Spider-Woman 1979 Complete Series [DVD]

I recently purchased the Spider-Woman 1979 DVD and watched the whole series in two sittings. `Spider-Woman' only lasted for one season of 16 episodes and was the final show to be produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises before they were reincorporated as Marvel Productions in 1981. The show was loosely based on the Marvel Comics character and adapted to TV by Stan Lee and Marvel Productions as a more kid friendly effort. Being aimed at children the shows plots, scenario's and enemies featured are often pretty stupid but still hold considerable entertainment / interest for any avid Spider-Fan.

General musings-

In the two episodes in which he guest stars, - Spider-Man plays second fiddle to the series heroine and may as well have been called Spider-Wuss. In one scene during `Pyramids of Terror' Spider-Man is hanging from a ledge on what looks to be Big Ben in London seemingly helpless despite the fact that he can stick to walls!!!! (duh!!) while getting attacked by a flying pyramid manned by a mummy that is blasting Spidey with a mummy ray until Spider-Woman saves him. At the end of the other episode in which Spidey guests- `The Kongo Spider', after Spider-Woman saves him at the end of the episode he tells her something to the effect of- she might be as great as him one day. Sheesh!

When she is not fighting mummies in flying pyramids, Spider-Woman aka Jessica Drew runs Justice Magazine as the Editor located in what we can assume to be New York. The only two supporting characters we ever see are JM photographer- Jeff Hunt, and Jessica's nephew Billy Drew who also seems to work at JM despite being roughly 14 years old. You gotta feel sorry for Jeff, he's always asking Jessica out but is constantly interrupted by the brat Billy. Personally, I wouldn't put up with that. Expected plot holes aside, one thing that made me laugh is how easily Jessica Drew and her two co stars are able to use the company copter to get from the east coast of USA to... say... Egypt or London on any given day after deciding on the spot!

The second disk ended up being hard work to digest in one sitting which I just about managed. It seemed as the episodes progressed the plots became increasingly idiotic. In particular `Return of the Spider-Queen', which I am sure had I watched as a stand alone episode I would have found most amusing, was rather tedious as part of my Spider-Woman marathon. Check out the premise for this episode-

For some unknown reason Spider-Woman is at Loch Ness in Scotland one day, and as such able to rescue to two fishermen from the famous monster when their boat is attacked. Without the viewer seeing if she used the copter to get back home, Jessica arrives at Justice Magazine HQ the next day. In her office Billy displays a newspaper report that details Nessy being spotted in Scotland the day prior `and Spider-Woman saved a boat from the monster's creepy clutches'. Billy then asks- `we're going to Scotland and check it out aren't we Aunt Jessica?'. `You bet Billy' says Jessica, `A picture of that character would make a great cover for justice magazine'. Yeah, you might have wanted to think of that yesterday when you were there? ;). Next thing they hop back across the Atlantic in the JM copter to Lock Ness...

At Loch Ness the Monster drags the copter down to an underwater cave in which a secret race of Spider-people capture & then brainwash Spider-Woman into believing she is their lost queen who has returned to lead them into war against all humans using `the Dragon Tank' (The spider people's secret weapon of course) and eventual victory over the human race. Hahahahahah, Oh boy.

I thought it was interesting to note that the production values for this show seem to be halfway between Spider-Man '67 and Spider-Man 1981 in that the animation is relatively fluid and the characters are well rendered, but backgrounds and certain Spider-Woman movements are often reused. I had fond memories of this show as a child and while it was good to see again, it was not as good as I remember. More importantly I was mildly disappointed by the noticeable dust on the film print; - particularly in the later episodes. This aspect did make me wonder if this DVD was produced using the original animation cels or 2nd gen copies? Who knows....? Image quality aside it's good to finally see this series on DVD. I don't think it will ever get another release so snap it up while you can.

Great complete series box set of the 1979 De-Patie Freleng cartoon series of Spider-Woman.
Good music. Terrific art, great packaging. A must for any Marvel Super Hero fan. Spider-Man guest stars in two episodes "The Kongo Spider" and "Pyramids of Terror."

Spiderwoman finally on DVD Jessica Drew crawls her way on DVD as Spiderwoman.

Spiderman has had a monopoly on the 70's superhero DVD release this Spiderwoman is from the late 70's but here in the UK it was shown on TV in the 80's the stoires aren't as good as spidey's stories but the sixteen on this double disc set in the first season of two.

Spiderwoman powers are a little better than spidey's which are the ability to fly a quick change & a vemon blast.

There are two episodes with spidey joining spiderwoman. Spidey fans will find this enjoyable but not as much some the DVD relaeses of Spiderman

This set is a good price with Amazon Prime and for Marvel fans well worth it.

If you are a kid of the 80's you may remember it and like to see it again a good buy.