Spiderman Versus Daredevil

Actually, this is less "Spiderman Versus Daredevil" than "Spiderman, With Daredevil Showing Up For A While", but that would be a hard title to sell...

Spiderman / Peter Parker (Christopher Daniel Barnes)
The Kingpin / Wilson Fisk (Roscoe Lee Browne)
Daredevil / Matt Murdock (Edward Albert)
Alistair Smythe (Maxwell Caulfield)
Aunt May (Linda Gary)
Mary Jane Watson (Sara Ballantine)

Year: 1997 (for the series)
Censorship Rating: G (for the Saturday morning cartoon violence)

The 90's version of animated "Spiderman" was a pretty good thing according to my memory. Spiderman was suitably agile, he fought recognisable villains and the storylines vaguely reflected those of the comics. Compared to the 60's version (and with the exception of the theme song - the 60's version is a classic while the 90's version is oddly fixated on Spiderman's blood) the 90's version finally made Spiderman look good on the small screen.

Thus, when I saw the "Spiderman Versus Daredevil" DVD on my local video store shelf, I knew I'd have to revisit a pre-teen favourite. Unfortunately I found it hadn't dated well (the cartoon, not me!) and many sections left me laughing at the TV. On to the review...

The episodes on the DVD form the back half of the "Sins of the Fathers" storyline. It opens with Peter Parker in court being sentenced to trial while his blind lawyer watches on. His narration leads us to see he is in a lot of trouble and that he is going to jail, perhaps for a crime he didn't commit [stop me if you've heard this one before]. On the way to jail however, Peter is rescued by a precision bombing run [!!] and attack squad that opens fire on the police. The police fire back. Neither side fire guns, but have coloured lasers instead [which are much safer, given the amount fired off by each side for no perceivable damage]. In the middle of this, Spiderman abducts Peter Parker and escapes on a helicopter. Peter is confused as we are as to the involvement of Spiderman since, well, that's Peter's other job.

Peter reminisces the backstory for us. Apparently he went to work for Richard Fisk (son of Wilson Fisk) who needed Peter's skills for his "new" company (called Fisktronics) that already had high-level access to ultra-technology military contracts [boy, those military tenders resolve quickly in this universe]. It pays enough for Peter to quit the Daily Bugle. Unsurprisingly, this new job gets Peter in trouble - the FBI / Police try to arrest him [and show a huge tendancy not announce who they are and to shoot first]. Peter manages to make it home but is arrested there (in front of Aunt May) [which must be what Peter wanted since this is where anyone looking for Peter would start] and it turns out his diagnostics job actually had him downloading military secrets. Peter is an alleged traitor!

In jail Peter meets his lawyer who turns out to be Matt Murdock. Someone is paying for him to defend Peter in his trial.

Cut back to Peter in the helicopter. It lands at a secret base and Richard Fisk reveals that is was him who set Peter up to deflect attention away from himself since he is the one stealing secrets. [Yes, because a well-organised attack by several high-tech craft on police officers is certainly going to make people think Peter is the only one involved and stop all investigations in the case.] Anyway, Spiderman is revealed to be the Chameleon, solving that mystery. Fisk the Younger then has Peter sealed in an airtight room to suffocate [this strikes me as more than a little cruel, especially since a bullet to the head is quicker and cleaner than choking to death. Still, that's why he's a supervillain and I'm doing a movie review.]

Fortunately for Peter, Daredevil shows up, shows off all his powers and rescues our hero. [I'd like to point out the poor representation of DD's radar - apparently he just sees things in red!] DD drops Peter off at Matt Murdock's pad. Matt Murdock then shows up and reveals his origin story - first the "going blind / death of his father" bit for Peter, then the "becoming Daredevil" bit for the audience. [One thing that my girlfriend and I kept laughing over was Matt Murdock's choice of Hugh Hefner-esque nightgown when talking to Peter. Blind or not, Matt should know better.]

Peter goes home, picks up his spare Spiderman outfit [you know, the one the police must have missed in executing the search warrant of his property] and head off to Fisktronics. He misses Aunt May falling sick at the stress of it all. [Guess that will become important later on.]

