Detailed analysis of the first animated appearance of Spiderman on the small screen
The landing of Spiderman in the world of animation
In 1966 the first series of drawings featuring characters from The House of Ideastitled The Marvel Super-Heroes. Although it was made up of a total of 65 episodes, its animation was practically nil, since they were assembled from the comics’ own illustrations. However, only a year later, a new series, called Spider-Manobviously based on the character created by Stan Lee y Steve Ditko, which featured authentic if rather rudimentary animation and had a catchy song. The show was run by Grantay-Lawrence Animationthe same study that had created the aforementioned The Marvel Super-Heroes.
Although the episodes of this series of Spidermanabout which data was commented at the time, lasted approximately 25 minutes, some were divided into two parts, telling a different adventure in each of them, which qualified them as adventure a and b of the same chapter number.
Notably Spiderman He wasn’t the only superhero Marvel which, at that time, released its own animated series, since Hanna-Barbera brought to light one of The Fantastic Four. Both began to be broadcast on the chain ABCin September 1967, on Saturday mornings, with an episode of the Marvel’s First Familyat half past nine, followed by one of Spiderman. Next, we will review the different stages that the Spider-Man series went through.
Spider-Man season one
In this first stage, made up of twenty chapters, we were able to see how, apart from having an abuse of shots in which we only saw the mouths or arms of the characters move, the cobwebs were removed from the torso and arms of Spidermanas shown in the image that accompanies this section, in order to simplify the animation design of the superhero as much as possible.
Apart from Peter Parkerin his occupation as a photographer, some of his famous supporting actors made an appearance, such as the aunt may, J. Jonah Jameson o Betty Brantand villains, among which we can highlight the Doctor Octopusal Lizarda Electroa Mysterioal Vulture (Blackie Drago), al Kill-Spidersal Scorpional Sandmanal Green Goblinal Rino and even some new created for the series.
Most of these chapters had a similar plot: J. Jonah Jameson found out something interesting and Peter Parker was informed through Betty Brant or because they commissioned him to take photos of said event. The protagonist appeared there dressed in his red and blue tights, defeated the villain on duty and left him wrapped in his nets, along with a note that said “Courtesy of your friendly neighbor Spider-Man!“. The episode used to end on the Daily Buglewith some joke at the expense of J. Jonah Jameson. Sometimes the plot bore similarities to certain comic book plots, while others were entirely new.
Although Stan Lee y John Romita appeared accredited as creative consultants of this first stage, the cartoonist was not at all satisfied with this adaptation of Spidermansince he considered that Hanna-Barbera could have done so much better. However, with the passage of time, she understood that this series served to, among other things, swell the list of readers of Marvel.
Although Grantay-Lawrence Animation went bankrupt, at the end of the first season, the series continued for two more stages, this time in charge of the studio Krantz Filmscoordinated by the animator Ralph Bakshi.
Spider-Man season two
Although the second stage of this peculiar adaptation of Spider-Man, with 19 episodes, had some striking chapters, such as the first (21 of the complete series), titled the origin of spider man, plot to which the image that accompanies this section belongs, on whose plot there is not much to explain, the original villains of the character began to decrease. Although Kingpinhe Vulturehe Lizard y Rino were still swarming around, the rest of the threats that the superhero had to face were wizards, aliens and monsters, while the Daily Buglecon J. Jonah Jameson y Betty BrantThey were being relegated to oblivion.
In the eighth chapter of said season (28 of the complete series), titled Ghost from the depths of time, Ralph Bakshi used backgrounds and villains taken from another series of his, called Rocket Robin Hood (1966-1969). As we will see later, it would not be the last time that she would do it.
Third season of Spider-Man
The third and last stage of this series of Spiderman, which only consisted of 13 chapters, followed the same paths as the previous one and it got even worse, since many episodes were made from scraps of other installments. However, we must highlight 3b (42b of the complete series), titled The Great Brain Washerin which he made an appearance Mary Janeas shown in the image that accompanies this section and we already mentioned at the time, although she is shown as the niece of George Stacywhile Gwenthe real daughter of the policeman, is nowhere to be found.
In the controversial tenth episode (49 of the complete series), titled Revolt in the fifth dimension, Ralph Bakshi made use of funds and villains from the series again Rocket Robin Hooda topic that we also discussed in greater depth in a previous article.
However, despite John Romita changed his mind regarding the cartoon series of Spidermanas we have already said, Stan Lee seemed to be in complete disagreement. This is how he let it be seen, in 1972, in a lecture he gave at Vanderbilt University:
From an aesthetic point of view, I think it was horrible. I was very interested in the series, at the beginning of everything. I flew to the coast and discussed these things with Hanna Barbera y Krantz Films And so on, until I realized that arguing was pointless, because all they were interested in was pleasing advertisers. Not to the network, not to us, but to the advertisers.
Krantz Films I did not agree with this at all, since I thought that Marvel had secured a percentage of each sale and that the syndication of the series of Spiderman translated into huge profits for the company. But, for better or worse, it was already done and the superhero would not return to television until 1974, in the children’s live-action show called Spidey Super Storiescon Danny Seagren in the title role.
