"Spider-Woman" (1979) TV series

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Creator:

Stan Lee

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

22 September 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Fantasy

Plot:

The adventures of a female superhero with spider-like abilities.

Plot Keywords:

Superhero | Marvel Comics | Beautiful Woman | Based On Comic | Superheroine

Cast

Joan Van Ark	...	Jessica Drew / ... (1 episode, 1979)
Bruce Miller	...	Jeff Hunt (1 episode, 1979)
Bryan Scott	...	Billy Drew (1 episode, 1979)
Lou Krugman	...	Police Chief (1 episode, 1979)
Larry Carroll	...	Detective Miller (1 episode, 1979)
John H. Mayer		(1 episode, 1979)
Vic Perrin		(1 episode, 1979)
Ilene Latter		(1 episode, 1979)
Tony Young		(1 episode, 1979)
Karen Machon		(1 episode, 1979)
John Milford		(1 episode, 1979)
Dick Tufeld	...	Narrator (1 episode, 1979)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE)

Quotes:

Announcer: And this is Jessica Drew, who was a child while visiting her father's laboratory, was bitten by a poisonous spider. Forced to try an untested spider serum, Dr. Drew not only saved his daughter's life, but unknowingly gave her incredible spider-like powers. Dedicated to fighting evil, while weaving her web of justice, it's Spider-Woman!

Nice Adventure Show for Kids

The Spider-Woman animated series (ABC) lasted from 1979 until 1980, with 13 episodes produced.

In the 1970's, Marvel Comics created a handful of female versions of some of Marvel's popular male characters (allegedly, just so no one else could lay claim to the names): Spider-Woman, the She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. Of those three, Spider-Woman quickly became a prominent marketing co-mascot (along with Spider-Man, the Hulk, and Captain America), appearing on various Marvel-branded licensed merchandise, and serving as their defacto representative for lady superheroes (rival DC Comics owned longtime icon Wonder Woman).

Marvel's first animation production house (in cooperation with the DePatie/Freling, firm, who pioneered the "Pink Panther" toons) developed this show.

The show alters the backstory for Jessica Drew, aka Spider-Woman. The comics had an arguably complicated origin story, which posited her as being born in the 1920's, struck by radiation poisoning, then placed in suspended animation where she slowly grew to adulthood over several decades (while periodically being injected with life-preserving drugs based on spider-proteins)..

The producers perhaps wisely jettisoned this origin, and simply state that a pre-teen Jessica was bitten by a spider when fooling around in her father's research laboratory. A hasty antidote is created, based on the spider's venom, which ends up giving Jessica her trademark powers. As an adult, Spider-Woman can crawl on walls, has super-strength, can mentally communicate with spiders, has a spider-sense that borders on true clairvoyance, can cast webbing from her fingertips, and can glide on air currents with her web-wings (the webcasting, spider-sense and spider-telepathy were not from the comics). Curiously, she transforms into her Spider-Woman costume simply by spinning around in place (and weaving a thin web around herself)-- this was seemingly takin directly from the "Wonder Woman" TV show.

The adult Jessica is now apparently a magazine publisher (Justice Magazine), though apparently she often serves as her own reporter, along with pilot/photographer Jeff by her side, as well as her nephew Billy (Billy's parents, including a presumed Drew sibling, are never seen).

The Kingpin and Dormammu are among the Marvel comics villains used here, though the portrayals are not exactly as the comics origins.

Spider-Man is a guest in two episodes-- though in both, Spider-Woman is clearly the main star, and viewers never see Spider-Man out of costume.

The animation was about par for the time (late 70's). Not pioneering, but not "Rocky & Bullwinkle" cheap, either.

Joan Van Ark ("Falcon Crest") did the voice of Jessica/Spider-Woman.

It would be great to have this series on DVD. Though Marvel owns the character, Disney acquired the video rights to virtually all of Marvel's pre-2000 animated TV shows. Around the time of the first Spider-Man movie's release, litigation started between Marvel and Disney. It has presumably stalled any future DVD explorations from Marvel's library.