Spider-Man TV (1967) - Season 2, Episode 15

Background

I'm glad that Blotto finally got an episode dedicated to him. After years of being Popeye's archenemy its about time we learned something about the man behind the beard.

Wait a minute. Ohhhh "Blotto". I'm thinking "Bluto". Who's Blotto? Another series-only character!?! Crap.

Story 'Blotto'

The evil green-faced horror movie producer Clive has created Blotto, the living ink blot. He and his lackey Colin watch the footage of their newest creation. Clive developed this in retaliation for being mocked by his peers and claiming that his career was at an end. His literally brings Blotto to life through his "spirit scope" which takes the form of a cane. Blotto's power involve dissolving anything it comes into contact with. Clive then sets this loose on New York.

Elsewhere Peter is driving movie starlet Miss Babowal to a speaking engagement at the University [We'll assume Empire State]. He literally runs out of gas taking a "shortcut" causing the actress to become suspicious of his intentions. Before Peter can explain that he's not playing a game, Blotto appears and begins to devour the car, causing Babowal to pass out. Peter uses this opportunity to use his web-shooters to effect their escape from certain digestive death. Once on the roof, Peter comments about her being a heavyweight [Dude, c'mon. Hollywood starlets live on whiskey and toilet paper. She can't be that heavy.]

Once they are safety on the roof, the fire department and police show up to combat the destructive ink blot. Blotto continues to devour everything in its path. Spider-Man attempts to stop Blotto but soon finds himself surrounded by Blotto's ... substance. He escapes to the sewer, closely followed by Inky. Spider-Man makes his way to a control room and ponders his next move. Outside Blotto continues to devour all obstacles in his path and terrorize the populace. [This creature must be massive to send part of itself into the sewers and still have enough to dissolve the Brooklyn Bridge]

The mayor is in conference with a military adviser about the proper course of action. Clive hacks into their monitoring network to deliver his demand: surrender the city to him. Instead of that they call for an aerial assault. These efforts are derailed when they realize they can't attack it without endangering the city.

Spider-Man determines that Clive is responsible for this and that he's hiding at the power station even though he has no access to any broadcast of any kind. He soon defeats Clive and Colin and steals the "spirit scope" cane which he then uses against Blotto.

General Comments

I checked thoroughly and there is no way that Spider-Man could have learned about Clive and his location. They completely overlooked that part and forced me to watch the events leading up to it multiple times to conclusively prove that. For that point alone, I hate them.

The rest of the episode was a bad mix of cheesy melodrama with a few major plot holes. The resolution was not believable nor enjoyable. As the credits roll you feel that your punishment is finally at an end.

Overall Rating

1/2 web. This is a confusing mess that was - in my opinion - modeled after some cheesy horror movie someone thought would work as a Spider-Man cartoon. They were wrong.

The sequence in which Peter drove the starlet to the University was just random. It was just added in to bring him into the path of Blotto. The actress and the car were never heard from again after Spider-Man went into the sewers. To me this is just pointless.

The story concept is acceptable but they missed every opportunity to make it interesting. Their rapid and vague introduction of the villain combined with their penchant for reusing animation was done to the episode's detriment. Dissolving the same mailbox, car, and section of a bridge with the exact same background music made the episode repetitive and all but unwatchable.

I wish I could blot this out of my mind, but I'm sure it will remain for a while.