the Fly Twins brings him to an abandoned amusement park for a confrontation with his two foes, ending
with Spidey webbing the criminal pair and attaching them to a moving Ferris wheel... Oil is being stolen in huge 
quantities by Dr. Von Schlick, a chemist villain garbed in a rubber, non-stick suit and armed with petroleum-based bubbles
that he fires from his fingers to envelope Spidey. Von Schlick is scheming to control the world with concentrated oil
pellets of immense destructive power. However, Spidey wears an oxygen mask to follow Von Schlick through the oil slick 
that the slinky criminal is diverting into the underground reservoir adjacent to his refinery-laborarory. Dressed in an
oil-proof costume, Spidey resists Von Schlick's petroleum-based bubbles, webs Von Schlick with all-stick webbing, jumps 
to a water valve, and deluges Von Schlick's refinery-laboratory with water that causes the oil-concentration machinery to
explode. Spidey and Von Schlick are geysered into Manhattan's streets through a manhole. Spidey gives Von Schlick to the
N.Y.P.D., and Von Schlick's concentrated oil pellets are found and destroyed.

"The Vulture's Prey"/"The Dark Terrors"
The nefarious Vulture traps Jameson inside of a tower-clock and uses the well-informed Daily Bugle publisher as a source
of information on the whereabouts of a visiting diamond merchant and the testing of military equipment- two prospective 
heists for the greedy bird-man. Peter and Betty are perplexed by Jameson's prolonged absence from work. The Vulture 
succeeds in stealing a suitcase full of gems from the diamond merchant but is stopped by Spidey from filching a military
laser gun. Back at the tower-clock, Jameson signals for help by operating a gear to disrupt the clock's mechanisms and
cause its hands and chimes to go haywire, and the Vulture, returning from his failed attempt to heist the laser gun,
angrily ties Jameson to the clock's main wheel. Spidey arrives at the clock, surprises, and webs the Vulture to the 
clock's bell, then frees Jameson and returns the stolen gems to their rightful owner... Life-like and substantial shadows
of beasts are projected in various locations in New York City by the Phantom's new Shadow-Scope glasses to cause panic and
enable the Phantom to effect unconstrained bank and jewelry store robberies. Spidey follows one of the Phantom's shadows
and locates the Phantom's hideout, where the Phantom tries to turn Spidey into a shadow by training the beams of his 
glasses directly onto the intrepid super-hero. Spidey shoots his webbing to remove the glasses from the Phantom and 
capture the faceless, hooded criminal, whose shadows all disappear.
 
"The Terrible Triumph of Doctor Octopus"/"Magic Malice"
Doctor Octopus imposes upon Dr. Smartyr's Nullifier rocket test and steals the ultra-powerful destructor missile, with 
possession thereof Octopus plans to force all nations to bow to his will. Spiderman is unable to prevent Octopus from 
perpretating the heinous theft but does acquire a fragment of Octopus' cape, thereby facilitating Spidey's effort, 
Automated Bloodhound Detector in hand, to locate Octopus' hideout in an abandoned New York City tunnel. Spidey webs 
Octopus' metal arms to an electrically charged wall in the evil one's laboratory. The shock of the electricity paralyzes
Octopus, and the police, summoned by Spidey to Octopus' lair, recover the Nullifier and imprison Octopus... While 
Blackwell the Magician is entertaining at the Castle Theatre, his house is invaded by the Green Goblin, who swipes some
of Blackwell's props and peruses Blackwell's book of magic spells and incantations. When Spidey interrupts the Goblin's
illicit visit to home of Blackwell, the Goblin magically chains and places Spidey in a glass tank with a rising water
level, then manipulates Blackwell's enchanted props to rob a jewelry store, parking meters, and a bank. Spidey spins a web
upwards to a chandelier, pulls himself out of the glass water tank, and removes the chains. When the Goblin returns to the
magician's domicile to again consult Blackwell's book, Spidey and Blackwell both surprise him so that Spidey can web him.

