“SPIDER-MAN BATTLES THE MOLE MEN” or “Deja-Vu All Over Again”

Tell me if this sounds familiar..Banks in New York are disapperaring, so Peter Parker goes to a scientist to discover that strange radio signals are transmitting from somewhere underground. Pete changes into Spider-Man and discovers that a race of Mole Men is lowering the city’s banks, along with their occupants and vaults full of money, into their world. Spider-Man defeats the Mole soldiers, and makes them promise to return the banks and people. The End.

This title should have read,"Spiderman Battles The Molemen AGAIN!"

Although the plot of this episode is almost an exact remake of “Menace From The Bottom Of The World”, this is essentially a sequel. Spidey makes reference to the events of the original episode, although he says nothing about the feeling of deja-vu he must be experiencing.

Just so ya’ know, I’m aware I’ve skipped an episode. We’ll get to “Diamond Dust” real soon, trust me.

Recycling helps the environment.

This time we skip over Jameson sending Peter Parker on assignment, and get right to Spider-Man witnessing a disappearing building. He again pays a visit to Dr. Orloff ( Not mentioned by name here, for some reason ), recycles the whole “spider hearing” bit, and hears a voice hinting that they’ve set a trap for Spider-Man. Pete jets out of the lab, slams the door, and poor Dr. Orloff stands there with a look on his face like “What the hell happened?”

“I may be a kook, Herr Parker, but at least I know how to properly close a door!”

The Wall Crawler heads back to the hole when he spots a blimp going by & figures he can use it to his advantage. He hitches a ride, and before long notices that he’s heading right for a spire on top of a building. He attempts to jump to safety, only his web parachchute snags on the spire, and he clumsily gets caught in his own web.

Guys, has this ever happened to you?

The Mole scientist ( I shit you not ) activates the “descending mechanism” and the building is pulled underground, with Spider-Man along for the ride. So the Mole Men just happen to have a machine under the same building that Spidey accidentally got himself stuck to? Absurd.

You can tell he’s a scientist because he has a lab coat on.

Let’s get this straight. The Mole Men’s plan to trap Spidey was to entice him with a blimp, run him past a building with a big pole on top of it, and hope that he’s dumb enough to try and parachute down and get caught up on the very same building they’ve rigged with a descending mechanism. That’s an awful lot of variables that need to be in place for this plan to work.

Aha! Spider-Man hitched a ride on a random blimp that just happened to be passing by... Just as we planned!

Back to our story… Suddenly Spidey is free and figures he has some exploring to do, via stock footage. Most of the background paintings are re-used from “Menace From The Bottom Of The World”, but there also seems to be a few new ones peppered in. Or, at least they seem to be new. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, this series borrows from another show, “Rocket Robin Hood”, for instance, the giant grasshopper that attacks our hero. So it makes sense that other elements could be re-used from that show as well.

Original grasshopper design...

...changes to this one a second later...

..which is "borrowed" from "Phantom From The Depths Of Time", which in turn borrowed from Rocket Robin Hood.
Got all that?

As well as the grasshopper, the Wall Crawler also encounters an angry group of little green elves ( Not sure if these guys are new, or “borrowed” from RRH. Spidey tries to outrun them, only to run into the big stone ape-guy from the original episode ( See? I told you it was ironic that Spidey said he never wanted to see this guy again!). The Web Slinger guesses the elves are the natural enemy of the stone mole and leaves the quarreling locals behind to iron out their differences.

Don’t mess with the hollow tree, man!

Our hero makes his way to the big red door and gets knocked out by one of the Mole guards. It’s bad enough the writers completely forget about his spider sense, but Spidey himself should know better! He’s been to this stupid city before!

Not Mugs Riley, but an incredible simulation!

The Web Head wakes up & finds himself bound. Hammond, comic caption writer extraordinaire, and the rest of the people from inside the building are now there. What a coincidence. At least the bank patrons didn't let being kidnapped by an underground race of blue monkeys discourage them from doing business at this particular savings and loan, since it's the EXACT SAME customers from the earlier episode.

Are you sure you don't need some help with those comic captions, kid?

The Mole leader steps out, and it’s obviously the same guy from “Menace”. The fact that they’re trying to pass him off as an entirely different dude is just ridiculous.

The molemen were never a big fan of the Unknown Comic.

Hammond, sounding a lot more wimpy in this episode, gets all uppity again, and Spidey dismisses it by saying “Good old Hammond”, like it makes sense that the reporter would be there.

