It’s probably the catchiest theme song any superhero has ever had. Heck, even the Ramones covered it. He's had five different cartoons, a live-action series, numerous video games, and an upcoming big-budget movie.
Yes, Spider-Man has had it pretty good. In fact the character wasn’t even 10 years old when he got his first cartoon. Produced by Grantray Lawrence Animation and later, Krantz Flims, “Spider-Man” was a pretty fair adaptation of our boy Peter Parker. The story in a nutshell: brainy Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains super powers. He devises web shooters so he can both swing from the rooftops and catch thieves (just like flies).
The animation, while not reaching the fluidity of even “The Flintstones,” was much better than some of the other Marvel cartoons (think “Captain America” and “The Incredible Hulk”), even if they only animated the webbing on his mask and not on his chest.
Sure, Spidey seemed to swing around things the exact same way, and I could never figure out what his weblines were attached to when he was swinging above the skyscrapers, but it was still pretty cool.
I wasn’t around for the show’s first run, but thanks to the miracle of syndication, I used to watch this show all the time. The late 1970s and early ’80s were a great time for watching cartoons. Not so much because of the quality (remember “Rubik the Amazing Cube”?) but for the quantity.
“Spider-Man” fought a few of his regular villains, such as the Lizard, Electro and the Rhino, but sometimes, he’d fight guys who were completely made up for the cartoon. For some reason, this used to bug me a lot when I was younger.
What also used to bug me about this version of Spider-Man when I was younger was that it wasn’t as fun as the comic books. Spidey’s personality in the cartoon wasn’t as much of a smart-aleck. In fact, I remember thinking that he was a different Spider-Man.
Keep in mind, I practically had Spider-Man overexposure. During my early peak viewing years, I could watch him in his syndicated cartoon, on Saturday mornings with Firestar and Iceman, on PBS with “The Electric Company,” not to mention the pre-Amazing Friends solo adventures that were on later that afternoon on the same syndicated channel. Plus, every now and then, some channel would show repackaged episodes of the live-action show.
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