"Fountain of Terror"/"Fiddler On the Loose"
Dr. Curtis Conner goes missing in the Florida swamps after finding the Fountain of Youth. When Spidey investigates the 
scientist's disappearance, he discovers a fifteenth century Spanish conquistador, Ponce de Leon, who is intent upon 
keeping the magical fountain a secret. Harley Clivendon is in the area too, determined to find Conner and the perpetual-
youth-endowing waters. Spidey and Conner's son, Billy, escape quicksand, alligators, and Clivendon's arrows, to arrive at
a Spanish fort, where Conner is being held captive by de Leon. At the fort, Billy frees his father while Spidey duels with
Clivendon and de Leon prepares to fire a cannon at his unwelcome guests. Spidey webs Clivendon, and Billy, seeing de Leon
igniting the cannon, saves Spidey's life by directing the firing cannon upward. The cannonball drops on the nearby 
fountain and destroys it, and de Leon flees into a forest... Because he hates rock-and-roll for its having replaced
classical music in the tastes of the masses, a fiddler with a deadly, sonic violin seeks revenge upon pop-music sponsor
Cyrus Flintridge. By a stroke of the violin's strings, the Fiddler destroys Flintridge's vinyl record collection, and he 
threatens to reduce Flintridge's musical conservatory to rubble unless Flintridge provides him with a large sum of money.
Spidey foils the fiddler's blackmail attempt and webs the frustrated criminal musician. 

"To Catch a Spider"/"Double Identity"
Under the guidance of Dr. Noah Boddy, the Green Goblin, Electro, and the Vulture join forces for revenge on Spiderman. In 
a confrontation with Noah Boddy's three stooges, Spidey practices ventriloquism to cause each of the three miscreants to 
think that he is being insulted by the others, and the excitable trio of villains begin fighting each other. Electro zaps
and incapacitates the Vulture, the Green Goblin bombs Electro with a pumpkin-shaped explosive, and Spidey swings a web-
produced baseball bat to return one of the Green Goblin's bombs to its sender, and it explodes in the Goblin's confounded
face. Spidey then throws his voice in order for Noah Boddy to believe that he is hiding inside of a wooden tool trunk on a
building top. When Noah Boddy fires bullets into the tool trunk, Spidey, really standing behind Noah Boddy, webs the 
visible-gun-toting invisible man, and police apprehend all four villains... Art robberies are committed by an old enemy of
Spiderman, actor Charles Cameo, who can utilize masks and make-up to usurp any identity, including those of J. Jonah 
Jameson and Spiderman! However, Cameo is unable to duplicate all of Spidey's powers, and Spidey kicks and webs Cameo at 
the scene of Cameo's robbery attempt in Spiderman guise.

"Sting of the Scorpion"/"Trick or Treachery"
When the Scorpion, intent on vengeance upon Spiderman and Jameson, escapes prison, he visits the laboratory of his 
creator, Dr. Stillwell, and drinks a potion that vastly increases his size. After throwing a bulldozer containing Spidey 
into the Hudson River, the gigantic Scorpion goes to the Daily Bugle building and abducts Jameson. Spidey, having escaped
from the wrecked bulldozer at the bottom of the Hudson, battles the huge Scorpion in Central Park. He spins a web-line 
between two trees and baits the Scorpion to chase him. The Scorpion trips on the web-line and falls, and Jameson flies out
of his hand. Spidey webs a net between more trees on which for Jameson to land safely and pours an antidote, provided by
Stillwell, to the enlarging potion down the Scorpion's mouth. The Scorpion returns to his normal size, and Spidey easily
webs him for the police and military to capture... Paroled from prison, the Human Fly Twins rob diamonds from an importing
company, and one of them does this deed in a Spiderman costume so that the guard, before being hit on the head from behind
by the second twin, believes that Spidey is the culprit. Jameson is delighted by this. But Spidey suspects that the 
paroled Fly Twins are responsible for this attempt to incriminate him and confronts them at a furrier's warehouse, another
of their targets for thievery, where he captures them in a web. The stolen jewels are recovered at the Fly Twins' known
hideout in a closed-to-business amusement park, and Spidey is vindicated, to the hapless chagrin of Jameson.

Radiation specialist, the Kingpin, and Clive.

Season 2

"The Origin of Spiderman" is the logical episode to begin any Spidey television series, and it is a mystery why it was not produced, albeit in the first season mode of storytelling, to open Season 1. After the first season was starting, in its final group of episodes, to look like it was thread-bare in the ideas department with the format that it had, Bakshi, on attaining the mantle of creative producer, came to a quite logical decision, to go to Spidey's roots and to tell some stories about Spiderman's early days, of when Peter first acquired his amazing powers and of how those powers and attendant crime-fighting responsibilities affected Peter's life as a teenager among his peers at school. Doing so would open the door to some compelling conflicted characterization for young Parker, and a change to mainly full-episode-long single stories with more elaborate, wide-ranging threats posed by the villains than mundane robbery (though robbery- of an unusual technique- was still committed by some), allowed for more contemplative scenes for Peter/Spidey than were possible in the tightly structured formula of Season 1- in addition to reducing the need for and cost of creating different villains and surroundings in every half-episode.

