Iceman by John Romita circa 1979-1980

Firestar by xcub

1985 - Firestar Limited Series covers

1983 - Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends with the X-Men

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=803&lotNo=6219#Photo

1983 - Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends - The X-Men Adventure

A cell from the episode - The X-Men Adventure

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1095949&GSub=148536

I Have The Most Amazing Friends!

Grabbed from: http://daabcreative.deviantart.com/art/I-Have-The-Most-Amazing-Friends-Revised-282549516

UK Only - Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends Complete Collection on DVD

It looks like the complete series for Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends has been released in the UK on DVD (Region 2; not playable on North American DVD players).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ABK7HA0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00ABK7HA0&linkCode=as2&tag=lyinginthegut-21

Here are some details:

"All three seasons of the animated TV series in which Spider-Man forms an alliance with Iceman and Firestar. Known collectively as 'The Spider Friends', the super-trio set out to fight crime in New York City. Along the way they do battle with Spidey's arch-enemies, while also meeting other heroes and villains from the Marvel comics world.

"Episodes comprise:

• 'The Triumph of the Green Goblin'
• 'The Crime of All Centuries'
• 'The Fantastic Mr Frump'
•  'Sunfire'
•  'Swarm'
•  '7 Little Superheroes'
•  'Video Man' 
• 'The Prison Plot'
•  'Spidey Goes to Hollywood'
•  'The Vengeance of Loki'
•  'Knights and Demons'
•  'Pawns of the Kingpin'
•  'The Quest for the Red Skull'
•  'The Origin of the Iceman'
•  'Along Came Spidey'
•  'A Firestar Is Born'
•  'Spider-Man: Unmasked'
•  'The Transylvanian Connection'
•  'The Education of a Superhero'
•  'Attack of the Arachnoid'
•  'Origin of the Spider-Friends'
•  'Spidey Meets the Girl from Tomorrow'
•  'The X-Men Adventure'
• 'Mission: Save The Guardstar'."

According to wikipedia, this release "did not include any of the Stan Lee narrations from the first or second season, only some of the Stan Lee narrations were in the third season."

And lastly, according to http://www.spider-friends.com/, "The previous rights problems with the show [being put out in North America on DVD] were between Disney and Marvel.  Since Disney has now purchased Marvel one would assume that Disney can release the show whenever they feel like it. "

There's also a petition asking Disney to get their act together, so if you loved this show in the 1980s, sign it here: http://www.petitiononline.com/SPMAFDVD/petition.html

1987 - Marvel Heroes pose with the New York Mets

http://www.heroesinmycloset.com/2010/04/wedding-photo.html

1981 - Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (revisited)

Wizard Magazine #234 featured some interviews with the cast and creative teams and wanted to share some highlights.

- The show was originally called “The Spider-Friends”, but of course that was a little too close to The Super-Friends. As mentioned in my previous article, the show was originally going to feature the Human Torch. Although, no reasons were given for why the change to Firestar.

- Artist Rich Hoberg shared my rather low opinion of Ms. Lion: “Having Ms. Lion on the show killed me. I hated her, but I know some people like her. She was extraneous comic relief, when comic relief should be built into the characters.

- Rich Hoberg based his Firestorm/Angelica Jones on John Romita’s Mary Jane Watson. And that caused me to do a bit more digging and turned up this wonderful pre-production art. Apparently, there were many names floating around for Firestar, like Heatwave, Starblaze, and Firefly.

 Also found these great looking scans of preliminary cells.

And last, but not least, discovered that there were a few newspaper insert comics featuring Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.

1981 - Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends

During the fall of 1981, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends splashed onto NBC’s Saturday morning cartoon scene. Being a huge fan of the 1967 Spider-Man series, this show blew me away. While the 1967 explored Spider-Man and his rogues gallery, this new series broadened Spider-Man’s universe to include several other Marvel heroes, like Hulk, Captain America, and the X-Men. The theme song, while not as catchy and classic as “Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man”, was also wonderful and still imparts that nostalgia every time I heard it.

This series was also more about Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, Firestar and Iceman. Firestar made her debut in this TV series and would make her first in-continuity appearance in Uncanny X-Men #193 (May 1985) which was followed up by the Firestar four issue miniseries.

Interestingly, the cartoon was originally to have included the Human Torch rather than Firestar. However, the same legal issues that dogged Marvel with the Fantastic Four cartoon (and replacing the Torch with Herbie) forced the change to Firestar.

The voice actor for Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Dan Gilvezan also provided the voice of the Autobots Bumblebee and Hot Spot and the Decepticon Snapdragon in the original 1984 Transformers cartoon. Not to mention that Dan guest starred live on many 1980s TV shows like Moonlighting, Newhart, ALF, and recently on Boston Legal.

The only thing that I despised was Ms. Lion. I don’t mind animal, I have a cat. What was it with Saturday morning cartoons and those cute sidekick, cutesy characters, like Scrappy Dappy Do (from Scoopy Dooby Doo) and Godzuki (from Godzilla)?


Little known facts:

- Dick Tufeld narrated Season 1 while Stan Lee did Season 2 and 3; during the re-runs of Season 1, Stan Lee narration was dubbed over Tufeld.

- Wolverine spoke with an Australian accent.

- Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends #1 (December 1981), a one-shot that adapted the pilot episode, "The Triumph of the Green Goblin". This issue was reprinted in 1989 as Marvel Action Universe #1.

- Spider-Man Family: Amazing Friends #1 was put out in the late summer of 2006 to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary.

Here’s breakdown of the episodes by season. If you want a synopsis of each issue, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spider-Man_and_His_Amazing_Friends_episodes



Season #1

#1 “The Triumph of the Green Goblin"
#2 "The Crime of All Centuries"
#3 "The Fantastic Mr. Frump"
#4 "Sunfire"
#5 “Swarm”
#6 "7 Little Superheroes"
#7 "Videoman"
#8 "The Prison Plot"
#9 "Spidey Goes Hollywood"
#10 "The Vengeance of Loki!"
#11 "Knights and Demons"
#12 "Pawns of the Kingpin"
#13 "The Quest of the Red Skull"




Season #2

#14 "The Origin of The Iceman"
#15 "Along Came Spidey"
#16 "A Fire-Star Is Born"








Season #3

#17 "Spider-Man Unmasked!"
#18 "The Bride of Dracula!"
#19 "The Education of a Superhero"
#20 "Attack of the Arachnoid"
#21 "The Origin of the Spider-Friends"
#22 "Spidey Meets the Girl From Tomorrow"
#23 "The X-Men Adventure"
#24 "Mission: Save the GuardStar"

For some reason, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends - The Complete Seasons 1-3 box set was released only in the UK with no North American release in plan. Guess there must have been a lot of UK Spidey fans? I’d love to pick up that DVD set as well as the Incredible Hulk series that launched soon after.

For more information about the show, including taking a moment to sign their online petition to get the show on DVD here in North America, check out: http://www.spider-friends.com/index.html

So despite the campy 80s dialog, despite the continuity problems, and despite Ms Lion, this show will always hold a special place in my heart. I’m getting a kick out of watching these episodes with my four-year-old daughter!