 Baron Von Rantenraven, giant snowman, and Infinata.
"The Winged Thing"/"Conner's Reptiles"
Two cheater stories reusing animation from Season 1. Spidey discovers the
bird-man Vulture robbing a millionaire's penthouse safe and unsuccessfully
tries to stop the flying fiend. Spidey is also unable to defeat the Vulture
in confrontations at a building construction site and at a military base.
The Vulture steals an animal-behavior-controlling device and brings terror
to the skies above Manhattan by activating the device to compel all flying
creatures to do his bidding. Spidey dupes the Vulture into flying into his
own bird army, centralizing the device's controlling impulses and causing
the winged things to attack its confused and panic-stricken wearer... Spidey
swings to Florida again to battle a walking, thinking lizard. This time, the
lizard is not a transformed Dr. Conner, but a reptile whose intelligence has
been augmented in an experiment by Conner gone awry, and who has kidnaped
Conner and holds the ill-fated scientist as captive at a Spanish fort.
Spidey compounds a serum to reverse the lizard's mutation, confronts the
bipedal, thinking lizard at the Spanish fort, webs the creature, and forces
it to drink the serum, which causes it to vanish! Spidey rescues Conner and
reunites him with his family.
"Trouble With Snow"/"Spiderman Vs. Desperado"
New York City children build a snowman with snow contaminated by trace
chemicals from an industrial plant up the Hudson River, and a freak accident
involving a broken electrical line hitting the snowman somehow brings the
snowman to life. With every snowfall, the snowman grows, needing recharges
of electricity to sustain itself and menacing the New York City populace.
Spidey deduces from an electrically charged punch by the snowman that the
"big bozo" is charged with electricity, and wires a maze of cables leading
into a watered sewer. He lures the snowy behemoth into the cables, which
drain the snowman's power, and it collapses into a formless heap of snow...
Desperado, a cowboy criminal, lassos Spidey and begins a crime wave atop his
electronic horse. Spidey arranges to ambush the sidewindin' crook with a
phoney exhibit of Western paraphernalia at the Midtown Museum. Resisting the
cowboy's hypnotic pistols, Spidey webs Desperado and gives the villain to
the police to apprehend.
"Sky Harbor"/"The Big Brainwasher"
A German Baron utilizes a flying aircraft carrier to launch an attack on New
York City with World War One-style fighter airplanes. Spidey confounds the
Baron by webbing himself to the Baron's airplane and manipulating the
airplane to crash into the airborne hangar. Baron, airplane, and hangar
descend into the Hudson River... The Kingpin's latest scheme to control New
York involves a machine that brainwashes city officials into doing as he
commands. Peter's girl-friend, Mary Jane, invites Peter to watch her dance
on opening night at the Gloom Room A-Go-Go, a night club secretly owned by
the Kingpin, and Peter notices that Mary Jane's camera, given to her by one
of the Kingpin's thugs to snapshoot her high-echelon audience, is causing
city officials in attendance at the night club to become groggy and to go to
the night club's back room, where the brainwashing machine is. Spidey
investigates this tendency and is captured by the Kingpin and shackled
inside of a water chamber as the Kingpin holds Mary Jane and Mary Jane's
uncle, Captain Stacy, hostage. Spidey breaks his shackles and withstands
submersion in the water by webbing himself into an air-bubble. He then
surprises the Kingpin's stooges and throws one of them at the Kingpin,
rendering the enormous mobster unconscious, then frees Mary Jane and Captain
Stacy. The Kingpin's machine is permanently put out of commission.
"The Vanishing Doctor Vespasian"/"Scourge of the Scarf"
Dr. Vespasian, a green-skinned, wrinkled scientist, concocts a drinkable
invisibility formula and uses it on himself and his dog, Brutus. Together,
they commit bank robberies, but Spiderman foils the vanishing, thieving
genius by installing ice cream in a bank vault's sprinkler system and
dropping the ice cream on top of the nefarious doctor. The police apprehend
Vespasian by placing the ice-cream-drenched evil chemist on a huge sundae
dish and loading him into an ice cream truck... From his vantage point atop
a building, Spidey watches as crowds form long lines to attend Saturday
night Broadway performances. To the panic of the mass of people, the Moon
becomes a psychedelic pinwheel that fills the night sky and dizzies and
renders everyone- including Spidey- unconscious. Led by an artistic genius
called the Scarf, a band of looters emerge from a manhole and "fleece" the
box offices of all of the theatres before the pinwheel disappears and every
unconscious person revives. The Scarf's mechanically-projected pinwheeled
Moon ploy having been a thieving success, he next targets a dowager's rare
emerald and invites the dowager and other high-class New Yorkers to his
psychedelic art show, where he laughing-gasses everybody so that his men, in
gas masks, can steal the emerald and the attendees' other valuables. But
Peter, suspecting a connection between the pinwheel phenomenon and the art
show, has obtained a ticket to attend the show and resists the laughing gas.
