El Hombre Araña

With the hype of the new movie to come out next year, some fans are skeptical about it being faithful to the original (ie: organic web-shooters). However, I like to point out to them that there is a presentation of the Amazing Spider-Man on film or TV that is faithful to the original comic book. That is the 1967-1970 animated series of Spider-Man.

The first season contains the classic villains the Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus and the Vulture and the background is a sky-blue motif. I think that it resembles the Steve Ditko Spider-Man comics. And the 2nd and 3rd seasons are more weird and bizarre with villains that consist of space aliens, wizards, cavemen and the background is a more dark, night-time theme. These are my favorite even though the production budget was slashed considerably for them.

Who can forget the 2nd season's "The Origin of Spider-Man"? Or the psychedelic and horrific "Revolt in the Fifth Dimension"? If you prefer more light-hearted shows, you can watch J. Jonah Jameson's comic-induced rantings from the first season as Spider-Man continues to frustrate the newspaper despot. The fact that there are two different sides to this series (1st season VS 2nd & 3rd seasons) is what makes it so fondly remembered today. If all the episodes were like the 1st season, people would easily dismiss it as a typical 1960's animated fluff. If all the episodes were just like the 2nd and 3rd seasons, it would also be discarded as weird psychedelia. The combination of the two styles perfectly portrays the evolution of Spider-Man from early 1960's innocence to the dark and forboding 1970's Spider-Man comics by John Romita and Gerry Conway.

Another strength to this series is the background music which complements the eye-pleasing visuals. Despite the repeated use of the same animation, one never really gets tired of it. The theme song that accompanies the opening and closing segments of the show is very famous and the majority of the non-Spider-Man viewing and reading public will recognize it.

My recommendation: 10 out of 10.

The music, the mood, the voice acting - everything was great, and some of it is timeless. Some of it is dated, true, but it is the best cheesy fun out there! I can't think of the voice of Spidey or JJJ without thinking of this show - which had AMAZING music - very moody and fun! Try it and love it!

OK, so I'll admit maybe it could've included Liz and Flash and maybe it could've had have some more Aunt May. But as far as complaining about the animation and the fact that Spider-man "doesn't have all webs on his costume" is just ridiculous as the show had a very limited budget. Although.... One thing I didn't like was the voice acting, really no excuse for that Jameson was good, Betty Brant was decent but, that was really it. Spider-man sounded like an a man in his mid-30s so it definitely didn't deliver, and I want that "energy" from that Spider-man. The kind of energy that just gets you excited a good voice actor can do that, Mark Hamill's Joker did that. But in the end I actually thought the makers did a pretty good job with what the had to work with. It could've been a LOT worse. And also, this show gave us the classic Spiderman theme song that pretty much everyone knows. So all in all it pretty decent especially the 1st season, It's kinda a either you "Love' it or you "Hate" it show. However, I'm sure nostalgia could be maker true haters rate it higher

The problem with comic books today, is that they are waaayy too sophisticated for most kids to comprehend... I read Spiderman when I was 6 and 7 years old (I read it when I was older as well, but I will get to that) and I could follow the stories to some exent, but mostly I read it because the cartoon was soooo cool (much cooler than any later Spiderman incarnations)... the animation was quirky, the voices were very Shatnerian (I think I just invented a word, and I will now use it frequently), but it was fun and it made sense to a young mind.

Now, don't get me wrong about comic books, I really appreciated the more sophisticated stories when I was a teenager, but I have no idea how the medium will gain new fans when you cannot hope to get involved with them until you are at least a teenager (when such things are uncool)... and a lot of the material is too intense for young eyes anyway... maybe a line of comics for younger fans would be good. I dunno, but I feel bad that my kid will likely not have comic book heroes in his life to any meaningful degree... I just wish that cool shows like Bakshi's Spiderman were still on the air to fill in the gaps.

The thing that really made this show special was the music. Bachelor pad band leader Ray Ellis composed, and conducted a wide range of dramatic secret-agent-style cues for the first season, and these bits got reused to good effect in the following seasons. Bob Harris and Paul Francis Webster contributed the theme song with its frenetic off-kilter drum riffs. Starting in season 2, the creators began dipping into the KPM music catalogue bringing to light ice-cool jazz gems such as Syd Dale's "The Hell Raisers" and David Lindup's "Stand By." Some of the same cues would later pop up in TV shows such as "Dallas." Paul Kligman's J. Jonah Jameson and Paul Soles' Peter Parker voice work was absolutely wonderful. It's hard not to imagine their voices when reading the comics.

The animation art is fairly dynamic, and resembles the work of John Romita who served as a consultant. Comic artist Gray Morrow even worked as one of the animators. Ralph Bakshi who would later become famous for "Lord of the Rings" and "Fire and Ice" took over as director in the second season. The most obvious mark of his influence was the dark multi-coloured clouds that appeared as backgrounds in some of the more psychedelic episodes.

Overall one of the more interesting animated series' of its time.