The how-Spidey-came-to-be story could not reasonably be better told than it is in "The Origin of Spiderman". This episode, perhaps one of the best of all three seasons, covers all necessary bases without becoming very melodramatic or very cloying, and without liberties with the storyline first outlined by the colorful pages of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Spidey is wearing his ultimate suit when he is performing for hopeful profit, whilst he talks with the impressario from whom he wishes to be paid a large sum of money, and when the fateful robber runs past him, unlike in the 2002 live-action Spider-Man feature film wherein he is dressed in a different, less advanced costume during profit-seeking demonstration of his abilities and is uncostumed and therefore identifiable during the scenes with the show business promoter and the fleeing thief. The treatment of these scenes is rather more sensible in "The Origin of Spiderman". Few potential holes in episodic story structure.

Moreover, "The Origin of Spiderman" is not encumbered with a love story or with rather gratuitous scenes of Peter fighting and defeating a school bully before countless spectators. Peter's awareness of his super-powers is shown to grow in quiet introspection in the streets of New York City and during and after an inadvertant encounter with a pair of street toughs with whom he has no prior or later acquantance. These developments are completely outside of the school environs- and beyond the view of anyone who can easily identify him. The tragedy of Uncle Ben's murder by the same robber whom Spidey declined to assist in apprehending and Peter coming to terms with the responsibilty that accompanies "great power", is performed in the characterization of Peter with a perfect mix of pathos and dogged determination. There is no diverting strand of storyline with a girl-friend. The origin story does not need it. Peter is established as being interested in but removed from the opposite sex, his intellectual goals being highest. Romantic involvement does not happen until later episodes, and is then complicated again and again by Peter's secret identity and higher responsibility. Spidey is branded a solitary hero, his origin told to expert precision, the script never deviating from the prospectus proposed in Marvel Comics. The episode may be aptly criticised for being too indulgent with protracted web-swinging sequences, and there are a few technical production errors, such as the red and blue colors on Spidey's suit being reversed as Spidey is leaping out of the Parker household's second-floor window for his first ever web-swinging and one or two recycled backgrounds when Spidey is supposed not to be meandering but traveling directly to a location. On the whole, though, "The Origin of Spiderman" is arguably the finest filmed rendition ever of the advent of a Marvel Comics super-hero. A triumph for Ralph Bakshi and for the 1967-70 Spiderman.

An admirable effort to further the character development of the nascent super-hero, "King Pinned" was a direct continuation of the events of "The Origin of Spiderman", with Spidey reaffirming his commitment to crime-fighting (to "avenge" Uncle Ben) as he seeks an income to support his Aunt May, following the death of Ben. And thus is Peter hired at the Daily Bugle as a "copy boy" by J. Jonah Jameson, whose first appearance in Bakshi's Spiderman is equally as irascible as Jameson in Season 1 but somewhat less a buffoonish hypocrite and easy target for humiliation by Spidey. Jameson also is anything but the coward that he is in Season 1 as he is shown to be holding firm to his journalistic conviction in a confrontation with the villain of the episode, none other than the Kingpin, the foremost Manhattan mobster lifted without any modification from Marvel Comics' Spiderman. "King Pinned" is another episode with some rather lengthy web-swinging as Spidey pursues a car containing Jameson who is being kidnapped by the Kingpin, and still more web-swinging as Spidey races to defuse a bomb planted by a Kingpin stooge in the Daily Bugle printing room. Unlike the first season villains, the Kingpin escapes capture by Spidey. Sometimes, proposes Bakshi, the web-swinger does not succeed at bringing the criminals to justice. And hence there is no need to contrive a jailbreak, as happens a number of times to explain a villain's return in Season 1, to lead to the Kingpin's next appearance.

