The New Teen Titans and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

 

I remember seeing character designs for a never produced New Teen Titans cartoon back in the 80's and wondering what could have been. How cool would a crossover with Peter, Angelica and Bobby have been?

Spidey previously met The New Teen Titans in STF#3810 and STF #767 and the original Teen Titans in STF #619...

Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and Static

 

I remember seeing that cool giant fire monster during the opening credits sequence of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.  Alas, he only appeared for a few moments in one episode, taken out easily by Firestar and guest star Sunfire - and he was certainly nowhere near as large as he was depicted during that credits cameo.  

Amazing Man and Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends

 

Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends was a favorite show of mine, but I have to admit it was kind of frustrating.  After an initial run of episodes, it went into repeats for a good long time.  New episodes after that seemed to be quite few and far between.  It seemed every time the show came on it was that same "Swarm" episode!  I'm glad that these days I can just go on Disney+ and just pick out which episode I want to watch.

Justice League of America and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (And More!)

Wow, already up to STF #2300!  To think my original goal was to get to 500 covers.  I have been glad to see some comics titles that have been stopped and re-started with new first issues have gone back to their original numbering.  There's something very cool about seeing solicits for Action Comics with issue numbers in the 1000's.  Plus, as a collector, all that re-numbering made keeping them in order a pain!

Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends and The Super Friends

For a long time growing up, these two cartoons were all there was as far as animated superheroes on TV went.  I will always have a soft spot for The Super Friends, especially the "Challenge" years, but I preferred Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends because they had better action.  My only complaint was there were not enough episodes - I felt like I watched each one 20 times over!

Batman and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was appointment television for me when I was growing up.  I was a fan of the solo Spider-Man cartoon and remember thinking it was awesome that the new show featured Iceman as well.  I probably would have preferred the Human Torch over Firestar but his rights were tied up at the time.  I loved the way the series did not shy away from guest stars and by the end of its run, a good portion of the Marvel Universe had made appearances.  That was a precursor to shows like Justice League Unlimited and Batman: The Brave and the Bold which have done a great job with universe-building.  Another thing I remember is that each episode had its own title card at the beginning, something that Batman: The Animated Series would also use to great effect.  It is beyond me why these Spidey series have not come to DVD/Blu-Ray yet... I know that I would snap up season sets in an instant if they were solicited!  I used to have some grainy VHS copies, but it would be nice to see some crisp versions of these episodes (especially my favorite "Seven Little Superheroes") after so many years.