User blog:ARTaylor/35 Years of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

Today marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the premiere of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends with the episode "The Triumph of the Green Goblin". This marked the first time that a single Marvel character appeared on two separate animated series, as the series titled Spider-Man was currently airing. Amazing Friends, being made by Marvel Productions, constituted a loose sequel as it used animation from the solo series as flashbacks. Both series would be joined by the other loosely connected series The Incredible Hulk the following year.



The series featured the talents of Dan Gilvezan as Spider-Man, Kathy Garver as Firestar, and the legendary Frank Welker as Iceman. It also had Neil Ross play Wolverine and Green Goblin, who would go onto reprise Wolverine on "Pryde of the X-Men", complete with the return of the much derided Australian accent, and Green Goblin on the famous 1994 series Spider-Man. Other notable actors who appeared on the series were Peter Cullen, of Transformers fame, Michael Ansara, of Star Trek fame, and of course Stane Lee.



The series marked the creation of Firestar/Angelica Jones and Ms. Lion, both of whom would appear in the comics and other media. Firestar was an amalgam of Mary Jane Watson and Human Torch. Mary Jane made no appearances on the series so Angelica was given her general appearance while Human Torch's television rights were tied in up a series that never came to be, which was the same reason the character did not appear in the 1978 Fantastic Four series. Firestar since became a major character in the comics, briefly getting her own solo series, and appearing on The Super Hero Squad Show and Wolverine and the X-Men. While Ms. Lion has made no further appearances in live action or animation, the character did appear in the comics most notably in Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers where it was revealed Ms. Lion was actually male.



The series has maintained a certain level of popularity due to its silliness. It started it's own brief comic series while numerous others have made references to the show by having the three characters team up briefly. Gilvezan appeared as Spider-Man 2099 in the self-referential video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. It was also one of the animated shows that crossed over with the comics event Spider-Verse.