With the Spiderman mythos, including J. Jonah Jameson, the Daily Bugle, even the organized crime boss, the Kingpin, fully introduced, giving to this television series a belated but appreciated logical starting point, Bakshi fully stamped his fantastic imprint on this television show with his next three episodes, involving weird and wonderful technological menaces overhead and underfoot. "Swing City" and "Criminals in the Clouds" are thematically similar in as much as their villains both harbor literally upward plans for the on-terrain-residing Manhattan populace. One of them has become able to utilize the atomic reactions in the generation of nuclear energy to lift a land mass high into the sky, and the other villain has the necessary hardware for permanent skyward habitation and has sought, with embittered frustration, to, "...free the Earth dwellers from their miserable existence, crawling like worms in the mud over the world whem the skies lie open above." The police and the courts outlawed him, and now he wishes revenge, and with an invisibility serum acquired by foul means, he intends to achieve his vengeance upon the authorities of the surface world. Ransom and extortion are the tactics to be employed by both the villains of "Swing City" and "Criminals in the Clouds" to achieve their ambitions. And then, in "Menace From the Bottom of the World", the Earth's surface is targeted for seige of a different kind- bank robberies of a most fantastic methodology. And from beneath the ground rather than from above.

Pseudo-scientific extension of radiology is central to the storyline of "Swing City" in which is done something that Season 1 would not have posited in a million years: the levitating of the entire island of Manhattan by way of radiation emitted from Manhattan's first nuclear power station, hijacked by a green complexioned technician in a white coat. The episode is framed by scenes concerning Peter's love interest at school, a planned evening with a girl that is forestalled by the radiation specialist's unorthodox urban hijack. The scenes with Peter and Sonya add some humanity to a rather surreal and wild scenario. And yet, "Swing City" does not seem to be as engaging as its sequel, "Specialists and Slaves", because more happens in the latter episode with regard to the conflict between Spidey and his foe, who does more there than simply elevate Manhattan with "anti-gravity rays". The scenes at school and elsewhere in "Swing City" relating to Peter's love interest, while they yield a personal, i.e. Peter Parker, aspect to what is yet an early experience in Spidey's career, do pad and slow the principal part of the story, that being Spidey versus the specialist in a battle to bring Manhattan back to its "landed" condition, and essentially fill an adventure that could have been, concentrating only on Spidey and the radiation specialist, a half-episode. Indeed, despite the secondary Peter's-romance storyline, there is, again, an excess of web-swinging around the city, and at the end of the episode's action, there is an approximate minute of time remaining for a redundant singing of the Spiderman song accompanying a sequence of web-swinging scenes.

For "Criminals in the Clouds", as with "Swing City", much of the action occurs skyward, and again Peter has a girl occupying his thoughts. This time, he is frustrated in his romantic pursuit by a wealthy school athlete and most sought-after player on the high school football team, and tries to better his rival by exploiting his Spidey strength and agility. Temptation to perform for personal gain has come to the fore one more time, but on this occasion, it seems justifiable to Peter, money not being the goal. Still early in his experience as a super-hero, "Criminals in the Clouds" presents another dilemma for Peter in super-hero ethics. Resolution of the dilemma comes when the villainous Sky Master's ransom scheme is put into operation, and Peter does what he vowed in "The Origin of Spiderman" to do without fail, never to shirk his duty, even if it means losing an opportunity to attain personal gratification. In this respect, he is a true hero in every sense of the word. A story like this, the hero having a conflict of personal versus public priority, would never have been comissioned for Season 1- and in the context of the early Bakshi Spidey oeuvre, it is a winner, even if Peter finishes it a loser. Some long web-swinging scenes may be said to slow the story somewhat, but not as much as in the two previous episodes, and here they serve a purpose to the story because Spidey is searching for the Sky Master's headquarters.

"Menace From the Bottom of the World" is the first episode concerned with a travelling by Spidey into utterly strange and spooky surroundings. Jules Verne would have been proud of the reference to his work in Spidey's journey down the awesomely deep hole left by a seemingly vanished bank, and of Spidey's strange experiences in an exquisitely bizarre underworld. Some time has evidently passed since "Criminals in the Clouds", which, it would appear, transpired in the same autumn as when Peter gained his Spidey powers. Now, at the Daily Bugle, Peter is a freelance photographer rather than a "copy boy", and the photographing and interviewing of a scientist claiming to be receiving radio messages from underground is not Peter's first task given by the cranky J. Jonah, which can be deduced from Peter's musings about always receiving the "dumb" assignments while "stuck-up" Hammond is awarded the "big ones". And later, Spidey refers to Peter Parker having been involved, presumably as freelance photographer, in a months-previous news item regarding Mugs Riley's tunneled escape from prison. Also, the interim between this and the preceding Bakshi-produced episodes has not been entirely kind to Spiderman, as Spidey speaks of his having been blamed in the past for some unspecified unfavorable occurrances.

