Spider-Man TV (1967) - Season 3, Episode 3 (Story 2)

Background

In case you were wondering, yes this idea is taken from the Brainwasher arc starting in Amazing Spider-Man #59 Perhaps taking ideas from Stan will once again save them?

Story 'The Big Brainwasher'

Kingpin embarks on another scheme to expand his power bases. He has one of his underlings - Winkler [No not the man that will be Fonzi] - create a brainwashing process that will put anyone completely under his control. This occurs in two parts: the first is a camera that places them in a mild trance. This temporarily places them in a suggestible state. They are then escorted back to the larger machine to go through the full process.

They have invited all the city officials to the opening of a new club "Gloom Room A Go-Go" (which Kingpin owns). They'll hire a girl to dance to take pictures with the special camera, completely unaware of the purpose. Other of Kingpin's associates will take over from there. The girl that they have hired to take pictures? None other than Mary Jane Watson.

The next day she tells Peter about her new job and invites him to come down. She enjoys watching him watch her dance. Peter says he'll be there. [Smartest thing he's said. Ever.] That night he watches MJ dance and also notices those in attendance including Captain Stacy, who is MJ's uncle in this series.

MJ takes the pictures as instructed and they soon go into the back room. This is observed by Peter who thinks something may be up. He changes to Spider-Man and soon finds the Kingpin behind this. After a brief fight, Kingpin escapes with Captain Stacy and Mary Jane.

Spider-Man follows them to their hideout where he is exposed to knockout gas. He wakes up chained to the wall in a room that's filling with water. He creates a web bubble to trap the remaining air around him until the room is drained. He then knocks out Winkler when he opens the door. He then makes his way to the Kingpin and knocks him out before he can kill Stacy and MJ.

General Comments

They finally officially used Mary Jane Watson in an episode after a series of random red-heads were used. When you see Peter with a red-head that's your knee-jerk reaction: Hey it's Mary J- ... no it's not.

The only thing that would have made this better would be the inclusion of Gwen as well to explain the presence of Captain Stacy (who looked nothing like he did before). The use of Stacy as MJ's uncle obviously diverges from the original series, but given the other questionable choices from season two and up, it's nothing significant.

Overall Rating

4 webs. This is the giant cup of Gatorade that I need to help me finish the reviews for this series. So nice and refreshing.