User Reviews

Spider-Man S1, Ep. 16/A "The Vulture's Prey" (1967) - Plot; J. Jonah Jameson stumbles upon the lair of the Vulture and is held captive. When the Vulture begins to force Jameson to reveal a series of top secret stories, it's up to Spider-Man to pluck the fiendish fowl once and for all.

The story is predictably dumb, with the Vulture learning about everything from diamond deliveries to top secret laser tests from the prickly Jameson. How or why Jameson would be privy to these secret, highly sensitive things as editor of a newspaper is never explained. But the fun is in the style and attitude of it all. In many ways, the 'toon better captures the Spider-Man of the comics than any of the live action movies did. Spinning one-liners and webs with equal aplomb, it's easy to ignore the silly plots and just enjoy the ride.

Spider-Man S1, Ep. 16/B "The Dark Terrors" (1967) - Plot; A mysterious villain who calls himself The Phantom uses special glasses that create shadows that he can control. With the city in peril, Spider-Man vows to shine the light of justice on the shadowy scoundrel.

The Phantom and his shadow creature creating glasses make for a fun foe. Spidey also gets to drop a few fun one-liners.

"Your inferiority complex is showing, Phantom!".

'The Vultures' Prey'. My all-time favorite Spider-Man nemesis, the egomaniacal Vulture, has been stealing valuables from penthouse apartments and storing them inside a clock tower. When Jameson (annoyed by the inconsistency of the clock) stumbles upon the Vultures' lair, he is taken captive. It is indeed ridiculous that Jameson would be in on various sensitive matters, but you learn to accept hilariously silly plots with this incredibly fun cartoon. Best of all: after Spidey defeats the bird-brain, he refuses to free Jameson unless the fearless publisher says "please". He even goes so far as to start walking away until Jameson finally swallows his pride.

'The Dark Terrors'. Another villain makes an encore appearance: The Phantom, who's sending out shadows of various animals that appear to be real enough; after all, the shadows are stealing jewels and the like for the bad guy. Finally, Spidey tails one of the shadows until it leads him to the evildoers' lair. My favorite aspects: Max Ferguson doing a PRICELESS job of voicing the villain, just as he did the last time he appeared, and the motions that The Phantom makes with his hands in front of special glasses that allow him to cast these shadows. "Wait 'til you feel the death-grip of this one!" he quips as he creates an "octopus".

As always, Spidey's one-liners are just rich, and, as a Canadian, I just crack right up when the Vulture utters, "Navy, EH?" in response to something Jameson says.

Eight out of 10.