The Molemen are pulling Manhattan banking establishments to deep inside the interior of the Earth, by way of a highly powerful and extensive elevator mechanism. Spidey's passage into the dark chasm and through the psychedelically depicted tunnels of a netherworld of dangling vines, grotesque stalagmites, and scenes of what looks like a sun (yes, far below the Earth's surface) behind a sinisterly suggestive outcrop of flora- a particular background borrowed from Rocket Robin Hood- is accompanied by a juxtaposition of spine-tingling, unnerving drum and strings music of augmenting tempo, most strikingly in the scenes of Spidey web-swinging speedily and directly into the camera, with some of the most "groovy" guitar compositions imagainable in a 1960s production. Also, the feel of Spidey's entry into Mole City is captured by visuals of an enormous door, buildings of the most foreign architecture, triangular portals and windows, a proto-Gothic throne chamber for the Mole Leader, and further music as evocative of an alien menace and expressive of fear mixed with grim determination as could possibly be imagined. The ensuing fight between Spidey and the Molemen and Spidey's revelation of who the Mole Leader really is, cannot legitimately be faulted in the limited though nevertheless fluid animation technique. "Menace From the Bottom of the World" did truly set another bench mark of eerily fanciful quality for this Spiderman television program.

Molemen are ape-like creatures, stooges of a criminal disguised as one of- and leader of- their beastly hoarde, and simians, and men dressed as such, are part of a villain's plan to commit robbery of a jewel in "Diamond Dust". The ingenuity of the storyline of "Diamond Dust" is two-fold. First, in Peter's quest for status as a winning baseball pitcher, i.e. as player of decision in a game in a diamond-shaped field, coinciding aesthetically with the diamond that is central to the Spidey battle of the episode, against apes in a zoo and of jewel robbers in the guises of the hairy beasts. And second, in the elaborate ruse perpetrated by the sophisticated criminal mastermind, nicknamed Shakespeare by his comrades in crime. The plan is as follows. Connive to free a real gorilla from its cage at a zoo, the resulting panic in the path of the ape on the rampage leading to a summons of metropolitan police in large numbers to that location, at which the men in blue will be occupied for a substantial amount of time. Then, in the guise of apes, the criminals enter the Cosmopolitan Museum, scare the wits and the consciousness out of the few, if any, remaining police guards who happen to be stationed there, and snatch the jewel, with any witnesses to their presence at the museum unable to identify the real cuplrits of the crime, underneath the ape costumes. The Bakshi writing team are to be commended for bestowing to their villain such an ironically brutish yet magnificent criminal deception.

Where the episode's interest to the viewer is highest, however, is in the quandary of its hero. Peter again finds that his duty as Spiderman and his search for fulfillment as Peter Parker seldom, if ever, have each their own time frame. Priority must always be chosen, and in this sense- and also in Peter's wish to play and win a team sport, "Diamond Dust" accords with "Criminals in the Clouds", although it is quite different in its ending. Peter does not on this occasion finish the episode rebuffed and dejected.

It would seem that with his endeavor at being a celebrated football player having failed, Peter is now attempting the pitcher's position in baseball as an outlet for improving his social standing, his Spidey strength, again, being of potential benefit in team sport. Yet, baseball, and pitching in particular, is as much as- if not more- a sport of eye-hand coordination, and the precision thereof, as/than it is of strength, and for such coordination Peter must rely upon ability not necessarily transmitted to him by the bite of the radioactive spider. Superior eye-hand coordination is not mentioned as one of those super-hero capabilities. Peter's skill in the area of coordination of hand and eye could be entirely his own prior to Spidey's origin. And as Peter's baseball pitching relies on those skills in addition to the Spidey strength received in the spider bite, this is perhaps a less dubious pursuit of glory than in than the more brawny sport of football, for which the exploiting of brute physical strength would have been required to a rather larger extent. But still it is of questionable fairness. The speed of a baseball pitch remains dependent upon arm power. And to a significant degree upon Spidey strength in Peter's case. Peter has a unique advantage unbeknownst to and arguably unfair to the other players of the game. Still, Peter's yen to be baseball game pitcher does not retire his responsibilities as Spiderman. Again, Peter must leave his personal pursuits to act swiftly and determinedly as Spiderman to assist in recapturing the freed zoo ape and to foil the jewel robbery at the museum. Such does prevent Peter from being the initially planned starter at the pitcher's mound, and Peter might indeed have been unable to enter the game at any time if Spidey had been longer in fully completing his task prior to return to the baseball field.

