Saturday Morning Super-Heroes, Pt. 3: Spider-Man

DC's Superman, Batman, Aquaman and other members of the Justice League found their way onto Saturday morning TV screens in the late 1960s and so did Marvel's Spider-Man. Before that in the earlier 60s, there was a syndicated series of Marvel-based shorts starring the Mighty Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner and the Hulk, which I recall used to be broadcast on Sunday afternoons on our local Philadelphia NBC affiliate. These were poorly animated shorts resembling the comic book pages they were based on with little movement. The ABC Spider-Man series was a vast improvement, telling two stories per episode and employing more sophisticated animation. The music helped providing exciting background to Spidey's adventures as he battled villains such as Electro, Dr. Octopus, Mysterio, the Green Goblin, and the Rhino while working as Peter Parker, freelance photographer for tyrannical publisher J. Jonah Jameson's Daily Bugle. In this series, he had graduating high school and there was no sign of Aunt May. 

Speaking of music, the theme song was certainly catchy, but the singers should have articulated more. There was one lyric which made no sense to me: "Welcome, friends, he's a yourd/Action is his reward" What the hell's a yourd, I thought. It wasn't until decades later that I finally heard the correct words. Patrick Page who was playing the Green Goblin in Julie Taymor's misbegotten Broadway musical version of the web-slinger's exploits, was singing the theme song in a night club and he pronounced the words correctly: "Wealth and fame, he's ignored/Action is his reward." 

The second season of the ABC Spider-Man was taken over by Ralph Bakshi, future director of Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic, and the series went downhill. Everything turned dark and the storylines were much weaker. The backgrounds and most of the action shots were repetitive and the characterization fell flat. This ideration of Spidey disappeared after that.

Firestar, Iceman and Spider-Man

Spider-Man re-emerged in 1981 with an NBC cartoon series title Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, narrated by Stan Lee himself. This version relies heavily on the Marvel comics universe and in addition to Spidey's new crimefighting friends, Iceman and Firestar, there were regular appearances by other Marvel characters such as Capt. America, Dr. Strange, Thor, and the X-Men. The premise was Peter Parker, now in college, is rooming with two other super-powered young people Bobby Drake (Iceman) and Angelic Jones (Firestar) in the home of Peter's Aunt May (voiced by June Foray of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame). There's also an annoying little dog called Ms. Lion. (Never mind that Iceman was previously a member of the X-Men in the 1960s and should be much older by now.) They called their team the Spider-Friends, presumably to compete with ABC's Super-Friends based on the DC heroes. As with Batman, there were several other Spider-Man cartoon shows, but this one caught my attention. There was lots of fun action and Lee's hyperbolic narration lent a comic-book aura. Watching the episodes felt like reading old comics. 

Unlike Batman and the DC heroes, Spider-Man was conflicted about his status as a super-hero and he was not seen by the authorities as a legitimate agent of the law, but as a dangerous outsider. That's what made him more complex and interesting. There have been other Spider-Man cartoons, but I never got into them. I've also seen many of the movie adaptations, but not the most recent ones.

Animation Feature Oscar: Spider Vs. Heron

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Credit: Sony Animation

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature for 2018. Its sequel Across the Spider-Verse is a front-runner for the same award this year. The race is between Spider-Verse and Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki has won in this category for Spirited Away (2001) and is regarded as a master in the field, so he may be primed for a second Golden Guy. 

It's a tough choice. I watched Spider-Verse on Netflix and was totally stunned. There was so much happening in every frame, it was overwhelming. I did not see the 2018 film, so at first the plot was kinda confusing. But gradually we can figure out that we're in an alternate universe where Spider-Man is not Peter Parker, but Miles Morales, the son of an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. In this world, there is also a spider-powered version of Gwen Stacy--or is she from yet another world? Evidently, there are an infinite number of universes, each with their own Spider-Man or Woman. For reasons not immediately clear, Miles is taken to a Spider- World where EVERYBODY has Spider powers. The plot is not as important as the action which is jam-packed and the multiple Spider heroes are fun. There's even a Spider-kitty and a Spider-dinosaur.