As Spidey, he chases the gas-masked Scarf out of the art show building,
straight into a police dragnet summoned earlier by Spidey to surround the
show. The police arrest the Scarf's gang of bandits.
"Super Swami"/"The Birth of Microman"
Super Swami, an obese, Oriental illusionist, seems to make the Brooklyn
Bridge disappear piece by piece, with the cars thereon suspended in mid-air!
He next appears to disintegrate the Hudson River, then seems to start a July
snowfall! All of this, he says, is a demonstration of his power. He demands
total obedience from the citizens of New York City, and when Spiderman
web-swings into the sky to investigate the seeming snowfall, the Swami
apparently traps Spidey inside of a crystal ball. Spidey breaks out of the
truly rubbery ball and refuses to accept as real any of the Swami's other
mechanically generated illusions. He kicks the Swami's face, sending the fat
Oriental reeling down a large sewer pipe, and the police incarcerate the
Swami and confiscate all of the Swami's illusion-causing equipment... Prof.
Pretories, the most diabolical mind ever known to science, escapes jail, and
Peter unknowingly helps the convict by car-driving him, a hitchhiker, to his
secret-laboratory hideout. Peter then hears a news report on his car radio
about Pretories and, as Spiderman, acts to reverse his mistake. Spidey
discovers that Pretories has devised a means of shrinking himself to
construct a miniature atomic detonator, the Kingdom Come Machine. Also
reduced in size, Spidey confronts the tiny, menacing scientist and produces
a deluge of water from a faucet to neutralize the atomic detonator and
stymie Pretories so that the police can recapture him once Spidey and the
criminal have returned to full size.
"Knights Must Fall"/"The Devious Dr. Dumpty"
Spidey jousts with a motorcycle-riding knight in armor who is robbing
theatre box offices, armored trucks, and museum officials receiving a
medieval artifact. While battling the knight on a ship that has arrived in
New York Harbor to deliver the artifact to the museum officials, Spidey webs
a barrier that stalls the "canned ham's" speeding motorcycle, throwing the
knight off of the ship and into the water of New York Harbor. Spidey then
traps the "canned flounder" in a web-net for the police... Dr. Dumpty, a
corpulent jewel thief, attacks a parade with knock-out gas released from
balloons, and he and his thugs, wearing gas masks, steal the jewels of
actress Rachele Wells and abscond in a hot air balloon. Spiderman webs
himself to the getaway balloon's carriage, but Dumpty orders his men to drop
ballast sand bags on the super-hero, and Spidey loses his grip on his web
and falls onto a parade balloon likeness of himself! Dumpty's next planned
heist, of pure gold on display at a masquerade ball, is anticipated by
Spidey, who comes to the ball in his own costume and has brought a gas mask.
When Dumpty's men make their move and discharge laughing gas from balloons,
Spidey preempts Dumpty's grab for the gold and spins a special slippery
webbing to trip Dumpty's fleeing men so that police can arrest them. Spidey
wields a ball attendee's sword to burst the balloon hat which Dumpty uses to
descend from the building's balcony. The police are waiting for Dumpty on
the street below and apprehend the corpulent crook.
"Up From Nowhere"
The weird Dr. Atlantian rises out of the ocean near New York City in his
hive-like machine, which derives its power from Lunar motion. Atlantian
represents the lost continent of Atlantis, which has developed an advanced
technology in its centuries of undersea existence and now intends to conquer
the surface world. With a ray emitted from his machine, Atlantian encases
Manhattan in a bubble and sinks the island into the ocean. He next triggers
a series of earthquakes to terrify Manhattan's people. Spidey swims through
a gap in the bubble below the sunken city and advances on Atlantian's
machine, and Atlantian grants to Spiderman access therein for the purpose of
destroying him. Spidey ducks when Atlantian fires a laser beam, and the
energy blast hits Atlantian's equipment, weakening it and allowing Manhattan
to re-ascend to surface level. Spidey webs Atlantian for capture by the New
York City police. This episode is essentially a remake of Season 2's "Swing
City", with much of its animation reused. Atlantian is really a variation on
the radiation specialist from "Swing City"; the difference is the addition
of pointed ears, head fin, and fish-scales. And the interior of Atlantian's
machine looks exactly like that of the nuclear power plant in "Swing City".
