Pat Jankiewicz looks back on Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends (1981-1983) and talks to all of the voice artists and animators who worked on the popular animated show...

Dan Gilvezan, Kathy Garver and Frank Walker

In comics, The Amazing Spider-Man is the ultimate loner, but he swung into the go-go ‘80s by moving in with a couple of mutants. That was the premise for the cartoon Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, Marvel’s first big success in Hollywood, with their very own studio.

Essentially Marvel Productions’ answer to the long running Super Friends, featuring rival DC Comics ‘ flagship characters Superman, Batman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends was the first time Marvel characters like Wolverine, Professor X, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Sunfire, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Juggernaut, Shocker, Swarm, Kraven The Hunter and others were seen outside of comics.

In the pilot, Spidey meets mutants Firestar and Iceman, as they try to save Tony Stark from being kidnapped by The Beetle. They are unaware he’s Iron Man. The young trio work so well together, they form a team.

“Since Spidey has the most experience, (he) got us together and we’re all friends, how about The Spider-Friends,” Firestar suggests for a team name. Spidey and Iceman immediately approve, but a rival network did not. Says the show’s animator Rick Hoberg: “NBC wanted to call it Spider-Friends because they wanted the show to be like Super Friends, but Hanna Barbara and ABC were never gonna stand for that, so it became Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends That’s why they would say ‘Spider-Friends, go for it!’ every episode.”

The show’s set-up had students Peter Parker, Bobby Drake (Iceman) and striking redhead co-ed Angelica Jones (Firestar) room together and fight crime. Not that this was a raunchy Marvel Team-up. They were living with Peter’s Aunt May and Angelica’s nauseatingly cute dog, Ms. Lion! Spidey’s elderly aunt had no idea that her rec room transformed into a crime-fighting Spider-Lab!

That Spider-Lab, with expensive blinking computers rankled the show’s crew. “It always bothered me that three teenagers - who were usually broke - could outfit their room with all that hi-tech stuff,” complains Amazing Friends writer Donald F. Glut. “And they never even used it!”

Spidey and Iceman were already comics icons, while Angelica was created-for-the-cartoon super-heroine Firestar. She flies around in a mask and form-fitting yellow body stocking, firing microwave blasts from her hands. Long before Harley Quinn, Firestar proved so popular, she was added to comics in Uncanny X-Men #193. She also got her own miniseries, then became a member of both The Avengers and New Warriors.

Popular character actor Dan Gilvezan played science wiz Peter Parker and his wisecracking alter ego, Spidey, while actress Kathy Garver was Firestar, and voiceover king Frank Welker (best known as ‘Fred’ on Scooby-Doo) was Iceman.

“Oh, I was a rabid Spider-Man fan as a kid, I even had a Spider-Man poster hanging on my wall,” enthuses Dan Gilvezan. “Playing Spidey was a great honour to me. I remember being 12 or 13, riding my bicycle to the Rexall Drug Store to buy the latest Spider-Man comic books. To actually play him and say things like ‘My Spider Sense is tingling’ was unbelievable to me,” the actor grins. “I joke ‘I used to love Spider-Man and today I am one! I still dress in spandex from time to time and bound around the living room.”

GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

“When I won this role, It was a real thrill... I felt I had a responsibility to be true to this character who had meant so much to me. Hopefully, I did an adequate job.”

To play Spider-Man and shy Peter, Gilvezan feels you have to recognize the dichotomy. “There was always the dichotomy of Peter and Spider-