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There was some amazing, classic animation done for superhero cartoons done as far back as Max & Dave Fleisher's
Superman series of the early 1940s (echoes of which can be found in
Batman: The Animated Series). Those were done for the big screen; by the mid-1960s, superhero cartoons were being brought to television, and some of Marvel Comics' biggest heroes--Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk--were the stars. Unfortunately, television didn't have much in terms of cachet--or production values--at the time, and all four heroes suffer for it.
Spider-Man comes across the best of the four, though part of that might be because Spidey's geeky alter ego, Peter Parker, looks and sounds remarkably like Bill Gates. On the two episodes here--"The Kilowatt Kaper," a run in with Electro, and the self-explanatory "The Origin of Spider-Man"--the animation is minimal. It looks as if only a couple dozen pictures of the main characters were drawn; for the most part, this is a series of stationary illustrations with voiceovers and plenty of narration. --Randy Silver
