Marvelous Animation Tour - Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981)

Perhaps the best remembered Marvel animated series of the 1980's was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends which ran from 1981 until 1983.


Over 24 episodes, the series provided a showcase not only for Spider-Man and his villains, but for heroes and villains of the Marvel universe alike, in particular the X-Men.

Feeling a need to counter DC's Super Friends, Marvel banded together a trio of heroes dubbed the "Spider-Friends" including the Web-Head, ice sliding X-Man Iceman, and original creation Angelica Jones AKA Firestar (also a former X-Man). Creators had initially wanted to use the Human Torch, but due to licensing issues, the fire powered heroine and Mary Jane look-a-like was conceived.

* The Marvel Super Heroes (1966) * Spider-Man (1967) * Fantastic Four (1967) * The Fantastic Four (1978) * Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979) * Spider-Woman (1979) * Spider-Man (1981) * Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) *

Spotlight on Starro

Starro "the Conqueror," given the distinction of being the first foe faced by The Justice League, appeared in 1960's Brave and the Bold #28.

Starro made his first semi-official appearance on the Superman Aquaman show serving more as a vehicle for Captain Cuda than an outright villain.

Starro would not appear on screen for another 30 years when he cameoed as just another exotic creature in Superman's Fortress of Solitude in Superman: The Animated Series' The Main Man.

Fittingly, Starro would return in Batman Beyond's The Call, becoming the animated Justice League's first depicted adversary.

Turns out, the creature shown only briefly in the Superman animated series was hatching a plan for domination and eventually got out of his cage taking control of Superman. He then asexually replicated, as all starfish do, and tried to take over the world. Batman stopped him.

Starro made his next cameo appearance in the epilogue of 2008's Justice League: The New Frontier in a clear homage to the original comic cover.

Starro made yet another homage in a flashback sequence in 2010's Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Most recently, Starro has made another bid for world domination as the big bad in Batman: The Brave and the Bold's second season. Teasers in Revenge of the Reach!, Clash of the Metal Men!, and The Power of Shazam! each depicted phases of the Starro invasion which will culminate in an all out battle in The Seige of Starro! set to debut on September 17th.

Starro looks to start of small and plentiful as in Batman Beyond before become a massive conqueror only to be presumably defeated at the hands of Batman's allies after offering up one more homage to the classic comic cover.