Peter's winning pitch in the baseball game is thrown with the gem which Spidey has not as yet returned to the police, though the viewer feels assured that Spidey will do so following conclusion of the baseball game. Peter found the diamond in his pitcher's glove instead of a baseball while he was on the pitcher's mound, committed to playing that position in the game's crucial, last inning. Still, one cannot help but wonder if Spidey's best course of action would have been to bring the jewel to the police before retrning to the baseball game, even if he doubtless would have been late at the baseball field and Peter would have been berated for unavailability and for his team losing the game. Uncertain are Peter's ethics in the episode, but he is still in the super-hero learning process, and his actions can be understood and accepted in that sense. Plus, Spidey has, after all, safeguarded New York City from rampaging apes and nefarious would-be jewel filchers. Perhaps Peter was entitled or due to have at least one moment of personal glory, even if it meant delaying the completion of Spidey's work. Anyway, Spidey in "Diamond Dust" never does violate his resolution to combat crime and protect the people of New York City. And Bakshi and his writers have been successful again in proposing a palpable clash of personal and altruistic values for the still-learning super-hero.

An impressive and effective start to the first Bakshi season, with elaborate characterization and a mixing of antagonists with thematically connected motives or tactics, came to a crashing halt with two "cheater" stories. "Spiderman Battles the Molemen" is a repetition, more or less, of the storyline of "Menace From the Bottom of the World", predicated this time on Mugs Riley seeking vengeance upon Spiderman for his prior defeat by the web-swinger. Thus, "Spiderman Battles the Molemen" is a stated sequel to the first Molemen episode- and with some improbable coincidences, such as Spidey colliding with a building that happens to have a descending mechanism of the Molemen positioned underneath it (surely not all edifices in the city have beneath them such an apparatus), and that among that building's hapless occupants is Hammond, who was in a bank targeted for plunder by the Molemen in "Menace From the Bottom of the World". Animation recycling abounds, resulting not only in the unlikely recurrance of Hammond in a Molemen story, but in the dirigible to which Spidey attaches a couple of web lines for an easy, travel-time-cutting conveyance above the city, being same in appearance as the airship of the Sky Master in "Criminals in the Clouds", and an advancing insect creature that sends Spidey careening off of a footbridge is in one scene the beetle from a Rocket Robin Hood episode that very soon will be almost completely recycled into a Spiderman story.

A scene with mushrooms, elfin midgets, and a contest of spears versus brute strength between said midgets and a giant Moleman guard consitute one of the few new substantial pieces of material in "Spiderman Battles the Molemen". That and the episode's ending with Riley being still another villain (the radiation specialist and Sky Master as the others, with Dr. Atlantian to follow) who does not know any better than to fire a ray gun at Spidey with delicate, crucial, and explodable machinery directly behind the ducking super-hero. And Spidey has quite a laugh when he sees a Mole Leader mask and body suit in the window of a downtown Manhattan costumes store. As sloppily compiled as "Spiderman Battles the Molemen" may be, it is still tremendously superior to "Phantom From the Depths of Time", a story lifted from Rocket Robin Hood, with wholesale re-usage of backgrounds, animation of villains, creatures, victims, and even spaceships, but without near enough thought given to story logic or continuity.

"Phantom From the Depths of Time" is not anywhere near as successful as a Spiderman television series entry as Season 3's "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension". The Rocket Robin Hood episode being co-opted in this case occurs on an asteroid, but in Spiderman, the farfetched events are said to be occurring on an island of unspecified location. An interesting island, to say the least, for it has craters, and in its sky in a few scenes are giant planets and what look like crescent moons. And wherever this island is, the inhabitants have quite a futuristic architectural sense, in that the buildings of their city resemble nothing conceived by the builders of the world's past or present times. Style of clothing is similarly uncontemporaneous. This is an obviously technically advanced people who are, it seems, hermetically uninfluenced by any twentieth century Earth societies. Mushrooms, fungal growth reminiscent of that in the preceding episode, are formed into giant beetles that ravage the island's settlement and, with their incisors, capture everybody in the settlement for the wierdest of weird Dr. Manta to enslave as miners of lavaside, an ore on the island by which Manta plans to be ruler of the universe. For an Earth-island-bound villain, such far-reaching ambition is highly unusual. To say the least, he sure is not insular. Actually, Manta's dialogue here was lifted from the counterpart Rocket Robin Hood story with zero modification, which explains this unlikely statement of the fiendish doctor's intention.