“Get your stinking paws offa me, you damn dirty ape, er.. I mean, MOLE!”

Spidey webs a battle axe that just happens to be laying around and cuts himself free. The Mole notices and orders his minions “Catch him! Catch him, you fools!”, exactly like he did in “Menace”, since they just re-used the same audio.

Looks like the paint was still a little wet on the animation cell.

We’re treated to a lot of familiar footage of Spidey taking on the Mole guards, before he reaches the Mole & coerces him to have his men release the surface people. Again.

“I would’ve gotten away with it, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and that dog!”

The Mole Men agree that all descending mechanisms will be destroyed and the Windslow building will be returned to the surface. They actually identified the building by name! It’s bad enough the Mole people used the same plan for ruling the surface, but they took the same building and the same occupants! You and I know the real reason why, but the whole thing is ridiculous.

After that first run-in with molemen, you'd think these people would've changed banks!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Spidey stupidly stands there and waves goodbye to the building while the Mole frees himself essentially the same way Spidey did earlier. The Mole then pulls out a familiar looking ray gun, Spidey ducks, and… eh, you know the rest. Same background and everything.

Gun control is a little lax in Mole City.

With the main generator blown, Mole City starts to come tumbling down. Spidey makes it out in the nick of time and collapses into a park bench, exhausted. He’s startled for a second by the sight of the Mole Leader, until he realizes he’s seeing a costume hanging in a shop window across the street. Right.

Mugs Riley shops here.

These Mole Men aren't too bright. Not only do they go back on their word ( Don't bother us and we won't bother you ), but they try the same scheme, and steal the same bank, AND use the same tactics ( The ones that didn't work the FIRST time! ) to try and stop Spider-Man.

The "Showdown/Duck" scene from "Mole Men"...

Same scene from "Swing City"...

And the same scene again from "Criminals In The Clouds"!

What balls Ralph Bakshi's crew had to try and pass off this episode, with a few minor changes, as a completely new one. They didn't even try and space it out from the original that aired two weeks before THIS one!

NEXT: More Monkey Business ( No, it’s not the Mole Men again! )

Now For Something Completely The Same

( Note: I had originally planned on doing "Diamond Dust" next, and the two Mole episodes after that, but I changed my mind. Either way, I'm reviewing the episodes out of order, so there ya' go. )

Here’s another one of those episodes, like “Swing City” that has a “sequel” that’s just a rehash of the original episode. The difference here, being, that Part 2 comes only two episodes later.

“Menace From The Bottom Of The World” starts at the Daily Bugle with Jameson sending Peter Parker to cover a story about a scientist who’s been receiving strange radio signals. Hammond, an arrogant reporter, also gets an assignment,  to investigate the disappearance of a bank. Pete’s just a little bit jealous of Hammond, who seems to get all the big stories. Which, I guess is appropriate, considering that Pete is a photographer anyway, and not a reporter.

See, there's something you should know about Hammond. He's an ass.

The animators pad out the episode a little bit more as Spidey swings to the other side of town. On his way, Web Head passes by the window of Harry and Harriot, making their second appearance after first showing up in “Kingpinned”. Harry still can’t convince his shrew of a wife that he’s seen a man swinging by on a long rope or somethin’.

Harriet is apparently involved in the grafting of cartoon birds heads to the bodies of realistic ones.

Peter shows up at the lab where he’s supposed to interview Dr. Orloff, the man who claims to be picking up the weird signals. The good Doctor believes the transmissions could be coming from underground. Hmmm… Before even hearing the message, Mr. Parker declares to himself that Orloff is “A real kook.”. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems out of character for Peter Parker to dismiss the claims of any scientist, especially when he hasn’t even seen his work yet. Orloff plays a recording of the signals for Herr Parker, who uses his “spider-hearing” ( There it is again ) to decipher part of the message. Pete hears someone, or something making plans to “take the Windsor Street Bank” at high noon, and he figures these must be the same cats that took the other bank earlier. Now who’s the kook?

At least the animators are consistant in their inconsistancy.

Pete rudely rushes out of Orloff’s office, slamming the door violently behind him. He changes into Spidey, and makes his way to the location of the bank, showing up just in time to watch it disappear right before his eyes! Great leaping grasshoppers!

Now you see it…Now it’s gone!

Anytime Spider-Man travels anywhere in these later episodes, whether it’s from one side of the street to the other, or even across a room, you can be sure there will be a minute or two of unnecessary web-swinging. Here, Spider-Man has already stated the bank was straight ahead, and when he went to get closer, the action makes it look like he at least swung two or three city blocks to get there. Oh, come on! He couldn’t have been THAT far away from it!