"Rollarama"
A remake of Season 2's "Vine", virtually identical in plot; the only
difference is that instead of a giant plant threatening New York, the menace
is a series of enormous, rolling pods that grow from boxes in a missing
scientist's house. The scientist has used a time portal located in his house
to journey into another dimension, and the rolling pods have come from that
dimension, the Land of Crystal Creation. Spidey goes through the portal to
find a means of stopping the rolling pods before one of them descends onto a
missile base outside of New York City and triggers an atomic explosion. The
missing scientist in this episode is Dr. Von Glutz, whose house is a replica
of that of Prof. Smithers in "Vine". Von Glutz is dead by the time that
Spiderman arrives in the dimension to which Von Glutz had transported
himself. So, Spidey is advised by a tribe of blue-haired ape creatures, who
resemble Molemen, to raid a nearby city and obtain the necessary energy
units to obliterate the rolling pods in New York. And the city that Spidey
must raid is populated by animal-hating plants that look like those in
"Vine". These plants thrive on cold, and the city is refrigerated with power
from a weird generator, with the energy units that Spidey seeks situated in
the "eyes" of the machine. The plants need the energy units to keep their
city cold, and they stop Spidey from reaching the generator by breaking
Spidey's swing web. Spidey falls and is captured and put in an arena to
battle a giant slug named Goliath for the plants' amusement. Spidey subdues
Goliath with webbing and, with all of the plants in the arena, easily
removes the energy units from the generator. The plants die, and the blue-
haired ape creatures can reclaim the city that was once their own. Spidey
returns to New York and drops the energy units into a cannon that fires them
at one of the rolling pods, annihilating it before it can descend onto the
missile base.
"Rhino"/"The Madness of Mysterio"
In a cheater story comprised of footage from both Rhino episodes from Season
1, the Rhino again steals gold shipments with which to build a 14 karat
statue of himself. Spidey's spider-sense enables him to locate the Rhino's
hideout building, and after a battle that demolishes the place, Spidey
forces the Rhino to flee into the New York City sewers with his golden self-
image, and Spidey webs the running Rhino for police to jail... Spiderman
tussles once more with master-of-illusion Mysterio. This time, Mysterio
causes Spidey to think that he has shrunk the web-swinger and placed him in
a miniature amusement park. Spidey struggles against a maze of mirrors
coated with poison and, holding a webbing shield, crashes through the
mirrors with no ill effects. Spiderman fights and defeats a mechanical
dragon and confronts the seemingly giant Mysterio in the park's skyline, but
when Spidey's punch does not strike the huge image of Mysterio, he deduces
that the park is full-scale and that Mysterio's giant appearance is an
illusion. Mysterio hypnotized Spidey with a machine in front of the
miniature park, then brought Spidey to the full-scale model and employed an
illusion-projecting device to convey the impression that Spidey has been
shrunk and that the enormous image of Mysterio towering over the park is
Mysterio at normal size. Spidey finds the real Mysterio at the park's
highest point, in the control room for the parachute jump, and overcomes the
criminal with one, powerful punch, then webs him for police capture.
"Revolt in the Fifth Dimension"
Another episode composed largely of animation from a Rocket Robin Hood
story. A dying scientist from the destroyed planet Goth in the deceased
galaxy of Kamosah must land his crippled spaceship on Earth and, before
expiring, entrusts Spiderman with a tiny but encyclopedic library of
information, including the secrets of a dimension of living thought, whose
one-eyed, skeletal ruler, Infinata, wants this information destroyed. So,
Spidey is brought into the realm of Infinata, Dementia Five, where Infinata
commits all of the horrific, thought-projected minions at his disposal to
try to force Spidey to reveal where on his own person he has secreted the
Library of Goth. Spidey bluffs Infinata into believing that he has lost the
Library, and as Infinata is sentencing Spidey to death by submersion in a
quicksand-like rug, Spidey closes his eyes and finds himself back in New
York City. Realizing that Dementia Five is all illusion, existing only in
the minds of believers, Spidey closes his eyes and mind to Infinata and is
freed from Dementia Five. Back in New York, he produces the Library of Goth
from his web cartridge and delivers it to the proper authorities.
