compliments of your friendly neighborhood Spiderman.Peter Parker is a teenage photographer working at the Daily Bugle in NYC. He is secretly Spider-Man. His self-aggrandizing boss J. Jonah Jameson is obsessed with bringing down Spider-Man's reputation. Betty Brant is the redheaded secretary.This is the first Spider-Man cartoon and about five years after his first appearance in the comics. The first season has Spider-Man battling many of his classic foes. The episodes are usually divided in two with a different villain for each part. Seasons two and three had Ralph Bakshi as the new showrunner as costs get cut. He created his own villains and the animation style is changed. It's a little cheaper and has that grimy 70's style. The changes are not all bad. I do like the weird sky and Spider-Man's origin is shown at the start of the second season. It was odd that the show didn't start with his origin story. In the end, I like the first season more. Also, it doesn't get more iconic than the Spider-Man theme.

The greatest adaptation of a marvel comic book until the first Spiderman Movie! The Incredible Hulk Television series was great but was not faithful to the source material the way this cartoon was! Many people comment that the animation does not stand up to todays standards, well tell me, nay-sayers, what animated show from that time does? Lets compare this one to other animated shows of that day (40 Years ago)Let's say, Marvel Superheroes?!?!? how about Superfriends? The action and pacing on this Spiderman show was top, notch. The Action and pacing on Superfriends was slow and plodding. Yes, they over used animation cells more than the bigger budgeted super friends but they knew how to do so in a way that made the show have a visual style all it's own, and the over all feel of this 40 year old cartoon is better than any superhero cartoon before or since! In my view! I still love watching this one as much now, as I did then, and I'm 44 years old! The last time I tried watching Superfriends, I fell asleep!

I grew up watching this series in the early 1970s, and I'm happy that someone finally placed them onto DVDs. The set of 6 discs is rather deep, with all the episodes filling the DVDs. It's rather thin on extras. But there are what, 3 hours per disc? And the episodes are in chronological order, from the first to the final episode. Some of the episodes weren't digitally remastered, as most seem to have been, but heck, when I compare them to the VHS tapes I used to purchase at comic book shows where the tapes were recorded from UHF stations yielding poor reception, I won't complain. I'm just glad they're here. For the price, it's plenty of bang for the buck.As for the episodes, Ralph Bakshi took over as producer midway through the run of the original episodes (his cartoons can be found about midway through the third DVD). Reading through postings on the net, people have said that Bakshi took over and operations moved from Canada to the US when it was cheaper then to produce the animation in the states... and some staff cutting was done while the episodes were still cranked out at a good pace. Hence, people claim, a good bit of regurgitation of characters and plot lines increased. FYI, the Canadian episodes had Spidey webbing in clear skies, while the Bakshi episodes introduced eerie, watercolored skies. I'm a visual guy, and love the vibrant tones. Plus, it seems as though the music picked up a lot with the change. I just "dig" the way the music sounded. You can even hear a musician yelp every now and then in some jam sessions. So, I can't go Bakshi bashing. Usually, it's the networks that trim budgets, and Bakshi, I feel, had to make due. He did the best he could, I think, and I bet that if the budget had been fat, Bakshi would have had the animators take time and add depth and detail.

This show was great with just about everything. The story follows very well to the comic books that started the web-slinger off. Okay, there are a few differences, like how the Green Goblin is more of a bank robber, or the whole new character/lacking character thing, and how they had common things happen like Pluto aliens and mole-men from what I hear, but this IS a DIFFERENT UNIVERSE, therefore those aren't mistakes or whatever. The animation even I wouldn't say is the BEST example, like with repeating scenes and limitations, but it was good for it's time. Don't listen to the posters who said it's even worse than the ones made at the same time, it's actually much more comfortable to watch than most of the shows that are on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, I'd rather watch this Spider-Man series than Pokemon, to be honest. Especially since Pokemon has been obliterated of potential since it multiplied into all sorts of insidious variations, just like Power Rangers. Good thing Garfield, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Transformers have known where the fine line is and usually avoid crossing it.The theme song is the original and great, just like with Ninja Turtles. The animation is quite reminiscent to ones like Scooby Doo and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. I only saw four episodes of this, since I manage to get them as the bonus episodes on the '94 series videos/DVDs. The Origin of Spider-Man, King Pinned, The Triumph of Dr. Octopus, and Magic Malice were all done very well though. Quite interesting that one of the producers was Ralph Bakshi, who also did the animated Hobbit/Lord of the Rings movies (aside from the live action ones by Peter Jackson).Bottom Line: All in all, this is a series worth searching for. There's also a '67 series, which looks good put has quite a price on your wallet, but if you have the money, you shouldn't regret it!