Spider-Man

This series has been somewhat overshadowed by the better-known, but in my opinion inferior, "Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends," which aired simultaneously during the early 80s. "Amazing Friends" was produced for network television, and this show was produced for syndication. That's why this show was free of a lot of the clichés and cuteness of most other early 80s cartoons, including "Amazing Friends." There was something genuinely weird and dark about this show, and it captured the flavor of the classic 1960s/early 1970s comic books which inspired it. Instead of teaming him up with countless other Marvel superheroes, Spidey worked mostly alone here, and the show was all the better for it; the only team-up was with Captain America, and even then it was consistent with the tone of the show, as they fought a truly scary villain, Captain America's main enemy, the Red Skull. It is also a historic show, as this was the first series to emerge from Marvel Productions, which went to make some of the greatest cartoons ever, including "Transformers" and "GI Joe." Even though the writing varied in quality from episode to episode, and even though the animation looks somewhat stiff compared to the Marvel shows that followed, this show still deserves more respect.

This is the eponymous Spider-Man cartoon which debuted in syndication in 1981. Ironically, the production of this series was kind of a 13-episode pilot to convince television networks to order a Spider-Man based series for Saturday morning programming. This series, which was self-funded by Marvel Productions (formerly, DePatie/Freling Studios) focused on college student and part-time photographer Peter Parker, better known as the Amazing Spider-Man.

This series focuses on his adventures defending New York City (and sometimes, the entire country) from a wide array of menaces, most of them pulled straight from the Marvel comic books.

There were guest stars from different corners of the Marvel Universe of the time.

The animation was competent by late 1970s/early 1980s standards, and the voice actors are all compelling and fit the characters well.

Surprisingly, there is something of a 'meta-arc' involving the Dr. Doom character that finally reaches a climax in the 13th and final episode.

As stated, this series was self-funded and produced for syndication as a one-and-done series. "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends" debuted the same year on NBC and became popular in its own right.

This was a welcome update to Spider-Man for Generation X fans who would have been the first to see this on television. Certain components may come across as dated to Z fans and even some younger Generation Y folks who haven't known a time before Nickelodeon, Disney Channel or the Cartoon Network.

Still, this is a worthy entry in the overall Spider-Man canon.

I still retain vague memories of watching this "Spiderman" cartoon show from the early 1980s. To me, it was like watching the comics come to life. Bearing in mind how long ago this was made, the animation still holds up very well. The plots in themselves may not be as detailed or as mature as the "Spiderman" show from the 1990s but it doesn't matter to me. There is a whole gallery of villains to watch: The Green Goblin, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Kingpin, The Red Skull, The Lizard, Mysterio, The Black Cat and other more obscure adversaries. It was slightly unexpected to see Dr. Doom in so many episodes from this show - a total of 6. After all, he has never been a regular "Spiderman" villain. The reason why he was included in so many episodes, was due to the huge following of the "Star Wars" character Darth Vader. There are so many great episodes here to choose from. There are 26 altogether and I would rate 19 from being excellent to very good. The music from this "Spiderman" show is very good as it suits the style and the tone. I was glad when all the episodes were released on DVD, as video releases were fairly seldom. I shall always rate the 1981 "Spiderman" cartoon show as the definitive one.

When I was a little kid, I found this very enjoyable, but today I'm not quite sure. I don't think it's bad but I just did not get the same thrill from it. The animation could have used a little work and so could the stories. I don't think this was a bad show just not as good as some of the other Spidey shows.

My favourite Spider-Man shows were the late 1960's series and also Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. However, this was a decent show as well.

The animation techniques had evolved since the late 1960's series and there were some exciting villains in it as well. My favourite episode was where Spidey was shrunk by a villain called the Gadgateer. All the top Spidey villains were here-the Kingpin, Green Goblin, Doctor Doom etc.

This had the best written episodes of any Marvel series in my opinion and the animation was top notch for it's time.

Highly recommended.

Just one more point; Why do great shows such as this never get released onto video whilst other rubbish gets every episode released onto video?