Spider-Man TV (1967) - Season 1, Episode 12 (Story 1)

Background

In this episode, we explore the classic invisible man theme. My guess is that they were going over budget and needed to cut costs a bit. Having an invisible enemy sounded like a great way to do that.

Story 'Spider-man Meets Dr. Noah Boddy'

Late one night Dr. Noah Boddy - an invisible man - sneaks into Jonah's office at the Daily Bugle. He leaves a signed note stating that if Jonah wants to get the biggest scoop of the year, he should meet him at the Marc Renee Art Gallery at midnight. [I love it when villains take the time out of their busy schedule to write a letter to their intended target. Hand-written letters - because they care.] Jonah of course won't pass up this opportunity.

Jonah arrives at the appointed hour. Using his special abilities, he is able to frame Jonah for stealing the painting "Leaves of Glass" [Valued at $100,000 in 1967 dollars. Now it's around $652,000.] The next day Peter comes by the police station with Jonah's bail money. A grateful sergeant accepts it and releases him as he's causing more trouble than any of the other prisoners.

Jameson then prints a challenge to Spider-Man - whom he blames for his incarceration - to meet him anywhere and settle their differences. Boddy is furious that Jonah blames Spider-Man for his actions. he wanted to be the one to humiliate Jameson for ridiculing his theories of invisibility [that were true apparently].

Boddy then calls Jameson at the Bugle pretending to be Spider-Man. He agrees to publicly apologize and suggests that they meet at Stephanie's Jewelry at 10PM. [Uhm, Jonah, are you really this stupid? Why not meet him at Burger King on 52nd street at 2PM]. Peter overhears the conversation and plans to be there as well.

At 10PM Jonah arrives at the jewelry store. Spider-Man appears trying to warn him he's being set up, but Jonah refuses to listen. At 10:01 PM the police arrive and find a pearl necklace in Jonah's coat pocket and place him under arrest. Once again Peter has to bail out his boss [I wonder how he was able to do this not once but twice. Does Jonah have a petty cash/bail money fund that he could use for this? Peter's too broke to do this with his own money, plus good luck getting repaid from Jonah.]

The next day Jonah receives a phone call about a problem in the press room. When he goes to investigate, he finds himself locked in the room with Noah Boddy. Boddy torments him by throwing random objects at him. Jonah's screams alert Peter to his location.

He changes to Spider-Man and breaks into the press room. When Boddy tries to leave, he dumps a barrel of printers ink on the ground near the door. When Boddy walks through this, he begins leaving footprints that Spider-Man can easily follow.

The tracks lead outside to a waiting car. As Boddy drives away, Spider-Man jumps on top of the car and rides along with him. Once they reach the docks, Boddy tries to kill Spider-Man by driving the car off the pier. This proves to be an empty threat as both jump out before the car before it reaches the water.

Spider-Man follows the clear trail of footprints to warehouse #7 where Boddy has established his secret laboratory. When his treatment begins to wear off, Boddy activates the machine to ensure he remains invisible. Spider-Man appears and takes a picture of him in mid-transformation.

Boddy is enraged and begins throwing his lab equipment at Spider-Man [This seems to be a recurring theme. Do all upstart invisi-people throw things? You never see the Invisible Woman do that.] Spider-Man uses this to triangulate is position and cover him in a web-net. He then webs him up for the police.

General Comments

Relatively serious and straightforward but not without some points that take away from the story.

It boggles my mind why they would allow Jonah to meet a complete stranger late at night in an art exhibit. Or have him believe that someone on the phone is actually Spider-Man agreeing to meet him a jewelry store. Both times Jonah fell for this and was arrested on several unspecified charges. However it would be safe to assume "breaking and entering" and "burglary". Both times Peter had to post the bail.

I think they could have done something simpler to frame Jonah. Obviously Boddy can get into any place he wants. Why not just have him steal something and place it in Jonah's office and rat him out to the police? That would be much more believable (and easier to animate I'm thinking).

Overall Rating

1.5 webs. Somewhat entertaining but definitely formulaic. Jonah's involvement makes sense, but he was portrayed as either naive or desperate. He was too busy chasing a "scoop" that he set aside his personal safety.