"Specialists and Slaves"
An old enemy of Spidey's, a radiation specialist who once lifted Manhattan
into the sky, has been released from jail and promptly revisits Manhattan's
nuclear power plant, stuns the outdoor guards with his ray gun, and again
commandeers the reactor. The radiation specialist, still as megalomaniacal
as ever, uses a form of radiation to dull the minds of Manhattan's people,
converting them into robots so that they obey every command that he gives to
them. He lifts Manhattan skyward again and this time insures beforehand that
Spidey is off of the island by luring him out of New York City with a robot
car and a recorded message of someone pleading for help from a bogus
kidnaping. The robot car goes off a cliff, and through the radio of the
wrecked vehicle, the specialist tells Spidey about everyone in the elevated
city now being his slaves and that Spidey will be attacked by the people if
he tries to enter the city in the sky. Undaunted, Spidey spins his webs onto
Manhattan's underside, swings up to it, crawls through a sewer tunnel, and
gains entry to the specialist's "kingdom". But the specialist causes the
island to tremor to send Spidey falling into the streets, where the web-
swinger is captured by police, all of whom are the specialist's stooges,
save for Captain Stacy, whose strong mind has immunized him from the
enslaving radiation. Also immune are criminally-minded convicts, with whom
Spidey teams to escape police custody, with Stacy as a hostage (in footage
from "To Cage a Spider"). Spidey then frees Stacy from the convicts, whom
Spidey webs one-by-one. Spidey web-swings to the nuclear power plant for a
confrontation with the specialist, with the same result as in "Swing City".
The specialist is unable to subdue Spidey, and his misfired ray gun cripples
the controls to the levitating ray. Spidey attains control of the reactor in
time to slowly deactivate it so that Manhattan gently settles into its
surface position. Spidey webs the specialist and negates the slavery-
inducing radiation.
"Down to Earth"
A remake of Season 2's "Neptune's Nose Cone". Jameson orders Peter to fly
in an airplane with Daily Bugle pilot Osa Olsen to the North Pole to locate
a fallen meteor with bizarre antennae, but a thunder-snowstorm cripples
Parker and Olsen's airplane, and it crashes in a wasteland populated by a
tribe of savages, who have appropriated the meteor and are planning to drop
it into a volcano as an offering to their fire god in return for warmth.
Peter, reviving after the airplane crash to discover Olsen gone, changes
into Spiderman to search for Olsen and encounters the savages and overhears
their plan. Deducing that the meteor will plug the volcano and cause an
eruption that could melt the polar ice cap, Spidey endeavors to stop the
primitives. After an extended period inside of a weird cavern populated by
horrific creatures and adorned with huge idols, Spidey finds Olsen, and
together they act to abort the dropping of the meteor into the volcano. The
meteor is really a disguised spaceship that launches out of the mouth of the
volcano while Spidey and Olsen are trying to pull it out of the circular
ground fissure with web-lines, sheds its meteoric rock cover, and ascends
into space. Somehow, Peter and Olsen are able to repair their airplane and
leave the icy wasteland for home.
"Trip to Tomorrow"
A bolt of lightning breaks Spidey's web, causing him to fall into a boxcar
at a rail yard. In the boxcar, Spidey meets a young runaway who plans to
ride a freight train out of New York City and become "the Caped Protector of
Podunk". To dissuade the youngster from this fanciful but impracticable
plan, Spidey tells the youth about the extreme dangers of being a super-hero
by recalling some of his most desperate battles, with extensive flashbacks-
and reused footage- from "Thunder Rumble", "Return of the Flying Dutchman",
and "The Evil Sorcerer". The runaway is so unnerved by Spidey's recounting
of these experiences that he flees the train as the train is about to move
out of the rail yard- and runs home to mother.
Images from "Knight Must Fall", "The Spider and the Fly", "To Catch a Spider", and "Blotto", plus the title shots and all generic images © Krantz Films
Textual content © Kevin McCorry, with all rights reserved
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