“Yesterday’s” Comic> Spidey Super Stories #6

Spidey’s feet must be freezing at this point.

Spidey Super Stories #6

Marvel Comics/The Electric Company (March, 1975)

For those of you new to the Spidey Super Stories, this was in coordination with Spider-Man’s appearances on the original The Electric Company, a skit show promoting reading skills. One segment featured Spider-Man against original foes while the comic featured an adaptation of those shorts surrounded by original Spider-Man tales featuring regular Marvel heroes and villains and the recurring Electric Company characters.

For example, the first tale features Iceman in “Webbing In A Winter Wonderland”. Or rather “Ice-Man”, as the comic keeps writing his name. There’s a ski competition but Bobby Drake keeps hogging the slopes, which seems like a jerk move for him. He gets the drop on Spidey until the web-slinger uses salt to melt his ice armor. Then the two must team up (to remind us Iceman is one of the good guys long before Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends) to save a cable car with a damaged cable. It’s a good story for the age group targeted.

“The Book-Worm Bully!” is the middle adaptation story, based on a script by Sara Compton. Wait, someone other than Tom Whedon wrote one of these? I couldn’t find the actual episode online like I have some of the others. So you’re missing the cheap puppet used for the bookworm, which is an actual book-eating worm. He snuck into some new books Valerie received and now she, Spidey, and EZ Reader have to chase him off. Not one of the better episodes, seeing as the bookworm doesn’t have the crazy factor of the other Electric Company villains.

“The Rage Of The Rhino” continues off the first story as Spidey has a cold from the ski slope adventure (noted at the end as JJ yells at him for not getting pictures of Spider-Man and Iceman). Spidey is starring one of the Director’s movies fighting the Rhino…aka J. Arthur Crank in disguise. Then the real Rhino knocks him out and takes over just as Spidey loses his voice and can’t warn them the Rhino is real (although in one panel the letterer forgot Spidey can’t talk and used a word balloon instead of a thought balloon). When Crank shows up the Director, Crank, and the crew trick Rhino into trapping himself in a giant glob that’s supposed to be part of her next picture. (Apparently she pops these movies out rather fast, even though movie making doesn’t work that way.) Fun little story but not much else.

I enjoy the Spidey Super Stories comics. They’re a different, sometimes fun take on Spider-Man and the Marvel characters mixed with the nostalgia of the original Electric Company. Pick one up if you can.