In this episodes the Spider-Friends team up with college professor Hiawatha Smith to combat the Red Skull, the latter of whom is on a quest to find a hidden treasure of Nazi weapons somewhere in Africa. Smith is Native American, and his father fought for the Allies in WWII. Hidden in Smith's home is a map that would lead a person to this Nazi cache of vehicles and weapons. (A sidebar: in East Indian culture, there is a symbol that resembles the Nazi swastika, which A. Hitler appropriated for his regime; it seems that the writers kind of conflated the "Indian" connection to this somewhat, though Smith's character is clearly meant to be treated as indigenous American, though not of any specific tribe). Smith isn't just a hapless academic- he's a skilled fighter with his own set of gadgets to help him out along the way (as abetted by some mystical native-American spirituality).
Smith is not just any college professor. He is apparently a man of action who has a side gig of fighting contemporary Nazis and retrieving items of antiquity. One of the chief producers of the show, Dennis Marks, in later interviews admitted that the Smith character was loosely based on Indiana Jones. Marks also admits that he had to fight the network censors to have the Red Skull be explicitly identified as a Nazi (compared to today, when he is more explicitly identified with Hydra in the movies and contemporary cartoons).
A misunderstanding leads to a brief tussle between the college student Spider-Friends and Smith, but they soon figure out they're on the same team, and then they are on their international trip to stop the Skull and his plans.
The action is frequent in this episode : nice action sequences take place including in an African jungle scene (the country is never named) and at "Skull Island" (somewhere mysterious, of course). Each of the characters gets to have their powers spotlighted here and plenty of jokes along the way.
It's a shame that the character of Smith was never introduced to the comics. Ironically, when Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Entertainment were both separately bought out by Disney, then both Smith and Jones became jointly owned by the same company.
Addendum: This episode is apparently 'banned' from appearing on Disney+ , presumably for the Nazi iconography and alliances of the Red Skull and his minions. To be very clear, NEVER in the episode is the Red Skull portrayed as anything but menaces and villains to be stopped. One imagines that Disney is skittish of the idea of younger children imitating any phrases uttered by the villains here ("____ hitler", etc.) or also computer-savvy folks creating harmful memes based on still footage from this episode.
Smith is not just any college professor. He is apparently a man of action who has a side gig of fighting contemporary Nazis and retrieving items of antiquity. One of the chief producers of the show, Dennis Marks, in later interviews admitted that the Smith character was loosely based on Indiana Jones. Marks also admits that he had to fight the network censors to have the Red Skull be explicitly identified as a Nazi (compared to today, when he is more explicitly identified with Hydra in the movies and contemporary cartoons).
A misunderstanding leads to a brief tussle between the college student Spider-Friends and Smith, but they soon figure out they're on the same team, and then they are on their international trip to stop the Skull and his plans.
The action is frequent in this episode : nice action sequences take place including in an African jungle scene (the country is never named) and at "Skull Island" (somewhere mysterious, of course). Each of the characters gets to have their powers spotlighted here and plenty of jokes along the way.
It's a shame that the character of Smith was never introduced to the comics. Ironically, when Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Entertainment were both separately bought out by Disney, then both Smith and Jones became jointly owned by the same company.
Addendum: This episode is apparently 'banned' from appearing on Disney+ , presumably for the Nazi iconography and alliances of the Red Skull and his minions. To be very clear, NEVER in the episode is the Red Skull portrayed as anything but menaces and villains to be stopped. One imagines that Disney is skittish of the idea of younger children imitating any phrases uttered by the villains here ("____ hitler", etc.) or also computer-savvy folks creating harmful memes based on still footage from this episode.