At Fisktronics, Spiderman starts to collect evidence that will save Peter [NB: when you aren't at your terminal you should probably log out or at least password protect the screen, especially if you are working for an EEE-vil organisation] but Daredevil shows up. It being the first time they have officially met, our costumed heroes fight for a bit until they are attacked by Fisktronic guards [who just talk and talk and talk, explaining the plot instead of just taking the easy shot]. A bomb goes off and the resulting explosions (which our heroes outrun for a bit) apparently bury our heroes in debris.

Next episode...

Fortunately for the narrative, Spiderman and Daredevil weren't crushed to death by the tons of concrete and metal that landed on them. [In fact, the number of times these guys have things fall on them yet emerge unscathed is quite incredible.] Spiderman manages to collect his evidence and Daredevil leads them both to safety. Outside, DD and Webhead chat for a bit about what's going on (oh, and Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin) before the police show up to open fire on our heroes with little regard for public safety. Of course, they shoot like Stormtroopers so our heroes slip away unhurt.

Two bit characters who are both cops engage in a bit of incredibly cliched dialogue. Their names don't matter, but let's call them Good Cop and Bad Cop since that's what they obviously are.

The Kingpin appears to be very quick to blame others for his problems, but hears that Aunt May is sick so plans to capture Peter at the hospital.

Lucky for the Kingpin, Peter just manages to catch the news his aunt is sick and decides to head off to the hospital. Matt Murdock advises against it, to which Peter replies that Matt never lost anyone important. This just makes Peter seem churlish and insensitive given that Matt told him about his dead father less than a day ago, but Matt takes it well and lets him go.

Spiderman arrives at the hospital just in time to hear Aunt Anna (Mary Jane's aunt) badmouthing Peter. Mary-Jane doesn't want to hear Peter spoken of in such a way and leaves. Hmm, perhaps there is something there, despite her being with Harry Osborn.

Cut to Matt Murdock giving Bad Cop the only copy of the evidence disk that exonerates Peter. In order to save the five minutes of paperwork he doesn't get a receipt to indicate that Bad Cop has the disk. [Way to go Matt - you're really earning your lawyer's fee with this one!]

Peter and MJ meet up, with MJ using a lame distraction to get Peter in to see Aunt May. Aunt May is happy to see Peter and goes to sleep. Aunt Anna then helps Peter to escape the hospital, but reveals herself as the Chameleon once outside. Both Peter and MJ are abducted by the Kingpin's goons and spirited away.

Bad Cop hops into a car with Richard Fisk while Good Cop observes from across the street. Good Cop then tails the bad guys [at one point appearing to flash her police lights, yet remain unseen, as some old footage is recycled to save production money].

Kingpin tells his gadgeteer Smythe his origin story so we call all understand why this story arc was called "Sins of the Fathers". It turns out Dad wasn't that helpful to Wilson when he was a kid and actually left his son to be arrested, but Fisk toughened up in jail and got his father back for the betrayal.

Peter Parker and MJ are locked in an airless room, this time with a window so the bad guys can watch them die [again, overly cruel in my opinion.] The cops bust in and both sides open fire, missing with every shot. Daredevil shows up [and note the recycled footage - I don't think the Fisk Mansion offers crates for people to sit on], saving Peter and MJ. Good Cop takes out Bad Cop. The Chameleon manages to escape via a helicopter. Our heroes hitch a ride to Kingpin's secret headquarters.

[Aside: Okay, I've held off this long, but have to say it now - the Kingpin has the worst minion uniforms of nearly any villain I've seen. Take my word for it.]

Daredevil and Kingpin square off and flashback to their childhood traumas at the same time. After a bit of a fight it looks like DD is done for, but Spiderman saves him. Kingpin manages to escape because Spiderman is out of web-fluid. Cut to Kingpin in the helicopter. Again our heroes hitch a ride and Spiderman webs up the window [...err... how? You were out of web-fluid one sentence ago!] forcing the Kingpin to gently land in a busy street. However, it turns out that the Kingpin is actually the Chameleon in disguise, but Spiderman gets the disk back meaning Peter is exonerated.