Spider-Man investigates the big gaping hole ( Insert Paris Hilton joke here ).
This “comic caption” written by Hammond.

Spidey scopes out the situation, just as a curious crowd starts to gather. Not wanting to get blamed for the vanishing bank, Spider-Man speeds past the mob of Police and onlookers, and heads down the chasm left by the disappearing building.

“I feel like somebody in Jules Verne!”

The Web Slinger swings underground, and finds the missing bank, at the bottom of a long shaft. It seems that someone has tunneled underneath it and lowered it with some sort of machine.

Brings a whole new meaning to “Lower your interest rate”!  

As our hero sets out to explore this underground cavern, he runs into some other- worldly obstacles along the way. First, a hungry-looking bird with googly eyes breaks away from the flock to terrorize our hero. Next, a giant stone, axe-wielding ape-looking man comes out of nowhere to threaten the Wall Crawler. After eluding him, Spidey says “There’s someone I never want to see again!”. How ironic he should say that.

As opposed to a NATURAL bird cage?

So far, whenever Spidey’s shot his webbing, it’s been the usual sound effect that accompanies it. All of a sudden the sound is a lot higher pitched than it normally is. All other sounds seem normal. Is this supposed to simulate an echo, or a muffled sound from being below the Earth's surface? Whatever the reason, it's weird. And it continues throughout the rest of the episode.

“Mind if I AXE you a question?”

The Wall-Crawler makes his way to a large structure guarded by blue ape-like beings. He takes out the guards with well-placed karate chops, and finds the people that were inside the bank are still alive, but are being held against their will by these Subteraneans, or Mole People, if you will. Their Leader has declared war on the surface dwellers and announces that he intends to enslave the bank hostages. Daily Bugle reporter, Hammond is among the group and demands to be set free, but the Mole Leader calls him a “Wise guy!” and asks “Who’s going to stop me?”. As if you didn’t already know the answer to THAT question!

Mole People? They look more like Apes. As in “Planet Of The..”

The furry warriors try their damnedest to take Spidey out, but of course he's much too smart for them, and easily avoids their attempts, causing them to clumsily run into each other. The Web Head manages to seize the head Mole Man, who, so far, has only coached his troops from the sidelines, yelling “Stop him, you fools!” How helpful.

Boy? He’s all MAN, baby!

Spider-Man unmasks the Leader and reveals him to be green-skinned Mugs Riley, a bank robber. Somehow, after breaking out of prison, Mugs must’ve stumbled upon the hidden world of the Subteraneans and tricked them into making him their leader. He then convinced them to assist him in his plan to rob the surface world of its banks.

Green skin = Bad Guy. Remember that.

Once it sinks in that the Mole People have been deceived, they revolt, knocking the gun from Mugs’ hand and causing him to beg for mercy. Spider-Man promises to make Riley pay for his crimes, and the Mole People swear to return the submerged banks and their occupants to the surface, and also to stay out of our hair, so to speak.

“Let me know if you need me to help you do any Mole stuff, eh friend?”

Hammond and a Mole Man shake hands, Spider-Man swings off into the sunset, and everyone lives happily ever after. Or DO they…?

If some of the backgrounds in these episodes seem out of place for a Spider-Man cartoon, it might be because they had previously been used in a different show. I have a sneaky suspicion a lot of the backgrounds came from “Rocket Robin Hood”. Man, I really need to watch that show!

NEXT: More Mole Men Malarkey

Cloudy With A Chance Of Criminals

The title of this episode has nothing to do with internet file storage…

Continuing his losing streak with the ladies from the last episode, Peter Parker longs to ask fellow classmate Susan to the “Harvest Hop”. Unfortunately, Pete has a rival in Roy Robinson, star football player and Mr. Big with all the gals. To make matters worse, Roy's father owns Robertson Chemical Labs. Pete thinks that he'll never be able to compete with Roy's rugged good looks and groovy clothes, but if he uses his unique spider abilities, he could try out for the team.

Golly!

But, as Parker's luck would have it, the Coach doesn't have any vacancies on the team. I guess Pete will just have to take that water boy position. Hey, it worked for Adam Sandler!

Is that...? It is! It's a piece of tape sticking that cloud to the background painting!