Spidey has suddenly gained a capacity for receiving radio signals with his Spider senses. A faculty never mentioned before or after, just to contrive a means by which he is able to hear the mayday being sent by one of the lavaside mine slaves, who somehow gained hold of a transmitter device. And whose lips indicate the speaking of the following words: rocket, robin, hood, on, sherwood, and asteroid. This contrivance can be forgiven as it is necessary for establishing the Spidey excursion of mercy. Still, how convenient further that only Spidey's peculiarly atuned hearing would be able to intercept the message! And Spidey happens to know of a newfangled rocket airplane on an ascension field simply waiting there for him to appropriate it. A rocket aircraft that changes shape after Spidey embarks in it and launches it over the sea, and that on exterior view it has three people in the piloting area, because the footage thereof is from a Rocket Robin Hood episode with Robin, Little John, and Will Scarlet aboard their spacecraft. Manta activates his beetles, and the giant insects rip apart Spidey's futuristic transport as soon as it lands on the island. From this scene onward, animation of Spidey is substituted for that of Rocket Robin and Will Scarlet from the Rocket Robin Hood episode, "From Menace to Menace". Much of the dialogue between Manta and Igor is recycled unchanged from the Rocket Robin Hood story, even when it conflicts with what is supposed to be happening in the Spiderman outing. For example, after Spidey has disposed of the army of beetles and starts advancing upon Manta's castle, Igor says, "They're walking right up to the castle." There should in that sentence be a singular and not a plural pronoun followed by the verb of web-swinging rather than walking. It is within the realm of possibility for Spidey to be walking, but the viewer does not see that, and nor does Spidey say that he will be doing that. Twice, Manta refers to the location of the episode as an asteroid, not an island. If he is an extraterrestrial (it is never said by him or by any other character where he comes from), he might be referring thusly to the whole Earth, ignorant that Earth is a planet and not an asteroid, but as he also in one case uses the adjective of desolate, it would seem highly unlikely that this is descriptive of a whole "asteroid Earth"- unless a largely fertile biosphere abundant in sentient life and centers of habitation is his idea of desolate. Besides, Manta refers to his locale as an island and not as an asteroid earlier in this Spidey episode. The viewer's confusion over what exactly is the setting of most of this story, is accentuated by the occasional background imagery of moons or planets in the sky.

Other problems or unsatisfactory elements are as follows. Gargoyles as seen from footage from the Rocket Robin Hood episode become flying birds in scenes from "Menace From the Bottom of the World". Next, Spidey is not shown entering Manta's castle or first seeing the very bizarre pair of villains. There is a fade to black after a web-swinging scene, and a conversation between Manta and Spidey is abruptly joined in progress. A Mountain Monster created by Manta is said by Manta to be capable of destroying "this entire asteroid", and it is exploded by Spidey, who rams Manta's lavaside-filled spaceship into the gigantic stone creature, ejecting from that spaceship prior to the collision. How interesting that Spidey has gained the ability to pilot with precision so many different forms of conveyance! Rocket aircraft and spaceships! Manta and Igor are presumably imprisoned somewhere, though it is not shown nor stated what does become of them. And finally, Spidey returns to New York City in the same rocket aircraft by which he travelled to the island, with no explanation how it was reassembled from the heap of wreckage that Manta's beetles had left of it.

"Phantom From the Depths of Time" is a mess, coming rather early in the first Bakshi production block- and immediately after another "cheater" episode. It is doubtful that even with more modification to dialogue and backgrounds and some additional animation, "Phantom From the Depths of Time" could have ever worked as a satisfying entry to this Spiderman television series. Also, the title of the episode has scant relevance to what transpires and would seem much, much more apt to be the title to the next entry in the 1967-70 Spidey television series, "The Evil Sorcerer", in that a phantom from the depths of time is precisely what Kotep the sorcerer is said in that story to be.

The formidable, diabolical Kotep, the Scarlet Sorcerer, in his original surroundings in ancient times. A picture from the opening scene of "The Evil Sorcerer".