Weekend at Universal

The last time I was in Orlando had to be almost 20 years ago because I distinctly remember making a joke about going down there to help count hanging chads--a reference to the heinous Bush-Gore debacle of 2000. It was also December because there were Christmas themed events and performers in holiday costumes at the theme parks. My partner and I went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, and all four Disney parks. It was loads of fun so when my brother Jonathan, a huge theme parkgoer suggested we spend the Martin Luther King Day weekend at Universal, I jumped at the chance. There had been many changes in the park since I was there last, chiefly the new Harry Potter rides, and I liked Universal more than Disney. The former struck me as more adult-oriented and Disney was more for kids and families.

Reality Update: Strippers on Project Runway, Fabulous Pamola Faith

Tim Gunn with Thunder Down Under on Project Runway

Yesterday I started jury duty and nothing is as exhausting as sitting around waiting for something to happen. I last did jury duty about eight years ago and a few things have changed. Now they show movies in the waiting room and let you keep your phones and laptops on. The film was The Day After Tomorrow--the one from 2004 with Dennis Quaid rescuing his son Jake Glyenhaal who is trapped in the NY Public Library while the city is first flooded and then buried in snow. Later while waiting again in another part of the building I was surrounded by TV monitors blaring first The Chew and then Katie Couric's show. It was maddening trying to read an old New Yorker article about homeless gay teens while Jessica Alba was blathering about nutrition. Why couldn't they have changed the channel to Judge Judy? That would have made sense at least.

More Incidents in the Death of Civility

Following up on the Death of Civility Project Runway blog, here are some recent examples of bad behavior I have recently encountered:

1. At a screening of The Amazing Spider-Man, the couple behind us were constantly talking in a loud conversational tone about the movie. Occasional whispers are tolerable, but it was as if these two were at home in their living room watching TV with no awareness of anyone else around them. About 30 minutes into the movie, I finally turned around and said "Please don't talk through the entire movie."

To which the woman replied "You're talking!" Can you believe this? She obviously realized she was disturbing other people but didn't want to admit it.

Me: "Yeah, to tell you to stop talking."

Her husband or boyfriend, sensing his female was being insulted, threatened, "Do you want to take this outside?" What a cliche, fighting for his right to be obnoxious! The woman told him to calm down and they evidently got the message and shut up for most of the rest of the picture.

2. While my partner was driving on Broadway near Union Square today with me in the passenger seat, some older woman with two even older women crossed in back of our car and hit our back window with her umbrella. I thought, "What the hell is her problem?" She and her two charges were crossing very slowly across the middle of the street and we were approaching a red light. So I lowered my window and yelled, "Hey, what's the problem?" I genuinely wanted to know what the grievance was. The woman glared at me and just said "Wake up!" I had no idea what she was talking about. "What are you talking about?" I replied. "Wake up," she repeated. This was very frustrating so I told her to go fuck herself. The only explanation I could think of is she started to cross the street (Not at a light but in the middle of the block) and Jerry my partner did not slow down or stop for her. There was no crosswalk, so she would have clearly been in the wrong. She and the other two lovely ladies then must have crossed in back of us and then in her frustration at our not deferring to her, she hit us with an umbrella.

3. This one is not so bad. We were at dinner at a very nice restaurant and the woman at the next table was talking too loudly. She had this very loud, piercing voice and we heard all about this week's episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. What can you do in a situation like that? You really can't turn to the offending party and tell them to pipe down like at the movies when you would be right to so.

'Spider-Man" Mystery Solved

After 44 years I have finally solved the mystery of the Spider-Man lyrics. Back in 1967, there was a Spider-Man cartoon series on ABC I used to watch every week. I knew all the lyrics of the theme song by heart, except one which didn't make any sense to me. In the middle of their description of what a cool guy Spider-Man is, I thought the singers were saying "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Welcome friends, he's a yourd, Action is his reward." What the hell is a yourd?, I thought at age 8. A few years later, I listened again and thought it was "Welcome Friends, he's adored."

This past week, I came across a video of Patrick Page, the actor playing the Green Goblin in the Broadway musical version of Spider-Man doing a dramatic reading of the lyrics to the theme song. Finally the words were revealed as "Wealth and fame he's ignored/Action is his reward." Now I can sleep at night.