It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That "Swing City"

In the school gym, Peter Parker shoots some hoops while pining over Sonya, a girl from his science class. This chick has so thoroughly been burned into Parker's brain that not even BMOC Rodney Rogers' razzing can bring ol' Pete down. He's even daydreaming during class about web swinging with Sonya in his arms.

After class, Sonya asks Pete if he would tutor her, which of course is an offer he can't refuse. As Spider-Man, he zips over the city, unable to get this hot date out of his skull.

Sweaters for the classroom...

Jacket and tie for hallway conversation.

Meanwhile, across town, a shady character makes his way to the city's Industrial Reactor, a building with a glowing green dome on top of it. I'm guessing the E.P.A. looked the other way on this one.. This mysterious ne’er-do-well is none other than the Master Technician, a shiny gloved, white haired madman with an evil little giggle. The M.T. blathers on to himself about how energy is so powerful it can do anything, and he overrides the power system to seize control of the reactor.

With that skin tone and hair color, who can blame them?

After a few minutes of watching familiar animation of Spider-Man web slinging the reactor's dome begins to glow profusely, causing an effect that looks not unlike a sunrise at night. “Not tonight, not tonight!” Spidey exclaims, as he gets ready to do his thing. Suddenly there's an earthquake, which is represented on screen by falling buildings and billowing smoke. Spidey faces the fact that it's going to be a long night, as he sighs “So long Sonya”.

At least we know SOMEBODY can draw Spidey's hands correctly!

Working in more of Peter Parker's social life at school is a great direction for this series. I only wish the writers would have thought to include his classmates from the comics instead of the generic “Rodney” and “Sonya”.

Step 1: Cut a hole in the ball. Step 2: Stick your junk in that ball....

The Master Technician explains that loosening the bedrock, as it were, was only the first step in his plans. He makes a list of absurd demands, which includes permission to build his own reactor. Why do these terrorists always ask for things they know they won't get?

I've probably seen this episode a hundred times and never noticed before tht the animation cell doesn't match up with the background here.

Master T turns his anti-gravity rays ( ! ) on the city, raising the island of Manhattan into the air! There's a cool visual here of Spider-Man looking over the jagged edge, really giving you the feeling that a chunk of the city has been lifted up and is now hovering above the rest of the world.

Top o' the world, ma!

There's a nifty web transition to the next scene of Spider-Man in a phone booth, breaking the news to his study-buddy that he has to cancel their tutoring session. A skeptical Sonya suspects another girl. Oh, come on! The city is floating up into the sky, being held for ransom by some nutjob, and all this girl can think of is acing the big test tomorrow?

Cool transition effect, never to be seen again.

Meanwhile, ol’ Web head has bigger problems at hand. Expecting Spider-Man to attack from below, the Master Technician is one step ahead of our hero. Deducing that Spidey got his spider-powers from radioactivity, the Technician rationalizes that it could also be used to take away the Wall Crawler's extra abilities.

It's the Honeycomb Hideout!

Underneath the floating city, Spider-Man web-swings his way toward the reactor, unaware of the danger that awaits him. “Just a few more long swings” he says, as if he feels our pain of having to watch this animation over and over again.

Familiar looking background image. Note the piece of tape in the middle of the screen holding it together.

When the Web Head finally arrives, the Master Technician is ready for him. Applying his “Anti-Radiation” ( Patent pending ), he attempts to negate our hero's spider abilities. Fortunately for New York, Spidey is made of sterner stuff, and resists the anti-radiation's effects, mustering the strength to kick the Master Technician's ass!

I get a kick out of this episode!

M.T. whips out his official Buck Rogers ray gun, and fires, but Spidey learned a thing or two from his confrontation with Kingpin last episode, and ducks, allowing the blast to strike the instrument panel behind him. Ol’ Webby should remember this trick. I think it might come in handy like, a dozen more times in the future.

With the controls damaged, Manhattan falls like a lead brick. Spider-Man ties up the Technician, and tries his damnedest to pull the lever to lower the island back into its original spot. He succeeds, and I guess the sewer and gas mains all line up perfectly, with no need whatsoever to repair the streets or damaged buildings.

That's what I call moving up in the world!

Something that always bugged me about this episode, besides everything else about it, is the fact that the Master Technician clearly saps our hero’s spider-powers with his anti-radiation, but nothing is mentioned about how Spidey got his groove back. Did he negate the effects by sheer force of will? By restoring the city, did he just automatically get his powers back? It’s not clearly explained, unless I totally missed something.

Wasn't there a spider in this picture before?

Spidey returns to the phone booth to hopefully salvage what's left of his night with Sonya, but she decided not to wait on Mr. Parker. Instead, Pete's rival, Rodney came over to keep her company, “He really saved me!” Understandably, our hero is frustrated, “Easy Spidey” he says while clearly still on the phone. Didn't Sonya wonder who Peter was talking to? Maybe she thought “Spidey” was the other girl she suspected of stealing her tutor away. These teenagers and their cutesy nicknames for each other..

Nice "ABC TV" logo on the side of the truck.

I'm not even sure where to begin on this one, folks. If there really was a nuclear reactor that powerful in the middle of the city, shouldn't it be heavier guarded? Or have some kind of security system that prevents someone like, oh I don't know, let's say a green-skinned freak, to just waltz in off the street and take control of the thing? And the “Master” Technician's plan wasn't all that bright either. We know the reactor was on the island when it lifted up into the sky, because Spider-Man swung underneath the thing to get at the Technician. I guess the moron didn't realize that if by chance his demands weren't met, and he was forced to make good on his threats and drop the city, that the reactor, with himself inside would be dropping with it. Nice plan, genius.

Give him a goatee and he'd be like an evil Colonel Sanders.

The Master Technician's scheme was fairly idiotic, but not so much so that a similar looking villain ( via re-used animation ) wouldn’t try the same thing again in another episode.

In the third season episode, “Up From Nowhere”, the Master Technician is replaced with Dr. Atlantean. Not a joke. They added some scales, pointy ears and a red Mohawk to Master T. and voila, an entirely different character! The plots of the two episodes are pretty much the same, only instead of lifting Manhattan into the air, in “Nowhere”, our villain projects a force field dome over the island and lowers it into the river.

Remember this image, gang. We'll be seeing it again.

Atlantean’s submarine looks like the dome atop the nuclear reactor from “Swing City”, the teacher and classroom scene is completely re-used, as well as the episode’s conclusion.

Observe, students, how we add a fin and pointy ears to make an entirely new villain!

It’s not bad enough that they recycled an entire episode, ( Not the first time they’ve done that ), but they did it again in “Specialists And Slaves”. This time it’s a pseudo-sequel, and the Master Technician has returned, only he must’ve changed his handle to the “Radiation Specialist”! That’s a little more accurate anyway.

Hello? It's me again, Margaret...

On a positive note, lots of groovy music in this episode, most of which we’ve already heard before. But there is a few new gems mixed in, including “Men Of Action” by David Lindup.

Hopefully this Link will take you to a YouTube video of "Men Of Action"

There are certainly much better episodes from Seasons One and Two, but this one stands out to me as being quite memorable from when I watched this show back in the 70s. Most likely because I lumped it together with its “sequels” in my brain.

As memorable as “Swing City” is, I’m afraid I can’t say the same for the next episode…

NEXT: Skymaster and his “Criminals In The Clouds”