"The Evil Sorcerer" is a return to form for Bakshi and company. New backgrounds, new villain by name of Kotep, substantially new animation, and a completely new story in conjunction with the first six Season 2 episodes, in that Peter is mingling with his peers in an educational establishment and trying in vain to spend some quality time with Susan, the same girl who spurned him in "Criminals in the Clouds". And again Peter needs to priorize his need to become Spiderman to stop a threatening quantity, over his wish to gain and keep the attention of Susan. Here, in order to change into Spiderman, he rushes out of the museum room where Susan is in peril, hereby appearing cowardly to the girl whom he wishes to romance.

As in "Menace From the Bottom of the World", Spidey is in an otherworldly location for the episode's climax, a dark, phantasmogorical dominion which Spidey successfully unfurls, reducing the enemy before the enemy's followers, this time by webbing and dropping the scepter from which Kotep is able to wield his wizard powers. This is the first episode to happen partly in a different dimension, that of black magic, to where Kotep transfers following his initial confrontation with Spiderman in the university museum. Kotep's abilities as an "evil magician" extend far beyond simple rabbit-from-hat tricks or slight of hand. He is able to conjure flying, hulking beasts and giant spider webs- with a titan of a spider nestled therein. The premise of the episode being wizards and black magic of grandiose, other-dimensional proportion, "The Evil Sorcerer" does tend to be the target of criticism for Bakshi detractors. Spiderman, they say, belongs in New York City combatting foes with abilities not of the etherial and extravagant nature of one like Kotep. However, it is conceivable that the peoples of ancient times were able to tap into a vast resevoir of metaphysical energy revealed somehow to them in their era, and from this was spawned a race of magicians that found or created a quite demonic spatial dimension. Kotep's revival in the museum by an obsessive professor is played in rather a gaudy fashion, though conceptually is not much different from the Green Goblin's summoning of evil spirits in Season 1's "The Witching Hour" or Miss Trubble's magic chest in "Here Comes Trubble". And as for an alternate world of magic, that is not a really tremendous stretch beyond the possibilities posited in such Season 1 stories. After all, the demons of the spirit world or the evoked creatures of Greek myth came from somewhere, e.g. some other continuum of space-time, and the Bakshi animation team do bring to life quite elaborate images of what such an alternative dimension might look like, and depict an interesting trap by which Spidey crosses the boundary between his world and Kotep's.

A pair of tremendous menaces that Spidey must neutralize in "Vine" and "Pardo Presents", two consecutive episodes in Season 2 of Spiderman.

The giant spider engineered by Kotep is something of segue into the next two stories, both involving titanic parodies of an Earthly life form, particularly a plant and a cat, stalking and terrorizing the streets of Manhattan. In "Vine" and "Pardo Presents", Spidey's home metropolis is beseiged by two tremendous energy-absorbing creatures, floral and feline, both of which are neutralized by a surge of energy that neither is able to digest. Yes, it is by this time that a tendency toward psychedelia on the part of the Bakshi team was definitely manifest. There is no other way of describing such scenes as a cat's eye filling a theatre screen and emitting a gaseous paralysis field from its pupil and absorbing satchels of money and jewelry- in addition to the fleeing villain and the pursuing Spidey, or Spidey being chased on building tops by the enormous black feline, or a towering vine moving of its own volition, crushing houses in its path, writhing in New York City harbor with parts of the Brooklyn Bridge collapsed in the background, and that same vine swallowing two radium gems thrown at it by Spidey. And all of this rendered with the exquisite visual flair unique to Bakshi. Lavish colors. Shapely abstract designs.

Next are two consecutive crash-landed airplane journeys to southern locales and contact with lost tribes of people, one rather more culturally advanced than the other, with a volcano featuring in the climax of both stories. "Cloud City of Gold" is an exquisitely designed and gorgeously colored foreign venture for Spidey and a trio of Latinos. The mix of browns, reds, yellows, and, of course, gold, is a feast for the eyes, and of particular note are scenes involving a bat-infested underground river with solid gold stalagmites and stalactites, Spidey's battle against an Aztec War Bird, with said bird hitting a gong and shattering into particles of gold that fall to ground, and a fabulous Spidey-versus-huge-arachnid confrontation in the mouth of a volcano, whose subsequent eruption causes an earthquake that cracks and crumbles the golden buildings of the majestic settlement in a beautiful though devastating spectacle. All accompanied by some of the most exotically evocative music ever used in this 1960s Spidey television series. "Neptune's Nose Cone", too, should receive commendation for its conceived and designed main locale. An Antarctic island close enough to the northerly latitudes of the tropics to have some rathe