Unbeknownst to our hero, that “blue clad criminal”, the Sky Master ( Who borrowed his uniform from DC Comics' Blackhawk ) wants to get his hands on the Invisibility Serum that Robinson Labs is preparing for the Government ( WHICH government? ). Sky Master's henchmen lower out of their zeppelin on flying propeller-equipped backpacks, and kidnap “miserable Earth dweller” Roy Robinson. Their plan: To force Roy's dad to give up the invisibility formula so that they might “Create a titanic fleet of flying cities” to use to attack those of us on the surface.

Skymaster’s men creep their way into the Robinson’s home to the tune of “Action Stations” from the KPM music library.

Have the writers of this show ever actually READ a Spider-Man comic book? At the time this show was aired, a situation similar to the Robinson's was taking place in the comics. Harry Osborn, Peter Parker's best friend, was the son of Norman Osborn, the president of Oscorp Industries. Sound familiar? Couldn't they have used these pre-existing characters instead of making up new ones for this series?

Continuing the trend of green-skinned villains that began in "Swing City".

Anyhow, at football practice, Roy hasn’t shown up yet, causing his father ( Who arrives with the cops in tow ), and the coach to have a hissy fit. When the coach asks, “You Robinson, the big chemical man?”, the Senior Robinson gets all defensive, “You see, Captain? I was right! My son has been kidnapped!”. Way to jump to conclusions there, pal.

There's that piece of tape again!

With Roy a no-show, it looks like Pete may get his big break after all. That is, until he overhears ( There's that spider-hearing again ) Roy's father discussing his son's kidnapping. Much to Pete's chagrin, he has a super hero duty to fulfill, so he changes to Spider-Man. 

Let's see Daredevil balance on ONE FOOT, like....THIS!

It's only been three episodes, and apparently Peter Parker has already forgotten what motivates him to be Spider-Man in the first place. The last time he put himself first, it got his Uncle Ben killed. Hmm..What was that lesson he learned just a few episodes ago? “With great power comes..something..eh, I forget.”

We all know how well that worked out for you the last time, don't we?

As the clock tower is striking, Spidey comments that the “big game” is in half an hour, and that Mr. Robinson is about to start broadcasting his secret formula. Wasn't that transmission supposed to take place at midnight? That's awful late for a high school football game to start, isn't it?

Gee whiz, if I could only make Susan's head explode with my mind... THEN she'll go out with me!

The Webbed Wonder rationalizes that the Sky Master must be somewhere in the clouds...

I don’t know, maybe…the SKY??

Ya' think?

What gave it away? The fact that his name is “SKYmaster”?

Spidey notices a strange looking cloud, and figures it's a perfect place to stash a dirigible. He hitches a ride on the blimp, and starts climbing up the web line. Just as the time for Mr. Robinson to broadcast the formula is nigh, Spider-Man shows up, and begins taking out Sky Master's thugs, “Release the boy, or I’ll start slinging fists and webs!”. Sky Master pulls out a ray gun and tries to blast the agile super hero.

Skymaster must shop at the same bad guy supply store as the Master Technician.

A stray bolt of energy from the gun hits the ship’s controls, and the blimp goes down in a blaze of glory. Aside from the recycled moves from just the last episode, the trashing of Skymaster’s flying headquarters is fairly well staged. There are flames everywhere, and the criminal crew really seem like they’re scared for their lives. And I swear we see Skymaster meeting his final fate somewhere in there...

Skymaster is served up extra-crispy style.

Spidey kicks the side door open and parachutes to safety, rescuing Roy Robinson in the process. Roy makes it back in time for the big game, but unfortunately, the loss of circulation from being tied up made his arms go numb. Always eager to help, Spider-Man webs the football and assists Roy in scoring the winning touchdown! The crowd must've been too busy watching the cheerleaders to see a strand of webbing pulling the ball.

Yay. Rah.

All in all, it's a happy ending for Roy Robinson, who gets to keep his star athlete status, and also gets a hug from sexy Susan. Peter Parker, on the other hand, is narrowly missed changing out of his Spider-Man costume by the Coach, who apparently hasn't heard of knocking first. The coach tells Pete his water boy career is all washed up, and the narrator reminds us that “Even the life of a famous super hero like Spider-Man isn’t all victory and fame…”. It says so right in the theme song. Haven’t you been  paying attention?

"And pelvises!"

"Weeee! Bondage is fun!!"

"Ayy! Whatsamatta you-a, Spider-Man-a! Why-a you pick-a on-a my-a brother Mario like-a that-a!"

Someone needs to tell the school board, it's time for some new uniforms.

Later, Roy will need Spider-Man's web to assist him in another way, if you catch my drift. 

NEXT: Another Sports Themed Episode