This bit also has the funniest dialogue spoken by Daredevil. Seeing a costumed vigilante say, "I believe in the Constitution and the law" is well worth the couple of bucks paid to rent this out.

Richard Fisk, the Chameleon and Bad Cop all go to jail. Richard doesn't rat out his father. Kingpin is angry with Smythe that the plan failed [it's probably more of Richard's fault, but Kingpin seems to enjoy yelling at Smythe] and wonders when Richard is going to exact his revenge the same way Kingpin did on his own father.

In order to explain away why Daredevil won't be heard from again in this Spiderman series, Daredevil tells Spiderman he is going to Washington - he obviously got voted into the Superhero Congress. And just so everything is back to normal, Peter Parker goes back to work for the Daily Bugle (who secretly paid for his legal representation - that J. Jonah Jamison really has a heart of gold!).

That's the end of the Spiderman Versus Daredevil bit. The other two episodes don't involve Daredevil at all. They also follow exactly the same formula - Spiderman faces a bad guy he can't beat on strength alone, Madame Web gives him a cryptic clue on how to beat that villain, Spiderman manages to beat the villain with some help from the obtuse advice. Given that I was only looking for Daredevil versus Spiderman action, it isn't worth reviewing these episodes in depth, except to say - man, Madame Web is annoying!

[Aside: On Madame Web - she is more plot device than character. She shows up, vomits up some clumsy esoteric saying that vaguely might help Spiderman if interpretted correctly, then shows up again at the end for an "I told you so" after her opaque advice is used. Her role seems one of providing moral lessons about sharing and friendship and stuff like that, but arguably Madame Web ends up making Spiderman look more useless because he can't / isn't allowed to figure anything out by himself.]

For the title of "Spiderman Versus Daredevil", there is surprisingly little Spiderman versus Daredevil to be seen. Only two of the four episodes include Daredevil, and the actual fight they have takes about 30 seconds (which Spiderman gets thrashed in). This was a bit disappointing.

Also disappointing was finding out that this series wasn't as good as I remembered it. It wasn't as action-filled or as snappy as I remember. Still, that's what happens to childhood favourites - you grow up and they don't meet your needs anymore.

From my perspective now, "Spiderman Versus Daredevil" falls down a bit. I know, I know - it was a kid's cartoon. But it is so filled with plot holes that it could serve as proxy for Swiss cheese. It does have a few funktastic moments as well (eg Matt turning over important evidence but not stopping to get a receipt - that's lazy scripting, and given the writers provided a lame reason for Matt not getting a receipt, they knew it was lazy scripting too) but also has a few enjoyable moments too, even if they are unintentional.

If you get the DVD, there are some extras worth seeing. The Stan Lee interviews on how he created Daredevil are interesting and lead into other extras. There is a Fantastic Four episode featuring Daredevil (who is handled much more accurately than in the Spiderman series) as well as a 1966 Spiderman cartoon. This early version has Spiderman up against the Kingpin, but contains so much filler (of Spiderman swinging around town) that it becomes oddly absorbing. The Kingpin reminded me of an angry version of Alfred Hitchcock, while some of Spiderman's dialogue is so bizzare that it defies description (eg "Would you believe one of Mother Murphy's coffee cakes?" - what the heck does that mean?).

I'm not a Spiderman reader, but the material seems pretty close to that of the comic, adapted in some places to better fit the small screen and 24 minute episodes. For my money this series got Spiderman moving correctly, able to jump, dodge and weave with superhuman agility. However, it looks like at this point in the series the budget was winding down, so Spiderman doesn't do some of the neat tricks he did in other episodes.

Sometimes you can't go back, and as much as I enjoyed watching these cartoons when I was younger, they really don't stand up well. However, they aren't completely terrible either.

Sure, it's a cartoon, but there are some gaping plotholes and Murdock's tendency to walk around in front of Peter in a nightgown is very funny (in a slightly wrong way). Plus you get the unintentional hilarity of a vigilante proclaiming his belief in the legal system. Finally, it also earns an extra Funktastic point for the 1966 Spiderman cartoon - that's truly funky!

Date of review: 23 March 2004