Budget-friendly villains I would've loved to have seen on this show

3/13/2009


I realize that Spider-Man himself is what took up most of the budget on this show, given the wall-crawling and web-shooting scenes for the show. But when you do have some guys on here like Mandak who use telekinesis, I know that at least some of Spider-Man's famous villains from the comics could have been used on the show. While some like Doctor Octopus, Sandman and the Green Goblin would have been either virtually impossible to film due to being too expensive, or would have looked too fake if they'd done them since the show had such a tight budget, or both, other villains could have appeared on this show easily. Remember, this was 1978/1979 and there weren't nearly as much accomplishments with special effects like what we have now. Anyway, here are the Spider-Man comic book villains I wish they could have sneaked onto the show:

- The Kingpin. If you wanted a bald fat guy being able to bend metal bars, you don't go with the assassin-turned-hired-kidnapper Matsu in "Escort to Danger". It would've made more sense to use the crimelord, because he was a thorn in Spider-Man's side long before he became more well-known for fighting Daredevil. It also would have been nice to see Spider-Man deal with a crime boss who was actually a challenge for our hero physically.

- The Chameleon. Even if you don't actually see him change into a disguise, you could have rubber masks and wigs on a table or whatever. Chameleon would've worked because he didn't have any super-powers, and his disguises would allow him to slip away easily and frame Spider-Man for good measure if they'd wanted to go that route. It'd also give the writers an excuse to use more of Spider-Man's spider-sense, since he could detect that there was danger nearby when Chameleon was in disguise.

- The Enforcers. You have the martial-arts expert leader of the team Fancy Dan, the lasso-wielding Montana, and the strongman Ox. Sure, I would rather see guys like Doctor Octopus, Lizard or Mysterio on a live-action Spider-Man show, but since this was 1978 and the amount of money for special effects they'd have to use for those guys, that clearly wasn't going to happen. But with the Enforcers, you would've gotten bad guys from the comic books on the show but they also had no superhuman powers to break the budget. Also, you could have Kingpin hire them in order for both villains to make their return on the show.

- The Rhino. He's got the super strength to go toe to toe with Spider-Man, but he's also technically the first costumed villain that Spider-Man could have actually fought on this show with such a limited 1970s budget (Chameleon wears a white mask and disguise, but he's never really had much for a costume in the comics like Rhino). While I can understand that CBS didn't want to use costumed crooks on the show, it would have been at least nice to see at least one costumed enemy from the comic books to pop up on this TV show.




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http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/spideyandmj/