Friday, November 19, 2010

From Comics to Toons: Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends (1981)

In 1981, Marvel Comics, having acquired DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE), relaunched the studio as Marvel Productions, with their initial offering featuring their #1 star, in Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends. Marvel figured, DC has the Super Friends (airing on ABC at the time), so why not come up with something similar, but on a smaller scale?

Amazing Friends didn't have the overall staying power of Super Friends, however, as it lasted 3 seasons before departing NBC's lineup in 1984. For now, here's the series premiere, "Triumph of the Green Goblin":

Update: YouTube has a new print, including a couple of items we've previously seen from ABC's Schoolhouse Rock and Bod Squad.



If Iceman's voice sounds familiar, it should. Prolific voice actor Frank Welker, whose numerous credits include, of course, Scooby-Doo, and, yes, Super Friends (he was Marvin in the first series in 1973), was cast as the frosty X-Man. The rest of the X-Men would make a guest appearance later in the series' run. Mr. Marvel himself, Stan Lee, joined in on the fun in season 2 as narrator---as if they really needed one. Dick Tufeld served as the announcer, having done the same for DFE's last series, Spider-Woman, 2 years earlier. If Marvel was hoping for this show to break out as a monster hit, they were sorely disappointed. By the way, "Triumph of the Green Goblin" was adapted as a 1-shot comic book to coincide with the series' launch.

Rating: B-.

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